GLAAD accuses 60 Minutes of "fearmongering" with "anti-trans dogwhistles" in transgender youth segment

Mediaite

“Tonight, @60Minutes @Lesley Stahl aired a shameful segment fearmongering about trans youth,” GLAAD said in a tweet. “Parents of trans youth could walk away with the false belief that young people are being rushed into medical transition. That is simply untrue.” As Jezebel's Esther Wang points out the segment on Republican attacks on trans kids was itself an attack on trans kids. "This is not an issue that needs both-sidesing. But on Sunday, CBS’s 60 Minutes did something even worse—the primetime show decided to air a segment that, while ostensibly addressing the Republican-led assault on trans young people’s health care, ended up focusing heavily on the favorite topic of conservatives who would like nothing more than for trans people to not exist, and who wish to paint transition as a painful, regret-suffused process—people who have detransitioned," said Wang, adding: "The rest of the segment then focused on... LGBT advocates responding to questions from Stahl and 60 Minutes about detransitioners. In fact, what was initially a story about legislative attacks on trans young people ultimately became a story about detransition, featuring people who weren’t under the age of 18 when they transitioned. There were no interviews with young people living in states where their rights and basic humanity are being attacked, no interviews with parents of kids whose health care is being taken away or who can no longer play on the sports team they belong to, no interviews with organizers living in states where these bills are being proposed, no discussion of why the right is pushing these bills at this particular moment. Nope, instead, America got a segment that gives the misleading impression that gender-affirming care is readily available for young people, and framed the process of transition as one ultimately of pain and regret. Congrats to 60 Minutes for majorly f*cking it up."