Two new major articles, leave us wondering: Is the tide finally turning?

Open Discussion for Premium Subscribers

Last Friday, The New York Times published an incredible piece by Pamela Paul. For the first time, it seems, The Times reported on the issue of youth gender medicine through an apolitical lens.

Many who think there needs to be a more cautious approach — including well-meaning liberal parents, doctors and people who have undergone gender transition and subsequently regretted their procedures — have been attacked as anti-trans and intimidated into silencing their concerns.

At long last, the plight of loving parents who are struggling to keep their families safe and intact was recognized, rather than demonized. Paul writes…

Parents told me it was a struggle to balance the desire to compassionately support a child with gender dysphoria while seeking the best psychological and medical care. Many believed their kids were gay or dealing with an array of complicated issues. But all said they felt compelled by gender clinicians, doctors, schools and social pressure to accede to their child’s declared gender identity even if they had serious doubts. They feared it would tear apart their family if they didn’t unquestioningly support social transition and medical treatment. All asked to speak anonymously, so desperate were they to maintain or repair any relationship with their children, some of whom were currently estranged.

Several of those who questioned their child’s self-diagnosis told me it had ruined their relationship. A few parents said simply, “I feel like I’ve lost my daughter.”

Pamela also interviewed many friends of the Gender: A Wider Lens podcast, including Aaron Kimberly and Paul Garcia-Ryan of TherapyFirst. And, of course, our fearless co-host, Sasha Ayad!

“The job of children and adolescents is to experiment and explore where they fit into the world, and a big part of that exploration, especially during adolescence, is around their sense of identity,” Sasha Ayad, a licensed professional counselor based in Phoenix, told me. “Children at that age often present with a great deal of certainty and urgency about who they believe they are at the time and things they would like to do in order to enact that sense of identity.”

The article even links to Sasha and Stella’s book, When Kids Say They’re Trans.

And then, on Monday, The Free Press published another whistleblower account.

Tamara Pietzke is a therapist in Tacoma, Washington, who left her job of six years because she could not ethically do what her supervisors insisted she do—affirm every teenager with gender dysphoria.

But in the past year I noticed a concerning new trend in my field. I was getting the message from my supervisors that when a young person I was seeing expressed discomfort with their gender—the diagnostic term is gender dysphoria—I should throw out all my training. No matter the patient’s history or other mental health conditions that could be complicating the situation, I was simply to affirm that the patient was transgender, and even approve the start of a medical transition.

So, for this week’s Open Discussion, we put the question to you, our Wider Lens Listener Community—Is the tide finally turning, or will these clear and desperate cries continue to fall on deaf ears?

Premium members can discuss in the comments.

If you cannot access The New York Times piece with the link above, try this archive link.