Some pro-trans activists have branded the national broadcaster ‘Nazis’ after its flagship current affairs show ran a story about a teenager who took his own life after being denied gender-affirming care.
Taking to Twitter, transgender advocates lashed out at the ABC and its Four Corners program for telling the tragic story of Noah O’Brien, who was born as a girl called Lily, and died in January this year.
One viewer took objection to the program, which highlighted the complexities of transgender healthcare for minors, for including both sides of the issue and vowing ‘not to stand in judgement of either side of this debate’.
‘Well, maybe you f**king should stand in judgement of the side that’s affiliated with Nazis,’ they tweeted.
Another Twitter user wrote: ‘Let’s be crystal clear: There is no debate about trans people’s right to survive. We will not debate our existence with neo-Nazis and their allies.’
Noah O’Brien, 14, (pictured) died in January this year. He had written his parents a letter six months before telling them he identified as a boy but was worried about returning to school
The ABC has been bombarded with criticism over its Four Corners story, which highlighted both sides of the transgender debate
In recent years, so-called ‘gender-critical feminists’ – who typically oppose medical interventions for children who say they are trans – have found themselves on the same side of the debate as some far-right anti-LGBT activists, including neo-Nazis.
But despite this unwanted association with extremists, these women’s rights activists maintain their criticisms of trans healthcare are legitimate, and deny they are ‘Nazis’ simply for saying medical intervention shouldn’t happen before the age of 18.
After Four Corners went to air on Monday, dozens of angry viewers flocked to Twitter to declare all critics of transgender healthcare ‘Nazis’, adding that any ‘debate’ about trans people is a disgrace.
They also accused the ABC of false equivalency by giving airtime to pro- and anti-trans voices, claiming there is medical consensus that gender-affirming care is the best course of action for youths experiencing gender dysphoria.
‘According to the science, it’s not a debate. Trans people are correct, it’s that simple,’ one person tweeted.
‘To call it a debate is to legitimise lunacy as equal to scientific fact. Something every journalist should already know.’
The ABC program had revealed the 14-year-old had written his parents a letter six months before telling them he identified as a boy.
Noah’s mum Lauren told Four Corners of the devastating loss of her son after he was worried about returning to school in his new gender identity following the holidays.
‘My husband gave him CPR and the ambulance, and the police arrived about four minutes after we called them and they took him to Westmead Hospital, where he stayed alive until six in the morning,’ she said.
‘That was from about 11 o’clock. So, we got seven hours to actually say goodbye.’
Noah had been admitted to Westmead children’s hospital in Sydney’s west where he was discharged after a day, with a recommendation to seek support for gender issues.
Noah’s mother, Lauren (pictured), said her son was not given access to any gender-affirming care
An article explaining why the ABC ran the Four Corners story was further slammed
Ms O’Brien went to his GP to get a referral but did not realise that he would be pushed down the waiting list because he had started puberty.
Four Corners reported that Noah ‘was effectively denied any specialist gender support by the hospital’.
The ABC’s efforts to thwart controversy with an article explaining how and why it aired the story on Noah’s plight also backfired.
‘We interviewed the doctors running Australia’s two biggest gender clinics in Melbourne and Brisbane to explain and defend the gender-affirming model of care,’ the ABC stated.
‘We interviewed experts independent of the gender clinics, including the eminent psychiatrist Professor Ian Hickie. We also spoke to two of the most high-profile and qualified critics of the existing model and defenders of the research, Dr Dianna Kenny and Dr Jillian Spencer.’
Noah O’Brien tragically died in January
The ABC has come under fire for running a Four Corners story on a 14-year old who took his life
‘Considering they claim they checked for accuracy the article is full of inaccuracies,’ an angry person tweeted in response to the article.
‘Their (sic) is no scaling back of gender care in the UK quite the opposite. Dr Spencer is a known anti-trans quack yet is quoted. Just utter rubbish from start to finish.’
The ABC refused to back down from its report, stating Four Corners staffers had a ‘rigorous process of checking and refining the final product’.
‘We were determined not to stand in judgement of either side of this debate. We wanted the story to reflect the weight of evidence, but we were acutely aware that the science is new and evolving in this area. We believe we got the balance right,’ it stated.
The Four Corners controversy comes after another ABC program, Media Watch, faced similar backlash for acknowledging both sides of the public debate surrounding gender-affirming care.
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