Friday, October 7, 2022
Friday, October 7, 2022
"A Harvard-affiliated children's hospital has sparked outrage after claiming some babies know they are transgender 'from the womb'."
This day in Herstory: Catharine Alice MacKinnon, born October 7, 1946, is an American radical feminist legal scholar, activist, and author. She is the Elizabeth A. Long Professor of Law at the University of Michigan Law School, where she has been tenured since 1990, and the James Barr Ames Visiting Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. From 2008 to 2012, she was the special gender adviser to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court. (more)
US - 'No basis in science or data... just ideology': Critics slam Harvard children's hospital for claiming babies know in the WOMB if they're transgender
The hospital was caught in a scandal over the age for gender transition surgeries
Critics characterize this acceptance of gender ideology a 'social contagion'
The hospital denies that minors were allowed to undergo irreversible surgeries
From Daily Mail (UK)
By CONNOR BOYD and CASSIDY MORRISON
October 7, 2022
A Harvard-affiliated children's hospital has sparked outrage after claiming some babies know they are transgender 'from the womb'.
In a now-deleted video, the Boston Children's Hospital suggested an even larger number of minors know 'as soon as they can talk'.
Critics told DailyMail.com the claim was was not based on science and suggested medics at the clinic are unwilling to question children who are often vulnerable.
… read full article
US - Trans Adults Have 39% Chance of Disability by Age 55
Transgender adults of any age are more susceptible to disability than those who are cisgender, research finds.
From Futurity (USA)
By Sam Byrd-Rice
October 4, 2022
The paper by Madeline Smith-Johnson, a doctoral student and graduate research assistant in the Rice University sociology department, appears in the journal Health Affairs.
“I’m really interested in LGBTQ elders, and as I think about aging and the different types of things that expose people to faster biological aging at a younger chronological age, the first outcome that I want to know about is, ‘How are you doing?'” Smith-Johnson says.
The paper shows significant disparities between the groups at many levels, including controls for age, transgender identity, and disability status. Difficulty walking or climbing stairs, dressing or bathing, running errands alone, concentrating, remembering, or making decisions were among the qualifying disabilities. … read full article
Canada - Opinion: Doctors and parents need to rethink 'gender-affirming care' for children
Experts are questioning subjecting young people to harmful, complicated, and often irreversible medical and surgical interventions
From National Post (Canada)
By Dr. David Zitner
October 6, 2022
While some members of such medical professional organizations as the American Academy of Pediatrics suggest that aggressive and clearly harmful medical and surgical interventions might be appropriate for trans children, many other doctors are increasingly and vocally expressing strong reservations. Experts such as transgender gynecologist Marci Bowers, MD, president-elect of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health, and Erica Anderson, PhD, president of the United States Professional Association for Transgender Health, for example, are raising serious doubts about the value of “gender-affirming care” for young people.
On the basis of little or no clinically-proven evidence, children are being subjected to immediately harmful, complicated, and often irreversible medical and surgical interventions. And at exactly the same time that alarm bells are being rung, the number of young people now receiving gender-affirming care leading to transition are skyrocketing. … read full article
US - The Distortions in Jack Turban’s Psychology Today Article on ‘Gender Affirming Care’
Turban's public statements on pediatric gender medicine have been less than honest.
From Reality's Last Stand (USA)
By Leor Sapir
October 7, 2022
For those not following the debate over pediatric gender medicine, Dr. Jack Turban is one of the leading proponents of the controversial protocol known as “gender affirming care” and has been outspoken in the American media promoting puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to manage gender-related distress in youth. He is quoted widely and frequently by mainstream, left-of-center outlets including the Washington Post and the New York Times. This, despite the fact that he is fresh out of his residency and has far less clinical experience than many of the experts with whose more cautious approach to managing gender dysphoria in youth he disagrees.
One of Turban’s most widely cited articles is the one published by Psychology Today back in January of this year. The article, it should be noted, was published after health authorities in Sweden, Finland, and the U.K. had conducted systematic reviews of evidence for puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones and concluded, unanimously, that the risks and uncertainties outweigh any known benefits. Sweden and Finland have already severely limited the practice, and the U.K. seems to be moving in the same direction following the damning Cass Report. Medical authorities in France and New Zealand have also sounded the alarm, with France’s National Academy of Medicine now urging “the greatest caution” when using hormones to treat gender-related distress in minors. … read full article
UK - NHS doctor and trustee of controversial Mermaids charity sparks fresh trans row after describing biological sex as a 'concept' - as furious campaigners hit back: 'It's a fact of nature... every human being is either male or female'
Dr Katie McDowell questioned whether sex is a 'simple and immutable thing'
They complained that 'everybody is obsessed with genitals' when defining sex
Campaigners hit back saying 'biological sex is not a "concept" but a fact of nature' and that 'understanding biology is not "transphobic"'
Mermaids has faced criticism related to claims about giving out chest binders
From Daily Mail (UK)
By TOM KELLY
October 7, 2022
An NHS paediatrician and trustee of trans children's charity Mermaids has said biological sex is a 'concept' and 'not as simple as it's made out to be'.
Dr Katie McDowell, who works at King's College Hospital in south London, complained that 'everybody is obsessed with genitals' when defining sex.
The medic also accused the UK's 'very active gender critical movement' – those who maintain biological sex cannot be changed – of being 'very, very anti-trans and spearheading this horrendous attack on trans human rights'. … read full article
US - Physicians, Hospitals and Gender Dysphoria in Minors- Fundamental Disputes
From Bacon’s Rebellion (USA)
By James C. Sherlock
October 7, 2022
What about the doctors in this controversy? What about hospital and state oversight? What do laws and regulations require and on what are they silent?
We’ll look.
The dispute among physicians on the treatment of gender dysphoria in minors is primarily an ethical one. They agree on the diagnosis and some of the medical effects of hormone treatments. … read full article
US - Detransitioners Respond: A Letter to Attorney General Garland
The medical safeguarding of children should not be a political issue.
From Reality's Last Stand (USA)
By Chloe Cole, Cat Cattinson, Ritchie, Sinéad Watson, Prisha Mosley, Helena, and Grace Lidinsky-Smith
October 7, 2022
Dear Attorney General Garland,
We are writing as a group of individuals who formerly identified as transgender. Many of us were young teenagers when we decided, on the direction of medical “experts,” to pursue irreversible hormone treatments and surgeries to bring our bodies into closer alignment with what we thought was our true “gender identity.” Many of us had extensive histories of mental illness. Many of us had experienced significant childhood trauma. But all of this was ignored because we uttered the word “gender.” This utterance placed us on a narrow medical pathway that led us to sacrifice our healthy bodies and future fertility in obeisance to the claim that our suffering was a result of having a “gender identity” that did not “match” our biological sex. In other words, we were “born in the wrong body.” … read full article
US - Vanderbilt pauses gender affirmation surgery for minors amid backlash
From The Tennessean (USA)
By Rachel Wegner and Melissa Brown
October 7, 2022
Vanderbilt University Medical Center has paused gender affirmation surgeries for minors as it reviews new international recommendations for transgender patient care.
The moves comes amid increasing scrutiny from Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, along with other GOP and conservative religious leaders, into its transgender health care clinic practices.
In a letter from VUMC to Tennessee Rep. Jason Zachary, R-Knoxville, Vanderbilt said the medical center paused the surgeries as it reviews new guidelines from the World Professional Association for Transgender Health. The guidelines were released on Sept. 6. … read full article
US - Puberty Blocking Drug Companies Refuse to Conduct Safety Trials
From The Daily Wire (USA)
By Christina Buttons
October 6, 2022
Manufacturers that dominate the U.S. market for puberty blockers refuse to conduct safety trials on their frequently prescribed off-label use to treat gender dysphoria in adolescents. Endo International plc and AbbVie Inc have repeatedly declined to conduct safety tests on the puberty blocking drug Lupron, according to a new report by Reuters.
Left-wing news outlet Reuters published data on Thursday about the rising number of children and adolescents adopting a transgender identity and seeking medical interventions. Among the shocking revelations is that between 2017 to 2021, 17,683 of the 121,882 children ages 6 to 17 diagnosed with gender dysphoria received puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones. Despite such widespread adoption for the drug’s off-label use, the drug’s manufacturers refuse to conduct safety trials for their use in treating gender dysphoria in adolescents. … read full article
US - Maybe It’s A Bad Idea To Give A Bunch Of Kids Double Mastectomies Without Checking Whether It Helps Them
Just sorta spitballin’ here
From Singal-Minded (USA)
By Jesse Singal
October 7, 2022
“Top surgery drastically improves quality of life for young transgender people, study finds,” read the CBS headline from September 27. If you’re even faintly familiar with this newsletter, you know what I’m going to say next:
Nope.
We don’t actually know, from the study in question, whether “top surgery drastically improves quality of life for young transgender people” because the authors didn’t ask.
The study, published in JAMA Pediatrics by a group of Northwestern University medical researchers, went as follows:
This is a nonrandomized prospective cohort study of patients who underwent top surgery between December 2019 and April 2021 and a matched control group who did not receive surgery. … read full article
Scotland - MSPs vote to allow gender change without medical report
From The Times (UK)
By Marc Horne
October 6, 2022
Trans people in Scotland are set to be able to change their gender without a medical diagnosis after MSPs voted to overhaul a system which was “intrusive, medicalised and bureaucratic”.
Contentious legislation was introduced by the Scottish government in May, seeking to simplify the obtaining of a gender recognition certificate (GRC) by enabling “self-identification”
A majority of MSPs on Holyrood’s equalities, human rights and civil justice committee have backed the general principles of the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill. … read full article
UK - Detransitioners can no longer be ignored
Their very existence explodes the claims of the trans lobby.
From spiked (UK)
By Lauren Smith
October 7, 2022
The phenomenon of ‘detransitioning’ is becoming harder to ignore. Take a look online and you’ll quickly find large and growing communities of detransitioners – people who have undergone hormone therapy and / or surgeries in order to make their bodies conform to that of the opposite sex, and who now want to go back to normal.
Tragically, many people have discovered, at huge personal cost, that the puberty-blocking drugs that were sold to them as ‘completely reversible’ have long-lasting effects. Those who have undergone surgery are even more badly damaged and scarred. Almost all detransitioners report that once the process of transitioning begins – when your gender identity is being ‘affirmed’ – the possibility of changing your mind is closed off, until it is too late. … read full article
Scotland - Now JK Rowling labels Sturgeon one of the 'mean girls'! Harry Potter author likes tweet comparing SNP leader to high school bully Regina George for implying she is not a 'real feminist' unlike her in deepening trans rights row
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon wants legislation to make it easier for transgender people to 'self ID'
JK Rowling backed For Women Scotland activists who gathered outside Scottish Parliament yesterday
Ms Rowling donned a t-shirt branding Nicola Sturgeon a ‘destroyer of women’s rights’, sharing it on Twitter
From Daily Mail (UK)
By MARTIN ROBINSON and DAN SALES
October 7, 2022
JK Rowling has liked a tweet comparing Nicola Sturgeon to 'Mean Girl' school bully Regina George as the war of words between Scotland's two most influential women reached fever pitch today.
The Harry Potter author and the First Minister are at loggerheads over trans-issues and the Scottish Government's legislation to make it quicker and easier for individuals as young as 16 to change sex with no requirement for medical reports or evidence.
Yesterday Ms Rowling branded the SNP leader a ‘destroyer of women’s rights’ - wearing a T-shirt with it as a motif - and today Ms Sturgeon ratcheted up the row by suggesting that the author is not a 'real feminist' - and that she is. … read full article
UK - Resigned Trans Youth Charity Trustee Authored Blog on “Minor Attraction,” Praised a Child Porn Creator
From Reduxx (Canada)
By Genevieve Gluck
October 7, 2022
The academic who recently resigned from a charity that promotes the medical transitioning of children had for years been writing blog entries related to pro-pedophilia activism and “minor attraction.”
Jacob Breslow, an Associate Professor at the London School of Economics, stepped down from his position as a trustee for UK-based trans activist organization Mermaids earlier this week after it was revealed that he had, on several occasions, made statements and published academic work that favorably portrayed pedophilia.
In 2011, Breslow, then a PhD student, spoke at a symposium titled “Pedophilia, Minor-Attracted Persons, and the DSM: Issues and Controversies,” hosted by pedophile advocacy organization B4U-Act. The stated purpose of the symposium was to lobby the American Psychiatric Association for changes to the diagnostic definition of pedophilia in order to “reduce stigma” against “minor-attracted people” (MAPs).
… read full article
UK - Why on earth is anybody still supporting Mermaids?
From Erica White Writes (UK)
By Ceri Black
October 7, 2022
I’ve been shocked about a lot of things over the last few days. The things that were already public knowledge about Mermaids are shocking enough; the sixteenth birthday penis removal holiday; the data breach; the suicide baiting; the lifelong medicalisation of teenagers, many of whom are autistic, lesbian or gay; the links to disgraced doctor, Webberley; the judge who barred Mermaids from contacting a child whose mother was forcing him into transition; the sending of breast binders to children without parental knowledge or consent; the mixed age forums and events (13-19 anybody?); the admission that not only were senior Mermaids staff not any kind of experts, they had not even read the Cass review; the list of serious institutional failings goes on and on. … read full article
US - “It Has To Be The Parents”
From MamaOfLesbian’s Newsletter (USA)
By MamaOfLesbian
October 7, 2022
When I first embarked on my militant mission to strategically steal my fourteen year old daughter back from the dogma that had salaciously scooped her up, I found myself reaching out from under a repressive rock for real information and for minds like mine. Slowly but steadily I began to make connections with others who had fallen into a constant state of common sense advocacy in much the same way I had.
In a particular online confabulation, I spoke with a teacher who had written an insightful article (one that I wish I’d had the foresight to earmark at the time), under the cover of her own chosen name- chosen to protect her identity rather than to construct a new one. The heartfelt anti-Party expose outlined the oppressive operatives she and many of her colleagues were being coerced into accepting in the name of “inclusivity”, painting a picture that anyone who has dipped their toe in the study of this far-reaching social sickness has surely gazed upon by now. … read full article
Australia - TikToker Rachel Queen Burton faces child sex abuse allegations
A trans woman known for her strong TikTok following is in prison – and facing allegations of repeatedly sexually abusing a child.
From The Advertiser (Australia)
By Sean Fewster
October 6, 2022
A woman known for her videos on the social media app TikTok has faced court accused of committing numerous sexual offences against a child.
Rachel Queen Burton – known on the app as rachel.queen8008 – faced the Adelaide Magistrates Court on Thursday by video link from prison.
She has yet to plead to eight child abuse offences ranging from gross indecency to directing a person to sexually manipulate her and producing child exploitation material. … read full article
Hong Kong - Seeing An Invisible Elephant
From Parents with Inconvenient Truths about Trans (PITT) (USA)
October 7, 2022
My daughter was identified as ‘trans’ here in Hong Kong in April 2021 at the age of 11, after two twenty minute sessions with an American school counselor. We were kept largely in the dark for months until we discovered that she was already using a boy’s name and pronouns at the school at the same time we were told we must affirm her because she was suicidal.
The year that followed was a long one, during which we felt very afraid and isolated. Fortunately, the law in Hong Kong is clear on the matter of parental authority and, after we felt we understood what was going on, we were able to force the school to cease social transitioning our daughter. We held her very close indeed, and did many of the usual things: we took her largely offline, slowly adjusted her friendship groups and just gently talked to her, drawing her back into family life. … read full article
That Futurity article threw an infuriating curve ball. That 39% chance of disability is thought to be from discrimination and victimization? Uh huh. it couldn’t be from surgery complications, could it? Or puberty blockers or HRT? Hmmmm..... What in the ever loving actual fuuuuuck.
This is rapey. This is really rapey.
Now they're mind readers. Do people have any privacy left? The answer is, no Sir. They are telling us, grosso modo, that they infiltrate our thoughts and feelings wherever we are, whenever.