Open Letter to J.K. Rowling

J.K. Rowling

Dear Ms Rowling,

You say you only want to be heard. That is a reasonable request.

I read your essay.

You say that you are being attacked, and are even receiving threats of violence. I’ll start my response by promising no violence, and the sincere hope that you don’t feel attacked by me. Tempers can run high, and sometimes people over-respond, while at other times, people can misinterpret and read more hostility into words than were intended. I’ll try to avoid that, but if I slip, please remember that I am only human.

You say that you have five reasons for coming forward. Let me look at them.

You talk of your charitable trusts. This is your money, and you can use it in whatever way the law allows. If you wish it to be used specifically for female domestic and sexual abuse survivors, you can make that request.

In that first point, you also make a side mention of MS, and note that it “behaves very differently in men and women.” You make an interesting point here. My dad was a doctor, and yes, some diseases do treat males and females differently. How that disease treats transgender people is something new to study. Fortunately, as you probably know, our universities are full of academic people who have a “publish or perish” dictate, so there are plenty of people to study these things. Common sense says that a transgender person who took puberty blockers and female hormones, and never had a male puberty, would probably have the disease progress much as it would in one who was female from birth, but that may be wrong. It is an interesting topic. It also is a reason why transgender people should be honest with all their doctors.

In your second point, you mention that you are an ex-teacher, and as such, have an interest in education and safeguarding. These are commendable things to be interested in, but honestly, sometimes parents and teachers (and other concerned people) are interested in safeguarding against something that is not all that big of a threat. This is an error done from good intentions, but it’s still an error.

Your third point is freedom of speech. That is fine as far as it goes. However, you can say that 3 x 4 = 7, but that is not a true statement. 3 x 4 = 12.

Your fourth point is largely about detransitioners, though it also gets into the growth in the number of people who are transitioning. Part of this is that society is not so negative on transgender people as it used to be. You seem to think that the medical and mental health authorities are too permissive in allowing children to transition. Perhaps they are. However, you are wrong in painting a picture of a lack of oversight. Doctors and mental health professionals are providing oversight of people who transition. The bad old days, when transgender people found their hormones on the black market, without proper medical advice and without assurance that the product that they were getting was what they were told it was, had far less oversight of transgender patients.

At this point, you bring up Dr. Lisa Littman. I admit that I am one who disagrees with her study, but not because I dislike the results. I disagree with her data-gathering method. She hung around chat rooms where some mothers who disagree with their children’s desire to transition hang out, and she talked to these mothers about their experiences. This method of data-gathering tends to exclude those parents who approve of their children’s transitions. Beyond that, though, she made another critical error–she assumed that what the parents described was an accurate reflection of what the child was feeling internally. Her whole theory is based on this presumption, despite the fact that she never talked to the children to make sure that this was how they felt.

You disagree with the idea that not supporting transgender children leads to more suicides. I’ll just say that I have seen several studies which show that transgender youngsters who are supported by their families, their schools, and their medical professionals do have less anxiety, and fewer suicide attempts, than those who do not have that support. I’ll admit that I want to believe that to be true, and perhaps that’s why I agree with it.

You say, “studies have consistently shown that between 60-90% of gender dysphoric teens will grow out of their dysphoria.” I have only heard of one study with that result, and that one did not separate transgender teens from others whose parents reported gender issues. For example, a boy whose parents thought that he was too effeminate would find himself in the same group with transsexuals, despite the fact that the boy never expressed a desire to transition. More recent studies show few desist in their gender feelings.

I mentioned detransitioners, and then I left that topic. As far as I know, the percentage of transgender people who detransition is about the same as ever. As the number of people who seek help with their gender identity has grown, so too has the raw number of detransitioners. But the percentage is still about the same, and it is small.

You bring up your first marriage, and domestic and sexual abuse. I appreciate the courage it took to revisit this dark part of your past. I can see how the emotional part of your brain can overtake the rational part. I get the same sort of thing with heights. I know that I am safe–the rational part of my brain knows that–yet I fear falling. In the same way, you are safer around transgender people than the emotional part of your brain is making you feel. And yes, I know that you know this rationally, but that emotional response sure is powerful.

These are some points of fact on which I disagree with you. I could have my facts wrong, although I doubt it. More likely, as with the idea that children “grow out of their [gender] dysphoria,” people seem to think that some study shows such a thing, when a closer examination shows that the study did not show what you thought it did.

This is a contentious area. People are putting up all sorts of information and misinformation on the topic. I admit that I myself could be misinformed. But, I think I know what I’m talking about.

Again, I don’t mean any of this to be harassing. I just have different information from what you seem to have found.

Thanks for listening.

Cecilia Barzyk

Tags: featured, opinion, Transgender

Category: Transgender Opinion