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Twit Awards for the Week 10/30/23

ceciliab | Oct 30, 2023

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This week, Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives chose Mike Johnson of Louisiana to be the Speaker of the House. Before running for office, he was a lawyer and a media spokesman for the Alliance Defending Freedom, then known as the Alliance Defense Fund. He wrote editorials defending many anti-LGBTQ positions, and has voted against transgender rights on several occasions. For selecting such an extremist to be the second person in line to the presidency, the House Republicans get a Twit Award. The Advocate has this story.

This week, Meta shut down the Instagram account of Gays Against Groomers, a group with outspoken anti-transgender views. However, before the day was over, they reversed course, and the account was reinstated. For deciding to permit hate to exist on social media, Meta gets a Twit Award. This story comes from The Advocate.

A psychologist names James Cantor is trying to be accepted as an expert witness in a court case in British Columbia where a nurse is facing discipline for public statements against transgender rights. Mr. Cantor cites eleven studies and claims “eleven out of eleven” show that desistance is the norm, that almost all transgender children would become gay or lesbian if left untreated for gender dysphoria. His eleven studies are generally old–the youngest is over a decade old, and seven of the eleven are from the 1970s or 1980s. For cherry picking old studies, and for ignoring more recent studies which show that the results predicted by the older studies are not the results that are seen, James Cantor gets a Twit Award. The CBC has this story.

We told you last week about the Biological Integrity Initiative, a project of the American College of Pediatricians. LGBTQ Nation took a look at their web site, and found some surprising advice. Among that advice is that mothers not be “dominant” or “critical” of their husbands, and not to be “overly sensitive” towards their children. They also claim that “There is no evidence that opposite-sex hormones make you feel better,” despite studies in which HRT is shown to improve mental health. For passing along bad advice based on the desired outcome rather than the actual outcome, the Biological Integrity Initiative gets another Twit Award.

U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin opposes efforts in her home state of Wisconsin to ban gender-affirming medical care for minors. Wisconsin Right Now headlines this story as “Wisconsin Sen. Tammy Baldwin Supports Castration, Sterilization Surgeries of Children.” The headline does not even specify that these are medical treatments given to transgender children. While stressing the far rarer surgeries, they don’t even mention the far more common prescriptions for puberty blockers and HRT. For biased and hyperbolic headlines, and for ignoring the far more common effect of the bill, Wisconsin Right Now gets a Twit Award.

An editorial in European Conservative is headlined, “We Will Be Blamed for Transgender Crimes.” The subhead says, “When the trans experiment comes crashing down, they will come after us with a vengeance. We will be blamed for their misery.” Essentially, it predicts that not only will the “trans experiment” produce bad results, but that the victims will say that conservatives should have given stronger opposition. But, the best evidence shows the opposite happening–that more transgender people are living happy and productive lives after transition. Moreover, the few desisters that there are tend to blame their doctors if they blame anyone. For bad predictions based on a bad reading of reality, The European Conservative gets a Twit Award.

A 20-year-old claims that she was rushed into a diagnosis of gender dysphoria and quickly given HRT, although she now has diagnoses of autism, ADHD, OTSD, anxiety disorder, bipolar disorder, and depression. She appears not to have had any surgery, only HRT. Nonetheless, she complains of vaginal dryness, burning, and itching, among other complaints. She is suing the American Academy of Pediatricians for recommending HRT for teens with a diagnosis of gender dysphoria. We can understand suing the doctors for rushing to diagnose gender dysphoria, but the American Academy of Pediatricians recommends a careful analysis of the patient before a diagnosis of gender dysphoria. For rushing to the courthouse to sue, and for making some overblown claims about the results of the treatments, Isabelle Ayala gets a Twit Award. The Daily Mail has this story.

We told you recently about a rap song with very anti-transgender lyrics, co-written by an 11-year-old. The song is still available on Spotify, despite complaints. Some images associated with the song have been removed, but the song is still there. For failing to follow its policies of removing offensive content, Spotify gets a Twit Award. This story comes from Them.