New low for The Spinoff

UPDATE: 3/3/26: Because of complaints which The Spinoff has upheld (go you good readers!) a couple of the most egregious statements I mention in this article have been removed. The general gist, the panic and the reference to young people as fragile little butterflies remains the same. The same suicide rhetoric also remains, albeit somewhat less explicit, and thus possibly harder to get withdrawn. I still think reference to inevitable negative consequences, spike in horrible statistics and anecdotes of students who were saved by puberty blockers (praise be) are unethical and damaging. I think a reader intends to add a response they got from The Spinoff in the comments.

There is no surer way to encourage vulnerable young people to inflict self harm or attempt suicide than telling them that is what they’re going to do. For this reason journalists have recognised particular responsibilities when reporting on suicide-related matters. New Zealand has guidelines that reflect these responsibilities and help ensure reporting doesn’t inadvertently make things worse1. Suicide, say the guidelines, should not be sensationalised or simplified. Suicide should not be shown as resulting from a single cause or shown to be the inevitable outcome of particular circumstances.

In an article on Wednesday, on the stalled ban on puberty blockers, The Spinoff ignores all this.2 The Spinoff has been frank that it is partisan on issues it considers relate to transgender rights. Even in a wide field of terrible bias on gender issues this latest effort sinks to a new low. The Spinoff breaches the suicide reporting guidelines. It presents a dumbed down sensationalist story that trans-identified kids who can’t get puberty blockers will kill themselves.

The article is chock full of impassioned quotes about the impact of the ban. 18-year-old Charlie, not many years from suicide ideation themselves, is quoted as saying There’s a very real chance that it’s going to cost people’s lives. Quotes from other commentators include: I think we’re going to see a big spike in those horrible statistics that come with being a queer kid; …we’re living on a razor blade; …We’re going to see self harm, we’re going to see suicide; We’re going to see people losing hope and spiralling; …It’s soul destroying. One teacher at Wellington High comments These teenagers are fragile little butterflies, and you see it just destroy a magical part of their soul. Other comments mention profound distress, …significant additional harm, and …the total ban appears to make negative consequences inevitable for some transgender youth.

The Spinoff journalist herself adds more heat to the story. The story’s headline reads Puberty blockers ban anxiety grinds on as ‘very, very worried’ children and families look for support. Other statements include: …young people…were left panicking and distraught; Fears have been running high, …creeping dread, anxiety, and anger over the decision.

The Spinoff is preaching to and about an already vulnerable, frightened cohort of young people. It grinds on with a narrative of disempowerment, fragility and suicidality. It promotes the distressing idea that those wishing for better evidence on puberty blockers hate trans-identified people and don’t want them to exist. It implies that puberty blocker access is not a medical issue, prone to the usual careful weighing up of risks and benefits, but a human rights issue. It chants the puberty blockers or death mantra as if it were irrefutable fact.

The whole thing reads more like a how-to-be-a-appropriately-vulnerable-and-distressed-queer-kid training manual rather than proper journalism. In the scenario of a puberty blocker ban it offers no hope. This is a deeply distressing message for parents and kids.

The Spinoff could do much better than further scaring the bejesus out of young trans-identified people. Those kids get plenty of that on the daily. The Spinoff could point out that actually, there have, over millennia, been many crazy, interesting, beautiful ways young people have chosen to express and think about themselves. It could point out that in all but the last 15 years none of them had access to puberty blockers and, before that, not a single one killed themselves for the lack of access to a treatment that hadn’t been thought of yet.3 It could, in line with all good adolescent psychological knowledge, talk about the importance for young people of learning to be resilient and self-reliant. It could explain that those distressed by gender would do well to prioritise liking themselves rather than letting their sense of self worth be based on how others see them, whether others affirm them in their identity, or whether they can access a particular drug. Real autonomy, strength and choices come from independence.

Rather than telling kids and the public that there’s a powerful cohort of people who hate trans-identified young people, want them to not exist and want to deny them their rights, The Spinoff could be candid and honest. They could tell gender dysphoric young people that there are many, many adults who recognise their distress and are concerned about them, but that these adults have wildly different ideas about how to best support them to live fulfilling and healthy lives.

The Spinoff should investigate whether NZ’s underfunded mental health system could relate to New Zealand’s remarkably high puberty blocker prescription rates.4 Could gender distress be masking other mental health issues, as clinicians overseas have reported, and could puberty blockers be being reached for as a cheapish magic little cure all? If The Spinoff really wanted to do well by trans-identified kids and the concerned public, it could give a fair airing to those with genuine concerns about the paucity of evidence for puberty blockers.

The Spinoff could channel self-respecting teenagers the world over and encourage young people to laugh at rather than believe any try-hard teacher who calls them “delicate little butterflies” and references their magic souls.

Hey, what if The Spinoff went really wild and told some stories of detransitioners, who talk of doctors that ignored abuse, mental health issues and trauma and encouraged them to amputate healthy body parts? One just got a settlement of two million dollars in the US. Perhaps it could look at the impact of all those weird educational videos being shown in NZ schools that have been teaching kids that not liking sexist stereotypes might mean, not that they have excellent feminist sensibilities, but that they may be trans. How about The Spinoff brings it home and showcases the many gay and lesbian groups who, after hearing numerous testimonies, clinical whistleblowers, and openly homophobic parents, have come to see puberty blockers as a contemporary form of conversion therapy.

Sadly, for the public, for the kids, and for The Spinoff itself, the online magazine is on a one directional, relentless, polarising crusade. Journalistic ethics have given way to damaging doggerel.

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