Below is a Letter to the Editor I submitted to the New York Times, in response to their Feb. 2, 2024 opinion piece entitled The Complexities of Transgender Care for Kids. NYT published this Opinion piece online and in print on a two-page spread, presenting like an authentic news article. NYT is helping to promote anti-trans rhetoric and dangerous approaches to mental health care for trans people.
Since, USPATH (the United States branch of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health) sent an email to members with “point-by-point rebuttals to recent opinion pieces” aka Pamela Price’s opinion piece, “notably by Erin Reed (here) and Evan Urquhart (here) and jointly (here).” In addition, I am quoting a few critical points the USPATH highlighted from the latest findings of the 2022 US Trans Survey:
So-called Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria is not a validated theory and social contagion is not supported by the evidence (more here)
The conflation of sex, sexuality, and gender deliberately ignores the historical and current experiences of trans people of all ages.
Gender identity change efforts (so-called conversion therapy) deliberately harm trans people.
Detransition does occur, is rare, and is unique for each person. Research by K. MacKinnon and team (here and here) highlight the need for us to include people who detransition in care and research.
Rates of satisfaction with transition are high, upwards of 94% overall and up to 98% for people currently receiving hormone therapy, according to the 2022 US Trans Survey.
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Letter to the NYT:
Pamela Price's misleading opinion piece relies on scientifically debunked phenomena like "rapid onset gender dysphoria." She presents her personal opinions as facts, citing links that fail to support her claims. Her first source is a retracted article and her second is Lisa Littman who wrote the original paper on the topic that has since been repeatedly dismissed, including on the basis of illegitimate research.
Price also refers to Therapy First, the organization formerly known as The Gender Exploration Therapy Association (GETA), a relatively fringe group of therapists against the gender-affirming care model. Many prominent health professional organizations have published position statements supporting gender-affirming care, including the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, American Academy of Pediatrics, American Medical Association, American Psychiatric Association, American Psychological Association, and World Professional Association of Transgender Health (WPATH) standards of care to name a few.
Therapy First, GETA, and writers like Price herself cleverly disguise themselves as being unbiased and reasonable, well-meaning even, but in actuality are doing dehumanizing mental health care for transgender people. Why anyone would trust pseudoscience against the numerous reputable scientific organizations' published research is beyond me.
Julia Simone Fogelson