Friday, April 8, 2022
This day in Herstory: Barbara Kingsolver, born April 8, 1955, is an American novelist, essayist and poet. She was raised in rural Kentucky and lived briefly in the Congo in her early childhood. Kingsolver earned degrees in biology at DePauw University and the University of Arizona and worked as a freelance writer before she began writing novels. Her widely known works include The Poisonwood Bible, the tale of a missionary family in the Congo, and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, a non-fiction account of her family's attempts to eat locally. (more)
Not a 'Kitchen Table Issue,' Jen Psaki?
Actually, Our Kids Are All We're Thinking About
From The Truth Fairy (USA)
By Abigail Shrier
April 7, 2022
Yesterday, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki accused Republican lawmakers of “engaging in a disturbing, cynical trend of attacking vulnerable transgender kids,” and exploiting them. “Instead of focusing on critical kitchen table issues like the economy, COVID, or addressing the country’s mental health crisis,” she said, “Republican lawmakers are currently debating legislation that, among many things, would target transgender youth with tactics that threaten to put pediatricians in prison if they provide medically necessary, life-saving care for the kids they serve.”
Life-saving care? Surely she must mean insulin or antibiotics?
No, she means “gender affirming care” that devilish euphemism for puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and experimental surgeries whose benefits are unproven, but whose risks—permanent sexual dysfunction, infertility, cardiac event and endometrial cancer are a few—ought to nudge any doctor toward soul searching. As I’ve written many times, these treatments are often recklessly administered, of questionable benefit to children, and attended by forbidding risks. … read full article (and SUBSCRIBE to The Truth Fairy!)
Alabama governor signs bill criminalizing transgender health care for minors
Alabama is the third state in the country to pass a restriction on gender-affirming care for minors — though it's the first to include criminal penalties.
From NBC News (USA)
By Associated Press and Jo Yurcaba
April 8, 2022
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey signed two bills Friday that target transgender young people and classroom discussion of LGBTQ identities.
One of the bills makes it a felony for medical professionals to provide gender-affirming medical care people under 19.
Her signature makes Alabama the third state in the country to pass a measure restricting transition-related care, though it is the first state to impose criminal penalties.
Ivey said in a statement that she signed the bill because she believes that "if the Good Lord made you a boy, you are a boy, and if he made you a girl, you are a girl."
"We should especially protect our children from these radical, life-altering drugs and surgeries when they are at such a vulnerable stage in life," she said in a statement.
… read full article
JULIE BINDEL: The week Britain finally came to its senses on trans extremists and cried... ENOUGH!
From Daily Mail (UK)
By JULIE BINDEL FOR THE DAILY MAIL
April 8, 2022
This was the week in which Britain finally came to its senses. We reached a tipping point, when people on all sides decided the madness had to stop.
On Wednesday, the Prime Minister declared that ‘biological males’ should not be allowed to compete in women’s sports — and he also dared to suggest that parents should have a say in their children’s potentially life-changing decisions about gender identity.
Separately, a key public watchdog announced on Tuesday that women must have safe spaces, including female prisons and domestic violence refuges, that neither men nor trans women can enter.
Also this week, a former Cabinet minister, Damian Green, said to a BBC interviewer who had criticised him for saying ‘biology is real’: ‘You’ve said that I’ve asserted that “biology is real” as though that’s something controversial. I think once we start saying scientific facts are not real then we really are in a difficult place.’ … read full article
Who Is Looking Out For Gay Kids?
The risks of imposing critical gender theory on young children
From The Weekly Dish (USA)
By Andrew Sullivan
April 8, 2022
Getting a grip on reality is not so easy these days; and one area in which this is particularly tough right now is figuring out what is actually being taught in public schools. It’s important because a flurry of red states are now beginning to follow in the footsteps of Florida, and shut down instruction in critical queer and gender theory in the kindergarten through primary school years.
There’s the usual kabuki dance. The right says woke teaching is out of control; the left says either a) that all of this is made up, or b) it’s just being inclusive of vulnerable kids, and why do you care? Rather than chew even more on this bone, I thought it might be helpful just to look at some of the children’s books and curricula that are currently used in many schools, recommended by groups like the Human Rights Campaign; and supported by the Democrats and the president. … read full article
State education framework outlines gender identity instruction for kindergarteners
From The National Desk (USA)
By Alec Schemmel
April 7th 2022
BALTIMORE (TND) — The Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE) is instructing kindergarten classrooms to teach about gender identity and says that teachers in the state are not required to inform parents about their child’s desire to change genders.
Under the “gender identity and expression” subcategory of MSDE’s health education framework, it states that pre-K students should learn to “recognize and respect that people express themselves in many different ways,” and understand “that there are different types of families (e.g., singleparent, same-gender, intergenerational, blended, interracial, adoptive, foster, etc.).”
By the time those students reach kindergarten, they are expected to “recognize a range of ways people identify and express their gender,” according to the state’s health curriculum framework. Instruction on this material expands as grade levels increase, and there is only an “opt-out (not opt-in)” option for such instruction starting in grade 4. It is unclear in MSDE’s health curriculum framework whether the opt-out option is available for the parents of students below the 4th grade. … read full article
Sajid Javid urges health chiefs to protect women-only hospital wards
From The Times (UK)
By Henry Zeffman
April 8, 2022
Sajid Javid has urged the NHS to protect single-sex hospital wards after new guidance said transgender women could legally be excluded from women-only spaces.
The health secretary has told the NHS to take “full account” of a ruling from the equalities watchdog, which said single-sex spaces did not always have to include transgender people.
The NHS was already reviewing whether trans women should be treated on female-only wards. … read full article (web page archive)
I’m Being Investigated by the British Columbia College of Nurses Because I Believe Biological Sex Is Real
From Quillette (Australia)
By Amy Eileen Hamm
April 8, 2022
In November 2020, the British Columbia College of Nurses and Midwives (BCCNM) informed me that I was under investigation for my “off-duty conduct.” My disciplinary hearing is scheduled to take place from May 30th through June 3rd, and my career as a nurse hangs in the balance. I have been working throughout, apart from a stress leave and various sick days that I have taken to protect my mental health.
The BCCNM is a regulatory body whose stated purpose is to protect the public from harm, and to ensure that nurses and midwives meet defined standards of care and professional responsibilities. It issues a license to practice; and without it, you can’t work as a nurse in British Columbia. I’d never thought too much about the BCCNM before this investigation was announced. I did my job, and believe I did it well. I paid my license fees each year—that was it.
My troubles started when the BCCNM informed me that two members of the public had complained to the organization, to the effect that I am transphobic and so might be incapable of “provid[ing] safe, non-judgemental care to transgender and gender diverse patients.” One of the complainants is a social worker named Alex Turriff, who self-describes as “a passionate social justice advocate … interested in structural violence and oppression [and] influenced politically by Marxism.” The other has been awarded the privilege of remaining anonymous, even as he or she has attempted to ruin my career: The BCCNM apparently agreed with the anonymous person’s belief that I might “retaliate” if I knew who they were. … read full article
Biden's support for child gender transitions is deeply irresponsible
From The Washington Examiner (USA)
By Zachary Faria
April 8, 2022
The Biden administration is going all-in on the legitimacy of physically mutilating and chemically poisoning children who suffer from gender dysphoria.
In a recent hearing, Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado asked President Joe Biden’s Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, a largely invisible figure in his position so far, whether he supports “HHS's funding being [used for] sex-reassignment surgeries on minors.” Becerra confirmed he does. Biden has recently thrown the entire executive branch behind “affirming your child’s identity” as “one of the most powerful things you can do to keep them safe and healthy.”
"For the record, you favor HHS' funding being [used for] sex reassignment surgeries on minors?"
BIDEN'S HHS SECRETARY: Yes pic.twitter.com/dN1E2652s2— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) April 6, 2022
To put it in plain language, the Biden administration supports hormone treatments, puberty blockers, and surgery for children who show signs of wanting to be the opposite gender. The Biden administration supports sending young children who are too young to know better down an irreversible path that even many adults deeply regret later on, all to satisfy an unscientific gender ideology that is sweeping his party's rank and file. … read full article
Camp Interlaken’s New ‘Gender Inclusive’ Policies Keep Parents in the Dark
From Reality’s Last Stand (USA)
By Colin Wright
April 7, 2022
Gender ideology rejects the commonplace belief that sex has anything to do with whether someone is a “boy,” “man,” “girl,” or “woman,” asserting instead that these terms refer to one’s subjective “gender identity.” As a result, sex-based protections of women and girls, such as their right to female-only spaces, are becoming impossible to enforce.
While shocking manifestations of this ideology understandably garner most of our media’s attention, such as male swimmer Lia Thomas recently becoming the NCAA Division 1 Women’s Swimming Champion in the 500y freestyle, or male rapists being transferred to all-female prisons for simply “identifying” as women, the impact if this ideology can be felt and observed in our everyday lives as well.
Last month, Camp Interlaken, an overnight camp administered by the Milwaukee Jewish Community Center that claims to be “committed to building a vibrant community rooted in Jewish values,” announced on their blog that they were affirming their “commitment to gender inclusivity at Camp” by implementing new Gender Inclusion Practices & Policies. In the announcement, Camp Interlaken Director Toni Davison states:
We recognize that gender exists along a spectrum and may change at any point in an individual’s development. To support our transgender and gender expansive community, Camp Interlaken acknowledges that each participant’s needs are unique and should be treated individually, in consultation with the participant.
The new “inclusive” policies will allow campers to choose “the gender in which the camper most identifies with” during registration. The policy also states that “cabin assignments may be made by gender identity instead of sex assigned at birth” and that camp staff “will work with gender fluid and non-binary participants and their families before Camp to help them identify and agree to the appropriate housing assignment.” Additionally, campers will now be allowed “to use the washhouse of the gender they identify.” … read full article (and SUBSCRIBE to Reality’s Last Stand!)
Letter to the White House
Policies should be evidence based
From Parents with Inconvenient Truths about Trans (PITT) (USA)
April 8, 2022
[Dear Pitt Readers, here is a letter that perhaps you can send (or send its link) to your representatives, to the President (Contact Us), First Lady, Vice President, Second Gentleman, HHS (opa@hhs.gov , @HHSPopAffairs), Surgeon General (surgeongeneral@hhs.gov), etc.
If there are corrections needed, please send them to pitt@genspect.org, it is of course extremely important to be accurate about this complex topic. Thank you.]
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I applaud and support the White House proclamation that trans people should not be subject to discrimination and agree that people in this country should “work toward eliminating discrimination against all transgender, gender nonconforming, and nonbinary people — and all people.” I am 100 percent behind this. … read full article (and SUBSCRIBE to PITT!)
A heartbreaking work of staggering narcissism
Grace Lavery reveals the delusions of transgender ideology
From The Critic (UK)
By Julie Bindel
April 8, 2022
Grace Lavery — trans activist, Berkeley academic and author of Please Miss: A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Penis — is currently doing the rounds for their* UK book tour. In the process, Lavery is doing a better job than any so-called TERF of convincing the public that transgender ideology is both mad and misogynistic.
“Can women have a penis?” Emma Barnett asked her guest Lavery on Woman’s Hour yesterday. It is incumbent upon all narcissists to first, before answering this question, pick up on the semantics and grammatical errors involved in those five words. For Lavery, it sounded as if the question was about whether women can have access to a penis, one that is — presumably — attached to a man. Who knows? The shlong is obviously a floating signifier, at least as far as Queer Theory goes. We will return to the penis shortly (a phrase that very few lesbians utter). … read full article (and SUBSCRIBE to The Critic!)
The Guardian goes for J.K. Rowling
From The Spectator (UK)
By Steerpike
April 8, 2022
It seems that taking gratuitous swipes at J.K. Rowling has become something of a competition for liberal broadsheets on both sides of the pond. First, the New York Times took a potshot at the Harry Potter creator for its new marketing campaign trumpeting 'independent journalism.' And now the Guardian – keen to prove that, it too, is achingly right on – has published a piece which implies that Rowling's views on same-sex spaces are somehow more controversial than domestic abuse. Grim.
The latest jibe at Britain's greatest living writer came in a piece detailing the controversies around the production of the Fantastic Beasts film. Film critic Ryan Gilbey noted that 'one of its stars, Johnny Depp' left after losing a libel case which referred to him as a 'wife-beater' following accusations of domestic violence made against him by his ex-wife Amber Heard. Another star, Ezra Miller, was videoed grabbing a woman by the throat in a bar in Reykjavik and was last week arrested for disorderly conduct in a Hawaii karaoke bar. … read full article
The Taliban knows exactly what a woman is
It is an insult to women to suffer not only human rights abuses, but squirming policy makers who pretend to care without defining them
From The Telegraph (UK)
By RAQUEL ROSARIO SÁNCHEZ
April 8, 2022
An odd phenomenon has taken hold of our political class. Politicians of all persuasions have forgotten not only “what women are” but also basic facts about human bodies. Last week, the Keir Starmer refused to answer whether women have penises, having previously stated that it is wrong to say that “only women have a cervix.” Similar, the Chancellor Rishi Sunak dodged a simple question posed by Julia Hartley-Brewer on Talk Radio: “what is a woman?”
Whilst the Prime Minister has waded in to try and restore some common sense to proceedings, the issue has fast become a fault line in British politics.
As if to underline the absurdity, around the same time Starmer and Sunak were tying themselves in knots over what constitutes a female person, girls in Afghanistan were being denied access to education by the Taliban. On March 23rd, Afghan girls in secondary school were turned away from their places of learning after the Taliban backtracked on its promise to allow them to study. Teachers who had already started their lessons, received phone calls instructing them to stop and to ask female students to leave their classrooms.
… read full article (web page archive)
Now Boris Johnson has said what so many think, let's end all the preposterous nonsense being spoken in the name of trans women, writes transgender schoolteacher DEBBIE HAYTON
From Daily Mail (UK)
By DEBBIE HAYTON FOR THE DAILY MAIL
April 7, 2022
There are two things the liberal commentariat tend to forget about the ‘silent majority’, that great mass of ordinary people who don’t get involved in arcane discussions of modish topics, but who make their views known at every election.
Those two things? The majority is silent. And it’s the majority. …
Well, I have a dog in this fight myself. Ten years ago, I transitioned from male to female.
By then, I already had three children and a wonderful wife. I am incredibly grateful that I still do, and that we all live harmoniously.
I transitioned for psychological reasons: it was causing me terrible anguish to live as a male while hiding my true self. … read full article