{"id":927888,"date":"2025-01-31T17:01:35","date_gmt":"2025-01-31T22:01:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/glaad.org\/?post_type=gap&p=927888"},"modified":"2025-01-31T17:01:35","modified_gmt":"2025-01-31T22:01:35","slug":"pamela-paul","status":"publish","type":"gap","link":"https:\/\/glaad.org\/gap\/pamela-paul\/","title":{"rendered":"Pamela Paul"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pamela Paul is a former writer for the <\/span><\/em>New York Times<\/span> opinion section. Despite not being an expert in transgender people or LGBTQ issues, Paul has used her platform to influence public opinion on these topics, often without consulting LGBTQ people or medical professionals specializing in transgender care, instead citing debunked research from discredited sources.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\u2014Made numerous assertions that are unfounded or based on debunked sources in <\/span>New York Times<\/span><\/i> column \u201c<\/span>Why Is the U.S. Still Pretending We Know Gender-Affirming Care Works?<\/span><\/a>\u201d Paul claims that transgender health care is ineffective, despite overwhelming evidence from <\/span>every major medical organization<\/span><\/a> supporting health care for transgender people. Paul uses outdated research to assert high detransition rates. Research shows detransition rates are typically between 0.3% and 3.8%. Paul disputes the evidence that transitioning reduces the risk of suicide among transgender youth, despite numerous studies showing a significant decrease in suicidality. Other false claims in Paul\u2019s piece are corrected <\/span>here<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014Wrote multiple times (in <\/span>April 2024<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>July 2024<\/span><\/a>) in support of the Cass Report, which ostensibly aimed to improve the NHS gender identity services for children and young people in England. The problems in the discredited Cass Report include: excluding transgender individuals from its advisory committee; selectively using evidence, often <\/span>ignoring<\/span><\/a> or downplaying <\/span>studies<\/span><\/a> that support transgender health care; showing <\/span>bias<\/span><\/a> in favor of cisgender identities as more legitimate or desirable than transgender identities; misrepresenting transgender health care of being based on \u201cshaky foundations\u201d; <\/span>influence<\/span><\/a> by anti-trans groups; and causing <\/span>harm<\/span><\/a> to transgender youth by restricting access to transgender health care.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014Included misinformation and inaccuracies and promoted anti-transgender narratives with faulty citations and unsupported claims in <\/span>New York Times<\/span><\/i> column \u201c<\/span>As Kids, They Thought They Were Trans. They No Longer Do<\/span><\/a>.\u201d The article claims that \u201crapid onset gender dysphoria\u201d and transgender \u201csocial contagion\u201d is making people trans. In fact, there is no basis for \u201crapid onset gender dysphoria\u201d or transgender \u201csocial contagion.\u201d These theories have been thoroughly discredited as pseudoscience by leading medical organizations. Erin Reed <\/span>writes<\/span><\/a>, \u201c[Paul\u2019s] first source, used to support \u2018Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria,\u2019 is an <\/span>article<\/span><\/a> that has been retracted. Then she turns to Lisa Littman, whose original paper on the topic was <\/span>immediately withdrawn with an apology by the journal<\/span><\/a> for correction after the data collection methods were revealed, with the republication stating that the research \u2018does not validate the phenomenon\u2019 of transgender social contagion. Littman is notably one of the only researchers to argue for the theory, which has been <\/span>repeatedly<\/span><\/a> dismissed<\/span><\/a> for lacking factual support and for recruiting subjects from anti-trans websites.\u201d Reed also writes, \u201cIn <\/span>a letter from over 60 psychological organizations<\/span><\/a>, the coalition for the Advancement & Application of Psychological Science calls for the elimination of the term, stating, \u2018There are no sound empirical studies of ROGD\u2019 and \u2018there is no evidence that ROGD aligns with the lived experiences of transgender children and adolescents.\u2019 Paul, however, simply and misleadingly presents this letter as the organization stating \u2018there is not enough quality research.\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/span>Paul claims that 80% of transgender individuals desist from being transgender if they go through puberty without intervention. In fact, <\/span>detransition rates <\/span><\/a>are estimated to be between 1\u20134%. Other unsupported claims, including Paul\u2019s baseless assertion that transgender people are \u201cactually just gay\u201d are documented <\/span>here<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span>In response to fact checking and complaints about the opinion piece, Paul wrote more baseless opinions about trans people and gender dysphoria. Assigned Media reports that in a \u201cshort column entitled \u2018<\/span>The Courage to Admit You Didn’t Know<\/span><\/a>,\u2019 which is a rather disingenuous headline considering we know that <\/span>vanishingly few regret transition<\/span><\/a>, most of those who detransition do so for reasons that don’t involve no longer being transgender, and many outspoken detransitioners <\/span>still experience gender dysphoria<\/span><\/a>.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014Defended<\/span><\/a> J.K. Rowling<\/span>\u2019s multiple transphobic statements and called complaints about Rowling as \u201cabsurd,\u201d writing that \u201cnothing Rowling has said qualifies as transphobic.\u201d Prior to the date of Paul\u2019s opinion piece, <\/span>Rowling had<\/span><\/a>: expressed support for a tax specialist who had posted anti-transgender tweets; liked a tweet that disparaged transgender women as \u201cmen in dresses\u201d; written an essay about transgender people giving \u201cfive reasons for being worried about the new trans activism\u201d and claiming that the trans rights movement erases the concept of sex and women\u2019s experiences; sent tweets falsely claiming that transgender identity is a threat, stating, \u201cIf sex isn\u2019t real, there\u2019s no same-sex attraction. If sex isn\u2019t real, the lived reality of women globally is erased\u201d; tweeted that transitioning is a \u201cnew form of conversion therapy for young gay people\u201d; announced she would return an award from the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights group after they condemned her transphobic statements; authored the book <\/span>Troubled Blood <\/span><\/i>under the pen name Robert Galbraith, featuring a cisgender male serial killer who dresses as a woman to lure victims; and mocked transgender inclusivity on International Women\u2019s Day. Since Paul\u2019s apologia piece published, Rowling has <\/span>made the false and baseless claim<\/span><\/a> that transgender youth do not exist, and <\/span>misgendered<\/span><\/a> U.K. transgender journalist India Willoughby and accused her of \u201ccosplaying a misogynistic male fantasy of what a woman is.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014Complained about the terms \u201cqueer\u201d and \u201cLGBTQ\u201d in the <\/span>New York Times<\/span><\/i> column \u201c<\/span>Let\u2019s Say Gay<\/span><\/a>.\u201d Paul wrote, \u201cTo be clear: There\u2019s nothing wrong with embracing a particular word to describe yourself,\u201d after arguing at length against the words LGBTQ people use to describe themselves. In her April 2022 article, \u201c<\/span>The Limits of Lived Experience<\/span><\/a>,\u201d Paul writes that her being a \u201cGen X white woman\u201d shouldn’t keep her from writing about other people’s lived experiences. Paul does not self-identify as \u201clesbian,\u201d or \u201cgay,\u201d or \u201cqueer,\u201d or \u201cbisexual,\u201d or \u201cLGBTQ.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014Paul wrote in opposition to the supposed \u201c<\/span>censorship<\/span><\/a>\u201d of<\/span> Abigail Shrier’s anti-trans book<\/span><\/a> Irreversible Damage.<\/span><\/i> The book based its <\/span>argument<\/span><\/a> on interviews with parents who were not supportive of their transgender children, claiming that numerous teenage girls with mental health challenges were incorrectly identifying as transgender boys. The book faced significant social and commercial backlash, but not censorship.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":435,"featured_media":927883,"template":"","categories":[139164,138754,139170,138409],"tags":[142256],"region":[138565],"hashtag":[138636,138635,139310,138633],"class_list":{"0":"post-927888","1":"gap","2":"type-gap","3":"status-publish","4":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"category-books-and-book-bans","7":"category-gaps","8":"category-hate-extremism","9":"category-transgender","10":"tag-cass-report","11":"region-national","12":"hashtag-anti-transgender","13":"hashtag-commentator","14":"hashtag-healthcare","15":"hashtag-transphobia"},"aioseo_notices":[],"apple_news_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t