The American Media’s Failure On The Transgender Debate

For years, America’s gold-standard media outlets have largely ignored one of the most egregious medical scandals in our nation’s history. In the past half decade alone, thousands of children underwent life-altering medical procedures in an attempt to alleviate psychological distress by changing their physical sex traits. Despite the lack of evidence to support the efficacy of these procedures, legacy media outlets in the United States went out of their way to stay quiet while doctors profited and children suffered.

Journalists no longer have an excuse to ignore this debate. Last month the United States Supreme Court heard a case that could decide the government’s constitutional authority to ban these practices. The case — United States v. Skrmetti — has already led to increased media attention on an under-reported topic, a welcome development that itself will save lives. But the damage caused by the media’s years-long silence is irreparable, and hindsight will show that those with the platform to do something should have spoken up sooner.

From 2019 to 2023, at least 13,000 American children between the ages of 13 and 18 received some form of “gender-affirming care” from licensed medical providers in the United States. This euphemistically named practice generally refers to the administration of puberty blockers, the prescription of cross-sex hormones, and the removal of body parts such as genitals and breasts — all in an attempt to make children’s bodies align with their “gender identity” and thus alleviate psychological distress caused by the child’s perception that they were born the wrong sex.

Advocates for this “affirmative” model of care rarely discuss the harm medical transitioning causes. One detransitioner explained how the very first form of “affirming” treatment she received was a double mastectomy at 16-years-old. And after taking off-label cross-sex hormones and puberty blockers for four years, she couldn’t even get out of bed in the morning. The medical intervention that was supposed to save her life almost destroyed it. Stories like these are growing more common by the day.

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Despite this grim reality, activists have infiltrated America’s largest medical organizations to push the narrative that these procedures are “lifesaving,” and “medically necessary” for children who want them. Though leaked documents revealed widespread attempts to obfuscate the truth of this dubious claim, the most influential media outlets in the country accepted the narrative uncritically. A steady stream of studies released in the past few years have proven it to be unfounded.

Just last month, the United Kingdom made permanent its ban on prescribing puberty blockers to children under 18-years-old due to the lack of evidence to support their efficacy at treating gender dysphoria. This ban was the response to an extensive study commissioned by the UK’s National Health Service — named the Cass Review, after the lead author and prominent pediatric doctor, Hilary Cass — that found little reliable basis to conclude “gender-affirming care” is effective in the long term for treating psychological distress.

The Cass Review is the most comprehensive systematic review of youth gender medicine ever conducted. And its findings prompted swift and sweeping action from the UK government. But perhaps equally as significant is the reaction from the media outlets within the United Kingdom. Widely read papers such as the Guardian and the London Times directed extensive resources to covering the Cass Review and highlighted its findings. It is due in no small part to this media coverage that government action followed so quickly.

Yet here across the pond, the American media have been largely silent about the Cass Review, with very few legacy outlets devoting more than a handful of stories to it. While the medical procedures at issue are common in the United States and often lead to life-long sterilization, impaired sexual function, and permanent mutilation of otherwise healthy body parts, American journalists have all but ignored the issue. This failure is not only a journalistic one; it is a moral one as well.

Fortunately, some of the sandy heads in the fourth estate are finally coming up for air. Last month, the Wall Street Journal editorial board highlighted a recent lawsuit filed by a young woman who was rushed into “gender affirming” medical procedures by doctors at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles when she was in her early teens. The legal complaint describes the failure of practitioners adequately to assess the appropriateness of these life-altering medical procedures prior to prescribing them — an unfortunate occurrence that is all-too-common in the world of “gender-affirming care.” The organization I work for, the Center for American Liberty, is assisting with this lawsuit.

And in another first, the Washington Post editorial board finally published a piece recognizing the lack of evidence to support the purported efficacy of “gender affirming” procedures. The Post editorial board agreed states have an interest in protecting children from harmful medical practices and the lack of evidence to support “gender-affirming care” justifies more regulation.

While these editorials by two of our country’s most widely circulated newspapers are a welcome sign that the American media have finally realized the gravity of the situation, it is far too little, far too late. Thousands of children struggling with their mental health fell victim to an ideology that perpetuates false hope based on tribalistic commitment instead of sound medical evidence. Many of those who elected to permanently alter their bodies at a young age in an attempt to alleviate psychological distress will now have life-long medical complications due to the actions of “experts” who were supposed to have the answers. But the science has never supported these forms of treatment — and too many kids will suffer the consequences of this failure to speak the truth.

For whatever reason, American media have deliberately avoided one of the greatest social, medical, and ethical debates of our time. They might justify it by claiming the “science is settled,” but we now know that simply isn’t true. And it never has been. Though some of the nation’s most respected news outlets are warming up to this fact, much more needs to be done to bring the truth to light. Only then can we have an honest discussion about how best to care for children struggling with who they are.

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Eric Sell is Associate Litigation Counsel and the Shillman Legal Fellow at the Center for American Liberty.

The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.