CBS is an AmericanĀ media organization.
Resources
CBSĀ (cbs.com)
media
The Christian Science Monitor is an AmericanĀ media organization.
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The Christian Science MonitorĀ (csmonitor.com)
Conservative Review is an AmericanĀ media organization.
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Conservative ReviewĀ (conservativereview.com)
This unattributed and undated piece was written by Robin Pinnel and published as part of the marketing materials for The Man Who Would Be Queen by J. Michael Bailey. It is notable for what Bailey and Joseph Henry Press include. Bold item was in the original.
Timeline of Significant Moments in Transgender History
In recent years, transgendered people have grown from a marginalized population to an increasingly major part of our mainstream culture. Slowly but surely, transgendered, transsexual, and intersexed individuals have claimed not only their legal rights, but their place in the public eye. Below is a timeline of some significant moments in transgender history during the past 10+ years.
1992:
- Release of The Crying Game
- Veronica Vera opens Miss Veraās Finishing School for Boys Who Want to Be Girls
1993:
- The first appearance of RuPaul on MTV
- Minnesota passes the first law prohibiting discrimination against transgendered people. The Minnesota statute establishes protections for transgendered people under the rubric of sexual orientation.
- Cheryl Chase founds the Intersex Society of North America (ISNA)
1994:
- Release of The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert
1995:
- Release of To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar
1996:
- Release of The Birdcage
1998:
- Theater debut of Hedwig and the Angry Inch
- California becomes the second state to amend its state hate crimes law to include transgendered and transsexual people. The California legislation adds āgenderā to the list of protected categories. Since then, Vermont, Missouri, and Pennsylvania have also amended their state hate crimes statutes to include transgendered people.
1999:
- PBS debuts the documentary You Don’t Know Dick: Courageous Hearts of Transsexual Men.
- Release of Boys Donāt Cry
- The first annual Transgender Day of Remembrance to memorialize those who were killed due to anti-transgender hatred or prejudice.
2001:
- Release of the movie version of Hedwig and the Angry Inch CBS debuts The Education of Max Bickford, a drama about a college professor going through a midlife crisis. Included in the cast of regulars is Erica, who used to be the title characterās best friend, Steve. This is the first transgendered person to appear regularly on a major network television program.
- Rhode Island becomes the second state with a non-discrimination law explicitly protecting transgender people. The stateās non-discrimination statute isamended to explicitly include āgender identity or expressionā as a protected category.
- Two transgender-themed movies (Hedwig and Southern Comfort) receive awards at the Sundance Film Festival. Southern Comfort wins top honors for best documentary and Hedwigās director, John Cameron Mitchell, wins the dramatic directing award.
2002:
- Dame Edna becomes a regular on Ally McBeal
- A new WB program, Everwood, features a male child who was born a hermaphrodite, neither a boy nor a girl.
- Jeffrey Eugenides writes Middlesex, in which the main character (Calliope Stephanides) is a hermaphrodite.
2003:
- A Florida judge awards custody of two children to a transgendered father, a man who was born and started out in life as a female.
- The California Assembly honors the first transgendered recipient of its āwoman of the yearā award.
- HBO airs Normal, in which Oscar nominee Tom Wilkinson plays a middle-age Midwest factory foreman whoās celebrating his 25th anniversary with wife Jessica Lange when he blurts that he can only continue living if he can live as a woman.
- Joseph Henry Press, trade publisher for the National Academies, publishes The Man Who Would Be Queen: The Science of Gender-Bending and Transsexualism by J. Michael Bailey
- Showtime debuts its fact-based A Soldierās Girl, in which a male Army recruit falls for a transgendered nightclub performer who is living as a woman.
Gay,Ā StraightĀ orĀ Lying?Ā Science has the answer
by: Robin Pinnel, Joseph Henry Press
[She clarified in 2020 this was “pulled from pre-approved text”]
Are gay men genuinely more feminine than other men? (Yes.) Are gay men really drawn to more feminine professions? (Yes.) Are all male transsexuals women trapped in men’s bodies? (No. Some of them are men who are just plain turned on by the idea of becoming women.)
In THE MAN WHO WOULD BE QUEEN: THE SCIENCE OF GENDER-BENDING AND TRANSSEXUALISM, author J. Michael Bailey, an internationally recognized researcher and expert on the origins of human sexual orientation, explores many of the stereotypes society typically associates with gay men and transsexuals.
“Male femininity is a phenomenon that most people find interesting but which has been ignored by science due to concerns ranging from social conservatism to sensitivity — or less charitably, political correctness,” Bailey explains. “For example, despite widespread stereotypes that gay men tend to be feminine, research related to the stereotype has only recently been conducted.”
Based on his own original research, Bailey’s book is grounded firmly in science. But as he demonstrates, science doesn’t always deliver predictable or even comfortable answers.
“Many gay men will not be comfortable with the assertion that they do, in fact, walk and talk different from a straight men,” Bailey asserts. “Many transsexuals do not like the idea that there are two kinds: the typical ‘woman trapped in a man’s body’ and the autogynephilic transsexual, who is a man who is so turned on by the idea of himself as a woman that he wants to become one. But my conclusions come from years of research.”
Bailey has studied, interviewed, and made friends with hundreds of men whose sexual preferences and behavior run the gamut from butch to feminine to just dressing in women’s clothing for heterosexual pleasure and men who only feel fulfilled by being transformed surgically into women. He has studied feminine men in the industrialized world as well as those in the developing world who either are feminine or who perform ritualistic “feminine” sexual behavior that may shock the average reader.
The conclusions to which Bailey came after years of psychological profiles, statistical studies, interviews, and comparison of his research with that fellow scientists, may not always be politically correct, but they are scientifically accurate, thoroughly researcher, and occasionally startling. THE MAN WHO WOULD BE QUEEN is a fresh and frank look at a compelling topic.
The full-text of THE MAN WHO WOULD BE QUEEN is available to read for free online at http://www.nap.edu/catalog/10530.html
PRAISE FOR THE MAN WHO WOULD BE QUEEN
“…recommended reading for anyone interested in the study of gender identity and sexual orientation. … Bailey has produced a thoughtful book that cites recent scientific studies on homosexuality and transsexuality. It is written, however, in a style that makes it easily accessible to any reader.” — OUT MAGAZINE, March 2003
“All of Bailey’s musings are interesting and provocative, and his evidence is often powerful… Bailey has written a book worth reading. …it will have its readers, both pro and con, thinking and talking…” — FRONTIERS, March 14, 2003
“…fascinating revelations… In a personable and straightforward manner, [Bailey] describes his research techniques and reproduces the questionnaires given to his subjects. … Despite its provocative title, a scientific yet superbly compassionate exposition.” — KIRKUS REVIEWS, January 2003
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
J. Michael Bailey is a professor of psychology at Northwestern University and an internationally recognized researcher and expert on the origins of human sexual orientation. His studies of sexual orientation in twins have been widely cited in the scientific literature and are mentioned in virtually all introductory psychology textbooks. His work has also been featured in a variety of newspapers, including THE NEW YORK TIMES, as well as in NEWSWEEK and DISCOVER. He is also widely known to those interested in sex research as the creator and owner of the listserv SEXNET.
ABOUT THE JOSEPH HENRY PRESS
THE MAN WHO WOULD BE QUEEN is published by the Joseph Henry Press, trade publisher for the National Academies–National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, Institute of Medicine, and National Research Council. The Joseph Henry Press can be found online at http://www.jhpress.org. [3/21/03]
Your Welcome is a podcast founded in 2017 by troll Michael Malice. Guests include many key figures in conservative and anti-transgender activism.
Below is a full episode list through 2023.
2023
- Dave Smith and Will Chamberlain December 20, 2023
- Alex Jones December 13, 2023
- Ian Crossland and Jack Angeli-Chansley December 6, 2023
- James Lindsay November 29, 2023
- Dinesh D’Souza November 21, 2023
- Magatte Wade November 15, 2023
- Dave Landau November 8, 2023
- Luke Rudkowski November 1, 2023
- Moms for Liberty Tina Descovich October 25, 2023
- Kurt Schlichter October 18, 2023
- Cody Wilson & Jessica Solce October 11, 2023
- Dave Smith October 4, 2023
- Scott Adams September 27, 2023
- Kurt Metzger September 20, 2023
- Cenk Uygur September 13, 2023
- Ethan Van Sciver September 6, 2023
- Chaya Raichik (āLibs of TikTokā) August 30, 2023
- Gabriel Shipton August 23, 2023
- Gad Saad August 16, 2023
- Jake Angeli August 9, 2023
- Destiny August 2, 2023
- Carol Roth July 26, 2023
- Matt Lewis July 19, 2023
- Amanda Milius July 12, 2023
- Robert Barnes July 5, 2023
- Cody Wilson June 28, 2023
- Joseph McBride June 21, 2023
- Dave Rubin June 14, 2023
- Raheem Kassam June 7, 2023
- Roseanne Barr May 31, 2023
- Dave Smith & Konstantin Kisin May 24, 2023
- Andy Ngo May 17, 2023
- James OāKeefe May 10, 2023
- Martin Shkreli May 3, 2023
- Vivek Ramaswamy April 26, 2023
- Dave Landau April 20, 2023
- Konstantin Kisin April 12, 2023
- Kmele Foster April 5, 2023
- Jack Posobiec March 29, 2023
- Natalie Sideserf March 22, 2023
- Karol Markowicz March 16, 2023
- Carpe Donktum March 8, 2023
- Dave Smith March 1, 2023
- Bridget Phetasy February 22, 2023
- Yeonmi Park February 15, 2023
- Kari Lake February 8, 2023
- Colin Moriarty February 1, 2023
- Mike Cernovich January 25, 2023
- Roger Stone January 18, 2023
- Curtis Yarvin and Dave Smith January 11, 2023
- Carl Benjamin January 4, 2023
2022
- Tom Woods December 28, 2022
- Alex Stein December 21, 2022
- Alex Jones December 15, 2022
- Jimmy Dore December 7, 2022
- Ben Askren November 30, 2022
- Lora Logic November 23, 2022
- Dave Smith November 16, 2022
- Razib Khan November 9, 2022
- James OāKeefe November 2, 2022
- Ryan James Girdusky October 26, 2022
- Antoine Vaillant October 19, 2022
- Sour Patch Lyds October 12, 2022
- Matt Iseman September 28, 2022
- James Lindsay September 21, 2022
- David Pietrusza September 14, 2022
- Lou Perez September 7, 2022
- Seamus Coughlin August 31, 2022
- Auron MacIntyre August 24, 2022
- Robert Barnes August 17, 2022
- Dave Smith August 10, 2022
- Charlie Kirk August 3, 2022
- Alex Jones July 27, 2022
- Kari Lake July 20, 2022
- Kurt Schlichter July 13, 2022
- Sara Gonzales July 6, 2022
- Glenn Greenwald June 29, 2022
- Blaire White June 22, 2022
- Marc Andreessen June 15, 2022
- Dave Smith June 8, 2022
- Angela McArdle June 1, 2022
- Eric July May 25, 2022
- Hotep Jesus May 18, 2022
- Dave Smith May 11, 2022
- Sydney Watson May 4, 2022
- Douglas Murray April 27, 2022
- Ian Crossland April 20, 2022
- Geoffrey Miller April 13, 2022
- Buck Sexton April 6, 2022
- Dave Rubin March 30, 2022
- Aaron Berg March 23, 2022
- Lauren Southern March 16, 2022
- Curtis Yarvin March 9, 2022
- Mike Cernovich March 2, 2022
- Lily Tang Williams February 23, 2022
- Dave Smith February 16, 2022
- Thaddeus Russell February 9, 2022
- Corey DeAngelis February 2, 2022
- Count Dankula January 26, 2022
- Cody Wilson January 19, 2022
- Dave Smith January 12, 2022
2021
- Ethan Nicolle December 23, 2021
- Glenn Beck December 16, 2021
- Dave Smith December 9, 2021
- Chris Williamson December 2, 2021
- Mark Hemingway November 24, 2021
- Robert Barnes November 17, 2021
- James Lindsay November 3, 2021
- Carl Benjamin October 25, 2021
- Ben Domenech October 18, 2021
- Jesse Lee Peterson October 11, 2021
- Debra Soh October 4, 2021
- Siraj Hashmi September 28, 2021
- Yaron Brook September 21, 2021
- Maxime Bernier September 14, 2021
- Kurt Schlichter September 7, 2021
- Dave Smith August 24, 2021
- Curtis Yarvin August 10, 2021
- Ron Coleman August 3, 2021
- Dave Smith July 27, 2021
- Kmele Foster July 20, 2021
- Carol Roth July 13, 2021
- Alex Jones July 6, 2021
- Dave Smith June 29, 2021
- Adam Curry June 22, 2021
- Elizabeth Spiers June 15, 2021
- Jack Posobiec June 8, 2021
- Dave Smith June 1, 2021
- Eliza Bleu May 25, 2021
- David Pietrusza May 18, 2021
- Kristin Tate May 11, 2021
- Dave Smith May 4, 2021
- Mark Pellegrino April 27, 2021
- Corey DeAngelis April 13, 2021
- Dave Smith April 6, 2021
- James Lindsay March 30, 2021
- Tim Young March 23, 2021
- Bridget Phetasy March 16, 2021
- Dave Smith March 9, 2021
- Madison Cawthorn March 1, 2021
- Justin Amash February 23, 2021
- Lauren Chen February 16, 2021
- Yeon-mi Park February 9, 2021
- Dave Smith February 2, 2021
- Tom Woods January 26, 2021
- Lauren Southern January 19, 2021
- Chris Williamson January 12, 2021
- Dave Smith January 5, 2021
2020
- Adrianne Curry December 22, 2020
- Dave Smith December 15, 2020
- Mike Cernovich December 8, 2020
- Tom Woods December 1, 2020
- Glenn Greenwald November 24, 2020
- Dave Smith November 17, 2020
- Phil Labonte November 10, 2020
- Chris DeRose November 3, 2020
- Douglas Murray October 27, 2020
- Kurt Metzger October 20, 2020
- Dave Smith October 20, 2020
- Dave Smith October 20, 2020
- Laura Loomer October 6, 2020
- Joe Machi September 29, 2020
- Dave Smith September 23, 2020
- Tucker Max September 16, 2020
- Cody Wilson September 8, 2020
- Mikhaila Peterson September 1, 2020
- Chrissie Mayr August 24, 2020
- Stu Burguiere August 18, 2020
- Ashley St. Clair August 11, 2020
- Thaddeus Russell August 4, 2020
- Dave Smith July 23, 2020
- Chrissie Mayr July 21, 2020
- Dave Smith July 14, 2020
- Kurt Schlichter July 7, 2020
- Dave Smith June 30, 2020
- Dave Smith June 24, 2020
- Dave Smith June 23, 2020
- Dave Smith June 16, 2020
- Dave Smith June 9, 2020
- Dave Smith June 2, 2020
- Edward Stringham May 26, 2020
- Dave Smith May 19, 2020
- Dave Smith May 11, 2020
- Dave Smith May 5, 2020
- Dave Rubin April 29, 2020
- Dave Smith April 22, 2020
- Dave Smith April 15, 2020
- Dave Smith April 7, 2020
- Tom Woods March 31, 2020
- Jessica Tarlov March 24, 2020
- Mollie Hemingway March 17, 2020
- Matt Taylor March 10, 2020
- Amanda Lenox March 3, 2020
- Lou Perez February 18, 2020
- Matt McClowry February 11, 2020
- Geno Bisconte February 4, 2020
- Ethan Suplee January 30, 2020
- Dave Landau January 23, 2020
- Lisa De Pasquale January 16, 2020
- Buck Sexton January 9, 2020
- Richard Aldous January 2, 2020
2019
- Heidi Matthews December 26, 2019
- Kmele Foster December 19, 2019
- Arthur Herman December 12, 2019
- Joe DeVito December 5, 2019
- David Pietrusza November 28, 2019
- Jason Stapleton November 21, 2019
- Jack Posobiec November 14, 2019
- Zuby November 7, 2019
- Dave Smith October 29, 2019
- Mark Hyman October 22, 2019
- John Carney October 15, 2019
- Big āJayā Oakerson October 8, 2019
- Terry Schappert October 1, 2019
- Karol Markowicz September 24, 2019
- Andrew Pollack & Max Eden September 17, 2019
- Dan Soder September 10, 2019
- Dave Landau September 3, 2019
- Zac Amico August 27, 2019
- Hotep Jesus August 20, 2019
- Ben Howe August 13, 2019
- Vit Jedlicka August 6, 2019
- Charlie Nash July 30, 2019
- Bridget Phetasy July 23, 2019
- Thaddeus Russell July 16, 2019
- Melissa Chen July 9, 2019
- Ben Domenech July 2, 2019
- Janae Marie Kroc June 25, 2019
- Luis J. Gomez June 18, 2019
- Lyn Ulbricht June 11, 2019
- Joey Salads June 4, 2019
- Ethan Nicolle May 28, 2019
- Ethan Suplee May 21, 2019
- [no guest] May 14, 2019
- Michael Wolf April 30, 2019
- Faith Goldy April 30, 2019
- Brandon Straka April 23, 2019
- Nick Searcy April 16, 2019
- Titania McGrath April 9, 2019
- Will Chamberlain April 2, 2019
- David Reaboi March 26, 2019
- Nick Monroe March 19, 2019
- Ron Coleman. March 12, 2019
- Bill Schulz and Joanne Nosuchinsky March 5, 2019
- John DeVore February 26, 2019
- Kristin Tate February 19, 2019
- Dave Smith February 12, 2019
- Maj Toure February 5, 2019
- Dick Manitoba January 29, 2019
- Michael Tracey January 22, 2019
- Jake Sabawini January 15, 2019
- Nomiki Konst January 8, 2019
- Tom Woods January 1, 2019
2018
- Allum Bokhari December 25, 2018
- Brandon Svarc and Bahzad Trinos December 18, 2018
- Count Dankula December 11, 2018
- Lux Alptraum December 4, 2018
- Imam Tawhidi November 27, 2018
- Anthony Cumia November 20, 2018
- Justin Silver November 13, 2018
- Marion Smith November 6, 2018
- Arthur Herman October 30, 2018
- Juanita Broaddrick October 23, 2018
- Ralph Sutton October 16, 2018
- Stephen Miller October 9, 2018
- Kurt Schlichter October 2, 2018
- Hans-Hermann Hoppe September 25, 2018
- Robert Epstein and Matt Taylor September 18, 2018
- David Pietrusza September 11, 2018
- Shane OāMara September 4, 2018
- Rucka Rucka Ali August 28, 2018
- John Stossel August 21, 2018
- Freddy Lim August 14, 2018
- Matt Welch & Tom Woods August 7, 2018
- Mike Cernovich July 31, 2018
- Jessica Tarlov July 24, 2018
- Cody Wilson July 17, 2018
- Lauren Southern July 10, 2018
- Cathy Young July 3, 2018
- Ryan Holiday June 26, 2018
- Joe Machi June 19, 2018
- Scott Adams June 12, 2018
- Anthony Cumia June 5, 2018
- Stephan Kinsella May 29, 2018
- Geno Bisconte May 23, 2018
- Bethany Mandel May 16, 2018
- Lux Alptraum May 9, 2018
- Hotep Jesus May 2, 2018
- Aaron Berg April 25, 2018
- Kevin Gutzman April 18, 2018
- Karol Markowicz April 11, 2018
- Ed March 28, 2018
- March 21, 2018 Kristin Tate
- Pat Flynn March 14, 2018
- Tom Woods March 7, 2018
- [no guest] February 28, 2018
- Dave Rubin February 21, 2018
- Matt Iseman February 14, 2018
- Dan Gluck and Serge Becker February 7, 2018
- Frederick Bouchardy January 31, 2018
- [no guest] January 24, 2018 A Night for Freedom Mike Cernovich, Gavin McInness, Stefan Molyneux, Owen Benjamin
- Buck Sexton January 17, 2018
- Matt Welch January 10, 2018
- Owen Benjamin January 3, 2018
2017
- John DeVore December 27, 2017
- Ed Stringham December 20, 2017
- Janice Erlbaum December 13, 2017
- Brett Veinotte December 6, 2017
- Arthur Herman November 29, 2017
- Luis J. Gomez November 22, 2017
- Laura Loomer November 15, 2017
- David Pietrusza November 8, 2017
- Jeremie Ruby-Strauss November 1, 2017
- Tim Pool October 25, 2017
- Maddox October 18, 2017
- Kirsten Haglund October 11, 2017
- [no guest] October 4, 2017
- Lisa De Pasquale September 27, 2017
- Tom Ciccotta September 20, 2017
- Dave Smith September 13, 2017
- Stephen Miller September 6, 2017
- Gavin McInnes August 23, 2017
- Eliza Orlins August 16, 2017
- Thaddeus Russell August 9, 2017
- John Basedow August 2, 2017
- Don Caldwell July 26, 2017
- Kmele Foster July 19, 2017
- [no guest] July 12, 2017
- Jay Irwin (4chan) June 28, 2017
- Tom Shillue June 21, 2017
- Pax Dickinson June 14, 2017
- Tom Woods June 7, 2017
Dead Name is an anti-transgender media piece about three unaccepting parents of their trans and gender diverse children. Following its release it was banned by Vimeo as hateful content.
Background
Taylor Reece is the director and co-producer. It was produced by Broken Hearted Films, an LLC founded in New York in June 2022 by anti-trans activist and unaccepting parent Tina Traster.
Reece describes the piece as “an intimate portrait of three parents whose lives have been shaken and forever altered because their children have declared (or have been given) a transgender identity.”
The featured parents are Amy, Helen, and Bill. The children are not interviewed to get their side of things. Also in the film are anti-trans activists Stephen Levine and Brandon Showalter.
Release and removal
The piece was on Vimeo for about a month before being pulled. Many anti-trans extremists got involved in promoting the project following its removal, including Brandon Showalter, Oren Amitay, Ben Appel, Peter Boghossian, Alline Cormier,
References
Editors (January 25, 2023). Nobodyās mad about this transphobic doc being yanked from Vimeoā¦ except, of course, transphobes. Queerty https://www.queerty.com/nobodys-mad-transphobic-doc-yanked-vimeo-except-course-transphobes-20230125
Resources
Dead Name (deadnamedocumentary.com)
Vimeo (vimeo.com)
- Broken Hearted Films
- https://vimeo.com/user190656908 (deleted)
- https://vimeo.com/ondemand/deadname (deleted)
Daily Signal (dailysignal.com)
The Federalist (https://thefederalist.com/author/taylor-reece/)
Penka Kouneva, aka “Vera Lindner,” is a Bulgarian-American anti-transgender activist who produced the 2023 anti-trans film No Way Back. This supplemental information outlines her path to anti-transgender activism.
2022 IWF profile
This is a transcript of an interview she did with Independent Women’s Forum.
There is a huge overlap between autism and transgenderism, and the professionals need to be asked, “Why, why are there so many trans-identified individuals who are also autistic?
I am a mother of 15-year-old daughter who began to identify as transgender in the summer of 2020, during the lockdown. At the time we didnāt know that our child has autism. Sheās highly functioning autistic, what used to be called Aspergerās. Gifted, highly intelligent. During the lockdown, these eighth graders were not really interested in school. It was such a time of trauma and confusion. What these girls did is they started watching TikTok and Instagram videos all day long. I mean pretty much nonstop, and what I noticed over the summer of 2020, these four girls who were part of a friendship group where only one girl identified as transgender, they began kind of nudging each other to also identify as transgender, to make up male names, male pronouns.
And in August of 2020 my daughter also started to identify as transgender, which was a total shock. I didnāt expect it to happen because up until the week before she made the declaration, she said, “Iām a proud lesbian and Iām a Democrat,” so I thought, “This is perfectly fine. Iām cool you’re a proud lesbian, thatās fine.” And then a week later, she said, “Donāt call me a woman. Donāt call me a girl. Donāt call me she. I am a guy Iām your son.”
Weāre like “OK. Exploration is fine. You know, try different things.” What happened immediately after the trans declaration is that she began to ask for things. She said “I want testosterone. I want you to buy me these things from Amazon. Theyāre like boosting for testosterone. I want a binder.” And this is where I really understood there is a medical harm. There is a medical destruction involved in changing oneās sex. And this is where I had to draw the line.
So earlier in June of the lockdown year 2020, my child very much demanded to see a gender specialist. My intuition told me that this is not a good path, and I said, “Listen, Iām going to find an LGBT supportive therapist, but not necessarily a gender therapist.” We chose an older woman lesbian in her mid-70s. I trusted her experience, especially her perspective as a lesbian, something I donāt have. As soon as my daughter announced the transgender self-identification, and a new name, the therapist began to call her by the new name and call her “he.” At the time I spoke with a therapist via email basically saying, “My daughter has autism, ADDF, anxiety, and depression. Why isnāt it cool anymore to be a lesbian? Can you explore these issues?” I also wrote to the therapist. “Out of the five friends, four are now identifying as transgender. Could this be peer influence?” None of these questions were ever addressed.
The therapist said, “Testosterone is going to bring you gender congruity. Try to see if you can. Call your parents’ insurance to ask if youāre eligible at the age of 14,” basically confusing her even more. Instead of actually exploring the real issues. I feel very strongly that the therapist was giving very wrong ideas, very confusing ideas to my child. Ultimately leading to my child falling into a mental breakdown. Which exemplified itself as a total depression. My child was in her room all day long lying on the floor, catatonic with the cell phone in her hands, watching TikTok videos. I did ask the therapist, “Please speak with my child to essentially minimize the time on social media,” and the therapist’s reply was, “Oh, you know, she has a broken heart. She hast to soothe herself and distract herself with social media.”
As a mother, my intuition told me that I had to approach this problem holistically. We had anti-depressants, medications, we had physical movement, and being in touch with nature. We hiked. We did exercises, and basically we left our community. We left our home in Southern California, and I used this as the reason why we just wanted to go on hiatus from the therapist. I understood intuitively that I had to be very diplomatic, that I couldnāt make a statement that would get me in trouble, because I already had read stories where parents had lost custody of their children, because of their gender critical views. In my mind, I was determined not to allow this person to poison my childās mind anymore.
My daughter had a summer job as a volunteer in a farming community. And that return to real people, real stories, spending less time on social media, has been the most healing, gradually over time, especially with the medications and being outside. The mental health of my child started to improve.
What I had to do is show love, support, and kindness without affirming the delusion. Without the affirming the ideology, and drawing a very clear boundary that youāre loved, youāre safe, but we will do absolutely nothing medical until you are 18.
I have been a lifelong voting Democrat since I was naturalized in 2002. Iām profoundly disappointed that the Democratic Party has chosen to affirm a delusion, and a very toxic ideology that attacks these vulnerable children, these children, who come from trauma, who come from adverse childhood experiences, who are neurodivergent, such as autistic, or with ADD, ADHD. I entrusted my child with professionals, and instead of the teachers and the doctor saying, “OK now letās get to the bottom of this. Why are you saying youāre not a girl?” The teachers and the doctors blindly affirmed. They perpetuate the delusion.
Weāre talking about autistic people who think in black-and-white, they donāt see nuance. They hyperfixate over ideas. Most people say, “Oh, when you confirm your child, they will blossom, this is their true, authentic self.” This is not true. Their true, authentic self is sheās an autistic woman. Sheās a girl, sheās not a boy. These children need to be taught what is the reality, and they need to be taught coping skills, and just skills to live to be functional adults. Instead, their minds are being poisoned with lies, within truth, and harmful ideology.
And as a parent who has watched this firsthand with my child with her friends, I have to fight this. Thereās no other way for me.
References
Bolar, Kelsey (September 9, 2022). Identity Crisis: California Mom Says Gender Ideology Drove Autistic Daughter Into Mental Breakdown. IWF https://www.iwf.org/identity-crisis-vera/
Jones, Brad (September 8, 2022). Mom of Ex-trans Daughter Seeks to Expose āSocial Contagionā in Documentary. Epoch Times https://www.theepochtimes.com/mom-of-ex-trans-daughter-seeks-to-expose-social-contagion-in-documentary_4719361.html
Independent Women’s Forum (September 9, 2022). Identity Crisis: California Mom Says Gender Ideology Drove Autistic Daughter Into Mental Breakdown. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lVlIQFVkAA
On June 15, 2022, the New York Times Magazine published a piece by Emily Bazelon about healthcare for transgender and gender diverse youth. It was assigned by editor Jake Silverstein and centered on the 2022 Version 8 of the WPATH Standards of Care, a ritual document developed in the 1950s and codified in 1979 to protect healthcare providers from litigation and legislation via medical gatekeeping.
Bazelon’s piece was centered on psychiatrist Scott Leibowitz, an author of the section on young people.
Tweets
About a month after the 2022 trans piece ran, Bazelon deleted all Twitter posts. Below are the relevant deleted tweets. Each bullet is a separate tweet, in order posted by Bazelon.
@emilybazelon June 15, 2022:
- For @NYTMag, I wrote about transgender healthcare for teenagers and the debate among medical professionals who treat them. [link to NYT article]
- Hereās a gift article from NYT, meaning anyone can read it through this link (I hope!). [link to NYT article]
- The focus of the story is a chapter on adolescents in a set of guidelines known as the Standards of Care, to be released by the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (@wpath) this summer. Itās WPATHās first update of the Standards in a decade.
- WPATHās Standards of Care are meant to set a gold standard for the field of transgender health. A draft was released in December. The adolescent chapter is one of 18 chaptersāand the one that generated the most discussion and debate.
- WPATH gave me exclusive access to the final version of the Standards of Care & lifted confidentiality agreements so I could talk about the process of creating it with some authors, who are clinicians & researchers (trans, non-binary, cis) with long track records in the field.
- I also talked to many young people and parents for this story. Their voices stayed with me. Thank you all for talking to me. I learned a ton from you. Iāve tried to represent many points of view in my piece.
- As is often the case in medicine, the crux of the story is about how to apply existing research for the growing numbers of patients ā in this case, teenagers ā lining up for care.
- The intrusion of politics into science makes it more difficult to set standards and to provide care. It is really hard to work on *improving* the quality of care when politicians are trying to ban it.
- But thatās whatās happening as some states pass or consider bills to outlaw gender-affirming medical treatments for minors.
- As with other fraught issues like abortion, America is becoming a split screen. In some states, gender-related care for young people is already rare yet faces legal threats.
- At clinics that are mostly in progressive metropolitan areas, meanwhile, itās not clear how common comprehensive assessments are. This is the type of evaluation, before medical intervention, that the new Standards of Care recommends.
- Some families are bewildered by a landscape in which there are no labels for distinguishing one type of therapeutic care from another.
- This is all unfolding as the number of teenagers who identify as trans in the U.S. is significantly rising, as my colleague @azeen reported last week. (Azeen is the fabulous NYT reporter on this science beat and if youāre interested in this issue, you should follow her!)
- There are a lot of links in the piece to scientific research. Here also are a few historical sources that I want to highlight, starting with this article on the origins of WPATH by @beansvelocci [link to Standards of Care: Uncertainty and Risk in Harry Benjaminās Transsexual Classifications]
- The book Transgender History by @susanstryker [link]
- The book Histories of the Transgender Child by @gp_jls [link]
- This 1987 essay by Sandy Stone [link]
- This 2018 essay by @andrealongchu [link to On Liking Women]
- Comments are open on my piece and I’ll try to respond to some later today, at the NYT link above.
Follow-up
- I think an important point has gotten lost in the Twitter din over my @NYTmag piece on gender therapy for teenagers. (For the record, the response has been far different in NYT comments and very positive feedback from readers, including trans people & practitioners in the field.)
- I have zero appetite for Twitter combat. Itās been horrifying to me to be called a murderer and compared to Nazis for writing about a debate that is happening, with consequential effects, *within* the field of gender-affirming providers.
- Iām responding in this thread to criticism, not really expecting to persuade anyone to change perspectives, but to make some basic points about journalism that apply in this case and others, I think.
- 1) Criticism: The timing of the story was wrong because of the right-wing assault on trans rights. –My editors and I talked a lot about the political backdrop, which is threaded through my story and has deepened divisions in this field.
- We decided the conflict makes WPATHās Standards of Care, issued for the 1st time in a decade, more important. The Standards are the story’s focus *and the source* of the points that have caused controversy here, about how teens should be evaluated & the role of social influence.
- The Standards at issue in my piece have the consensus support of the working group that wrote them and of WPATH’s leadership. Those groups include trans and non-binary practitioners.
- 2) Criticism: The framing of the story was wrong because it didnāt center the trans community. –No group of millions of people has a single community. Itās true that this story didnāt center trans activists or trans kids. (Though I did quote them at length.)
- Those are also good stories, which the NYT has told and will tell. But this one is primarily told through the eyes of clinicians in & around WPATH. Itās about a scientific debate. Trans providers express every point of view the story contains about gender-affirming care.
- 3) Criticism: The story doesnāt include trans kids who are doing well. –False. Two kids in the story, nicknamed Tori & Charlie, are medically transitioning & thriving. Two adults (Yael & F.G.) speak to how critical transitioning in adolescence has been for their well-being.
- 4) Criticism: The story “platformed” the wrong people. –The story, in a total of 11,400 words, includes 363 words from the perspective of parents who are skeptical of medical interventions for minors. Some are affiliated with the group Genspect.
- I made it clear what Genspect stands for by including comments of members & a post on strategy from an affiliated Substack. Skeptical parents are politically active, testifying in statehouses in favor of banning medical interventions for minors. Leaving them out of the story … would deny that reality, which would be a disservice to readers who want to understand the full landscape.
- 5) Criticism: Thereās no evidence that substantial numbers of kids are transitioning without the kind of diagnostic assessments or process WPATH recommends. –No one is tracking this. Anecdotally, many cliniciansānot one or two & very much including trans cliniciansātold me … they are aware of this happening. I heard firsthand accountsāfrom teenagers as well as parentsāof clinics offering medication during a first brief session. I did NOT hear of this in states that are proposing bans, where care seemed to be more conservative.
- Parents can say no to medication. But doing so when a provider is offering it can cause serious conflict within families. Iām surprised to see journalists who have not covered this topic dismissing the assessment issue out of hand when it is a focus of WPATH’s Standards of Care.
- 6) Criticism: Patient Zero is an offensive term –I referred to F.G., the first Dutch patient to take puberty suppressants as a teenager, as Patient Zero because the Dutch used that term for him & he used it in our interview.
- Readers have pointed out the term is associated w/ communicable disease. Because of how the Dutch use it, I didnāt think of that association. Neither did anyone who read the piece before it published, including our outside trans readers.
- In the context of my story, Patient Zero means the first adolescent to receive gender-affirming medical treatment.
- tl;dr: Much of the criticism of my piece reflects a profound disagreement over the role of journalism on a controversial topic involving a vulnerable group.
- To me, being a journalist means following the facts where they lead. It isn’t advocacy. I didnāt know where this story would go when I started reporting eight months ago.
References
Bazelon, Emily (June 15, 2022). The Battle Over Gender Therapy. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/15/magazine/gender-therapy.html