by MATT MARGOLIS
The liberal media routinely beclowns itself with its biased fact checks. We’ve gotten used to this. But the New York Times really pulled off a doozy Wednesday night with a ridiculous fact check of something Vivek Ramaswamy said during the GOP primary debate.
“I have to be very clear about this. Transgenderism, especially in kids, is a mental health disorder,“ Ramaswamy said. “We have to acknowledge the truth of that for what it is.”
Ramaswamy continued, “The very people who say that this increases the risk of suicide are also the ones saying that parents don’t have the right to know about that increased risk of suicide. And I’m sorry, it is not compassionate to affirm a kid’s confusion. That is not compassion, that is cruelty.”
VIVEK: "Transgenderism, especially in kids, is a mental health disorder!" pic.twitter.com/GmweqbuyRk
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) September 28, 2023
Ramaswamy may not be the candidate I’m supporting, but his position on this issue is spot on. Yet, the New York Times fact-checked him, insisting, “This is false,” regarding his statement.
Never stop being you, @nytimes!
NYT fact check: pic.twitter.com/6d5ukpE2W4
— Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) September 28, 2023
“Being transgender is not a mental health disorder,” Azeen Ghorayshi of the New York Times claims. “Many transgender people experience gender dysphoria, or psychological distress as a result of the incongruence between their sex and their gender identity. Gender dysphoria is a diagnosis in the Psychiatric Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders and can be given to children, adolescents or adults.”
As we’ve covered here at PJ Media before, there is no evidence of any medical benefit to transition kids who claim to be the opposite gender, and the alleged benefits of “gender-affirming care” are “no greater than a placebo effect.”
It’s interesting that this wasn’t mentioned in the fact check.
Nor was it mentioned that a Swedish study on “gender-affirming care” found that cosmetic “transition” does not reduce the likelihood of suicide. The two widely cited studies that claim tremendous benefits to transitioning children are deeply flawed and systematically excluded the experiences of participants who dropped out of the studies over time, creating a bias in favor of participants who reported positive experiences.
European countries have started figuring this out. That’s why, in July of last year, England’s only transgender clinic closed due to concerns that doctors were performing surgeries without considering children’s mental health. Several other European countries, including Sweden, Finland, and France, have all dialed back on pushing transgender “treatments” for children because they have begun to recognize the harm it does to kids.
Another factoid the New York Times doesn’t want you to know is that as many as 90% of young people with gender confusion who are not encouraged to transition (socially or medically) will no longer identify as transgender upon reaching adulthood—supporting the assertion that transgenderism in children is a mental health disorder.
And then there’s the issue of the rapid onset of gender dysphoria, an alarming trend pointing to social contagion for the sharp increase in young people “identifying” as transgender. The New York Times won’t tell you about that.
Maybe, if you give them the benefit of the doubt, they are parsing words. It might be argued transgenderism itself isn’t the mental illness, but the basis for it, gender dysphoria, is most definitely the very definition of a mental illness. There are NO mental illnesses treated with surgery other than gender dysphoria.