iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Gillian Branstetter @gbbranstetter.bsky.social · 10/02/2024

A queer teenager from Nebraska, where lawmakers passed a ban on gender-affirming care last year, responds to Pamela Paul. "I fear for my future. I fear for my friends and their future."

To the Editor:
Re "Gender Dysphoric Kids Deserve Better Care" by Pamela Paul
(column, Feb. 4):
I'm an L.G.B.T.Q.+ teenager. Ms. Paul cites stories of
detransitioners as if they are damning to the practice of gender-
affirming care as a whole. Not all detransitioners regret their
transition, and not all transgender people will medically transition
An overwhelming 98 percent of people who started their transition
care as youths continue into adulthood, per a 2022 study from the
Netherlands published in The Lancet.
Speaking from experience, my peers and friends who have
undergone medical transitions have never "regretted" it, and after
beginning care, their quality of life greatly improved. If Ms. Paul
wants to demonize a procedure with a high rate of regret, she
should look toward knee replacement, where one in five people end
updissatisfied.
By writing this article, Ms. Paul further stigmatizes health care for
transgender people. Transition care may be good for some people.
It may not b

281891601

Joel Calahan @joelcalahan.com · 10/02/2024

Such a brave and thoughtful letter. And completely unacceptable that it needed to be written at all.

0130