Fact Check: WSJ Publishes False Article Claiming Trans Kids Are "Actually Just Gay"

The article uses a misleading study with data from 1989 to prove its point, and then claims that gender affirming care is "actually conversion therapy," despite direct contradictory evidence.

On Thursday, The Wall Street Journal published an opinion column by Dr. Roy Eappen, a former Conservative Party of Quebec candidate and member of the anti-trans organization Do No Harm. The column made an audacious claim: most transgender kids are not actually trans, and that being transgender is somehow a form of "conversion therapy" to turn gay kids trans. The article, which relies on disinformation about old studies and being transgender, peddles the widely debunked claim that "80% of transgender youth will desist from being trans" (the real number? 1-3%), and that allowing transgender people to transition "harms gay people." It even claims that "homophobia" leads to people pushing transition, despite transgender people experiencing significantly lower social acceptance than gay people. For these reasons, the article must be labeled "false."

The article is extremely light on facts. It asserts that transgender individuals are "transed," a term that is not recognized in legitimate discourse. Transgender people are inherently transgender; they are not forced into their identity. Eappen then suggests that the supposed act of being "transed" stems from homophobia, proposing that transgender individuals are essentially "just gay." However, conversations with many transgender individuals often tell a different story. One of the most frequent questions they encounter upon coming out is, "couldn't you have just been gay?" The societal pressure to conform to this notion is significant, as highlighted by numerous transgender individuals in a /r/asktransgender thread.

To support his claim, the author erroneously states:

Research shows that some 80% of children with “gender dysphoria” eventually come to terms with their sex without surgical or pharmaceutical intervention. Multiple studies have found that most kids who are confused or distressed about their sex end up realizing they’re gay—nearly two-thirds in a 2021 study of boys. This makes sense: Gay kids don’t conform to traditional sex roles. But gender ideology holds that feminine boys and masculine girls may be ‘born in the wrong body.”

However, these claims are not supported by truth. The research the author references likely stems from Zucker's 1995 data. Ken Zucker's clinic in Canada faced credible accusations of practicing conversion therapy and was closed in 2015 due to concerns about its methods. The Canadian GIC review, which led to the clinic's closure, reported that Zucker's clinic advised parents against allowing children access to toys or clothes associated with the opposite gender and followed parental goals of providing treatments designed to have the child identify as cisgender post-treatment. Additionally, Zucker has been quoted as endorsing gay conversion therapy, stating, "a homosexual lifestyle in a basically unaccepting culture simply creates unnecessary social difficulties." Similarly, the 2021 study that he references is likely a study by Devita Singh looking at trans kids in 1989-2001, a time when youth transition and even most adult transition was prohibitively difficult.

Both of these studies also suffer from another fatal flaw, which is why neither is referenced or used by any major medical organization anymore. These studies (both Zucker and Singh) use DSM IV criteria for gender identity diagnoses, not DSM-V, which is more stringent. Previously, criteria to diagnose “gender identity disorder” bafflingly did not require an “insistence that they are the other sex.” This means that feminine boys and masculine girls with no desire to transition or identify as another gender could be coded as having a “gender identity disorder.” In many ways, Zucker’s research was more about trying to make feminine boys and masculine girls be more masculine and feminine in a time when both gender identity and sexuality were stigmatized.

See this comparison here:

A much more thorough debunking of the 80% desistance myth can be found here in an article dedicated exclusively to the topic.

The article proceeds to make several other erroneous claims about gender-affirming care without providing evidence. One assertion is that transgender people become "sexually dysfunctional for life," contradicting most research that indicates no change or an improvement in sexual desire following hormone therapy, and significant enhancements in sexual desire and satisfaction after surgery. The piece also incorrectly states that gender-affirming care is administered to children 8 years old or younger. In reality, no medical interventions are provided to transgender youth of this age group. Rather, non-judgmental social acceptance, expressed through hairstyles, clothing choices, and name changes, constitutes the standard care for young transgender individuals. Puberty blockers are typically introduced at the onset of puberty. Importantly, if a child under 8 receives a puberty blocker, it is often due to precocious puberty, a treatment also available to cisgender children.

The notion that gay children are being "transed" to "cure" their homosexuality is unfounded. In fact, many transgender individuals identify as both gay and transgender, suggesting that if such an effort existed, it is entirely ineffective. Rather, transgender youth, like all members of the LGBTQ+ community, represent a natural aspect of human diversity. Publications of this nature in prominent outlets like The Wall Street Journal, especially those backed by anti-trans organizations with billionaire support like Do No Harm, paradoxically inflict real harm by propagating falsehoods aimed at transgender youth. Therefore, this article should be fact-checked as "false," and its dissemination of disinformation should be acknowledged by the newspaper.