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…

Prominent transgender people who have asserted that trans women are “biological women.”

A thread🧵 Chase Strangio, leading litigator for trans rights at the @ACLU:

The posts on Blues*y are literally mostly about how great Blues*y is. It’s a funny reaction to the election. No one is talking about how upset they are Trump won. They’re just glad they are only around people who don’t like X anymore. I’m not even joking. It is very Stepford coded.

https://twitter.com/maanvis81/status/1859850890548781085

There are myriad errors in the @SamLevin @Guardian article on the SCOTUS case over Tennessee's pediatric gender-transition treatment ban, as well as claims that demand greater context.

See the 🧵⬇️ The article: theguardian.com/world/2024/nov…

NEW STUDY:
Sexual Dysfunction Is Common In Trans People Who Have Had Gender-Transition Surgery
🧵I report: The first-ever systematic review and meta-analysis of pelvic floor dysfunctions among trans people who have had genital gender-transition surgery found that rates varied widely between studies. LINK: Sexual Dysfunction Is Common In Trans People Who Have Had Gender-Transition Surgery
benryan.substack.com/p/sexual-dysfu…

Jen Psaki accurately asserts that there are few trans kids playing in sports.

But she falsely claims there’s no evidence that such kids pose a threat to fairness. There are studies finding that natal males, even on estrogen, have a competitive advantage
Jen Psaki also neglects to note how fast the population of young people identifying as trans has grown in recent years—with estimates ranging between 1.4% and 3% of young people today. As this generation grows up, they will increasingly move into collegiate competition.

John Oliver, in arguing how the Dems should respond to the trans kids issue, falsely claims “there is no evidence” trans kids “pose any threat” to fairness in sports.

There absolutely is evidence that trans females have a competitive advantage.
What’s remarkable about @IamJohnOliver’s false claims about trans females in sports is he has a staff of fact checkers. There are multiple studies indicating that even when receiving estrogen, natal males who identify as females are stronger and faster than women & girls.

People still falsely claiming that children aren’t receiving gender-transition treatment and surgeries and that they only receive them after extensive assessment. Here’s what we know:
▶️At least 14,000 kids got such interventions from 2019-2023
▶️Boston Children’s policy since 2018 has been to refer minors to endocrinology for such treatment after a since 2-hour assessment appointment.
▶️Since 2022, the @WPATH policy is there is no age limit on any of this treatment.
▶️The youngest documented double mastectomy for gender dysphoria was on a 12 year old.

See the thread for all the citations. At Least 14,000 U.S. Minors Have Received Gender-Transition Treatment or Surgeries In 5 Years, With Docs Billing $120 million

open.substack.com/pub/benryan/p/…

How An Inability to Clearly Define ‘Sex’ vs. ‘Gender’ Has Left Democrats In a Mess
🧵⬇️ I report: Language matters. By insisting there’s no difference between “sex” and “gender” and that sex is “assigned at birth,” progressives have alienated many from the transgender cause. LINK: How An Inability to Clearly Define ‘Sex’ vs. ‘Gender’ Has Left Democrats In a Mess

benryan.substack.com/p/how-an-inabi…

Avatars of Dem Alienation: Liberal Parents Wary About Their Kids’ Trans Identities
🧵⬇️ I report: Almost all the distressed parents who tell me they think their kids’ trans identities are not authentic are liberals who find themselves drifting away from the Democratic party. LINK: Avatars of Dem Alienation: Liberal Parents Wary About Their Kids’ Trans Identities
Almost all the distressed parents who tell me they think their kids’ trans identities are not authentic are disaffected liberals.
benryan.substack.com/p/avatars-of-d…

Psychology Today has corrected an article by @UCSF's Dr. @JackTurban

Dr. Turban falsely claimed in an article that a study found that policies restricting bathroom access by biological sex are tied to higher sexual assaults at school against 7th-12th graders who identify as trans.

In fact, the study was based on a survey that never asked kids where the sexual assaults they reported took place. So it could not inform us on whether these policies were tied to reported sexual assaults at school.

The highlighted sentence in the screenshot below is the edited, corrected version of what Dr. Turban wrote. The original version claimed that the study "found that policies that force trans youth to use the bathrooms of their sex assigned at birth were associated with elevated rates of sexual assault against transgender kids in schools." The editors took off the words "in schools."

There is no note on the article indicating that the editors made a correction. An editor told me that it is @PsychToday's policy not to run such editor's notes.
Child psychiatrist @Jack_Turban of @UCSF also misrepresented the study about the association between restrictive bathroom policies and reported sexual assaults in trans-identified youth in his recent book, Free to Be. Interestingly, he misrepresented the study findings differently in his book compared with how he characterized them in his @PsychToday article.

In his book, he didn't just falsely claim that this study specified the reported sexual assaults were at school. He suggested that the study said they actually occurred in bathrooms themselves. What's more, in the last sentence in the screenshot from his book, he falsely claimed the study found a causal link.

After making a series of fiercely ideological and political statements on social media in the wake of Trump’s win and being pilloried for doing so, @SciAm editor in chief Laura Helmuth is now back pedaling. She claims she is committed to editorial objectivity. The backstory on Helmuth:

https://twitter.com/benryanwriter/status/1854268624065691831

Michael Hobbes Is Wrong About Whether Kids Are Being Rushed Onto Gender Transition Treatment

In this 🧵I'll juxtapose clips of debunking podcaster Michael Hobbes claiming that no one is rushing kids onto gender-transition treatment with proof that this is indeed happening.⬇️

On his @maintenancepod podcast with Aubrey Gordon @YrFatFriend, Hobbes @RottenInDenmark, insisted over the summer that researchers in pediatric gender medicine have always sought to make sure kids are “really trans” before starting them on gender-transition treatment.

And yet UCSF’s @Jack_Turban recently published a paper in which he said the opposite: that @WPATH-recommended assessments of gender dysphoric are not meant to determined whether a child is “actually transgender.” Lurie Children’s pediatrician Robert Garofalo has said the same.

Here’s what Hobbes said on his podcast:

“We want to make sure that we're establishing that kids are really trans and really sort of settled in this identity before they get any kind of irreversible medical procedures. That's something that strikes most people as fairly reasonable, right?

“But the reason why I wanted to include this is it shows that from literally the first study on this, the doctors know this too. The idea that this extremely obvious thing is not also obvious to the doctors who are practicing this kind of medicine is like fairly implausible. And it shows up in the studies. They're like, ‘Hey, look, we know this is the time when kids are experimenting and that might include some, like, gender expression experimentation. And so we want to make sure in this field that we're talking to the kids, we’re getting some kind of holistic assessment.’

“This is something that the field has been aware of since literally day one.” And yet, @BostonChildrens refers kids to gender-transition treatment after a single 2-hour assessment with a psychologist. 🧵

We learned this recently from a civil trial in which former Boston Children’s pediatric-gender-clinic psychologist Amy Tishelman testified that between 2013 and 2018, the time allotted for her to conduct these assessments and write her report dropped from 20 hours, to 10 hours, to two-and-a-half hours. She said this was “reckless.”

Dr. Tishelman said:

“Some of the evaluations could take 10 to 20 hours. They’re supposed to take 10 hours. When I started, they were 20 hours. And now they were asking me to do them in two and a half hours. And that wasn’t, I didn't feel like that was doable at all. I feel it was reckless and not okay to only get two-and-a-half hours to see patients who were considering these medications if they needed more.”

New Figures on Kids Seeking Gender-Transition Care:
🧵A new study analyzing insurance-claims data found that in 2023, there were at least 42,136 minors who were "seeking gender-affirming care."

This does not necessarily mean these children were all receiving puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones, but that insurance codes indicated they had a “cross-gender identification” and thus were seeking some form of gender-transition treatment (I suppose it's possible some such claims could be for mental-health treatment only and not for blockers and hormones), or a “personal history of sex reassignment.” A separate, recent analysis found:
At Least 14,000 U.S. Minors Have Received Gender-Transition Treatment or Surgeries In 5 Years, With Docs Billing $120 million
This is a conservative estimate from a new, comprehensive analysis of insurance-claims data by the advocacy nonprofit Do No Harm, which opposes such treatment for minors. benryan.substack.com/p/at-least-140…

SCOOP: ‘Shocking’ and ‘Reckless’—Top Gender Clinic Assesses Kids For Gender-Transition Treatments in Just 2 Hours
🧵I report for @NewYorkSun: @BostonChildrens slashed the time slated for psychologists to assess and write a report on kids seeking gender-transition treatment from 20 hours to 2.5 hours, alarming experts. 🧵LINK: ‘Shocking’ and ‘Reckless’: Top Gender Clinic Assesses Children for Gender-Altering Medical Treatments in Just 2 Hours, Lawsuit Lays Bare, I report for The @NewYorkSun.
nysun.com/article/shocki…