(Can someone please explain to me how a court of law can establish facts which do not stand up to reality? These testimonies are full of incorrect statements and I don't see how a judge would have any way of understanding what was true. Can a court determine that 2+2 = 5 and have that used henceforth?)
"“Not all adolescents with gender dysphoria will live to age 18 if they are unable to get gender-affirming medical treatment,” the judge stated in his Findings of Fact."
In addition to the great essays linked above, there was also an open letter to the President of the Endocrine Society published in the Wall Street Journal (where the President of the Endocrine Society had made claims about medical intervention).
Youth Gender Transition Is Pushed Without Evidence --signed by 21 experts from 9 countries.
It noted, in particular, that:
“Dr. Hammes’s claim that gender transition reduces suicides is contradicted by every systematic review, including the review published by the Endocrine Society, which states, “We could not draw any conclusions about death by suicide.” There is no reliable evidence to suggest that hormonal transition is an effective suicide-prevention measure. “
Someone needs to write a play by play how to protect your kids in a blue state.
We need an expert parent to write something on how navigate ERs, Drs, therapists & schools bc you can’t just go around schooling an ER social worker on the dangers of a social transition. How about Erin Friday! She’s an attorney and a mother!
Can we just admit this is like living under Stasi rule. Do you tell people of authority your honest thoughts...you have to vet everyone who in a position of power.
Parents need a safety plan and I’m getting tired of people who have not been in the ER with your suicidal daughter on safety watch ...explaining how to handle these stressful situations. I’ve been in the ER with 2 of my 3 teens multiple for a safety check you can’t chain your body to them to keep them safe but the scariest place is the ER and my dad is an ER doc I dread an ER psych trip with my kids.It’s the worst. My mom is a nurse chaplain she’s the one who explained why a guard is always outside the door of an ED patient room if they are on suicide watch I talked to one guard for 4 hours bc I wasn’t allowed in my room when she was 14!
Erin Friday is probably the most bad ass public figure but if someone doesn’t have a « trans » kid (no I do not believe in trans children) or your aren’t an extremely skilled clinician who has first hand knowledge of being terrorized by a gender clinic...perhaps save creative ideas and advice for movie reviews or book recommendations.
First and foremost parents need to keep custody of our minor children.
I know an attorney who told my husband they could « go after me hard » for not being an affirmative parent in Oregon, he left and we decided to get marriage counseling instead of a divorce. He would have gotten full custody no questions asked. Nothing breaks a marriage like our children being in crises.
These people should be watching Alexander L and TullipR youtube channels, about male detransition after years of hormones and post surgery. These men are in their 30s, made the decisions after feeling distressed about same sex attractions and now deal with the fact that their penis is gone, as are their testicles, they want no contact with their surgeons and thus live with the breast implants, though wanting their masculinity back. Both tried replacing the testosterone their bodies can no longer produce, but noticed that the tube made from their penile material, now inserted inside, somewhere near the bladder, reacts to the exogenous T, and that (ersatz "vagina") becomes stiff. Makes sense that tissue is XY and the intact normal penis has erections when testosterone is in play. Can any doctor at all think things through? Link to Alexander L channel for this exact conversation between Alexander and Ritchie Herron, who both believe autism is a co-existing factor for them:
This is precisely why I don't think that the current situation can be resolved by conservatives alone. Parents like the ones in this article would welcome a challenge of fighting "horrible draconian laws". I am sure they'd be delighted to form their underground railroad of hormones , if they can't get them legally. There are already DIY transitinon reddit for adults. The laws ARE important but just as important is for decent thinking people on the left to start speaking out. For doctors and journalists to start speaking out. We need to change minds , not just the laws.
I think journalists are being blocked from talking or writing about this obviously …when Anderson Cooper does a serious investigation on this topic we will know things are changing. Bill Maher is the only person I can think of who says whatever he wants, Katie Herzog was awesome on Bill Maher… she is quick-witted and hilarious.
Parents probably think they are doing their due diligence doing a Google search with many not realizing how wrapped up major companies are in actively supporting (promoting) gender ideology, specifically trans ideology. Nearly every result from searching on GAC for children is affirm, elevate, and celebrate. Anything critical or even not fully in support is buried in the search results, down several scrolls or pages of glowing coverage. You have to know what/who to look for and look beyond the campaign to silence and denigrate anyone who opposes or even questions The Ideology.
If I didn’t know any better, from a cursory Google search (and they aren’t the only ones), I’d assume there is no controversy, the science is settled, I’d head to the nearest gender clinic and get a PB script for my child! Any move other than that and I’m a monster, abuser, and definitely a bigot set on genociding trans youth.
Interestingly initially when ACA did an evidence review of the science they found low quality evidence supporting cost benefit. I don't know why more people aren't using the initial ACA research. That's available. The cost-to-benefit evidence to cover costs to support covering treatments for ADULTS was scant.
It is not that easy to google & find Jesse Singal’s The Atlantic article. It took 5 months to find that article I was spending hours researching Google Scholar studies and at the beginning of 2022, there wasn't a lot of information to go on. I found the Trans Train doc. I found the Lisa Littman ROGD study around 2019 before I needed to research this but besides that there was scant information on anything but affirmative medical interventions. Trust me I know how to Google. I even had my cousin searching his psychiatric scholarly medical journal articles and he sent me one from…Croatia. I asked him about the Littman study & he blew it off as not robust research but then he sent me the Littman Detransioners study and that study was more robust.
Now one thing I had in my favor was I could not believe drs were quoting the 41% completed suicide stat. I pushed them all on that one and kept asking for the “study” none of them could show it to me. I could tell they didn't wtf they were talking about they didn't say this in a confident way. It was more like a “I'm trying to cover my ass here and we both know I just made that up”. Read it on a billboard on Portland.
The one thing that tipped me off that docs weren't following evidence was they kept talking in a way that made it seem like they didn't know what the hell they were doing and were not ready for serious questions.
In reference to the poor father sleeping on the sofa bc of fear for his kid…I’ve done that. Most of these kids are in a serious mental health crisis.
I think the Reuters investigate series on trans kids in the US are the best resource bc they also cited their studies & sources. Those articles had American stats and studies.
This all seems like a lifetime ago but it was only the winter of 2022!
This have been a full scale propaganda campaign and thankfully some parents like you are skeptical enough to dig deeper. It is disheartening to think about the role that companies like Google have in perpetuating this ideology.
Tbh my psychiatrist warned me 2 years before this hit my family, (yes I see a psychiatrist for weekly appointments for a $20 co-pay) and her daughter was fast-tracked to the OHU peds gender clinic so I already knew they were NOT basing anything on science…they use emotional blackmail. I also have a friend who is a peds psychiatrist and I called her and she told me to get in 🆘 with Dr. Laura Edwards-Leeper. I got in with her for a parent appointment the same day she was on the front page of the NYTS and that's when I started believing there might be a god.
My daughter already had an appointment for and T this was not the time to being fucking around with a pronoun. Also, i wouldn’t be surprised if her Peds psychiatrist would have reported us to CPS for misgendering her if we hadn’t pretended it was ok to call her « our son ». Parents need to some Oscar level acting skills when it comes to dealing with certain « experts ».
Can we establish if a parent is in the ER with their kid on suicide watch….you put on a show and say what the social worker expects you to say. This is NOT the time to bring up concerns about a social transition! or fuck around with a pronoun debate on when your kid is on ER safety watch…SOME therapists advise this is a great time to take a stand…bad idea. Obviously those therapist don’t have teens and have never been in the ER for 36 hours with a guard outside the door to make sure your daughter (wearing paper pajamas) doesn’t hurt herself! 🤯
Wait until your kid is home from the hospital, stable and then figure this out it in askilled clinical psychologist. I’m really upset about some of the advice parents are being given by lackadaisical-pseudo experts. Keeping custody of you kid is the primary goal. My daughter got handed a card by a 22 year old social worker for the youth local homeless shelter « just in case you don’t feel safe at home » . Fortunately we got a psychiatrist in the ER who knew that social worker was an idiot BUT parents need to be careful. Especially in Portland, Oregon.
Keep your parental rights at ALL COSTS! Dr. Edwards-Leeper was able to tell us exactly, play-by-play how to navigate the gender clinic. I caught every break.
I really did. If hadn't had all that luck and resources idk what would have happened. I know there are parents who don't have the resources I have. And I don't think it's fair to blame parents for trusting physicians. I know some smart parents who did affirm their kids. One is a good friend and very smart and a good mom. She's a physician. Her daughter was already a young adult.
I just got lucky…and my daughter still thinks she’s a boy BUT she doesn’t want medical interventions now so that’s a little bit of a relief.
Also, in January of 2022 nobody knew the dangers of a social transition and we still don’t know. I have friends who allowed their kids to socially transition and they’ve desisted. Every family is different. And there are not any hard rules…if you have a really stubborn kid putting a hard line on a nickname it might backfire. But no one should be judging parents unless they are personally dealing with this in their own family. Unless it’s Heather Dubrow from the RHOC.
The last few sentences really struck me. When my older identified as trans, I remember being anxious whenever my little one said no to a dress. I forced myself to stop this madness, but these were real panic moments, not because I thought she was trans (I don't believe in innate "trans kids", obviously), but because I was afraid she might later use this to justify transitioning. Parents who know anything about transitioning are scared because they know the challenges (horrors, at times) that transitioning leads to, psychologically and physiologically. Even the affirming ones, as the article notes, first have to brainwash themselves to believe that the alternative is worse (using the crooked suicide stats).
I remember being worried bc my 13-year-old son made me buy him hot pink rubber Birkenstocks they were really cool but I thought he would get mocked but he's like me and he gave zero ducks what anyone thought, he owned those Birks. I wasn't worried about him being trans BUT I look back and think...those were the days of innocent micro-worries. Hot pink Birkenstocks…
If an adolescent develops disordered eating and declares that she is fat despite weighing 85 lbs and having protruding bones, would these parents buy laxatives, diuretics and pursue bariatric surgery in order to affirm the delusion? SAME THING!!!
I add my voice to the chorus of praise for your hard and good work on unearthing what happened in this case. Thank you so much for this, and for the excellent links. This series continues to be invaluable. In this round, I appreciated so many things, but will point out two: first, the description of conversations you have had with friends who are parents; second, pointing out the diabolical impact of algorithms, as a result of which parents can think they are doing good research, when all that is really happening is the pseudoscience gets reinforced.
On the former, we had a recent conversation with a lesbian friend, in her 90s, solid D, that went something like this:
We noted the issue of detransitioners, and how they were ignored by the Dems in a hearing. This is what happened from there (roughly):
Friend: Yes, but how often does that happen?
Both of us: the numbers aren’t clear, but it’s well more than one--and even if just one, it should never happen.
Friend: my son (he is gay, lives in CA) has friends, both gay men, married, and their child, Zara, is trans and is doing fine. She’s known she was trans from when she was little. Though a boy, she always wanted to wear dresses.
Me: in a thought bubble, does she even hear what she is saying?
Josie (in a mode Lisa might appreciate), said, out loud, “transing children is child abuse!”
Friend: becomes silent.
Me: recovering my wits a little: you know, the numbers of children who have claimed they are trans has skyrocketed, and the demographic has completely changed. Whereas it used to be a very few young boys, now it’s overwhelmingly girls, many of who show no signs of this until they are adolescent.
Josie chimes in here, too, with her vast knowledge about child development. (We had previously sent our friend both Josie’s published articles on this.)
Friend: now quietly, well that’s different.
Me: a good book to read on this is Time to Think. (I describe who Hannah Barnes is, her impeccable BBC credentials, etc.) I’ll send you the information.
Aftermath: I sent her the interview Hadley Freeman did with Hannah Barnes in the London Times, along with two articles in the Economist that addressed the book and the general pediatric/young adult trans issues.
I received an email back from our friend stating she found the articles, particularly the interview, illuminating.
I have no idea what that meant, but I did not press. I thought, maybe let her sit with this new information until our next live conversation.
Thank you for another informative Brandt Files, for a glimpse into the courtroom, and for the resources at the end (I'd add Gender: A Wider Lens, and the Parents of ROGD groups via Our Duty). And, thank you for your practice of having those conversations with friends who are parents. I'm thinking back to the early days of my family's struggle with this and trying to imagine a friend saying, at any point, as you did, "your kid's not trans". My kid was in high school and my neighborhood is deep blue; it didn't (wouldn't) happen. Maybe today. I hope so. I'm the one trying to offer that perspective now (which is not always welcomed).
Just FYI, in June Jack Turban published a study that deals with the topic of disclosure to parents: Age of Realization and Disclosure of Gender Identity Among Transgender Adults.
He’s a real expert bc he has flag emojis in his bio and went to Harvard! Stanford! UCSF! & finally passed his Peds psych boards. He also has a lot of experience... parenting his dog.
Mr. Bicyclist and fellow readers, Some may have heard/read the Missouri decision to extend medical liability on certain "gender affirming procedures" to 15 years. In response Washington U. discontinued medical/hormonal treatment of children.
The trans activist Erin Reed reports on this below....Can any of you examine the accuracy of Reed's statements and reading of the Missouri law?
Don't these parents ever say "Sorry, we can't afford that" or "Our insurance doesn't cover that"? I'm guessing not, because trans seems to be a trend with the well-off, at least in the West.
Parents need to get in touch with the right people in Blue states and I’m sorry but Genspect can’t help. Erin Friday could...you don’t ask the Irish for help in California. The advice from GETA will not protect your kid you need to get the big guns and I’m sorry Genspect doesn’t like them and discourages parents from seeing them but until they ready to cover legal bills and how parents battle it out in the courts...maybe they need to stop pushing their therapists in Blue States bc in a blue state you call Erica Anderson or Laura Edwards-Leeper...they have gravitas. If you live in Texas or Tennessee knock yourselves out and pay a GETA therapist.
It's considered medically necessary care. I believe most insurance covers it. And if the insurance the parents have doesn't, there are plenty of organizations willing to "help." (If the parents aren't all in, the MDs collude against them and against their child's best interests, just like other sorts of predators might.)
One of the men who had surgery inappropriately in Oregon (Frank) noted that many in the homeless population were being invited in and egged on for lots of procedures.
I briefly thought of lying to my daughter about insurance costs bc she was saving up her money for her “medical transition”. I decided to tell her the truth bc she's smart. Low income people can get treatments covered too or if parents refuse to pay the state of Oregon will….but they might threaten parental rights in that case.
(Can someone please explain to me how a court of law can establish facts which do not stand up to reality? These testimonies are full of incorrect statements and I don't see how a judge would have any way of understanding what was true. Can a court determine that 2+2 = 5 and have that used henceforth?)
"“Not all adolescents with gender dysphoria will live to age 18 if they are unable to get gender-affirming medical treatment,” the judge stated in his Findings of Fact."
In addition to the great essays linked above, there was also an open letter to the President of the Endocrine Society published in the Wall Street Journal (where the President of the Endocrine Society had made claims about medical intervention).
Youth Gender Transition Is Pushed Without Evidence --signed by 21 experts from 9 countries.
It noted, in particular, that:
“Dr. Hammes’s claim that gender transition reduces suicides is contradicted by every systematic review, including the review published by the Endocrine Society, which states, “We could not draw any conclusions about death by suicide.” There is no reliable evidence to suggest that hormonal transition is an effective suicide-prevention measure. “
Thank you for these analyses!
Someone needs to write a play by play how to protect your kids in a blue state.
We need an expert parent to write something on how navigate ERs, Drs, therapists & schools bc you can’t just go around schooling an ER social worker on the dangers of a social transition. How about Erin Friday! She’s an attorney and a mother!
Can we just admit this is like living under Stasi rule. Do you tell people of authority your honest thoughts...you have to vet everyone who in a position of power.
Parents need a safety plan and I’m getting tired of people who have not been in the ER with your suicidal daughter on safety watch ...explaining how to handle these stressful situations. I’ve been in the ER with 2 of my 3 teens multiple for a safety check you can’t chain your body to them to keep them safe but the scariest place is the ER and my dad is an ER doc I dread an ER psych trip with my kids.It’s the worst. My mom is a nurse chaplain she’s the one who explained why a guard is always outside the door of an ED patient room if they are on suicide watch I talked to one guard for 4 hours bc I wasn’t allowed in my room when she was 14!
Erin Friday is probably the most bad ass public figure but if someone doesn’t have a « trans » kid (no I do not believe in trans children) or your aren’t an extremely skilled clinician who has first hand knowledge of being terrorized by a gender clinic...perhaps save creative ideas and advice for movie reviews or book recommendations.
First and foremost parents need to keep custody of our minor children.
I know an attorney who told my husband they could « go after me hard » for not being an affirmative parent in Oregon, he left and we decided to get marriage counseling instead of a divorce. He would have gotten full custody no questions asked. Nothing breaks a marriage like our children being in crises.
These people should be watching Alexander L and TullipR youtube channels, about male detransition after years of hormones and post surgery. These men are in their 30s, made the decisions after feeling distressed about same sex attractions and now deal with the fact that their penis is gone, as are their testicles, they want no contact with their surgeons and thus live with the breast implants, though wanting their masculinity back. Both tried replacing the testosterone their bodies can no longer produce, but noticed that the tube made from their penile material, now inserted inside, somewhere near the bladder, reacts to the exogenous T, and that (ersatz "vagina") becomes stiff. Makes sense that tissue is XY and the intact normal penis has erections when testosterone is in play. Can any doctor at all think things through? Link to Alexander L channel for this exact conversation between Alexander and Ritchie Herron, who both believe autism is a co-existing factor for them:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kw7a8eioa1w&t=3320s
This is precisely why I don't think that the current situation can be resolved by conservatives alone. Parents like the ones in this article would welcome a challenge of fighting "horrible draconian laws". I am sure they'd be delighted to form their underground railroad of hormones , if they can't get them legally. There are already DIY transitinon reddit for adults. The laws ARE important but just as important is for decent thinking people on the left to start speaking out. For doctors and journalists to start speaking out. We need to change minds , not just the laws.
This is about 3 minutes long...Helen Joyce. Watch:
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/EYJMY_2iFTM
I think journalists are being blocked from talking or writing about this obviously …when Anderson Cooper does a serious investigation on this topic we will know things are changing. Bill Maher is the only person I can think of who says whatever he wants, Katie Herzog was awesome on Bill Maher… she is quick-witted and hilarious.
Parents probably think they are doing their due diligence doing a Google search with many not realizing how wrapped up major companies are in actively supporting (promoting) gender ideology, specifically trans ideology. Nearly every result from searching on GAC for children is affirm, elevate, and celebrate. Anything critical or even not fully in support is buried in the search results, down several scrolls or pages of glowing coverage. You have to know what/who to look for and look beyond the campaign to silence and denigrate anyone who opposes or even questions The Ideology.
If I didn’t know any better, from a cursory Google search (and they aren’t the only ones), I’d assume there is no controversy, the science is settled, I’d head to the nearest gender clinic and get a PB script for my child! Any move other than that and I’m a monster, abuser, and definitely a bigot set on genociding trans youth.
Word
Interestingly initially when ACA did an evidence review of the science they found low quality evidence supporting cost benefit. I don't know why more people aren't using the initial ACA research. That's available. The cost-to-benefit evidence to cover costs to support covering treatments for ADULTS was scant.
It is not that easy to google & find Jesse Singal’s The Atlantic article. It took 5 months to find that article I was spending hours researching Google Scholar studies and at the beginning of 2022, there wasn't a lot of information to go on. I found the Trans Train doc. I found the Lisa Littman ROGD study around 2019 before I needed to research this but besides that there was scant information on anything but affirmative medical interventions. Trust me I know how to Google. I even had my cousin searching his psychiatric scholarly medical journal articles and he sent me one from…Croatia. I asked him about the Littman study & he blew it off as not robust research but then he sent me the Littman Detransioners study and that study was more robust.
Now one thing I had in my favor was I could not believe drs were quoting the 41% completed suicide stat. I pushed them all on that one and kept asking for the “study” none of them could show it to me. I could tell they didn't wtf they were talking about they didn't say this in a confident way. It was more like a “I'm trying to cover my ass here and we both know I just made that up”. Read it on a billboard on Portland.
The one thing that tipped me off that docs weren't following evidence was they kept talking in a way that made it seem like they didn't know what the hell they were doing and were not ready for serious questions.
In reference to the poor father sleeping on the sofa bc of fear for his kid…I’ve done that. Most of these kids are in a serious mental health crisis.
I think the Reuters investigate series on trans kids in the US are the best resource bc they also cited their studies & sources. Those articles had American stats and studies.
This all seems like a lifetime ago but it was only the winter of 2022!
~ the times they are a changing
This have been a full scale propaganda campaign and thankfully some parents like you are skeptical enough to dig deeper. It is disheartening to think about the role that companies like Google have in perpetuating this ideology.
Tbh my psychiatrist warned me 2 years before this hit my family, (yes I see a psychiatrist for weekly appointments for a $20 co-pay) and her daughter was fast-tracked to the OHU peds gender clinic so I already knew they were NOT basing anything on science…they use emotional blackmail. I also have a friend who is a peds psychiatrist and I called her and she told me to get in 🆘 with Dr. Laura Edwards-Leeper. I got in with her for a parent appointment the same day she was on the front page of the NYTS and that's when I started believing there might be a god.
My daughter already had an appointment for and T this was not the time to being fucking around with a pronoun. Also, i wouldn’t be surprised if her Peds psychiatrist would have reported us to CPS for misgendering her if we hadn’t pretended it was ok to call her « our son ». Parents need to some Oscar level acting skills when it comes to dealing with certain « experts ».
Can we establish if a parent is in the ER with their kid on suicide watch….you put on a show and say what the social worker expects you to say. This is NOT the time to bring up concerns about a social transition! or fuck around with a pronoun debate on when your kid is on ER safety watch…SOME therapists advise this is a great time to take a stand…bad idea. Obviously those therapist don’t have teens and have never been in the ER for 36 hours with a guard outside the door to make sure your daughter (wearing paper pajamas) doesn’t hurt herself! 🤯
Wait until your kid is home from the hospital, stable and then figure this out it in askilled clinical psychologist. I’m really upset about some of the advice parents are being given by lackadaisical-pseudo experts. Keeping custody of you kid is the primary goal. My daughter got handed a card by a 22 year old social worker for the youth local homeless shelter « just in case you don’t feel safe at home » . Fortunately we got a psychiatrist in the ER who knew that social worker was an idiot BUT parents need to be careful. Especially in Portland, Oregon.
Keep your parental rights at ALL COSTS! Dr. Edwards-Leeper was able to tell us exactly, play-by-play how to navigate the gender clinic. I caught every break.
I really did. If hadn't had all that luck and resources idk what would have happened. I know there are parents who don't have the resources I have. And I don't think it's fair to blame parents for trusting physicians. I know some smart parents who did affirm their kids. One is a good friend and very smart and a good mom. She's a physician. Her daughter was already a young adult.
I just got lucky…and my daughter still thinks she’s a boy BUT she doesn’t want medical interventions now so that’s a little bit of a relief.
Also, in January of 2022 nobody knew the dangers of a social transition and we still don’t know. I have friends who allowed their kids to socially transition and they’ve desisted. Every family is different. And there are not any hard rules…if you have a really stubborn kid putting a hard line on a nickname it might backfire. But no one should be judging parents unless they are personally dealing with this in their own family. Unless it’s Heather Dubrow from the RHOC.
The last few sentences really struck me. When my older identified as trans, I remember being anxious whenever my little one said no to a dress. I forced myself to stop this madness, but these were real panic moments, not because I thought she was trans (I don't believe in innate "trans kids", obviously), but because I was afraid she might later use this to justify transitioning. Parents who know anything about transitioning are scared because they know the challenges (horrors, at times) that transitioning leads to, psychologically and physiologically. Even the affirming ones, as the article notes, first have to brainwash themselves to believe that the alternative is worse (using the crooked suicide stats).
I remember being worried bc my 13-year-old son made me buy him hot pink rubber Birkenstocks they were really cool but I thought he would get mocked but he's like me and he gave zero ducks what anyone thought, he owned those Birks. I wasn't worried about him being trans BUT I look back and think...those were the days of innocent micro-worries. Hot pink Birkenstocks…
If an adolescent develops disordered eating and declares that she is fat despite weighing 85 lbs and having protruding bones, would these parents buy laxatives, diuretics and pursue bariatric surgery in order to affirm the delusion? SAME THING!!!
I add my voice to the chorus of praise for your hard and good work on unearthing what happened in this case. Thank you so much for this, and for the excellent links. This series continues to be invaluable. In this round, I appreciated so many things, but will point out two: first, the description of conversations you have had with friends who are parents; second, pointing out the diabolical impact of algorithms, as a result of which parents can think they are doing good research, when all that is really happening is the pseudoscience gets reinforced.
On the former, we had a recent conversation with a lesbian friend, in her 90s, solid D, that went something like this:
We noted the issue of detransitioners, and how they were ignored by the Dems in a hearing. This is what happened from there (roughly):
Friend: Yes, but how often does that happen?
Both of us: the numbers aren’t clear, but it’s well more than one--and even if just one, it should never happen.
Friend: my son (he is gay, lives in CA) has friends, both gay men, married, and their child, Zara, is trans and is doing fine. She’s known she was trans from when she was little. Though a boy, she always wanted to wear dresses.
Me: in a thought bubble, does she even hear what she is saying?
Josie (in a mode Lisa might appreciate), said, out loud, “transing children is child abuse!”
Friend: becomes silent.
Me: recovering my wits a little: you know, the numbers of children who have claimed they are trans has skyrocketed, and the demographic has completely changed. Whereas it used to be a very few young boys, now it’s overwhelmingly girls, many of who show no signs of this until they are adolescent.
Josie chimes in here, too, with her vast knowledge about child development. (We had previously sent our friend both Josie’s published articles on this.)
Friend: now quietly, well that’s different.
Me: a good book to read on this is Time to Think. (I describe who Hannah Barnes is, her impeccable BBC credentials, etc.) I’ll send you the information.
Aftermath: I sent her the interview Hadley Freeman did with Hannah Barnes in the London Times, along with two articles in the Economist that addressed the book and the general pediatric/young adult trans issues.
I received an email back from our friend stating she found the articles, particularly the interview, illuminating.
I have no idea what that meant, but I did not press. I thought, maybe let her sit with this new information until our next live conversation.
The brainwashing is so pervasive, and the stories quite compelling, so difficult to refute "lived experience". Just today Pro Publica published this: https://www.propublica.org/article/north-carolina-gender-affirming-care-coverage-federal-appeal
The ACLU has become a homophobic hate organization.
Thank you for another informative Brandt Files, for a glimpse into the courtroom, and for the resources at the end (I'd add Gender: A Wider Lens, and the Parents of ROGD groups via Our Duty). And, thank you for your practice of having those conversations with friends who are parents. I'm thinking back to the early days of my family's struggle with this and trying to imagine a friend saying, at any point, as you did, "your kid's not trans". My kid was in high school and my neighborhood is deep blue; it didn't (wouldn't) happen. Maybe today. I hope so. I'm the one trying to offer that perspective now (which is not always welcomed).
Just FYI, in June Jack Turban published a study that deals with the topic of disclosure to parents: Age of Realization and Disclosure of Gender Identity Among Transgender Adults.
He’s a real expert bc he has flag emojis in his bio and went to Harvard! Stanford! UCSF! & finally passed his Peds psych boards. He also has a lot of experience... parenting his dog.
Mr. Bicyclist and fellow readers, Some may have heard/read the Missouri decision to extend medical liability on certain "gender affirming procedures" to 15 years. In response Washington U. discontinued medical/hormonal treatment of children.
The trans activist Erin Reed reports on this below....Can any of you examine the accuracy of Reed's statements and reading of the Missouri law?
https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/missouri-trans-clinic-closure-is
Don't these parents ever say "Sorry, we can't afford that" or "Our insurance doesn't cover that"? I'm guessing not, because trans seems to be a trend with the well-off, at least in the West.
Parents need to get in touch with the right people in Blue states and I’m sorry but Genspect can’t help. Erin Friday could...you don’t ask the Irish for help in California. The advice from GETA will not protect your kid you need to get the big guns and I’m sorry Genspect doesn’t like them and discourages parents from seeing them but until they ready to cover legal bills and how parents battle it out in the courts...maybe they need to stop pushing their therapists in Blue States bc in a blue state you call Erica Anderson or Laura Edwards-Leeper...they have gravitas. If you live in Texas or Tennessee knock yourselves out and pay a GETA therapist.
It's considered medically necessary care. I believe most insurance covers it. And if the insurance the parents have doesn't, there are plenty of organizations willing to "help." (If the parents aren't all in, the MDs collude against them and against their child's best interests, just like other sorts of predators might.)
One of the men who had surgery inappropriately in Oregon (Frank) noted that many in the homeless population were being invited in and egged on for lots of procedures.
I briefly thought of lying to my daughter about insurance costs bc she was saving up her money for her “medical transition”. I decided to tell her the truth bc she's smart. Low income people can get treatments covered too or if parents refuse to pay the state of Oregon will….but they might threaten parental rights in that case.