Transgender Treatment Corrupted by Politics

After the Covid-19 disaster that resulted from the government’s lying about the facts—the specific information about the condition itself and the effectiveness of the vaccines—you would think the public would have learned to be more skeptical. Instead, much of our citizenry still believes the government’s propaganda, and the claim of “experts,” as evidenced by the number of people who still wear flimsy masks and insist on getting multiple vaccines (even after having contracted the disease). Due to our determination to trust our government, the trust of some people in ethically compromised experts is corrupting their clear thinking. And it is now showing up in the recruitment of transgenderism of children.

In the last couple of years, I’ve been following the progress of the gender affirming care establishment. Early on, I found many articles supporting it, but also testimonies about how hormonal treatments and gender surgery were unsafe and ineffective in relieving the distress of adolescent patients. Due to the veto of Gov. Mike DeWine against legislation that restricted gender affirming medical treatment last week, as well as banning transgender athletes from playing women’s high school and college sports (which I don’t address in this post), I thought it was time to find out the current status of this controversial treatment in the U.S.

The news is very disturbing.

The first major change I noticed is that older studies are difficult to locate online, and current studies critical of transgenderism don’t seem to exist. The Federalist cited some older studies that contradicted the data from the most recent studies: I found this citation in an article I had written previously. In 2019, experts were speaking out against transgender treatment:

Pediatric endocrinologist Dr. Quentin Van Meter of Atlanta, Georgia, told the court it was ‘sheer conjecture,’ noting in an affidavit that while, in the short run, patients do experience ‘a post-treatment period of relative happiness,’ available evidence indicates that for most people that happiness dissipates and is replaced, within a few years, with ‘life-long psychological trauma and increased suicide.’

As recently as 2023, doctors had spoken out against gender affirming care (which included Dr. Van Meter). Every effort was made to characterize them as kooks and unqualified to speak on this subject.

So, efforts have intensified to make sure that those who discredit gender-affirming care are criticized and rejected.

But those who laud the transgender movement are out in force. When Gov. DeWine decided to consult people who approved of gender affirming care, I wonder who those people were? Did he decide to speak to people on both sides of the issue or to those who recommended it? To people who had been devastated by the treatment or those who said it had improved their lives? To medical professionals who knew the damaging long-term effects of hormone treatment or surgery, or those who said it was a life-improving experience for the patient?

I know where I’d put my money, since the consultations he made were all positive reports.

How convenient.

A group of professionals from Yale Law School, the Yale School of Medicine’s Child Study Center and Departments of Psychiatry and Pediatrics, and the University of Texas Southwestern wrote a report chastising those who opposed gender affirming care. They came out with all guns blasting:

The report 'Biased Science: The Texas and Alabama Measures Criminalizing Medical Treatment for Transgender Children and Adolescents Rely on Inaccurate and Misleading Scientific Statements'represents the first comprehensive examination of the Texas Attorney General opinion and Alabama legislation targeting gender-affirming medical care for transgender children and adolescents. The report strongly refutes the misguided scientific claims that inform the measures in both states and contends that the Texas and Alabama authorities omitted important evidence demonstrating the benefits of treatment for gender dysphoria and exaggerated potential harms, painting ‘a warped picture’ of the scientific evidence.

Well, there you have it: Texas and Alabama were supposedly making false claims about transgender treatment. It sounds like a pretty impressive report.

So, now the reader has to ask himself or herself, who is to be believed? There are the state legislatures that, I believe, are very concerned for the well-being of our youth. Who are the evil constituents who are paying them off to make these accusations about transgender care? How will the legislators benefit from the efforts made to slander and libel them as they put through this legislation? If this sounds like nonsense, it is.

Also, an important note is there have not been any randomized controlled trials. The claim is that it would be unethical:

One will notice that there have not been any randomized controlled trials. There is a general consensus in the field that such a trial would be unethical given the body of literature we have so far indicating that those in the control group would be likely to suffer adverse mental health outcomes compared to those randomized to the treatment groups. For this reason, it appears that no institutional review board would approve a randomized controlled trial at this time, under the principle of ‘equipoise’ to which some bioethicists refer.

In my opinion, ethics would only apply if the choice was life-threatening to the patient. I hardly believe that is the case.

When we look at those who defend transgenderism, we see those Yale folks for example who had all kinds of doctors attacking the legislators. Sounds pretty impressive, doesn’t it? But if we take a closer look at Yale and those who worked with them, they hardly have earned the label of “purists.”

And who are these folks?

The Yale Dean’s Advisory Council on LGBTQI+ Affairs

And what is their vision?

We strive to be the organization to champion intersectional advocacy, social justice, community building, and health equity of LGBTQI+ people at and served by the Yale School of Medicine and Yale New Haven Hospital while serving as a resource on these topics.

To state it bluntly, they have every reason to recruit young people to the LGBTQ+ cause. In case you’ve forgotten, the “T” stands for transgender.

It takes some chutzpah to speak in the name of science with that agenda. Who’s being political?