YouTube allowing discredited anti-trans author and Prager U to fundraise off encouraging parents to reject their transgender children

Discredited author Abigail Shrier continues to declare war on transgender children

According to Media Matters, YouTube is doing the transgender community a huge disservice by allowing groups and individuals to fundraise on the message that parents should reject their transgender children. And in doing so, YouTube is ignoring its own community guidelines:

YouTube is helping right-wing propaganda network PragerU to fundraise off of a March 29 video titled “Why Girls Become Boys,” which spreads disinformation about trans youth and health care -- despite YouTube’s Community Guidelines that include protections for trans people. 

The video features anti-trans author Abigail Shrier suggesting that young trans people are not actually trans and that parents should reject their trans kids’ gender identities. Shrier is a major player in the crusade against the rights of trans youth and wrote a book misinforming about trans youth called Irreversible Damage. She also recently testified before the Senate against the Equality Act and has made multiple appearances on Fox News to lie about trans people. 

 The new video with Shrier uses the YouTube Giving program and has earned more than 285,000 views in one day and -- alongside other videos in PragerU’s fundraising campaign on the platform -- has raised more than $51,000. The YouTube Giving Program’s rules say that nonprofits must follow the platform’s Community Guidelines, which supposedly protect trans people. In fact, YouTube has previously removed videos from PragerU and other channels that spread harmful disinformation about trans people, including suggestions that they have a mental illness. 

Shrier, whose book was called out for several distortions (including presenting false anti-trans statistics) has absolutely no expertise in transgender healthcare.

And it shows:

Shrier dangerously advocated against best practice medical care throughout the March 29 video, falsely claiming that affirming trans youth is “a solution that will almost certainly harm rather than heal” and causes “irreversible damage.” (Shrier made similar arguments in February on Fox News’ Tucker Carlson Tonight.) 

 Shrier repeatedly cited one of her go-to anti-trans myths to claim that children are coming out as transgender because of a “social contagion.” This comes from a flawed and since-corrected study by Brown University researcher Lisa Littman which suggested that trans youth -- primarily trans boys -- are rapidly identifying as trans due to “social and peer contagion.” Several researchers have criticized Littman’s study, which has been described by a colleague as “below scientific standards” because it relied on “survey responses from parents who had visited sites promoting anti-trans views” and did not actually survey trans youth themselves. 

Shrier also misgendered trans masculine kids as “girls” throughout the video and claimed that teens are becoming trans as a “quick fix” to address higher levels of anxiety and depression. She also said that parents could prevent their kids from “being drawn into this dangerous and growing trend” by limiting “their exposure to social media as much as you can” and opposing “the teaching of gender ideology in your kids’ school.”

It gets worse:

Perhaps most dangerously, Shrier ended the video by encouraging parents to reject their trans kids, saying, “You don’t have to agree with every identity proclamation your daughter comes up with. Knowledge of her identity will develop over time. Until then, being the adult in the relationship is the most loving thing you can do.” Again, medical professionals encourage parents and medical providers to affirm trans youth to promote their well-being -- doing so can be lifesaving.

Media Matters says this goes against YouTube Community Guidelines with regards to hate speech:

In its FAQ, YouTube Giving says that in order to be eligible for the program, nonprofits must “follow YouTube’s monetization policies both on and off of YouTube. This includes following YouTube’s Community Guidelines.” Those guidelines include a hate speech policy that states that the platform will “remove content promoting violence or hatred against individuals or groups” based on attributes including sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, sex or gender, as well as race, ethnicity, and immigration status.

If YouTube ignores is own community guidelines when it comes to transgender people, one wonders what group would be next. 

Maybe David Duke will be able to fundraise off of a video detailing "How To Keep Black People Out of Your Neighborhood."