The PBS News Hour did a public relations piece for the gender clinics on February 24, 2022 titled, Claiming abuse, Texas tries to prevent gender-affirming care for trans children. The below response has been emailed to PBS. PITT readers: Please consider sending emails like this to the PBS News Hour at viewermail@newshour.org — the more people they hear from, the better.
I have two friends who recently posted articles on fb about how cruel the Texas proposals are. I contacted both of them privately to ask if they have any idea how off the charts the number of kids ID'ing as trans is and how destructive it is to women? Neither of them have teen girls and I think those of us with tween/teen girls are the ones really picking up on it. Both said no one is giving hormones to kids without extensive evaluations and therapy and how kids only get treated like that if there is a history of years and years of persistant dysphoria.
I remember when I believed the same, 3 years ago or so. I actually defended getting kids on blockers, thinking this was such a rare thing and thinking it is so hard to overcome the effects of male puberty to pass later on as female. But we are interfering with the natural progression of growing to accept your given sex in addition to who knows what actual physical harms we might be doing. Some of these harms are known, if you are researching blockers for precocious puberty... but they are completely glossed over when it comes to transgender issues.
I think just as teens are flocking to this for the praise and adoration they receive, I think there are parents of younger kids basking in the glory and bravey of raising a transgender child, and they are feeding or misinterpreting their child's normal and natural behavior. Children are not born knowing gender roles. Children will naturally play with and show interests in a variety of things. Children are all "gender creative." But repeatedly rewarding and reinforcing your child for happening to do something not strictly associated with their sex is going to increase certain behaviors. Maybe someday we will start hearing from the kids who were socially transitioned or got on blockers young, but it's got to be extremely hard for them to stick their neck out and change course. Jazz Jenning's life is a total nightmare at this point but how could she ever desist from that, having not only been so heavily influenced by her parents but also in the public eye.
This is terrific. It's an important response to PBS. We can only hope that somebody over there will actually read it and get curious enough to click on any one of the many links you have provided. Will there be a follow-up from PBS, presenting the facts regarding detranstioning or any of the other points you make? Probably not, because any journalist who suggests such a follow-up --a fair follow-up -- will be shown the door or met with blank stares.
That doesn't mean it shouldn't have been written, or sent. It needed to be written, and we need to inundate PBS with responses like it, because it is only through strength in numbers that we will begin to make a dent. The lying cannot continue, there are too many lives at stake.
There is, however, another problem with this PBS segment which extends beyond the way it's reported, and that is the shortsighted and frankly stupid way the State of Texas is addressing this issue. Instead of focusing on the architects and purveyors of the problem; i.e., the liberal politicians, the HRC, Planned Parenthood, the medical profession, the trans activists, the educational system, and wealthy donors to this cause, Texas has chosen to demonize and blame the victims: the parents, who have already been traumatized, brainwashed, threatened, and terrified into thinking that they must consent to their precious child's mutilation or lose that child to suicide. Could there be anything more evil?
Every parent reacts differently to the devastating news that they have a "trans child." PITT is Exhibit A for this phenomenon and the myriad ways it affects parents.
If the State of Texas had taken its time and done its homework, it would have focused on the pushers, not the addicts. It would have taken longer and required more thoughtful investigation, planning and execution, because then Texas would be confronting big corporations and political adversaries with unlimited resources. It would have been a war to which the State would have to be committed for a long time. But it would have been much more effective. This egregious, facile tactic of demonizing parents is doomed to fail, because, as this PBS story reveals, the parents end up looking like victims of the State rather than victims of a pernicious, anti-child, anti-science multi-million dollar worldwide juggernaut.
Thank you for this comprehensive response! I have included my thoughts and sent one in to PBS also. Thank you for collecting so much information in one place and writing so eloquently!
Thank-you for pulling all this information together in one post. We need to send such messages not only to PBS but also to the major newspapers and to the Biden Administration, which issued a press release yesterday that endorses child medicalization. The Biden Administration surgeon general is on the record as endorsing child medicalization of GD & Biden's personal view seems heavily influenced by this perspective. I do not think Joe Biden or his wife have ever even considered the harms of childhood medicalization. Someone should sit down and talk with the Bidens. Families impacted -- especially families pushed by CPS or schools into harmful transitioning -- should reach out to the Whitehouse as well as to PBS. ... Someone in the PITT community must know how to get past the "entry guards" to Whitehouse communications & into the real policy discussions.
I have two friends who recently posted articles on fb about how cruel the Texas proposals are. I contacted both of them privately to ask if they have any idea how off the charts the number of kids ID'ing as trans is and how destructive it is to women? Neither of them have teen girls and I think those of us with tween/teen girls are the ones really picking up on it. Both said no one is giving hormones to kids without extensive evaluations and therapy and how kids only get treated like that if there is a history of years and years of persistant dysphoria.
I remember when I believed the same, 3 years ago or so. I actually defended getting kids on blockers, thinking this was such a rare thing and thinking it is so hard to overcome the effects of male puberty to pass later on as female. But we are interfering with the natural progression of growing to accept your given sex in addition to who knows what actual physical harms we might be doing. Some of these harms are known, if you are researching blockers for precocious puberty... but they are completely glossed over when it comes to transgender issues.
I think just as teens are flocking to this for the praise and adoration they receive, I think there are parents of younger kids basking in the glory and bravey of raising a transgender child, and they are feeding or misinterpreting their child's normal and natural behavior. Children are not born knowing gender roles. Children will naturally play with and show interests in a variety of things. Children are all "gender creative." But repeatedly rewarding and reinforcing your child for happening to do something not strictly associated with their sex is going to increase certain behaviors. Maybe someday we will start hearing from the kids who were socially transitioned or got on blockers young, but it's got to be extremely hard for them to stick their neck out and change course. Jazz Jenning's life is a total nightmare at this point but how could she ever desist from that, having not only been so heavily influenced by her parents but also in the public eye.
This is terrific. It's an important response to PBS. We can only hope that somebody over there will actually read it and get curious enough to click on any one of the many links you have provided. Will there be a follow-up from PBS, presenting the facts regarding detranstioning or any of the other points you make? Probably not, because any journalist who suggests such a follow-up --a fair follow-up -- will be shown the door or met with blank stares.
That doesn't mean it shouldn't have been written, or sent. It needed to be written, and we need to inundate PBS with responses like it, because it is only through strength in numbers that we will begin to make a dent. The lying cannot continue, there are too many lives at stake.
There is, however, another problem with this PBS segment which extends beyond the way it's reported, and that is the shortsighted and frankly stupid way the State of Texas is addressing this issue. Instead of focusing on the architects and purveyors of the problem; i.e., the liberal politicians, the HRC, Planned Parenthood, the medical profession, the trans activists, the educational system, and wealthy donors to this cause, Texas has chosen to demonize and blame the victims: the parents, who have already been traumatized, brainwashed, threatened, and terrified into thinking that they must consent to their precious child's mutilation or lose that child to suicide. Could there be anything more evil?
Every parent reacts differently to the devastating news that they have a "trans child." PITT is Exhibit A for this phenomenon and the myriad ways it affects parents.
If the State of Texas had taken its time and done its homework, it would have focused on the pushers, not the addicts. It would have taken longer and required more thoughtful investigation, planning and execution, because then Texas would be confronting big corporations and political adversaries with unlimited resources. It would have been a war to which the State would have to be committed for a long time. But it would have been much more effective. This egregious, facile tactic of demonizing parents is doomed to fail, because, as this PBS story reveals, the parents end up looking like victims of the State rather than victims of a pernicious, anti-child, anti-science multi-million dollar worldwide juggernaut.
Great letter. I am a regular Newhour viewer and saw this piece when it aired. I’ll write to them too. Please publish their response if you get one!
Thank you so very much!
This is a great letter. One of the best! Thank you!!
This is brilliant. These lies need to be called out and stopped because the future direction of humanity is at stake.
Thank you for this comprehensive response! I have included my thoughts and sent one in to PBS also. Thank you for collecting so much information in one place and writing so eloquently!
I just wrote an email to PBS. Thank you so much for this!
I loved the quote by Upton Sinclair. Thanks for your work.
This is not only an excellent response but a great template and resource. Thank you!
Excellent piece. I also sent one in, mirroring what you wrote and adding more content and stats about adopted kids, PP and a certain plastic surgeon.
What one sided piece of journalism by PBS.
Thank you thank you thank you.
Thank you!
Thank-you for pulling all this information together in one post. We need to send such messages not only to PBS but also to the major newspapers and to the Biden Administration, which issued a press release yesterday that endorses child medicalization. The Biden Administration surgeon general is on the record as endorsing child medicalization of GD & Biden's personal view seems heavily influenced by this perspective. I do not think Joe Biden or his wife have ever even considered the harms of childhood medicalization. Someone should sit down and talk with the Bidens. Families impacted -- especially families pushed by CPS or schools into harmful transitioning -- should reach out to the Whitehouse as well as to PBS. ... Someone in the PITT community must know how to get past the "entry guards" to Whitehouse communications & into the real policy discussions.