A Viral Fake News Story Linked Trans Health Care to 'Thousands' of Deaths
/A Viral Fake News Story Linked Trans Health Care to ‘Thousands’ of Deaths
Hormone blockers used by some transgender people have multiple uses, including treating prostate cancer in terminally ill patients.
To be clear: Lupron has been widely used in thousands of trans youth, and members of the Gender Dysphoria Affirmative Working Group are NOT AWARE OF ANY DEATHS attributable to Lupron use in trans and gender noxnbinary youth.
As people may have already seen, an ultra conservative Catholic website (Lifesite News) spread misleading news that some 6,300 deaths over 40 years were attributed to leuprolide acetate (Lupron), a medication also used as a puberty blocker in trans youth. Articles and other information released about this issue minimized or did not mention that Lupron is commonly used in palliative care for long-term and terminally ill cancer patients, and instead implied that this medication has been widely killing transgender youth. Multiple conservative outlets further distributed this story (including Breitbart and Daily Wire). We have become aware that parent groups have reported this article (and similar ones reflecting the same misinformation) being sent by "well meaning" relatives to parents of trans youth. We also are concerned that this issue will be used as a ‘talking point’ in other venues like school board meetings and such by those opposed to policies supporting trans youth.
Thus far only one article in mainstream journalism outlet has debunked this misleading press. The "good" article is linked below.
Sadly, we all may be obligated to push back against the further discrimination, hatred, and transphobia only encouraged by these stories. We encourage you to remember that affirmative care - including puberty blockers such as Lupron - have been demonstrated to have vastly improved outcomes for trans youth including dramatic decreases in depression, anxiety, substance use, school dropout, obesity, smoking rates, suicidal ideation and gestures.
“A recent article published by Catholic news outlet LifeSiteNews alleged that the drugs used to treat gender dysphoria in some transgender children are linked to “thousands” of deaths.
“The story went viral on right-wing news websites such as the Christian Postand the Daily Wire. According to CrowdTangle, a social media metric platform, these posts — including shares by Daily Wire founder Ben Shapiroand commentator Matt Walsh— are currently some of the top performing LGBTQ-related content on Facebook and Twitter.
“The problem is: the “thousands” of people who die while taking these drugs are likely the terminally ill cancer patients who receive hormone blockers to fight hormone-sensitive cancers, like prostate cancer, according to experts.”