The Times’s article represents the first attempt by a major left-of-center newspaper to corroborate Reed’s claims. The author, Azeen Ghorayshi, says that “some of Ms. Reed’s claims could not be confirmed” and that “at least one of her claims included factual inaccuracies.” On the whole, however, Ghorayshi corroborates much of what Reed has said about her former clinic. Most important is the clinic’s disregard for clear “red flags.” Adolescents with serious mental health problems were prescribed puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones when they should have received mental health support.
Ghorayshi and the Times deserve credit for a well-researched article. Ghorayshi does a good job allowing different sides in the controversy to be heard. Her discussion of the medical research, though not the focus of her article, is refreshingly honest and accurate. Considering the pressure exerted on the Times and its reporters by transgender advocacy organizations like GLAAD to toe the ideological line, it takes courage to write a piece as rigorous and as thoughtful as this one.
And yet, the article has problems.
[It’s incremental progress, one supposes, but even that’s remarkable. Let’s not forget that the NYT’s staff attempted a newsroom revolt over a mildly critical look at transgender medicine, one that current management wisely shut down. Every step forward to truth on this will generate the same backlash, at least until a few people get fired and the rest get the message. — Ed]
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