Wednesday, June 15, 2022
This day in Herstory: Lisa del Giocondo, born June 15, 1479 (died July 15, 1542), was an Italian noblewoman and member of the Gherardini family of Florence and Tuscany. Her name was given to the Mona Lisa, her portrait commissioned by her husband and painted by Leonardo da Vinci during the Italian Renaissance. (more)
Gender Logic 1
The first in a series of articles on fundamental logical questions about gender identity ideology
By Lee Patterson (GC News Editor)
June 15, 2022
The first article in today’s edition of GC News is significant in being a full-length article, which carefully and fairly reports on the transgender debate — and is published in the New York Times Magazine. There has been remarkably little coverage of this important topic from any media outlets that are not solidly on the political right, so this is a noteworthy departure from that abysmal silence.
Despite its length and the depth of reporting and analysis, I found it remarkable that it never broached what I take to be the most important question in this debate: can humans change sex? I won’t speculate on why that question wasn’t asked; I will try to briefly summarize why I take it to be an important omission.
If people could actually change sex, the entire conversation would be quite different. Few, if any, of us who are critical of gender identity ideology are opposed to the rights of trans-identified people. Most of us simply do not want to be required to participate in a vast social pretense that males can be women and females can be men. We reject the untruth, not the people. The simple fact is that no attempts to transition from one sex to the other have ever succeeded in actually changing someone’s biological sex. Transitioning only accomplishes changing one’s appearance (to a greater or lesser degree). That fact makes a parody of the supposed goal of transitioning: to “live as one’s authentic self.” The aim is to disguise one’s appearance, or sometimes only to deny the fact of one’s sex. It is, in short, about becoming less authentically oneself.
The fact that people don’t change sex means that the entire enterprise aims to refute the biological fact of human sexual dimorphism, by pretending that it is either untrue or unimportant. But if people cannot truly change sex, if males cannot actually become females and females cannot actually become males, then the massive changes in basic social norms that we’re all being asked to comply with are essentially false. We’re being told that we must go along with a massive fraud, or risk being branded as “transphobic.”
The Battle Over Gender Therapy
More teenagers than ever are seeking transitions, but the medical community that treats them is deeply divided about why — and what to do to help them.
From The New York Times Magazine (USA)
By Emily Bazelon
June 15, 2022
Scott Leibowitz is a pioneer in the field of transgender health care. He has directed or worked at three gender clinics on the East Coast and the Midwest, where he provides gender-affirming care, the approach the medical community has largely adopted for embracing children and teenagers who come out as transgender. He also helps shape policy on L.G.B.T. issues for the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. As a child and adolescent psychiatrist who is gay, he found it felt natural to work under the L.G.B.T. “umbrella,” as he put it, aware of the overlap as well as the differences between gay and trans identity. …
Could some of the teenagers coming out as trans today be different from the adults who transitioned in previous generations? For them the benefits are well established and the rate of regret is very low. How many young people, especially those struggling with serious mental-health issues, might be trying to shed aspects of themselves they dislike? ... read full article
A Letter to My Former Bandmates
Why I wrote a song opposing locking up violent men with women in prison
From Elizabeth Hummel (USA)
By Elizabeth Hummel
June 15, 2022
Dear former bandmates,
You have decided you can no longer communicate with me, let alone play music with me. We touched the stars together, as you sometimes do in the key of A minor or B flat, as you sometimes do when you forget everything else but jumping together into the river of sound. I saw those stars wordlessly reflected in your eyes, and I know you saw them in mine.
The crown of a great tree, a moonrise, swaying grass.
And yet, because I wrote a song, you left my band. You unfriended and blocked me on Facebook. You told me I am aligned with dangerous people who are “the Proud Boys without the Guns.” The Proud Boys! Me? An extremist paramilitary white supremacist? I must have missed the group text about attacking the US Capitol in a violent insurrection. ... read full article
Megyn Kelly Torches Former Employer Fox News Over ‘Dangerous’ Segment Celebrating Child Mutilation
From The Federalist (USA)
By JORDAN BOYD
June 15, 2022
Former Fox News host Megyn Kelly criticized her former employer for promoting “dangerous” propaganda about “abusive” sex experiments on children. In a Tuesday appearance on Newsmax, the host of “The Megyn Kelly Show” on Sirius XM also criticized the network for “hiding facts from parents” about the irreversible damages chemical castration and other radical procedures have on undeveloped minors and she is absolutely right to be outraged.
In an “America’s Newsroom” segment heavily criticized by viewers on Friday after it aired, Fox News correspondent Bryan Llenas praised California couple Jeff and Hillary Whittington for showing “extraordinary courage” after spending nearly a decade coaxing their 14-year-old daughter into believing that she is a boy.
“There is room for reporting on how to identify what’s real,” Kelly said. ... read full article
Public want trans women kept out of female sport
From The Times (UK)
By Lucy Bannerman
June 16, 2022
The majority of Britons do not believe that transgender women should be able to compete in women-only sporting events, according to a report.
The More in Common think tank polled 5,000 people on the most controversial aspects of the trans debate.
Only 19 per cent of Britons supported allowing trans athletes in women’s sport against 57 per cent who did not. The report found consistent opposition to biological males in women’s sport in every group surveyed, even among groups who backed transgender inclusion in other parts of public life. ... read full article
Biden hits GOP and promises 'full force' of government to support LGBT community
From Washington Examiner (USA)
by Haisten Willis
June 15, 2022
President Joe Biden promised to use the "full force of the federal government" to promote and protect the LGBT community Wednesday afternoon as he signed a wide-ranging executive order at the White House.
Standing in a packed East Room filled with hundreds of advocates, Biden promised to run the most supportive administration in history. … read full article
In the Transgender Debate, It’s Language vs. Reality
Transgender activists seem to think that by changing the language used to define sex, they can change reality.
From National Review (USA)
By RYAN T. ANDERSON
June 15, 2022
During his HBO talk show, comedian Bill Maher highlighted that the LGBTQ-identifying population in America has doubled in each generation since the 1940s. His explanation for the phenomenon? Transgenderism is trendy. But it’s no joking matter.
Activists pushing transgender ideology have contributed to a social trend with significant consequences by reinventing the language surrounding sex and identity. In fact, their semantics pose the greatest threat to the transgender community and society at large. Let me explain. ... read full article
‘Pregnant people’ and the left’s linguistic lunacy
Bowing to transgender lobby in shameful erasure of women
From The Washington Times (USA)
By Editorial Board
June 15, 2022
When the minuscule transgender lobby, powerful far beyond its estimated .003% of the population, says, “Jump!,” liberal Democrats, academia and mainstream media dutifully ask, “How high?”
As such, it’s not really surprising that they have fallen servilely in line with the nonsensical use of “preferred pronouns,” as demanded by the militant transgender activists, including the awkward use of “they” as if it were singular. ... read full article
Trans kids’ treatment can start younger, new guidelines say
From AP News (USA)
By LINDSEY TANNER
June 15, 2022
A leading transgender health association has lowered its recommended minimum age for starting gender transition treatment, including sex hormones and surgeries.
The World Professional Association for Transgender Health said hormones could be started at age 14, two years earlier than the group’s previous advice, and some surgeries done at age 15 or 17, a year or so earlier than previous guidance. The group acknowledged potential risks but said it is unethical and harmful to withhold early treatment. ... read full article
Arkansas asks appeals court to revive gender transition ban for minors
From Reuters News (USA)
Jun 15, 2022
By Brendan Pierson
(Reuters) – Arkansas on Wednesday urged a federal appeals court to revive the state’s first-of-its-kind law prohibiting doctors from providing puberty blockers, hormones and surgery as part of gender transition treatment for minors.
Arkansas Deputy Solicitor General Dylan Jacobs told a three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis, Missouri that “medical uncertainty” around gender transition justified the ban. … read full article
‘Eunuch’ should be a gender, according to Scottish NHS
Documents published on an NHS website share claims that 'eunuch-identified people' would benefit from 'gender affirming medical care'
From The Telegraph (UK)
By Daniel Sanderson
June 15, 2022
Eunuch should be recognised as a formal gender identity, according to documents published by the Scottish NHS.
The National Gender Identity Clinical Network for Scotland (NGICNS) shared the claims from the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) that "eunuch-identified people" were the "least visible" trans group and would benefit from "gender affirming medical care". ... read full article
“Anti-Transphobe” Surveillance Extension Now Illegal in Norway
From REDUXX (USA)
By Shay Woulahan
June 15, 2022
A browser extension designed by an alleged rapist to target social media users who express “transphobic” or “anti-LGBT” views has been banned in Norway, thanks in part to the effort of a feminist advocacy group.
Shinigami Eyes was created to mark users across Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, Tumblr, and more as “trans-friendly” or “anti-trans” by color-coding their accounts in red or green after users are recorded for their views without their knowledge or consent. The creator has previously admitted that the vast majority of those coded red are women. Notable “marked” people include tennis star Martina Navratilova, Harry Potter author JK Rowling, and British journalist Julie Bindel. ... read full article
Gender theory critic banned from PayPal and Etsy, raising concerns about censorship
From The National Desk (USA)
by ALEC SCHEMMEL
June 15, 2022
WASHINGTON (TND) — Evolutionary biologist and managing editor at Quillette Colin Wright, who commonly criticizes gender ideology and critical race theory, is getting financially blacklisted by major tech platforms, upending the way he receives donations and makes money.
Both PayPal, one of the web’s most popular online payment processors, and Etsy, an e-commerce platform, have banned Wright from using their services, according to screenshots of alleged termination notices that Wright received from the two companies. ... read full article
Biological Men Have Won 28 Women’s Sports Titles Since 2003
From The Daily Signal (USA)
By Dan Hart
June 14, 2022
A biological male athlete who identifies as transgender as well as transgender activists recently stated grievances against sports-governing bodies like the NCAA for “regressing” from “efforts to create a safe and inclusive environment” for male athletes who identify as transgender.
The complaints come despite an increasing number of girls’ and women’s sporting events being dominated by biological males. ... read full article
Talkin' Education Polarization Blues
Democrats tend to graduate from college and trust experts. Republicans increasingly don't. What could go wrong?
From Eyes on the Right (USA)
By Damon Linker
June 15, 2022
I’ve been thinking for over a month about a nasty tweet by Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz.
Some of my fascination with the tweet no doubt derives from Gaetz’s effort to be as insulting as possible about an important, high-stakes issue (the imminent overturning of Roe v. Wade) without advancing any broader point. That makes the tweet very much a distillation of the brutalist, post-Trump Republican Party, which treats “owning the libs” (that is, being the biggest possible asshole to anyone who isn’t on the right) as a political end in itself. ... read full article
Detransitioners Perspective: How Detransitioning Helped Me Heal and Come Home to Myself
From Parents with Inconvenient Truths about Trans (PITT) (USA)
June 15, 2022
I first came to believe I was trans 17 years ago, at the age of 14. Soon after coming out a year later, I received what I now view as inadequate and misguided healthcare by a doctor who immediately affirmed my trans identity and created a plan for me to get onto hormones and transition.
The therapists I worked with also affirmed my identity and failed to implement a developmentally informed psychological and exploratory approach that took into account environmental factors and trauma history. For twelve years, including all of my twenties, I lived my life as a stealth transwoman, believing that I had been born into the wrong body and had done what needed to be done to be who I truly was. It should be noted that I never experienced transphobia, I had a very supportive community, and a successful professional life. I transitioned and moved on. All the while, though, my physical and mental health was deteriorating. ... read full article