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Syracuse University’s chapter of the College Republicans hosted marriage and family therapist Sara Stockton at Drumlins Country Club Wednesday to discuss her views on gender-affirming care.

The event — titled “From Certainty to Skepticism: A Gender Therapist’s Evolution in Understanding Gender Affirmation” — featured Stockton, who has said she is skeptical about gender affirming care for youth. The event garnered criticism from LGTBQ experts and queer people in the Syracuse and central New York communities, with some calling for its cancellation over concerns of Stockton’s anti-trans rhetoric.

In response to the event, over 60 protestors gathered in the parking lot outside of Drumlins an hour before the event. Holding signs and sporting lights and colorful clothing, the protestors chanted, disagreeing with the event and Stockton’s beliefs.

“F you, SU — do better,” protestors chanted.

One of the protesters, SU alum Hunter Kusak, said they were a former client of Stockton’s. Kusak said Stockon wrote the letter to approve them for hormone blockers and hormone replacement theory. Kusak said they sought out other therapy providers after Stockton talked with them about being featured in an article about a rally for former president Donald Trump.

Kusak said SU should do better as an organization and stand strong with its students, especially as a university that “claims to be an open campus that respects all diversity.”

“SU needs to start standing behind their student body,” Kusak said. “They did this with #NotAgainSU, they did this with a lot of the events that go swept under the rug on their campus, the stealing of the pride and Indigenous flags from out in front of (Hendricks Chapel).”

SU graduate and community member Rhyse Curtis said they didn’t feel there was any justification for SU to host someone with “hateful rhetoric” to speak freely on campus property.

“Myself and obviously plenty of other community members are just disgusted that Syracuse wants to put profit and appearances ahead of the safety of their students and their community members,” Curtis said.

The event was originally set to be held in Maxwell Auditorium but was moved to Drumlins, which SU owns, due to security concerns and a “mandate” from SU’s Department of Public Safety, according to an Instagram post on the SU College Republicans account.

Sophia Widdekind, another protestor, is a graduate student in the Marriage and Family Therapy Department.

“I’m here with a bunch of my classmates tonight and we’re really excited to be here,” Widdekind said. “We cannot stand for the fact that Sara (Stockton) is wanting to spread hateful and hurtful messages about the trans community when it’s a community that’s already struggling so much and is so marginalized.”

Inside Drumlins, around 20 people gathered in person for the event, with approximately 100 viewers watching through a YouTube livestream.

College Republicans President John Parker introduced Stockton and the process to hold the event. Another member of the College Republicans read a statement from the university, deeming it “housekeeping.”

“Let us approach tonight’s event with open minds and a willingness to gain perspective. By doing so, we uphold the principles of free speech that are vital for society’s progress,” the member said.

Calysta Lee | Contributing Photographer

After being introduced by the SU College Republicans as a “gender expert,” Stockton began her remarks by recounting the history of gender, from the first gender reassignment surgeries to the status of gender healthcare today.

In her remarks, Stockton outlined her journey from being raised as a “diehard liberal” to where she is now, someone with “no space” in the liberal arena.

“Fifteen years ago, I would have told you, ‘Yes, I would be outside with them,’” Stockton said, referencing the protestors.

As gender-affirming care and hormone therapy have become more prevalent in the United States, Stockton said she has seen shifts in the field, specifically since her graduation from SU in 2008. Around this time, Stockton said, she was a member of SU’s transgender care team.

“When I started working in this field, I don’t think I realized how complex this was in terms of being influenced by politics, policy and other stakeholders in the field of gender medicine,” Stockton said.

She said she has observed a shift in the landscape of medical care offerings for trans people, with the passage of the Affordable Care Act and expanded care offered by Planned Parenthood. Stockton claimed many young people are using services at Planned Parenthood to “skip the line” and “circumvent safeguards” that are present with more traditional avenues of care like therapists.

In addition to her qualms about how gender-affirming care has changed, Stockton pointed to an increase in the number of transgender people in America, specifically bringing up social media and “social contagions.”

A 2022 study published in Pediatrics found that “social contagion” was not creating an increase in the number of transgender youth, according to NBC News.

As Stockton became concerned that her discipline was becoming “too saturated,” she said she entered a period of “silent years” from 2016 to 2022, staying quiet on the topics of trans youth and gender-affirming care. Then, in 2022, Stockton appeared in “What is a Woman?,” a documentary by right-wing commentator Matt Walsh.

Currently, Stockton said she is focusing her efforts on raising concerns about hormone blockers and other therapies as well as people who want to detransition. She said studies and science about whether hormone blockers are harmful are inconclusive.

A 2022 study conducted by the University of Washington and several hospitals in the Seattle area concluded that non-binary and transgender youth who had started puberty blockers or gender-affirmative hormones had 60% lower odds of depression and 73% lower odds of suicidality.

In her own practice, Stockton said she saw one case of a person who experienced medical malpractice by being guided towards transitioning from male to female and wanted to detransition.

“We’re going to find out that there are many stories like his, where gay men in particular get lured into the culture of prostitution and are told that they would make more money if they were transgender or shifted their identity,” she said.

Stockton was met with questions from two audience members when she said there is no concrete evidence to support the claim that gender-affirmative care leads to diminished suicidality in trans youth.

Calysta Lee | Contributing Photographer

Kusak, who attended the event after the protest, had a brief dialogue with Stockton about detransitioners. The two disagreed about rates of suicidality as they relate to gender-affirming care.

As Stockton continues to express her concerns about gender-affirmative care for youth, she said she is working to do the best for her clients.

“My personal, professional life was centered around being an ally and an advocate for best practices for this community,” Stockton said. “It still is.”

Protestors challenged Stockton’s expertise, with some saying she spreads misinformation and hate speech.

“Healthcare is a human right, specifically trans healthcare, when hormone replacement therapy is life saving,” Kusak said. “There are many studies that are peer reviewed studies that she continues to ignore about how hormone replacement therapy lowers the rate of suicidality amongst youth and trans children as well as trans adults.”

Published on November 30, 2023 at 1:27 am

Contact Claire: charri39@syr.edu