Plenty of obscurity and confusion
From Alex Byrne’s Opinion piece in the Washington Post on June 26:
The hostile response to the review by medical groups and practitioners underscores why it was necessary. Medicalized treatment for pediatric gender dysphoria needs to be dispassionately scrutinized like any other area of medicine, no matter which side of the aisle is cheering it on. But in the United States, it has not been.
I was familiar with the other authors — there are nine of us in all — and I was confident that we could produce a rigorous, well-argued document that could do some good. Collectively, we had all the bases covered, with experts in endocrinology, the methodology of evidence-based medicine, medical ethics, psychiatry, health policy and social science, and general medicine. I am a philosopher, not a physician. Philosophy overlaps with medical ethics and, when properly applied, increases understanding across the board. Philosophers prize clear language and love unravelling muddled arguments, and the writings of pediatric gender specialists serve up plenty of obscurity and confusion.
That. Exactly what I was saying about the dopy anonymous Open Letter that included the absurd “you’re not a real doctor so you don’t get to say anything” objection. The trans issue is very very far from being a technical medical matter to the exclusion of everything else. Its preferred language is muddy rather than clear and it’s arguments are so muddled they ferment the instant they appear.
