I am disturbed by the terroristic harassment being directed toward children's hospitals and the wildly inaccurate and hostile portrayals of what gender affirming care is. For those of you unaware, a number of children's hospitals with gender affirming programs have been targeted by right wing social media and commentators, and consequently have been bombarded with hateful (often slur and “groomer”-filled) messages and threats. Recently, authorities did a sweep of Boston Children's after a bomb threat (no bomb was found). I have spoken with medical colleagues who have been targeted and had to get security. I suspect one tactic is that people are filing frivolous complaints to licensing boards; I say this because a small Twitter mob came for me recently and threatened this.
Thank you all, and I especially extend my gratitude to those of you working with and for trans youth right now.
–Sebastian M. Barr
Providing support to each other as we attend to the needs of those we serve, is one of those functions that this community can and should be doing. This applies not just to clinicians, but also to those who conduct the research that undergirds our clinical work, those who educate, and those who advocate on behalf of this vital work.
I would also appreciate some discussion about what support might look like. The easy thing for Division 44 or APA to do is to make a public statement of support. However, with the sort of threats that have been made recently, ideas about what can be done beyond that would be welcome.
–Michael Hendricks