DIVE: USA Today's anti-trans op-ed
There's a lot of context missing from this dangerous column.
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USA Today ran an incredibly problematic op-ed Monday from a parent named Jay Keck, who rejects his transgender child’s identity. The opinion piece spews junk science as it attempts to legitimize for other parents why they too should reject their trans kids and take umbrage at anyone who suggests otherwise. It is painfully lacking in context that should show just how nefariously biased it is.
Biased affiliations
The most obvious concern can be found in Keck’s bio, which identifies him as “a member of the Kelsey Coalition, which promotes policies to protect young people from what the organization considers the medical and psychological harms of transgender medicine,” as well as “the Chicago leader of ParentsofROGDKids, a support group for parents who have children suddenly identifying as transgender.” This is not a legitimate description of either group.
Both organizations subscribe to the completely fabricated belief that social and psychological factors are somehow causing kids to turn trans. They implicitly believe that turning out to be trans is a negative outcome and that any treatment that allows people to transition is harmful and should be disallowed. As part of a network of online sources masquerading as “parent groups,” they are trying to cast undue doubt on the very legitimacy of transgender kids.
The Kelsey Coalition, which has not a single individual staffer identified with it, is a network devoted to opposing any affirming transgender care for kids. Their projects include an effort to strip “gender identity” protections from the Equality Act to ensure that schools and health professionals can discriminate against trans kids. They likewise seek to overturn bans on anti-LGBTQ conversion therapy, arguing that affirming a child’s gender identity is the “real conversion therapy.” Every one of the group’s priorities is related to preventing young people from receiving the care that will best support their mental health.
ParentsofROGDKids openly espouses that “identifying as the opposite gender is NOT normal,” and that having a transgender identity is instead related to mental illness and dysfunction. They falsely claim that there is no scientific evidence to suggest that affirming care benefits transgender people, instead claiming that it harms them. Like The Kelsey Coalition, the group is dedicated to preventing kids from receiving any form of affirmative care. And like The Kelsey Coalition, the site names not a single specific individual or affiliation behind the group.
ROGD is not a thing
While The Kelsey Coalition avoids referring directly to “ROGD” by name, it’s the bread and butter of both groups, as the other’s space-free name suggests. “ROGD” refers to a completely invented fake diagnosis called “Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria,” used to describe how some teenagers “suddenly” identify as transgender. The entire premise of ROGD is to justify the “skepticism” parents have about respecting their kids’ transgender identities. (Since we think it just came out of nowhere, it must not be valid!)
ROGD is interconnected with the belief that “social contagion” is responsible for causing kids to suddenly turn trans. This is the idea that teenagers are being influenced by their friends or social media to become trans because it’s popular, cool, or edgy — a claim Keck makes in his op-ed. The implication is that a trans identity caused by social contagion is not legitimate, and thus parents are justified in trying to block their kids from realizing this identity.
The brilliant Julia Serano recently traced the origin of both the “social contagion” narrative and “ROGD,” finding that these phenomena were imagined entirely by three other “parent sites” in this constellation of anti-trans networks. Both of the sites Keck identifies with also link to these other sites, like “TransgenderTrend” and “4thWaveNow.”
As I reported a year ago, the singular study that purports to legitimize “ROGD” was itself junk science, relying entirely on outreach to parents from those very same anti-trans websites with absolutely no study of the kids themselves. Earlier this year, PLOS ONE, the journal that published the study, issued a massive correction/republishing of the study, as well as an apology for allowing it to have been published as it was originally presented. The documents confirm all of the flaws found in the original study and further undermine the significance of its claims. (Check out my Twitter thread from March to learn more about about these updates to the study.)
Suffice it to say, there is absolutely nothing to substantiate any claims of ROGD. USA Today nevertheless gave Keck a platform to promote it. And though he didn’t personally name it, we know he supports it.
Jay Keck is a TERF
Prior to the publication, there is almost no digital footprint for Keck. I was able to find an individual by that name, but absolutely nothing to connect him to either of the groups his bio claims he works with. There are, however, two places on the internet where the name Jay Keck appears in relation to transgender issues, which confirm that he is both a proponent of ROGD and a supporter of TERFs.
TERF stands for “trans-exclusive radical feminist” and refers to an extremist wing of feminism that is anti-trans. TERFs argue that trans women are not real women, but in fact men who are trying to impose themselves on women’s spaces — and specifically, lesbian spaces. Using particularly vile tactics, they try to argue that being pro-trans means being anti-woman.
Keck appears to support this branch of lesbian separation TERF philosophy. His name appears as a signatory on a 2017 open letter defending Martha Harvey, executive director of the Pride Center in Albany, NY. Harvey came under fire that year for sharing an article suggesting “lesbianism is under attack,” which compared trans women to rapists. It was a regurgitation of the age-old TERF argument that trans women who themselves might be lesbian are somehow violating the rights of cisgender lesbians who insist upon a penis-free lifestyle. The article appeared on the Canadian site Feminist Current, which was founded by Meghan Murphy, a name that might sound familiar because she was banned from Twitter for her anti-trans rhetoric and unsuccessfully sued over it.
Harvey apologized for sharing the article, but the letter Keck signed argued that she shouldn’t have had to. Attacking trans people by comparing them to rapists is “ordinary, nonviolent political speech,” the letter claimed, describing it as an issue “of utmost importance” to lesbians and feminists.
The singular other time Keck’s name previously appeared was in a comment earlier this year on an article by The American Conservative’s Rod Dreher. Dreher is a virulent opponent of anti-LGBTQ issues and even wrote a whole book about how Christians should live in secluded communes to avoid the influence of LGBTQ equality. In January, Dreher highlighted a similarly problematic Wall Street Journal story with the exact same narrative about parents who can’t do anything to stop their kids with ROGD from transitioning. Completely buying into its legitimacy, Dreher warns, “Don’t think for a second it can’t happen to you.”
In the comments, Keck explains he’s been “dealing with this with my teen daughter [sic] for 2+ years.” He describes his kid as having a “a textbook example of ROGD with many co-occurring conditions,” an ironic description for a completely fabricated diagnosis that appears in no textbooks. He includes several details that mirror his USA Today op-ed, describing his own struggle as “a nightmare of epic magnitude.”
These two past references suggest Keck may be a real person — as opposed to a pseudonym — but also speak to how steeped he is in anti-trans viewpoints beyond even what is suggested by his bio on the op-ed.
Protect the children from ROGD groups
Unsurprisingly, opponents of transgender equality are having a field day with Keck’s op-ed, including in particular the various anti-trans “parent groups” mentioned above.
What’s going on here, however, isn’t complicated. These groups have the singular mission of encouraging parents to reject their transgender kids for who they are, an act that will significantly harm their mental health. They have gussied up their arguments with claims about “parental rights” and doubts about mental health — enough apparently to convince USA Today to run such a dangerous piece.
There is, however, one clue that USA Today had some doubts about the op-ed. In Keck’s bio, it described him as having “discussed this column” with his “child” — an odd detail to include. Given the child in question is now 18 and continuing to pursue a transition, one is left to conclude that the teen did not approve of the column. Just as I’m doing in this piece, USA Today conspicuously avoids using the term “daughter” or “son,” avoiding adapting Keck’s apparent misgendering and seemingly recognizing that only the teenager can stipulate what is an appropriate way to gender them.
If only it had explored those doubts further, it might have avoided providing a platform for prejudice.
For more about the research supporting transition care, check out the What We Know project’s collection of studies. For more about all the junk science around trans kids, I hope you’ll read my feature investigation from a few years ago about all of these issues. It still holds up in the way it dispels these myths, and more importantly, the way it highlights the voices of transgender kids and their families.
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