Jamie Lynn Smith was born in June 1980. After marrying Joshua David Rickly (born 1982), Jamie began using the name Jamie Lynn Smith-Rickly. During this time, Jamie was apparently using the email [email protected].
In 2009, Jamie Smith-Rickly, Zachary Smith, and Byron Case founded the Midwestern Liberty Foundation, but it was dissolved by the state of Missouri the following year for failure to submit required documents.
The couple had two children and later divorced.
Jamie then married transgender librarian Tiger Reed. They are raising Jamie’s two children from the first marriage as well as three foster children.
Reed earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Missouri St. Louis and a master’s degree from Washington University in St. Louis. Reed began working at Washington in 2016.
Anti-trans activism
From 2018 until late 2022, Reed was a case manager at the Washington University Pediatric Transgender Center at St. Louis Childrenâs Hospital.
Reed became increasingly upset that the clinic was not doing more psychological and psychiatric gatekeeping. As with many providers, Washington relied on patients to find a local therapist who would recommend them for treatment to reduce backlogs and improve patient care.
Reed was against prescribing hormone options for minors. Like many other people opposed to youth gender affirming care, Reed considers puberty blockers less problematic than hormones, but opposes those as well. Puberty blockers are a rarely-used short-term option prior to prescribing hormones. Some people opposed to gender affirming care would prefer trans youth to stay on puberty blockers until they are adults, rather than start hormones.
Like many other people opposed to gender affirming care, Reed cites the conservative “Dutch protocol” that used extensive gatekeeping under a nationalized healthcare system.
In an affidavit presented to anti-trans Attorney General Andrew Bailey dated February 7, 2023, Reed stated:
I witnessed staff at the Center provide puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to children without complete informed parental consent and without an appropriate or accurate assessment of the needs of the child. I witnessed children experience shocking injuries from the medication the Center prescribed. And I saw the Center make no attempt or effort to track adverse outcomes of patients after they left the Center.
[…]
One patient came to the Center identifying as a âcommunist, attack helicopter, human, female, maybe non binary.â The child was in very poor mental health and early on reported that they had no idea their gender identity.
[…]
Most children who come into the Center were assigned female at birth. Nearly all of them have serious comorbidities including, autism, ADHD, depression, anxiety, PTSD, trauma histories, OCD, and serious eating disorders.
[…]
last year Dr. [Chris] Lewis and Dr. [Sarah] Garwood told the Missouri legislature, âat no point are surgeries on the table for anyone under 18â and also, âsurgeries are not an option for anyone under 18 years of age.â This was a lie. The Center regularly refers minors for gender transition surgery. The Center routinely gives out the names and contact information of surgeons to those under the age of 18. At least one gender transition surgery was performed by Dr. Allison Snyder-Warwick at St. Louis Childrenâs Hospital in the last few years.
[…]
The Center had two in-house psychologists. They were Dr. Alex Maixner and Dr. Sarah Girresch-Ward as well as several outside therapists.
[…]
Doctors knew that many of our former patients had stopped taking cross-sex hormones and were detransitioning. Doctors did not share this information with parents or children.
[…]
Children come into the clinic using pronouns of inanimate objects like âmushroom,â ârock,â or âhelicopter.â Children come into the clinic saying they want hormones because they do not want to be gay. Children come in changing their identities on a day-to-day basis. Children come in under clear pressure by a parent to identify in a way inconsistent with the childâs actual identity.
[…]
I created a âred flagâ list of children where other staff and I had concerns. The doctors told me I had to stop raising these concerns. I was not allowed to maintain the red flag list after that. During the time I was creating the red flag list, noting my concern that these children were not good candidates for permanent, irreversible medication treatment, the doctors would simply send these children to our in-house therapists. Those therapists would inevitably provide letters to the doctors, and then the doctors would say there canât be any concern over these children because another therapist was fine with prescribing puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones.
[…]
One doctor at the Center, Dr. Chris Lewis, is giving patients a drug called Bicalutamide. I know of at least one patient at the Center who was advised by the renal department to stop taking Bicalutamide because the child was experiencing liver damage. The childâs parent reported this to the Center through the patientâs online self-reporting medical chart (MyChart). The parent said they were not the type to sue, but âthis could be a huge PR problem for you.â
[…]
the Center has prescribed puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones hundreds of times where they should not have.
Particularly upsetting to Reed are young people whose identities are fluid:
Patient was on hormones and had decompensating mental health, outlandish name changes, self-diagnosis of multiple personalities (DID).
[…]
Patient has desisted in male identity to a vague non binary with their own self-diagnosis of autism. Patient has changed their name numerous times and is clearly struggling with thoughts about desistence,
[..]
Patient changed to non-binary identity, then changed preferred name and stated that their identity was shifting day to day.
Reed gave several other vivid anecdotes, including one about a youth sex offender, and others about youths with history of self-harm, sexual trauma, forced cross-dressing, factitious blindness, and “gender identities that were likely the result of social contagion.”
2023 Free Press piece
Two days after the affidavit was signed, Reed repeated these allegations for anti-trans activist Bari Weiss.
“clinics like the one where I worked are creating a whole cohort of kids with atypical genitalsâand most of these teens havenât even had sex yet.”
“Some weeks it felt as though almost our entire caseload was nothing but disturbed young people.”
“Another disturbing aspect of the center was its lack of regard for the rights of parents.”
“In 2019, a new group of people appeared on my radar: desisters and detransitioners.”
“I believe that to ensure the safety of American children, we need a moratorium on the hormonal and surgical treatment of young people with gender dysphoria.”
Reed and the clinicâs nurse, Karen Hamon, kept a private spreadsheet, which they called the âred flag list.â Following a 2021 review that contained criticisms and a 2022 retreat where Reed was allegedly told âGet on board, or get out,â Reed transferred to a different department.
Jamie Reed on what needs to be done: no gender affirming care for people until we figure out how to tell which mice should transition pic.twitter.com/1Go2vJtNTo
Azeen Ghorayshi of the New York Times presented Reed as part of a long-running “cisgender person under siege” series the paper has been running since the early 2000s.
Ghorayshi mentioned the following people:
Jamie Reed, former case manager at a youth gender clinic at Washington University in St. Louis
Bari Weiss, anti-trans activist who first published Reed’s allegations
Andrew Bailey, Missouri’s anti-trans Attorney General
Colleen Schrappen, reporter at St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Annelise Hanshaw, reporter at Missouri Independent
Andrew D. Martin, Washington University in St. Louis Chancellor
Reporter Evan Urquhart wrote, “unlike other stories covering these allegations, the Times downplays the falsehoods and seeks to make a case that despite Reedâs lies thereâs something to be taken seriously in her attacks on a highly-regarded, University-linked clinic serving transgender youth.”
Lawsuits
In 2024 a subpoena was issued to Reed in the matter of Noe v. Parson (Missouri case # 23AC-CC04530). In it, Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, Inc. and ACLU of Missouri Foundation requested communication between Reed and Karen Hamon, as well as any communication with Missouri officials and families at Washington University Pediatric Transgender Center at St. Louis Childrenâs Hospital.
The subpoena also requested “All communications, including any documents exchanged, concerning Gender-Affirming Care involving media or between you and any media outlet or any member of the media,” as well as specifically requesting communications with Jesse Singal. Those requests were later removed.
The subpoena also requested any communication with the following organizations:
Megan Phelps-Roper is an American author and anti-transgender activist.
Background
Phelps-Roper was born January 31, 1986 to Shirley Phelps-Roper and Brent Roper and grew up in Westboro Baptist Church, an anti-LGBT hate group based in Topeka, Kansas. Starting at five years old, Phelps-Roper participated in many of the organization’s picketing events, attacking Jewish people, military servicemembers, and the LGBTQ community.
In 2011, Phelps-Roper appeared in Louis Theroux’s documentary America’s Most Hated Family in Crisis. Phelps-Roper left Westboro Baptist Church in 2012.
Phelps-Roper married lawyer Chad G. Fjelland (born 1972) and has two children.
In October 2019, Phelps-Roper released a memoir called Unfollow: A Journey from Hatred to Hope.
Anti-trans activism
Phelps-Roper was recruited by anti-trans activist Bari Weiss to host a podcast series that defended transphobic author J.K. Rowling. The series used nostalgia for Rowling’s stories to paint Rowling sympathetically, as a misunderstood person simply advocating for women.
Yoffe contributed to the anti-trans publication The Free Press in 2022 and joined the staff later that year.
Jamie Reed allegations
In 2023, Jamie Reed came forward to complain about treatment protocols at employer Washington University Transgender Center at St. Louis Childrenâs Hospital. Republican Ernie Trakas joined Vernadette Broyles in representing Reed. Both are involved in the Child and Parental Rights Campaign, which claims “gender ideology” is a threat to children.
Yoffe interviewed Reed with Broyles and Bari Weiss.
“Caroline” allegations
Also in 2023, Yoffe followed up with a self-report from “Caroline,” an unsupportive parent of “Casey,” who attended the St. Louis Clinic. “Casey”disputed Yoffe’s reporting, feeling it was necessary to do so under the actual name Alex:
My name is Alex. Emily Yoffe and Bari Weiss worked in cooperation with my mom to write an article about our experience with Washington University. The article is filled with falsehoods and misconceptions. Now, my family is being threatened with legal action from big-time lawyers and we need help paying for legal defense. More at https://twitter.com/sleepyoktobur/status/1643347040250781706?s=46
The leading transgender health organization promotes life-altering interventions on minors — some that leave young people sterile. @LisaSelinDavis has the story. https://t.co/1iQc8RG6eQ
Staff report (September 18, 1994). Weddings â Emily J. Yoffe, John D. Mintz. New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/1994/09/18/style/weddings-emily-j-yoffe-john-d-mintz.html
Yoffe, Emily (June 27, 2022). Biden’s Sex Police. The Free Press https://www.thefp.com/p/bidens-sex-police
Janice Turner is a British writer and anti-transgender activist.
Background
Turner was born April 8, 1964 in Wakefield and attended University of Sussex. Turner edited several publications before freelancing as a columnist focusing on media criticism.
Turner, Janice (September 16, 2017). The battle over gender has turned bloody: Women who believe that their rights are threatened by transgender activists now find themselves at risk of assault. The Times https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/the-battle-over-gender-has-turned-bloody-2wpkmnqhh
Turner, Janice (January 27 2023). Thereâs a better way to treat trans prisoners. Feminists have long warned of the dangers of male-bodied rapists in womenâs jails and Scotland proves them right. The Times https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/theres-a-better-way-to-treat-trans-prisoners-cz939bmbk
Turner, Janice (February 10 2023). Schools fuel trans angst by sidelining parents. Teachers are happy to keep a childâs name-change secret â Gillian Keegan must end this cruel betrayal of families. The Times https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/schools-fuel-trans-angst-by-sidelining-parents-60fq85x95
Turner, Janice (November 11, 2017). Children sacrificed to appease trans lobby. The Times https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/children-sacrificed-to-appease-trans-lobby-bq0m2mm95
Turner, Janice (September 8, 2018). Trans rapists are a danger in women’s jails. The Times https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/trans-rapists-are-a-danger-in-women-s-jails-5vhgh57pt
Turner, Janice (October 20, 2018). Suicides should never be a political weapon. The Times. https://www.pressgazette.co.uk/activist-loses-ipso-complaint-against-janice-turner-times-column-about-trans-suicides/
Turner, Janice (December 2, 2022). Women who canât define a woman are sunk.The Times https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/women-who-cant-define-a-woman-are-sunk-chq8qc68n
Martina Navratilova is a Czech-American tennis player and anti-transgender activist.
Navratilova is a sex segregationist whose primary concern is maintaining segregationism that keeps women and girls in inferior roles in society. Of particular interest is maintaining womenâs subordinate place via sex-segregated competitive sport, primarily by attacking transgender athletes.
Background
Martina Ć ubertovĂĄ was born October 18, 1956 in Prague, Czechoslovakia to an athletic family. Martina’s stepparent Miroslav NavrĂĄtil coached Martina in tennis. Martina took that surname and went pro in 1975. Navratilova dominated professional tennis for the next three decades and is considered on of the greatest players of all time.
In 2019, Navratilova made a number of comments about trans athletes that led to LGBT organizations cutting ties.
Navratilova is a member of the anti-trans organization Women’s Sports Policy Working Group and has published anti-trans views on social media and in anti-trans publications, including Quillette, The Times, and BBC.
Coleman, Doriane; Navratilova, Martina; Richards-Ross, Sanya (April 29, 2019). Opinion: Pass the Equality Act, but don’t abandon Title IX. Washington Post https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/pass-the-equality-act-but-dont-abandon-title-ix/2019/04/29/2dae7e58-65ed-11e9-a1b6-b29b90efa879_story.html
Dean Baquet is an American journalist who helped shape the New York Times newsroom’s anti-transgender crusade in the 21st century.
Background
Dean Paul Baquet was born on September 21, 1956 to a prominent Catholic family in New Orleans. Baquet attended Columbia University before dropping out to pursue journalism. Baquet worked at the New Orleans States-Item and The Times-Picayune before joining the Chicago Tribune in 1984, followed by the New York Times in 1990 and the Los Angeles Times in 2000. After being fired by Los Angeles Times in 2006, Baquet returned to the New York Times. Baquet became executive editor there in 2014. Baquet moved back to Los Angeles during the pandemic. After running the New York Times from LA for a time, Baquet was replaced by Joe Kahn in 2022. The Times then tapped Baquet to run a fellowship program for local investigative journalism.
Baquet’s spouse Dylan F. Landis was born December 3, 1956 and graduated from Barnard in 1978 before pursuing a writing career. Landis and Baquet married in 1986. Their child Ari Theogene Landis Baquet was born in 1989.
Anti-transgender activism
Under Baquet’s watch, The Times‘ persistently anti-trans coverage continued to escalate, particularly in the Science, Books, Politics, and Opinion sections. During that time, the paper also ended the vital Public Editor role. Without that oversight or accountability, the transphobic coverage got even worse.
Baquet’s coverage crisis reached its tipping point in 2021, when Baquet let anti-trans activist Pamela Paul hire anti-trans activist Jesse Singal to review anti-trans activist Helen Joyce’s book Trans: When Ideology Meets Reality.
Employee affinity group Times Out reached out to NYT leaders. Via Imara Jones at Translash:
So, almost out of desperation, Times Out leaders decided that their best bet was to go to the very top of the news food chain: Managing Editor Dean Baquet. […] But their official request to talk to Dean was rebuffed.
Times Out leader Priya Arora emailed Baquet directly, and Baquet defended Pamela Paul.
Singal, Jesse (September 7, 2021). Trans Rights and Gender Identity. New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/07/books/review/trans-helen-joyce.html
Jones, Imara (July 17, 2023). S02E05: Capturing The New York Times. The Anti-Trans Hate Machine: A Plot Against Equality https://translash.org/transcript-capturing-the-new-york-times/
Erik Wemple is an American writer and anti-transgender activist. As media critic for the Washington Post, Wemple defended the New York Times during its anti-trans coverage crisis of the 2020s.
Background
Erik Boris Wemple was born August 18, 1964 in Niskayuna, New York and grew up in the Schenectady area. Wemple’s parent Marilyn Helen Greve Wemple (1930â2000) had three children: Mark, Kirk, and Erik (the youngest). Parent Clark Cullings Wemple (1927â1993) was a prominent local Republican politician and lawyer.
After earning a bachelor’s degree from Hamilton College in 1986, Wemple earned a master’s degree from Georgetown University in 1989. After covering and consulting on US export control policy, Wemple began covering local Washington, DC news, including freelancing at Washington City Paper starting in 1994. Wemple served one term on the Advisory Neighborhood Commission in 1995, representing Dupont Circle.
From 1999 to 2000, Wemple was “Loose Lips” gossip columnist at Washington City Paper. Wemple left to work at inside.com for two years before returning to Washington City Paper as editor in 2002.
In 2006 Wemple worked for a few days as editor in chief of The Village Voice before backing out and returning to Washington City Paper until 2010. After working at TBD.com in 2010, Wemple joined the Washington Post in 2011.
Wemple’s spouse, Stephanie Mencimer (born September 1969), is also a writer. They live in Maryland and have two children, Sam (born ~2004) and Lucy (born ~2006).
New York Times anti-trans coverage crisis
Although Wemple claims the New York Times coverage of trans issues is unbiased, in 2022 Wemple at least acknowledged the controversy. Wemple confirmed that a Times employee had reportedly been accosted for their anti-trans coverage, as first reported by Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger. A Times spokesperson told Wemple: “Our employee was recognized in public. The person said something about ‘attempts to eliminate trans people’ and then spat on the employee.” The specific employee was not mentioned, and New York Times has too many anti-trans employees to make a guess.
In 2023, Jesse Singal, the anti-trans activist hired by Times anti-trans activist Pamela Paul to review a book by anti-trans activist Helen Joyce, naturally praised Wemple.
6/ The thoughtful responses carefully evaluating Eric Wemple's arguments and where they fall short began trickling in shortly after the piece went up:https://t.co/Rr8ND6Efk9
Staff report (June 15, 2006). Breaking: New âVoiceâ EIC Erik Wemple Quits Before He Starts. Gawker https://www.gawker.com/news/village-voice/breaking-new-voice-eic-erik-wemple-quits-before-he-starts-181133.php [archive]
Wemple, Erik (August 9, 2010). Letter from the editor: TBD is a little less TBD.TBD https://web.archive.org/web/20100815213043/http://www.tbd.com/articles/2010/08/letter-from-the-editor-tbd-is-a-little-less-tbd-790.html
Calderone, Michael (February 23, 2010). Wemple to edit Allbritton local site.Politico https://www.politico.com/story/2010/02/wemple-to-edit-allbritton-local-site-033365
Staff rpeort (February 23, 2010). Washington City Paper editor Erik Wemple is leaving the paper. AAN News https://aan.org/aan/washington-city-paper-editor-erik-wemple-is-leaving-the-paper/ [archive]
Megan Twohey is an American author and anti-transgender activist. Twohey co-wrote a scaremongering New York Times article about healthcare for trans and gender diverse youth titled “They Paused Puberty, but Is There a Cost?” The piece helped spark a newsroom revolt against management during the Times’ 2020s anti-trans coverage crisis.
Background
Megan Twohey was born on October 26, 1976 to John and Mary Jane Twohey.
Mary Jane Twohey handled PR for Northwestern University after transphobic eugenicist J. Michael Bailey arranged a live “fucksaw” demonstration for students.
Megan Twohey graduated from Evanston Township High School in 1994. After graduating from Georgetown University in 1998, Twohey worked at Washington Monthly, then National Journal from 1999 to 2001, then Moscow Times from 2001 to 2002. Twohey joined the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel from 2003 to 2007.
Twohey then joined parent John Twohey at Tribune Media’s Chicago Tribune in 2007. From 2012 to 2016, Twohey was with Thomson Reuters, then joined the New York Times in 2016.
Twohey and literary agent Vadim “Jim” Rutman (born ~1975) were married on June 12, 2016 and have one child.
Anti-trans activism
Twohey co-wrote a 2022 New York Times article on puberty blockers for gender diverse youth that culminated in a 2023 newsroom revolt against Times leadership.
The story is about “emerging evidence of potential harm” and the “long-term physical effects and other consequences” of Lupron and other medications that can manage onset of puberty. Any drug carries a risk of side effects, which the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) tracks via adverse event reports. FDA approved Lupron for central precocious puberty in 1993. It has since been used for trans and gender diverse youth experiencing unwanted puberty. Doctors have wide latitude to use approved drugs “off label,” including use to delay puberty for trans and gender diverse youth.
Several years earlier, co-author Christina Jewett began reporting on cisgender people who believe puberty blockers which they took as minors led to short- and long-term adverse side effects. Children whose puberty starts at 5 to 8 years old often face social problems, and those capable of pregnancy are at higher risk of unwanted sexual attention and assault. Doctors work with parents to weigh the risks and benefits before getting informed parental consent. As with any medical treatment, some people will be harmed more than they were helped.
Focusing on uncommon side effects and unknown risks is a long-used pretense to restrict or ban contraception and abortion, especially for minors. For more information, see this site’s analysis of “They Paused Puberty, but Is There a Cost?”
On September 3, 2023, I received an email from Twohey copied to Times external communications executive Danielle Rhoades Ha. Twohey requested that biographical information on this page be removed, all of which had been previously published.
My reply:
In 2003 J. Michael Bailey was presenting images and confidential clinical information about six-year olds from my community for laughs to future clinicians.
This vulgar misuse of our children without their knowledge or consent was part of a tour for Baileyâs transphobic book that came out under the federal imprimatur of the National Academies Press. That book is framed by the fabricated case report of a six-year-old gender diverse child whose âcuringâ is presented as evidence that children should not get gender affirming care.
Back when the Times still had a public editor, I expressed my concerns about your employerâs sustained support for Bailey and like-minded grifters like Alice Dreger who manipulate science and media to harm our children. The Times did worse than nothing. That Times reporter and the Science editors defamed me as payback, a major media coup that allowed Bailey and friends to continue harming children, adding years to my work getting their infamous Toronto childrenâs gender clinic shut down.
I wonât even get into Baileyâs sex with a book subject/patient, etc. Your mother got paid to help Bailey and employer Northwestern get out in front of his live âfucksawâ demonstration. Your family got paid to help Bailey stay tenured.
Not one journalist in America has published one article that speaks truth to power about these 50 years of attacks on our children via Archives of Sexual Behavior. A reporter from the Chicago Tribune once asked Dreger directly about Baileyâs fabrication and Dregerâs cover-up, but the story got spiked.
In a just world, Baileyâs book would be retracted, Baileyâs editor would be fired, Dregerâs article would be retracted, and Dregerâs editor would be fired. It would just take one article. Instead we get decades of Times coverage like hand-wringing about side effects of treatment that is being banned across the country, forcing families from NBA legends to struggling single parents to join in the largest mass interstate migration since COVID.
Few organizations have done more to make trans lives harder than the New York Times. You, your family, and the organizations that have paid all of you are part of the problem. Iâm simply documenting all this for historians.
PS: Your profile is standard encyclopedia fare. Your family members are all media professionals whoâve been in the public eye, and your six-year-oldâs full name and age are published on the New York Times website.
Twohey ignored my outline of the Twohey family’s negative impact on hundreds of thousands of American children, merely disputing my postscript. I then provided Twohey a Times website link. Despite being under no obligation to do so, I honored part of Twohey’s request.
Jones, Imara (July 17, 2023). S02E05: Capturing The New York Times.The Anti-Trans Hate Machine: A Plot Against Equality https://translash.org/transcript-capturing-the-new-york-times/
Twohey, Megan; Jewett, Christina (November 14, 2022). They Paused Puberty, but Is There a Cost?New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/14/health/puberty-blockers-transgender.html
Christina Jewett is an American author and anti-transgender activist. Jewett co-wrote a scaremongering New York Times article about healthcare for trans and gender diverse youth titled “They Paused Puberty, but Is There a Cost?” The piece helped spark a newsroom revolt against management during the Times’ 2020s anti-trans coverage crisis.
Background
Christina D. Jewett was born on May 11, 1980 and grew up in Griffith, Indiana. Jewett earned a bachelor’s degree from Indiana University in 2002. Jewett reported for the Sacramento Bee from 2002 to 2008, ProPublica from 2008 to 2009, and the Center for Investigative Reporting from 2009 to 2016. Jewett was then a correspondent for Kaiser Health News from 2016 to 2021 before joining the New York Times as a correspondent focusing on federal healthcare regulation in 2021.
Jewett married Floyd Charles Marvin III (born 1974). They have two children.
Anti-trans activism
While writing for Kaiser, Jewett began reporting on cisgender people who believe puberty blockers which they took as minors led to short- and long-term adverse side effects. Children whose puberty starts at 5 to 8 years old often face social problems, and those capable of pregnancy are at higher risk of sexual harassment and assault. Doctors work with parents to weigh the risks and benefits before getting informed consent. As with any medical treatment, some people will be harmed more than they were helped.
In 2022, Megan Twohey and Jewett co-wrote a New York Times article on puberty blockers for gender diverse youth that culminated in a 2023 newsroom revolt against Times leadership.
The story is about “emerging evidence of potential harm” and the “long-term physical effects and other consequences” of Lupron and other medications that can manage onset of puberty. Any drug carries a risk of side effects, which the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) tracks via adverse event reports. FDA approved Lupron for central precocious puberty in 1993. It has since been used for trans and gender diverse youth experiencing unwanted puberty. Doctors have wide latitude to use approved drugs “off label,” including use to delay puberty for trans and gender diverse youth.
Focusing on uncommon side effects and unknown risks is a long-used pretense to restrict or ban contraception and abortion, especially for minors. For more information, see this site’s analysis of “They Paused Puberty, but Is There a Cost?”
Jones, Imara (July 17, 2023). S02E05: Capturing The New York Times.The Anti-Trans Hate Machine: A Plot Against Equality https://translash.org/transcript-capturing-the-new-york-times/
Twohey, Megan; Jewett, Christina (November 14, 2022). They Paused Puberty, but Is There a Cost?New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/14/health/puberty-blockers-transgender.html
Staff report (October 13, 2021). Stephen Jewett.Northwest Indiana Times https://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/obituaries/stephen-jewett/article_00853351-ee9a-5bcd-be8b-b04c4c64b3ac.html
Katie J.M. Baker is an American writer who was one of the New York Times employees at the center of the publication’s anti-trans coverage crisis of the 2020s.
Background
Baker was born on September 15, 1987 and grew up in the San Fernando Valley. Baker earned a bachelor’s degree from University of California, Berkeley in 2009. Baker freelanced for the San Francisco Chronicle and Jezebel before joining Newsweek in 2013. Baker was an investigative reporter at Buzzfeed from 2014 to 2022 and joined the Times as a correspondent in 2022, brought over on the recommendation of Virginia Hughes.
Baker has consulted on media productions about the news. Much of Baker’s writing covers sexual harassment and assault in schools and workplaces, as well as online sex and gender politics.
Transgender coverage
Baker became interested in trans issues after moving from New York to London and witnessing the transphobic moral panic among radicalized “parental rights” extremists, particularly on Mumsnet:
If Mumsnetâs womenâs rights forum is popular because it responds to the experience of being stuck at home without support or community, itâs done so in a way that leaves Mumsnetters in a political cul-de-sac. The community isolates its members in a bubble of transphobic thought that leaves them free to develop their bigotries without needing to encounter the human beings affected by them. It also inculcates members with a tragically narrow idea of feminism, one that rejects other people fighting for gender liberation. And finally, it puts followers at odds with the broader left, which has been fighting for a world without gender oppression, as well as for benefits Mumsnetters say they care about, such as free child care and well-funded health care.
Baker helped import this moral panic to the US by covering the American parental rights movement for the Times. Where the Mumsnet piece was attacked by gender critical people, anti-trans activists like Jesse Singal had nothing but good things to say about Baker’s Times piece and its framing. Via the open letter by Times contributors:
In a similar case, Katie Bakerâs recent feature âWhen Students Change Gender Identity and Parents Donât Knowâ misframed the battle over childrenâs right to safely transition. The piece fails to make clear that court cases brought by parents who want schools to out their trans children are part of a legal strategy pursued by anti-trans hate groups. These groups have identified trans people as an âexistential threat to societyâ and seek to replace the American public education system with Christian homeschooling, key context Baker did not provide to Times readers.
Doyle, Jude Allison S. (February 27, 2023). What went wrong at the New York Times? Xtra https://xtramagazine.com/power/what-went-wrong-at-the-new-york-times-246409
Sulzberger, A.G. (April 4, 2022). 2022 State of The Times Remarks.New York Times Company https://www.nytco.com/press/2022-state-of-the-times-remarks/
Gutierrez, Claire; Yang, Jia Lynn (September 9, 2022). Katie Baker joins The Times.New York Times Company https://www.nytco.com/press/katie-baker-joins-the-times/