Trans community rallies around fight to stop anti-trans FDA petition

After a long-form investigation was published by The Needle showing how anti-trans hate groups are trying to lobby the FDA for a restrictive regime on estrogen, the number of comments on the original petition have exploded in size.

By Artemis T. Douglas

On March 12, The Needle published a story titled, “Anti-trans hate groups petitioning FDA for registry of trans women, crackdown on transition, newly revealed document shows”. This was a long form piece which covered many aspects and potential outcomes of the petition sent to the FDA. 

The original story was a long-form investigation sitting at just under 8,000 words. In it, Jane and Artemis covered transmedicalism, anti-trans movement strategy, potential impacts, and more, all while stressing that these rules had been requested, and had not yet happened. 

Since that initial coverage, new facts have come to light which further contextualize the original story and what it means for trans people. 

One of those facts is that one of the signatories on the petition is a former FDA official– Peter Pitts, who now works in public relations for the pharmaceutical industry.

Another is that, after The Needle published the initial coverage, the trans community and allies seem to have mobilized in opposition to this proposal. 

This response seems to have been positive, and supportive of trans people and our ability to transition. 

Before the original story was published, the FDA regulatory website’s comments on the petition only totaled 111, 61 of which were publicly readable. After the first full day since the original story, that number sat above 2,500. 

As of writing, that number is 4,063 and counting. Only the original 61 are currently readable publicly. 

While some members of the community expressed that this may never happen– a statement which the original story does not dispute, others have taken action to help make sure it doesn’t.

Further, in the time since the original petition story was published on March 12, and today, not only has the number of comments exploded, but based on The Needle’s coverage, a community action website has been created which explains what various stakeholders can do to prevent this requested regulatory change from being enacted.

The website is titled “Trans Resilience”, and it is designed to be a hub for future campaigns that let trans people and our allies approach the news rather than merely reading it.

Trans Resilience

Defend access. Oppose the registry. Policy research, clinical evidence, and coordinated advocacy defending transgender human rights.

The Needle spoke to Emma Matthies, the security engineer who built Trans Resilience, about the website, her goals, and what prompted her to create it. 

She told The Needle that the coverage by The Needle about the petition for the FDA registry inspired her to act, and do what she could to prevent it from becoming real.

“The checks and balances are disappearing. I think this is our chance to act and prevent this from happening. In the past I would just assume that this would not go anywhere. In the administration and moment we’re in now, we can’t remotely consider allowing that assumption. We have to assume that all these things are real threats, no matter how invalid we would hope they are. Nothing is impossible now, in the worst possible way. We have to take this seriously.

All the various government agencies and the shifts inside them have demonstrated this. The potential outcome of this would be devastating to the trans population in the US. And the horrific idea that they could assemble a nationwide list of all trans women who have been prescribed estrogen. It’s too extreme to not take seriously.

When I saw that, I started digging into The Needle’s coverage and cross-referencing. What I found is that it’s all as concerning or potentially more concerning than your article covers.”

Matthies also cautioned the parallels between where trans people in the US find ourselves and past historical atrocities.

 “When you look at the United States today, there are a lot of parallels with historical political regimes that the world largely agrees shouldn’t happen again. Fundamentally, this administration and the historical political regimes are firmly rooted in division. The only real response you can have to that is to find a way to work together and change what’s happening.”

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“Doomscrolling is a real problem, people don’t know how to act on the news. It would be negligent not to do something. The only thing I could do is try my best to bring awareness before the threat materializes.”

“We need to be coordinated across more than one specific issue. We need to work together to track and address the issues the trans community faces in order to know what the threats are and how to oppose them. We also need information on how to stay safe despite them.”

Finally, she stated that she was inspired in large part by The Needle’s “Take Your Shot” call-out that is at the end of many of The Needle’s stories, and wanted to expand on this concept. 

"I read Artemis and Jane's reporting on Thursday, and when I hit the 'Take Your Shot' section — the call to comment on the docket — I realized the window was open and we had to act fast. 

I'm a technical architect. That's how I think. By Friday I had a strategy document. By Saturday the domain was registered, and the site was online. The goal was to make sure that every type of person who could help — clinicians, journalists, lawyers, community members — had exactly what they needed in front of them, in a format that made sense for them specifically, with a clear path to action. 

I built things to be extensible and adaptable to multiple issues as time goes on. There may be a lot of attacks thrown our way, but... together, we are powerful."