The NY Times goes concern trolling
On August 22, 2015, the NY Times ran an article by Richard A. Friedman titled, “How Changeable Is Gender?” One might be excused for mistaking the piece as an earnest call to the medical community for better interventions for the trans community. Alarmingly, Friedman warns readers that science has found that post-operative transsexuals are at significant risk of suicide and moreover, maybe medical treatment isn’t actually the right approach after all, especially for trans kids. Friedman gravely recounts a scientific study that proves that most trans kids grow out of being trans. If I weren’t trans, I might walk away from Friedman’s article very concerned about the seemingly backward approach that more than a century of trans research has produced for those poor trans people. Concern Trolling: Know It When You See It Geek Feminism defines a Concern Troll as: “a person who participates in a debate posing as an
The Source Summary reproduces the first 150 words of the source article unless a Collective editor has explicitly locked a replacement.
Why this article may matter
Community significance
“The NY Times goes concern trolling” may matter to community readers because it preserves a first-person or testimonial account connected to transgender identity and history, while also engaging science, evidence, and expertise. Such accounts can document how an issue was understood and experienced from within the period or community being discussed.
Historical significance
As a publication record from 2015 at Transadvocate.com, “The NY Times goes concern trolling” provides dated evidence of how transgender identity and history was being argued in relation to science, evidence, and expertise. Comparing it with earlier and later records can reveal changes in vocabulary, evidence, and emphasis.
Policy significance
The article’s strongest policy connection is civil rights and anti-discrimination and family law and child welfare. It links that institutional frame to transgender identity and history and science, evidence, and expertise, making it potentially useful for tracing how an argument moves from description or history into law, regulation, administration, or public practice.
Ranked themes and framings
Rank 1 is the dominant inferred theme or framing. Parent labels identify broader theme families; the relationship key beneath the diagram explains the line styles used for hierarchy, same-family relationships, overlap, and separate-but-related themes.
Themes
- 1Transgender identity and historyTheme family: Identity, culture, and community100%
- 2Science, evidence, and expertiseTheme family: Knowledge, history, and communication85%
- 3Healthcare and medicineTheme family: Institutions, law, and public life64%
- 4Culture, identity, and representationTheme family: Identity, culture, and community28%
- 5Law and civil rightsTheme family: Institutions, law, and public life21%
- 6Community and organizingTheme family: Identity, culture, and community19%
Academic framing
- 1100%
- 228%
- 314%
- 412%
Policy framing
- 1100%
- 238%
Editorial function
Source topics
- Overlapping themes
- Related theme in the same family
- Separate but related themes
These classifications are inferred from article text and source metadata and remain directly editable. Relationship labels express corpus-analysis judgments, not immutable facts.
How “Transgender identity and history” appears across the Collective corpus
This article appeared 2 year(s) after the theme’s highest annual presence in the registered corpus in 2013.
Relative presence by year
Peak year indexed to 100Presence by member publication
Frequently co-occurring concepts
- Community and organizing531
- Law and civil rights468
- Culture, identity, and representation320
- Education and youth308
- Media, rhetoric, and discourse260
- Healthcare and medicine248
- Violence, safety, and dehumanization238
- History, archives, and memory216
- Public policy and governance206
- Feminism and gender politics198
Academic framings in this topic
Policy framings in this topic
- Public accommodations and facilities177
- Civil rights and anti-discrimination173
- Criminal justice and public safety131
- Elections and democratic governance100
- Research ethics and data governance78
- Labor and employment policy52
- Administrative classification and identity documents39
- Housing and social services38
Values measure relative presence in the registered Collective corpus, not public search interest or public opinion.
Documented circulation and reception
2 source-held references record early links or citations; the documented sources span 2 distinct domains. The dated evidence currently spans 2015–2016. These observations describe circulation and reuse; they do not assign cultural worth or evaluate the communities, arguments, or people discussed.
Evidence by channel
Independent counts; bars are not additiveCoverage of the evidence search
Shows what has actually been checkedDocumented references over time
Dated source evidence currently stored by the CollectiveStudy: Trans kid’s gender implicit; govt report condemns conversion therapy | The TransAdvocate
Williams: The New York Times recently cited The Sissy Boy Syndrome (1987) to claim that most “gender dysphoric” children are not trans. In fact, the research published in that book looked at gender-expansive children, not trans children. In other words, the study merely looked at…
Cristan
Views: 12While the first half of the article titled There Is No Reason to Deny Trans People Necessary Medical Care does a good job at deconstructing the fraudulent, entitled and obtuse assertions featured in a recient NY Times piece, it is the latter half of the…
Counts describe documented circulation and reception in the sources currently available to the Collective. They are not a score of quality, merit, popularity, or social value, and provider totals can overlap.
Author profiles and related researchers
Related authors in the Collective corpus
Cristan Williams
Connected through 2 citation links between registered publications. Shares registered themes including Transgender identity and history, Community and organizing, Education and youth.
Guest
Connected through 1 citation link between registered publications. Shares registered themes including Transgender identity and history, Community and organizing, Education and youth.
Rani Baker
Connected through 1 citation link between registered publications. Shares registered themes including Transgender identity and history, Community and organizing, Education and youth.
Kelley Winters
Connected through 1 citation link between registered publications. Shares registered themes including Transgender identity and history, Community and organizing, Education and youth.
Admin
Shares registered themes including Transgender identity and history, Community and organizing, Education and youth.
Marian
Shares registered themes including Transgender identity and history, Community and organizing, Education and youth.
Related authors are calculated from co-authorship, shared themes and framings, and citation relationships in the registered corpus. This does not imply a personal or institutional association.
Continue through the Collective
Filisa Vistima’s Diary
Examines legal, institutional, or policy consequences connected to the shared theme.
Filisa Vistima was a 22-year-old pre-operative transsexual woman from Seattle. She volunteered at the Lesbian Resource Center (LRC). On March 6, 1993 Filisa took her own life. What…
1976: Transgenderist
Approaches the shared subject through a related analytical or disciplinary frame.
Masthead: Gay Community News, January 31st, 1976 issue (Vol. 3, No. 31) Virginia Prince is oftentimes given credit for coining the term “transgenderist” and “transgenderism” in 1978. In…
WATCH: School board bigot squirm
Approaches the shared subject through a related analytical or disciplinary frame.
In what has to be one of the most facepalm-inducing interviews I’ve ever watched, Canadian school board trustee, Sam Sotiropoulos attempted to explain why he’s not a bigot…
#TERFweek: Remember Filisa Vistima
Examines legal, institutional, or policy consequences connected to the shared theme.
Before you read further, I need to state a strong Trigger Warning: The following post recounts the circumstances surrounding the suicide of a trans women. Filisa Vistima was…