Prepare to catch your jaw when it drops
Hoo-boy. Listen to this.
“We give puberty blockers to cancer patients so obviously they’re fine for trans kids right??”
Yes, absolutely, that’s definitely the way medical treatments are managed: if it’s prescribed for one thing then it can be prescribed for a different thing. All medications are completely interchangeable! Yippeee!
Twitter says it’s age-restricted and one needs to login to see it. Anyone have a transcript?
I’m all for tag questions, right? It’s a common feature of much speech, right? Especially young women’s speech, right? There’s a point, though (right?) where it becomes tiresome (right?) and can even, depending on the tag, be manipulative, right? Like you’re getting people to agree to things, right? Maybe even to things they don’t actually agree with, right?
Right?
Oops, I can watch it on this site, just not when I open the tweet on a new window. Live and learn.
@ #1 :
I clicked on the word ‘view’ in the middle of the image above, and an image with a play icon appeared; I clicked on that and it played perfectly for me (in Safari on a ten-year-old MacBook Pro).
Ah, I was too late to be helpful.
NiV, that drove me bonkers. I would have been having a hard time stopping myself replying “Wrong!” increasingly loudly.
And three random “like”s in one sentence right at the beginning. I hate it when adults with responsible jobs talk like teenagers.
What is the lie?
It sounds like typical corporate-speak, designed to make people believe what you want them to believe without having to make an actual false statement. Did she trip up? Did she actually say something false?
I didn’t say anything about a lie. But the claim about blockers being useful for one thing therefore useful for a different thing is……….shall we say eccentric?
First she says that puberty blockers are “completely reversible” (wrong) but then she brings in some other things it treats (she doesn’t mention chemically castrating sexual offenders) and the dangers of NOT using puberty blockers (they can’t be WHO THEY ARE.) Yet if her first statement is right then she really wouldn’t need to justify it after that, right?
I’m also skeptical about that psychological counseling the kids get. If she considered this a significant part of treatment she would likely have mentioned something about how many trans-identified kids don’t remain trans, emphasizing its importance. Sounded more like she started there to quell the doubts of critics.
I suppose it could have been worse. I’ve seen worse.
If this is from the Wash U clinic, then one of the primary allegations from the whistleblower is that there are no standards and no review boards and no real oversight. This contradicts the doctor’s claim of protocols and steps and governing bodies. Then, of course, there’s the flat lie that puberty blockers are “a completely reversible medication”. (I’ll note that it gets a “right?”, which is the insidious part of that tag. You get people nodding along with and almost rhythmically affirming your statements. If they’re not vigilant, they can find themselves assenting to something false and getting hit with some cognitive dissonance. It’s sneaky and sleazy and manipulative. Anyway …) Then there’s the argument that the risks of GNRH agonists aren’t too great for patient groups x, y, and z, therefore the risks aren’t too great for group k. That’s such a bad argument on its face that the doctor ought to apologize for even letting it past her lips. Then there are the risks of “forcing someone to live as someone they are not”, which is as incoherent as talking about square circles.
I get the impression that this doctor isn’t particularly honest.
This is one of two things that got me out of the TRA camp, honestly, because it’s been peddled by people who absolutely should know better.
First off, ANY self-respecting skeptic knows that for a medical treatment to have some kind of affect at all, it will also have side-effects. Hell, freakin’ aspirin has side-effects.
And in the case of the above-quoted line, it’s like these assholes have never, ever heard of thalidomide. There’s a reason you don’t just go off-book on prescription meds without LOTS of oversight, if you do it at all.
Yes. She said that puberty blockers are “completely reversible”. They are not.
And that “it’s the same medicine we use for cancer patients, it’s the same medicine we use for endometriosis patients” is so deceptive as to be a lie. Kids who think that they are trans are HEALTHY CHILDREN. Giving them damaging medications is immoral, and unethical. Why not zap them with proton beams? I mean, that’s “good” for cancer patients. So what if it makes them bedridden for weeks, with possibly permanent effects, but at least they are adults–at least they choose the treatment, to have a better shot at life. A life unable to taste or smell is better than dying from debilitating cancer. So what if puberty blockers cause early-onset osteoperosis, right? Cancer, I can see stopping. Endometriosis, I can see stopping. Giving a healthy child a debilitating bone disease? Nope, there is no rationalizing that.
Also, too: Planned Parenthood will give out hormone treatments with basically no psychological treatment or study. Sometimes, on the very first visit or request from an individual as young as 18 years old–without parental consent. This is not a secret; it’s well documented, and it’s why I stopped supporting PP. So that is another lie promulgated by this doctor: there are no real “protocols” being followed for these treatments.
In addition to lying about specific treatments and their risks, another line stood out to me:
“If you are forcing someone to live as someone that they are not, that has really notable risks.”
By which she means, refraining from a medical intervention.