Progressives trapped in 'misinformation bubble' about transgender youth treatments, Atlantic writer admits

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a day ago

A withering new report in The Atlantic says progressives have been easily duped by misinformation on youth transgender medical treatments, falling for myths from linking them to reduced suicide rates to believing American standards for such treatments are evidence-based.
"Many common political claims made in defense of puberty blockers and hormones" amount to nothing more than "zombie facts," The Atlantic's Helen Lewis wrote on Sunday, using a term for sound bites that are repeated as accepted truth when they've been repeatedly discredited.
"Many liberals are unaware of this, however, because they are stuck in media bubbles in which well-meaning commentators make confident assertions for youth gender medicine—claims from which its elite advocates have long since retreated," she wrote, later saying, "We can support civil-rights protections for transgender people without having to endorse an experimental and unproven set of medical treatments—or having to repeat emotionally manipulative and now discredited claims about suicide."
Among the anecdotes Lewis cited were ACLU lawyer Chase Strangio admitting in front of the Supreme Court last year that studies have shown no connection between blockers and hormones and saving the lives of troubled youths. The Supreme Court would ultimately rule 6-3 in that case, U.S. v. Skrmetti, to uphold a Tennessee law banning puberty blockers and hormone therapy for minors with gender dysphoria.
"[T]he movement has spent the past decade telling gender-nonconforming children that anyone who tries to restrict access to puberty blockers and hormones is, effectively, trying to kill them. This was false, as Strangio's answer tacitly conceded. It was also irresponsible," Lewis wrote, citing a 2024 study in England finding no rise in suicides after the restriction of puberty blockers there in 2020.
Yet, proponents of youth gender treatments continue to frequently invoke the emotional language of suicide to bolster their case, she fretted.
Lewis also took exception to the idea that the evidence supporting gender transition for adolescents was based on scientific study and evidence, calling it "perhaps the greatest piece of misinformation believed by liberals."
The World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) also came under fire in Lewis' piece, as she said documents show, even internally, that the organization had doubts about recommending youth gender treatments, and only wanted to publish reviews that supported its desired conclusions.
WPATH didn't respond to a request for comment.
In a similar fashion, last year, Dr. Johanna Olson-Kennedy, the medical director of The Center for Transyouth Health and Development at Los Angeles Children's Hospital, admitted reluctance to publish research that didn't serve the purpose of promoting youth gender treatments, for fear it would be "weaponized."
Lewis urged fellow progressives to pierce the "misinformation bubble."
"On the left, support for youth transition has been rolled together with other issues—such as police reform and climate activism—as a kind of super-saver combo deal of correct opinions," she wrote, noting democratic socialist New York City mayoral hopeful Zohran Mamdani has pitched funding gender transition for minors as part of his platform.
"But complicated issues deserve to be treated individually: You can criticize Israel, object to the militarization of America's police forces, and believe that climate change is real, and yet still not support irreversible, experimental, and unproven medical treatments for children."