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| Libs of TikTok is run by a person who will deliberately spread lies about transgender kids but will then run away instead of backing up her claims. |
A recent NPR article looked at how children's hospitals are being falsely accused of harming children when in truth they are simply providing legal and safe gender-affirming care. The article names social media sites like the viciously bigoted Libs of TikTok as the culprits.
Hospitals and doctors around the country are facing harassment and even death threats over the medical care they offer to transgender kids. In many cases, they have been the subject of posts by a Twitter account called Libs of TikTok, as well as stories in conservative media outlets casting gender-affirming care as child abuse and mutilation.. . . Children’s National Hospital in Washington, D.C. became the most recent target this week when Libs of TikTok posted an audio recording in which hospital staff appeared to say that gender-affirming hysterectomies had been performed on minors. The hospital said that claim was incorrect and that none of the people recorded deliver care to patients.“The information in the recording is not accurate. We do not and have never performed gender-affirming hysterectomies for anyone under the age of 18,” Children’s National said in a statement to NPR. “The operator speaking provided wrong information.” The statement continued: “Since the spreading of misinformation on Twitter, we have been the target of a large volume of hostile and threatening phone calls and emails.” Childrens’ hospitals in Boston, Seattle, Chicago, and Portland, Oregon, have also been targeted.
Two portions of this article should stand out. One involves how Libs of TikTok instigates this madness by what seems to be deliberately pushing false information. This false information appeals to misconceptions some people already have about gender-affirming healthcare given to trans kids:
These false narratives about pediatric gender-affirming care are rooted in fundamental “misperceptions,” said Dr. Angela Kade Goepferd, a pediatrician and director of the Gender Health Program at Children’s Minnesota. “People have misperceptions that we’re doing surgery on young kids. People have misperceptions that we are changing kids from boys into girls at a very young age,” they said. They said care for transgender kids is wide-ranging, from efforts to help children socially transition to puberty-blocking medications, and is undertaken with the input of pediatric psychologists, clinical social workers, hormone experts and endocrinologists, as well as families. Gender-affirming surgeries are not a routine part of pediatric gender care, they said, and Children’s Minnesota does not perform any such surgeries.Some of the claims about Children’s National, Boston Children’s and other hospitals were pushed by the Libs of TikTok account, which regularly reposts videos and social media posts from LGBTQ people, teachers, schools and other institutions. The clips are sometimes taken out of context and framed to fuel outrage or ridicule of LGBTQ and anti-racist causes, in what the account owner has described as “exposés” of “the crazies.” For example, a short clip about gender-affirming hysterectomies from a video originally posted by Boston Children’s that Libs of TikTok reposted makes no mention of patients’ ages. But Libs of TikTok tweeted alongside the clip the false claim that the hospital offers the surgery “for young girls.”
The second point is equally as important. When she is asked to questioned about her actions, the woman behind Libs of TikTok refuses to comment while simultaneously playing the victim:
Libs of TikTok, run by a Brooklyn woman named Chaya Raichik, has 1.3 million followers on its biggest platform, Twitter. It’s gained prominence and influence in right-wing circles over the last year as conservatives increasingly try to use anti-LGBTQ sentiment to gain support. NPR reached out to Raichik for this story. She initially responded and agreed to an interview, but did not respond to a follow-up message. Raichik frequently condemns criticism of her online activities as efforts to “cancel and silence” her. She has said that she has also been targeted with death threats.
What Libs of TikTok is doing is no different than past tactics used to demonize LGBTQ people. Like I always say - neither the lies nor the tactics change. But the scapegoats always do.