74 Comments

Any amount is trans happiness is deemed "unreasonable" to these people. This is like a bully getting upset that their victims are still smiling despite their best efforts.

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Exactly.

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Ahem, i think their capitalism is showing...

Is employment considered a valid measurement of success for any other kind of treatment? Like, "we need to stop allowing diabetics to access insulin because not enough of them are employed, so it's obviously not a successful treatment." What?!?

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Ted Bundy was employed. Heck, he even worked as Assistant Director of the Seattle Crime Prevention Advisory Commission where he wrote a pamphlet for women on rape prevention. No problem there. Guess to Dr. Cass he was perfectly sane.

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RIGHT??!!!

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I guess they love making 0 sense whatsoever. How so many sociopaths came to power is beyond me. And she was a doctor? Unbelievable.

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She obviously doesn't recognize modern psychology concepts. Her reasoning completely ignores so much science in that area.

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As a doctor, she should be more intelligent than that and know better. They are pseudo scientists.

All I know is they're like a bunch of maggot flies and annoy TF out of me. Never seen so much willful ignorance in all my life. Then again, I saw it, but was a baby/toddler at the time and it didn't hit me until after I started school.

Right about now, they embarrass the human race with so much nonsensical baloney in a sandwich. <weak chuckle ... I'm so tired of them>

Some big hairy monster needs to take a huge bite out of all their asses. LOL

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I'll have to listen to the interview. Why is NPR even giving Dr Cass space?

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This particular interviewer, I am told, routinely platforms anti-trans people.

https://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2023/03/09/the-inside-story-of-the-collapse-of-the-tavistock-gender-service-for-children

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I'm so tired of news organizations platforming anti-trans views. I'm trans. I'm happy. Let me live my life.

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Modern news organizations are just falling all over themselves in order to tell audiences what they want to hear in return for advertising bucks. Facts are shaped to fit the popular desired narrative in order to maximize readership and viewership which in turns increases add time/space value. It's just a business who's purpose is to make money or in the case of NPR stay afloat.

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Looks like Ms. Barnes appointed her self as everyone's mean nasty mum that doesn't care if the kids hate her because this is all for their own good. And someday, we'll all look back on this ... and still think she's an arrogant ignorant POS.

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May 10
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Much like when Chaya Raichik decided to sit down for an interview with Taylor Lorenz - and exposed herself for the ass that she is. The more these people talk the weirder and more phobic and bigoted they reveal themselves to be.

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I was listening to NPR while driving yesterday when this came on. Could not continue listening. So disappointed in NPR! WTF!!! That donation money is now going to my local LGBTQ bookstore and to orgs with a focus on trans specific needs.

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Yes! I was driving to a new LGBTQ+ community center my team and I are opening to support folks impacted by by the Club Q shooting and stopped my car to listen to the interview in a real heartbreaking full circle moment. Any thoughts on why NPR picked it up? I expected WBUR to ask more critical questions, but Cass and the other two participants received little to no push back. At one point, the medical doctor being interviewed seemed to suggest that youth aren’t properly assessed by anyone before receiving gender affirming care.

I fear that the fair-weather supporters who listen to NPR in our conservative, evangelical Colorado city will now be added to the list of folks we have to convince to support our work and community.

I want to believe they’re hanging themselves to dry, but my community is so susceptible to this messaging already (it impacted our City Council’s vote on opioid settlement dollars in a wild, unethical revote due to a nonprofit’s support of trans youth), that most people here will happily jump on the “I’m just asking questions” bandwagon Cass is driving.

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Looking at the WBUR website, there are statements made by the American Academy of Pediatrics (the pediatric org of actual doctors) and the Endocrine Society. Those statements should have been read aloud, preceded the Cass interview. That would have provided context. Instead, we got a 10 second mention of the AAP and the ES and 58 minutes of politically and religiously driven hate and real harm. You don't need more to push back on. So disappointed in NPR.

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That is a great question! As a financial contributor I will be asking NPR that question.

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I'm just one person, but I’m on HRTs. I am happy. I am employed. I have a beautiful wife. I have two dogs and a wonderful son. How much must I do to be enough for these measurements? I don’t own a house. Is home ownership going to be the new barometer of transness? 😆

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Plus 401k, stock options at least two cars and a dog And cat.

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Our lived experiences mean less than nothing to these fucking people, who think they have the right to make these decisions for us.

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What in all goodness is this!!? I’m a disabled retired vet, if I can get a job I’ll be thankful, but it’s in no way related to my transition

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I am going to read this piece again in a couple days after my anger and emotions cool down. Then I will write to NPR and express myself.

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So... lemme see if I've got this figured out.

First, they want to make it as difficult as possible for trans people to exist and function in public, including making it legal for employers to discriminate against us for being trans...

...and then they want to make it impossible to transition at all unless we're able to function and remain employed in the very same society that they just filled with landmines for us to trip over.

That about cover it?

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Yep. Same song, different day. Those people are nuts.

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I made a similar comment before I read yours. You stated it better. :)

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Ms. Cass cannot persuade me she's more than a propagandist. She reveals herself when she raises canards like "employment" and "getting out of the house." She's a bullshitter.

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I currently have a job, does that mean Dr. Cass will ALLOW me to have continued access to the healthcare that saved my life? Yippee! Praise be for her conditional validation of my existence, gatekept behind my employer's bias or lack thereof

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I'm aggravated that NPR even gave a quack like Cass a platform. Her archaic ideas deserve to be thrown in the trash along with her.

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Seriously, wtf

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Maybe we should ASK trans people whether they're happy after transitioning instead of pushing allonormative (relationship/sex life) or ableist (employed) standards on people to 'determine' how happy we are

I've had a job for 18 months now. I hate it. And my GF is coming over in a few months.

I need to transition medically, because i am miserable. But Cass wants to trample over my lived experience.

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Oh, but that would be too much like 'right'. Those people aren't interested in raw & honest truth; they love bending, manipulating, and twisting it to suit their evil agendas.

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Our lived experience doesn't qualify as high quality research in the mind of Cass

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Where exactly are all these pediatricians who a young person goes in to w anxiety and they are immediately prescribed puberty blockers and/or HRT? I read the whole NPR segment, and even the two other drs the host has on make it sound like dra give kids blockers and HRT like its candy in one visit. They make it sound like pediatricians and therapists immediately talk of transitioning for every ailment. In what world does this happen? (Answer: none)

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I may just be a lucky girl, transitioning at age 59 and now post surgery and having kept my job, career, and friends. I know that many others face incredible hardship finding acceptance, employment, love...

The point you make is so important. The world is not an even playing field. The prejudice is stacked against us, so, especially if you are starting out, you are far more likely to face rejection in all things. Measuring our success on the basis of employment and getting out of the house is akin to measuring the effectiveness of feminism by the percentage of women who break the glass ceiling. Is it meaningful? Sure! Is it reasonable to compare it to the percentage of men how cross that same threshold? No!

So Dr. Cass could be correct, if her measure is against the population of out and presenting transgender individuals pre-medical transition. Any other comparison is not using a valid control group.

Thank you, Erin, for your hard work and continued reporting on this topic that affects so many of us, even though it remains out of sight to the vast majority in the world!

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I think the term "gaslighting" is generally overused, but this seems to be a pretty clear application. People with clear agendas saying "you can't be trusted to gauge your own feelings, we must find a more 'objective' measure, like these societal norms I personally have decided are valuable." Absolute garbage reasoning.

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Societal norms are not logical or fair and very biased. No psychiatrist would base someone's sanity on societal norms.

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Cass’s entire argument is a castigation and testament to the fact that society has not helped transitioning people enough for years and that there needs to be more authentic and long lasting study of it. Which is what Trans people have been saying for 40 years.

“Give us doctors who know what the hell is good for us. Help set guidelines by studying us more and providing the health care that we need so badly. Open up more clinics and long term studies about us. We are fucking happy with our choices, bring it on!!”

Exactly what is Cass’s complaint? That the public has ignored us for over 50 years as a valid community and NOT recognized us as valid human beings, able to make our own decision, or that at 1%, we simply don’t merit enough study or need for these Bozo’s to make a profit from helping us?

So now their discovery that Trans people can’t be erased politically, means that we aren’t worthy of their respect and they search for the way to further discredit our existence.

The only disgrace is with Dr. Cass and her likes, who are research addicts and who are way to lazy to have done any long term research on something that doesn’t fill their pockets with grant money.

If you aren’t going to help Trans people by not trusting them, or helping them, then just GFY!!

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OMG, how simply vile. 🤯 Normally being a fan of NPR myself, I certainly hope that they're getting an earful on allowing this terrible person yet another platform.

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For more than a few years now NPR has accepted money from right wing sponsors in return for becoming more " both sides." It's really a shame.

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Having opened the door to this line of inquiry, I'd like to know (1) are the people obsessing over trans folks in relationships? Or are they socially awkward loser incels too busy sticking their noses in other peoples' business to have healthy relationships? (2) Are such people getting out of the house? Or are they busy at their keyboards obsessing about the "trans menace" and what bathrooms people are using? (3) Are they employed? Cass is a retired pediatrician. Couldn't cut it anymore? Who pays her fare to do politics not medicine? (4) Do TERFS and trans obsessed incels have satisfactory sex lives? Take a look at this woman. https://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2024/05/08/nhs-hilary-cass-review-gender-transgender-care Would anyone touch that without a Hazmat suit and a very, very long pole?

I'm sorry if this comment sounds unduly harsh. But if we're going to start judging otherwise normal people who simply happen to have a gender identity issue by these standards, then the "trans obsessed" panic assholes also need to be judged by those same standards. And I for one don't believe they will fare well by their own standards.

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The weirdo right wing incel losers are the same people that jerk off to LGTBQIA+ porn while simultaneously condemning it as satanic. Of course. Being a former "conservative" I can tell you any conservative accusation is a fucking confession. Hypocrisy is a feature, not a bug amongst the evangelical right. The same pro-life weirdos want to watch women die from pregnancy complications over have a life saving abortion. These people are ghouls and only care about suppressing rights of others.

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Apologize for NOTHING! They deserve to be judged right into the ground with their insane rhetoric & obsessions. I doubt they'd fare well by their own standards either. Or, their privilege makes them look like they might be happy people.

No, I wouldn't touch that hag with 2 Hazmat suits and 2 very long poles. UGH

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