This. The biggest reason I'm involved is because we went from a country with growing acceptance, to a drastic about face in the legislatures. The support people in my family need access to is suddenly under threat. No **** that's going to wake some folks up and get them moving. And as you point out, this is the thin wedge. For someone looking to curtail someone else's rights, it's easier to start with a vulnerable population. Especially if that population is not well known among the larger masses.
The Jewish population in Germany was less than 1% when they were made into the enemy. It surprises me very little that a small population winds up in the crosshairs here too.
I can't blame them. The prominent US researchers in this space not that long ago were pushing extremely paternalistic ideas at best, and they are still around making their case. And now we have motivated actors at play that want to amplify poor research and muddy the waters further to support a legislative agenda to curtail medical access they've already had (adversarial as it may be). I cannot blame them at all for not wanting to work with a medical system that's been their adversary for decades. I also cannot blame them for not being excited at the idea of being used in research that could very well be turned into fodder to deny them access to what they see as important care.
This wouldn't even be the only group with mistrust. African Americans and Native Americans both demonstrate mistrust due to how they have been treated in the past when it comes to the medical community. But generally these groups can avoid the community, despite the worse outcomes. The trans community is more entangled with the medical community, which makes things different, but I don't see why the dynamic is any different here, or why they must be a model minority in order to be afforded dignity.
Medical Mistrust and Less Satisfaction With Health Care Among Native Americans Presenting for Cancer Treatment - PMC
To assess barriers to cancer care among Native Americans, whose health outcomes compare unfavorably with those of the general U. S. population. We undertook a comparative community-based participatory research project in which newly-diagnosed cancer ...www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
There is so much that could be discussed in the topic of research quality, outside influences, integrity of some researchers, politics getting involved in science, etc.
I suspect there are some researchers I suspect who are motivated by anti-trans ideology, but there is the exact same thing by trans activists. Objective researchers don’t want to touch this topic. That’s a bad thing. We need research to understand how to best help people and predict outcomes and the body of evidence we have is not strong.
Certainly historically most the medical community has not been accepting or accommodating of trans people. But I think we’re very much at the opposite end of the spectrum where there are insufficient checkpoints in the system for something we don’t have sufficient long term data on. And research from the 70’s, positive or negative, isn’t necessarily relevant in 2024 given how differently transgenderism is manifesting today versus back then.
I have noticed a strong correlation between transgender young adults and borderline personality disorder. Granted I work in psych so things may be skewed. But if I wanted to conduct any sort of research into this it probably wouldn’t be possible because of political implications. The few papers discussing this are mainly from the Middle East.
It’s crazy to me you have states considering allowing medical intervention of minors without parental consent. Or calling for the end of requiring psych provider letters. Psych consults are standard for a number of interventions.
The medical community in many European countries have reeled in interventions for transgender children given the ahistorical exploding number minors identifying as trans (yet comparatively minor increases in the adult population) and the recognition of insufficient outcomes data. Basically medical interventions (drugs and/or surgery) are limited to those identifying as trans from a very young age.
I think this may be too restrictive, but we shall see. At the same time, I don’t believe we should be accepting the risk or threat of suicide as the justification for medical intervention as has been the case. It is accepted no where else in healthcare.
I think to some extent we’ve strayed too far from providing treatment for gender dysphoria to presenting gender as something consciously chosen rather than an inherent identity.
While it’s true racial minorities have been subjected to grievous unethical practices and systemic negligence, I think the problem is overstated in modern times. Psych patients and prisoners also were subjected to heinous mistreatment- and frankly still are mistreated today in many contexts.
In my experience, the discrimination I see in healthcare is against psych patients, drug addicts, and the poor. This is by far the most medically disenfranchised group in our country. I work at what’s considered one of the best psych hospitals I the county. I have so many horror stories from patients of abuse from other hospitals and providers.
All that said, Trans healthcare should not be the political issue that it has become. The medical, psychiatric, and research communities should be able to discuss the balance of responsible care without fear of backlash or political attack.
