A Yale School of Medicine research fellow was widely bashed over the weekend after he wrote in the New York Times that American doctors are right to give puberty-blocking pills and hormones to transgender kids.
Doctors are right to give transgender kids puberty-blockers and hormones at younger ages. https://t.co/DcNgjUTXj7 https://t.co/UFziAAZwQC— New York Times Opinion (@New York Times Opinion) 1491749486.0
Jack Turban, whose bio says he "lectures on the treatment of transgender and gender-nonconforming youth" at Yale Medical School, told the story of a young boy, Jonah, who began a transition to become a girl, Hannah, at the age of 10.
"Hannah is using a puberty-blocking implant and getting ready to embark on the path of developing a female body by starting estrogen. Ten years ago most doctors would have called this malpractice. New data has now made it the protocol for thousands of American children," Turban wrote.
Turban explained that, given high rates of depression and suicide among kids and teenagers who claim to be transgender, it would almost be malpractice to not give kids drugs to block puberty and begin their hormone transition to the gender they'd like to be.
He continued:
Despite the turbulence in Washington, here in medicine there is general agreement that we’re moving in the right direction. When I first came to Yale in 2012, doctors told me puberty blockers were unethical. Classmates told me that if they had transgender children, they would “raise them gay like normal kids.” Now Yale has a gender clinic that provides puberty blockers and hormones. Lectures on the treatment of transgender youth are part of the mandatory medical school curriculum. I receive a steady flow of emails from students who want to dedicate their careers to helping these children.When I met with Hannah and her parents to thank them for letting me write about them, we went through old photos of Hannah, including a few from when she was Jonah. I will never forget Hannah’s giant smile in every picture of her living as her true self. Doctors once argued that it would be insane to block a child’s puberty and change her body. Seeing Hannah as a happy and thriving teenager, I now see it would be insane not to.
The article, predictably, was not well-received. In fact, it was ripped apart all week and was even compared to the horrific medical experiments Nazi's conducted on people in concentration camps. What made matters worse is that Turban is a supposed medical expert.
Here is the best reaction from Twitter:
@nytopinion These are Nazi experiments https://t.co/FwozpmQkHU— 🦍 (@🦍) 1491762196.0
@nytopinion Pure Evil
— PUPPYBOY (@KroekerTony) April 9, 2017
@nytopinion Jeez. As an endocrinologist I must say no way.
— Docx3 (@Dr_TSR) April 9, 2017
@nytopinion teenagers can't even decide what to wear for the day..yet we are letting them change gender without parental consent? Liberals destroy all
— J coo (@Keeblerqueen) April 9, 2017
No, they're not. This isn't something that should even be arguable. https://t.co/clYUlolDq6— Jeff B, fightin' the COVID one bootleg at a time (@Jeff B, fightin' the COVID one bootleg at a time) 1491761165.0
@nytopinion American Pediatric Association declares what everyone knows: That is child abuse.
— Teresa Pitt Green (@RestorSanctuary) April 9, 2017
@nytopinion NO. That is child abuse. Those children need therapists, not pills or surgeons.
— Mr. Shepard (@JShep33) April 9, 2017
&s=11
@sophienotemily@nytopinion There's actually no research on that. The root of the crisis here is the crippling depression accompanied by gender identity disorder
— Bo Evans (@BoEvans7) April 9, 2017
@nytopinion i can't believe your newspaper is dying
— ₱Ƒϟ (@PantsFreeZone) April 9, 2017
@nytopinion This is flat-out child abuse. Long prison sentences need to be meted out to anyone involved.
— Sniffles DaClown (@BattleHamster1) April 9, 2017
@nytopinion So if your kid told you they knew they NEVER wanted kids of their own, you would take them to have tubes tied or vasectomy?
🚫#insaneliberalspic.twitter.com/H6LFXhJvVY
— Brassy Bess (@BrassyBess) April 9, 2017
@nytopinion When I was a kid I wanted to be a ripped World Wrestling Federation Glow Girl. Guess my parents shoulda given me steroids
— Lola (@DropThe_Mic) April 9, 2017
@nytopinion The parents are freaks of nature.
Leave the children alone.
They aren't an experiment.
You, monsters!
— (@MSMCali) April 9, 2017