Trans activists forced the retraction of my paper. Their efforts have redoubled my commitment to the truth. By Michael Bailey

[IwantToRetire]

(Cant find the previous threads about this to link to, but thought some would be interested in this development)

Springer’s reasoning was preposterous and simply an excuse to retract an article they wanted to go away in order to stop the controversy. Springer accused us of not obtaining informed consent from the parents in our study. There are two aspects to informed consent in research: you should understand what you’re being asked to do, including any substantial risks and benefits, and you should be able to opt out. All parents completing Suzanna’s survey knew they were being asked questions about their children’s ROGD, and they decided to answer. Parents were promised privacy of personal information, and they got it.

Springer’s additional complaint was that we did not have consent to publish survey results. This is plain wrong. We did inform participants that we would publish their data. At the end of the survey participants were told: “We will publish our data on our website when we have a large enough sample. . . ”

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We are outraged and disappointed that our article was retracted. But the belief that activists have won and science has lost is mostly wrong. Our article’s retraction has inadvertently resulted in a triumph for truth and reason.

Start with the support we’ve received from FAIR, Society for Evidence Based Gender Medicine, and others. Unless you have ever been cancelled, you have no idea how important this is.

The campaign against our article, from the open letter to the final retraction, has generated immense publicity by academic standards, so far largely favorable. Our academic article has been viewed online more than 100,000 times in not quite three months, an astonishing number for an article of this nature. This reflects a thirst for knowledge about this important subject.

Speaking for myself, this episode has guaranteed that I will study ROGD until we understand it.

That’s why I am about to launch a large, long-term survey of adolescent gender dysphoria, in collaboration with Lisa Littman and Ken Zucker. We will survey both gender-dysphoric adolescents and their parents, following them for at least five years. Among other things, we’ll have better information about adolescents’ early gender dysphoria, mental health, and sexuality; about parents’ attitudes, behaviors, and beliefs; and about the correspondence between adolescents’ and parents’ accounts of the same phenomena.

These are only a few paragraphs from a much longer article https://www.thefp.com/p/trans-activists-killed-my-scientific-paper

This is excellent, well done Michael Bailey! Thankyou for highlighting IwantToRetire. I’m particularly pleased because I’ve seen TRA’s refute this study because Springer pulled it, it’s good to know the other side. Glad it’s getting so much attention.

Stella O’Malley interviewed Bailey for this week’s Gender: A Wider Lens podcast. He says because they opted for open access, they can republish in other journals. He has another academic journal publication date already lined up. He also talks about how the attempted cancellation has significantly increased the reach of the article. 👏

It's so bizarre. Why wouldn't trans activists want more research on trans people ? They're always saying they can't access medical care fast enough / it's not good enough? How is it going to get better if people can't publish research?

These are not the actions of anyone acting in good faith - it's the actions of people in a cult who can't cope with alternative views or facts.

Thank you thank you Michael Bailey. Thank you Iwanttoretire it’s brilliant to see proper research coming. Honestly having this kind of evidence available could be life changing for kids and parents.

i haven’t read the article yet so maybe they’re already covering this but I think another area to look at is the overrpresentation of ND kids and/or kids with trauma. I think it’s extremely concerning how kids who may be highly vulnerable are being attracted to gender identity snake oil and then offered it by a range of professionals.

Though actually worse than snake oil because medical and surgical ‘transition’ isn’t just ineffective at making young people feel better- the physical effects and permanent losses of their previous good physical health, the potential total loss of natural sexual function and total loss of their natural reproductive capacity, loss of adult capacities to think with a greater maturity using their naturally post-pubertal brain , and lots of other things, are long term surely likely to make this group of future adults feel much, much worse than they originally did.

The ‘trans kids’ narrative is so dangerous and seemingly being pushed especially by adults who have had none whatsoever of these health-ruining and future potential-obliterating interventions themselves. Where on earth is the professionals’ natural caution? What are they getting out of this to compromise themselves this rashly?

We know that left to it’s own natural devices, the human brain doesn’t fully reach adult maturity until the mid 20s. That’s surely the very earliest age that anyone should be starting to think about making permanent changes to their natural healthy body that will leave them an invalid all their lives, and would create new or exacerbated health problems and psychological problems that they didn’t have before? Then with years of counseling to follow if they persist in that desire. I just don’t get it.

You could find an excuse to retract any publication. Academic censorship is far too easy.

This is so good to see. It's one of the (many) shameful actions of transactivists - that they have stopped so much research by alleging transphobia - even when related to medical experimentation on children.

I think at the others did challenge the basis on which the article was withdrawn and that many people were saying that it was in line with any number of other published research papers (there was a thread but just cant find it).

But the good news is that as a result of overt TRA sabotague there will now be bigger research and going into more depth!

That’s why I am about to launch a large, long-term survey of adolescent gender dysphoria, in collaboration with Lisa Littman and Ken Zucker. We will survey both gender-dysphoric adolescents and their parents, following them for at least five years. Among other things, we’ll have better information about adolescents’ early gender dysphoria, mental health, and sexuality; about parents’ attitudes, behaviors, and beliefs; and about the correspondence between adolescents’ and parents’ accounts of the same phenomena.

Have now found the other thread, which isn't that long but does have links to other articles questioning the basis on which the original article was withdrawn.

(I must admit as a non academic I sort of thought that a lot of research was started after lets call it a consultation to gather people's lived experience of an issue, or event. And if from that it appears there are common factors you then go on to do "research" but without the initial anecdotal evidence, much research would not be started. Aslo better if prompted by shared experience that what now passes for research is little more than selecting evidence that conforms to an outcome the "researcher" has predetermined is a fact!

“When the truth dies, very bad things happen…” As the song goes.

It’s fascinating how this movement has become an attack not ‘just’ on women’s rights, children’s health, and education, but also on the foundations of our society like science, truth and democracy. Future sociologists will write some very long papers about all this.

(In my day teenage girls often thought they were witches/psychic, but that seems to be out of fashion now. Shame, the ouija boards were a lot more fun than a masectomy.)

The real tragedy however is how the confused yearnings of a small group of unhappy people has distracted media and governments from the civilisation-threatening issue of climate change 😢 The current temperatures where I’m writing this aren’t funny.

Brk. Thank you I appreciate your posts. One of the depressing things about this relatively new guise of men’s rights activism is how it’s diverting the energies of women who could be working together on huge issues like climate change, or any other issue that they feel passionately about. Such a drain on female time, money, energy and mental health purely to counteract male sexual entitlement.

Here he is on the Modern Wisdom podcast

What is inspiring is that because trans activists have overreached to such extremes, so many people refuse to back down. In the face of an ideology that openly advocates setting children onto a path to sterilisation, body modification and life long medication (along with parental alienation) good people are refusing to obey. And that gives me some hope.