Jesse Singal on Youth Gender Medicine

On October 30, 2023, journalist Jesse Singal spoke about the political and academic debate over the medical treatment of youth gender dysphoria, in an event sponsored by HxA-UCLA and moderated by UCLA sociologist Rogers Brubaker. This video includes Singal's 35-minute talk, a discussion with Singal and Brubaker, and Q&A from the audience starting around 55 minutes into the recording.

[@orbital10]

no comment on the talk, but how has anyone been allowed to put an utterly irrelevant 'context' on top of this video, least of all a lobby group?

[@oceantree5000]

Jesse Singal is one of the most thorough, fair-minded, ethical, and courageous journalists in the country. He’s a national treasure. Also: his podcast w Katie Herzog, in addition to being a fabulous dive into internet weirdness, is lowkey hilarious.

[@luckystarship2275]

This was excellent, but would have been better if Jesse or Rogers had repeated the questions as it was difficult to hear them.

[@mrlolsmiles]

Friendly reminder that the Trevor Project's "context" of conversion therapy attached to this video has nothing to do with the talk's content.

[@slacktoryrecords4193]

Thank you.

[@archieames1968]

Its wrong to try to 'talk the gay' out of kids but its aokay to talk them into mutilating themselves with drugs and surgery.

[@bitter_one1336]

Hey, I know you!

[@whdc425]

Are these labels automated or requested?

[@DarklordZagarna]

I can't agree with this. It's discussed multiple times during the talk; I'm assuming an automated transcript reader just appends the context whenever conversion therapy is mentioned.

[@JonathanSchmallippe]

I've been following coverage of youth gender medicine in the U.S. since 2016, when I enrolled in college to study media communications and their affect on human attitudes and behavior. For most of that period, Jesse stood alone as the only major American journalist to dissent from the industry's misguided consensus on the subject. Since then, a few other brave journalists-namely Emily Bazelon and Azeen Ghorayshi-have followed his lead and have begun to turn the tides. I can't express the extraordinary amount of respect I have for Jesse and his reporting on the social sciences. As someone who's had an interest in the behavioral sciences since I was an adolescent, it's reassuring to see someone like him report truthfully on some of the most cantankerous and consequential debates of our time. I've always considered myself an objectivist who's constantly reevaluating my beliefs to ensure they're not being misled by my own biases, but not even I can confidently say that I could have accomplished all that Jesse has in the face of such insincerity and vitriol. Godspeed, Jesse.

[@DorianPaige00]

Maybe we'll take your SSIR, anti-psychotic, birth control or chemotherapy and make it controversial and try to illegalize and ban it. You say now that gender affirming care is controversial for adolescents but you've been following it since 2016. Let me ask you when will it or is it already controversial for adults? Speaker Mike Johnson's done a reevaluation after taking the reigns and thinks he needs to revisit his arguments as senior counsel in Lawrence V Texas which asked for the high courts to keep homosexuality criminalized. Is gay marriage now controversial and subject to your reevaluation? Are you a NIMBY (not in my backyard)?

[@rockstar450]

People agree kids shouldnt get tattoos but you can cut off their junk? Woke lunacy.

[@dimitrioskantakouzinos8590]

Singal is very courageous.

[@Cladina_Green]

Wow this introduction is disgustingly obsequious to the gender cult.

[@DorianPaige00]

Would you preferred he brought a noose?

[@XKenny77]

@@DorianPaige00 We just want people to tell the truth. That's all. As soon as TRAs start telling the truth, our fight is over.

[@DorianPaige00]

@@XKenny77 And what truth is that exactly! Oh, let me guess. A man can not become a woman. Have I guessed it? Truth is that one can induce a puberty of the opposite sex and it ends up creating a person that has been through both puberties and usually looks like more on than the other but appears usually with some of each trait. What is stopping you fromr saying that there are adults who change their mind as well and who do not benefit from gender medicine or any given medical treatment? Why not eliminate health care for adults if it is such a fraud and leads to totally societal upheaval? The point is the only upheaval is the one you advertise. I'm trans-feminine but have only ever been in a female restroom to clean it when I worked at Target. I identify as male and wear male clothing and would be certain criteria be considered a detransitioner but I happily use estrogen and have had an orchiectomy. I had to lie to get treated because my gender identity is not that of a woman but of a twink (adult boy). Furthermore you've won the war and gender medicine is now illegal in most US states for youth. According to Prisha Mosley, the next state congressional terms will focus on increasing legal age to 21-30 depending on what they can push through in states where they've won before. Liability laws will be strengthened in some states to strict liability for gender medicine which forces the doctor to prove side effects were not caused by gender treatments. Furthermore a doctor's liability insurance carrier will be forbidden for insuring this form of treatment. At the state level, they can also refuse to allow Medicare and Medicaid to pay any doctor or facility who partakes in any such procedure for other treatments for other patients of unrelated care. The mountain now is liberal states which will no doubt go down with all of the lies and grifts that are spread. If there is a falsehood, you won't stand up and support transgender medicine. Everybody loves to cite Ken Zucker but he believed in the "live in your own skin" approach and never signed off on these treatments for youth. That sort of like an intake clerk testifying about the harm of chemotherapy on cancer patients. What is it that you need to see other than all of the clinics shut down and reparative therapy for all gender dysphoria patients including adults since you demand 100% honesty? You wouldn't want any wolves looking like sheep now would you? You likely believe that a natal male on cross hormones is predation by definition and the medical communities unbridled participation in it malpractice.

[@SecondChance7043]

Hope to see more of these from @HeterodoxUCLA but for future one please provide a mic to those asking questions or have the host repeat the question so the viewers know what's being asked. Thanks!

[@xmaseveeve5259]

The person who gives the introduction offers no evidence of the alleged transphobia, and the main speaker perpetuates the 'toxic' myth.

[@SUPER7X]

I am too gender-critical for that terrible intro that absolutely begged multiple questions.

[@broadcastdeez]

This is great but the sound quality is a crime against humanity. This is circa 2007 production quality.

[@markrussell3428]

Very good presentation but if someone is going to ask questions, know what you are talking about. There is NO public health consensus in the Eurpoean countries regarding trans-care. What there is - is socialized medicine. There are advocates on both sides but the POLITICAL interventions have pressed a pause. In the UK the National Health Service (accountable to Parliment) direct the "Cass review" a study of trans care. This study directed a slow down but didnt stop youth gender care, it provided recommendations to decentralized it and it restricted access until research proves the efficacy. It is clearly government controled but there is no consensus.

[@XKenny77]

That's almost true. The Cass Review is explicitly about the way the Gender Identity Development Service for young patients was run. It found that social transition is not a neutral measure and shouldn't be done automatically or without medical supervision. It criticised the lack of proper safeguarding, proper regard for whistleblowing, excessive or overly quick prescriptions of PBs, lack of follow-up, lack of data collection, and various other serious problems. At around the same time, NICE (the National Institute for Care and Health Excellence) conducted a review of the evidence for paediatric "gender affirming care." NICE makes decisions on whether certain drugs, surgeries or other medical protocols have the desired effect and offer the NHS suitable value for money. They found that the evidence in favour of "gender affirming care" was all of Low or Very Low quality. That's pretty much exactly what other similar systematic reviews in Sweden, Norway, France, Finland and elsewhere have found too. The medical-scientific consensus is increasingly moving towards outright opposition to GAC. The only people who don't agree are ideologically committed to the "trans project," and simply refuse to accept real scientific evidence. Instead, terrible people like Jack Turban conduct their own incredibly shoddy research and/or dishonestly try to undermine research that doesn't agree with them. Jesse, along with Leor Sapir and a few others have shown just how radically bad Turban is. People really need to understand that basically every aspect of gender ideology is a lie, and almost everything they hear about the subject from its supporters is not just untrue, but the very opposite of the truth. It's a consistently and aggressively anti-science, anti-reality, anti-gay, anti-woman, anti-human cult.

[@markrussell3428]

@@XKenny77 I genuinely appreciate your comment. I will point to two profound studies below you might find compelling but first, regarding NICE, explain to me why, despite Cass Review, the use of puberty blockers (according to the Telegraph - 26 Nov 23) has doubled? I appreciate you do have private operators but it is lost on me IF indeed the UK is serious about the results of the Cass Review and the NICE assessment was done WHY are blockers an option? As for the research. Please share. Beyond simply quoting Cass Review here is the compelling research: 1. “Gender Identity 5 Years After Social Transition” study. This was published in Pediatrics on 13 July 2022. This is a longitudinal study that initially involved 319 minors and it tracked children that had socially transistioned at an average age of 6.5 years of age. I stress 6.5 years of age. By the end of the study period 97.5% of the children persisted in their alternative (gender non-conforming) identity. For the vast majority the next step is medicalization and the authors are very clear here: they expect all the "non-cis" identifying children to transistion to puberty blockers and hormones, assuming they had not already done so. This study highlights how applying behavioural conditioning and conversion theapies on a vulnerable children at a young age firmly sets the pathway to medicalization. To affirm a delliousion and reinforce the confusion established the conditions that impact life long sexual function, fertility and mental health. 2. “Psychosocial Functioning in Transgender Youth after 2 Years of Hormones” published in January 2023 in the New England Journal of Medicine. This presents the effects of moving on in the social transition and results indicate an increased rate of suicide. Despite the authors intent. This study medicalizes - pathologizes puberty. It is clear in the design that this study layered in bias. The study follows 315 youth that identify as transgender, that ranged in age from 12 to 20 years of age. The intent was to extol the positive outcomes and benefits of cross-sex hormones. The challenge here is the real impact and implications from these decisions do not manifest until several years later. When the youth is converted at a young age through social transistion they can not comprehend the loss of sexual function, fertility, and “normalcy” - they have waiting for them. They have been converted and put on a path of life-long medicalization. Hence, the two-year window is woefully short to truly evaluate the lasting effects of medical transitioning, but the researchers know this!! They are consciously looking for positive outcomes. Regardless, during the study period there were two suicides among the participants and many more dropped out as the study moved along. The subjects start the drugs and chose to stop. In their report the researchers became selective in the dimensions of psychosocial functioning they chose to report on. Focusing on the factors with the positive outcomes. Not only do they fail to explain why they scaled back analysis to certain aspects of psychosocial functioning they ignore that the actual rate of suicide among the subjects is 29X the rate of what is typical for this equivalent age range. This was a massive shock given the researchers curated the study population in the beginning - they were screened specifically to give a positive result. It didn’t happen; however, on to the next stage of "affirming care".

[@XKenny77]

@@markrussell3428 The problem is that the people who believe in this stuff aren't acting as doctors. They're acting as priests. They believe they're saving souls by doling out these drugs. They've weaseled their way into the development of the GIDS replacement services and several have already said in public either that the Cass Review was unreliable, and even that they're ignoring it completely. That's the big problem with the trans issue, particularly as it relates to kids. The people promoting it have completely lost sight of the scientific research on the subject, and even the very concept of the scientific method. It's what Helen Joyce calls "policy-based evidence-making." That's pretty much what those two studies are. Private prescriptions will be playing a role here. There are more and more doctors offering that kind of service, including the despicable internet pharmacy of Gender GP, but a lot of it will just be NHS GPs and psychiatrists freelancing because, again, they're on a mission from the Gender Gods. It's going to take a long time and potentially some quite severe consequences before we can drive this pernicious cult out of our institutions.