In 2016, Singal wrote a piece defending Canadian
sexologist and proponent of
conversion therapy Kenneth Zucker. Singal contested the characterization of Zucker's advocated practices as conversion therapy, attributing the designation to a "show trial" undertaken to appease activists.
2018 Atlantic article Singal wrote the cover story for the July/August 2018 issue of
The Atlantic. Originally published under the title "When a Child Says She's Trans", the online version was later retitled "When Children Say They're Trans". The
long-form piece includes profiles of several adolescents who identify or previously identified as transgender, interviews with youth gender clinicians, and reviews of some of the studies, statistics, and protocols related to
youth transition. Among the controversial aspects of the article was the proportion of weight given to stories of adolescents who had desisted or
detransitioned—that is, reverted to identifying with their genders assigned at birth, either before or after undergoing physical transition. In the article, Singal acknowledges that the stories of detransitioners are sometimes viewed with skepticism or suspicion by the transgender community, in part because they have been used by conservative media to further misleading narratives. Alex Barasch, writing in
Slate, faulted the article for not including the story of "a single happy, well-adjusted trans teen" in its first 9,000 words. In
The Advocate, Amanda Kerri criticized his understanding of the issue and lack of expertise in the subject matter, while acknowledging "a legitimate concern about the politicization of science and social justice". In the
New York Times,
Andrea Long Chu described the article's focus on detransitioners as "compassion-mongering" and "peddling bigotry in the guise of sympathetic concern".'''' In a 2019 paper, Chu calls the article "mostly a heaping pile of garbage", but writes that "a few of the questions [Singal] raises about trans kids are important", and that his article had been "quickly brushed aside" on release with the "easy out" of dismissing him as a cisgender transphobe.
The Atlantic published four letters from parents of transgender children reacting to Singal's article. One said it "goes a long way to covering all aspects of [being transgender]. It's very impressive". Others described it as "simply unhelpful and largely harmful to a marginalized community", and playing on the worst fears of parents. Another response, by Tey Meadow, criticized Singal's focus on a 16 year-old girl whose gender dysphoria had abated without transition, an outcome that Meadow writes represents "the rarest of cases", and that Singal had participated "in an inherently stigmatizing discourse" in characterizing the girl as a "desister". Legal scholar John Inazu characterized the backlash as "widespread outrage from progressive commentators" and that in some criticisms, "
ad hominem attacks far outpaced their substantive critiques". In December 2024, Singal joined the social network
Bluesky. Within 12 days of joining, he became the most blocked account on the platform (later surpassed by
JD Vance) and faced a petition calling for his account to be banned. Singal reported receiving death threats from users, and some users allege he engaged or encouraged harassment of them, but Bluesky found no evidence he violated guidelines. In his coverage of the story, journalist
Ben Smith called Singal's views "well within the mainstream of US and UK politics". ==Podcast==