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Jesse Singal

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Jesse Singal (1983–)[1] is an American journalist, podcaster, and Substack blogger who specializes in needling progressives on controversial social issues all the while putting on the front of being a "moderate" liberal who is supposedly just writing the truth about the stories that impact our world. Sound familiar? Singal has a master's degree in public affairs from Princeton University.[2] He became known for his works on Gamergate and later on transgender people (with brief crossover). His works on gender identity attempted, among other things, to define conversion therapy contrary to the findings of the US Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration or major medical organizations at the time.[3][4]:64[5]:31

Fellow transphobic cosplay liberal Katie Herzog, who wrote controversial articles for The Stranger about detransitioners before leaving the paper as a result of public controversy,[6] co-hosts the podcast Blocked and Reported with Singal. The pair will sometimes needle both sides,[7] such as when they argued that child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein was technically not a pedophile.[8][9][10] In the media world, this kind of pedantry earns one the label "heterodox".[11]:4:25

In the past, he edited a social science blog for New York magazine, where he published riveting articles about Gamergate,[12][13] straight men having "bud sex" with each other,[14][15][16] attraction to middle-aged people being "a sexual orientation",[17][note 1] and in fact some less strange topics than those. Singal's spats with alt-right bozos like Baked Alaska,[18] Candace Owens,[19] and Mike Cernovich[20] probably ended up being a point in his favor by reverse-association.

Gamergate[edit]

For more information, see: Timeline of Gamergate

Singal used to write video game reviews for the Boston Globe, so naturally Gamergate would have caught his attention. Beginning in 2014, he wrote articles critical of Gamergate as a "supernova of dysfunctional male angst", harassment, and strange conspiracy theories.[21][12][19][22] One of his top-read articles from this period was probably Gamergate Should Stop Lying to Journalists — and Itself, in which he said:

I think Gamergate is primarily about anger at progressive people who care about feminism and transgender rights and mental health and whatever else is getting involved in gaming, and by what gamergaters see as overly solicitous coverage of said individuals and their games. And here's the thing: That's fine! It’s an opinion I happen to disagree with, but it's a coherent, concrete viewpoint. Say what you will about the tenets of anti-progressivism, dude, but at least it's an ethos.
—Jesse Singal[13]

Despite this, he soon started complaining about "Tumblr Twitter" following backlash to his article on Zucker. Comparing "Tumblr Twitter" to Gamergate, he stated: "Guys GamerGate is just doing their smug bullshit. Tumblr twitter was 100000 times worse and more abusive tonight. No comparison."[23] This was after Singal used the hashtag "#GamerGate" in response to a negative post about his article that had nothing to do with GamerGate.[24] In response to accusations this was a method to bring harassment against the person being quote-tweeted, he said: "I didn't intentionally get anyone harassed. A lot of these people are not stable, at least the ones here tonight".[25] According to Julia Serano, he (among other things) later again added the #GamerGate hashtag to a Medium blogpost criticizing someone, before removing the tag.[26]

Singal later also began distinguishing between "video-game culture warriors, or VGCWs" and Gamergaters.[27] In 2024, Singal and Herzog released a podcast episode on GamerGate and they rip on Zoe Quinn's Depression Quest as well as her ex-boyfriend and their "totally broken relationship".[28]:1:30 Singal states GamerGate was partly about gamers feeling slighted by Jezebel-reading "feminist Mean Girl types who did seem to enjoy some mainstream cache and acceptance, they were the cool kids." He adds the anti-GamerGate feminists were angry at gamers for being "entitled white males", and that it's "not going to go over well to tell them they're privileged, because of how they felt". He then compares it to "wandering around in an opioid-ravaged town in West Virginia lecturing about white privilege".[28]:12:19

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.[29] According to Singal years later, this "review-essay" for Dreger's book was his "introduction to these controversies" regarding trans issues.[30]

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",[29] despite Bailey and Blanchard's theories being very dubious at best on any thorough examination.[31][32][33] 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.[34][35] Singal attempted 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".[29] 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).[36][note 2]

CAMH youth gender clinic[edit]

Zucker didn't do conversion therapy
—Jesse Singal[3]
Conversion therapy: Efforts to change an individual's sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression through behavioral health or medical interventions.
—The US Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration[4]:64
Zucker believes that toleration and encouragement of feminine play and dress prevents the child from accepting his maleness. … Inconsistent parenting like this is ineffective in stamping out any kind of unwanted behavior.
J. Michael Bailey,[5]:31[38] Zucker's "close colleague and friend"[39]

Singal's 2016 articles about another clinician, Ken Zucker, present another picture of an expert besieged by "activists". Zucker was accused of conversion therapy practices for at least some of his young patients.[40][note 3] Zucker was ultimately 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. Singal was contacted (according to the two in question) by biologist Julia Serano, and one of Zucker's disgruntled former patients (Erika Muse);[41][42] Serano wanted to speak on "the history behind these kinds of clinics". Neither of them were quoted in Singal's articles on Zucker.[43] Muse alleges that Singal "never even responded".[44][45]

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).[46]: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.[46]: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.[47][48] 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".[47] (Incidentally, Singal also wrote an article in 2014 highly skeptical of how hardwired sexual orientation is — framed in terms of a scientist versus "gay rights activists", familiarly.[49])

Singal says the children under Zucker's treatment would "have an increased likelihood of eventually identifying as gay or bisexual".[47] Coming into play, then, is 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.[46]:12–13 When Singal published his articles on Zucker, the US Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services AdministrationWikipedia (SAMHSA) defined conversion therapy as, based on consensus statements from a number of relevant expert groups: "efforts to change an individual's sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression".[4]:1

Zucker's clinic previously diagnosed patients with "gender identity disorder in children" (GIDC), a now-antiquated diagnosis[50] that had long been criticized for "undermin[ing], rather than support[ing], [a] child's well-being",[51] with one critique from 2004 noting that it pathologized gender non-conformity; the 2004 paper also notes, "According to Zucker and Bradley (1995), the treatment of children diagnosed with Gender Identity Disorder is usually undertaken to reduce their experience of social ostracism and its psychopathological sequelae, or to prevent their becoming either homosexual or transsexual adults."[52] An article in the November 1997 issue of The Advocate contains allegations (corroborated by the government of San Francisco a year earlier[53]) the pathologization of homosexuality continued in some cases under the guise of GID diagnoses. The article also quotes Zucker, who said: "[Joseph] Nicolosi may want to pathologize homosexuality, but most of us want to make a child feel better about being a boy or a girl. If parents want their kids to be straight, it's because they want them to have an easier life."[54]:55–59

Thus, this overly-broad version of the diagnosis was used in many cases to clump together gender-nonconforming, gay, and/or trans people alike. Zucker and colleagues argued as late as 2012 that "prevention of transsexualism" could be a desirable treatment goal under some circumstances.[55]:391–392 Zucker himself helped to reform the GIDC diagnosis in 2013, which included its reconstitution as "gender dysphoria";[56] his appointment to the committee dedicated to this reorganization was met with some controversy.[57][58][59]

In 1990, Zucker and Bradley wrote that boys with high vocal pitch and flamboyant wrist posture have indicators for possible GIDC that could cause "social ostracism" (citing George Rekers).Wikipedia They add that "high tolerance for the continuation of the cross-gender behaviour" could result in "risk for post-pubertal gender dysphoria" unless there is "intervention or limit-setting".[60] In another 1990 paper, Zucker writes of "rationale for the treatment of cross-gender identification in children [for] the prevention of transsexualism in adulthood",[61]:30 and adds: "My own clinical experience suggests that treatment is most effective before puberty and that the desire to change sex becomes much more difficult to shift in adolescence (Zucker et al. 1986)."[61]:40

Accounts appeared in news profiles of Zucker's patients, such as this one on NPR:

Whenever Zucker encounters a child younger than 10 with gender identity disorder, he tries to make the child comfortable with the sex he or she was born with. So, to treat Bradley, Zucker explained to Carol that she and her husband would have to radically change their parenting. Bradley would no longer be allowed to spend time with girls. He would no longer be allowed to play with girlish toys or pretend that he was a female character. Zucker said that all of these activities were dangerous to a kid with gender identity disorder. He explained that unless Carol and her husband helped the child to change his behavior, as Bradley grew older, he likely would be rejected by both peer groups. Boys would find his feminine interests unappealing. Girls would want more boyish boys. Bradley would be an outcast.[62][63]

Or this in The Atlantic:

When he was 4, the boy, John, had tested at the top of the gender-dysphoria scale. … His parents, well-educated urbanites, let John grow his hair long and play with whatever toys he preferred. But then a close friend led them to Zucker, and soon they began to see themselves as “in denial,” recalls his mother, Caroline. … When they reversed course, they dedicated themselves to the project with a thoroughness most parents would find exhausting and off-putting. They boxed up all of John’s girl-toys and videos and replaced them with neutral ones. Whenever John cried for his girl-toys, they would ask him, “Do you think playing with those would make you feel better about being a boy?” and then would distract him … They turned their house into a 1950s kitchen-sink drama, intended to inculcate respect for patriarchy, in the crudest and simplest terms: “Boys don’t wear pink, they wear blue,” they would tell him, or “Daddy is smarter than Mommy — ask him.” If John called for Mommy in the middle of the night, Daddy went, every time. … Recently, John was in the basement watching the Grammys. When Caroline walked downstairs to say good night, she found him draped in a blanket, vamping. He looked up at her, mortified.[64][65]

By the way, Singal is confident enough to say: "Zucker didn't do conversion therapy".[3]

It has been suggested that the accusations Zucker practiced conversion therapy were discredited, partly 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.[66] 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.[48] 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.[67] Singal calls the "hairy little vermin" claim the "most spectacular" and "most serious allegation" in the review.[47] 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.

2018 Atlantic cover story[edit]

The voices Singal leads with and chooses to center … create an unbalanced and woefully incomplete depiction of the trans community.
[68]

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 heretofore published.[note 4][69] 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.[70] 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.[70] 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 that 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,[70] some of whom noted that even at the time, Singal had a history of transphobic and/or misleading articles taking a similar position.[71] A number of publications critiqued Singal's article, including Slate,[40] The New Republic,[69] Wired,[72] Logo,[68] Advocate,[73] TransAdvocate,[74] and This.[75]

In the ThinkProgress critique, they argued among other things that 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."[76] 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 third-hand accounts — clinicians who heard from young transgender patients who in turn claimed other people their age were merely pretending to be transgender "for attention".[77] 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.[76][78][79] Julia Serano also wrote a rough, lengthy timeline of "ROGD" and "social contagion" hypotheses — 4thWaveNow figures heavily into said timeline.[80]

The Atlantic themselves published a series of much shorter articles responding to Singal's,[81] 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,[82] who was not actually diagnosed formally with gender dysphoria.[77] 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.[82]

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).[83]: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."[70][79] Seder was not alone in observing this impact. The article also worried one of Singal's own sources, Carey Callahan, a detransitioner interviewed for the Atlantic feature.[79]

After the article was published, some internal communications were leaked between Singal and other journalists. In which, Singal compares trans people disagreeing with him about desistance to Jews who believed in "Israel's righteousness" after the Holocaust, arguing they both have "groupthink" from being "insular communities forged by marginalization".[note 5] Also bringing up Julia Serano, who has a PhD in biochemistry and molecular biophysics, he insinuated she isn't "more qualified to write about about[sic] the tricky science stuff going on here than I am", despite Singal not actually being a scientist.[85][26][86]

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".[67]

Jamie Reed[edit]

Emma Vigeland: Has Jamie Reed been discredited, or no? …
Jesse Singal: She has not been discredited.
The Majority Report with Sam Seder, September 2023[83]:2:09:50
Contrary to Reed's claim that the center prescribed hormones sometimes after just one visit, parents and patients said it took multiple appointments over a period of months or longer to reach that point in treatment, describing a deliberate and methodical process. … Also speaking out is Jess Jones, a transgender former co-worker of Reed's, whom the Post-Dispatch reported “bristled at the way they said Reed sometimes spoke about patients.” They said that Reed had wanted patients to take an IQ test before being given access to puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones in order to confirm their ability to consent.
Intelligencer, March 2023[87]

In 2023, Jamie Reed, an ex-employee for Washington University Transgender Center at St. Louis Children's Hospital, leaked purported patient information and claimed poor practices took place at the clinic. This ultimately led to formal complaints concerning alleged HIPAAWikipedia violations.[88][89][90] Many families served by the clinic disputed Reed's key claims.[91][87][92] An internal review by Washington University also failed to verify her claims.[93][94][95] Despite this, Bari Weiss's The Free Press,[96][95][97] Jesse Singal,[83]:2:09:50 and even The New York Times[98][96][99] lent some credence to Reed's claims.

According to Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR), Reed is affiliated with Genspect (designated a hate group by the SPLC in 2024[100]), and made "incredibly bizarre claims, suggesting a lack of knowledge about gender-affirming treatments" such as that the treatments should be tested in animals.[98] Reed also claimed that puberty blockers caused liver damage in one patient, which was directly disputed by the family of said patient, who said it was instead caused by a COVID-19 medication.[98][101] Per Them, Reed claimed "that puberty blockers cause menopause, that TikTok turns kids trans, that trans identity spreads through social contagion, and that a child literally identified as an attack helicopter."[102][103] Reed further claimed other children at the clinic identified as a "mushroom", or a "rock". Drawing from her exchanges with Jesse Singal, some commentators saw contradictions between her own statements. Even Singal seemed to see contradictions.[104][105]

Concerning Reed's claim that a teenager who was a patient at the clinic identified as a "communist attack helicopter",[106] Singal stated: "It could certainly be the case that Reed is not telling the truth, but she provided me with full blow-by-blow details of the incident that sparked the helicopter-child reference in her affidavit. And it lines up with what has happened elsewhere. … When I asked Erica Anderson if she found Reed's claim credible, she said one of her own patients recently said they identified as a raccoon. So, yes."[107] Three years prior, Singal wrote a blog post where the first sentence was: "'I sexually identify as an attack helicopter' is a meme used to make fun of trans people."[108]

2024 Summer Olympics[edit]

In 2024, Singal insulted the work of some mainstream journalists — skeptical reporting towards highly dubious[109][110][111] accusations that Olympian athlete Imane KhelifWikipedia (a cisgender woman, mind you) was transgender or intersex; Singal called reporting by Axios "absolutely bankrupt, pathetic journalism"[112] and suggested people read an article by Quillette instead of one by The Associated Press.[113] (Quillette often hosts racist and eugenicist writers,[114] and there were suspicions that the controversy around Khelif's sex was fueled by racial prejudice.[115][116])

The (denied) accusations that Khelif is intersex stem, under strange circumstances, from the International Boxing Association (IBA), a discredited Russian-run sports body known among other things for its ties to Russian organized crime, drug trafficking, and the Russian state-run gas company Gazprom.[111] The IBA began claiming that Khelif was intersex after she defeated an until-then undefeated Russian competitor.[111] The International Olympic Committee expelled the IBA,[111] and accused it of fueling a "disinformation campaign against the Olympic movement."[117] The IBA has contradicted its own claims about Khelif, once stating she did not fail a testosterone test, and another time claiming that she did.[118]

Apologetics for pedophiles[edit]

See the main article on this topic: Pedophilia
The area of sex research where both left and right are both most committed to motivated-reasoning-fueled wrongness is pedophilia
—Jesse Singal[7]

In Singal's coverage of the topic for New York magazine, where he wrote a story about a British charity hotline for pedophiles whom he claims "endlessly shaming, ostracizing, and punishing pedophiles may do more harm than good"[119] as well as an article criticizing the progressive internet tabloid Salon for removing the essay "I'm a pedophile, but not a monster" by Todd Nickerson from its website in the wake of public outrage over Milo Yiannopoulos's pro-pedophilia comments,[120] saying the essay was in no way promoting sexual abuse of children and arguing that we as a society should listen to voices like Nickerson's in order to be understand issues like pedophilia better and learn how to combat it.[121]

In these examples, Singal often gives pedophiles the benefit of the doubt, while glossing over the possibility of these individuals lying about their behavior and intentions in order to appear more harmless than they actually are, which sexual predators are often known to do.[122] Compare this to other journalists investigating self-proclaimed "virtuous pedophiles": some of whom have warned that it is almost impossible to corroborate any of their stories, with Alexander McBride noting in his Vice News piece on one such online group that "many of these claims [of not offending] cannot be verified. Perhaps some are using VirPed as a cover-up; perhaps some, who were even more daring, saw my photo story as a way to prove they had nothing to hide. I cannot guarantee that this is not the case and I can understand why many would be suspicious."[123]

Singal justifies these stances by portraying pedophilia less as an irredeemable crime and more as a tragic condition misunderstood by the public, while claiming this framework is completely validated by scientific research and necessary to keep children safe from abusers.

In their Blocked and Reported podcast, Singal and Herzog dedicated much of episode 80 to discussing "gold-star pedophiles" (apparently Dan Savage's term),[124]:0:37:00 i.e. pedophiles who endeavor not to molest children.[124]:0:38:00 Singal comments that much of their coverage of the subject is informed by James Cantor.Wikipedia[124]:0:38:59 Cantor is a crank psychologist/sexologist who infamously has advocated integrating pedophiles with the LGBT movement,[125][126][127] worked for conservative Christian Alliance Defending Freedom in the past as an expert witness,[128][129][130] and endorsed Ray Blanchard's widely debunked "autogynephilia" theory.[129][131][note 6] Herzog refers to Cantor as "one of the foremost researchers on pedophilia".[124]:1:07:50

In the episode, it is argued that pedophilia is essentially a sexual orientation,[124]:0:37:00 & 0:43:00 & 0:58:00 and that stigmatizing pedophilia has potentially caused more harm than good.[124]:0:39:00 & 0:48:20 Herzog, arguing against an article by Anna Slatz about the pro-pedophile organization Prostasia,[124]:0:53:40 says pedophilic erotica should be legal for "free speech" reasons,[124]: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.[124]:0:56:50 She says that a rapist was charged for publishing written/drawn pedophilic erotica, and calls this "fuckin' thoughtcrime".[124]:0:55:20

Singal and Herzog discuss Prostasia's advocacy for the legality of child-like sex dolls,[124]:0:56:50 & 1:06:05 and a Discord chatroom "safe space"[124]:0:43:30 with hundreds of members[124]:0:48:50 that it "fiscally sponsored" that had both thirteen-year-olds and adult pedophiles in it.[124]:0:43:30 Herzog also mentions that the chatroom archives, then deletes, the chat history periodically after some months.[124]:0:51:45 The podcast defends the Prostasia organization,[124]:1:06:05 & 0:39:00 and said chatroom since there were reportedly "a ton of rules" including to prevent child grooming.[note 7][124]:0:45:00 "A fifteen-year-old in the group" told Herzog that he had never been groomed there but that he was suicidal;[124]:0:48:00 however Herzog acknowledges there was "at least one incident" of that kind.[124]:0:45:00

Herzog argued that thirteen-year-olds were in the chatroom because "pedophilia typically emerges around the age of twelve or thirteen",[124]: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."[124]: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.[124]: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 euphemism 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."[124]: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,[124]:0:35:45 such as Singal's 2016 article "How Should Society Handle Pedophiles Who Haven't Hurt Anyone?" (which also heavily cites Cantor).[132] After Jeffrey Epstein's 2019 arrest, Singal and Herzog argued it was not technically correct to call Epstein a pedophile;[8][9][10] Singal also called this semantic distinction a "mainstream scientific opinion".[133] 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".[134] One 2020 lawsuit alleges that he abused victims as young as eleven years old.[135]

See also[edit]

External links[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. He cites Michael C. Seto for this, a former Centre for Addiction and Mental HealthWikipedia (CAMH) researcher. Incidentally, many of the researchers he cited while editing Science of Us were linked to CAMH in some way or another.
  2. Most science journalists do however have one or more university degrees in science.[37]
  3. Zucker worked at the same facility as Ray Blanchard; the latter's clinical interfacing was focused on adult transgender people.
  4. A similar "cover tease" article appeared in 2008 with the title "Should children have sex changes?". This was not a cover "feature", however.
  5. Singal is himself a Jew who has written about antisemitism.[84]
  6. Cantor was previously Blanchard's intern at CAMH, which may be how he adopted the theory.
  7. 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. Zach Schonfeld (March 20, 2018). "The Oldest Millennials Were Born in 1981. Are They Even Really Millennials?". Newsweek.
  2. About Me Jesse Singal (archived from August 8, 2017).
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 Jesse Singal (May 7, 2017). "Can you point me to where I support conversion therapy? Zucker didn't do conversion therapy". Twitter, via archive.today. (Second archive). (Original tweet).
  4. 4.0 4.1 4.2 (October 2015). "Ending Conversion Therapy: Supporting and Affirming LGBTQ Youth". Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). (PDF.) Publication ID: SMA15-4928.

    The conclusions in this report are based on professional consensus statements arrived at by experts in the field. Specifically, conversion therapy—efforts to change an individual’s sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression—is a practice that is not supported by credible evidence and has been disavowed by behavioral health experts and associations. … Interventions aimed at a fixed outcome, such as gender conformity or heterosexual orientation, including those aimed at changing gender identity, gender expression, and sexual orientation are coercive, can be harmful, and should not be part of behavioral health treatment. (American Psychiatric Association, 2013b; American Psychological Association, 2010; National Association of Social Workers, 2008).

  5. 5.0 5.1 Bailey, J. Michael (2003). The Man Who Would Be Queen: The Science of Gender-Bending and Transsexualism. Joseph Henry Press. ISBN 978-0-309-08418-5. 

    Zucker believes that toleration and encouragement of feminine play and dress prevents the child from accepting his maleness. … Inconsistent parenting like this is ineffective in stamping out any kind of unwanted behavior.

  6. Evan Urquhart (February 1, 2021). "An 'Ex-Detransitioner' Disavows the Anti-Trans Movement She Helped Spark". Slate.

    [Schevers] was interviewed for two major articles on detransition … [including one by] Katie Herzog for the Stranger in 2017. Both pieces tell the story of Schevers identifying as male when she entered college, starting testosterone therapy soon after her mother's death by suicide, and going off testosterone while still identifying as genderqueer. They end with her giving up her genderqueer identity and embracing the idea that not only her gender dysphoria but all gender dysphoria was false and caused by internalized sexism combined with trauma — an idea that she then did much to advance and proliferate online. Today, however, Schevers has recanted this view. According to her, like the ex-gays of the 1990s and 2000s — many of whom claimed they 'overcame' their sexuality after religious conversion, only to reaffirm it later — some detransitioned people still struggle in private against feelings of gender dysphoria that they can never fully suppress.

  7. 7.0 7.1 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 (archived from Febuary 20, 2021).
  8. 8.0 8.1 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 (archived from February 20, 2021).
  9. 9.0 9.1 Jesse Singal (July 19, 2019). "On Jeffrey Epstein And Pedophilia And Journalism And Online Outrage". Singal-Minded (Substack).
  10. 10.0 10.1 Katie Herzog (July 15, 2019). "Jeffrey Epstein Is a Horrifying Person, But That Doesn't Mean He's a Pedophile". The Stranger.
  11. Megyn Kelly (April 25, 2024). "Are We Past the Worst of the Cancelations in Our Culture? With Katie Herzog and Jesse Singal"[sic] The Megyn Kelly Show (YouTube). Quote: "People who are more heterodox, as I know you guys are on certain issues, and have faced so-called cancellation…".
  12. 12.0 12.1 Jesse Singal (October 16, 2014). "Gamergate’s Silver Lining". The Cut (New York magazine).
  13. 13.0 13.1 Jesse Singal (October 20, 2014). "Gamergate Should Stop Lying to Journalists — and Itself". The Cut (New York magazine).
  14. Jesse Singal (December 18, 2016). "The Phenomenon of ‘Bud Sex’ Between Straight Rural Men". Science of Us (New York magazine).
  15. Jesse Singal (August 5, 2015). "Why Straight Men Have Sex With Each Other". The Cut (New York magazine).
  16. Jesse Singal (February 14, 2017). "How Straight Men Who Have Sex With Men Explain Their Encounters". The Cut (New York magazine).
  17. Jesse Singal (August 23, 2016). "Being Into Middle-Aged People Is Probably a Sexual Orientation". Science of Us (New York magazine).
  18. Alex Griswold (December 27, 2016). "Alt-Right in Civil War After Prominent Leader Disinvited From Pro-Trump ‘DeploraBall’". Mediaite.
  19. 19.0 19.1 Aidan McLaughlin (February 4, 2023). "Reporter Posts Private Email From Candace Owens Threatening Him With Sexual Innuendo Over Negative Story". Mediaite.
  20. Mike Cernovich (April 25, 2016). "I'm 100% sure @jessesingal is a sexual predator. He has all the telltale signs of a date rapist." Twitter, via archive.today.
  21. Jesse Singal (September 20, 2014). "Gaming’s summer of rage". Boston Globe.
  22. Jesse Singal (November 4, 2014). "Explaining the Roots of Gamer Rage". The Cut (New York magazine).
  23. Jesse Singal (February 9, 2016). "Guys GamerGate is just doing their smug bullshit. Tumblr twitter was 100000 times worse and more abusive tonight. No comparison." Twitter, via archive.today. (Original link).
  24. Jesse Singal (February 9, 2016). "Absolutely 100% identical to #GamerGate tactics. Screengrab and send to employer. Classy stuff." Twitter, via the Wayback Machine.
  25. Jesse Singal (February 9, 2016). "I didn't intentionally get anyone harassed. A lot of these people are not stable, at least the ones here tonight". Twitter, via the Wayback Machine.
  26. 26.0 26.1 Julia Serano (December 5, 2017). "my Jesse Singal story". Whipping Girl.
  27. Jesse Singal (September 30, 2016). "Why the Video-Game Culture Wars Won’t Die". Intelligencer (New York magazine).
  28. 28.0 28.1 (March 27, 2024). "Premium: #GamerGate Revisited". Blocked and Reported.
  29. 29.0 29.1 29.2 Jesse Singal (December 30, 2015). "Why Some of the Worst Attacks on Social Science Have Come From Liberals". The Cut (New York magazine).
  30. 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.
  31. Moser, Charles (2010-06-30). "Blanchard's Autogynephilia Theory: A Critique" (in en). Journal of Homosexuality 57 (6): 790–809. doiWikipedia:10.1080/00918369.2010.486241. ISSN 0091-8369. 
  32. Madeline H. Wyndzen. "Autogynephilia & Ray Blanchard's Mis-Directed Sex-Drive Model of Transsexuality", index. GenderPsychology.
  33. Ray Blanchard (February 28, 2017). "I was recently asked if I think bisexual MTF trans exist. I think quasi- or pseudobisexual MTF trans exist." Twitter, via the Wayback Machine.
  34. Blanchard, Ray (2005-08-01). "Early History of the Concept of Autogynephilia" (in en). Archives of Sexual Behavior 34 (4): 439–446. doiWikipedia:10.1007/s10508-005-4343-8. ISSN 1573-2800. "This had suggested that heterosexual, asexual, and bisexual transsexuals are more similar to each other—and to transvestites—than any of them is to the homosexual type, and that the common feature in transvestites and the three types of non-homosexual transsexuals is a history of erotic arousal in association with the thought or image of themselves as women. … To fill this terminological and conceptual gap, the writer introduced the term autogynephilia (love of oneself as a woman)." 
  35. Serano, Julia (2020). "Autogynephilia: A scientific review, feminist analysis, and alternative ‘embodiment fantasies’ model". The Sociological Review 68 (4): 763–778. doiWikipedia:10.1177/0038026120934690. ISSN 0038-0261. 
  36. (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.

    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.

  37. Science Writer Purdue University.
  38. (April 7, 2022). "Conversion Therapy on Transgender and Gender-Diverse Children". TransEssays (Medium). (Archived).
  39. Kristina Fiore (May 24, 2023). "Sexual Behavior Journal Under Fire Over Gender Dysphoria Paper". MedPage Today. Quote: "Though editor Zucker is a close colleague and friend, Bailey said…"
  40. 40.0 40.1 Alex Barasch (June 20, 2018). "Sacred Bodies". Slate.
  41. (2020) "14th meeting of the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights, Bill C-6, Number 014, 43rd Parliament, 2nd Session". Parliament of Canada.

    My name is Erika Muse and I am a survivor of trans conversion therapy. I underwent conversion therapy at the now-closed youth gender clinic at the Centre for Addictions and Mental Health, CAMH, in Toronto, with Kenneth Zucker. … Dr. Zucker saw me as a patient for seven years, from the ages of 16 to 23, and denied me trans-affirming health care in the form of both hormones and surgery until I was 22. Dr. Zucker instead put me through what he has termed “desistance treatment” for trans youth. He interrogated me in talk therapy for hours at a time, inquisitorially attacking, damaging and attempting to destroy my identity and my self-esteem, and to make me ashamed and hateful of myself.

  42. Cristan Williams. "#DiscoSexology Part V: An Interview With Zucker’s Patient". TransAdvocate.
  43. Melissa Gira Grant (February 16, 2016). "After the Transgender Tipping Point". The Pacific Standard.
  44. Erika Muse (February 11, 2016). "As a survivor of Zucker's clinic I gave Singal the benefit of the doubt but he has repeatedly justified ruining lives." Twitter, via archive.today. (Original link).
  45. Erika Muse (August 22, 2020). "Fun story: when Singal came out swinging defending Kenneth Zucker, he said he’d never heard any responses from any of Zucker’s actual patients criticizing him. I sent Singal my experiences as Zucker’s patient and he never even responded." Twitter, via the Wayback Machine.
  46. 46.0 46.1 46.2 Ashley, Florence (2020-10-01). "Homophobia, conversion therapy, and care models for trans youth: defending the gender-affirmative approach". Journal of LGBT Youth 17 (4): 1–23. doiWikipedia:10.1080/19361653.2019.1665610. ISSN 1936-1653.  For a brief article summarizing this, see here. For a freely readable PDF of the journal article that was uploaded by its author, see here.
  47. 47.0 47.1 47.2 47.3 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).
  48. 48.0 48.1 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).
  49. Jesse Singal (June 16, 2014). "What If Gay-Rights Advocates’ 'Born This Way' Argument Is Wrong?". The Cut (New York magazine).
  50. Kelly Winters. "The New York Magazine lies to parents about trans children". TransAdvocate.
  51. Hegarty, Peter (2009). "Toward an LGBT-informed paradigm for children who break gender norms: Comment on Drummond et al. (2008) and Rieger et al. (2008)." (in en). Developmental Psychology 45 (4): 895–900. doiWikipedia:10.1037/a0016163. ISSN 1939-0599. 
  52. Langer, Susan J.; Martin, James I. (2004-02-01). "How Dresses Can Make You Mentally Ill: Examining Gender Identity Disorder in Children" (in en). Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal 21 (1): 5–23. doiWikipedia:10.1023/B:CASW.0000012346.80025.f7. ISSN 1573-2797. 
  53. "Resolution condemning use of gender identity disorder diagnosis against children and youth", September 11, 1996 resolution and September 12, 1996 resolution. Human Rights Commission, City and County of San Francisco.
  54. Robert L. Pela (November 11, 1997). "Boys in the dollhouse, girls with toy trucks". The Advocate, issue 746.
  55. Zucker, Kenneth J.; Wood, Hayley; Singh, Devita; Bradley, Susan J. (2012). "A developmental, biopsychosocial model for the treatment of children with gender identity disorder". Journal of Homosexuality 59 (3): 369–397. doiWikipedia:10.1080/00918369.2012.653309. ISSN 1540-3602. PMID 22455326. 
  56. Davy, Zowie; Toze, Michael (2018). "What Is Gender Dysphoria? A Critical Systematic Narrative Review" (in en). Transgender Health 3 (1): 159–169. doiWikipedia:10.1089/trgh.2018.0014. ISSN 2380-193X. PMID 30426079. 
  57. Brian Alexander (May 22, 2008). "What's ‘normal’ sex? Shrinks seek definition". NBC News.
  58. (May 28, 2008). "Task Force questions critical appointments to APA’s Committee on Sexual and Gender Identity Disorders". National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.
  59. Cynthya BrianKate (March 30, 2010). "The Feminine Boy Project Still Threatens Gender Expression". Stony Brook Press.
  60. Bradley, Susan J.; Zucker, Kenneth J. (1990). "Gender Identity Disorder and Psychosexual Problems in Children and Adolescents". The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry 35 (6): 477–486. doiWikipedia:10.1177/070674379003500603. ISSN 0706-7437. 
  61. 61.0 61.1 Ken Zucker (January 1990). "Treatment of gender identity disorders in children". ResearchGate. (Also found in the book: Clinical Management of Gender Identity Disorders in Children and Adults, pp.27-45. American Psychiatric Press. Editors: R Blanchard, BW Steiner).
  62. Alix Spiegel (May 7, 2008). "Two Families Grapple with Sons' Gender Identity". NPR.
  63. Marti Abernathey. "Reparative Therapy for Trans Youth: Kenneth Zucker is Different from George Rekers How?". TransAdvocate.
  64. Hanna Rosin (November 2008). "A Boy's Life". The Atlantic.
  65. Tracy Clark-Flory (October 16, 2008). "Too young to change genders?". Salon.
  66. (October 7, 2018). "CAMH reaches settlement with former head of gender identity clinic". CBC News (The Canadian Press).
  67. 67.0 67.1 Singal and the Noise, M.K. Anderson, Protean, April 22, 2022
  68. 68.0 68.1 Sam Manzella (June 19, 2018). "'The Atlantic' Tried to Explore Trans Issues—and Totally Missed the Mark". Logo TV.
  69. 69.0 69.1 Melissa Gira Grant (November 6, 2019). "Fixating on 'Cancel Culture' in an Age of Transphobia". The New Republic.
  70. 70.0 70.1 70.2 70.3 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.
  71. We warned The Atlantic about Jesse Singal, but they ignored us, Dawn Ennis, Medium, June 19, 2018
  72. Eleanor Cummins (March 24, 2022). "When Doctors Cite 'Regret' to Deny Care, Who Is Really Protected?". Wired.
  73. Amanda Kerri (June 25, 2018). "Why the Trans Community Hates The Atlantic's Cover Story". Advocate.
  74. Cristan Williams. "Singal’s Florida: You’re very wrong about trans kids". TransAdvocate.
  75. Alex V. Green (September-October 2018). "Why reporters need to be more responsible in their coverage of trans communities". This magazine.
  76. 76.0 76.1 Zack Ford (June 20, 2018). "Atlantic cover story is a loud dog whistle for anti-transgender parents". ThinkProgress.
  77. 77.0 77.1 Jesse Singal (July/August 2018). "When Children Say They’re Trans". The Atlantic.
  78. (December 12, 2023). "Foundations of the Contemporary Anti-LGBTQ+ Pseudoscience Network". Southern Poverty Law Center.

    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.

    Littman's paper was widely rejected by the scientific community for methodological and conceptual flaws, including recruiting anonymously from 4thWaveNow, TransgenderTrend and YTCP[.]

  79. 79.0 79.1 79.2 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." 
  80. Julia Serano (February 20, 2019). "Origins of 'Social Contagion' and 'Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria'". Whipping Girl (Blogger).
  81. "When Children Say They're Trans, Continued". The Atlantic.
  82. 82.0 82.1 Tey Meadow (July 10, 2018). "The Loaded Language Shaping the Trans Conversation". The Atlantic.
  83. 83.0 83.1 83.2 (September 5, 2023). "MR Fun | 9/5/23". The Majority Report w/ Sam Seder (YouTube). URL is timestamped to when Jesse Singal calls in.
  84. How Alarmed Should American Jews Be Right Now? Two Jews Kibitz by Jesse Singal & Jonathan Chait (Nov. 17, 2016) New York Magazine.
  85. Harron Walker (June 27, 2018). "Private Messages Reveal the Cis Journalist Groupthink Behind Trans Media Narratives". Jezebel, via the Wayback Machine.
  86. (2018). "Looping Effects and the Science of the Trans Experience". Lady Science, via the Wayback Machine.
  87. 87.0 87.1 Chas Danner (March 2, 2023). "Whistleblower’s Claims About a St. Louis Transgender Center Are Under Fire". Intelligencer (New York magazine).
  88. Steve Alder (December 7, 2023). "Lawsuit Seeks Clarification on Legality of Missouri AG Request for Medical Records of Transgender Patients". The HIPAA Journal.
  89. Alexis Kayser (December 8, 2023). "Missouri AG accused of violating HIPAA in transgender care probe: Lawsuit". Becker's Hospital Review.
  90. Colleen Schrappen (March 20, 2023). "Parents of patients at St. Louis transgender center fear privacy breaches, file complaints". St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
  91. Annelise Hanshaw (March 1, 2023). "Families dispute whistleblower's allegations against St. Louis transgender center". Missouri Independent.
  92. Evan Urquhart (March 8, 2023). "There Are Two Sides to the Debate on Health Care for Trans Kids. Here’s What You’re Missing About One of Them." Slate.
  93. Annelise Hanshaw (April 21, 2023). "Washington University inquiry found allegations against Transgender Center 'unsubstantiated'". Missouri Independent.
  94. Jo Yucarba (April 27, 2023). "Raising a trans kid in Missouri has become a 'dystopian nightmare' for families". NBC News.
  95. 95.0 95.1 Christopher Wiggins (April 27, 2023). "St. Louis Children’s Hospital Gender-Affirming Care Department Passes Internal Review". Advocate.
  96. 96.0 96.1 Ryan Cooper (March 2, 2023). "The Useful Idiots Fueling the Right-Wing Transphobia Panic". The American Prospect.
  97. Christopher Wiggins (April 5, 2023). "Mom's Interview With Anti-Trans Media Draws Criticism After Teen Responds". Advocate.
  98. 98.0 98.1 98.2 Lexi Koren (August 30, 2023). "NYT Publishes 'Greatest Hits' of Bad Trans Healthcare Coverage". Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting.
  99. Evan Urquhart (August 23, 2023). "NYT Treats Key Source’s False Allegations as an Aside in Latest Anti-Trans Smear". Assigned Media.
  100. (2024). "Anti-LGBTQ". Southern Poverty Law Center.
  101. Erin Reed (October 13, 2023). "Family Of Missouri Trans Kid: Jamie Reed Lied About Liver Damage, Caused By COVID Drug And Not HRT". Erin In The Morning.
  102. (March 17, 2023). "Everything That Happened in Anti-Trans Legislation This Week: March 12-19". Them.
  103. (2023) "Affidavit of Jamie Reed".
  104. Vesper Henry, Alyssa Tirrell, and Mia Gingerich (April 13, 2023). "Timeline: The unfolding saga between The Free Press and a Missouri gender clinic". Media Matters for America.
  105. Evan Urquhart (March 11, 2024). "Jamie Reed’s Misinformation Exposed by Jesse Singal". Assigned Media.
  106. Aidan McLaughlin (March 17, 2023). "Jesse Singal Says He Didn’t Delete Twitter Account Over Trans Coverage Uproar — He’s Just on a Break". Mediaite.
  107. Jesse Singal (March 10, 2023). "New from me: Gender-Clinic Whistleblower Jamie Reed Has Provided A Detailed Account Of Her Most Controversial Claim, Including The Names Of Those Involved". Twitter, via the Wayback Machine.
  108. Jesse Singal (January 17, 2020). "The Deeply Depressing Unpublishing Of I 'Sexually Identify as an Attack Helicopter'". Singal-Minded (Substack).
  109. Les Carpenter (August 1, 2024). "Olympic woman boxer who faced gender-eligibility claim wins, igniting outcry". The Washington Post. Quote: "The IOC, which is overseeing the boxing competition in Paris, does not test for gender, and there never has been evidence that either Khelif or Lin had XY chromosomes or elevated levels of testosterone. They have competed for years, including at the Tokyo Olympics and several world championships."
  110. Karolos Grohmann (August 5, 2024). "IBA gender tests on two boxers were flawed and illegitimate, says IOC". Reuters.
  111. 111.0 111.1 111.2 111.3 Greg Beacham (August 3, 2024). "Banned governing body that’s fueling outcry on Olympic boxers has Russian ties and troubled history". The Associated Press.
  112. Jesse Singal (August 4, 2024). "1/ Absolutely bankrupt, pathetic journalism that seeks to confuse people rather than lend clarity." Twitter, via archive.today.
  113. Jesse Singal (August 4, 2024). "Read this, not the AP". Twitter, via archive.today.
  114. Sarah Jones (January 2, 2020). "Will the 2020s Be the Decade of Eugenics?". Intelligencer (New York magazine).
  115. Jules Boykoff and Dave Zirin (August 5, 2024). "We Must Defend Imane Khelif". The Nation.
  116. "'Pure bigotry': Social media users defend Algerian boxer Imane Khelif against online abuse". Middle East Eye.
  117. Carpenter, Les (2024-08-05). "Russian boxing chief fuels Olympic turmoil in bizarre news conference" (in en-US). Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. 
  118. Sean Gregory (August 5, 2024). "The IBA Held a Press Conference About Boxing’s Gender Controversy. It Was a Chaotic Mess". TIME.
  119. https://www.thecut.com/2016/09/britain-has-a-hotline-for-pedophiles.html
  120. https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/02/21/516473521/after-comments-on-pedophilia-breitbart-editor-milo-yiannopoulos-resigns
  121. https://www.thecut.com/2017/02/salon-shouldnt-have-unpublished-its-pedophilia-article.html
  122. https://inews.co.uk/news/experts-reveal-lies-sexual-predators-how-spot-2545257
  123. https://www.vice.com/en/article/i-spent-a-year-with-non-offending-paedophiles/
  124. 124.00 124.01 124.02 124.03 124.04 124.05 124.06 124.07 124.08 124.09 124.10 124.11 124.12 124.13 124.14 124.15 124.16 124.17 124.18 124.19 124.20 124.21 124.22 124.23 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). (Archived audio).
  125. 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".
  126. Lee Leveille (April 2, 2022). "Leaked audio confirms Genspect director as anti-trans conversion therapist targeting youth". Health Liberation Now!.
  127. Vesper Henry (October 28, 2022). "'Expert' formerly slated to testify in favor of Florida ban on trans health care once called to include a 'P' for pedophiles in LGBTQ". Media Matters for America.
  128. (July 15, 2022). "Researchers blast Florida’s transgender treatment plan as 'incorrect and scientifically unfounded'". Orlando Sentinel.
  129. 129.0 129.1 Molly Redden (September 15, 2023). "Inside The Cottage Industry Of 'Experts' Paid To Defend Anti-Trans Laws". HuffPost.
  130. Dara Kam (January 24, 2023). "Florida runs up a $1.3 million tab in the Medicaid transgender case". Health News Florida.
  131. Julia Serano (July 13, 2015). "The real 'autogynephilia deniers'". Whipping Girl (Blogspot). Post cites a tweet by Cantor on the subject.
  132. Jesse Singal (April 13, 2016). "How Should Society Handle Pedophiles Who Haven’t Hurt Anyone?". The Cut (New York magazine).
  133. 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.
  134. Erica Schwiegershausen (July 19, 2019). "Will We Ever Know How Many Girls Jeffrey Epstein Abused?". The Cut (New York magazine).
  135. Clark Mindock (January 15, 2020). "Jeffrey Epstein abused girls as young as 11 on secluded private island, lawsuit says". The Independent.
  136. "Backlash from GLAAD’s new accountability project is proof it’s working, says LGBTQ+ watchdog". Changing America (The Hill).