Copyright truthout
Earlier this week, President Donald Trump and his celebrity health ministers Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Dr. Oz held a press conference to announce an evidence-free claim that pregnant women taking acetaminophen causes autism in children. Trump’s rambling speech provided no evidence other than his repeated assertions that pregnant women should not take the painkiller commonly sold under the brand name Tylenol. Watching from afar, as a trans journalist who has been covering trans issues for about a decade, I found it interesting how many people — and corporate news outlets — questioned the obvious disinformation so quickly. The New York Times devoted several reporters to debunking the alternative reality the administration was trying to present when it comes to autism and Tylenol. Those same outlets have not treated obvious disinformation from conservatives about transgender health care in the same way, instead portraying the handful of health providers who question the evidence-based standards of care developed over several decades as brave rebel truth tellers.But there’s no real difference between an acetaminophen scaremonger like RFK Jr. and an anti-trans obsessive like J.K. Rowling. Neither are doctors, both have been poisoned by a steady stream of online propaganda and disinformation. They both spread lies as easily as they breathe, it’s just that certain segments of society feel a bit icky about the idea of trans people and so are more likely to listen to lies about my people. None of this is science-based. Just this week, Mother Jones reported that Gordon Guyatt, known by colleagues as the “godfather of evidence-based medicine,” rebuked the anti-trans health care political group Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine. Despite having an association with the group in the past, Guyatt explained that the scientific basis for gender-affirming care for minors “not different from most of medicine,” and that it’s not always possible to run the rigorous double blind studies that are required for a thorough certification of some medical treatments.Double blind studies require that neither the researchers nor the research participants know who is receiving the treatment of concern in the study. In the case of trans health, within a matter of weeks, both participants and doctors will know who has puberty blocker/hormone treatment and who has a placebo, thus invalidating the double blind portion of the study. Everyone with even a rudimentary knowledge of the scientific method can grasp this, and yet those who oppose trans care for youth insist that all of such care must be suspended until a long-term study of this kind can be conducted.They’re really just after an indefinite pause to the treatment they’re opposed to on political grounds. That doesn’t stop them from continuing to lie to an increasingly enthralled press and political sector, including some Democrats. Anti-trans activists frequently point out the statistically higher percentage of trans people who are also autistic compared to the general population as another reason to override our autonomy as free and equal people by denying us health care. Like with trans people, those who seek to “cure” autism envision a world where there are no autistic people. It’s just another effort to stamp out the uniqueness of the human condition. I long for the days when those in the corporate media will be able to see Trump’s lies about trans health care as easily as they can see Trump’s lies about Tylenol and autism. Until then, I’m standing alongside my autistic siblings against this heinous eliminationist health care agenda.
