Draft:Jesse Singal

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Singal in 2021.
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Jesse Singal (November 24th, 1983–)[1] is a journalist, podcaster, and Substack blogger who specializes in needling progressives on controversial social issues, particularly by criticizing the methodology of any piece of scientific evidence or data that seems to support such positions. Although he has often covered other topics, he has especially focused on transgender topics in such a way, sometimes described as his "beat",Wikipedia that is, a particular focus of his reporting.

He has also teamed up with Katie Herzog, who wrote articles for The Stranger about detransitioners,[2] to co-host the podcast Blocked and Reported.

Gamergate[edit]

Transgender people[edit]

2015 Galileo gambit[edit]

See the main article on this topic: J. Michael Bailey

In December 2015, Singal wrote an article for New York magazine titled "Why Some of the Worst Attacks on Social Science Have Come From Liberals". This was about Alice Dreger'sWikipedia book Galileo's Middle Finger,Wikipedia and the topics it dealt with, such as the controversies surrounding J. Michael Bailey including his endorsement of Ray Blanchard's typology of transgender women.[3] According to Singal years later, this "review-essay" for Dreger's book was his "introduction to these controversies" regarding trans issues.[4]

Singal and Dreger correctly point out that some critics of Bailey had escalated beyond reasonable discourse. However via some Galileo gambit-like posturing (perhaps expected given Dreger's book title), Singal asserts that this amounted to an attack on "legitimate science",[3] despite Bailey and Blanchard's theories being very dubious at best on any thorough examination. However, it could have been that Singal didn't quite grasp how strong their claims were, as demonstrated by this passage:

The notion that there might be a cultural component to the decision to transition, or that sexuality, rather than a hardwired gender identity, could be a factor, complicates this gender-identity-only narrative. It also brings sexuality back into a conversation that some trans activists have been trying to make solely about gender identity — roughly parallel to the way some gay-rights activists sweep conversations about actual gay sexuality under the rug, preferring to focus on idealized, unthreatening-to-heterosexuals portrayals of committed gay relationships between clean-cut, taxpaying adults.

Their theories didn't posit "sexuality could be a factor" so much as they asserted it was a central motivating factor behind transgender identity in all cases, even when the person in question was asexual. Singal attempts to compare the opposition to this wildly unsupported theory (along with a sprawling labyrinth of other strange claims), which he either did not fully grasp or still accepted as "legitimate science" despite understanding its claims, with "conservative lawmakers and organizations who have refused to acknowledge anthropogenic climate change".[3] Even if this is quite wrong, it may not necessarily say very much about Singal himself, individually, since he is a science journalist and not himself an expert on these topics (nor trying to be one).[5]

CAMH youth gender clinic[edit]

In Singal's 2016 articles about another clinician, Ken Zucker, he presents another picture of an expert besieged by "activists". In this case, Zucker was accused of implementing conversion therapy practices for at least some of his patients, who tended to be rather young.[note 1] Zucker would ultimately be fired from his institution, the Child Youth and Family Gender Identity Clinic (GIC) at the Centre for Addiction and Mental HealthWikipedia (CAMH), some months after CAMH's home of Ontario, Canada banned conversion therapy practices against LGBT minors.

It has been suggested that the accusations Zucker practiced conversion therapy were discredited, in part because CAMH paid a settlement and formally apologized to him due to the sloppiness of an external review commissioned by the institution, stating: "CAMH apologizes without reservation to Dr. Zucker for the flaws in the process that led to errors in the report not being discovered". The youth clinic remained closed.[6] One inaccuracy present in said review included a false claim that Zucker referred to a young patient as a "hairy little vermin"; Singal expressed skepticism towards this claim in his 2016 articles and himself helped to uncover that it was likely false.[7] However, suspicions that Zucker practiced conversion therapy never needed to hinge on whether he openly insulted his patients, or whether this particular review was especially accurate. Singal calls the "hairy little vermin" claim the "most spectacular" and "most serious allegation" in the review.[8] It could well have been merely the most spectacular one — but it doesn't have much to do with the serious allegations of conversion therapy practices that could have caused more lasting psychological harm than an insult.

Bioethicist Florence Ashley,Wikipedia who holds that the practices at the clinic under Zucker were conversion therapy, wrote that said practices differed from some earlier forms of conversion therapy, such as the practices of George RekersWikipedia (of NARTH) and Ole Ivar LovaasWikipedia (who themselves in turn cited earlier work by Richard Green and John Money on the subject).[9]:11–12 To quote in part:

Their [Kenneth Zucker and Susan Bradley's] proposed approach involves extensive testing and play psychotherapy and directs parents to discourage gender non-conforming behavior, to encourage participation in gender-conforming activities, and to encourage socializing with children of the same gender assigned at birth (Zucker et al., 2012). With regards to the treatment protocol, one substantial departure from the approach proposed by Rekers and Lovaas is their critique of behavioral therapy and reinforcement techniques. Their critique, however, does not lie in the radical or unethical nature of Rekers and Lovaas’ approach to gender non-conforming behavior but rather in its limitations. According to Zucker and Bradley, “[i]t is likely that the procedures used by behavior therapists do not fully alter internal gender schemas, and that as a result the children revert to their cross-gender behavioral preferences in the absence of external cues or incentives” (Zucker & Bradley, 1995, p. 273). As a result, they remove some behavioral interventions (they do not suggest a token system, for instance) and add other interventions intending to alter internal gender schemas. The underlying theory remains the same: marked gender non-conformity in children is disordered and must be corrected (Zucker, 2006, pp. 543–544).

Another departure from Rekers and Lovaas is their view of homosexuality. Unlike Rekers and Lovaas, they do not defend avoiding homosexuality as a legitimate clinical goal. Zucker and Bradley’s views on sexual orientation have evolved over the years and noticeably become more progressive. In their 1995 book, they were partly critical of seeking to discourage adult homosexuality they also demonstrated clear ambivalence towards it (p. 269): "Given that most parents, not surprisingly, prefer that their children not develop a homosexual orientation, the contemporary clinician must carefully think through the ethics of instituting treatment for this reason and the empirical evidence that treatment can have this effect." In 2012, they explained that “that the goal of treatment is not to prevent the child from developing a future homosexual sexual orientation”, though it may remain the goal of parents (Zucker et al., 2012, p. 390). It is unclear what is the ethical significance of no longer seeking to avoid later homosexuality if it continues to view childhood gender non-conformity as inherently problematic and adopts interventions similar to those of Rekers and Lovaas. Discouraging children who will grow up to be gay men from being effeminate is arguably a form of homophobia. Indeed, targeting gender non-conformity is one of the primary ways in which homophobia operates. Whether or not the ultimate goal of discouraging homosexuality is present, the proximate approach of discouraging and altering gender non-conformity remains.

The strict separation between preventing LGBQ outcomes and preventing trans outcomes used to distinguish Rekers and Lovaas’ conversion therapy and approaches that oppose gender affirmation, such as Zucker and Bradley’s corrective approach to children, is illusory. When it comes to youth, conversion therapy has historically targeted gender non-conformity, not gender identity or sexual orientation per se.[9]:12–13

Singal relays a number of talking points from people who worked at the clinic, such as a comparison between restraining gender-nonconforming behavior in children and preventing children from watching too much television. He also presents an argument from some people at the clinic that their critics were simply conflating sexual orientation and gender identity, and were somehow confused about this.[8][7] Singal also appears to find this meaningful because by his retelling of the CAMH-GIC clinicians perspective, sexual orientation "can't be changed" but gender identity is different and "isn't some hardwired thing".[8]

In the exact same article, Singal says the children under treatment would "have an increased likelihood of eventually identifying as gay or bisexual".[8] Coming into obvious play, then, would be Florence Ashley's above-quoted argument that clinical approaches which attempt to stamp out gender-nonconforming behavior in gay people are arguably homophobic, regardless of whether these approaches attempt to change a person's sexual orientation.[9]:12–13

2018 Atlantic cover story[edit]

Perhaps most notoriously, his 2018 article in The Atlantic appeared as a cover story for the magazine's print edition with the title "Your Child Says She's Trans. She Wants Hormones And Surgery. She's 13." The New Republic reported in 2019 that this was the only 21st century cover feature about any transgender topics that The Atlantic had ever yet published.[note 2][10] The magazine's cover matter was controversial by itself, as it also included a photo of a transgender model who did not go by she/her pronouns, next to that same title.[11] According to the Poynter Institute, who interviewed the model in question, he "had no idea he was even being considered for the cover." He stated: "It pretty much outed me and it was such a weird time." Poynter also reported that strangers in New York City began to recognize him due to the magazine cover.[11] The article's title was later changed to "When Children Say They're Trans" in the magazine's online edition.

The article itself portrays a lack of oversight for gender-affirming care, such as hormones and surgery, as a significant problem for transgender children in the United States, saying these children too often receive such care only to change their minds. The article was roundly criticized by many trans people and advocates for the trans community,[11] some of whom noted that even at the time, Singal had a history of transphobic and/or misleading articles taking a similar position.[12]

ThinkProgress published a critique of the article, among other things arguing Singal was too light on direct citations. The critique also stated that although Singal never directly mentions the unproven "rapid-onset gender dysphoria" (ROGD) hypothesis in his article, he interviewed a psychiatrist to whom he posed "questions about ROGD and transition regret."[13] Singal did directly write about "social contagion", which was a key speculative proposal in the first paper published about ROGD; in the Atlantic piece, Singal wrote that "some anecdotal evidence suggests that social forces can play a role in a young person's gender questioning." He then proceeds to cite thirdhand accounts — clinicians who heard from young transgender patients who in turn claimed other people their age were merely pretending to be transgender "for attention".[14] Although it occurs to Singal that peer pressure can lead young people to be more impressionable in some ways, it somehow doesn't occur to him that it can also lead them to be overly judgemental of each other.

The ThinkProgress critique also mentions that in at least one instance, a parent interviewed for the Atlantic article was from an anti-trans website called 4thWaveNow — which is not disclosed in the article — incidentally, this was one of the very same websites whose members were in the first place surveyed to cobble together the ROGD hypothesis as part of the Littman 2018 ROGD study.[13][15][16] Julia Serano also wrote a rough, lengthy timeline of "ROGD" and "social contagion" hypotheses — 4thWaveNow figures heavily into said timeline.[17]

The Atlantic themselves published a series of much shorter articles responding to Singal's,[18] though the original article doesn't link to these responses in any apparent way. One response written by sociologist Tey Meadow especially focused on the first "desister" mentioned in his article,[19] who was not actually diagnosed formally with gender dysphoria.[14] Meadow criticizes Singal's framing and "loaded language":

To position Claire as a 'desister' in the way Singal did is to participate in an inherently stigmatizing discourse with a very particular and damaging social history. The frames journalists use to discuss these controversial issues are themselves political and moral decisions, and ones of great consequence. … It's worth interrogating the origins and development of the idea of 'desistence.' This is not a value-neutral term. As the trans writer Julia Serano has noted, citing academic research, in criminological contexts, 'desistence' is used to denote the cessation of offensive or antisocial behavior. … It comes from an outmoded psychology organized around the assumption that there are only two forms of gender: normal and disordered. A person was once pathological or disordered, but now they are back on 'normal' ground. The idea that some children desist functions to support efforts to socialize children out of gender deviance, and to interpret those who do desist or re-transition as victims of abuse or false consciousness. (They were 'pushed too quickly into transition' or 'too young to really understand who or what they were.') But now, there are increasing numbers of clinicians who reject all of these premises, who don't think that trans identities are any less desirable than cisgender identities.[19]

Sam Seder criticized Singal's Atlantic cover story not so much on its technical merits but, essentially, on how he perceived its ultimate effects on the national conversation about transgender topics that could have negative effects beyond what Singal may agree with; he compared the dynamics of this to Sam Harris's 2005 The Huffington Post article called "In Defense of Torture", published amidst a national conversation about the use of torture (though Seder acknowledges the "extreme" nature of this analogy).[20]:1:54:36 Singal's article in The Atlantic was ultimately cited in at least one "federal lawsuit seeking to roll back the rights of transgender individuals."[11][16] Seder was not alone in observing this impact. It also worried one of Singal's own sources, Carey Callahan, a detransitioner interviewed for the Atlantic feature.[16]

Later commentary[edit]

Since the Atlantic article was published, Singal has positioned himself as, in the words of M.K. Anderson (writing four years later in 2022), "a cisgender, self-appointed expert on all things trans".[21]

Kiwi Farms[edit]

Singal defended Kiwi Farms on some points.[22]

Pedophilia[edit]

The area of sex research where both left and right are both most committed to motivated-reasoning-fueled wrongness is pedophilia
—Jesse Singal[23]

Singal and Herzog dedicated much of episode 80 for their Blocked and Reported podcast to discussing "gold-star pedophiles" (apparently Dan Savage's term),[24]:0:37:00 i.e. pedophiles who endeavor not to molest children.[24]:0:38:00 Singal comments that much of their coverage of the subject is informed by James Cantor.Wikipedia[24]:0:38:59 Cantor is a psychologist/sexologist who has advocated integrating pedophiles with the LGBT movement,[25][26] worked for conservative Christian Alliance Defending Freedom in the past as an expert witness,[27][28][29] and endorsed Ray Blanchard's "autogynephilia" theory.[28][30] Herzog refers to Cantor as "one of the foremost researchers on pedophilia".[24]:1:07:50

In the episode, it is argued that pedophilia is essentially a sexual orientation,[24]:0:37:00 & 0:43:00 & 0:58:00 and that stigmatizing pedophilia has potentially caused more harm than good.[24]:0:39:00 & 0:48:20 Herzog, arguing against an article by Anna Slatz about the pro-pedophile organization Prostasia,[24]:0:53:40 says pedophilic erotica should be legal for "free speech" reasons,[24]:0:56:20 also contrasting it with "actual kiddie porn" and citing conversations she had with pedophiles who claim this and other forms of fictional depictions of sex with children are "helpful" to prevent child molestation.[24]:0:56:50 She says that a rapist was charged for publishing written/drawn pedophilic erotica, and calls this "fuckin' thoughtcrime".[24]:0:55:20

Singal and Herzog discuss Prostasia's advocacy for the legality of child-like sex dolls,[24]:0:56:50 & 1:06:05 and a Discord chatroom "safe space"[24]:0:43:30 with hundreds of members[24]:0:48:50 that it "fiscally sponsored" that had both thirteen-year-olds and adult pedophiles in it.[24]:0:43:30 Herzog also mentions that the chatroom archives, then deletes, the chat history periodically after some months.[24]:0:51:45 The podcast defends the Prostasia organization,[24]:1:06:05 & 0:39:00 and said chatroom since there were reportedly "a ton of rules" including to prevent child grooming.[note 3][24]:0:45:00 "A fifteen-year-old in the group" told Herzog that he had never been groomed there but that he was suicidal;[24]:0:48:00 however Herzog acknowledges there was "at least one incident" of that kind.[24]:0:45:00

Herzog argued that thirteen-year-olds were in the chatroom because "pedophilia typically emerges around the age of twelve or thirteen",[24]:0:45:45 so Singal later concludes "thirteen-year-old pedophiles should have a place to talk about how to manage their condition or orientation or whatever you want to call it."[24]:1:13:48 He adds that a problem with the subject is that people conflate destigmatizing discussions about one's attraction to children with destigmatizing the act of having sex with children, and he attributes this to "some leftist communities", an example he cites being "some actual pedophiles in like LGBT groups and stuff" though he acknowledges most LGBT people are against that.[24]:0:49:40

They also discuss use of the term "minor-attracted person" ("MAP") as an alternative to the term "pedophile", and Herzog mentions her email exchange with an "actual pedophile" who explained that it was "pure hysteria" to believe the alternative term was coined to destigmatize pedophilia because it was "coined by mental health professionals and it's simply an umbrella term for pedophilia, hebephilia, et cetera."[24]:0:34:00 Herzog and Singal cite their own past work about pedophiles in The Stranger and New York magazine respectively as further reading on the topic,[24]:0:35:45 such as Singal's 2016 article "How Should Society Handle Pedophiles Who Haven't Hurt Anyone?" (which also heavily cites Cantor).[31] After Jeffrey Epstein's 2019 arrest, Singal and Herzog argued it was not technically correct to call Epstein a pedophile;[32][33] Singal also called this semantic distinction a "mainstream scientific opinion".[34] It isn't clear how young Epstein's youngest victims were, but at least one accuser claims that he sought girls "as young as I could find them".[35] One 2020 lawsuit alleges that he abused victims as young as eleven years old.[36]

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. Zucker worked at the same facility as Ray Blanchard; the latter's clinical interfacing was focused on adult transgender people.
  2. A similar "cover tease" article appeared in 2008 with the title "Should children have sex changes?". This was not a cover "feature", however.
  3. Assuming members were not required to install a literal keylogger of some kind, anyone who has used Discord for as much as a week may be able to tell you how naïve this is.

References[edit]

  1. "Jesse Singal biography: timeline to transphobia" - James, Andrea. Transgender Map.
  2. James, Andrea. "Katie Herzog vs transgender people". Transgender Map. 
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 Jesse Singal (December 30, 2015). "Why Some of the Worst Attacks on Social Science Have Come From Liberals". The Cut (New York magazine).
  4. Jesse Singal (June 26, 2018). "Haven't read piece but yes, I wrote review-essay about GMF and that was my introduction to these controversies". Twitter, via the Wayback Machine.
  5. (June 25, 2014). "We are Jesse Singal and Melissa Dahl from New York Magazine's Science of Us. We write about the science of human behavior, from health to productivity to politics. Ask us anything!". Reddit. Quote: "We're not trying to be scientists. We're trying to take the work they produce and distill/communicate it to the public when it's good, and push back skeptically when it ain't, as well as put certain findings into context when appropriate."
  6. (October 7, 2018). "CAMH reaches settlement with former head of gender identity clinic". CBC News (The Canadian Press).
  7. 7.0 7.1 Jesse Singal (January 27, 2016). "A False Accusation Helped Bring Down Kenneth Zucker, a Controversial Sex Researcher". Science of Us (The Cut at New York magazine).
  8. 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 Jesse Singal (February 7, 2016). "How the Fight Over Transgender Kids Got a Leading Sex Researcher Fired". Science of Us (The Cut at New York magazine).
  9. 9.0 9.1 9.2 Ashley, Florence (2020-10-01). "Homophobia, conversion therapy, and care models for trans youth: defending the gender-affirmative approach" (in en). Journal of LGBT Youth 17 (4): 1–23. doiWikipedia:10.1080/19361653.2019.1665610. ISSN 1936-1653. 
  10. Melissa Gira Grant (November 6, 2019). "Fixating on 'Cancel Culture' in an Age of Transphobia". The New Republic.
  11. 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 Sydney Bauer (September 4, 2020). "The Atlantic tried to artistically show gender dysphoria on its cover. Instead it damaged the trust of transgender readers." Poynter Institute.
  12. We warned The Atlantic about Jesse Singal, but they ignored us, Dawn Ennis, Medium, June 19, 2018
  13. 13.0 13.1 Zack Ford (June 20, 2018). "Atlantic cover story is a loud dog whistle for anti-transgender parents". ThinkProgress.
  14. 14.0 14.1 Jesse Singal (July/August 2018). "When Children Say They’re Trans". The Atlantic.
  15. (December 12, 2023). "Foundations of the Contemporary Anti-LGBTQ+ Pseudoscience Network". Southern Poverty Law Center. Quote: "In addition to posting original blogs and undertaking political activism in conjunction with conversion therapists, both 4thWaveNow and TransgenderTrendWikipedia cite several articles as authoritative sources for information on transgender identity including the work of other old guard scholars like McHugh and his ACPeds colleague Paul Hruz." Second quote: "Littman's paper was widely rejected by the scientific community for methodological and conceptual flaws, including recruiting anonymously from 4thWaveNow, TransgenderTrend and YTCP[.]"
  16. 16.0 16.1 16.2 Parks, Casey (December 27, 2023). "Her story fueled anti-trans bills. Now, she’s fighting them.". The Washington Post. "Between 2018 and 2019, Callahan criticized pediatric transition care in public talks and in a column on the anti-trans-medicalization website 4thWaveNow. She helped create a nonprofit to reform both trans and detransition health care. And she was featured in the Atlantic article “When Children Say They’re Transgender,” a lengthy portrait of children and adults who had once thought they were trans but decided they were wrong. … Callahan began to worry her words were leading to actions she didn’t support. Parents replied to her 4thWaveNow column insisting that their children had fallen victim to 'a social contagion.' The editor of a book Callahan contributed to said trans children 'don’t exist.' And a group of attorneys general cited the Atlantic article in a 2019 memo seeking to roll back trans medical rights." 
  17. Julia Serano (February 20, 2019). "Origins of 'Social Contagion' and 'Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria'". Whipping Girl (Blogger).
  18. "When Children Say They're Trans, Continued". The Atlantic.
  19. 19.0 19.1 Tey Meadow (July 10, 2018). "The Loaded Language Shaping the Trans Conversation". The Atlantic.
  20. (September 5, 2023). "MR Fun | 9/5/23". The Majority Report w/ Sam Seder (YouTube). URL is timestamped to when Jesse Singal calls in.
  21. Singal and the Noise, M.K. Anderson, Protean, April 22, 2022
  22. See: Kiwi Farms § Jesse Singal.
  23. Jesse Singal (July 16, 2017). "The area of sex research where both left and right are both most committed to motivated-reasoning-fueled wrongness is pedophilia". Twitter.
  24. 24.00 24.01 24.02 24.03 24.04 24.05 24.06 24.07 24.08 24.09 24.10 24.11 24.12 24.13 24.14 24.15 24.16 24.17 24.18 24.19 24.20 24.21 24.22 24.23 Jesse Singal and Katie Herzog (September 3, 2021). "Episode 80: Because God Hates Us Or Is Dead, Here's A Whole Episode About Noah Berlatsky And Pedophilia". Blocked and Reported (Substack).
  25. James Cantor (December 8, 2018). "Speaking as a gay men, I believe we SHOULD include the P. To do otherwise is to betray the principles that give us our rights." Twitter. This was in response to a post by the group "Virtuous Pedophiles".
  26. Lee Leveille (April 2, 2022). "Leaked audio confirms Genspect director as anti-trans conversion therapist targeting youth". Health Liberation Now!.
  27. (July 15, 2022). "Researchers blast Florida’s transgender treatment plan as 'incorrect and scientifically unfounded'". Orlando Sentinel.
  28. 28.0 28.1 Molly Redden (September 15, 2023). "Inside The Cottage Industry Of 'Experts' Paid To Defend Anti-Trans Laws". HuffPost.
  29. Dara Kam (January 24, 2023). "Florida runs up a $1.3 million tab in the Medicaid transgender case". Health News Florida.
  30. Julia Serano (July 13, 2015). "The real 'autogynephilia deniers'". Whipping Girl (Blogspot). Post cites a tweet by Cantor on the subject.
  31. Jesse Singal (April 13, 2016). "How Should Society Handle Pedophiles Who Haven’t Hurt Anyone?". The Cut (New York magazine).
  32. Jesse Singal (July 19, 2019). "On Jeffrey Epstein And Pedophilia And Journalism And Online Outrage". Singal-Minded (Substack).
  33. Katie Herzog (July 15, 2019). "Jeffrey Epstein Is a Horrifying Person, But That Doesn't Mean He's a Pedophile". The Stranger.
  34. Jesse Singal (July 19, 2019). "Katie Herzog is right about the Jeffrey Epstein (not) pedophilia thing, and it's very circa-2019 journalism for her to get shellacked online, by people who have not a clue what they are talking about, for expressing a mainstream scientific opinion". Twitter, via archive.today.
  35. Erica Schwiegershausen (July 19, 2019). "Will We Ever Know How Many Girls Jeffrey Epstein Abused?". The Cut (New York magazine).
  36. Clark Mindock (January 15, 2020). "Jeffrey Epstein abused girls as young as 11 on secluded private island, lawsuit says". The Independent.