A federal judge in Arkansas tossed out a state law prohibiting gender-affirming care for transgender youth. The judge ruled that medical decisions should be made not by politicians but by patients, their parents, and their physicians. I don’t know anyone who is transgender, but I’m happy for those who are because personal medical decisions should not be controlled by politicians.
A federal judge in Arkansas on Tuesday struck down the state’s law forbidding medical treatments for children and teenagers seeking gender transitions, blocking what had been the first in a wave of such measures championed by conservative lawmakers across the country.
The case had been closely watched as an important test of whether bans on transition care for minors, which have since been enacted by more than a dozen states, could withstand legal challenges being brought by activists and civil liberties groups.
In his 80-page ruling, Judge James M. Moody Jr. of Federal District Court in Little Rock said the law both discriminated against transgender people and violated constitutional rights for doctors. He also said that the state of Arkansas had failed to substantially prove a number of its claims, including that the care was experimental or carelessly prescribed to teenagers.
“Rather than protecting children or safeguarding medical ethics, the evidence showed that the prohibited medical care improves the mental health and well-being of patients and that by prohibiting it, the state undermined the interests it claims to be advancing,” Judge Moody wrote.
“Further,” he wrote, “the various claims underlying the state’s arguments that the act protects children and safeguards medical ethics do not explain why only gender-affirming medical care — and all gender-affirming medical care — is singled out for prohibition.”
The challenge to the law, which was brought by the American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas and named several transgender children and a doctor as plaintiffs, argued that the ban violated transgender people’s constitutional right to equal protection, parents’ rights to make appropriate medical decisions for their children and doctors’ right to refer patients for medical treatments.
Transgender people have been around for many years, as has medical treatment for them. Why now the Republican hysteria about allowing trans people to live as they choose? It’s a diversion from the fact that Republicans have no policies to improve the lives of ordinary people. So, they whip up culture war issues like trans youth, gay marriage, critical race theory, drag queens. Why now indeed.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
At least, this Arkansas judge has, the mind to protect the younger, generations of transgender people. Transgendered or not, they are all, still, human beings, and deserved, equal rights to medical care, like the rest of us.
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“New study estimates 1.6 million in U.S. identify as transgender”
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/new-study-estimates-16-million-us-identify-transgender-2022-06-10/
What is that ratio? Less than one half of one percent identify as transgender in the United States. To be precise: 0.48%
The U.S. Census Bureau estimated the
Population at 334,233,854 on Jan. 1, 2023.
And MAGA sees this very small minitorty in the US as a threat. Where are all the violent transgender militias? There are none.
Most if not all militias in the U.S. are also MAGA members. The problem is MAGA. MAGA is inhuman.
I think MAGA is a combination of these three alien species found in Star Trek:
The Gorn
The Romulans
The Borg
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I don’t say this lightly, but we are moving in the wrong direction in this country regarding trans medicalization of children and young people. Most of the students I serve who identify as trans are likely gay. Many of them (and their parents) have internalized homophobia, are uncomfortable with their changing bodies, and have no history of gender dysphoria. I did watchful waiting when my 16 year old son suddenly decided he was trans. I had to dig deep to find anything that examined the developmental issues with the huge rise in trans identifying teens. My son desisted after a year and a half and we have quite a long story (which I am writing up for a blog), but most of the doctors and therapists administer only affirming care, that is, children are able to access puberty blockers and cross sex hormones with no safeguards or examination of co-morbidities such as autism, self-harm, sexual trauma, internet addiction, or just difficulty managing puberty. I had to do my own research and I found many critical thinking psychoanalysts, doctors, and researchers who were studying the stunning phenomenon. It is still very difficult to get access to the research, as there are no solid reviews of the evidence for gender affirming care in the US. However, the UK, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and France have done such reviews and have all but banned such treatments for minors. I recommend looking more deeply at the rising number of detransitioners, the research out of Europe, and the poor long term outcomes of people who medically transition, both on their physical and mental health.
The tide is changing, and as a very serious political progressive, I am appalled by the number of people on the left who are not questioning the effects of puberty blockers, cross sex hormones, and invasive surgeries on minors. Without such interventions, most young people grow to be comfortable in their bodies as they develop their frontal lobes, and have real life experiences. It is estimated that between 70-90% of these young people will turn out to be same sex attracted. I am very worried that we are confusing gender non-conformity with being “born in the wrong body”, which strikes me as the worst message to send to young people. Radical self-love is important here, and we are potentially taking the opportunity away for gay men and women to live as their authentic selves. The big pharma and medical industry connection seems obvious to me, as there is a lot of money to be made when you convince a young person that their body must be hormonally and cosmetically altered. I think we are all going to have a very big wake up call as we see more and more of our young adults suing their doctors and medical centers for the over prescription of gender affirming care. There are two of these cases happening in California as we speak.
I suggest reading Jamie Reed’s whistleblowing testimony after working at a gender care clinic in Missouri; Jennifer Bilek on the connection between transhumanism, trans medicine, and profiteers; Leor Sapir of the Manhattan Institute who is looking at the evidence base for these treatments; Hannah Barnes’ book “Time to think: the Inside Story on the Collapse of the Tavistock’s Gender Service for Children,” and Stella O’Malley and Sasha Ayad of the podcast, Gender: A Wider Lens, in which the two psychotherapists interview several experts on transitioning medicine, trans medical history, the researchers of the Dutch Protocol, trans identified people, and detransitioners. There is a very good documentary on six detransitioners who tell their stories of being misdiagnosed and rushed through gender altering treatments which have left deep physical and psychological scars. Several of the above experts and more are also interviewed. The documentary is titled “No Way Back”. I am a personal acquaintance of one of the detransitioners in the documentary.
This article came out in the Wall Street Journal this past week, and there are several articles that have been published in Reuters and the Economist recently as well. We really need to copy what our European friends are doing and slow down this diagnosis. The puberty blockers, cross sex hormones, and surgeries often lead to bone density issues, cancer, heart attacks, sterility, loss of orgasm, and a much higher rate of suicide and poor mental health overall. I hope you and your readers will give some consideration to the deeper story and medical scandal that is currently hurting our gay and neurodivergent youth.
https://archive.ph/2023.06.19-040359/https://www.wsj.com/amp/articles/u-s-becomes-transgender-care-outlier-as-more-in-europe-urge-caution-6c70b5e0
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We could make enormous progress if we got our language straight. Many years ago, in the late 1940s, Simone de Beauvoir published the incredibly influential book The Second Sex. In this, she famously wrote, “One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman.” She was pointing to a distinction between biological sex, which is innate, and gender, which is the entire set of LEARNED behavior that is traditionally associated with being of one sex or the other in particular cultures. And most of that stuff is imitated, acquired, not taught. No one sits boys down and says, you can’t wear dresses, typically. Boys just see that other boys don’t do that. IF we taught our students that sex is what you are born with and gender is the stuff that you take on, that you acquire, then they could see that they can experiment with gender fluidity without taking the extraordinarily dramatic steps involved in attempting to change their physical, inherited secondary sexual characteristics. So, kids could have the experimentation without the deleterious consequences, and the few who seriously wanted to change sex, not just gender, could do so when they were old enough and mature enough to make this decision. Does this make sense to you? It does to me.
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Well, if Simone says so.
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I open in this way, Flerp, when talkiing about this matter, for a reason. Here’s was a profound and historically important insight. She is the first person that I know of to make this distinction, and it has been a powerful one. It rang like a bell through subsequent feminist history. There’s a difference between sex and gender, between physical inheritance and expectations for what behaviors one can exhibit and roles one can fulfill. Powerful. Just giving credit where credit is due. Ideas and how they are framed matter. I can think of few examples of that as powerful and clear as this one.
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cx: Hers was a profound and historically important insight.
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Immanuel Kant is responsible for introducing the idea of a United Nations, so when I write about the idea of the United Nations, I often invoke him, in gratitude and amazement at his insight. Simone de Beauvoir is responsible for introducing the distinction between sex and gender, one that has profound impact upon the shape of feminist thought, so when I discuss sex and gender, I often invoke her, again in gratitude and amazement. It’s difficult enough to get people to grok these concepts period, much less to have been the person to conceive of them, to bring them into the world.
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And, of course, it’s not a matter of her authority (“if Simone says so”) but a matter of whether her insight accurately describes the world. Does it carve at its joints in the way that she says that it does?
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Simone understood the female position in her time; and not much has changed since then worldwide. If you are interested in a newer feminist voice, I highly recommend Kathleen Stock, a lesbian philosopher in the UK who wrote an unassailable book about the material reality of what it is to be biologically female in the current moment of self id laws, biological women losing to biological males who identify as women in sports, and the current difficulties and stigma of being female today. Her book is “Material Girls”. I highly recommend it.
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Thank you, Ms. Aguilar. I will definitely have a look at her book. And the very best to you and your child.
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I have no doubt that there are families that have had, are having, experiences like yours, Sasha, that are traumatic. The care that you took with your child, including the space and time that you gave, is commendable and moving. Again, I think that understanding that there is a clear difference between the biological inheritance (sex) and the behaviors that we acquire (gender) can be freeing AND can allow young people to experiment without damaging themselves–encourage them to hold off making irreversible decisions until they are old enough and mature enough to be certain. And, of course, gender identification has always been on a continuum. Allowing it to be is a birth of a kind of freedom, is it not, for people to express themselves in ways that they find life-affirming, that enable flourishing? I’m old enough to remember when people went nuts about the fact that my Mom wanted to wear what were called, then, “cigarette pants,” or capris. A woman in pants! OMG!!! LOL.
I have a great good friend who ran for a long time a sort of feminist burlesque. Quite the cast of characters in her troupe! And lots of good fun.
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Sasha,
The following article in the Guardian (6-15-2023) doesn’t help your political cause- “Four Controversial Doctors Helping Republicans Attack Transgender Care.”
The WSJ is right wing. Today, there were charges of lack of journalistic integrity (not new to allegations). ProPublica planned a story about Alito’s connection to Paul Singer (charter school proponent). The WSJ gave space to Alito to counter the story’s facts before the article was even published.
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WSJ and lying Fox network, same owner – Murdoch
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Sasha
Let’s copy what “our European neighbors” are doing and stop letting Charles Koch and the Catholic Church govern the U.S.
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Sasha….Thank you! This “trans” nightmare has visited my home, too. Unfortunately, like Covid, it has become political and the “left vs right” fight keeps everyone in their own little box fighting for “their side” instead of clearly looking at what is really happening. Let the lawsuits begin!
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Again, Lisa, why don’t you encourage your child to write his/her insights on the subject at this blog.
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Again Linda, I bet you’re fun at cocktail parties and backyard BBQ’s. You should stick with your anti-Catholic rants and ravings. You’re a one trick pony and you swing and miss every time you try and step out of the ring.
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Lisa, I deeply empathize. The journey I went as a parent was devastating and lonely. Everyone wanted to congratulate my son and my “bravery” in accepting him, but no one saw what his two parents saw- a lost, internet addicted, confused and traumatized child, who needed careful parenting, real life experiences, and not the hormones he begged for. As a non-conforming, former goth / punk gender bender, radical leftist, feminist, and activist, I could not believe that people would peg me as a rightwing Republican for questioning the ideas he parroted at me about “what being a woman felt like” for him. The reality was that my son got pulled into a fictional avatar echo chamber that was driven by AI feeding into his fears and interests and convinced him that his anguish and discomfort was due to being born in the wrong body. He was fed an on-line diet of self importance for his courage and non-conformity, that his parents would never understand him, and what to say, do, and wear. I read and researched non-stop for nearly two years and carefully supported his integration into mature adulting and real world responsibilities. He even got a job working lights and stagecraft at a burlesque theatre, where no one cared at all what he called himself and how he dressed, as long as it was safe for climbing scaffolding. We are 8 months past his return to being male with a renewed mental health and confidence in spirit. With time and distance he is able to talk about himself with insight and self love. What appeared to be cult like behavior indeed was a cult for him. He reflects on and even articulates that he was stuck in the “trans cult.” I wish you and your child well. Listen to your heart and don’t be bullied by all the people who believe they know your child more than you do. It’s a long road, as you well know.
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Sasha,
I make no judgment about whether gender affirming care is good or bad. It’s an issue that I never paid attention until Republican legislatures began banning it.
The question the judge ruled on was whether the decision about care should be made by the legislature or by parents and doctors.
What do you think? Should legislators take over the role of parents?
Of course, the irony is that the sane states rushed to pass “parental rights” laws to enable censorship of books and teachers. And they actually meant “white parental rights.”
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The science is not settled on this issue. We have a for profit, big pharma health care system. We have mainstream media worried about losing financial backing if they publish anything that questions or critiques the ethics and long term outcomes of gender affirming / medicalizing care. This is why I turned to the European researchers to learn more. I could not get any answers from our doctors on the West Coast about outcomes and likelihood of regret. As you will see in the next couple of years, the mainstream media will no longer be able to hide the constant medical scandals and the voices of the detransitioners. We need to listen to these whistleblowers now, as they did in the UK. Keira Bell was a foster youth who was convinced to transition to a man as a teen. As is common in these cases, she has permanent physical side effects from the transition. She realized that she was a lesbian running away from a very difficult life, and she managed to sue the Tavistock Gender Center, a case which has provoked a huge course correction in gender care for children and young people in the UK.
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Diane (and others),
Here are some research articles and resources around the efficacy of gender altering procedures for minors: many of these will point you to more. I do believe that until there is better evidence based science, all puberty blockers, cross sex hormones, and surgeries should be banned for everyone under 21 for the purpose of “curing” gender dysphoria.
In Finland, a country I admire for its care of children:
Dr. Riittakerttu Kaltiala, Finland’s leading expert on pediatric gender medicine and chief psychiatrist at its largest gender clinic (Tampere University) was interviewed on why the adult standards of care should not be applied to children. Her main points are listed on this Twitter thread. Protocols in Finland are now much stricter due to her work and qualitative research. I believe there are links to the actual article there as well. I first heard her speak in an interview on Gender: A Wider Lens. https://twitter.com/leorsapir/status/1620448053357592576?s=46&t=9T7qsS_O4nqXrhIuNjY1AA
In the UK, protocols for gender distressed kids were tightened due to several whistleblowers and cases like Keira Bell’s. Here is the Cass Report that came out of the investigation (which is ongoing): https://cass.independent-review.uk/about-the-review/
In the US:
Gender dysphoria in young people is rising—and so is professional disagreement
https://www.bmj.com/content/380/bmj.p382
A well researched article in The Economist reposted with permission on the Society for Ethical Gender Medicine (SEGM) website:
https://segm.org/The-Economist-evidence-for-gender-transitions-in-adolescence-worryingly-weak
Dr. Miriam Grossman speaking last week in front of a congressional panel. Here is her testimony about the lack of evidence for child transitioning.
https://donoharmmedicine.org/2023/06/14/do-no-harm-expert-testifies-at-congress/
I would like to add a recent journal article that came out on the influence of social media on adolescents’ mental health. I believe that this is the primary cause of the uptick in gender distressed youth.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0010440X22000682
And as a point of interest, there are many transitioned men and women, as well as “detransitioners” who speak candidly about the changes that they went through and how well they believe that they were treated (or harmed).
Corinna Cohn, an older trans woman who now mostly identifies as a gay man speaking on the relationship between homosexuality and gender transition in teenage boys: https://youtu.be/SiYYCCDtFbM
You can also read his Washington Post editorial here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/04/11/i-was-too-young-to-decide-about-transgender-surgery-at-nineteen/
Look up “detransitioner” on YouTube and you will find many more. The number of detransitioners on Reddit has doubled in the last year. I have a lesbian friend from Thailand who points out that trans surgeries there are illegal for minors as they change their minds about who they are. Of course they do. Exploration of who we are is the job of adolescents.
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Sasha,
Your link from the Washington Post is not an editorial. It’s an opinion article.
I think you are saying that parents should not have the right to seek any “gender affirming care” for their sons or daughters.
I think you are saying that politicians should be able to override the wishes of parents.
I assume you don’t believe in parental rights.
Do you also believe that politicians should decide whether women have control of their reproductive rights?
These are important questions.
For some reason, I trust medical professionals more than politicians.
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You are correct. It is an opinion piece, not an editorial. Many doctors feel pressured to not speak out for fear of getting canceled. There is a large movement to eliminate fgm. There is a similar movement to outlaw these experimental procedures on minors who cannot possibly understand the consequences of these procedures and medications.
To answer more specifically, I believe that gender medicalization in children should be extremely rare and done only within experimental cohorts with strict guidelines and care. Currently the US is set up to fail and permanently harm hundreds of thousands of children without having proper protocols and safeguarding measures in place. I would add that such stringent and conservative protocols are now in place in the countries I have mentioned. This was due to the way that the overall healthcare system works and in response to the rising numbers of children complaining of gender incongruence. Because of this, I believe it is in the best interest to halt all of the procedures and drugs until a firm set of guidelines can be established. It is not hyperbole that there are many more kids asking for medication and surgeries. There are at least 6 students at the high school where I work that are identifying as non-binary or the opposite sex. Three of them strike me as gay. Indeed, two of them are females in a relationship with one another but consider themselves to be boys in a homosexual relationship. These kinds of presentations are very common in middle schools and high schools and many of the people in my cohort of colleagues and friends have children asking for medication for altering their sex. It is unclear whether these young people understand that they cannot actually change their biological sex, or if they understand the potential outcomes. My own son certainly did not as he was going through adolescence, discomfort with the self, and the need to be part of a group identity- all developmentally appropriate for adolescents. The difference was that he had found that many young people his own age were indeed accessing the medicalization, while we stood firm and encouraged his adulting in more traditional ways, with an enormous amount of love, compassion, and firm guidance, as I explained before.
The Democrats were wrong about charter schools, common core, standardized tests, and many other incursions into public schooling and the life of a child. I believe that gender medicine as it is currently being prescribed widely to US children will be a larger medical scandal than the opioid epidemic and big tobacco.
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So your answer is that medical decisions should be made by legislators, not doctors or parents?
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Should FGM be decided by doctors and parents as well? There are many areas in the law in which we attempt to protect young people – fgm, age of consent, sex trafficking, tattoos, alcohol, tobacco, drugs. We have worked to not treat minors as adults in courts of law due to the issues of brain development and decision making in young people. I am sorry I have not convinced you to be more curious about our stories. These issues will eventually come to light; I hope to inspire and educate others on this scandal before more young people are hurt by it. Many parents like me have published our stories on Parents with Inconvenient Truths on Transition (PITT) – parents from the entire spectrum of political and religious beliefs and sexual preferences. It’s easy to misunderstand us and miscast us. But it’s courageous to listen to us and question the presiding narrative of transgenderism and medicalization in young people. Is an effeminate 7 year old transgender and in need of medicalization, or is he just an interesting gender non-conforming kid who might be gay? If the parents say he is trans, the medical doctors on the US will feel that they must go along with the parents’ diagnosis. But, couldn’t this be considered child abuse? In Europe, they are now leaning towards answering yes, it is, and we should allow the child to develop naturally. This does not seem controversial to me.
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The Gender Dysphoric Alliance is a good organization with resources that seeks better evidence based science and support for gender transition, as well as detransition. It is primarily run by two trans men who transitioned as adults: Aaron Terrell and Aaron Kimberly, who also interview people on their podcast titled Transparency. They do not believe that our current cohort of gender dysphoric young people meet the criteria for the level of medical interventions they are receiving. They believe in the primacy of psychotherapy to understand the causes of the discomfort and to provide non-medicalized solutions.
https://www.genderdysphoriaalliance.com/?mibextid=Zxz2cZ
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Thank you for this deeply informed comment. Most of this blog’s readers are infuriated whenever anyone dissents from the orthodoxies and preferred narratives that are pushed here every day. The most important point you make is that western European social democracies – all very secular – are slowing way down on the transgender surgeries and hormonal therapies. The transgender craze is far more entrenched in the U.S.
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“Transgender craze”. LOL. You do understand that trans people are still targeted for harassment, violence and even death at far higher rates than the general population, right? And they’re not even allowed to use the bathroom in most states. It’s hardly some trendy thing that people are doing as a lark. It’s almost amusing (if it weren’t so deadly) that you people are so scared of the miniscule percent of the population that now feels a tiny bit more free to express who they really are.
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The rage over health care for transgender kids is a manufactured crisis. As I wrote, Republicans need someone to hate on so they can cover up the fact that they have no program or policy to improve the general welfare.
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We can all agree that genuinely transgender people should be treated kindly, just like everyone else should be. The surgeries and hormonal treatments on minors are not a manufactured crisis – it’s a valid concern.
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The question is who should make the decision about health care: politicians or the child’s doctors and parents?
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“Treated kindly.” That means having appropriate medical care so they don’t experience dysphoria and rejection to the point of suicide.
Imagine you wake up tomorrow in a man’s body. Imagine everyone refuses to believe you or help you. You’re a man, so shut up and behave like a man. How would you feel? What would you do? That’s what transgender individuals – including youth – experience every day.
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“Treated kindly,” is pulpit speak for discrimination. The intent is to bolster patriarchy in lieu of equality for women and people who are gay.
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Betsy, it’s deeply painful to realize how divisive this issue is, particularly among people whom you were fighting alongside for so long- against privatization of the public sphere, against charter schools, for immigrant DACA students, for strong pedagogical practices that incorporate the stages of development of the students, for separation of church and state in laws and in the curriculum, for single payer health care, etc. Thank you for your comments.
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I agree with your analysis. Caution is warranted. I’m mystified as to why my fellow political progressives don’t see the regressive ideas (woman = feminine; man = masculine; females are oppressed on the basis of how well they perform sex stereotypes vs their sexed bodies; and unscientific dogma behind the affirmation model. Indeed we already know without a doubt that gay, neurodivergent and traumatized/fostered kids are grossly overrepresented among those seeking to “transition.” How is “gender” (how well one relates to the oppressive/conformist stereotypes attached to their sex) not gay/autistic conversion therapy? Why are we not looking closer at the different demographics/ages/sex/onset age/developmental issues/mental health comorbidities contributing to those who self-identify — never forget this is wholly driven by self-diagnosis with no or little safeguarding/hate keeping — with an eye to see if different forms of distress exist and therefore different treatments are warranted? Beyond the obvious medical malpractice and lack of scientific basis for the entire model, as a layperson and observer, it looks like to me broadly like more males identifying as trans are motivated by sexualization and distress-causing paraphilia, while more females are identifying as such in an effort to avoid being sexualized and/or subjected to male violence/sexual objectification. (Perhaps this explains why more trans-identifying and older males remain intact, while more females are pushed to amputate body parts.) regardless, we should care enough to be curious truth-seekers, not dogmatic, authoritarian silencers. Scientific process and all that. It’s not science’s — or parents’, or educators’ — role to mindlessly affirm random ideas, self-destructive notions or blatantly delusional shibboleths.
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I’d start the “scientific process” by rejecting the pronouncements of religious leaders like those who covered up priest pedophilia.
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Kim, I’m gobsmacked. Everything you say here! Wow! Regressive stereotypes undergird the entire ideology. Thank you for this amazing and intellectually challenging comment.
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Considering what medical science now knows about the development of the adolescent mind from about 12 to 25, I would support legislation that would ban this kind of sexual conversion until an individual is 25 and finally has their mature, adult brain.
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I agree 100%, Lloyd. This young gay man was caught up in gender transitioning at a young age and deeply regrets the body modifications he went through. I encourage people to listen to the detransitioners. Most of them are gay and feel that they were harmed by the medical industry that is currently overly eager to get lifelong gender transitioning customers. The latest rate of detransitioners is now at 30% and it will only go higher with this young cohort of kids confused by their sexuality and the way that gender is now sold to them as a problem they must fix. https://youtu.be/efSpVYS8cXU
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Very insightful comment, thank you.
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Thank you, Tyrone!
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“ The judge ruled that medical decisions should be made not by politicians but by patients, their parents, and their physicians.” Wouldn’t this logic also apply to abortion?
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Elcady,
Yes, exactly. The same logic applies to abortion.
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WELL DONE SASHA. Kids cannot get tattoos, vote, buy alcohol etc, yet states are pushing these sick trans surgeries on kids who are so young. Many of these surgeries have buyer’s remorse with tons of terrible side effects they have to live with forever. It’s one thing if someone is 18-21. We should never ever ever be allowing these types of sick surgeries for any minor. Kids are kids let’s stop pushing this on them. Hospitals get money just like covid for performing these sickening and disgusting surgeries on our young youth.
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No one is pushing anything on anyone, josh. I live in one of the bluest states in the union and even here I’ve spent the last three years fighting tooth and nail to work through the laborious system and jump through all the hoops to get my son the care he needs. It’s only hysteria mongers like you who think kids pop in and get their genitals chopped on their way home from school just before their scout meeting.
There are plenty of resources out there that could educate you before you make yourself look ignorant. Use them.
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Josh, The lack of evidence based oversight and scientific curiosity on the huge rise in cases definitely has me questioning the entire medical system.
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Meanwhile, in Massachusetts, the Globe Editorial Board has fallen for another NCTQ study:
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/06/21/opinion/editorial-students-reading-education-phonics/
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Read the origin story on NCTQ. I was on the board of the Thomas B. Fordham Foubdation when it launched NCTQ. Its purpose was to make Ed schools look bad. When it made little headway, Rod Paige (George W Bush’s 1st education Secretary) gave it $5 million to keep it alive. Then Gstes kicked in.
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Absolutely great news, upholding civil rights and telling conservative Christian nationalists that their uncivil beliefs have no standing in a free society.
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No. Just…no. To all of it. Please consider that we are on the wrong path and the US has become increasingly isolated because of it. Half of Europe (Norway, Finland, Sweden, Iceland, France, UK & partially NL) has called a halt to the affirmation model after a systematic review of the data revealed it to cause more harm than good. Soon, Australia and New Zealand will follow suit. (Notable that US bodies, apparently captured, refuse to conduct normal scientific systematic review, instead relying on poorly designed, underpowered or frankly just miscast scattershot studies fabricated to support a political agenda.) These are progressive, developed countries with nonpartisan national healthcare systems and without the undue influence of Big Pharma and for-profit healthcare (indeed, every child subjected to “affirmation” will cost 1.5M in drugs and healthcare over a lifetime, exclusive of surgeries—this alone should give us pause). This is a story of medical malpractice, social contagion and indoctrination into a harmful, antiscience, antireality pseudoreligious dogma—NOT a civil rights issue. There is no comparison with LGB attaining equal rights because LGB did not demand the rest of us conform to an alternate nonconsensual reality, Orwellian misuse of language, or a plethora of experimental, unevidenced, extremely dangerous and frankly grotesque cosmetic surgeries and drug regimens to validate some dogma/mental illness. Gay civil rights did not require that we lie to children and to each other — at the expense of everyone, but especially of marginalized or vulnerable groups including females, same-sex-attracted people, neurodivergent kids, kids with trauma or gender dysphoric youth. The US is woefully out of step with our peers and will soon see an avalanche of lawsuits. I wish it did not have to come to that. Sex is real and it matters. You can experience dysphoria, true, but you can’t be born in the wrong body. No one can change sex. We need to return to valuing truth and consensual shared reality or we are doomed.
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Kim-
Deflection- typical Republican tradecraft to shift attention from growing income inequality- if you cared about Americans, you would fight oligarchy’s threat to democracy.
The right wing jurists on SCOTUS are enriched by the wealthiest 0.1% for stacking the deck against Americans. It’s a redo of the Great Hunger in Ireland. Right wing religion was used to starve 1 mil. Irish to death. And, just as Jefferson warned, in every age, in every country, the priest aligns with the despot.
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Kim,
Hear, hear! Truth and consensual shared reality!
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Diane,
If you were the parent of an autistic 17 yo weighing 87 pounds who – out of the clear blue sky and from her pink and purple bedroom – said she was trans and was then prescribed testosterone (on her second visit to the endocrinologist) which gave her a UTI and made her clitoris grow so as to be painful, you’d not think this was a manufactured crisis. This is my niece.
How can you say you have no opinion about whether gender affirming care is good or not but be wholly in favor of this judgment?
Like you, I had no idea what was going on until people in my family and in my 18 yo’s circle began identifying as trans and begging for hardcore medication and surgeries. These are kids with intense mental health needs. These medicines are VERY powerful and alter health outcomes and sexual function for a lifetime. Surgeries often leave patients with lifelong complications like incontinence and atrophying flesh.
Affirmation sounds lovely. Our parents, doctors and therapists should affirm our worth and consider our outlook with care and compassion. Sadly, affirmation in the gender world means medicalization. “Gender affirming care” is not the same thing as “gender affirming.” Gender affirming care means access to medicines and procedures. The state of California is about to pass a law (AB 957) which would advise judges to award custody only to parents who affirm their child’s identity. Talk about letting the legislature take over decisions. Parents who say No to puberty blockers (which render natal boys infertile) may be at risk of losing custody of their children.
There is no such thing as a gendered soul (in my book, there is no such thing as a soul.) The belief that someone can be born in the wrong body is religious in nature. We can’t see a soul. No one is born in the wrong body. But gender affirming care stands on this belief.
Some people experience extreme discomfort with their sexed body and are happy with their choice to alter their appearance and go through the world as the other sex. But they don’t change their sex. They change their body and appearance. These decisions should be made by adults.
Listen to a mom, Rose, on the podcast Triggernometry February 5, 2023 (the episode is called “I Transitioned My Child – I Regret It.”) She is a lesbian and has spent her adult life fighting for social justice. She socially transitioned her young son when he said he was a girl. After a couple of years she began to see her decision as motivated by a pernicious ideology rather than the “truth.” Until that point, she thought the “wrong body” narrative was the truth and not a belief system. Realizing that it was a belief system was a revelation.
Doctors, teachers, therapists, judges, loads of young people (a lot of your readers) seem to believe that there is such a thing as a gendered soul that needs to be set free.
Bring back secularism!
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LOL, you’re parroting religious talking points while calling for secularism. Oh the irony.
Anyway, I’ll take “things that never happened” for $1,000, please, Alex. Most people know, at most, a very small handful of transgender people in their entire lives, but you’re claiming transgender people are practically falling out of trees in your family and friend circles. Sorry, not buying it.
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https://pitt.substack.com/p/life-on-a-tightrope
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I know that tightrope well.
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Blanche,
I listened to that podcast with Rose! So good. I have a friend who raised her son to be a “they” based on the idea that the child would tell her. It was a disaster. He rebelled, all the way to the Man Rights internet. Kids need to have reality and boundaries and guidance. There has never been a generation of children being told they should choose their gender, then change their sexed body and reproductive system to approximate the opposite gender. Clearly we need to return to our roots in the forests and savannas. Modern life and our “choices” are predicated by what our phones and fleeting desires tell us to want. I hope your niece gets better. The fact that they would prescribe her testosterone should shock us, but it’s all too commonplace now. Complete abdication of responsibility. First, do no harm.
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Blanche,
Here’s the question, which you did not answer: should politicians make medical decisions?
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One of the tragedies of the US is that Democrats are forced, when Republican voters elect GOP candidates, to live the consequences. An ilk of people writing in this thread (similar in attitude to Moms for Liberty) focus on an incredibly narrow segment of the under 18 -year- old population. They like to ignore global warming which is the far greater threat to the youth population in general. The GOP voter doesn’t care about a huge number of families who will be struggling with the 28-32% increase in energy costs. They fixate on a few, questionable, anecdotal stories about a singular trans kid. A Democratic Party government would try to balance long term climate survival and short term economic pain from rising energy costs which affects hundreds of millions of Americans. But, the right wing pack choose to turn a blind eye to the Guardian’s reporting about the dark money ($215 mil.) that power companies spent recently to get favorable political action in order to price gouge.
The thinking and education deficits in the average Republican voter gets confirmed daily when they open their mouths. Note LisaM above, evidently, popularity at parties with people who elect men like Donald Trump has gravitas. How emotionally and intellectually impoverished does an environment have to be, for a right wing religious, GOP voter to believe a supposed insult like lacking a fun quotient at a party, matters? A possible answer, LisaM has heard men shame women, “you’re no fun,” in an attempt to coax them to drink more in order to achieve their goal. Sad.
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Linda, you are a very sad/sick person. You need to unplug from the news/social media and go take a walk out in nature. You, and people like you, are the main reason why people are leaving the Democratic party for the “I” crowd. The 15-20% at the extreme polar ends of both parties are just crazy and unhinged.
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Ensuring Comprehensive Care and Support for Transgender and Gender-Diverse Children and Adolescents
As a traditionally underserved population that faces numerous health disparities, youth who identify as transgender and gender diverse (TGD) and their families are increasingly presenting to pediatric providers for education, care, and referrals. The need for more formal training, standardized treatment, and research on safety and medical outcomes often leaves providers feeling ill equipped to support and care for patients that identify as TGD and families. In this policy statement, we review relevant concepts and challenges and provide suggestions for pediatric providers that are focused on promoting the health and positive development of youth that identify as TGD while eliminating discrimination and stigma.
https://publications.aap.org/pediatrics/article/142/4/e20182162/37381/Ensuring-Comprehensive-Care-and-Support-for
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Readers of the blog don’t know if the Republicans commenters who write here are intentionally cat fishing with names that are female. The Guardian studied the demographic support for one of the conservative anti-sex issues – abortion bans- and found, 1,292 Republican male politicians helped ban abortion since Roe fell. Only 214, GOP women politicians sided with them. The United States Catholic Conference of Bishops (all male) oppose women’s rights to abortion. The Republican Party’s male supporters hate women.
The Republicans who vote for Boebart and Marjorie Taylor Greene like to watch women call each other bitch and like to see them wallow in trashy behavior.
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Trans community has a mental illness. Here we go, as usual.
https://www.dailywire.com/news/nations-first-elected-transgender-state-rep-arrested-on-child-porn-charges-police
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