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Benjamin Ryan Profile picture
@benryanwriter
Feb 23, 2023 • 41 tweets • 33 min read • Read on X
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A bombshell article by @writingblock challenges claims by activists that the science supporting the treatment of gender dysphoria in minors is "settled" and that the use of puberty blockers and hormones in transgender kids is "evidence based." 🧵⬇️
press.psprings.co.uk/bmj/february/t… Image
Many argue that giving puberty blockers and hormones to trans minors is uncontroversial & backed by high-quality science. Block's reporting disputes this. Swedish health authorities, for example, say the risks "currently outweigh the possible benefits". 2/
press.psprings.co.uk/bmj/february/t… Image
@glaad, in its recent protest before the @nytimes building, echoed a common refrain: that "the science is settled" regarding giving puberty blockers and hormones to trans-identifying minors. @writingblock's peer-reviewed reporting challenges this claim. 3/ press.psprings.co.uk/bmj/february/t… Image
Trans kids has been a minefield topic, w/ activists like @Esqueer_ & lefty pundits like @RottenInDenmark battling heterodox writers @jessesingal @bariweiss @sullydish @LeorSapir & @AbigailShrier & w/ @MattWalshBlog throwing bombs. @JoyceCarolOates has lent her support to kids. 4/ ImageImageImageImage
The prescription of hormones to trans-identifying minors is often framed as a choice of life on meds vs death by suicide. But researchers have not actually shown that hormonal treatment for gender dysphoria impacts death by suicide. 5/
press.psprings.co.uk/bmj/february/t… Image
@HRC said in a press release today that "ALL gender-affirming care is age appropriate and medically necessary." But in the UK, health experts found there's "scarce & inconclusive evidence to support clinical decision-making" for kids with dysphoria. 6/
press.psprings.co.uk/bmj/february/t… Image
Mark Helfand of Oregon Health & Science University criticized @wpath's recommendations for treating #transgender minors, including a lack of grading system to assess the quality of scientific evidence backing the guidelines. #trans 7/
press.psprings.co.uk/bmj/february/t… Image
At an October meeting of the AAP, @writingblock reports, @DrScottHadland of Harvard Med said, "Ten thousand pediatricians stand in solidarity for trans and gender diverse kids & their families to receive evidence-based, lifesaving, individualized care." 8/
press.psprings.co.uk/bmj/february/t… Image
Gordon Guyatt (@GuyattGH) of McMaster University found "serious problems" with the Endocrine Society's guidelines for treating #trans kids, such as making strong recommendations based on weak evidence--meaning they should not be called "evidence based". 9/
press.psprings.co.uk/bmj/february/t… ImageImage
In contrast to @DrScottHadland, @GuyattGH said, "When there's been a rigorous systematic review of the evidence" about treating #trans kids "and the bottom line is 'we don't know,' anybody who then claims they *do* know is not being evidence based." 10/
press.psprings.co.uk/bmj/february/t… ImageImage
While myriad medical organizations in the US back prescribing puberty blockers & hormones to trans-identifying minors, standards abroad are very different. Sweden did systematic reviews in '15 and '22, found evidence was "insufficient and inconclusive."11/
press.psprings.co.uk/bmj/february/t… ImageImage
The Endocrine Society (@TheEndoSociety) commissioned 2 systematic reviews for its clinical practice guideline for treating #trans adolescents with sex steroids and found the quality of the evidence regarding health risks was "low" or "very low". 12/ press.psprings.co.uk/bmj/february/t… Image
In sum, @writingblock's reporting suggests that @wpath and @TheEndoSociety's guidelines for treating #trans adolescents are not truly "evidence based", nor uncontroversial, nor do they balance the known and potential risks v benefits of such treatment. 13/ press.psprings.co.uk/bmj/february/t… Image
@MattWalshBlog, who doesn't so much debate the science behind care for trans minors as douse the field with gasoline & set it on fire, has made the topic so combustible in Tennessee, he teed up the politicization of #HIV prevention there, I reported:
14/ nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-ou…
@writingblock reviews the history of gender medicine in @bmj_latest. Note that her article was peer reviewed.
15/
 press.psprings.co.uk/bmj/february/t… ImageImage
@writingblock's assessment of the evidence backing standards of care for treating gender dysphoria in #trans minors comes a week after activists (eg: @glaad) and writers have pressured @nytimes to refrain from the type of reporting she has done. 16/ glaad.org/new-york-times…
Other articles finding a lack of high-quality science backing the treatment of trans minors have been published by @nytimes & Reuters, by @emilybazelon @mega2e @chadterhune @RobinRespaut @michelleconlin. 17/
nytimes.com/2022/06/15/mag…
nytimes.com/2022/11/14/hea…
reuters.com/investigates/s…
Myriad writers have criticized @nytimes reporting on #transgender issues, such as @_WrittenByHanna and @jackmirkinson in @thenation: 18/ thenation.com/article/societ…
thenation.com/article/societ…
Scores of @nytimes writers have pushed back against the charge by the paper's guild that its reporting on trans issues caused a hostile work environment, including @GiniaNYT @mattfleg @tripgabriel @apoorva_nyc @powellnyt @jimrutenberg @charlie_savage. 19/
@PressSec of @POTUS weighs in on the onslaught of bills introduced to statehouses this year that target #LGBTQ people:
20/
@ryanlcooper and @RottenInDenmark’s take on @assignedmedia:
@writingblock’s thread:
@jack_turban, MD, who treats trans kids, says there’s a lot of misinformation going around:
21/
@Esqueer_ responds to this thread: Image
The emailed responses to this thread are starting to come in. This is new: now I'm a Nazi and have autism to boot. Image
More charming exchanges with the readers of this tweet thread. Have a good one, @zunetopia. Image
Kindly do not come to this thread disrespectfully. I will not tolerate malicious statements toward anyone and the misgendering of transgender people.
Also, for anyone coming to this thread who thinks they know who I am, what I think or believe or what I'm about, do take note that I do not share my personal opinions about many issues on Twitter. I invite you to read my reporting on LGBTQ issues: benryan.net/lgbtq.html
@HRC will fly an airplane banner down the Hudson River protesting @nytimes coverage of #transgender issues today: Image
@Esqueer_ claims @writingblock can’t count, but the figure she cited in her BMJ article is the total number of minors receiving hormones and puberty blockers during that period, whereas the chart refers only to puberty blockers. Image
On the political front: cbsnews.com/news/texas-bil…
I get a lot of venomous emails, but I’d say this one regarding my tweet thread about the strength of the science behind the treatment of gender dysphoria in minors is one of the most heinous. Sadly for this person’s hopes, I was cured of cancer and have a 5% recurrence chance. Image
Also: it sucks for that person, but no one dies of testicular cancer anymore.
@meetzow wants me to die because I am engaging in science reporting and have illuminated the weakness of the science backing the treatment of gender dysphoria in minors.
Image
Also, gay people on Twitter get hit with a lot of tweets like this in the Musk era: @UIgliori Image
People tweet this to suggest that reduced stigma is the sole reason for the apparent tripling in trans identification between older adults & youths. But I think we can agree that gender identity is far more complex and driven by more complex factors than left vs right-handedness. Image
@CISCHASER hopes I die of the cancer I had: Image
If only this @ryanlcooper @TheProspect podcast had brought on academic experts to discuss youth gender care science. Instead, @RottenInDenmark provides a misleading overview that, for example, fails to note Finland & Sweden disagree with the US on this. 1/
prospect.org/podcasts/02-20…
@RyanCooper claims that what @jessesingal says about youth gender care science "makes no sense scientifically." Except Singal knows the science better than just about anyone, as he assiduously demonstrates. And his coverage is way more nuanced than Hobbes claims. 2/
My favorite is @ryanlcooper saying the best thing for science journos to do is: "You go into the studies to talk to the scientists, you don't talk to individual people, who may and probably do have an ax to grind," as he interviews two individual non-scientists about science. 3/
Hobbes himself is extraordinarily ideological, meanwhile. 4/

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More from @benryanwriter

Benjamin Ryan Profile picture
Mar 3
IN DEFENSE OF EFFEMINATE GAY BOYS

If anyone had suggested that I might really be a girl, I don’t know how I would have responded, by @BenAppel for @TheAtlantic.

GIFT LINK: theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/03/…Image
Similarly, @chadfelixg wrote:

thefederalist.com/2020/02/24/if-…
@chadfelixg Harvard Law School clinical instructor and trans activist Alejandra Caraballo is unhappy about @BenAppel’s article in @TheAtlantic, calling it the “‘they're transing the gays’ conspiracy theory.” Image
Read 5 tweets
Benjamin Ryan Profile picture
Feb 24
"The science doesn’t seem so settled after all, and it’s important to understand what happened here. The approach of left-of-center Americans and our institutions — to assume that when a scientific organization releases a 'policy statement' on a hot-button issue, that the policy statement must be accurate — is a deeply naïve understanding of science, human nature and politics, and how they intersect," writes @JesseSingal for @NYTOpinion.

GIFT LINK: nytimes.com/2026/02/24/opi…Image
For @NYTOpinion, @JesseSingal writes:

The A.P.A. presents a particularly striking case of why transparency is important. In 2024, it published what it touted as a “groundbreaking policy supporting transgender, gender diverse, nonbinary individuals” that was specifically geared at fighting “misinformation” on that subject. But when I reached out to the group this month, it pointed me to a different document, a letterwritten by the group’s chief advocacy officer, Katherine McGuire, in September in response to a Federal Trade Commission request for comment on youth gender medicine.

The documents, separated by about a year and a half (and, perhaps as significantly, one presidential election), straightforwardly contradict each other. The A.P.A. in 2024 argued that there is a “comprehensive body of psychological and medical research supporting the positive impact of gender-affirming treatments” for individuals “across the life span.” But in 2025, the group argued that “psychologists do not make broad claims about treatment effectiveness.”

In 2024, the A.P.A. criticized those “mischaracterizing gender dysphoria as a manifestation of traumatic stress or neurodivergence.” In 2025, it cautioned that gender dysphoria diagnoses could be the result of “trauma-related presentations” rather than a trans identity, and noted that “co-occurring mental health or neurodevelopmental conditions (e.g., depression, anxiety, autism spectrum disorder) … may complicate or be mistaken for gender dysphoria.” It seems undeniable that the 2025 A.P.A. published what the 2024 A.P. A considered to be “misinformation.” (“The 2024 policy statement and the 2025 F.T.C. letter are consistent,” said Ms. McGuire in an email, and “both documents reflect A.P.A.’s consistent commitment to evidence-based psychological care.”)Image
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@nytopinion @jessesingal Jesse Singal on youth gender medicine in @NYTOpinion: “I’ve been covering this controversy for about a decade from a left-of-center perspective, and I’ve found that anyone who questions these treatments, even mildly, is invariably accused of bigotry.”

Bluesky: “YOU TRANSPHOBE!! Image
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Read 9 tweets
Benjamin Ryan Profile picture
Feb 23
NEWS: Mt. Sinai, the sprawling hospital system, has joined NYU Langone in shuttering its pediatric gender clinic in the face of threats from the Trump administration of cutting off its Medicaid funding.

NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani @ZohranKMamdani @NYCMayor pledged in his campaign to spend $65M in city funds on gender-transition treatment to evade pressures from the Trump administration to cut off such access. But since NYU announced it would no longer provide gender-transition drugs or surgeries to minors, the mayor has been mum on the potential for spending public funds on these interventions.Image
gothamist.com/news/nyc-paren…
The blue-state pediatric gender clinic closures started with Children's Hospital Los Angeles last July and have continued steadily since then. benryan.substack.com/p/dr-johanna-o…Image
Read 4 tweets
Benjamin Ryan Profile picture
Feb 19
Taylor Lorenz Plagiarism Scandal Erupts

YouTube sleuths found: @TaylorLorenz apparently copied substantial portions of a TechDirt article about Joseph Gordon-Levitt @hitRECordJoe and Section 230.

Lorenz appeared to pass off the article's text as if it was her own script.🧵⬇️Image
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Go to 4:22 in this video to see the part where the YouTube hosts assert that @TaylorLorenz has plagiarized her narration from a TechDirt article about Joseph Gordon-Levitt @hitRECordJoe and Section 230:
youtube.com/live/JXI9uRwfG…
Here is @TaylorLorenz's video in which Lorenz appears to have lifted much of her script from a TechDirt article. Go to 9:34:
youtube.com/watch?v=b0RRxR…
Cross reference with this article: techdirt.com/2026/02/12/jos… Image
Read 11 tweets
Benjamin Ryan Profile picture
Feb 18
I can’t even begin to enumerate all the nasty things Parker Molloy has said about me in an effort to punish me for reporting about pediatric gender medicine and to scare off other reporters who might dare to enter this arena. My policy with responding to such behavior is I report what people such a Molloy say or do, and will often fact check errors. They then turn around and make vicious and demeaning claims about who I am.
Update: Parker Molloy is expressing her rage toward me on Bluesky right now.
Update: Parker Molloy is not an activist. Nothing in her behavior, rhetoric or discourse would suggest she is one. Image
Read 5 tweets
Benjamin Ryan Profile picture
Feb 10
The Federal Trade Commission has opened a consumer protection probe into the American Academy of Pediatrics and has demanded its records regarding pediatric gender medicine.

In 2018, the AAP published its foundational policy document on the gender-affirming care method. It was written by a single medical resident, Dr. Jason Rafferty, and edited by a small committee. It was subjected to a brutal fact check by Canadian sex researcher Dr. James Cantor the following year. The AAP never responded to the fact check. In 2023, the AAP reaffirmed the policy statement with no changes.

The statement asserts that even very young children know their gender identity as well as anyone and should be trusted to guide the way in their own pathway of transition.Image
bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
I wrote: open.substack.com/pub/benryan/p/…Image
Read 6 tweets

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