The Medical University of South Carolina initially said it wouldn’t be affected by a law banning use of state funds for treatment “furthering the gender transition” of children under 16. Months later, it cut off that care to all trans minors.

The Medical University of South Carolina initially said it wouldn’t be affected by a law banning use of state funds for treatment “furthering the gender transition” of children under 16. Months later, it cut off that care to all trans minors.

One Saturday morning in September 2022, Terrence Steyer, the dean of the College of Medicine at the Medical University of South Carolina, placed an urgent call to a student. Just a year prior, the medical student, Thomas Agostini, had won first place at a university-sponsored event for his graduate research on transgender pediatric patients. He also had been featured in a video on MUSC’s website highlighting resources that support the LGBTQ+ community.

Now, Agostini and his once-lauded study had set off a political firestorm. Conservative activists seized on one line in particular in the study’s summary — a parenthetical noting the youngest transgender patient to visit MUSC’s pediatric endocrinology clinic was 4 years old — and inaccurately claimed that children that young were prescribed hormones as part of a gender transition. Elon Musk amplified the false claim, tweeting, “Is it really true that four-year-olds are receiving hormone treatment?” That led federal and state lawmakers to frantically ask top MUSC leaders whether the public hospital was in fact helping young children medically transition. The hospital was not; its pediatric transgender patients did not receive hormone therapy before puberty, nor does it offer surgical options to minors.

  • @webadict
    2•7 months ago

    Typical transphobic coward. You refuse to defend the study, but you won’t admit it’s a bad study.

    Will you argue you’re not transphobic? Because that would involve admitting that gender-affirming care and all it entails should be administered to any trans person that wants it. Otherwise, you do not care about the outcomes and health of trans people, at best, or want them to suffer, at worst.

    • @[email protected]
      -1•7 months ago

      You obviously have some personal issues related to this subject-matter. All I did was refute the bullshit claim you made in the original comment by linking this study.

      But if you feel so threatened by scientific research that doesn’t align with your world view then you need to get help somehow.

      I’m not a transphobe.

      But again all of this seems to me a way for you to manage what amounts to a threat to your world view.

      • @webadict
        3•7 months ago

        I do. I have many trans friends whose lives depend on their care. They have to listen to this shit way more than I do, to justify their existence as if being trans is something they chose to be. They didn’t.

        People use the same words you’re using now to defend why trans people should not be allowed gender-affirming care that they and their doctors suggest they should have. It must only be coincidental that the words you say are the words spoken by transphobes.

        Say that trans people should get the gender-affirming care they desire, that gender-affirming care is scientifically backed, and that trans rights are human rights, and I’ll take back that you’re a cowardly transphobe.

        • @[email protected]
          0•7 months ago

          I have only discussed this article. I’ve made no personal statement on the subject matter. And you are losing your mind, you cannot accept this data for what it is. To you, it’s a personal insult, but there is nothing personal about it.

          I’ll say this to anyone who reacts to scientific research with hostility, would that be Flat earthers, Q-anons, Religious fanatics or anyone else; seek help!

          It’s the only advice I can give.

          • @webadict
            2•7 months ago

            Okay, transphobe, I’m glad your only excuse to discredited evidence is projection.

                  • @webadict
                    1•7 months ago

                    Do you want the last word? Because you’ve ceased making a point, since I pointed out how bad your study was, pointed out exactly how you are transphobic, and you shifted to ad hominem attacks. I can only assume you think you looked good in this debacle or that I will get exasperated pointing out how you could be less transphobic, but you didn’t and I won’t because I like my trans friends and I would do anything for them.

                    Do you have any trans friends, family, or coworkers? Do they know that you argue on the internet that they don’t deserve the medical care they need? I could speculate, but there’s no point. You are another transphobe in an insidious sea of transphobes, and I can only hope that they know of your hateful rhetoric.