Transgender rights is a complex topic

In the last few years, transgender rights have been regarded as one of the new frontiers in the fight for human rights and equality. But trans rights issues are fraught with complexities that often have no parallels in other areas of civil rights, from conflicts between biology and identity to the ethical questions of medical transition for underage patients. For some time, critics — who include not only conservatives but dissident feminists and other skeptics — have argued that mainstream journalism has become too enmeshed with progressive advocacy to fairly present all sides of the story. Now, it seems, the narrative is shifting, and some advocates aren’t happy.

On Wednesday, several major advocacy groups including GLAAD (the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) and the Human Rights Campaign released two coordinated open letters, signed by hundreds of prominent individuals and organizations, scathingly critical of recent transgender issues coverage by The New York Times. The letters claimed that the Times was platforming “pseudoscience” and “dangerous inaccuracies” — for instance, by examining claims that some teenagers grappling with gender dysphoria were being steered toward medical transition, including the use of puberty blockers, without adequate safeguards or exploratory therapy.

The letters were backed up by a billboard truck driven near the Times building in midtown Manhattan displaying digital messages like: “Dear New York Times: Stop questioning trans people’s right to exist & access medical care.”

But no one in mainstream venues is questioning those rights. The argument is that the issues are complicated. Irreversible medical interventions for gender reassignment may be right for some people but not for others — an especially difficult question when the patient is a minor. (Many studies show that most children who question their gender eventually settle into an identity consistent with their biological sex.) A young adult who has transitioned from male to female certainly has the "right to exist,” but not necessarily to compete in sports where biology may confer an unfair advantage. It’s not hateful to object to violent offenders with intact male anatomy being transferred to women’s prisons simply on declaring a transgender identity.

Indeed, there is no universal agreement on these issues among transgender people. A little over a year ago, The Washington Post published an essay arguing that psychologists working with teens who embrace a trans identity should tread carefully and explore a range of possible factors besides gender dysphoria — such as “social media, Internet and peer influences,” trauma and mental health issues, and family dynamics. One of its two authors was clinical psychologist Erica Anderson, a trans woman and former president of the U.S. Professional Association for Transgender Health.

As with the coverage in the Times, this commentary sparked activist backlash. Yet it reflects legitimate debates in the medical and scientific communities. Experience in other countries points in the same direction. Some socially progressive countries such as Sweden have shifted away from medical interventions for minors.

Yes, some culture warriors on the right would like to normalize open revulsion and contempt toward transgender people. But to equate all criticism of trans advocacy with hate and erasure is a form of moral intimidation, intended to enshrine the advocates’ views as scientific truth.

To its credit, the Times responded to the letters with a respectful but firm statement welcoming the critiques but standing by its reporting. As the paper noted, journalism and advocacy have different missions. Amen. Let the debate continue.

Opinions expressed by Cathy Young, a cultural studies fellow at the Cato Institute, are her own.

By Cathy Young

Cathy Young is a writer for The Bulwark.