The NYT risks looking transphobic, with "Chest Binding Helps Smooth the Way for Transgender Teens, but There May Be Risks/People who use binders report symptoms like back and chest pain, overheating and shortness of breath."

And the comments to the article (by Amy Sohn) are full of expressions of thanks. The top-rated comment:

Thank you, Amy Sohn for this article. Thank you. And thank you for naming the work of 4thwavenow. The health impacts of experimental transgender medicine on children and teens very much needs to be brought to the public's attention.

From the doctor [quoted in the article]: “It’s strange to me that someone would think of a binder as being a form of self-harm when there are so many other garments used by gender-typical people to change their appearance that are also extremely uncomfortable (hello high heels …).”"

Everyone should be concerned about this blase attitude from clinicians with regards to potential harm being done to otherwise healthy bodies. And the bodies of children at that. High heels are not benign. High heels hurt women's feet, backs, knees, and can permanently change your physical structure. Binders should be seen as yet another way of "fixing" the female body, when there is nothing wrong in the first place.

Again, thank you.

Another comment:

Thank you for this article , it’s the first time I’ve seen the Times recognize (if ever so slightly) the epidemic of teenage girls suddenly identifying as trans. Breast binding, cross sex hormones, double mastectomies (what you call “top surgeries”) and phalloplasties are dangerous, invasive interventions with lifelong consequences. None of these coping strategies for bodily distress are healthy or sustainable. There is little proof that they are even effective at relieving dysphoria / dysmorphia. Teen girls that are in distress about their bodies need loving and intense therapeutic support. If they aren’t heterosexual and/or feminine, they need and deserve full family acceptance of this. Parents should never enable or validate self harm or self hatred. These kids deserve better care that teaches them to love and accept their bodies and themselves. If they decide to medically transition as adults, in full understanding of the risks and benefits , that’s their choice. But kids should not be pushed onto this beltway.

And:

Kudos to the NYT for finally giving a voice to those of us who are concerned about the rush to medically transition gender-nonconforming kids and young people. There are many, many of us, and our numbers are growing.

We are left-leaning, often lifelong Democrats who recognize that the push to automatically affirm a young person who believes they are transgender is leading to a groundswell of false positives -- especially among same-sex-attracted girls....

Even though I check the front page of the NYT several times a day for new stories that I might want to blog, I did not see this story there. I found it because I happened upon a criticism of in on Twitter. How dare the NYT be transphobic!

From the article:

Made of thick spandex and nylon, binders resemble tight undershirts, creating a masculine profile.... Binders are not classified as medical devices, but some doctors and parents have concerns about their safety.... Some transgender teens say they buy binders so that they can “pass” as male or to diminish feelings of discomfort with the body known as body dysphoria...

Tami Staas, 51, a schoolteacher who lives in Tempe, Ariz., and is president of the Arizona Trans Youth and Parent Organization, has a 21-year-old son who was assigned female at birth and who started binding at 12. He wore a binder about 12 hours a day for five years. He had trouble in gym class and breathing trouble....

Though there have been no studies on binding and adolescent health, because of ethical concerns about research on minors, a 2017 study by students at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, the Boston University School of Medicine, and the Boston University School of Public Health looked at 1,800 transmasculine adults with a median age of 23. Seventy-eight percent of respondents said they had bound for over a year, over half bound an average of seven days a week....

Participants reported a statistically significant improvement in mood after binding. They also reported decreased gender dysphoria, anxiety and depression. As for physical effects, 97.2 percent of the group that bound reported at least one negative physical symptom, such as back pain, overheating, chest pain and shortness of breath. Other symptoms included numbness, bad posture and lightheadedness....

[S]ome worry that parental efforts to affirm a young person’s identity by supporting binding may contribute to self-hate. Jane Wheeler, a co-founder of an organization called Rethink Identity Medicine Ethics, which examines standards of care for gender-variant children and youth, said binding “feeds into a normalization of body hatred, that some forms of body hatred are O.K.”

Brie Jontry is the spokeswoman for 4thWaveNow, which describes itself as “a community of parents and others concerned about the medicalization of gender atypical youth.” Her daughter, now 15, told Ms. Jontry that she was trans at 11 and wanted a binder.... She stopped running, rock-climbing, backpacking and swimming.

“We would go for our evening walk and she would get winded and dizzy,” Ms. Jontry said. “She stopped climbing trees. She stopped doing things where any degree of upper-body flexibility was important.” “Binding is not benign,” Ms. Jontry said. “It encourages the idea that people’s distress and anger and trauma should be turned inward toward their own bodies instead of outward toward the culture that feels oppressive to them.”