Sunday, October 2, 2022
"In the 1920s, surgeons became rich and famous transplanting animal testicles into human scrotums to “rejuvenate” the recipients ..."
This day in Herstory: Elizabeth Montagu (née Robinson), born October 2, 1718 (died August 25, 1800), was a British social reformer, patron of the arts, salonnière, literary critic and writer, who helped to organize and lead the Blue Stockings Society. Her parents were both from wealthy families with strong ties to the British peerage and learned life. She was sister to Sarah Scott, author of A Description of Millenium [sic] Hall and the Country Adjacent. She married Edward Montagu, a man with extensive landholdings, to become one of the richer women of her era. She devoted this fortune to fostering English and Scottish literature and to the relief of the poor. (more)
Ed. Note: Regular readers may recall that last Sunday, we started what was intended to be a weekly feature called “Good News Sunday” and we requested submissions of good news stories. We didn’t receive any, so maybe it’s one of those ideas that sounded good but isn’t quite ready for prime time. We may return to it, but for today, it’s just GC News (and we’re making no promises that the news will be good 😉).
US - The little-known history of hormone therapy is being left out of the transgender debate
Gender isn’t chemical.
From The Dallas Morning News (USA)
By Bob Ostertag
October 1, 2022
In the late 1800s, seemingly out of nowhere, American doctors saw a massive, sudden increase in female patients suffering from “hysteria.” Dr. Robert Battey, one of the founders of the American Gynecological Society, proclaimed that hormones secreted by the ovaries were the culprit and stridently advocated surgical removal of both ovaries as the cure. Patients went from doctor to doctor begging for the surgery. Doctors who refused were criticized as “wanting in humanity” and “guilty of criminal neglect.” Doctors who complied were heroes, according to a history of the procedure recorded in the Bulletin of the History of Medicine.
Up to 150,000 women lost their ovaries in these operations, which, far from efficacious, resulted in surgically induced menopause. As Jessica M.E. Kirwan, an expert in 19th century medical history, summarized in the journal Synapsis in 2019, “The procedure was overly prescribed for various physical and psychological conditions despite the lack of evidence to its efficacy.” The entire episode is remembered as one of the biggest black eyes in the history of medicine.
Unfortunately, this is far from the only medical meltdown with sex hormones (estrogen and testosterone) at its center. In the 1920s, surgeons became rich and famous transplanting animal testicles into human scrotums to “rejuvenate” the recipients — an early form of hormone therapy before pharmaceutical estrogen or testosterone became available, the former in 1927 and the latter in 1937. Beginning around that same time, doctors attempted to “cure” gay men with testosterone. And when that didn’t work, attempted to “cure” them with estrogen. When estrogen also failed as a cure, it was administered as a punishment. … read full article
UK - Is sanity returning to the trans debate?
From Spectator | Australia
By Julie Bindel
October 1, 2022
At last, Mermaids, the UK charity for, in their own words, ‘gender variant and transgender children’ is under the spotlight. Following investigations by the Telegraph and Mail newspapers, as well as demands from critics concerned about child safeguarding, the Charity Commission has launched a regulatory compliance case and have said that they have written to the organisation’s trustees.
The investigations found that Mermaids has been offering breast binders to girls reportedly as young as 13, and despite children saying their parents opposed the practice. Binding can often cause breathing difficulties, back pain and broken ribs. It was also uncovered that kids have been ‘congratulated’ online for identifying as transgender by staff and volunteers on the charity’s online help centre, with teenagers being advised that puberty blockers are safe and ‘totally reversible’. When contacted about its breastbinding policy by the Telegraph, Mermaids said it took ‘a harm reduction position’ that using a binder with safety instructions was better than children using ‘unsafe practices’ or experiencing dysphoria. … read full article
UK - Transgender Pedophile Targeted Vulnerable Inmate in Women’s Prison
From Reduxx (Canada)
By Genevieve Gluck
October 2, 2022
A serial pedophile currently incarcerated in a women’s prison in the UK has been made to move wings after it was discovered he had targeted a vulnerable female inmate for a “relationship,” as well as sexually harassed women in the prison.
John Stephen Dixon, 58, sexually abused five girls and two boys between 1989 and 1996. The youngest of the victims was just 7 years old at the time. In 2004, Dixon began identifying as a woman named “Sally Anne.” … read full article
US - ‘Doctors Never Warned Me of Side Effects’ with Hormone Therapy and Breast Implants, Detransitioner Says
From The Daily Signal (USA)
By Gillian Richards
October 2, 2022
Abel Garcia began transitioning from male to female at age 19 while living in Southern California. After attempting to live as a young woman for a few years, though, he decided to “detransition” to a man again—but not without resistance from those who readily had signed off on his hormone treatment and breast implant surgery in the first place.
Garcia’s story came to light amid a growing movement of detransitioners who have begun sharing their stories online and in documentaries. The Daily Signal recently interviewed Garcia and agreed not to use his real name. … read full article
UK - Taxpayer-funded Oxford study into puberty blockers is ‘hardline trans activism’
Row erupts over university academics who were given a £700,000 grant to study the healthcare needs of young trans people
From The Telegraph (UK)
By Ewan Somerville
October 1, 2022
A row between Oxford academics has broken out over a taxpayer-funded transgender study whose participants laud the benefits of puberty blockers for children as young as 13.
The university’s prestigious Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences was given a £700,000 public grant to identify the healthcare needs of young trans people.
The three-year research has now been published, interviewing 50 trans and gender-diverse people across Britain about their experiences, along with 20 parents and carers and covering topics including everyday life, the Tavistock Clinic waiting list, school and family. … read full article
US - Biden's proposed Title IX rewrite was bombarded with public comments: What comes next?
The Department of Education has an obligation to review and respond to the comments it received
From Fox News (USA)
By Kelsey Koberg
October 2, 2022
After President Biden’s Department of Education proposed a new interpretation of Title IX earlier this summer, which would solidify gender identity in the law’s protections, nearly 240,000 comments were submitted from parents, lawmakers, activists, organizations and concerned citizens about the new regulation.
It was a record number of comments received for a rulemaking by the Department of Education, but has left many parents wondering: What comes next?
"Once the federal comment period closes, then the Department of Education has an obligation to review all the comments that were submitted. So it needs to look them over and respond to each and every objection or suggestion that was raised," Christiana Kiefer, senior counsel at Alliance Defending Freedom, told Fox News Digital. … read full article
UK - If Labour is truly the party of equality, it wouldn’t shut down the trans debate
The party sent the wrong message in denying a platform to a gender-critical group
From The Guardian (UK)
By Sonia Sodha
October 2, 2022
Labour prides itself on being the party of equality. Yet at the party’s annual conference in Liverpool last week, a group of Labour women found themselves denied an exhibition stall. And to ensure that women could attend their fringe event safely, they kept its location secret until just before it started, worked with the police and hired security.
They are Labour Women’s Declaration, a gender-critical group of women who believe that biological sex cannot be replaced with self-declared gender identity, and that women have the right to access single-sex sports, spaces and services such as prisons and domestic abuse refuges. … read full article
UK - High proportion of transgender patients found to suffer from mental health issues
From The Times (UK)
By Seán McCárthaigh
October 2, 2022
Almost half of all young adults attending gender services provided by health authorities over the past six years suffered from depression, according to a new medical study.
Researchers found that a high proportion of transgender patients aged 18 to 30 attending the National Gender Service (NGS) suffered some kind of mental health issue.
The study also found significant demographic changes among people seeking gender services in the Republic, with transgender males, people who were assigned as female at birth, now accounting for the majority, in contrast to a decade ago. … read full article
US - Girl track stars take Connecticut to court over biological males in their sport
"The Biden administration has its head in the sand and is not paying attention to the real world impact of gender identity policies and how devastating they are for female athletes," ADF Senior Counsel Christiana Kiefer told The Post Millennial.
From The Post Millennial (Canada)
By Libby Emmons
October 2, 2022
Opening arguments began on Thursday in the US Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit case of Soule v. Connecticut Association of Schools. This after the case was dismissed by a federal judge in 2021, but attorneys for the Alliance Defending Freedom, representing the young women, are determined to pursue fairness and seek justice for the student athletes under Title IX.
It's clear which side of the divide the Biden administration is on, which is that gender identity should supercede considerations for biological sex in law, culture, and society. "The Biden administration has its head in the sand and is not paying attention to the real world impact of gender identity policies and how devastating they are for female athletes," ADF Senior Counsel Christiana Kiefer told The Post Millennial. … read full article
US - Vermont girls' high school volleyball team is barred from their OWN locker room after complaining about transgender student who uses it and who 'made inappropriate remark' to them
Members of Randolph High School volleyball team have to change in bathroom stall after complaining about transgender student using their locker room
The female players claim the transgender student made a comment to them while they were changing that they found to be 'inappropriate'
Under Vermont state law, students can play sports and use the locker rooms of whatever gender with which they identify
The school is now investigating the gender-locker room dispute
From Daily Mail (UK)
By RUTH BASHINSKY
October 1, 2022
Members of a Vermont girls high school volleyball team have been banned from using their own locker room and now have to change in a single bathroom stall after they complained about a transgender teammate.
Some teammates allege that the transgender player at Randolph Union High School made an 'inappropriate remark' to some of them while they were changing in the locker room.
They now want the school to relocate the transgender player, who hasn't been named. No details of the alleged inappropriate remark have been shared. … read full article
UK - Feminists fight. What's new? The stupefied left transitions into a right wing cult
From Letters from Suzanne (UK)
By Suzanne Moore
October 1, 2022
Everyone loves a cat fight. Women cannot just have political disagreement, they have to mud wrestle on social media for the delectation of … who exactly? On the whole people who don’t like women much in the first place, it seems to me. It gets nasty and it gets personal because often there are real ideological arguments.
This has happened lately amongst certain feminists, who we might call gender critical. ‘Gender critical’ means what it says on the tin: we are critical of the reproduction of stereotypical gender stereotypes that have been propagated by the cultists who believe in a thing called ‘gender identity’. … read full article
Ireland - Nearly half of young people using gender services suffered depression, study finds
From Independent.ie (Ireland)
By Seán McCárthaigh
October 2, 2022
Almost half of all young adults attending gender services provided by the health authorities over the past six years suffered from depression, according to the findings of a new medical study.
Researchers found a high proportion of transgender patients aged 18-30 years attending the National Gender Service (NGS) suffer some kind of mental health issue.
The study also highlighted significant demographic changes among people seeking gender services in the Republic, with transgender males or people who were assigned female at birth now accounting for the majority of patients, unlike a decade ago.
… read full article
US - ‘Highly Profitable’: Pediatric Gender Clinics Are Opening All Across the Country
From Daily Caller (USA)
By Laurel Duggan
October 2, 2022
Pediatric gender clinics have popped up all over the country in vast numbers over the past 15 years, offering psychological, medical and even surgical interventions for children who feel uncomfortable with their biological sex.
The explosion of these clinics coincided with the rapid rise of transgender identity among American youths.
“It’s natural to assume that the medical profession has increased supply in response to demand for its services. Like most professionals, physicians and surgeons also seek to maximize their income,” Joseph Burgo, a California based clinical psychologist, told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
As many as 300 new pediatric gender clinics have opened in the U.S. over the past few decades amid soaring rates of transgender identity among adolescents, according to the Society for Evidence Based Gender Medicine.
As transgender identity has become more common, pediatric gender clinics have popped up all over the country offering various cross-sex medical services to minors. Individuals seeking to medically transition to the opposite sex can undergo a host of procedures including puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, double mastectomies for females and mammoplasty for males, facial surgeries and numerous other procedures on the genitals and reproductive system. … read full article
Scotland - JK Rowling 'cancelled' by kids at ultra-woke Scots school over position on transgender rights
A Scots school has come down against the Harry Potter author in the heated debate on transgender rights.
From Scottish Daily Express (Scotland)
By Jessica North
October 2, 2022
Glasgow students have cancelled author JK Rowling by removing her name from a school house.
Springburn Academy chose the Harry Potter author for the honour of being the namesake but has taken it back amid backlash over the author's position on trans ideology and women's rights.
The controversy is as heated as ever with Ms Rowlling making recent stances on the use of breast binders by teenage girls and publicising news that the trans charity Mermaids will be investigated by the Charity Commission. … read full article
UK -'Stop making women share changing rooms with men': Feminist campaigners demand change amid growing reports of traumatic encounters at stores from Primark to M&S
MPs are urging major high street stores to scrap unisex changing rooms
H&M, John Lewis, M&S, Monsoon and Primark have ditched female-only spaces
One MP said predatory men now have 'open door' to women in state of undress
From Daily Mail (UK)
By SANCHEZ MANNING, MOLLY CLAYTON AND SOPHIE MACDONALD
October 2, 2022
MPs are urging major high street stores to scrap unisex changing rooms following a surge in women suffering traumatic encounters with men.
Last week Charlotte Kirby, 25, posted a video tearfully revealing how two men had walked in on her while she tried on outfits at a unisex changing room at Primark in Cambridge.
Now a Mail on Sunday investigation has found that her ordeal is common, unearthing repeated distress at M&S and rival chains with no sex-segregated spaces. … read full article
US - Mandated Diversity Statement Drives Jonathan Haidt To Quit Academic Society
Prominent social psychologist and NYU professor calls the requirement “explicitly ideological.”
From Reason (USA)
By J.D. TUCCILLE
September 30, 2022
It was probably inevitable that Jonathan Haidt, an academic long concerned about the politicization of academia, would eventually be caught up in the displacement of intellectual inquiry by ideological rigidity.
Last week the New York University (NYU) psychology professor announced that he would resign at the end of the year from the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, his primary professional association, because of a newly adopted requirement that everybody presenting research at the group's conferences explain how their submission advances "equity, inclusion, and anti-racism goals." It was the sort of litmus test against which he has warned, and which he sees as corroding institutions of higher learning. … read full article
UK - Why I Stopped Going To Pride
The goal for transsexuals was to re-integrate into society, not to parade our differences.
From Reality's Last Stand (USA)
By Debbie Hayton
October 1, 2022
Last weekend was Birmingham Pride; I stayed away. England’s second city was my hometown for 26 years but—even as a trans person—I no longer feel welcome among the rainbow brigade. A lesbian friend did attend, but she took to Facebook to lament something lost: “Not sure why I'm sharing this, but on this Pride morning I don’t feel like I belong here anymore ... that it isn’t for ppl like me. Maybe it’s for the straights or others?”
Funny she said that. Elsewhere in my social media feed, a former neighbor posted, “If anyone is watching the Pride Parade, look out for me in the NHS block as I’m in a group representing the hospital.” … read full article
UK - The public is fed up with wacky gender ideology. So why is it still being forced on us?
Virtue-signalling businesses have failed to grasp that the public has no interest in overzealous wokery
From The Telegraph (UK)
By Zoe Strimpel
October 1, 2022
Lately, in Britain, there has been a sense that things are moving in the right direction in the ongoing war between the trans lobby and women fighting for sex-based rights.
Last week, thanks to a Telegraph exclusive, it was announced that Mermaids, a charity for trans or “gender diverse” youths, would be investigated by the Charity Commission for sending breast binding devices – which can be physically dangerous – to girls without their parents knowing, and telling children that puberty blocking drugs are “totally reversible”.
Earlier this year, to great fanfare on both sides of the Atlantic, the Tavistock gender clinic, which gave children puberty blockers and assisted them on the road to surgery, was told to shut after an independent inquiry found it put young people at “considerable risk” of poor mental health and mental distress. … read full article
UK - Paedophiles, Prisons & Pronoun Police
From The Glinner Update (UK)
By JL
October 2, 2022
Last month 58-year-old Dixon was found guilty of 30 child sexual offences including indecent assault and indecency with a child. He abused seven different children, five girls and two boys, between 1989 and 1996. The youngest of his victims was only seven years old and endured a four-year nightmare at his hands.
At the time of the abuse, Dixon lived in Crawley and Bexhill where he worked as a DJ in bars and at a local caravan park. The court heard that he abused his victims at a lock-up garage and in a caravan on the south coast. … read full article
UK - What a Drag!
Men dressing as parodies of women: fun or offensive?
From Julie Bindel's podcasts and writing (UK)
By Julie Bindel
October 2, 2022
As a young lesbian back in the 1980s I would occasionally enjoy the odd drag act at a gay club; we could dress up and behave outrageously if we felt like it. Rejected by mainstream society, we formed our own cultures. Some lesbians would dress up in men's suits (sometimes ironically, sometimes not) and many gay men would exaggerate their camp tendencies by, for instance, calling each other “she” and making up female names for their friends.
Drag acts reflected this gentle jibe at heterosexual society, where we subverted everything considered ‘normal’ about gender and had great fun doing so. … read full article
UK - Eddie Izzard was born male and he will die male
It’s time to stop playing along with the transgender delusion.
From spiked (UK)
By Brendan O’Neill
October 2, 2022
If you had told me five years ago that I would one day have to write an article explaining that Eddie Izzard is not a woman, I’d have thought you mad. And yet here we are, in 2022, so deep down the rabbit hole of gender insanity that it has become necessary to say that Mr Edward John Izzard, possessor of male genitalia, his entire body hardwired with the XY chromosome, is not a woman. He’s a bloke. However ‘fabulous’ he might have looked in a ‘floral dress’ that ‘flashed a hint of leg’ at the premiere of that new biopic about Bowie – as the Express gushed – he’s still a chap. No amount of pink lippy will change that. He was born male and he will die male. … read full article
Lee: "... we requested submissions of good news stories. We didn’t receive any, so maybe it’s one of those ideas that sounded good but isn’t quite ready for prime time."
I can sympathize. 🙂 The problem is, in large part, too many stories to read and digest, and too little time to do so. And to respond in any meaningful way with a cogent comment or two as required ... 😉
But not sure what the solution is, though this article seems to discuss it in some depth:
"The Pathologies of the Attention Economy"
https://theconvivialsociety.substack.com/p/the-pathologies-of-the-attention
Though I can't say I've read it all myself - too little time with all of the other articles on my plate ... 😉