They Got It Right

On the right side of my blog I some quotes, one of them is from James Baldwin…

We can disagree and still love each other, unless your disagreement is rooted in my oppression and denial of my humanity and right to exist.

What happens when books push hate and quote fake research?

Warning, this article has a number trigger points.

When Amazon pulled my book on transgender issues, it tried to shut down debate
People with gender dysphoria aren't faking it and their situation is tragic. But there is genuine disagreement about the best treatment.
USA Today
By Ryan T. Anderson
March 19, 2021


Imagine feeling so alienated from your body that you would consider taking cross-sex hormones and removing your genitals. That’s the tragic situation that many people with gender dysphoria experience. They aren’t faking it, and they didn’t actively choose it.

But they aren’t getting the care they deserve — and, even worse, Big Government and Big Tech are working to deny or conceal the truth in service of a new transgender orthodoxy. I’ve tried to sound the alarm about the real harms that would result, but the activists have a lot of corporate and political power on their side — as I was reminded recently when Amazon canceled my book.

Some activists and self-proclaimed gender experts say the best solution to gender dysphoria lies in hormonal and surgical transition, a claim my book disputes.

Whoa!

This guy is out there! The whole medical profession is in a conspiracy against him!

He makes this claim,

“...But last August, the American Journal of Psychiatry was forced to issue a correction, acknowledging that “the results demonstrated no advantage of surgery in relation to subsequent mood or anxiety disorder-related health care.” In fact, the study’s authors also admitted that those who surgically transitioned “were more likely to be treated for anxiety disorders” than those who had not.”
Well the American Journal of Psychiatry was not forced, like many research articles they issue corrections from time to time.

The journal said this about the corrections.

After the article “Reduction in Mental Health Treatment Utilization Among Transgender Individuals After Gender-Affirming Surgeries: A Total Population Study” by Richard Bränström, Ph.D., and John E. Pachankis, Ph.D. (doi: 10.1176/appi.ajp.2019.19010080), was published online on October 4, 2019, some letters containing questions on the statistical methodology employed in the study led the Journal to seek statistical consultations. The results of these consultations were presented to the study authors, who concurred with many of the points raised. Upon request, the authors reanalyzed the data to compare outcomes between individuals diagnosed with gender incongruence who had received gender-affirming surgical treatments and those diagnosed with gender incongruence who had not. While this comparison was performed retrospectively and was not part of the original research question given that several other factors may differ between the groups, the results demonstrated no advantage of surgery in relation to subsequent mood or anxiety disorder-related health care visits or prescriptions or hospitalizations following suicide attempts in that comparison. Given that the study used neither a prospective cohort design nor a randomized controlled trial design, the conclusion that “the longitudinal association between gender-affirming surgery and lower use of mental health treatment lends support to the decision to provide gender-affirming surgeries to transgender individuals who seek them” is too strong.Finally, although the percentage of individuals with a gender incongruence diagnosis who had received gender-affirming surgical treatments during the follow-up period is correctly reported in Table 3 (37.9%), the text incorrectly refers to this percentage as 48%. The article was reposted on August 1, 2020, correcting this percentage and including an addendum referencing the postpublication discussion captured in the Letters to the Editor section of the August 2020 issue of the Journal (1).

The bold text is my emphasis.

The way the USA Today made it sound that it was a horrible mistake that affected the integrity of the research.

The USA Today author made it sound like some major problem that showed they “hiding” facts in the research. Also notice the he reported that trans people “were more likely to be treated for anxiety disorders” but what means is that 37% of the trans people did improve! That is over a third of the trans people whose lives improved with medical intervention a lot higher than many who had surgery. Just look at the outcome of heart bypass surgery that has a lower positive outcomes.

Then notice the sentence in the correction, “...and was not part of the original research question given that several other factors may differ between the groups…” In other words, they did not look into the cause of the mood or anxiety disorder-related health care which could be caused by external factors like family acceptance, discrimination, social factors, employment, etc.

Amazon is a private company the First Amendment does not apply to them, they can sell whatever that want. If they decide that they don’t want to carry certain books they don’t have to, by pulling books that are hatchet jobs is a businesses decision, they don’t want to be spreaders of hate.