Investigative Reporter @ManhattanInst | opinions my own | don’t label me, I’m growing 🌱
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Jun 21 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
🧵There’s an Instagram creator I follow called “Mister Mainer” who makes really funny dog videos. He puts wigs on his dogs, gives them voices, and creates characters—one of them is a realtor named Karen Bark.
The videos are very entertaining, and he’s built a large following—close to 2 million on Instagram, and over 20 million on TikTok.
Lately, though, he’s been posting nonstop leftist political content—“trans rights,” “No Kings” (promoted as protesting fascism), and anti-deportation videos.
He recently lost two sponsors because they have policies against working with political creators.
He framed it as being dropped for supporting human rights.
I’m sure he really believes that. I did too, for a brief period back in 2020, when I got swept up in the same social justice rhetoric. I had only a very superficial understanding of politics, but being part of a group gave me undeserved confidence in my views.
Jun 18 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
🧵A key claim behind medical interventions for minors is that being transgender is innate and immutable—something you're born with and can't change.
In Skrmetti v. U.S., the Supreme Court addressed that claim. “Immutable” appears 19 times in the ruling.
In the Opinion of the Court, the Supreme Court affirmed the Sixth Circuit’s judgment, which declined to treat transgender status as a protected class—partly because it is not “defined by obvious, immutable, or distinguishing characteristics.”
Jun 17 • 10 tweets • 3 min read
🧵 Jack Turban is once again promoting his book Free to Be as an authoritative source on the science of transgender identity.
In a recent thread, he claims twin studies suggest a genetic or innate basis.
But that’s not what the research actually shows.
In his book, Turban claims there’s “strong evidence that transness has an innate biological basis.”
He cites a 2012 review of twin studies showing some identical twins both had gender identity disorder.
That might sound convincing—until you look closer.
Jun 1 • 10 tweets • 3 min read
Paris Hilton says it’s her mission to shut down the “troubled teen industry.” Youth residential treatment serves kids in deep psychiatric crisis. She suggests parents try grounding them or taking their phone.
She helped pass 12 state laws—and the fallout is already visible. 🧵
Residential treatment isn’t for teens who miss curfew.
It’s for kids who’ve made serious attempts to harm themselves or others, experienced psychosis, or cycled through multiple hospitalizations.
For many families, it’s the last hope after everything else fails.
May 2 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
A pro-pedophile group is training mental health providers to implement “affirmative MAP therapy”—a framework explicitly modeled on LGBT-affirmative therapy, aimed at affirming pedophiles’ attraction to minors and integrating that attraction into their identity.
Researchers and therapists who work with pedophiles to prevent child abuse are doing difficult but important work. In order to get them to participate in research or seek help, they must create a nonjudgmental environment—something the public may misinterpret as condoning abuse.
Apr 15 • 9 tweets • 2 min read
🧵 Transgender people are not “born that way.”
The studies used to support that claim rely on biological evidence of gender nonconformity—traits linked to same-sex attraction or intersex conditions—and are misrepresented as proof that being trans is a biological condition.
In Talbott v. Trump, Judge Ana C. Reyes asked both parties to brief the court on “questions of biology,” prompting plaintiffs to submit a 5-page brief arguing that transgender identity is both innate and immutable, and constitutes “a discernible class.” storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…
Mar 14 • 6 tweets • 3 min read
🧵The narrative that transgender people possess a “brain sex” mismatched with their body has permeated our culture.
In 2009, on the massively popular show Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, psychiatrist George Huang explained that a trans-identified boy had a “female brain”:
This narrative was born from flawed studies that failed to control for key confounding variables—completely invalidating their findings—yet the media promoted them uncritically as proof that transgender people are “born that way.”
Mar 12 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
Yarden Silveira's story is among the most tragic cases of detransition you will ever read. His scathing Yelp reviews of the surgeons who harmed him briefly surfaced on social media last year, but his full story remained elusive. My new investigation for @CityJournal, featuring interviews with his family, uncovers the tragic truth of Yarden Silveira.
As a vulnerable autistic teenager, Yarden was encouraged by healthcare providers to medically transition. After suffering severe, life-threatening complications from a botched vaginoplasty—and after more than a dozen "gender-affirming" doctors refused to treat his surgeon-inflicted injuries—he is believed to have ended his life at just 23.
Yarden was a gay, autistic teenager struggling to find an identity. At 15, he came to believe he was transgender, telling his family he had a "female brain" after encountering flawed studies claiming transgender people have brain regions that resemble the opposite sex.
Feb 27 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
NEW STUDY: A systematic review on effects of cross-sex hormones shows all trans-identified people on them show changes in reproductive tissue. Raises concerns of long-term health risks and quality of life of children conceived with eggs or sperm exposed to cross-sex hormones. 🧵
Females on testosterone: Structural changes in ovarian tissue occur. Most studies show egg development continues, but testosterone may reduce fertilization rates. Some pregnancies were reported with continued testosterone use—which raises unknown risks for fetal development.
Oct 8, 2024 • 13 tweets • 5 min read
A new investigation by @realchrisrufo and me examines Charleroi, a small town that has seen an influx of migrants under Biden, whose admin has funneled billions of taxpayer dollars into immigration NGOs, while local businesses capitalize on the availability of cheap labor. 🧵
Charleroi had just over 4,000 residents in 2020. Then, over a few years, ~2,000 predominantly Haitian migrants moved in, establishing businesses downtown. Strained schools are hiring translators. Car crashes, some into buildings, are also causing concern.
Aug 28, 2024 • 13 tweets • 6 min read
🚨: Tim Walz is celebrated by the left as a "champion of children" for policies claimed to benefit Minnesota youth.
But in May, he signed into law the most radical child welfare reform bill in the U.S., marking the most dangerous application of DEI principles to date. 🧵
Walz's law, the African American Family Preservation and Child Welfare Disproportionality Act, is a method to enforce racial equity by lowering the standards for removing children from homes where they may have been neglected or abused—based on factors like race.
Aug 5, 2024 • 8 tweets • 4 min read
The distress young people feel is real, but it is being misattributed to a trans-identity. Trans-identified youth often have severe emotional and behavioral issues, similar to the “troubled teen” experience, a term that was used to describe me as a teen.🧵
Studies showing that trans-identified teens frequently present to psychiatric hospitals and the ER with severe emotional and behavioral issues are common. They often have eating disorders, psychiatric disorders, autistic traits, suicidal thoughts, and self-harm.
Jul 28, 2024 • 9 tweets • 3 min read
This exchange between @JoyAnnReid and @realchrisrufo in 2021 was a turning point for me. Watching it live, I remember the anger I felt seeing her gaslighting and refusing to let Rufo finish a sentence. Until then, I had viewed the mainstream media in a positive light. 🧵
I was mostly apolitical until 2020, voting Democrat in every election since 18. I hadn’t looked into many issues deeply because I trusted what mainstream media told me. Before this exchange, I naively believed they were committed to objectivity and truth.
Jul 26, 2024 • 15 tweets • 4 min read
The concept of innate gender identity is used to justify medically transitioning children. Here’s why it’s pseudoscience 🧵
I review the biology chapter of @jack_turban's new book, which claims "transness has an innate biological basis."
Biological factors are associated with being transgender, but being transgender itself is not an inherent condition one is born with.
The studies seeking to discover a biological basis for trans are discovering evidence of gender nonconformity and interpreting it as trans.
Jul 24, 2024 • 13 tweets • 5 min read
Stop calling “gender-affirming care” for minors “medically necessary” and “evidence-based”
Those words have meaning!
I explain in this thread🧵
Writing is my preferred form of communication because it allows me to be precise with my language so that I am not misunderstood.
Which is why it infuriates me when trusted authorities misrepresent youth medical transition as “medically necessary” and “evidence-based.”
Jun 11, 2024 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
🚨 GROUND-BREAKING NEW STUDY: A long-term study from Germany on insurance data reveals that the majority of youth outgrow their transgender identity, with 72.7% of 15-19-year-old females with a gender identity diagnosis desisting after five years.
Thread and Link Below⬇️
A long-term German study found that more than half of young people aged 5-24 across every age subgroup diagnosed with "gender identity disorder" no longer had the diagnosis after five years. Over 63% of those diagnosed in 2017 desisted by 2022. buttonslives.news/p/new-study-mo…
May 31, 2024 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
The world's leading science journal, Nature, sinks to a new low: an article in their new "sex and gender in science" opinion series encourages researchers to incorporate transgender activism into their work to influence how research is conducted.
Link Below⬇️
The authors of the new Nature article imply that certain scientific research has the potential to bring "harm" to the trans community. They propose various steps for researchers to incorporate transgender activism into their studies. buttonslives.news/p/the-end-of-a…
May 27, 2024 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
Proponents of “gender-affirming care” for minors often claim that detransition is rare by relying on inapplicable studies. The often-cited 1% statistic comes from a study that examined an entirely different cohort than the one people are most concerned about. 🧵
The 1% statistic comes from a study that examined older adults under a different model of care, rather than teens and young adults under the gender-affirming model of care.
NEW STUDY: When activist-researchers find that primarily white teenage girls with a gender dysphoria diagnosis are seeking medical interventions, they conclude that males, asian, black, and hispanic trans-identified youth need more “equitable” access to medical interventions. 🧵
The study examined youth (ages 14-17) using PEDSnet data (11 U.S. children's hospitals) and the Youth Risk Behavior Survey. They found 3,453 (0.9%) patients with a GD diagnosis and 2+ recent hospital visits, and 5,262 (1.9%) trans-identified youth in YRBS.publications.aap.org/pediatrics/art…
Apr 24, 2024 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
In a recent episode of @DrPhil exploring the debate over youth transition, @LeorSapir explained one of the reasons why people believe the rate of transition regret is so low: detransitioners often don’t tell their doctors. “The system had completely forgotten about them.” 🧵
In 2021, physician and researcher @LisaLittman1 conducted a survey of individuals who had detransitioned, finding that 76% did not inform their clinicians about their detransition. link.springer.com/article/10.100…
Apr 11, 2024 • 16 tweets • 4 min read
🚨 New systematic review exposes deceptive practices among medical organizations that endorse youth transition. Rather than relying on robust evidence, medical authorities fabricated consensus by deferring to each others' guidelines.
Thread and Link Below⬇️
The new review reveals that medical organizations have misled the public by basing their recommendations on insufficient evidence, inaccurately labeling their approach as "evidence-based," and engaging in a corrupt practice known as "circular referencing."buttonslives.news/p/new-systemat…