RESPONSE TO NEW YORK TIMES COVERAGE

GLAAD is responding to a sensational article about healthcare for transgender people in the New York Times today with facts:

Fact check: it is critical to look at all sensational headlines and articles with a discerning eye. This article not only relies on a sensational headline, it misses the mark in a number of ways, including leaving out information about the anti-trans track record of a key quoted source, who has a long history of extremism and bias. Before you believe the hype – in particular, hype from an outlet whose inaccurate and biased work has been used to codify discrimination against trans people, and a reporter who has garnered warnings from the trans community– look closer: 

Facts about healthcare for transgender people:

• Every major medical association supports healthcare for transgender people. These expert associations represent millions of medical professionals in fields spanning psychiatry, adolescent medicine, psychology, endocrinology, pediatrics, and more. The American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the World Health Organization, and more are all aligned.
• Note: The standards of care for both WPATH and the American Academy of Pediatrics do not mention recommendations for a patient’s age to begin treatment. Given the fact that every young person’s body develops on its own timeline, medical experts have determined that it is important to not be prescriptive about ages for completely reversible and safe healthcare options like puberty blockers. Evidence-based standards of care include ensuring that a young trans person’s healthcare decisions should be decided on a case by case basis, in collaboration with the young person, their family, and their medical providers.
• A strong and well-established body of evidence, developed over more than 40 years, demonstrates that individualized and age-appropriate care for transgender people improves mental health and overall well-being at all ages.
• The small percentage of the population that is trans deserves high-quality healthcare provided by the expert clinicians, just like everyone else deserves.
• Only a small number of trans teenagers have surgical procedures. However, 229,000 teens across all of America had surgical cosmetic procedures in one year, 2017, according to The American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS). Most common are nose reshaping, male breast reduction, which is a way for cisgender (non-trans) teen boys to align their bodies with their male gender, and breast augmentation for cisgender (non-trans) girls. By contrast, a recent JAMA report showed 3,600 procedures for transgender patients ages 12 to 18 over the last SEVEN years. Hyping baseless panic about transgender patients receiving mainstream care, without noting facts or “concern” about cisgender (non-trans) teens receiving the same exact care at extraordinarily higher rates, is blatantly discriminatory as well as inaccurate, biased storytelling.
  

Facts about the biased source this piece relies on:

• Though this article disingenuously frames him as an expert on trans people, James Cantor is an extremist with ties to the longtime anti-LGBTQ extremist group Alliance Defending Freedom. Cantor’s testimony against transgender people was dismissed by a federal court because he has zero expertise in their health care. His grift, among other so-called experts, cost Alabama taxpayers more than $1.7 million to pay for his phony and harmful “expertise” that failed to support the state’s ban on care anyway. None of this back story made it into the Times’ piece. Cantor’s extremism in action: he even ludicrously and baselessly spoke out in favor of the addition of a “P” for “pedophile” to the LGBTQ acronym.

Facts about the New York Times and this reporter:

• Consider the source: the LGBTQ community has spent over 16 months condemning anti-trans bias and misinformation in the pages of the New York Times.
• A local LGBTQ community organization has circulated a community warning about engaging with individual reporters with histories of inaccurate trans reporting.
• Medical professionals have called into question this writer’s coverage of trans healthcare.

Facts about the expertise of Admiral Levine:

Admiral Rachel Levine is a Board-certified pediatrician with decades of clinical and academic experience as well as the lived experience of a transgender woman who understands the nuances of transgender health care. Her staff accurately predicted that age limits not imposed on other patient populations would be weaponized against vulnerable people who deserve to make their own health care decisions in consultation with their health care providers and families.