Canadian Politics Today

1. Your previous post seemed to indicate your opinion hinged on whether they presented the effects of detransitioning as minor and not-a-big-deal:
It seems as though your view depends on whether the story supported a view you were predisposed to.

I have no view on how the people in the story experienced this.  I said:

"Ok, well without context of what they said about the effects of de-transitioning I can't tell if this piece would be positive or not.  If they said it wasn't a big deal, and it's a minority then ok. "

The question is about how de-transitioning is covered, ie. is it done in context, responsibly... does it need to be covered at all.

2. To me it seems as though news coverage of transition is almost uniformly positive. While it may well be positive for many or even most who transition, people (especially people designing policy) need to hear stories like those of Bell and Watson so that they understand that transition isn't right for every troubled child.  People have the assumption that transition is carefully managed by qualified experts, that kids go through extensive screening, that they spend a year or two living in their new gender before any medical action is taken. Hearing Bell and Watson talk about how little screening they got (I think both have mentioned 3 one-hour interviews before beginning medical treatments) should open some eyes.

Ok.

4. It would be possible. However, as Dr Bell points out in the interview above, the "affirmation" approach is at cross-purposes with effective screening. And, he talks about how many of the kids who come to the clinic with numerous other problems, which are viewed as being symptoms of gender identity issues, when in fact the reverse is often true. Gender dysphoria sometimes stems from sexual abuse, for example. I suspect that the saying "when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail" is somewhat applicable here.

The best piece I heard on this topic was the Jesse Singal interview, wherein a therapist explained it. 

I think it can be covered in a way to shed light on the process without spreading the moral panic that woke Drs are trying to harm your children.

5. Doctors are afraid they'll be accused of engaging in conversion therapy if they try to work on their patient's psychological issues rather than affirming their new gender immediately. "This transphobic doctor wants to talk about depression and autistic spectrum disorders and he won't give me the god damned hormones."  There is concern that attempting to address co-existing psychological issues rather than providing gender-affirming care will be viewed as conversion therapy.  There is a danger that doctors might decide "it will be easier to just write a prescription than go through that whole palava."

Which Doctors ?  Where'd you get this ?

6.  I think I posted this graph in the Gender thread recently. This is referrals to the Tavistock gender clinic, by year.


(source)

The number of boys seeking transition has increased significantly, and the number of girls seeking transition has increased astronomically, especially in the past 5 years. If one were terribly naive, one might imagine that all of this is due to an increase in actual gender dysphoria.  If one were a bit more skeptical one might suspect that other factors are involved in this sudden and startling explosion of young people with gender identity trouble.  Maybe raising a whole generation of kids on social media and p0rn is a factor, for instance.

My concern with "how things are depicted" is that relentlessly positive coverage of transition is giving troubled young people (and their parents) an unrealistic idea of what transition might do for them. 

 -k

I don't buy that 'positive coverage of transition' is going to make a cis person want to change.  Of course the number of referrals are going to jump as this issue is discussed in the public forum.  That's why you don't draw the graph back to 1950.

This just needs objective, classic journalism.  If they cover the process, and do so fairly without moral panic I'm ok with it.

I think it's just time for me to watch the CTV piece....