Friday, August 26, 2022
"The American Academy of Pediatrics has a gender problem. But it really doesn’t want to talk about it. And it doesn’t want its 67,000 members to talk about it either."
This day in Herstory: Katherine Johnson (née Coleman), born August 26, 1918 (died February 24, 2020), was an American mathematician whose calculations of orbital mechanics as a NASA employee were critical to the success of the first and subsequent U.S. crewed spaceflights. During her 33-year career at NASA and its predecessor, she earned a reputation for mastering complex manual calculations and helped pioneer the use of computers to perform the tasks. The space agency noted her "historical role as one of the first African-American women to work as a NASA scientist". (more)
Ed. Note - As a longtime atheist, I once found the Catholic Church hostile to freedom of opinion. Now I’m cheering for The Franciscan Alliance in their opposition to the US Government’s requirement that taxpayers fund this superstitious ritual of human mutilation.
US - Transgender Patients vs. Religious Doctors
The Franciscan Alliance might be the new Little Sisters of the Poor.
From The Wall Street Journal (USA)
By The Editorial Board
August 25, 2022
The Little Sisters of the Poor were a cause célèbre during President Obama’s tenure, and they’re still in court defending religious exceptions to ObamaCare’s contraceptive mandate. Progressives don’t merely want to win the country’s culture wars. They want to impose a Carthaginian peace.
The latest evidence is a case involving the Franciscan Alliance that was heard a few weeks ago by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. The alliance is a Catholic hospital system, mostly in Indiana, founded by the Sisters of St. Francis of Perpetual Adoration. As the alliance argues in its brief, in 2016 the government interpreted ObamaCare’s nondiscrimination provisions “to require doctors and hospitals nationwide to perform and insure gender-transition procedures and abortions or else be liable for ‘sex’ discrimination.”
Specifically, the feds read the law to require that services be offered on an equal basis. “If a gynecologist performs a hysterectomy for a woman with uterine cancer,” the alliance’s brief says, “she must do the same for a woman who wants to remove a healthy uterus to live as a man.” … read full article
US - The American Academy of Pediatrics is denying reality
Frustrated doctors are beginning to go public
From The Post By UnHerd (UK)
By Eliza Mondegreen
August 26, 2022
The American Academy of Pediatrics has a gender problem. But it really doesn’t want to talk about it. And it doesn’t want its 67,000 members to talk about it either. The Academy, the top professional organisation for paediatricians in the United States, has gone all in on “gender-affirming care” in recent years, publishing “evidence-based” guidance on pubertal suppression (which the Academy describes as “reversible”), cross-sex hormones, and “gender-affirming surgeries”. It has condemned alternative perspectives and approaches as bigoted, harmful, and futile.
There were good reasons to question this approach back when it became official policy in 2018. There’s even more cause for concern now, with dissidents within the field raising concerns about affirmative care and calling for a systematic review of the evidence. Rather than listen, however, the AAP has bent and broken its own rules in order to enforce the party line. So much for “evidence-based”. … read full article
US - Conservative group drops six-figure ad ripping left's 'war on children'
There is a war on children, biology and innocence, the ad states
From Fox News (USA)
By Thomas Catenacci, Peter Hasson
August 26, 2022
Right-leaning nonprofit organization Citizens for Sanity unveiled a six-figure radio ad campaign Friday slamming left-wing gender ideology.
The radio ad, which was first obtained by Fox News Digital, attacks schools and health organizations for promoting medical operations and policies that harm the welfare of children nationwide. It adds that "millions of common sense Americans" know such policies are wrong and dangerous.
"There is a war on children in America. A war on biology. A war on innocence," the ad states. "Schools are forcing elementary school children to share bathrooms and locker rooms with the opposite sex. They’re encouraging students to question if they’re really boys or girls, all while hiding it from parents. So-called health organizations are promoting experimental, dangerous, and irreversible drugs and surgeries for minors." … read full article
US - Taking back the school boards
From Washington Examiner (USA)
By Kaylee McGhee White
August 25, 2022
Those of us who pay (probably too much) attention to the political landscape understand that local elections are extremely important insofar as their results are the most likely to affect your day-to-day life directly. But they’re also the elections with the lowest voter turnout rates and the least amount of media buzz, which suggests the public simply doesn’t care about them as much as they should.
There’s reason to believe, however, that this is changing. In Florida this week, voters flipped dozens of local school board seats, electing conservative candidates supported by Gov. Ron DeSantis. Normally, school board elections are boring afterthoughts. But the turnover across Florida is a sign that voters, especially parents, realize that taking back local politics is the best and easiest way to ensure that your values will be respected and your way of life upheld. … read full article
US - After Proclaiming The Opposite, Medical Pros Quietly Admit Mutilating Trans Kids Doesn’t Fix Depression
UW Medicine quietly revised publications to indicate that performing mutilative surgeries on trans children doesn’t fix depression.
From The Federalist (USA)
By JASON RANTZ
August 26, 2022
Amid contentious debates over gender identity, the University of Washington Medicine, or UW Medicine, proudly and eagerly alerted the press of a study in mid-March indicating that transgender teen patients saw rates of depression “plummet” because of so-called “gender-affirming care.”
The study earned nationwide praise. As Texas and Idaho were debating bans on allowing children to receive cross-sex hormones, this was the perfect research to show the heartlessness of conservative lawmakers and pundits who declared puberty blockers and surgical intervention as a dangerous and potentially irreversible gamble.
Most dramatically, after tracking the mental health of 104 transgender-identifying patients aged 13 to 20 for a year at Seattle Children’s Hospital, “gender-affirming care was associated with a 60% reduction in depression and a 73% drop in harmful or suicidal thoughts among the participants.” … read full article
US - Port Townsend Police reviewing complaints prompted by anti-trans protest
From The Leader (USA)
By James Sloan
August 25, 2022
The only person arrested during last week’s confrontation between anti-trans demonstrators and their critics has not been charged with any crimes.
At an event built as a press conference in front of Port Townsend City Hall Aug. 15, supporters of Julie Jaman clashed with members of a crowd that numbered nearly 300 pro-trans supporters.
Five cases of minor assault or theft are being actively investigated by Port Townsend police, said Police Chief Thomas Olson. … read full article
US - Dear Principal, Teachers, and Social Workers at my children’s high school
From Parents with Inconvenient Truths about Trans (PITT) (USA)
August 26, 2022
It’s August, and just like you, I am getting ready for the new school year. But perhaps unlike you, I am facing it with a great deal of trepidation. That’s because I have a trans-identifying daughter (whose name and pronoun usage you ostensibly keep a secret from me, even though of course I know) who is entering her final year at your school - and this autumn her younger brother is starting his first year at your school too.
My son does not know about his sister’s trans identification. He does not realize that she suffers from gender dysphoria (GD), although she loudly proclaims she’s bisexual and therefore queer identity every chance she gets and has a lovely girlfriend that he knows and likes. Of all this, he is entirely respectful. … read full article
US - Diane Ehrensaft, 'Satanic Panic' Woo Peddler, Now Champions the 'Gender Angels' Among Us
The dangerously consequential career of a quack
From The Distance (USA)
By Matt Osborne
August 26, 2022
Diane Ehrensaft believes in “gender angels.” Really. She says so. Not only are they real to her, these invisible, ineffable gender angels express themselves to her from the very beginning of a child’s life. She can read them as easily as a children’s book.
A boy who unsnaps his onesie is not really a boy, you see, because he knows that skirts are for females and his “gender angel” is a girl. A girl who tears barrettes from her hair is not really a girl, either. It is a boy gender-angel communicating that it has been assigned to the incorrect corporeal form. Born in the wrong body, so to speak.
Failure to believe these children about themselves is not only harmful, but sinful, because this is not about children mirroring the anxieties of adults. Our faith in the children is being tested. Their angels are telling us a universal truth hidden behind a material illusion, revealing an esoteric knowledge of “who they really are” before they even learn to speak. … read full article
US - Colin Wright wins appeal against Twitter over trans trolley-problem cartoon
"I immediately began the appeal process, and heard nothing from Twitter. Then, today, which happens to be my birthday, my account was unlocked."
From The Post Millennial (USA)
By Olivia Rondeau
August 26, 2022
Evolutionary biologist Dr. Colin Wright returned to Twitter on Friday, after being suspended on Sunday morning for a cartoon depicting the popular philosophical thought experiment, the "trolley problem." Wright was locked out of his account and received notice from Twitter describing the offending tweet, captioned "trans activism in a nutshell," as "hateful conduct."
When Wright shared the cartoon on Friday, it went viral, drawing the attention of transgender activists who reported the post to Twitter. … read full article
UK - ‘The young can’t force their ideology on me’: how cancelled choreographer Rosie Kay is fighting back
Kay was forced out of her own dance company after some members disagreed with her views on gender – so she formed a new, different troupe
From The Telegraph (UK)
By Claire Allfree
August 26, 2022
“We are used to intolerance being imposed from the top down,” says Rosie Kay, the “cancelled” choreographer who last December was forced to resign from her own dance company after her dancers formally accused her of transphobia. “But what’s taken people by surprise is that today the intolerance is coming from the bottom up. In particular from quarters traditionally viewed as liberal and open-minded, such as academia and the arts themselves.” … read full article
UK - M&S’s ‘gender inclusive’ changing room policy is a mess
It could put women at risk
From The Spectator (UK)
By Debbie Hayton
August 26, 2022
Marks and Spencer needs to get a grip on its fitting rooms policy. The question of who can use the men’s and who can use the women’s has been a long running saga for the British clothing chain, which has now been accused of introducing unsafe changing rooms for women by stealth.
Responding to an already dissatisfied customer, the M&S social media team announced this week that, ‘in all of our stores, we have fitting rooms located within our womenswear and menswear departments and each is made up of individual lockable cubicles to ensure every customer feels comfortable and has the privacy they need.’ … read full article
UK - NHS Confederation: leadership needed
From Sex Matters (UK)
August 26, 2022
The NHS Confederation is the membership body for NHS services in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Its members employ over 1.5 million staff, care for more than a million patients a day and control £150 billion of public expenditure. …
The Confederation’s Health and Care LGBTQ+ Leaders Network had already staked out a partisan position in June 2021, issuing a statement (not long after the EAT judgment in Forstater, which found that gender-critical views are “worthy of respect in a democratic society”) saying that
“The human rights of LGBTQ+ leaders, staff and patients are not negotiable.”
This is wrong. Some human rights, including the right to life, the right not to be tortured and the right to a fair trial, are indeed non-negotiable. Others, such as the right to information privacy, freedom of expression and the right to manifest a belief, are subject to qualifications, and need to be balanced against other people’s rights and the proper functioning of society and organisations. … read full article
UK - Trans toilet storm at Alan Turing centre as women are advised to turn a blind eye if they feel unsafe
Posters appeared in the toilets of the Alan Turing Institute at the British Library
They ask users not to challenge others if they think they are using the wrong loos
Sex Matters campaigners say the posters are making ‘women feel unsafe’
The posters were put up to make trans and non-binary people more comfortable
From Daily Mail (UK)
By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
August 26, 2022
Gender critical campaigners have said the Alan Turing Institute is making ‘women feel unsafe’ with a poster telling them not to approach someone they think is in the wrong bathroom.
The poster, in the toilets of the UK’s data science and artificial intelligence research institution at the British Library in London, says if people feel someone is using the ‘wrong’ bathroom, they should ‘carry on with their day’ rather than raise concerns.
The posters were put up to make trans and non-binary people more comfortable using their chosen toilets and ‘to ensure that everyone feels safe and respected’, a spokesman told The Daily Telegraph. … read full article
Scotland - The Scottish Tavistock
Politicians must address how young people are being treated at Sandyford gender clinic
From The Critic (UK)
By Jamie Gillies
August 26, 2022
We are sorry you didn’t enjoy your experience with us, please provide us with more feedback so we can do better in future. You may expect this kind of response from a hotel, or an airline, after you complain about shoddy service. But how would you feel if it was offered by a hospital, following a botched medical procedure that has ruined your life?
This is, in effect, what is happening at Scotland’s only dedicated “gender identity clinic”, Sandyford in Glasgow, which has been writing to aggrieved former patients in an attempt to learn from their “poor experience”. The service explains, blithely, that they are encouraging “feedback from patients with experience so that we can continue to develop our services”. … read full article
Scotland - Scotland should act NOW in light of Tavistock clinic findings
From The National (Scotland)
By Joanna Cherry
August 25, 2022
A POTENTIAL medical negligence scandal looming in England has implications for Scotland and needs urgent attention. London’s Tavistock gender clinic is facing the threat of legal action from 1000 children and their families who claim they were misdiagnosed and placed on a damaging and irreversible medical pathway without proper informed consent or consideration of alternative therapies.
The children concerned were being treated for gender dysphoria, a condition which is best understood as a sense of unease because of a perceived mismatch between their biological sex and what has come to be known as their “gender identity”. … read full article
Ireland - Propagender
From The Glinner Update (UK)
By Colette Colfer
August 26, 2022
The independence and impartiality of Ireland’s national public service broadcaster, RTÉ, is being compromised by its participation in a government strategy that involves the roll-out of gender identity theory through all sectors of Irish society.
The current Irish Government’s Programme for Government outlines plans to implement strategies that uncritically adopt gender identity theory, and to amend Irish equality legislation to include gender identity as a protected characteristic. These plans have implications for all sectors of Irish society. (I have written more about these strategies here.) … read full article
Ireland - The Left becomes the Far Righteous
From Women’s Space Ireland (Ireland)
August 26, 2022
Earlier this week some of the media reported on the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) formed in 2020 which published a report on the growth of the "far-right" in Ireland. The Irish Independent subsequently removed its report about it.
Included in the listing were the Iona Institute which anyone in this country would agree "promotes the place of marriage and religion in society." … read full article
Canada - Violent Sex Offender Begins Identifying as Transgender, Requests More Lenient Sentence
From Reduxx (Canada)
By Genevieve Gluck
August 26, 2022
A Canadian mixed martial arts fighter convicted of multiple sexual assaults has begun identifying as a woman and is now blaming his sexist past on “gender dysphoria.” Jody Matthew Burke, 46, who has been classified as a “dangerous offender,” has now adopted the name Amber and has asked to be referred to by female pronouns in court, something the Crown and Defense have respected since last Wednesday. He is also requesting an alteration to his sex offender status which would grant him a more lenient sentence for his most recent conviction.
Burke was convicted of sexual assault on three separate occasions and was placed on Canada’s federal sex offender registry for violent sex crimes committed in 2005 and 2014 in Ontario and British Columbia, respectively. … read full article
EU - Biology Forbidden: Europe’s Universities Get Swept Up in Gender Ideology
From 4W (USA)
By Róisín Michaux
August 26, 2022
As of July 2022, there have been 235 recorded cases of academic cancellations in the United States and Canada, according to an independent American watchdog. In Europe, there’s no such body keeping track of things. But that doesn’t mean it’s not happening.
Imported ideas about gender ideology have invaded the course curricula of some of the continent’s most prestigious places of learning. A number of French, Spanish and German universities have fallen victim, though the ones documented here may only be the tip of the iceberg. The Dutch and the Swiss have managed to push back just a little, but if the American model is anything to go by, it is only likely to ramp up as activists use the power of campus protests and social media shaming to get the administrators to bow to their will. … read full article
Singapore - A gender critical response to "Section 377A: Putting children first", published 3 August 2022
From Gender Critical Singapore (Singapore)
By GCSG
August 26, 2022
I write in response to "Section 377A: Putting children first", published 3 August 2022.
I am a same-sex attracted Singaporean woman who is thankful that Jason Wong and Mohd Khair have raised the alarm on the rise of gender ideology in Singapore (the belief that anyone is whatever "gender" they feel like). … read full article
Thank you for this very informative list of articles...