Loose Ends
The Dispatch (my favorite news source) ran this story affirming with data what most of us have assumed…”gender affirming care” is an ideological totem, not a medical issue…
“More than three-and-a-half years ago, the United Kingdom’s National Health Service (NHS) commissioned the “Independent Review of Gender Identity Services for Children and Young People.” That study—which has come to be known as the Cass Review, named Dr. Hilary Cass, the chair of the project and the former president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health—was published last week, and the review provided a welcome and evidence-based respite from an otherwise toxic conversation with its wide-ranging examination of studies and research undergirding gender-transition treatment and the clinical practices for delivering that treatment.
The nearly 400-page U.K. report could signal a sea change for Europe in the debate over the future of gender-transition treatment for children and young people, providing a case study in the dangers of letting cultural pressures influence medical treatment. But it’s unclear if the takeaways will translate across the pond, where many of those cultural pressures have led to the public conversation being dominated by the most extreme voices on either side of the debate.
The conclusions of Cass’ report were striking. “The rationale for early puberty suppression remains unclear, with weak evidence regarding the impact on gender dysphoria, mental or psychosocial health,” the review found. It confirmed what some medical professionals and researchers had been arguing for years: There isn’t high-quality research showing that treatment delaying the onset of puberty is actually helping young people seeking a gender transition. “This is an area of remarkably weak evidence, and yet results of studies are exaggerated or misrepresented by people on all sides of the debate to support their viewpoint,” Cass wrote in the report. “The reality is that we have no good evidence on the long-term outcomes of interventions to manage gender related distress.”
The report included a variety of recommendations to improve care but concluded that “for most young people, a medical pathway will not be the best way to manage their gender-related distress.” Consequently, the NHS reversed its decade-long practice of prescribing puberty-suppressing hormones (PSH) to children with gender dysphoria—“a marked incongruence between one’s experienced/expressed gender and assigned gender of at least six months duration, as manifested” in delineated criteria, according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. “We have concluded that there is not enough evidence to support the safety or clinical effectiveness of PSH to make the treatment routinely available at this time,” the NHS said last month. PSH treatment will still be available for participants in clinical trials and at private clinics, although some British lawmakers are now pushing for a ban across the board.”
The question is raised by the author of the piece whether U.S. medical experts will follow the data and stop this nonsense or if ideological pull will keep enabling doctors to ruin young lives…
What is the main reason Christians should reject Donald Trump?
Two well respected conservative evangelical scholars are changing lanes on same sex relationships.
Richard Hays once wrote the primer on Christian moral ethics and wrote about why same sex relationships were outside the bounds of Christian behavior…and now he’s changed his mind.
The article linked above (by a celibate gay man) explains why hays is wrong…and does so with humility and grace.
I think this story encapsulates what has happened to “news” in the last 20 years…
A 25 year employee of NPR speaks out against ideologies creeping into reporting in this piece.
As a result he was suspended, today he resigned.
The story makes me sad…I’ve often enjoyed NPR, but I avoid Fox News, etc because of bias…I’ll do the same with NPR…
Glad to hear of the man who got liberated from NPR.
The major reason to reject Trump is the danger of his egomaniacal ways. The mistreatment of Trump by the security state and the courts still chills me and I fear them more than his ways because he is much more shackled. They are much more systemically entrenched. I used to marvel as a younger person about how America seems to work better than so many other nations. Part of that was my narrow awareness. The other part was true but is less and less true. God is not mocked.
However, rereading Athanasius makes me say they are irrelevant to the Kingdom of God.
Terrible news about NPR. But very good news about the UK coming to their senses! Let’s hope that medical experts here in the US take notice.
Alan,
“The mistreatment of Trump by the security state and the courts still chills me and I fear them more than his ways because he is much more shackled.’
I had this conversation with another reasonable, bright person yesterday.
They feel as you do…while I think Trump is simply a serial criminal who has been caught.
Those different perspectives will show up on Election Day…
Janet Linn, BrideofChrist,
It is terrible news…I just wish that the right would decry the same proclivities in their own media…and yes, we can pray that this transgender blight is put away from our kids too…
Hold on,
NPR is publicly funded, not cable advertisement. Compare Fox to CNN and MSNBC not NPR. If the right had control of NPR every other government agency and every other system would work to defund them and it would happen overnight.
Most of the funding for NPR comes from private corporations and donors. I think it would survive defunding and maybe it should be privately financed.
The bigger issue is that all “news” has a slant…some are more honest about that than others.
Berliner had to know he was committing suicide when he wrote that article. It’s probably fine he will go the way of Greenwood, Taibbi and Weiss and be fine. There is a market for classical liberal media members who aren’t card carrying progressives.
I am enjoying the Hill, Breaking Points, and even Tucker and Megyn. Love what Glen Greenwald (not Greenwood)
Commercial news is not even news. It is just punditry.
Alan,
Let’s just say we have very different opinions of all of the above…
Michael,
There has to be a nice long cool afternoon ending with steaks and a good Irish to hash out these things in our earthly future. Though I suspect we’d ditch that and talk theology
I suspect you’re right…now we both have to live long enough to make it happen… 🙂
Self disclosure of NPR funding… https://www.npr.org/about-npr/178660742/public-radio-finances
Athanasius is much better than any contemporary news. But of course, I may be prejudiced…😁
Michael,
That video you posted by Pat Kahnke is outstanding! I’ve watched each video in the series. He calmly and logically explains his case, as Christian, for rejecting Trump’s leadership at the ballot box. He articulates very well what many are thinking but aren’t really sure how to put into words.
I stand corrected on NPR funding.
Still happy for Berliner.
There are greener pastures.
Darn, the ads have made another appearance. They’re choosing ads related to the topics too. Do you support Israel? Take the gender dysphoria test!
Do you know how it’s happening? A bot logging into the server and editing the WordPress PHP code? (good thing they’re not killing it altogether) A WordPress security hole? (sometimes the latest WP version will close them)
I’ve listened to NPR for most of my life. Financial support as well. I’ll keep an ear on them. They’ve always had a slant, but since about 2016 it’s sounded like they built a bubble and had no interest in anyone else’s perspective.
It’s a world where 96% of Hispanic/Latino people can oppose the non-word “Latinx” and they’ll find the 3 people who use it and interview them exclusively.
The gender news should surprise no one. Kudos to some of the EU for pushing back on the serious damage that this philosophy does to children whose only crime is having mental health challenges and too much time on TikTok.
I’m gracious to people who vote for Trump. I’m less patient for the “Election was Stolen” crowd (then again I didn’t think the 2016 or 2000 elections were stolen either) or other silliness.
Social Media has taught us that everything is important all at once and not being an activist is being complicit. This is not mentally healthy either. As others have said: This mentality usually ends in people justifying violence against the preferred enemy, online dudebro harassments and TradWife memes, or depression.