NEWS: New Research Raises More Doubts About Safety and Benefits of Gender Transition Treatments for Minors
🧵👇I report: The most rigorous academic analysis to date of the research backing puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones as treatments for gender-related distress in young people has found it has produced ‘very uncertain’ evidence. —@NewYorkSun LINK: New Research Raises More Doubts About Safety and Benefits of Gender Transition Treatments for Minors, I report for The @NewYorkSun.
nysun.com/article/new-re…

NEWS: Trump Signs Executive Order “Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to Federal Government”
🧵👇I report: The sweeping order, which defines sex as binary and fixed and seeks to exclude biological males from women's prisons and rape shelters, will inevitably be challenged by multiple lawsuits. LINK: Trump Signs Executive Order “Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to Federal Government”

The sweeping order, which defines sex as binary and fixed and seeks to exclude biological males from women's prisons and rape shelters, will inevitably be challenged by multiple lawsuits.benryan.substack.com/p/trump-signs-…

Trump says: “This week, I will also end the government policy of trying to social engineer race and gender into every aspect of public and private life.”

And: “As of today, it will henceforth be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders: male and female.”

There was enthusiastic applause in the rotunda. In short, Trump has taken aim at DEI.

Trump to issue raft of transgender-related executive orders on day 1

For @TheFP, @EmilyYoffe reports that these executive orders include:
▶️The Executive Order establishes Government-wide the biological reality of two sexes and clearly defines male and female.
▶️All radical gender ideology guidance, communication, policies, and forms are removed.
Agencies will cease pretending that men can be women and women can be men when enforcing laws that protect against sex discrimination.
▶️“Woman” means an “adult human female.”
▶️The Executive Order directs that Government identification like passports and personnel records will reflect biological reality and not self-assessed gender identity.
▶️The Executive Order ends the practice of housing men in women’s prisons and taxpayer funded “transition” for male prisoners.
▶️The Executive Order ends the forced recitation of “preferred pronouns” and protects Americans’ First Amendment and statutory rights to recognize the biological and binary nature of sex.
▶️This includes protection in the workplace and in federal funded entities like schools. thefp.com/p/trumps-day-o…

Natacha calls the new Johanna Olson-Kennedy paper regarding 315 gender dysphoric 12-20 year olds who received cross-sex hormones for 2 years a "stake through the heart of the Cass Review." I have yet to read the paper in depth, but do take a look at the 🧵👇for some thoughts. Take a look at the changes in psychological well being, social satisfaction, negative social perception, self-efficacy, negative social perception, and negative affect after these youth were on cross-sex hormones for 24 months. Notice how slight the improvements were. Notice how some people's psychological well-being worsened.

The major and dramatic improvements were in the first plot, which shows appearance congruence (AC). This is unsurprising, since the central purpose of taking cross-sex hormones is to develop secondary sex characteristics of the opposite sex to bring the body in line with gender identity. But even if that shift is associated with improvements in the other domains, the change in those other domains is quite minor.

Keep in mind how often we are told that after youth start these hormones, they improve dramatically. These data simply do not show a dramatic shift.

And because this study, which we've seen before (see: Chen et al 2023), quite famously has no control group of any kind, there is no way to know whether these slight improvements, or lack of deterioration on average, can be attributed to the hormones, to psychotherapy the youth were perhaps also getting, or reversion to the mean.

Keep in mind that the Chen et al paper was indeed factored into the Cass Review. It was considered as a part of the University of York systematic literature review that concluded: "There is a lack of high-­ quality research assessing the use of hormones in adolescents experiencing gender dysphoria/incongruence. Moderate-quality evidence suggests mental health may be improved during treatment, but robust study is still required. For other outcomes, no conclusions can be drawn. More recent studies published since April 2022 until January 2024 [this includes Chen et al] also support the conclusions of this review."

Also note that despite the fact that 2 years have passed since the Chen et al paper was published, this new study regarding the same cohort also only provides 2 years of data. We still don't have more follow-up data on these youth.

Why is that?

Keep in mind that Olson-Kennedy is the same doctor who told the NYT that she was withholding publishing her puberty blocker study that reached null findings for political reasons. (Also note that she has since denied under oath that she said this and asserted that the study was delayed from publication for other reasons."

Most Americans Don't Support Top Trans-Activist Goals, NYT Poll Finds
🧵👇I report: A Times opinion poll found that the majority of Democrats think women's sports should be restricted by to sex, not gender identity, and that minors shouldn't have access to transition drugs. LINK: Most Americans Don't Support Top Trans-Activist Goals, NYT Poll Finds

A Times opinion poll found that the majority of Democrats think women's sports should be restricted according to sex, not gender identity, and that minors shouldn't have access to transition drugs.benryan.substack.com/p/most-america…

🧵The journal @JAMANetwork has published a pair of contrasting viewpoint essays on the case before SCOTUS over TN's ban on pediatric gender medicine, US v Skrmetti. One is by @GorinMoti and other experts in philosophy and medical ethics. The other by academic legal and public health experts.
Here is the link to the essay by the philosophers, which leans on the side of caution and shows deference to the recent systematic literature reviews in Europe that have cast doubt on the reliability of the evidence backing pediatric gender medicine. jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/…

I’ve been reporting a story for a major outlet about a group that’s desperate to draw attention to a particular cause in hopes that the Biden admin will attend to it by Jan 20. But all but one of the advocates refused to speak to me because of my trans reporting. They prioritized blacklisting me—and not being associated with me—over their cause. I question their priorities and who they think they’re helping vs hurting by giving me the silent treatment. This is a very common phenomenon when I’m covering public health stories that overlap with activism and advocacy work. Not one of these people has ever confronted me directly to tell me why they have a problem with my reporting or what they want me to do differently. It’s all passive aggression. I wind up hearing confirmation of why they won’t speak to me through the grapevine.

In its response to Meta’s new polities GLAAD claims that the word “homosexuality” is an “outdated and a pathologizing way of referring to LGBTQ people.”

Several things:
1. No it is not.
2. How in the world did GLAAD come up with this ridiculous notion?
3. Homosexuality refers to the state of being gay, not to being transgender or queer, or even to being bisexual. Please stop conflating the letters of LGBTQ when it makes no sense to do so.
4. What exactly are we expected to say when we refer to the state of being gay, @GLAAD? We need nouns to get through life, people. The world would fall apart without them.

NEWS: 1 in 1,000 Privately Insured 17-Year-Olds Were Taking Cross-Sex Hormones Prior to State Bans
I report, link in 🧵👇: The authors of a new study analyzing 2018 to 2022 insurance claims data characterized such prescriptions as rare and said this rarity undermined arguments for bans of these interventions. LINK: 1 in 1,000 Privately Insured 17-Year-Olds Were Taking Cross-Sex Hormones Prior to State Bans

The authors of a new study analyzing 2018 to 2022 insurance claims data characterized such prescriptions as rare and said this rarity undermined arguments for bans of these interventions.benryan.substack.com/p/1-in-1000-pr…

ACLU Deputy With $543,500 Salary Issues Many False Or Misleading Claims About Pediatric Gender Medicine

🧵⬇️I report: The 4th highest paid staffer, AJ Hikes was the ACLU's 1st DEI chief and is at the center of an NLRB case against the ACLU that found it illegally fired an employee on claims she used racist language. LINK: ACLU Deputy With $543,500 Salary Issues Many False Or Misleading Claims About Pediatric Gender Medicine
benryan.substack.com/p/aclu-deputy-…
The 4th highest paid staffer at over $500,000 per year, AJ Hikes was the ACLU's 1st DEI chief and is at the center of an NLRB case against the ACLU that found it illegally fired an employee on claims she used racist language.

More reporting from @JesseSingal on the case of the young detransitioner who is suing top pediatric gender medicine doctor Johanna Olson-Kennedy. Singal zeroes in on the therapy (or lack thereof) provided by another defendant in the lawsuit.

What The Detransitioner Clementine Breen’s Gender “Therapy” Looked Like

When therapists are also activists, patients can get left behind. LINK:

What The Detransitioner Clementine Breen’s Gender “Therapy” Looked Like

When therapists are also activists, patients can get left behindjessesingal.substack.com/p/what-the-det…

In response to a WaPo article in which an Italian child travels to Spain to obtain puberty blockers and does so on the first appointment following a single online consultation, journalist Evan Urquhart claims there “still hasn’t been a single reported example of a minor getting blockers or hormones without a lengthy assessment.”

Evan is ignoring Jesse Singal’s Economist article from earlier this month about Clementine Breen getting blockers after a single appointment with Johanna Olson-Kennedy.

And he is forgetting my reporting that since 2018, it has been Boston Children’s policy to provide only a single two-hour assessment appointment with a psychologist to determine whether a minor should get blockers or hormones.
economist.com/united-states/…

The Mayo Clinic’s @DrMJoyner: “There are profound sex differences in human performance in athletic events determined by strength, speed, power, endurance, and body size such that males outperform females. These sex differences in athletic performance exist before puberty and increase dramatically as puberty progresses. The profound sex differences in sports performance are primarily attributable to the direct and indirect effects of sex-steroid hormones and provide a compelling framework to consider for policy decisions to safeguard fairness and inclusion in sports.” pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39716906/

Activist-blogger Erin Reed has published a guest article:
"Washington Post Editorial Board Misleadingly Attacks Care Of Trans Youth"

In, fact, many of the claims in this essay challenging WaPo are themselves misleading.

I will go through them in this 🧵⬇️ "It selectively cites three European reviews critical of gender-affirming care, while ignoring the consensus of leading medical organizations—including the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Psychological Association, the American Medical Association, the Endocrine Society, and the World Professional Association for Transgender Health—all of which support such care."
▶️While WaPo hyperlinks to three European reviews, there have, in fact, been a half-dozen systematic literature reviews of pediatric gender-transition treatment. All of them have found the evidence backing such interventions weak and inconclusive.
▶️This has lead the health authorities in the UK and four Scandinavian nations to reclassify such treatment as experimental, and to sharply restrict access, in some cases to research settings only.
▶️The Cass Review found that WPATH and the US medical societies that endorse such interventions have engaged in "circularity," which is a more polite term for "citation laundering." WPATH made claims that were not supported by strong evidence in its 2013 Standards of Care 7. Then other US medical societies referred to those claims. And then it its SoC 8 in 2022, WPATH referred to those other societies, not mentioning that the claim they were referring to originated with WPATH. The near unanimity in these organizations is in part a product of the same people cross-pollinating their ideas from one organization to the next.

In the wake of the detransitioner lawsuit against them, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles has released the following statement, as quoted in WSJ and many other outlets. This statement is highly misleading. The clinic didn’t start giving blockers and hormones to minors with gender dysphoria until 2008 or 2009, according to what I can ascertain. Boston Children’s was the first to do so in the U.S., and their operation began in 2007. So the statement from CHLA effectively doubles the amount of time that they have been engaging in the medical practices that the lawsuit concerns. It is important for reporters to seek to verify claims made by the subjects of lawsuits. The claim about caring for such kids for 30 years would’ve been pretty easy to fact check.

benryan.substack.com/p/detransition…

Several things about Michael Hobbes' false suggestion that my reporting fell apart upon closer inspection:

1) Amy Tishelman was not a whistleblower. She characterized Boston Children's practices as part of a civil trial focused on other things. She filed a lawsuit claiming discrimination and was fired and sued and won her retaliation claim. She did not quit and then go to a higher authority to report the clinic's practices. Instead, she, like Boston Children's, kept them secret.

2) As Tishelman told the Globe, she was not concerned so much about the type of child that the Globe article primarily described: a child with longstanding gender dysphoria that started young. These children were intimately involved with the gender clinic, GeMS, for many years before it came time to assess them for a medical transition.

What Tishelman was concerned about was the type of minor who is now the prototype for those presenting at gender clinics: those who only first express gender dysphoria in adolescence. If these kids show up at the clinic, they will possibly seek medicalization immediately. And all they will get is a single two-hour assessment with a psychologist before being referred to endocrinology.

3) Nothing about the second Globe story contradicted my reporting or the previous Globe reporting. The article frankly blurred the lines between the different prototypes of gender dysphoric children to lend readers the impression that all kids under the Boston Children's system are going to get slow, ongoing care with no rushed decisions.

4) The fact remains that it is Boston Children's policy, and has been since 2018, that if a minor walks in the door and has already started puberty and is looking for transition medications, they will be provided only a single two-hour assessment appointment with a psychologist before being referred to endocrinology.


I stand by my reporting.
nysun.com/article/shocki…

The alleged CEO shooter is Luigi Mangione: This is the X account of the alleged CEO shooter:
x.com/PepMangione

I published my first article about pediatric gender medicine a year ago today.

Here is a 🧵of my reporting on the subject over the past 12 months: Lawsuits by Regretful ‘Detransitioners’ Take Aim at Medical Establishment’s Support for Gender-Transition Treatments for Minors
nysun.com/article/lawsui…

BREAKING: Detransitioner Sues Johanna Olson-Kennedy, a Top Pediatric Gender Medicine Doctor, For Medical Negligence

🧵⬇️⬇️I report: Dr. Olson-Kennedy is the most prominent doctor yet to be sued by a detransitioner—for medical negligence after overseeing a mentally ill girl's gender-transition starting at 12 and mastectomy at 14. She recommended a hysterectomy at 17. LINK: Detransitioner Sues Johanna Olson-Kennedy, a Top Pediatric Gender Medicine Doctor, For Medical Negligence

Dr. Olson-Kennedy, a leading @WPATH member is the most prominent doctor yet to be sued by a detransitioner.benryan.substack.com/p/detransition…

On the American Academy of Pediatrics' Faulty Brief to the Supreme Court About Gender-Care Bans
🧵⬇️⬇️My breakdown of the amicus brief that the AAP and a roster of other medical societies submitted to the high court, which is riddled with flaws and remarkable omissions. On the American Academy of Pediatrics' Faulty Brief to the Supreme Court About Gender-Care Bans
LINK: benryan.substack.com/p/on-the-ameri…