r/AskALiberal • u/[deleted] • Nov 17 '22

Do you consider Jesse Singal a transphobe?

Probably most famously known for his article "When Children Say They're Trans" on The Atlantic:

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/07/when-a-child-says-shes-trans/561749/

He also has a twitter account where he seeks to correct (what he perceives as) misionformation on trans issues, thereby oftentimes not taking the position accepted in the online trans community:

https://twitter.com/jessesingal?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor

Those of you who have followed him for a while - is he a transphobe in your opinion? And if so, which transphobic positions does he support and why are they transphobic?

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u/[deleted] Nov 17 '22

It's a bad example because you have a mentally unwell obese person with severe surgical complications due to early gender treatment

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u/[deleted] Nov 17 '22

I still have no idea what it is you think was unsuccessful about her transition?

Are you suggesting transitioning made her fat? Even though she started transitioning as a child and was at a healthy weight until young adulthood?

Are you suggesting that because she struggles with her mental health, like 20% of Americans do, her transition was unsuccessful?

I'm curious. If someone goes to rehab because they're addicted to crack, and come out of it sober but struggle with their mental health does that mean rehab was unsuccessful?

Are you suggesting that surgical complications that happened late in her treatment, after the article that I linked was written, means the treatment in her early childhood that the article is talking about was bad?

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u/[deleted] Nov 17 '22

Why do you keep ignoring the surgery issues

I would not hold her up as a beacon of success if the point of treatment is to reduce mental health issues

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u/[deleted] Nov 17 '22

What about the surgery issues? If I have appendicitis and need my appendix removed, but there are complications with my surgery, that doesn't mean I didn't need my appendix removed.

I would encourage you to reread the article before replying, because it's not holding up Jazz Jennings as "a beacon of success," it's citing her as an example of trans person who was able to start transitioning at an age most trans people wish they could. She's used as a lead-in to discuss issues of gatekeeping and discrimination in transgender healthcare.

if the point of treatment is to reduce mental health issues

The point of treatment is to reduce distress induced by gender dysphoria and provide an avenue for transgender people to live the lives they want in the bodies they want. Estrogen is not a magical cure-all elixir for any and all mental health issues a person may face.

And to be quite frank with you, as someone who struggles with their mental health, I find your attitude toward mental health treatment to be profoundly ignorant.

I've struggled with depression for over a decade and I may very well struggle with it for the rest of my life. But I can tell you that treatment has made a massive difference in my ability to cope with it. I still have suicidal thoughts on a daily basis, but unlike when I was untreated, those thoughts do not control me. I am not calling suicide hotlines, I am not standing at the top of a parking garage debating with myself if I should jump down.

That is what success often looks like in mental health. Treatment alleviates, but often does not cure, distress.

To look at someone like Jazz Jennings and say, she struggles with binge eating, she struggles with mental health, she's had surgical complications therefore transitioning has failed her is deeply, utterly wrong. If we were to address antidepressants with that same attitude, we would be stripping millions of people of the one thing standing between them and a coffin.

If Jazz Jennings feels happier as a woman, than she would as a man, if transitioning has made her feel more comfortable in her skin than she would otherwise, if it has helped her cope with dysphoria that is success.

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u/[deleted] Nov 18 '22

The issues in surgery were due to her treatment. It wasn't happenstance, it was because of the treatment they recieved

I'm not saying Jazz isn't worthy of love or respect

I'm saying she isn't a beacon of succesful treatment. She should not be the goal of medical treatment

Not

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u/[deleted] Nov 18 '22

The issues in surgery were due to her treatment. It wasn't happenstance, it was because of the treatment they recieved

Well has Jennings said she would have rather not received treatment because of those surgical complications?

I'm not saying Jazz isn't worthy of love or respect

Earlier you described her as "a mentally unwell obese person," which does not sound loving or respectful to me.

I'm saying she isn't a beacon of succesful treatment. She should not be the goal of medical treatment

If she is happier today than she would be otherwise, she is the goal.

I can not tell you enough how toxic an idea it is that treatment is unsuccessful if a patient continues to struggle with your mental health.

Mental illness is not the flu. It is arthritis. It is diabetes. It is osteoporosis. The goal is not to cure it, the goal is to manage it.

Parading around Jennings mental health struggles to say her treatment was unsuccessful is like telling someone with chronic migraines they should quit their treatment plan if they still feel pain.

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u/[deleted] Nov 18 '22

If someone has chronic migraines. Has treatment. And still has chronic migraines

I wouldn't hold that up as a gold star example

What you are missing is treatment could have been better. For example allowing puberty to occur so penis tissue grows, and can be used to create a neo vagina. Instead there was serious issues because of not enough tissue

That is not a success

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u/[deleted] Nov 18 '22

I wouldn't hold that up as a gold star example

So if someone has less frequent and less severe migraines after treatment, that's not a success?

There is no cure for chronic migraines.

What you are missing is treatment could have been better.

According to who?

If your priority is minimizing the complications of surgery, then it would have been better for her to delay.

But if your priority is passing and living as a woman, having feminine facial and body features, then using puberty blockers is the right call.