Friday, August 12, 2022
If the affirmation-only model of treatment is medically negligent in the UK, why is it appropriate elsewhere? Is the evidence different when you cross the Atlantic? Are standards lower in the U.S.?
This day in Herstory: Marguerite Antonia Radclyffe Hall, born August 12, 1880 (died October 7, 1943), was an English poet and author, best known for the novel The Well of Loneliness, a groundbreaking work in lesbian literature. In adulthood, Hall often went by the name John, rather than Marguerite. (more)
UK - Barrister leading class action against Tavistock says it will be “one of the largest medical negligence scandals of all time”
If the affirmation-only model of treatment is medically negligent in the UK, why is it appropriate elsewhere? Is the evidence different when you cross the Atlantic? Are standards of care lower in the U.S.? Or are the relevant professional bodies simply less committed to providing appropriate care for children? What say you, American lawyers? - Ed.
Australia - Gender clinics in danger of legal suits
From The Australian (Australia)
By Liam Mendes
August 11, 2022
Lawyers say Australian gender clinics may face legal action following news that Britain’s Tavistock clinic is facing a major medical negligence law suit from youngsters who claim they were “started on a treatment pathway that was not right for them”.
The legal action may have significant implications for several Australian gender clinics based at children’s hospitals across the country, where Tavistock’s contentious practices have played a strong influence in treatment.
Leading compensation law firm Gerard Malouf & Partners is exploring the prospects and feasibility of a similar class-action lawsuit in Australia. … read full article
US - Perspective: The tide has turned in the UK on gender-affirming treatment for children
Legal action over puberty blockers prescribed to minors will likely reverberate across the Atlantic
From Deseret News (USA)
By Valerie Hudson
Aug 11, 2022
Over the past few weeks, an amazing turn of the tide has occurred in the United Kingdom, one which has profound ramifications for the United States. It involves The Tavistock Clinic in England, the hub of gender-affirming treatment under the country’s National Health Service.
The term “gender-affirming treatment” refers to the steps of treating gender dysphoria first with puberty blockers, then with cross-sex hormones and finally, for a sizable number of patients, with sex reassignment surgery. … read full article
US - Is the Tide Turning on the Transgender Debate?
From National Review (USA)
By Isaac Schorr
August 12, 2022
Good morning and Happy Friday to you all. On the menu today: An optimistic look at the progress being made on the transgender issue.
Winds Shift in the U.K.
I want to be careful how I put this, because we do still live in a world where medical professionals boast about about their provision of “gender-affirming care” to minors. But even without squinting or tilting your head at just the right angle, it’s possible to believe that the tide is turning on the transgender debate.
There are some notable exceptions — doctors at Boston Children’s Hospital smile while speaking about performing irreversible surgeries like they’re trying to reassure a toddler about a check-up — and some conservatives might be unsatisfied, as well they should be. But this progress should be learned from all the same. … read full article
US - America’s views on transgenderism are changing
But they still fall mostly along political lines.
From The Dallas Morning News (USA)
By Juliana Menasce Horowitz
August 12, 2022
Americans’ views on transgender issues don’t always fall neatly on one side or the other.
As another midterm election season gets underway, gender identity and transgender issues are getting attention on the campaign trail. Some candidates are calling for restrictions on what teams trans athletes can compete on and what schools can teach about gender identity, and a record number of transgender and nonbinary candidates are running for public office.
Public views on these issues are more nuanced than one might expect, and they are changing. A recent Pew Research Center study found that a growing share of U.S. adults say a person’s gender is determined by the sex they were assigned at birth, even as more now say they personally know someone who is transgender. … read full article
US - Florida bans use of Medicaid on transgender surgeries
From Washington Examiner (USA)
By Misty Severi
August 11, 2022
Florida's Agency for Health Care Administration finalized new rules Thursday that will block healthcare providers from billing Medicaid to cover transgender surgeries .
Language added to the rules that govern the state's $36.2 billion Medicaid program, which will go into effect Aug. 21, will prohibit the use of funds for puberty blockers, hormone therapies, or surgical procedures as treatments for gender dysphoria, according to Politico.
The board of the health agency passed a motion to update the rules on Friday that was met with backlash from the state's LGBT community. The state's surgeon general, Joseph Ladapo , backed the new rules at the meeting, stating that puberty is a confusing time for teenagers and warning of the risks of such procedures. … read full article
US - Parents urge court to keep block on law criminalizing care for transgender youth
The law would criminalize parents and doctors attempting to provide gender-transition medical treatment to minors.
From Alabama Political Reporter (USA)
By JACOB HOLMES
August 12, 2022
Parents challenging Alabama’s law regarding the treatment of transgender minors have responded to the state’s appeal of a district court ruling that blocked enforcement of the law in May 2022.
SB184 criminalizes parents who seek medical care for their transgender children, the doctors who provide this medical care, and anyone else who assists transgender young people to receive the gender-transitioning treatment. Under the law, parents, doctors, and others could face up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $15,000. The State of Alabama has appealed the district court’s May 13 order blocking the law from being enforced to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit. … read full article
US - Pediatricians who questioned 'gender affirmation' silenced by medical academy
AAP members said the academy was "endorsing great harm," that its policy for trans-identifying teens was based on "scant and shoddy" evidence and that handing out drugs and hormones was "unsafe and unsustainable."
From The Post Millennial (Canada)
By Christina Buttons
August 12, 2022
Pediatricians across America are at odds with their own professional body for pushing "harmful drugs" on adolescents who are confused about their gender and stifling debate about the available treatments.
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has been confronted with sharp criticism from medical professionals for their policy pushing puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgeries on transgender-identifying minors, as well as stifling debate over a more cautious approach. … read full article
US - Episcopal Church Endorses ‘Gender-Affirming’ Mutilations of Children
From National Review (USA)
By Wesley J. Smith
August 12, 2022
The Episcopal Church has endorsed “gender-affirming care” at all ages, including mastectomies and “bottom” surgeries that sterilize and cause sexual dysfunction. …
This, at a time when major medical-negligence lawsuits are soon to be filed in the U.K. against Tavistock Gender Clinic because it did not properly protect children from exactly the interventions the Episcopal Church has endorsed, as health authorities in France, Finland, and Sweden are hitting the brakes on this awful approach to caring for children with gender dysphoria, not to mention the bitter testimonials of detransitioners furious that they were not protected from such actions by doctors and parents. … read full article
US - Women’s rights groups call on Biden administration to update Title IX rules for transgender athletes
More than 50 groups in a letter to President Biden called on the administration to clarify that state sports bans constitute “impermissible sex-based discrimination.”
From The Hill (USA)
By Brooke Migdon
August 12, 2022
Story at a glance
In a letter organized by the National Women’s Law Center and the Women’s Sports Foundation, dozens of gender equity groups asked the Biden administration to release a Title IX athletics rule that will protect the rights of transgender student athletes.
The administration in June announced a series of proposed updates to Title IX, but said a separate rule would be drafted to address the eligibility of transgender student athletes.
More than a dozen states have laws in place barring transgender athletes from competing on school sports teams consistent with their gender identity.
A national coalition of women’s rights and gender justice groups is calling on the Biden administration to release a Title IX athletics rule that allows transgender student athletes to compete on sports teams that align with their gender identity.
In addressing school athletics, the administration should develop a policy that affirms the rights of transgender, nonbinary and intersex students under Title IX to participate in sports consistent with their gender identity and clarify that state sports bans constitute “impermissible sex-based discrimination,” more than 50 organizations wrote in a letter this week to President Biden. … read full article
US - California Department of Education advocates books promoting gender transitions to kindergartners
The recommended books were part of the California Department of Education's 'curriculum and resources' on their website
From Fox News (USA)
By Kelsey Koberg
August 12, 2022
The California Department of Education’s recommended reading list promotes books for kindergartners about students transitioning, and for high schoolers about students kneeling during the national anthem.
The recommended reading list is housed in the "curriculum and instruction resources" section of the California Department of Education's website, suggesting dozens of books for each age group.
"Call me Max," a book listed as being appropriate for grades K-2, is about a student who "lets his teacher know that he wants to be called by a boy’s name." … read full article
US - ‘Any Student Who Identifies As A Girl’: Elite Nashville Girls’ School To Allow Biological Males To Apply
From Daily Caller (USA)
By Chrissy Clark
August 11, 2022
An elite, all-girls school in Nashville, Tennessee updated its admissions policy to allow individuals who identify as girls to apply to the school, according to a letter from the school sent to parents.
Harpeth Hall told parents that the Board of Trustees updated its admissions policy for transgender students. The school will use the self-identified gender of prospective students over biological sex in determining whether a student is female, according to a letter released Tuesday and initially obtained by The Tennessean. … read full article
US - Books on gender transitioning recommended to kindergartners in Newsom’s California
"There is no such thing as a book about children transitioning genders that is appropriate for a school to recommend to kindergartners," said Parents Defending Education Director of Outreach Erika Sanzi.
From The Post Millennial (Canada)
By Olivia Rondeau
August 12, 2022
The California Department of Education has updated its recommended reading list to include books about children undergoing gender transitions for students as young as 5.
According to Fox News, the recommended reading list is housed in the "curriculum and instruction resources" section of the department's website, where many books are designated for each age group. … read full article
US - Jubilation as the Walls Begin to Crumble
The End of Tavistock Spells the End of Gender Capture
From Parents with Inconvenient Truths about Trans (PITT) (USA)
August 12, 2022
My heart swelled with joy at news of the impending closure of the Gender Identity Development Service at the Tavistock, and I shared in the unbridled cheers and jubilation with other parents in the UK whose children had been harmed by Tavistock’s state sanctioned gender experiments. We were quaking with joy and a release of adrenaline that is difficult to describe—at least to anyone who has not lived through our particularly exquisite hell. … read full article
UK - The attack on Sir Salman Rushdie is an attack on liberal society itself
The freedoms he risked his life to defend are under attack not just in Tehran but in his adopted homeland of Britain too
From The Telegraph (UK)
Telegraph View
August 12, 2022
Precise details of the shocking attack upon the author Sir Salman Rushdie are still emerging. But it seems eminently possible that the author, who for so long lived in fear of his life after publishing The Satanic Verses in 1988, has finally paid the price for his fierce devotion to the freedom of expression.
Sir Salman always denied that his controversial novel was intended to offend, and apologised for the outrage that it caused. He was himself born a Muslim, though he allowed his faith to lapse. But some, notably the Iranian leadership which declared the 1989 fatwa that plunged the author into such peril, chose to ignore those apologies and instead used him as a symbol of the West they detested then and continue to demonise today. … read full article
UK - JK Rowling ridicules Shakespeare's Globe Theatre for portraying Joan of Arc as non-binary with 'they' and 'them' pronouns as women's rights campaigners say that 'to rewrite female history is an insult'
Harry Potter writer and women's rights campaigner JK Rowling entered debate
Feminists today denounced new non-binary portrayal as offensive and sexist
Joan of Arc will have 'them/they' pronouns, MailOnline exclusively revealed
Historical icon is female and a saint honoured for her bravery fighting for France
Theatre had defended production and suggested Shakespeare would agree
From Daily Mail (UK)
By DAN SALES
August 12, 2022
Harry Potter author JK Rowling has ridiculed the Globe Theatre's portrayal of Joan of Arc as non-binary after women's rights campaigners said the switch was 'insulting and damaging'.
Ms Rowling is a long-time campaigner of women's rights and has spoken out over concerns on transgender people having access to women-only spaces.
MailOnline's exclusive yesterday on Shakespeare's Globe Theatre's new portrayal of Joan of Arc as non-binary and using the pronouns 'they/them' has sparked extensive backlash from feminists and historians. … read full article
UK - Why is the Globe making Joan of Arc non-binary?
From The Spectator (UK)
By Julie Bindel
August 12, 2022
Feminists tend to be fascinated with the story of Joan of Arc. She was irreverent, impertinent, way more intelligent than her enemies, and was true to herself and her beliefs right to the end.
War hero and religious martyr, Joan has been described as ‘Jesus with a sword’. A 16-year-old peasant girl who decided to take on an entire army is a female to admire and hold up as a role model. But it would seem that we have to make allowances for an ‘intersectional’ and ‘inclusive’ approach and consider whether Joan was female after all. … read full article
UK - REVEALED: Academics engaged in 'witch hunt' oust gender-critical colleagues
The conspirators planned to create a survey that would be emailed to universities across the UK with questions that they would use to identify individuals with gender-critical beliefs.
From The Post Millennial (Canada)
By Christina Buttons
August 12, 2022
A group of far-left academics plotted a "witch hunt" of their colleagues with gender-critical views in an effort to oust them from universities.
The Times obtained leaked audio from a meeting and reported the overheard dialogue of University and College Union (UCU) members plotting to compile a list of university staff who they suspected of holding gender-critical beliefs. Their plan was to "inform" the university branches of their colleagues' "transphobic" views.
According to the leaked audio, the conspirators planned to create a survey that would be emailed to universities across the UK with questions that they would use to identify individuals with gender-critical beliefs. … read full article
UK - Who will put an end to gender ID witch-hunts?
Universities are doing nothing to stop them
From The Post By Unherd (UK)
By Julie Bindel
August 11, 2022
I have lost count of how many times I have been de-platformed from universities since I was declared to be “transphobic” by the National Union of Students (NUS) in 2008. The playbook is always the same: I am invited either by students or academic staff, and then publicly cancelled.
But now, the grown-ups have been exposed as more irresponsible and immature than the students. The University and College Union (UCU), headed by trans activist Jo Grady, gave us a taster of a pending investigation on UCU’s activities last week in a TikTok (what else?) of her berating Times journalist James Beal. According to Grady, Beal had been asking questions of UCU members over their support for “trans rights”. Posting the video on Twitter, Grady stated firmly that “UCU stands unequivocally with trans people.” … read full article
UK - How censorship conquered academia
This is what happens when you do not defend free speech for all.
From Spiked (UK)
By Tom Slater
August 12, 2022
So, British universities are dropping books about slavery from courses in case students are upset by them, while academics launch witch-hunts against feminists. Had you said this to someone even a few years ago they’d have asked you if you’d been drinking. But as two stories in The Times this week attest, this is actually where we’re at now. The climate of intolerance and offence-taking on campus has gone so unchecked for so long that tactics once reserved for fascists are being used against feminists. Meanwhile, academics exhort students to flagellate themselves for the evils of slavery one minute before telling the poor little dears they can skip reading novels about the evils of slavery the next. … read full article
UK - Can Labour be talked off the pledge?
Starmer should not double down on trans radicalism
From The Critic (UK)
By Joan Smith
August 12, 2022
I haven’t signed a pledge since I was thrown out of the Brownies. One minute I was telling Brown Owl I wasn’t keen on the bit in the Brownie Promise about doing my duty to God and the Queen, and the next thing I knew I was out on my ear. Now I’m wondering if a similar fate awaits those of us who don’t sign up to the latest series of pledges promoted in the run-up to internal elections in the Labour Party. Will feminists who disagree be banned from meeting round the toadstool? Do we have to pretend to believe a load of gender woo-woo if we want to remain in the party?
The authors of the five pledges — five, for God’s sake! — evidently think so. Against a background of the trans colours (pink and pale blue, so absolutely no stereotyping there), the pledges display the usual queasy combination of buzzwords like inclusivity with barely-concealed authoritarianism. … read full article
Ireland - Alison O'Connor: Happily, the Government is rethinking this daft decision to erase women
You cannot disappear the word ‘woman’ to accommodate what must be a handful of trans men who give birth each year
From Irish Examiner (Ireland)
By Alison O’Connor
August 12, 2022
THERE is some good news for the Irish chapter of womankind this week. The Government is reviewing the utterly daft decision to remove the word woman from the legislation surrounding women giving birth in Ireland.
The fact this has been officially contemplated in the first place never gets any less weird. Before the Dáil broke up for the summer, proposed amendments to the Maternity Protection Act 1994 were to have been made involving the replacement of “woman” with “person”. … read full article
Australia - Should parents object to school 'rainbow days'?
From Spectator | Australia
By Harriet Connor
August 12, 2022
Last year, a new Principal started at our children’s school. One of her first initiatives was to hold Wear It Purple Day in the high school – a decision that has had a knock-on effect at the school and in our family. Since then, the school has added other ‘rainbow’ days to the calendar, such as the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, and Transphobia in May.
With Wear It Purple Day around the corner, it’s time for us parents to inform ourselves and, if we have concerns, to speak up! … read full article
Australia - Bad to the bone: the rise of woke archaeology
Some scholars are trying to “queer the past”
From Mercatornet (Australia)
By Michael Cook
August 12, 2022
The Trans Revolution is like the war in Ukraine. On some fronts the Ukrainian troops creep slowly forward; on others, they retreat. Similarly, in the UK, the trans juggernaut may have ground to a halt after the closing of the Tavistock gender clinic. But in distant battlegrounds, trans activists are winning small victories in unexpected places.
Like archaeology.
Archaeology? Yes, a group called the Black Trowel Collective has issued a manifesto — Archaeologists for Trans Liberation. It calls upon colleagues to acknowledge gender fluidity in the bones found in ancient burial sites. … read full article
Thank you for another great set of articles. I appreciate all of your hard work on behalf of this important issue.
Isn't that funny? Even that national coalition of transactivists, misleadingly described as women's rights groups, don't know how to convincingly make their case. They claim that banning boys from girls' teams in some US states is "impermissible sex based discrimination". So, sex does exist after all and it matters? Wow.
It's amusing to see how confused they are.