Paul McHugh and the Johns Hopkins gender clinic: The perils of cherry-picking (More Trans, module 2-1)

Posted on November 1, 2016 by Zinnia Jones

More Trans is an ongoing Gender Analysis project to apply the philosophical insights of Less Wrong to transgender topics.

Previously: Paul McHugh is wrong: transitioning is effective

How many times have you heard some variation of this statement?

‘Sex reassignment doesn’t improve the lives of transgender people. At Johns Hopkins Hospital in the 1970s, chief psychiatrist Paul McHugh studied the outcomes of trans people after they transitioned. McHugh, a leader in the field of psychiatry, decided to close the gender clinic after studies found that transitioning didn’t help their patients become any healthier or more functional.’

moretrans-logoAs a trans person, I’ve heard this thousands of times. It’s a remarkably enduring claim that’s very frequently repeated by transphobes, who appear to believe that this conclusively refutes any justification for medical transition. The story has a number of features that have helped it persist for decades: perceived authority of recognizable institutions, specific details such as names and years, an assertion that this is based on scientific evidence, and some actual connection to the truth no matter how thin or tenuous. All of these aspects combine to make this claim appear to be legitimate, and many people find it very persuasive. Continue reading →

Posted in History, Hoaxes, Media, More Trans, Outcomes of transition, Philosophy and language, Transgender medicine, Transphobia and prejudice | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments

Transgender youth fact check: Blaire White is wrong – Part 2: Outcomes

Posted on October 31, 2016 by Zinnia Jones

(Explaining why something is wrong can take a very long time! Please be sure to read Part 1 before continuing.)

So, someone by the name of Blaire White made a video about gender transition treatment for transgender children and adolescents. And I’m going to fact check it!

 

Examining the evidence on transition “regret”

“Which brings me to my next point, which is that there are health risks attached with going off of hormones once you’re already on them. Going on hormones is supposed to set you on a one-track trajectory, and you can’t really trust a child to make a decision now that they know they’re going to be happy with for the rest of their lives.”

Blaire White doesn’t explain what any of these supposed health risks are, so I can’t really address whatever they are. But a trans woman who doesn’t begin medically transitioning until adulthood will also be going off of hormones that she’s already on: she’ll take antiandrogens, and will go off the testosterone that her own body has been producing. Why is going off of those hormones an acceptable health risk, but going on HRT and then off of it an unacceptable risk? It’s almost as if Blaire White is asking, “What if they have to transition in adulthood, which is exactly what Blaire White wants?” Continue reading →

Posted in Ethics, Outcomes of transition, Regret and detransition, Replies, Trans youth, Transgender medicine, Transphobia and prejudice | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Transgender youth fact check: Blaire White is wrong – Part 1: Fundamentals

Posted on October 31, 2016 by Zinnia Jones

So, someone by the name of Blaire White made a video about gender transition treatment for transgender children and adolescents. And I’m going to fact check it!

 

How puberty blockers work

“And of course, it begs the question of transgender children in real life. And I’m sure I chose a title for this video that lets you guys know up-front my feelings about children transitioning, but let me just say, I am against it, I am against it, I am against it. I have dealt with so many people trying to convince me that it’s a good decision to allow children to go on hormones or puberty blockers, and, you know, start their transition really, really early, and I’ve never been convinced.”

It’s important to be clear on the respective roles of puberty-blocking drugs and hormone therapy in the treatment of trans youth. Many of these kids have already been consistently presenting and living socially as their identified gender for years. When this treatment is indicated by thorough evaluation and proper diagnosis, puberty-blocking drugs – not sex hormones – are given to trans children near the onset of their initial puberty, usually starting around ages 10 to 12. These drugs reduce their testosterone or estrogen to very low levels, temporarily halting the physical changes of puberty due to hormones. Continue reading →

Posted in Biology of transition, Ethics, Health care, Outcomes of transition, Replies, Trans youth, Transgender medicine | Tagged , , , , , , | 12 Comments

Symbol, substance, and tabooing your words, part 2: answers (More Trans, module 1-2)

Posted on September 1, 2016 by Zinnia Jones

Previously: Gender reasoning exercises: Symbol, substance, and tabooing your words (module 1-1)

moretrans-logoIn the previous episode, we reviewed some simple Less Wrong techniques for forcing yourself to look beyond an individual term for a concept, and consciously think about the actual substance of what it’s referring to. For instance, instead of asking “If a tree falls and nobody hears it, does it make a sound?”, this can be rephrased as “If a tree falls and nobody hears it, does it make pressure waves that propagate through the air?” By removing the word itself from a statement, and replacing it with a longer and more detailed description of what the word aims to represent, you can clarify both your own thoughts as well as those of others.

Contemporary debates over transgender issues can often become mired in trivial arguments about definitions, obscuring the more important substance of these controversies. Transphobic groups’ exploitation of this confusion in order to spread damaging misinformation about trans people has further muddled these discussions. Conversely, clarifying these relationships between symbol and substance by mapping out the details of the specific concepts involved can be of substantial benefit to the public’s understanding of trans people and gender issues. This approach removes a great deal of repetitive, unproductive noise from the conversation, such as ongoing arguments over whether trans women are “really women”. Continue reading →

Posted in Biology of transition, More Trans, Philosophy and language, Transphobia and prejudice | Tagged , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Gender reasoning exercises: Symbol, substance, and tabooing your words (More Trans, module 1-1)

Posted on August 31, 2016 by Zinnia Jones

moretrans-logoIn most episodes of Gender Analysis, I try to present useful insights into the various concepts behind contemporary transgender issues. By examining questions about transness on multiple levels and from many different perspectives, I aim to help viewers develop a more accurate and practical understanding of gender-related topics.

I’m passionate about that, but at the same time, I don’t want to be some uncommon beacon of truths and aphorisms. I want to help everyone see these things as I see them. I want to have thousands of people doing what I do as they encounter and grapple with ideas throughout their lives. These are teachable skills, and I’m certain that my viewers can understand them.

Much of my overall approach is based on certain philosophy techniques from the rationality blog Less Wrong. These encompass a wide variety of tools for clearer thinking about beliefs, evidence, ethics, physics, consciousness, and many other subjects. I’ve found some of these approaches to be very handy when thinking about gender, and I’d like to explore one particular set of techniques for clarifying the use of language and how words connect to concepts. This is largely drawn from the Less Wrong posts “Taboo Your Words” and “Replace the Symbol with the Substance”. I recommend reading both of them – I’ll summarize their basic lessons here. Continue reading →

Posted in Bathrooms and public accommodations, Biology of transition, More Trans, Philosophy and language, Politics and law | Tagged , , , , , | 5 Comments