I absolutely admire Jesse for not having gone 'Jimmy Concepts' by now.
The shit he gets in a single day by the likes of Hobbes would be enough to make most people lose their mind (and principles).
I'm really curious how long it will take the Hobbeses of this world to go from "No one would be irresponsible enough to give a deeply troubled kid like this hormones/blockers" to "Repeat after me: Human. Helicopters. Are. Helicopters."
Jesse, please! Absolutely NO ONE is attempting to "ban youth gender medicine", as you falsely claim here.
What many, including me, are trying to ban is unsupported-by-evidence harmful measures that should be banned just like all sorts of other proposed drugs and treatments that have not been proven to be both safe and effective.
Safe and effective psychological and psychiatric treatment for gender dysphoria is fully supported by all.
I never would have guessed that the helicopter line would have come from a letter of referral. That's easily verifiable. I assumed it was going to dissolve into he-said-she-said.
My immediate reaction to the young person including "attack helicopter" as part of their identity is whether they were trying to be snarkily funny instead of serious. Did nobody at the clinic stop to wonder if the patient might have been joking? I'm reminded of an incident from my daughter's high school years, when she was late to school and entered "Abducted by aliens" into the tardy and absence log.
I was called in for a meeting with the principal, who took it very seriously and was concerned, while my daughter and I tried very hard not to look at each other so we wouldn't start laughing hysterically (meanwhile, I felt like Bad Parent). My daughter was just expressing her offbeat, Aubrey Plaza-ish sense of humor. She didn't truly believe she had been abducted by aliens. We still laugh about it to this day. It has become a classic family story.
Hard not to be discouraged watching the Twitter wars Jesse is fighting over this piece. I know it's par for the course--most of the attacks are in bad faith. But still. The dogmatic insistence that the whistleblower must be lying is so bizarre because these same people yelled "believe women!" in the Harvey Weinstein case in the face of Weinstein insisting his victims are lying.
I also keep thinking about the Catholic child abuse cases--it wasn't just the church that tried to deny the abuse, it was also families, congregations, communities who denied it and vilified the victims. Why is obvious--they saw it as an attack on their church not as a question about harms. So here we are--the "progressives" are viciously attacking someone trying to report abuse--they also don't care to look into the harms because that might undermine something they believe in.
It blows me away that people are continuing to deny that disturbed kids online are adopting ever more bizarre “genders” based off of inanimate objects/animals/aesthetics. This stuff was part of the truscum/tucute wars on tumblr like a decade ago with people identifying as nonsense such as “autismgender” and “stargender” at least that far back. Now, it takes no effort at all to find the TikToks & such where this stuff continues. People talk about their absurd ideas about gender and share invented pride flags (I miss when pride flags didn’t exist to split hairs between people with identities of one) and they convince their peers to adopt similar ideas about themselves, while claiming it to be valid because “neurodivergent people have different ideas about gender”/“neurodivergent people don’t really understand gender”/“autistic people are naturally ‘gender creative’ because they don’t understand gender like non-autistic people” et cetera.
When I read the bit about Attack Helicopter Kid in Reed’s piece, I immediately thought “yeah it makes sense that these kids aren’t maintaining the weird ‘identities’ as a purely online LARP and they’re going to start bringing them to actual gender clinics. I wish they had actually gotten this kid help, because they need it.” The response to this stuff from our supposed betters continues to blackpill me on this entire issue. It seems like the only positions that are being permitted in this culture war are the right-wing one which feels a lot like a rearguard action over gay marriage, and the radically “affirmative” model in which you deny that kids are identifying as trees and rabbits except when you say that it’s a good thing and tree/treer/treeself should be allowed to do what tree/treer/treeself wants, since tree/treer/treeself isn’t harming anyone.
Thanks, this is really informative. I'm wondering whether the nurse named will also make what she knows public, considering that Reed named her. Will there be a new info drop in the next few days?
Not surprised Amanda Marcotte was tweeting what she did at Jonathan Chait and Jesse. I lost respect for her a long time ago, back when she was blogging at Pandagon.
I read about the news from Norway earlier today. I am wondering how many more shoes will drop about youth gender medicine.
I'm glad you are covering these stories Jesse, but it is outrageous that you and others refer to Erica Anderson as "she" and otherwise prop up the utter madness of Gender Identity Ideology. Anderson refers to raccoon gender identity as "wacky", as if a child identifying as a sex they're not, is NOT wacky. (And as if Anderson's insistence that he's a woman isn't ridiculous, appropriative, and offensive.)
You and others play along with the "true trans" versus "not true trans" insanity: the former are apparently truly born in the wrong body, while the latter are not. Stop! Born-in-the-wrong-body is anti-science mysticism which leads to unspeakable harm to children's bodies and psyches. It also leads to all sorts of other harms such as the destruction of women's sex-based rights. Please stop kowtowing to the tenets of Gender Identity Ideology. And please stop lying about the sex of people you report on, such as Erica Anderson.
I’m sure it would feel better coming from someone who isn’t a little nuts, but these people are pieces of shit and you should feel good about yourself that they dislike you.
Thanks for writing this. My initial thoughts when I read Reed's story were (1) that--assuming the account was accurate at all--the child was probably a right wing troll and (2) that it did defy credulity that they would have placed a right-wing troll on hormones.
It seems clear from this post, though, that the child was probably joking about that part. Is that how you read the situation? If I remember correctly, your first response was that it is not unusual for kids to pick up weird stuff from the Internet. That response was not very satisfying to me given that "I identify as an attack helicopter" is a well-known *right-wing* meme.
Assuming the kid was obviously joking, though, can you say a little bit why that is necessarily a red flag?
A few years ago the filmmakers Miranda July and Mike Mills told the New Yorker they were raising their child without gender--no pronouns, no gendered toys or clothing etc. The child, they explained, would reveal his or her gender in due time. Meanwhile, as good parents, they would not dictate that gender. I’ve often wondered what’s happening with children like this. The above tweet is about a boy and his sister who are furious about being raised that way (the therapist is horrified they are going full term). Here may be a case of the children seeing that the emperor has no clothes.
Following a long with this drama on twitter and I have to wonder how many people longing for Jesse to go to jail are also pro-“abolish prisons”. I’m not sure if Reed is being honest or not but I hope as long as she’s been found to be operating in good faith that she gets some leeway on the way she tracked data
I have to say, I was also nervous when Jesse doubled down on defending her after the whole attack helicopter thing since that’s the sort of thing I’d expect a slightly out-of-touch political agent to throw in to tie a political message to some previous stories, but I think Jesse been pretty good about leaving things as ‘possible’ rather than ‘probable’
I absolutely admire Jesse for not having gone 'Jimmy Concepts' by now.
The shit he gets in a single day by the likes of Hobbes would be enough to make most people lose their mind (and principles).
I'm really curious how long it will take the Hobbeses of this world to go from "No one would be irresponsible enough to give a deeply troubled kid like this hormones/blockers" to "Repeat after me: Human. Helicopters. Are. Helicopters."
Excellent coverage, as usual. I’m still blown away by her affidavit too. It’s one thing to speak up. It’s another to do it in a signed and sworn affidavit that could lead to various legal consequences for getting things wrong. https://ago.mo.gov/docs/default-source/press-releases/2-07-2023-reed-affidavit---signed.pdf
Jesse, please! Absolutely NO ONE is attempting to "ban youth gender medicine", as you falsely claim here.
What many, including me, are trying to ban is unsupported-by-evidence harmful measures that should be banned just like all sorts of other proposed drugs and treatments that have not been proven to be both safe and effective.
Safe and effective psychological and psychiatric treatment for gender dysphoria is fully supported by all.
I never would have guessed that the helicopter line would have come from a letter of referral. That's easily verifiable. I assumed it was going to dissolve into he-said-she-said.
This investigation is going to be interesting.
My immediate reaction to the young person including "attack helicopter" as part of their identity is whether they were trying to be snarkily funny instead of serious. Did nobody at the clinic stop to wonder if the patient might have been joking? I'm reminded of an incident from my daughter's high school years, when she was late to school and entered "Abducted by aliens" into the tardy and absence log.
I was called in for a meeting with the principal, who took it very seriously and was concerned, while my daughter and I tried very hard not to look at each other so we wouldn't start laughing hysterically (meanwhile, I felt like Bad Parent). My daughter was just expressing her offbeat, Aubrey Plaza-ish sense of humor. She didn't truly believe she had been abducted by aliens. We still laugh about it to this day. It has become a classic family story.
That said, I believe Reed is onto something.
Hard not to be discouraged watching the Twitter wars Jesse is fighting over this piece. I know it's par for the course--most of the attacks are in bad faith. But still. The dogmatic insistence that the whistleblower must be lying is so bizarre because these same people yelled "believe women!" in the Harvey Weinstein case in the face of Weinstein insisting his victims are lying.
I also keep thinking about the Catholic child abuse cases--it wasn't just the church that tried to deny the abuse, it was also families, congregations, communities who denied it and vilified the victims. Why is obvious--they saw it as an attack on their church not as a question about harms. So here we are--the "progressives" are viciously attacking someone trying to report abuse--they also don't care to look into the harms because that might undermine something they believe in.
It blows me away that people are continuing to deny that disturbed kids online are adopting ever more bizarre “genders” based off of inanimate objects/animals/aesthetics. This stuff was part of the truscum/tucute wars on tumblr like a decade ago with people identifying as nonsense such as “autismgender” and “stargender” at least that far back. Now, it takes no effort at all to find the TikToks & such where this stuff continues. People talk about their absurd ideas about gender and share invented pride flags (I miss when pride flags didn’t exist to split hairs between people with identities of one) and they convince their peers to adopt similar ideas about themselves, while claiming it to be valid because “neurodivergent people have different ideas about gender”/“neurodivergent people don’t really understand gender”/“autistic people are naturally ‘gender creative’ because they don’t understand gender like non-autistic people” et cetera.
When I read the bit about Attack Helicopter Kid in Reed’s piece, I immediately thought “yeah it makes sense that these kids aren’t maintaining the weird ‘identities’ as a purely online LARP and they’re going to start bringing them to actual gender clinics. I wish they had actually gotten this kid help, because they need it.” The response to this stuff from our supposed betters continues to blackpill me on this entire issue. It seems like the only positions that are being permitted in this culture war are the right-wing one which feels a lot like a rearguard action over gay marriage, and the radically “affirmative” model in which you deny that kids are identifying as trees and rabbits except when you say that it’s a good thing and tree/treer/treeself should be allowed to do what tree/treer/treeself wants, since tree/treer/treeself isn’t harming anyone.
Thanks, this is really informative. I'm wondering whether the nurse named will also make what she knows public, considering that Reed named her. Will there be a new info drop in the next few days?
Not surprised Amanda Marcotte was tweeting what she did at Jonathan Chait and Jesse. I lost respect for her a long time ago, back when she was blogging at Pandagon.
I read about the news from Norway earlier today. I am wondering how many more shoes will drop about youth gender medicine.
I'm glad you are covering these stories Jesse, but it is outrageous that you and others refer to Erica Anderson as "she" and otherwise prop up the utter madness of Gender Identity Ideology. Anderson refers to raccoon gender identity as "wacky", as if a child identifying as a sex they're not, is NOT wacky. (And as if Anderson's insistence that he's a woman isn't ridiculous, appropriative, and offensive.)
You and others play along with the "true trans" versus "not true trans" insanity: the former are apparently truly born in the wrong body, while the latter are not. Stop! Born-in-the-wrong-body is anti-science mysticism which leads to unspeakable harm to children's bodies and psyches. It also leads to all sorts of other harms such as the destruction of women's sex-based rights. Please stop kowtowing to the tenets of Gender Identity Ideology. And please stop lying about the sex of people you report on, such as Erica Anderson.
Brava to Reed for speaking up and for the others, too, and thank you, Jesse, for looking into the claims and making sure light shines on it all.
Please keep telling us what is going on and I hope you are heard widely!
It would be really useful to hear what sorts of questions are asked when someone gets "gender affirmed" vs. when someone explores.
I’m sure it would feel better coming from someone who isn’t a little nuts, but these people are pieces of shit and you should feel good about yourself that they dislike you.
Yup, can confirm.
Thanks for writing this. My initial thoughts when I read Reed's story were (1) that--assuming the account was accurate at all--the child was probably a right wing troll and (2) that it did defy credulity that they would have placed a right-wing troll on hormones.
It seems clear from this post, though, that the child was probably joking about that part. Is that how you read the situation? If I remember correctly, your first response was that it is not unusual for kids to pick up weird stuff from the Internet. That response was not very satisfying to me given that "I identify as an attack helicopter" is a well-known *right-wing* meme.
Assuming the kid was obviously joking, though, can you say a little bit why that is necessarily a red flag?
So this tweet, https://twitter.com/jessesingal/status/1634670872739950595?s=61&t=0iPo3RzaZ1smvqDK4C8rpA
A few years ago the filmmakers Miranda July and Mike Mills told the New Yorker they were raising their child without gender--no pronouns, no gendered toys or clothing etc. The child, they explained, would reveal his or her gender in due time. Meanwhile, as good parents, they would not dictate that gender. I’ve often wondered what’s happening with children like this. The above tweet is about a boy and his sister who are furious about being raised that way (the therapist is horrified they are going full term). Here may be a case of the children seeing that the emperor has no clothes.
Link to the Norway report: https://ukom.no/rapporter/pasientsikkerhet-for-barn-og-unge-med-kjonnsinkongruens/sammendrag
It's matter of fact and common sense.
Following a long with this drama on twitter and I have to wonder how many people longing for Jesse to go to jail are also pro-“abolish prisons”. I’m not sure if Reed is being honest or not but I hope as long as she’s been found to be operating in good faith that she gets some leeway on the way she tracked data
I have to say, I was also nervous when Jesse doubled down on defending her after the whole attack helicopter thing since that’s the sort of thing I’d expect a slightly out-of-touch political agent to throw in to tie a political message to some previous stories, but I think Jesse been pretty good about leaving things as ‘possible’ rather than ‘probable’