Recent NYT article about detransitioners is a giant lie
Why does the New York Times insist on perpetuating misinformation and myths about trans kids and gender-affirming medical care?
The recent opinion piece, “As Kids, They Thought They Were Trans. They No Longer Do.” (Feb 2) by Pamela Paul is the latest article by the NYT to spread inaccuracies about transgender people.
Paul's giant piece is full of falsehoods and just fuels the fire of anti-trans laws and policies that we’re seeing all over the country.
The article focuses on four detransitioners, and their interviews are really just a way for Paul to express her opinion with incorrect information about transgender care that is full of errors and not fact-checked. The NYT is not listening to or caring about trans voices or experiences.
Even the first sentence, “Grace Powell was 12 or 13 when she discovered she could be a boy,” sets the tone for the piece -- and makes my blood boil.
So much in that one sentence: the implication that being transgender is a choice, a fleeting discovery, a whim, a fad. Like discovering the latest jeans trend. Or that taking hormones makes you transgender.
But we know that’s not true. Just like reading novels about transgender kids won’t turn you trans, or peeing next to a transgender person, or being taught about transgender people in history. Transgender people just are.
If you do want to hear what actual trans people have to say, you can check out the Early Insights Report from the 2022 U.S. Trans Survey, just released this week.
The survey included 92,329 respondents (a lot more than four!), 94% of whom said that they were more satisfied with their lives after transitioning. And 98% were more satisfied with their lives after receiving hormone treatment specifically.
And yet 47% had thought about moving to a different state because of laws targeting transgender people, and 5% had actually moved.
Clearly, there’s a disconnect between the positive effects of transitioning and mainstream society’s reaction to this care, and frankly, to trans people in general. When a massive and respected publication like the NYT invalidates the trans experience, people tend to listen. Especially politicians who aim to erase trans people from public existence.
As Chase Strangio of the ACLU says, there is a direct pipeline to these harmful NYT articles and the ways these anti-trans laws are being defended in court and ultimately upheld. And the risk of harm to trans people is not theoretical.
I encourage you to read some responses written by actual subject matter experts so you can have the facts.
In particular, Erin Reed’s response debunking the piece is exceptional.