“Winning the argument, she said, involved changing language.”
And defeating the “argument” involves refusing to dignify any of their ridiculous invented language, so much of which has creeped into mainstream discourse.
Looking over the IGLYO document, it actually does present some actual arguments for the existence of “trans rights”, in the context of international law no less. I am surprised to see there was a 2011 UN document which, I think perhaps for the first time, explicitly claims that “gender identity” is a protected category in international law. Not just sex, not just sexual orientation. The justification which is given for adding “gender identity” to the list is vague. Earlier human rights treatises included “other status” among the specific grounds of discrimination. It of course never occurred to the rights theorists to include “gender identity”, which hadn’t been invented yet. But all of a sudden it just appears. The 2011 doc quotes a previous one as saying:
“In addition, gender identity is recognized as among the prohibited grounds of discrimination.” Gosh, it was simply recognized, what more do you need. It’s not like the term would carry an extraordinary amount of baggage hidden under those two words, baggage which should have been unpacked before heaving it into the pile.
It's quite a while since I read it but I do remember being puzzled as to where this had all come from. I spent a long time following little threads but what I came away with was the conclusion that some people have been playing a very long game, that there was a lot of money involved, that WPATH had managed to get themselves accepted as some kind of globally endorsed NGO (despite being a self appointed lobby group) and that politicians and global organisations had abandoned exploratory and critical thinking and outsourced their policy making to lobbyists and activist groups.
Follow the money Jennifer Belik follows the money and uncovers the agendas of billionaires that have pushed for this and created the frameworks for academia and activism, to infiltrate institutions and change the laws
Page 14: “states should take action against parents who are obstructing the free development of a young trans person’s identity in refusing to give parental authorization when required “. This is why I don’t sleep at night.
Furthermore, if it's mandatory, then it isn't really consent, is it? What would the 𝘱𝘶𝘳𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘦 of mandatory "parental authorization" even be, then? At that point, it's just the kid who's making the decision!
Many blue states in the US have already done this. Judges in these states have been given the power to order "gender affirming care" (meaning blockers, hormones, surgeries) for children even if both parents object.
I read something recently, I think through the Volokh Conspiracy and Reason that the Supreme Court has not recognized trans or gender identity as a protected class. It has been a long long time since a new class was added. I think it was gender (male or female) and sexual preference? I could be wrong. I don't know that international law or ideas will affect our law because it is not a protected class in the United States. The article might have been related to the 303 Creative case recently decided, about the lady in Colorado who didn't want to build gay wedding websites.
I don’t think the US Supreme Court has explicitly recognized gender identity as a protected class. Not yet at any rate. However the 2020 Bostock decision certainly muddied the waters, thanks to Gorsuch’s bizarre belief that discrimination on the basis of gender identity is a form of discrimination on the basis of sex…. Hopefully that decision will be revisited someday. In the meantime it has added fuel to the gender cult.
Tennessee ban on trans medical procedures for minors is upheld as constitutional, but judges had different opinions on whether this violates the Equal Protection Clause and the protected class of Sex.
Tennessee ban on trans medical procedures for minors is upheld as constitutional, but judges had different opinions on whether this violates the Equal Protection Clause and the protected class of Sex.
If only this were true. If the news media, Hollywood, K-12 education, higher education, book publishing and the Journal of the American Medical Association are all working diligently to sell these lies are you still sure the truth will win out?
Yes I have hope that the more the insanity comes to light then people will see that it is just that, insanity. Might take a while in America as it’s so deeply entrenched already but they can’t hide it forever.
I believe that it will take a proactive, gender critical lobbying campaign - writing to your representatives, to clinicians, insurance companies, schools, cultural institutions and businesses with a direct challenge: is your vision for our gender non-confirming youth acceptance and thriving or life-long medication and irreversible surgery? And a demand to join the majority of voters as well as the clinicians and policymakers in England, France, Finland, Norway snd Sweden to follow the evidence and stop the madness. And in your immediate circles, have the conversations, say the difficult things, to get everyone around you reading/listening/watching critiques of gender identity ideology.
And the more people that stand up, the more it will come to light. Still it’s frustratingly slow. I have no consequential public voice, but I do have small groups of family, friends and neighbors. At every opportunity I am just trying to have conversations, ask questions, tell my story (ROGD parent) so they might reconsider their blind allegiance to TRA propaganda.
The truth will ALWAYS out. It's just a question of when. Because there is always a tangible benefit in knowing the truth. A particular ideology may benefit from concealing it, but the rest of society does not, and no idealogy lasts forever. The Inquisition banned heliocentrism, and the Soviet Union banned evolution, under threat of death - but despite the once-total grasp Christian and communist ideologies held on their societies, the truth did out.
I mean, we have 40% of poll respondents who are apparently okay with performing radical mastectomies on confused young girls. How is the number that high??
I find it interesting that they don’t want to tell the truth... if the truth helps children, why not shout it from the roof tops? Where are all the happy kids, now adults that changed sex and are living fulfilled lives? I think to gay marriage- it was beneficial to society to include homosexuals in the rite of marriage. We as a society can see same sex married couples living happy, healthy lives. Not so for trans people- we see angry, unhealthy, miserable people. The reason the phrase “puberty blockers” isn’t working is because blocking puberty IS harmful.
I started to comment but it got long so I posted about it instead (https://inconvenientwoman.substack.com/p/dont-get-distracted?sd=pf). Essentially, I'm afraid that if we get distracted from the misogyny at the root of child medicalization, it will continue in other ways. Women and girls have been getting surgeries due to sexual objectification for a long time. Women and girls were being involuntarily sterilized before child gender surgery and puberty blockers and will likely continue to be. To protect children, we need to respect and protect mothers. To respect and protect mothers, we must respect and protect all women.
I'm afraid the only reason we care is because boys are being affected. There hasn't been comparable outrage about girls getting breast augmentation surgeries before gender surgeries rose in popularity, girls and women being forcibly sterilized, or about FGM.
I recognize the problems with girls. Both girls and boys are being sterilized. However I feel there is less sympathy for the boys. When my son announced over a year ago that he was a lesbian, I began to frantically search for answers. Most the information I found pertaining to this ideology was about young girls being affected. I became aware of their spring numbers. But I found it hard to find much about the boys that didn’t label them as aggressive or perverts. Neither fit my quiet, smart, yet socially charming (mostly with adults) boy. This is just my perspective.
I understand. I think the idea that aggression is innate and proper in males while being quiet or socially charming is innate and proper in females comes from patriarchy which idealizes and naturalizes dominant traits in males and submissive traits in females.
I noticed a Telegraph article about 'transwomen' in the prison system the other day. The MoJ is concerned because internal research it commissioned has revealed that some prisoners are 'faking' a trans identity.
Hoorah! you cry. What women have been saying for years is finally being heard! But no.... It appears the concern is for the 'true' trans identifying men who may be losing out on access to the extra resources they feel entitled to and are worried their own 'authentic selves' may be questioned. Women still don't count, we're even second class prisoners.
BUT I don't think we can adopt a sins of the fathers approach when it comes to children. And I don't think we should be ideological in our opposition to gender ideology as it just allows idiots like Labour MP Clive Lewis to play the 'both sides' game which will make many people who are just becoming aware of it all switch off again.
I'm sure I'm not alone in noticing the rise of a new virulent misogyny that doesn't support gender ideology but is quite happy to use it (feminists started all this equality stuff, hope you're enjoying getting what you wanted ladies etc). We cannot afford to lose any support by making this about the historic oppression of women, even if that is one of the drivers.
I just sent the following email to Change Research:
"If your recent poll on transgender ideas shows that the American people are horrified by such things as kids being given puberty-blockers and cross-sex hormones and having gender-affirming surgeries, the question is, why aren't YOU horrified by these things too?
"Transgender activists have done a very good job of conveying the idea that being a trans kid is some kind of existential torture that must be treated immediately, even before the child grows up -- and that the only treatment is "affirmative care". But there isn't a lot of evidence for that. There is, however, evidence that many kids with trans feelings outgrow those feelings and eventually accept their sex as their gender -- and that is as it should be, since being trans is not the happiest life. Giving kids with trans feelings "affirmative care" is not creating happy trans people, it is creating unhappy detransitioners.
"I am a gay man and a liberal Democrat, but the Democrats are on the wrong side of this issue. Children do not have the emotional maturity to determine their gender for the adult yet to come. Changing genders (which isn't actually possible) should be an adult decision. Kids need to be told that. They need to wait until they are 18 to take any action. The idea that being told to wait will make them commit suicide is just an unproven talking point from trans activists. I suspect that there are more detransitioners committing suicide than there are children who have been told "wait until you are 18". Children are accustomed to waiting to become adults to do the things they want to do.
"It is especially important that kids be made to wait because BEING TRANS HAS BECOME A FAD AMONG KIDS. What that means is that most kids who say they are trans are not trans at all, but are allowing themselves to be influenced.
"You are on the wrong side of this issue. Forget about re-branding puberty-blockers to make them more palatable to the public. That isn't going to work. The truth about the harmful effects of these drugs is gradually coming out. Instead of pushing the trans narrative, you need to see that much of the trans narrative is harmful to society -- harmful to children, and unfair to women.
"So, back to my original question: Why doesn't it horrify YOU that emotionally disturbed kids are being medically abused by doctors who have found a new way to make money? Children need to be allowed to grow up naturally, and the fact that you don't see that is an indication that your values are wrong."
Fabulous! I would add that protective measures need to be in place even after 18. How many of us really knew who we were at 18. I know I didn’t. It is rampant on college campuses too.
I agree for the most part, but the trend in Western society is to say that people are maturing earlier, and shouldn't be made to wait too long before getting all their adult rights. I also believe in reincarnation. If you make a serious mistake in your life, it becomes a lesson, and you continue on with the added wisdom from that.
However, if we throw out the "affirmative care" model altogether, that will benefit adults too. The so-called "gatekeeping model" is needed for these kinds of life-changing treatments which irrevocably alter a person's life.
I do not comply with their preferred language. Women 's vaginas are not 'bonus holes', either, how insulting! This whole gender rabbit hole revealed itself to me 2yrs ago when a woman told me her preferred (male) pronouns. I told her I don't play pronoun games, she hung up the phone and I checked into stuff. Absolutely, sunshine is the best disinfectant. great post.
I add, as always, the women and children hurt by cross-sex ideology's demonization of women who do not jump on the bandwagon as cheerleader after discovery of her husband's sudden obsession with crossdressing and spending family money on this all-consuming activity. Of 40 women in my study exploring our experiences with our newly "identifying" husbands and their therapists, 9 of us, almost 25%, experienced financial devastation by his secret spending. In one case, he cleaned out the college fund recently started for his toddler son. The therapists go so far as to submit defamatory affidavits about a woman never met, never spoken to, in the legal process of divorce, claiming also that any anguish the children may express in the future is certainly the mother's fault.
"About this Ministry" .... "a support and prayer group for wives of crossdressers"
Amazing. "Mondo cane" and all that: "scenes that provide glimpses into cultural practices around the world with the intention to shock or surprise Western film audiences":
Reminds me also of the old movie "Some Like It Hot" with Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, & Jack Lemon that featured the latter two having fun with some crossdressing.
Curious phenomenon with historical antecedents that go back some distance -- some Biblical strictures if I remember correctly. And some of the stories about Joan of Arc have her forced into men's clothing as part of some trumped-up charges leading to her execution. Some fairly durable and long-standing restrictions against wearing clothing typical of the other sex.
Moot exactly how justified all of that is. Might be useful, or at least interesting to have all of the schools and all of the businesses require their students and employees to wear clothing typical of the other sex for a day or two a week ... 😉🙂
Behavioural and sartorial stereotypes can often be more straitjackets than not, though also the basis for various fetishes. Somewhat apropos of which & ICYMI, you might have some interest in quite a decent post over at "Honest to Goodness" on "I Don't Really Want to Talk About Matt Walsh Anymore":
I saw that. Here's a quote from one of these dudes (would prefer you read a bit before coming back at me, but maybe its the doxycycline I'm on for the tick bite rash)
Dude says: "What I looked for in crossdressing was to feel sexy, to feel comfortable, to feel positive about myself. I wanted to get away from all that I hated about being a man."
Feel free to post this to Matt Walsh's twitter. I'd enjoy his response to this. I know "Christian talk" very well, as the granddaughter of a pietistic Lutheran minister. I do not object to Bible quotes and references, as they are the observations we have available from antiquity. In my experience, of my son's suicidal ideation after his father's transition, I do not disagree with the Biblical language, "abomination."
Must be the doxycycline ... 😉🙂 Think I got all I needed from a quick skim.
But changing apparel can have a profound effect on people. Philip Wylie in his "Generation of Vipers" on "hatism":
Wylie: "Hats, indeed, have a remarkable effect upon the common man. They have it, because headdress has always been a sign, with him, of special merit and personal unction. Hats are therefore magical, still. People putting on hats put on the qualities symbolized by the hats, or try to, or assume that they have done so. Thus a cardinal, getting a red hat, assumes that some of the magic of hatism has entered into him, and becomes, because of the red skimmer, either holier, or harder to know, or more oracular, or more venal and lascivious on the ground that the red hat gives him special hellroom. Notice the effect of party hats upon guests. A pompous exponent of some recondite branch of jurisprudence, all belly and dignity, can change, by the magic of a paper hat, into what he and his fellow poops regard as a clown and a merry wag. The existence of the hat on his head means, to him, that certain pretensions have been temporarily abandoned and another set put in their place. ....
A monk’s hood must subdue a man, though there’s a black mass or two in it for him, but a nun’s veil, first put on, must be as numbing as castration, which, in effect, it represents. And there are records of men going batty after their first few minutes in an Indian hat and commencing to throw hatchets at the neighbors. But hatism, one of the profound isms, goes unrecognized, though it throws much light on the magical powers man has shorn from himself and invested in the accouterments of gangs."
I've been defenestrated -- again -- by Musk's minions so I'm unable fire a shot across Walsh's bow there. But I certainly think that Kaeley Harms on her "Honest To Goodness" Substack had some valid criticisms of Walsh; she's apparently on Twitter so you might get her to do so.
"abomination" seems to be something of a favourite in that neck of the woods:
No doubt there's some "profound psychology and exquisite logic" in the Bible -- as Wylie once put it. But -- apparently, from what I've heard -- more than a few barbarisms as well.
I've read research that shows removing breasts and hysterectomies increases the risk of early Onset dementia. The earlier the procedure, the more severe the dementia. It's also worse if both breasts are cut off. All those young girls......!
Enough with the fucking euphemisms; time to call a spade a fucking shovel. "gender-affirming care" and "sex change operations" is just turning kids into sexless eunuchs.
Helen Joyce did so in an article at Standpoint Magazine on "Speaking up for female eunuchs":
Yes. Ironic how this alleged 'search for true gender/sex identity' can lead to surgeries that destroy any future sex-life. And revealing, how older trans-identified men will try to get female breasts, but want to keep their male sex organs intact. I hope the general public will soon see this horrific shit-show for what it actually is!
But why I think we all have an obligation to call out anyone, any newspaper that uses such egregious phrases as "sex-change operation". No one, no human changes sex, at least unless we're going to go with the Kindergarten Cop definitions -- boys have penises and girls have vaginas. "Change your genitalia, change your sex! Act now, offer ends soon!" 🙄
Bloody criminal.
We're all part of that "crime", accessories after the fact, if we turn a blind eye or deaf ear to such odious euphemisms.
"And therein we find, neglected by us, the simplest, the most accessible key to our liberation: a personal nonparticipation in lies! Even if all is covered by lies, even if all is under their rule, let us resist in the smallest way: Let their rule hold not through me!"
Maybe somewhat more important is a longer story about some cracks developing in the façade on the Left:
FN: "Ana Kasparian, a co-host of the progressive 'The Young Turks' show, slammed her fellow liberals Sunday for downplaying the risks involved in giving transgender treatments to minors."
Nice that she at least is starting to read the writing on the wall, but still a bit clueless as to what the definition of "woman" as "adult human female" actually entails:
FN: "Kasparian has spoken out about gender ideology recently. In March, she scorched 'inclusive' language and warned, 'Please don't ever refer to me as a person with a uterus, birthing person, or person who menstruates. How do people not realize how degrading this is?' "
She too is trying to turn both "female" and "woman" into content-free labels and "immutable identities 🙄" rather than accepting them as denotations of specific, and quite transitory, biological capabilities.
I am in the UK, and I'm on the Left. I do not accept that all on the Left are supporting TRAs- I know many who are firmly GC. Some on the left fell for a bogus argument- a false analogy that trans were opressed, similar to the way that women, and people of colour, are. In UK now, all parties except for the (Right wing) Conservatives, have an official party line of seemingly promising trans people whatever they want. (Labour, Liberal Democrats, Scottish National Party, Plaid Cymru (=Welsh Nationalists), Green Party (Eng and Wales), and Scottish Green Party- have all been taken over by trans activists. Even the Womens Equality Party is infiltrated by (so-called) trans women!. But- resistance is growing, and I hope the tide is turning,. There are more UK court cases coming up soon which will show up the TRAs actions in 'left' parties. I hope it will all help make it easier to soon have a free, uncensored public debate.
Yeah, definitely increasing evidence of the tide turning. If not yet the beginning of the end, but at least the end of the beginning -- to coin a phrase .... 🙂
Though my argument has generally been that a general scientific illiteracy is part and parcel of that problem, and which still needs addressing.
Though it's encouraging that the trans cause is so widely unpopular, the lack of broad popular support for measures such as puberty blockers and double mastectomies means little in a state like Oregon, where Democrats control the legislature and governor's office.
For example, earlier this year Republicans in the state senate walked out to prevent the passage of a bill that would have expanded access to so-called gender affirming medicine to minor without parental knowledge and consent, among other things.
Not having the Governor's phone number or direct personal access to my representatives in the Capitol building, I did the only thing I could do. I wrote my representative, Tawna Sanchez. This is what I said:
I am one of your constituents. I am also a member of the Democratic Party, a Biden voter, a man who is gay, a grandfather and a retired attorney.
I am writing to ask that you oppose legislation that would allow minors to receive so-called gender affirming care with or without the consent of their parents. I am not making this request because I am some sort of transphobic monster who has been brainwashed by Ron DeSantis and MAGA extremists.
No, I am opposed to giving puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to minors claiming to be trans because, in spite of what trans activists and their allies might say, gender-affirming medicine is a very new practice that is still experimental and unproven. No sound double-blind scientific studies have shown that puberty blockers and/or cross-sex hormones are safe, effective and/or necessary. A number of European nations that used to embrace gender medicine have recently retreated and are either suspending the use of puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones or restricting their use.
Bear in mind that several studies have demonstrated that most gender-nonconforming kids and youth with gender dysphoria will outgrow their condition during adolescence. Many, like me, will turn out to be gay. I was a very sissy little boy in the late 1950s and 1960s. I did not like to play sports. I threw away my cap guns. I loved my Barbie and her outfits. I was fortunate that I had open-minded parents who did not try to force me to be more masculine and were kind to me. I am equally lucky that nobody then had such a strict view of sex roles that they pressured my parents to transition me to a little girl. Today I am a masculine gay man. Gender-affiming medicine would have ruined my life.
Though trans activists vehemently deny it, I firmly believe that many of the children and teens claiming to be trans are not in fact trans but victims of social contagion and/oer indoctrination at school and elsewhere. The last thing they need is for health-care providers to put them on potentially harmful drugs for the rest of their lives. A worryingly high large percentage of youth who say they are trans are on the autism spectrum, and it's not known why. Other minors have undiagnosed mental health problems or difficult home lives that might be manifesting themselves as a trans identity. That's why it is essential to take a slow and cautious approach with gender dysphoric youth and determine whether or not they are actually trans with the help of mental health experts and mental health therapists instead of taking their word for it.
I know you have many obligations, but I urge you to listen to the podcast "Gender: A Wider [Lens]." In it, two gender-critical therapists have dispassionate discussions about the many facets of gender identity. https://gender-a-wider-lens.captivate.fm/
What was the response? Nothing more than the same old deceptive trans talking points:
"Thank you also for taking the time to detail to your opposition to the portion of HB 2002 that protects gender-affirming care for minors, and for sharing these resources. HB 2002 only expands gender-affirming care without parental consent to youth over the age of 15, and does so to protect youth whose parents may not support their decision to seek such care."
"While I hear your concerns regarding puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones, I think it is worth noting that every leading medical association in the United States supports such care, including the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Psychiatry Association, and the Endocrine Society. This study from the Journal of Adolescent health, along with several other studies, supports a relationship between access to gender-affirming care and lower rates of depression and suicidality among transgender and nonbinary youth."
Needless to say, Rep. Sanchez's staffer did not respond. The depth and breadth of trans capture in our institutions is staggering. Ron DeSantis has gotten one thing right. I'm not sure that he came up with the idea, but he's spot on when he talks about the pernicious consequences of the woke mind virus. A better way to express this is to say that the progeny of critical theory such as critical race theory and queer theory really do act like viruses in the way they infect organizations and turn them into propagators of the ideology.
What we need now more than ever is for someone with a track record of credibility among Democrats is to recover from that virus and publicly turn against the ideology.
I am not impressed with your representative's list of medical-industrial associations. I am just one of millions of people who have been butchered and poisoned by these sociopaths.
“Winning the argument, she said, involved changing language.”
And defeating the “argument” involves refusing to dignify any of their ridiculous invented language, so much of which has creeped into mainstream discourse.
By the way, the link to the IGLYO pdf is broken, perhaps they just removed the document?
I think they have. Fortunately James Kirkup's article summarises its intent pretty well for those who haven't seen it.
I'm sure it's archived somewhere - they can't just pretend it never existed. I know I downloaded it!
Found it elsewhere
https://gendercriticalwoman.blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/iglyo_v3-1.pdf
Well done locating it.
https://www.trust.org/publications/i/?id=8cf56139-c7bb-447c-babf-dd5ae56cd177 -- here too
Looking over the IGLYO document, it actually does present some actual arguments for the existence of “trans rights”, in the context of international law no less. I am surprised to see there was a 2011 UN document which, I think perhaps for the first time, explicitly claims that “gender identity” is a protected category in international law. Not just sex, not just sexual orientation. The justification which is given for adding “gender identity” to the list is vague. Earlier human rights treatises included “other status” among the specific grounds of discrimination. It of course never occurred to the rights theorists to include “gender identity”, which hadn’t been invented yet. But all of a sudden it just appears. The 2011 doc quotes a previous one as saying:
“In addition, gender identity is recognized as among the prohibited grounds of discrimination.” Gosh, it was simply recognized, what more do you need. It’s not like the term would carry an extraordinary amount of baggage hidden under those two words, baggage which should have been unpacked before heaving it into the pile.
It's quite a while since I read it but I do remember being puzzled as to where this had all come from. I spent a long time following little threads but what I came away with was the conclusion that some people have been playing a very long game, that there was a lot of money involved, that WPATH had managed to get themselves accepted as some kind of globally endorsed NGO (despite being a self appointed lobby group) and that politicians and global organisations had abandoned exploratory and critical thinking and outsourced their policy making to lobbyists and activist groups.
Bloody depressing.
Follow the money Jennifer Belik follows the money and uncovers the agendas of billionaires that have pushed for this and created the frameworks for academia and activism, to infiltrate institutions and change the laws
https://www.the11thhourblog.com/
I did discover Jennifer's investigations. Such good investigative work and very scary to see how easily a few very rich people get to shape the world.
I keep hoping that somehow we can get through to some of the younger Critical Social Justice warriors just whose tune they are dancing to!
Page 14: “states should take action against parents who are obstructing the free development of a young trans person’s identity in refusing to give parental authorization when required “. This is why I don’t sleep at night.
Furthermore, if it's mandatory, then it isn't really consent, is it? What would the 𝘱𝘶𝘳𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘦 of mandatory "parental authorization" even be, then? At that point, it's just the kid who's making the decision!
Many blue states in the US have already done this. Judges in these states have been given the power to order "gender affirming care" (meaning blockers, hormones, surgeries) for children even if both parents object.
I read something recently, I think through the Volokh Conspiracy and Reason that the Supreme Court has not recognized trans or gender identity as a protected class. It has been a long long time since a new class was added. I think it was gender (male or female) and sexual preference? I could be wrong. I don't know that international law or ideas will affect our law because it is not a protected class in the United States. The article might have been related to the 303 Creative case recently decided, about the lady in Colorado who didn't want to build gay wedding websites.
I don’t think the US Supreme Court has explicitly recognized gender identity as a protected class. Not yet at any rate. However the 2020 Bostock decision certainly muddied the waters, thanks to Gorsuch’s bizarre belief that discrimination on the basis of gender identity is a form of discrimination on the basis of sex…. Hopefully that decision will be revisited someday. In the meantime it has added fuel to the gender cult.
Sex-based rights and 'gender identity' are inherently in conflict.
I was not aware of that. I would also hope that the concepts are not blended together.
I found the referred article:
Tennessee ban on trans medical procedures for minors is upheld as constitutional, but judges had different opinions on whether this violates the Equal Protection Clause and the protected class of Sex.
https://reason.com/volokh/2023/07/08/tennessee-ban-on-sexual-identity-related-medical-procedures-for-minors-is-likely-constitutional/
Reality based language would be sex and sexual orientation. (Not gender and preference.)
I found the referred article:
Tennessee ban on trans medical procedures for minors is upheld as constitutional, but judges had different opinions on whether this violates the Equal Protection Clause and the protected class of Sex.
https://reason.com/volokh/2023/07/08/tennessee-ban-on-sexual-identity-related-medical-procedures-for-minors-is-likely-constitutional/
This whole lie can’t be sustained thankfully. The truth will always out, it’s just how many children have to be harmed before it does 😣.
If only this were true. If the news media, Hollywood, K-12 education, higher education, book publishing and the Journal of the American Medical Association are all working diligently to sell these lies are you still sure the truth will win out?
Yes I have hope that the more the insanity comes to light then people will see that it is just that, insanity. Might take a while in America as it’s so deeply entrenched already but they can’t hide it forever.
I believe that it will take a proactive, gender critical lobbying campaign - writing to your representatives, to clinicians, insurance companies, schools, cultural institutions and businesses with a direct challenge: is your vision for our gender non-confirming youth acceptance and thriving or life-long medication and irreversible surgery? And a demand to join the majority of voters as well as the clinicians and policymakers in England, France, Finland, Norway snd Sweden to follow the evidence and stop the madness. And in your immediate circles, have the conversations, say the difficult things, to get everyone around you reading/listening/watching critiques of gender identity ideology.
I agree, and the more it comes to light the more people that will stand up. 👍🏾
And the more people that stand up, the more it will come to light. Still it’s frustratingly slow. I have no consequential public voice, but I do have small groups of family, friends and neighbors. At every opportunity I am just trying to have conversations, ask questions, tell my story (ROGD parent) so they might reconsider their blind allegiance to TRA propaganda.
Absolutely, it is frustratingly slow, keep chipping away though. 👊🏾
The truth will ALWAYS out. It's just a question of when. Because there is always a tangible benefit in knowing the truth. A particular ideology may benefit from concealing it, but the rest of society does not, and no idealogy lasts forever. The Inquisition banned heliocentrism, and the Soviet Union banned evolution, under threat of death - but despite the once-total grasp Christian and communist ideologies held on their societies, the truth did out.
I mean, we have 40% of poll respondents who are apparently okay with performing radical mastectomies on confused young girls. How is the number that high??
“Pooby pause-pause” perhaps?
Reality is transphobic.
Fantastic article.
Restack this gem.
PS your "no, really" link goes to a 404 page can't be found.
I find it interesting that they don’t want to tell the truth... if the truth helps children, why not shout it from the roof tops? Where are all the happy kids, now adults that changed sex and are living fulfilled lives? I think to gay marriage- it was beneficial to society to include homosexuals in the rite of marriage. We as a society can see same sex married couples living happy, healthy lives. Not so for trans people- we see angry, unhealthy, miserable people. The reason the phrase “puberty blockers” isn’t working is because blocking puberty IS harmful.
It’s so Big Brother like. Sunlight is the best disinfectant!
I predict things will slowly change when the democrats and other “liberal” institutions realize this issue is a millstone around their necks.
I really hope you’re right! I lean left but can no longer vote for anyone who doesn’t do their homework on this issue.
Same. I have become a single issue voter, this is it.
I started to comment but it got long so I posted about it instead (https://inconvenientwoman.substack.com/p/dont-get-distracted?sd=pf). Essentially, I'm afraid that if we get distracted from the misogyny at the root of child medicalization, it will continue in other ways. Women and girls have been getting surgeries due to sexual objectification for a long time. Women and girls were being involuntarily sterilized before child gender surgery and puberty blockers and will likely continue to be. To protect children, we need to respect and protect mothers. To respect and protect mothers, we must respect and protect all women.
I agree but it’s not just girls. Boys are being brainwashed by this cult ideology too. All kids need protection from this.
I'm afraid the only reason we care is because boys are being affected. There hasn't been comparable outrage about girls getting breast augmentation surgeries before gender surgeries rose in popularity, girls and women being forcibly sterilized, or about FGM.
I recognize the problems with girls. Both girls and boys are being sterilized. However I feel there is less sympathy for the boys. When my son announced over a year ago that he was a lesbian, I began to frantically search for answers. Most the information I found pertaining to this ideology was about young girls being affected. I became aware of their spring numbers. But I found it hard to find much about the boys that didn’t label them as aggressive or perverts. Neither fit my quiet, smart, yet socially charming (mostly with adults) boy. This is just my perspective.
Spirally numbers for girls. Sorry. Hate autocorrect
I understand. I think the idea that aggression is innate and proper in males while being quiet or socially charming is innate and proper in females comes from patriarchy which idealizes and naturalizes dominant traits in males and submissive traits in females.
There's something in what you say.
I noticed a Telegraph article about 'transwomen' in the prison system the other day. The MoJ is concerned because internal research it commissioned has revealed that some prisoners are 'faking' a trans identity.
Hoorah! you cry. What women have been saying for years is finally being heard! But no.... It appears the concern is for the 'true' trans identifying men who may be losing out on access to the extra resources they feel entitled to and are worried their own 'authentic selves' may be questioned. Women still don't count, we're even second class prisoners.
BUT I don't think we can adopt a sins of the fathers approach when it comes to children. And I don't think we should be ideological in our opposition to gender ideology as it just allows idiots like Labour MP Clive Lewis to play the 'both sides' game which will make many people who are just becoming aware of it all switch off again.
I'm sure I'm not alone in noticing the rise of a new virulent misogyny that doesn't support gender ideology but is quite happy to use it (feminists started all this equality stuff, hope you're enjoying getting what you wanted ladies etc). We cannot afford to lose any support by making this about the historic oppression of women, even if that is one of the drivers.
Damn. up to 40% were on board with drugging kids? Still pretty scary.
I just sent the following email to Change Research:
"If your recent poll on transgender ideas shows that the American people are horrified by such things as kids being given puberty-blockers and cross-sex hormones and having gender-affirming surgeries, the question is, why aren't YOU horrified by these things too?
"Transgender activists have done a very good job of conveying the idea that being a trans kid is some kind of existential torture that must be treated immediately, even before the child grows up -- and that the only treatment is "affirmative care". But there isn't a lot of evidence for that. There is, however, evidence that many kids with trans feelings outgrow those feelings and eventually accept their sex as their gender -- and that is as it should be, since being trans is not the happiest life. Giving kids with trans feelings "affirmative care" is not creating happy trans people, it is creating unhappy detransitioners.
"I am a gay man and a liberal Democrat, but the Democrats are on the wrong side of this issue. Children do not have the emotional maturity to determine their gender for the adult yet to come. Changing genders (which isn't actually possible) should be an adult decision. Kids need to be told that. They need to wait until they are 18 to take any action. The idea that being told to wait will make them commit suicide is just an unproven talking point from trans activists. I suspect that there are more detransitioners committing suicide than there are children who have been told "wait until you are 18". Children are accustomed to waiting to become adults to do the things they want to do.
"It is especially important that kids be made to wait because BEING TRANS HAS BECOME A FAD AMONG KIDS. What that means is that most kids who say they are trans are not trans at all, but are allowing themselves to be influenced.
"You are on the wrong side of this issue. Forget about re-branding puberty-blockers to make them more palatable to the public. That isn't going to work. The truth about the harmful effects of these drugs is gradually coming out. Instead of pushing the trans narrative, you need to see that much of the trans narrative is harmful to society -- harmful to children, and unfair to women.
"So, back to my original question: Why doesn't it horrify YOU that emotionally disturbed kids are being medically abused by doctors who have found a new way to make money? Children need to be allowed to grow up naturally, and the fact that you don't see that is an indication that your values are wrong."
Fabulous! I would add that protective measures need to be in place even after 18. How many of us really knew who we were at 18. I know I didn’t. It is rampant on college campuses too.
I agree for the most part, but the trend in Western society is to say that people are maturing earlier, and shouldn't be made to wait too long before getting all their adult rights. I also believe in reincarnation. If you make a serious mistake in your life, it becomes a lesson, and you continue on with the added wisdom from that.
However, if we throw out the "affirmative care" model altogether, that will benefit adults too. The so-called "gatekeeping model" is needed for these kinds of life-changing treatments which irrevocably alter a person's life.
Very well said!
I do not comply with their preferred language. Women 's vaginas are not 'bonus holes', either, how insulting! This whole gender rabbit hole revealed itself to me 2yrs ago when a woman told me her preferred (male) pronouns. I told her I don't play pronoun games, she hung up the phone and I checked into stuff. Absolutely, sunshine is the best disinfectant. great post.
I add, as always, the women and children hurt by cross-sex ideology's demonization of women who do not jump on the bandwagon as cheerleader after discovery of her husband's sudden obsession with crossdressing and spending family money on this all-consuming activity. Of 40 women in my study exploring our experiences with our newly "identifying" husbands and their therapists, 9 of us, almost 25%, experienced financial devastation by his secret spending. In one case, he cleaned out the college fund recently started for his toddler son. The therapists go so far as to submit defamatory affidavits about a woman never met, never spoken to, in the legal process of divorce, claiming also that any anguish the children may express in the future is certainly the mother's fault.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbVA1TCIXb8
"I add, as always ..." 👍😉🙂
Take a look at a new website I found for Christian men with "a crossdressing addiction"
https://healingfromcrossdressing.org/ex-crossdressers-answer-wives-of-crossdressers-questions/
"About this Ministry" .... "a support and prayer group for wives of crossdressers"
Amazing. "Mondo cane" and all that: "scenes that provide glimpses into cultural practices around the world with the intention to shock or surprise Western film audiences":
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mondo_Cane
Reminds me also of the old movie "Some Like It Hot" with Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, & Jack Lemon that featured the latter two having fun with some crossdressing.
Curious phenomenon with historical antecedents that go back some distance -- some Biblical strictures if I remember correctly. And some of the stories about Joan of Arc have her forced into men's clothing as part of some trumped-up charges leading to her execution. Some fairly durable and long-standing restrictions against wearing clothing typical of the other sex.
Moot exactly how justified all of that is. Might be useful, or at least interesting to have all of the schools and all of the businesses require their students and employees to wear clothing typical of the other sex for a day or two a week ... 😉🙂
Behavioural and sartorial stereotypes can often be more straitjackets than not, though also the basis for various fetishes. Somewhat apropos of which & ICYMI, you might have some interest in quite a decent post over at "Honest to Goodness" on "I Don't Really Want to Talk About Matt Walsh Anymore":
https://kaeleytrillerharms.substack.com/p/i-dont-really-want-to-talk-about
I saw that. Here's a quote from one of these dudes (would prefer you read a bit before coming back at me, but maybe its the doxycycline I'm on for the tick bite rash)
Dude says: "What I looked for in crossdressing was to feel sexy, to feel comfortable, to feel positive about myself. I wanted to get away from all that I hated about being a man."
Feel free to post this to Matt Walsh's twitter. I'd enjoy his response to this. I know "Christian talk" very well, as the granddaughter of a pietistic Lutheran minister. I do not object to Bible quotes and references, as they are the observations we have available from antiquity. In my experience, of my son's suicidal ideation after his father's transition, I do not disagree with the Biblical language, "abomination."
Must be the doxycycline ... 😉🙂 Think I got all I needed from a quick skim.
But changing apparel can have a profound effect on people. Philip Wylie in his "Generation of Vipers" on "hatism":
Wylie: "Hats, indeed, have a remarkable effect upon the common man. They have it, because headdress has always been a sign, with him, of special merit and personal unction. Hats are therefore magical, still. People putting on hats put on the qualities symbolized by the hats, or try to, or assume that they have done so. Thus a cardinal, getting a red hat, assumes that some of the magic of hatism has entered into him, and becomes, because of the red skimmer, either holier, or harder to know, or more oracular, or more venal and lascivious on the ground that the red hat gives him special hellroom. Notice the effect of party hats upon guests. A pompous exponent of some recondite branch of jurisprudence, all belly and dignity, can change, by the magic of a paper hat, into what he and his fellow poops regard as a clown and a merry wag. The existence of the hat on his head means, to him, that certain pretensions have been temporarily abandoned and another set put in their place. ....
A monk’s hood must subdue a man, though there’s a black mass or two in it for him, but a nun’s veil, first put on, must be as numbing as castration, which, in effect, it represents. And there are records of men going batty after their first few minutes in an Indian hat and commencing to throw hatchets at the neighbors. But hatism, one of the profound isms, goes unrecognized, though it throws much light on the magical powers man has shorn from himself and invested in the accouterments of gangs."
https://vultureofcritique.files.wordpress.com/2016/05/philip-wylie-generation-of-vipers.pdf
I've been defenestrated -- again -- by Musk's minions so I'm unable fire a shot across Walsh's bow there. But I certainly think that Kaeley Harms on her "Honest To Goodness" Substack had some valid criticisms of Walsh; she's apparently on Twitter so you might get her to do so.
"abomination" seems to be something of a favourite in that neck of the woods:
https://www.openbible.info/topics/cross_dressing
No doubt there's some "profound psychology and exquisite logic" in the Bible -- as Wylie once put it. But -- apparently, from what I've heard -- more than a few barbarisms as well.
I think this is theJames Kirkup you mean, yes?
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-document-that-reveals-the-remarkable-tactics-of-trans-lobbyists/
yes, thanks!
I've read research that shows removing breasts and hysterectomies increases the risk of early Onset dementia. The earlier the procedure, the more severe the dementia. It's also worse if both breasts are cut off. All those young girls......!
Would you share that research? Thanks so much.
Democrats please listen at least consider the children, over the gender affirming consumer industry.
This lifetime democrat is voting differently. Based solely on this issue
Same.
We need a Top Ten list of rebranding ideas for puberty blockers
"Eunuch-sizing"? 😉🤔😲
Enough with the fucking euphemisms; time to call a spade a fucking shovel. "gender-affirming care" and "sex change operations" is just turning kids into sexless eunuchs.
Helen Joyce did so in an article at Standpoint Magazine on "Speaking up for female eunuchs":
https://web.archive.org/web/20201113021904/https://standpointmag.co.uk/speaking-up-for-female-eunuchs/
Yes. Ironic how this alleged 'search for true gender/sex identity' can lead to surgeries that destroy any future sex-life. And revealing, how older trans-identified men will try to get female breasts, but want to keep their male sex organs intact. I hope the general public will soon see this horrific shit-show for what it actually is!
"horrific shit-show", indeed.
But why I think we all have an obligation to call out anyone, any newspaper that uses such egregious phrases as "sex-change operation". No one, no human changes sex, at least unless we're going to go with the Kindergarten Cop definitions -- boys have penises and girls have vaginas. "Change your genitalia, change your sex! Act now, offer ends soon!" 🙄
Bloody criminal.
We're all part of that "crime", accessories after the fact, if we turn a blind eye or deaf ear to such odious euphemisms.
"And therein we find, neglected by us, the simplest, the most accessible key to our liberation: a personal nonparticipation in lies! Even if all is covered by lies, even if all is under their rule, let us resist in the smallest way: Let their rule hold not through me!"
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Live Not By Lies
https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/50709343-live-not-by-lies
Ta for the Like. 👍🙂
Somewhat apropos of the "sex change" euphemism, you might have some interest in a recent Fox News [FN] segment that used the same phrase:
https://www.foxnews.com/media/progressive-journalist-breaks-left-warns-puberty-blockers-cause-irreparable-harm-children
Maybe somewhat more important is a longer story about some cracks developing in the façade on the Left:
FN: "Ana Kasparian, a co-host of the progressive 'The Young Turks' show, slammed her fellow liberals Sunday for downplaying the risks involved in giving transgender treatments to minors."
Nice that she at least is starting to read the writing on the wall, but still a bit clueless as to what the definition of "woman" as "adult human female" actually entails:
FN: "Kasparian has spoken out about gender ideology recently. In March, she scorched 'inclusive' language and warned, 'Please don't ever refer to me as a person with a uterus, birthing person, or person who menstruates. How do people not realize how degrading this is?' "
She too is trying to turn both "female" and "woman" into content-free labels and "immutable identities 🙄" rather than accepting them as denotations of specific, and quite transitory, biological capabilities.
I am in the UK, and I'm on the Left. I do not accept that all on the Left are supporting TRAs- I know many who are firmly GC. Some on the left fell for a bogus argument- a false analogy that trans were opressed, similar to the way that women, and people of colour, are. In UK now, all parties except for the (Right wing) Conservatives, have an official party line of seemingly promising trans people whatever they want. (Labour, Liberal Democrats, Scottish National Party, Plaid Cymru (=Welsh Nationalists), Green Party (Eng and Wales), and Scottish Green Party- have all been taken over by trans activists. Even the Womens Equality Party is infiltrated by (so-called) trans women!. But- resistance is growing, and I hope the tide is turning,. There are more UK court cases coming up soon which will show up the TRAs actions in 'left' parties. I hope it will all help make it easier to soon have a free, uncensored public debate.
Yeah, definitely increasing evidence of the tide turning. If not yet the beginning of the end, but at least the end of the beginning -- to coin a phrase .... 🙂
Though my argument has generally been that a general scientific illiteracy is part and parcel of that problem, and which still needs addressing.
Eliza for President! ...or Queen :o)
Though it's encouraging that the trans cause is so widely unpopular, the lack of broad popular support for measures such as puberty blockers and double mastectomies means little in a state like Oregon, where Democrats control the legislature and governor's office.
For example, earlier this year Republicans in the state senate walked out to prevent the passage of a bill that would have expanded access to so-called gender affirming medicine to minor without parental knowledge and consent, among other things.
Not having the Governor's phone number or direct personal access to my representatives in the Capitol building, I did the only thing I could do. I wrote my representative, Tawna Sanchez. This is what I said:
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Dear . . . Representative Sanchez:
I am one of your constituents. I am also a member of the Democratic Party, a Biden voter, a man who is gay, a grandfather and a retired attorney.
I am writing to ask that you oppose legislation that would allow minors to receive so-called gender affirming care with or without the consent of their parents. I am not making this request because I am some sort of transphobic monster who has been brainwashed by Ron DeSantis and MAGA extremists.
No, I am opposed to giving puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to minors claiming to be trans because, in spite of what trans activists and their allies might say, gender-affirming medicine is a very new practice that is still experimental and unproven. No sound double-blind scientific studies have shown that puberty blockers and/or cross-sex hormones are safe, effective and/or necessary. A number of European nations that used to embrace gender medicine have recently retreated and are either suspending the use of puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones or restricting their use.
Bear in mind that several studies have demonstrated that most gender-nonconforming kids and youth with gender dysphoria will outgrow their condition during adolescence. Many, like me, will turn out to be gay. I was a very sissy little boy in the late 1950s and 1960s. I did not like to play sports. I threw away my cap guns. I loved my Barbie and her outfits. I was fortunate that I had open-minded parents who did not try to force me to be more masculine and were kind to me. I am equally lucky that nobody then had such a strict view of sex roles that they pressured my parents to transition me to a little girl. Today I am a masculine gay man. Gender-affiming medicine would have ruined my life.
Though trans activists vehemently deny it, I firmly believe that many of the children and teens claiming to be trans are not in fact trans but victims of social contagion and/oer indoctrination at school and elsewhere. The last thing they need is for health-care providers to put them on potentially harmful drugs for the rest of their lives. A worryingly high large percentage of youth who say they are trans are on the autism spectrum, and it's not known why. Other minors have undiagnosed mental health problems or difficult home lives that might be manifesting themselves as a trans identity. That's why it is essential to take a slow and cautious approach with gender dysphoric youth and determine whether or not they are actually trans with the help of mental health experts and mental health therapists instead of taking their word for it.
I know you have many obligations, but I urge you to listen to the podcast "Gender: A Wider [Lens]." In it, two gender-critical therapists have dispassionate discussions about the many facets of gender identity. https://gender-a-wider-lens.captivate.fm/
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What was the response? Nothing more than the same old deceptive trans talking points:
"Thank you also for taking the time to detail to your opposition to the portion of HB 2002 that protects gender-affirming care for minors, and for sharing these resources. HB 2002 only expands gender-affirming care without parental consent to youth over the age of 15, and does so to protect youth whose parents may not support their decision to seek such care."
"While I hear your concerns regarding puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones, I think it is worth noting that every leading medical association in the United States supports such care, including the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Psychiatry Association, and the Endocrine Society. This study from the Journal of Adolescent health, along with several other studies, supports a relationship between access to gender-affirming care and lower rates of depression and suicidality among transgender and nonbinary youth."
Not wanting these trans lies to go unanswered, I replied by quoting a recent Atlantic article titled "A Teen Gender Care Debate is Spreading Across Europe." https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2023/04/gender-affirming-care-debate-europe-dutch-protocol/673890/
Needless to say, Rep. Sanchez's staffer did not respond. The depth and breadth of trans capture in our institutions is staggering. Ron DeSantis has gotten one thing right. I'm not sure that he came up with the idea, but he's spot on when he talks about the pernicious consequences of the woke mind virus. A better way to express this is to say that the progeny of critical theory such as critical race theory and queer theory really do act like viruses in the way they infect organizations and turn them into propagators of the ideology.
What we need now more than ever is for someone with a track record of credibility among Democrats is to recover from that virus and publicly turn against the ideology.
I am not impressed with your representative's list of medical-industrial associations. I am just one of millions of people who have been butchered and poisoned by these sociopaths.