BROADview in Brief

Queers for Disinformationstine

via @rabbiwolpe on X

The pendulum keeps swinging, back and forth with such force that it’s pretty durned hard to tell which direction we’re heading. On the one hand: Title IX now protects one’s self-determination of sex, as opposed to one’s actual sex, and often those are in direct contradiction to one another. On the other: The Washington Post has now published yet another op-ed regarding the Cass Review, a great piece by Ben Ryan urging the APA to allow debate about the best way to care for trans-identified kids. (I love the last line, about trading silence for science.) There are now more organizations for disaffected liberals, like DIAG, and for disaffected LGBs and Ts, like LGBT Courage Coalition. More people feel free to speak up, but their voices are still drowned out. I guess the cheers of Queers for Palestine are still louder.

The QfP types don’t seem to realize that there was never a country called Palestine before the creation of Israel and that, even if there were, it would not have been friendly to queers. They also don’t seem to realize that queer was, until recently, a slur. But their slogan reveals the extent to which third-wave feminism and critical race theory’s offering of intersectionality—a useful tool to move toward justice—has backfired. A generation of young elites looks at the social categories of people and ranks how oppressed they are; not the pain scale of opioids but the oppression scale of social justice. It obscures details, facts, reality, complexity, nuance.

They have every right to object to the horrendous conditions Palestinians have lived under, and the horrors of the war right now, but their silence about the far greater number of Ukranians who’ve been killed is suspect; that’s white people killing white people, lower on the scale. Many videos show protesting college students have no idea what they’re protesting. To me, this is a social contagion, not a social movement. But I know many of you disagree—feel free to say so in the comments!

Here are summaries and headlines from the talented Ms. Alejandra Q. I don’t know how she does it!

SUMMARIES:

US

A Richmond-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Monday that West Virginia and North Carolina’s policies limiting of transgender care coverage are discriminatory. The case, which is likely to head to the U.S. Supreme Court, relates to North Carolina’s ban of coverage for gender medicine in their state employee health plan and West Virginia’s lack of Medicaid the coverage for transgender surgery.

Several Republican state attorney generals are challenging President Biden’s Title IX updates. Attorney Generals for Idaho, Louisiana, Mississippi and Montana filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court of Monroe, Louisiana. They are seeking to delay the date the updates are to take effect (scheduled for August). Four advocacy organizations along with the states of Alabama, Florida, Georgia and South Carolina also filed a suit in a federal court in Tuscaloosa, Alabama while Texas filed its own suit in an Amarillo federal court. These lawsuits happened Monday, the day that the Education Department regulations on how to enforce Title IX were finalized. Meanwhile, Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti joined Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, West Virginia and Virginia in filing a separate lawsuit on Tuesday, while Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon said that he is ‘reviewing’ whether to join in the lawsuits. An Associated Press report notes that, “Filing in multiple federal courts gives the states a better chance that one of them will put the rule on hold nationally.” In addition, governors and education officials in states like Oklahoma Florida, Louisiana, Montana, and South Carolina have publicly disapproved of the Title IX updates and directed school districts to defy the new regulations. South Carolina Education Superintendent Ellen Weaver, for example, advised schools to dismiss the updates, calling them “deeply troubling,” while Louisiana’s education chief Cade Brumley recommended that schools disregard the new rules because they violate state and federal law.

The Department of Health and Human Services announced a new rule Friday that purports to protect gay and trans-identified individuals from potential discrimination when accessing medical care, reversing limitations that date to the Trump administration. Critics of the rule, however, believe that it will expand legal access to “gender affirming” medications and surgeries and open the door for lawsuits against providers and insures who oppose these interventions. Julie Marie Blake, Senior Counsel for the Alliance Defending Freedom claims, “The Biden administration’s new healthcare mandate is a vast overreach that turns medicine upside-down. Congress never voted to redefine sex in the Affordable Care Act to add gender identity. The rule harms families and children by promoting dangerous, life-altering ‘gender-transition’ procedures that remove healthy body parts or block puberty. The Biden administration’s egregious rule would alter the United States’ medical system for the worst.” The 2016 Obama administration’s interpretation of the clause expanded the ban on sex discrimination to include gender identity, but Trump had this reversed in 2020 to define “sex” based on “male and female as determined by biology”.

New guidance by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) details how employers could be found liable for harassment were they to require that employees access bathrooms according their to biological sex. According to Fox News Digital, EEOC Commissioner Andrea Lucas claimed that "Women’s sex-based rights in the workplace are under attack—and from the EEOC, the very federal agency charged with protecting women from sexual harassment and sex-based discrimination at work. In its new harassment guidance, the Commission formally takes the position that for both private companies and federal employers, harassing conduct under Title VII includes ‘denial of access to a bathroom or other sex-segregated facility consistent with [an] individual’s gender identity."

As reported last week, five female students from Harrison County Middle School in West Virginia protested the recent appeal of House Bill 2917 by refusing to compete with trans-identified student athlete, Becky Pepper-Jackson, during an April 18th track and field competition. These students have now been banned from future competitions due to their refusal to participate against Pepper-Jackson. West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey filed an amicus brief supporting the protesting students. According to Morrisey, “The only thing this decision does is teach these children to keep their mouths shut and not disagree with what they saw as unfairness. That is outrageous and it tramples these students’ rights to freedom of speech and expression.”

Kansas lawmakers were unable to override Gov. Laura Kelly's veto of Senate Bill 233. The Bill would have banned “gender affirming” surgeries and hormonal interventions for minors in the state. 

A Mississippi bill authored by Senator Josh Harkins died at capitol after receiving pushback from Democrats and failing to survive Monday’s deadline. The Females Effectively and Responsibly (SAFER) Act would have limited access to single sex spaces based on biological sex rather than gender identity.

International

An activist group has threatened to disrupt the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (RANZCP)  congress set to take place in Canberra this May. The Australian National University’s Queer Department is demanding that organizer for the RANZCP conference cancel a scheduled talk by three experts on detransitioning. 

The Australian writes about the Maple Leaf House, a public gender clinic in New South Wales which reported that they have no data on the number of minor patients to the clinic who have been prescribed hormonal interventions. The clinic has also failed to gather data on these patients’ sex. Woth noting is that the Cass review criticized Australian gender clinics for fast-tracking patients into taking puberty blockers, including children as young as 8 and 9. According to Gender Clinic News, "This practice could mean Australian minors stay on puberty blockers longer or start cross-sex hormones earlier, with no good data to predict safety or beneficial outcomes, according to a Cass-commissioned research paper reporting a landmark survey of international gender clinics.”

The European Society of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (ESCAP) published a policy statementconcerning the care for minors with gender dysphoria.  The document calls for healthcare providers to "not to promote experimental and unnecessarily invasive treatments with unproven psycho-social effects and, therefore, to adhere to the "primum-nil-nocere" (first, do no harm) principle.” The same document also highlights the "poor reliability and instability of a gender dysphoria diagnosis in a specific child over time" along with the "possible effects of the decisions to block puberty or preventing medical transitioning on a child's psychosocial development."

Bernard Lane writes about an article for Dutch newspaper NRC which notes that: “[After publication of the Cass report], all eyes were on the Amsterdam UMC gender clinic, the birthplace of this treatment. The research that cannot stand the test of criticism was conducted here. The only response issued by the clinic is baffling. AUMC simply disagrees with the fundamental scientific criticism and points to the several studies that have shown beneficial effects. Yes, these are precisely the studies that Cass notes are of insufficient quality… It is high time for an audit, not of the scientific evidence base—which is now available—but of the actual clinical practice. What are the decision-making processes in the consulting rooms, and which considerations are used to decide on treatment?” The article comes after last week’s majority vote in the Dutch lower house backing a resolution that asks the government to remove its “transgender law.” This law allows for minors under 16 to legally change their gender documents such as passports, and on births, marriages and deaths registries without requiring an expert’s statement.

The leader of the Scottish National Party Humza Yousaf resigned Monday as Scotland’s first minister. While Yousaf addressed “toxic” culture wars during his resignation speech, he did not mention the topic of women. Yet, an article for The Scotsman claims that the transgender debate has been a primary issue creating division in the Scottish Parliament during Yousaf’s tenure: “For six years now, women’s rights campaigners from across Scotland, including JK Rowling, have begged SNP ministers to listen to them, sometimes tearfully, occasionally with a flash of frustration if not downright anger, but always politely. Their argument is that the SNP’s policy of embedding trans ideology in schools, the NHS and justice system, is not ‘progressive’, endangers women’s sex-based rights, and risks the mental and physical well-being of young people. They did not embark on a ‘toxic culture war’ as Yousaf alluded to, but instead simply pointed out the science – human beings cannot change their sex at will.” Former Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, who resigned last year and is also a member of the SNP, dealt with similar controversies concerning women’s rights and trans activism during her time as First Minister. The favorite to replace Yousaf as leader of the SNP is John Swinney  who has in the past voted in favor of the Gender Recognition Reform Bill. The bill would have allowed gender self-identification for minors as young as 16 years of age. 

Sex-based rights groups have lauded a new charter (part of a several changes to the NHS Constitution) highlighting the impotence of biological sex for same-sex accommodations and intimate care. Based on this new charter, transgender individuals may be provided single rooms when appropriate and patients will have the right to request a person that of the same sex delivers their intimate care. Previous NHS guidance allowed for trans-identified patients to be placed in single-sex wards according to their gender identity. Based to the new changes, however, same-sex accommodation rights can be breached for clinically urgent care. Health Secretary, Victoria Atkins is also considering proposals that will emphasize “sex-specific” language for medical recommendations and disallow the use of terms like “chestfeeding” or “people who have ovaries.” This follows last week’s call for a public inquiry on the influence of transgender ideology in UK schools and the NHS. 

Rachel Meade, a British social worker, was the subject of harassment and suspended by the Westminster city council and Social Work England based on gender critical views. Following a 2022 lawsuit, a court has now awarded Meade close to £58,000 in damages and an employment tribunal called for the city council and the social work watchdog to train staff in “the principles of freedom of speech.”

Following yearslong legal battle, Henry Tse, a Hong Kong transgender activist, wan and appeal and received a new ID card on Monday. The Hong Kong government had refused to change the ID card because Tse has not undergone full gender-affirmation surgery.

HEADLINES

National

May 2: Number of transgender troops in US army has doubled since 2020 - and taxpayers have spent $26m on sex change surgeries and treatments for them (The Daily Mail)

May 2: Rollout of transgender bathroom law sows confusion among Utah public school families (MSM News, originally from the Associated Press)

May 2: ‘Live my truth’: Transgender woman fights for rights inside Leavenworth men’s prison “Ayana Satyagrahi was five when she found herself playing in her bedroom closet and putting on her younger sister’s yellow sundress. Now 49, she lives in a cell at the men’s prison in Leavenworth not much larger than that closet. Satyagrahi is one of an estimated 2,170 transgender people under the supervision of the Federal Bureau of Prisons.” (Kansas City Star)

May 2: Honey Mahogany tapped to lead The City's trans initiatives “Honey Mahogany, a longtime and well-known advocate for LGBTQ causes in San Francisco, will serve as the next director of The City’s Office of Transgender Initiatives starting this month.” (San Francisco Examiner)

May 2: Texas superintendent dismissed after transgender controversy—Sherman superintendent Tyson Bennett was suspended after ordering the removal of a transgender student from the cast of a school play. (KTEN)

May 2: Transgender Tennesseans want state's refusal to amend birth certificates declared unconstitutional—The fate of a decades-old Tennessee policy that does not allow transgender people to change the sex designation on their birth certificates is in the hands of a federal appeals court (ABC News)

May 2: Reward offered for information about fatal shooting of transgender man at Gulfstream Park—Police continue search for female suspect (Local 10)

May 2: Transgender woman sues Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin alleging discrimination—Erin Nicole Kassouf insisted that she was a good engineer in her lawsuit. “A transgender woman is suing Jeff Bezos-owned Blue Origin and accusing the rocket company of discrimination and creating a hostile work environment.” (Florida Topic)

May 2: Texas' gender-affirming care law: Austin council weighs making enforcement a low priority “Some Austin City Council members want to send a message reaffirming their ideological differences against the Republican-led Texas Legislature's passage last year of gender-affirming care restrictions.” (AOL News)

May 2: Mother’s lawsuit says Blue Valley School District failed to stop transgender son from being bullied “Filed on April 27 in the U.S. District Court of Kansas in Kansas City, Kansas, the suit alleges a former Leawood Middle School student faced numerous incidents of bullying and harassment at school and on social media that ultimately caused him to attempt suicide.” (Johnson County Post)

May 2: SC anti-transgender bill could require schools to notify parents of kids name, gender changes (The State)

May 1: Maine Transgender High School Skiier Named To Girls’ All-Conference Team  (New Boston Post)

May 1: South Carolina Senate takes up ban on gender-affirming care for transgender minors—South Carolina’s Senate is debating a ban on gender-affirming care for transgender minors “The bill, passed by the state House in January during the General Assembly's opening days, would bar health professionals from performing gender-transition surgeries, prescribing puberty blockers and overseeing hormone treatments for patients under 18.” (ABC News)

May 1: AFL Lawsuit Reveals Shocking Internal Emails from HHS Meetings with “Gender Affirming Care Providers,” Discussing How to Leverage Federal Power to Evade State Legislation Banning Mutilation of Children “Today, America First Legal revealed more shocking documents obtained from its lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), including internal emails from Assistant Secretary for Health “Rachel” Levine. These emails reveal that the Biden Administration has taken behind-the-scenes meetings with ‘gender affirming care providers’ in states that have banned these experimental medical practices and have promised to leverage the power of the federal government to stop states from enacting these important health measures.” (America First Legal)

May 1: NH bill to ban transgender girls from girls sports brings out impassioned testimony (Seacoast online)

May 1: New National Survey of LGBTQ+ Young People Shows High Rates of Suicide Risk, Harmful Impacts of Anti-LGBTQ+ Politics and Bullying “The Trevor Project, the leading suicide prevention and crisis intervention organization for LGBTQ+ young people, released The 2024 U.S. National Survey on the Mental Health of LGBTQ+ Young People, representing the experiences of more than 18,000 LGBTQ+ young people ages 13 to 24 across the United States. The survey's findings underscore that LGBTQ+ young people continue to report high rates of mental health challenges, suicide risk, and associated experiences of anti-LGBTQ+ victimization such as bullying, discrimination, threats of physical violence, and conversion therapy. (PR Newswire)

Apr 30: Riley Gaines slams Biden Admin's Title IX trans protections as 'anti-woman' at launch of Republican legal challenge (The Daily Mail)

Apr 30: Court extends temporary halt to Ohio ban on gender-affirming care for minors (Dayton 247 Now)

Apr 30: Controversy Over Transgender Policies In New Jersey Schools “Parental rights advocates are facing the loss of hard-won victories over transgender policies in a number of New Jersey school districts.

Changes in the make-up of school boards could lead to votes that reinstate the controversial Policy 5756 which requires schools to accept a student's chosen gender identity and does not require parents be told of any change.” (New Jersey 101.5)

Apr 30: Moment terrified elementary school children flee as deranged man dries to grab them in an open field “Surveillance video shows the moment a transgender sex offender attempted to kidnap a young boy during recess at his elementary school.” (The Daily Mail)

Apr 30: Controversy Over Transgender Policies In New Jersey Schools “Parental rights advocates are facing the loss of hard-won victories over transgender policies in a number of New Jersey school districts. Changes in the make-up of school boards could lead to votes that reinstate the controversial Policy 5756 which requires schools to accept a student's chosen gender identity and does not require parents be told of any “ (New Jersey 101.5)

Apr 30: Divided Supreme Court holds transgender athlete bill unconstitutional, along with 2 others“ The Montana Supreme Court in a divided order last week upheld a lower court's finding that three laws passed in the 2021 legislative session related to Montana's colleges and universities were unconstitutional, including a ban on transgender athletes playing on women's sports teams. The laws at hand were House Bills 112 and 349, as well as portions of Senate Bill 319.” (Bozeman Daily Chronicle)

Apr 30: SC Senate to debate bill about banning transgender youth medical care, what to know(Greenville online)

Apr 30: Transgender medical care law to remain on hold “A Franklin County judge on Tuesday extended his order blocking enforcement of a new law barring physicians from providing transgender medical care to minors. The temporary restraining order, or TRO, will remain in place until May 20, which will carry past the scheduled May 16-17 hearing when Common Pleas Court Judge Michael Holbrook will consider whether to upgrade the order to a more open-ended preliminary injunction.” (Toledo Blade)

Apr 30: Transgender woman facing child-abuse charges in court “The defense attorney for a transgender woman accused of child abuse is waiting on interviews to determine how to proceed with the case.

Enoch Gabhart, 25, goes by the name Athena and is ‘in transition’ to ‘become female,’ according to court records. Gabhart was arrested Jan. 17 and charged with a third-degree felony child abuse after her 6-year-old child reportedly told staff at his elementary school that he didn’t ‘want to live with dad anymore and wants to live with mom,” because his “dad has been angry with him.’” (Durango Herald)

Apr 30: Transgender focused resource center in Arkansas temporarily closed after vandalism attacks—The only transgender-focused resource center in Arkansas is currently closed after their office was vandalized— however, this isn't the first time it has happened. (THV11)

Apr 29: Boston school Supt urged to RESIGN as second whistleblower slams her for letting a trans student with a 'kill list' return to class, and files expose her as tax-dodger “Another whistleblower has come forward about the fear at a Massachusetts school after a woke superintendent let a troubled trans kid return to class after naming dozens of fellow students on a menacing 'kill list.'” (The Daily Mail)

Apr 29: Utah high school removes class assignment on student essay titled ‘It Is So Hard to Be Trans’—The essay, published in The New York Times, contained no explicit or “pornographic” content that would have required its removal under Utah law. (The Salk Lake Tribune)

Apr 29: Doctor supports transgender sports bans—“We know testosterone is performance enhancing.”“A recent study financed by the International Olympic Committee determined that transgender women do not have clear and general advantages over other women due to the decline in testosterone which leaves transgender women “carry this big skeleton with a smaller engine,” as explained by one researcher, Dr. Yannis Pitsiladis. However, another doctor disagrees with this determination.” (Next Impulse Sports)

Apr 29: Judge rules lawmakers can be called to testify in gender-affirming care case “Two state lawmakers are expected to testify in a lawsuit challenging North Dakota’s ban on gender-affirming care for minors after a judge last week resolved a dispute over whether the legislators could be ordered to speak about the law. Attorneys for Gender Justice, the advocacy group representing the plaintiffs, last month sought to subpoena Rep. Bill Tveit, R-Hazen, and Rep. Brandon Prichard, R-Bismarck, for depositions related to social media posts the lawmakers made discussing the ban and LGBTQ issues in North Dakota.” (KFGO)

Apr 29: Push to restrict LGBTQ+ rights hits a snag in state legislatures (The Washington Post)

Apr 28: 'This is like Nazi propaganda': Riley Gaines tears into hockey team for making crowd 'pledge support to the rainbow' LBGT flag before game (The Daily Mail)

Apr 28: West Virginia fights to keep transgender sports ban, other states face similar court battle (Just the News)

Apr 28: University President Delivers Blow to Transgender Athletes—Dr. Wayne D. Lewis Jr., president of Houghton University, advocated against biological males participating in female sports, emphasizing the importance of preserving the integrity of women's athletics. (MSM News, originally from State of the Union)

Apr 27: Transgender woman punches man on subway platform: NYPD “A subway ride turned bloody for a commuter who was assaulted Saturday morning in Manhattan. A 39-year-old man was punched in the face by a transgender woman, police said. The incident left subway riders concerned about transit safety.” (Pix11)

Apr 25: Middle schoolers study in FEAR after being forced back to class with 'troubled' trans kid who named 45 on 'hit list': Boston parent says 'they know the school is not protecting them' “Scared parent blows whistle on woke teachers who put trans rights over safety. School officials 'treated a troubled young person as some kind of cultural token.’” (The Daily Mail)

Apr 20: Pressure mounting on NCAA transgender student-athlete participation policy “A group of transgender athletes and allies is asking the National Collegiate Athletic Association to protect trans and nonbinary athletes' place in NCAA sports.” (Axios Indianapolis)

International

Apr 24: Behandlungsleitlinie für „Trans“-Kinder – Jugendpsychiater schlagen Alarm (Treatment guidelines for “trans” children – adolescent psychiatrists sound the alarm) According to Bernard Lane’sreport on this article: The gender-affirming guideline takes a liberal position on the use of puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and surgery. The document—developed under the auspices of the German Society for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy (DGKJP)—dismisses compulsory psychotherapy before gender change as “unethical and obsolete”.

May 2: Unregulated online clinic gave teen dangerous hormone dose—A 15-year-old child was prescribed dangerous levels of hormones by an unregulated online clinic without speaking to a doctor, a court ruling has revealed. (The BBC)

May 1: Row at breastfeeding charity as regulators are called in amid bullying claims over call to let in trans women “Britain's oldest breastfeeding charity has called in regulators amid claims of 'harassment and bullying' over a policy to include trans women in meetings. Directors at La Leche League GB (LLLGB) have requested the Charity Commission intervenes over an inclusivity policy that permits biological males.” (The Daily Mail)

Apr 25: Europe and the Puberty Blocker Debate—Some European countries are changing how they approach gender care in children and young adolescents experiencing gender incongruence/dysphoria. There is a move away from medicalized care to placing more emphasis on providing psychosocial support for this younger age group. (MedScape)

May 2: Mutilated body of transgender woman discovered—The body of a transgender woman (30), identified as Christof Fredricks, was discovered with 32 stab wounds and her private parts cut off in Otjomuise’s 7de Laan in Windhoek on Thursday. (Nambian)

May 2: ‘Just let us audition’: UK transgender actors appeal to be cast in non-trans role—Kim Tatum, Mariah Louca and Reece Lyons combine to call for trans women to be put on an equal footing for cis roles (The Guardian)

Australia/New Zealand

Apr 30: NZ’s trans lobby is fighting a rearguard action—The Cass Review is a turning point in the war on reality. (The Platform) 

Apr 27: Left-wing parties around the world ‘virtue signalling’ with gender-affirming care “Activist Chris Elston says all his views on gender-affirming care are ‘common sense.”(Sky News Australia)

Apr 30: The Inspiration for my Angrygram - Australia's National Broadcaster “The ABC, the national broadcaster in Australia, provides us with an unrelenting and nauseating stream of trans propaganda. After the Cass Report from England showed the complete lack of evidence underpinning so-called 'gender affirming care', the ABC is promoting Australian exceptionalism.” (PITT)

Apr 24: Outraged dad of female player speaks out after women's football team with five trans players thumps rival side again: 'I'm absolutely furious' “Flying Bats FC won 12-0 on Tuesday night. Women's team consists of five trans gender players. A furious parent has expressed his frustration” (The Daily Mail) 

Canada

Apr 28: Premier's announcement on transgender policies surprised Alberta Health Services advisory group “Members of the body that advises Alberta Health Services about 2SLGBTQ+ health care were surprised by Premier Danielle Smith's proposed transgender policies announcement earlier this year, according to internal records obtained by CBC News. In a video posted to social media on Jan. 31, Smith laid out a host of proposed policies focused on transgender youth, including several regarding gender-affirming care. She formally announced the policies at a news conference the following day.” (CBC News)

UK

May 1: Badenoch asks people to report public bodies which fail to offer single-sex spaces—It follows concern that the NHS, local councils and other government organisations are misinterpreting guidance (The Telegraph)

May 1: Senior NHS doctor at trans clinic questions Dr Hilary Cass’s ‘expertise’—Walter Bouman says ‘fine line between naivety, narcissism and psychopathy’ in wake of landmark report (The Telegraph)

Apr 30: JK Rowling accuses Keir Starmer of having ‘brass neck’ over transgender issue “JK Rowling has hit out at Keir Starmer after the Labour leader called for an end to “toxic” debates about transgender issues. Harry Potter author Rowling has backed Labour MP Rosie Duffield, who has been an outspoken defender of women’s rights and female-only spaces. Mr Starmer, who had previously criticised Ms Duffield for saying ‘only women have a cervix’, accepted that ‘biologically, she of course is right about that’. The Labour leader said his views on gender issues ‘start with biology’ as he backed blocking trans women from female-only hospital wards and prisons.” (Breaking News) 

Apr 30: Starmer says transgender issues need to be handled with ‘respect and dignity’—Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said ‘as a country, we’re a pretty reasonable and tolerant bunch’. “Sir Keir Starmer said his views on gender issues “start with biology” as he backed blocking trans women from female-only hospital wards and prisons. The Labour leader was speaking as the Government proposed changes to England’s NHS constitution to give patients the right to request to be treated on single-sex wards, with transgender people placed in rooms on their own.” (Shopshire Star)

Apr 30: Stonewall’s guidance on gender doesn’t stand up in law—Groupthink and negligence let a bullying culture thrive in the workplace, but now the tide is finally starting to turn (The Telegraph)

Apr 29: Census data on number of trans people in Britain is 'deeply flawed'—Critics have said that answers to one of the ONS questions from places with lower levels of English may have distorted the figures (The London Times)

Apr 29: What now for transgender healthcare in Ireland after publication of the Cass review?—The landmark report by UK paediatrician Hilary Cass into transgender treatment for young people is published as the HSE plans a new Irish clinical programme for gender healthcare (The Irish Times)

Apr 29: Stonewall faces a corporate reckoning following the Cass report--It’s time for businesses that followed the charity’s advice to finally ask some questions (The Telegraph)

Apr 29: Scottish government 'gave the most grants to Stonewall' last year—It is ranked 46th on the LGBT group's top employers list and has given more than any other UK public body, despite growing criticism (The London Times)

Apr 28: Sex abuse victim says social workers told her to ‘change gender to be happy’ “A girl who suffered horrific sexual abuse at age five was “encouraged” by social workers to believe she was ‘born in the wrong body’. Taken into care, she revealed the struggles over her body once she began puberty saw her being given tight “binders” to prevent her breasts showing, and her name and pronouns were changed.” (The Sunday Post)

Apr 26: Wales is becoming a safe haven for trans extremists—Welsh politicians must act now to implement the findings of the Cass review and protect children from this dangerous ideology (The Telegraph) 

Apr 26: 'SERIOUS THREATS' Troll who threatened to kill ‘very horrible’ JK Rowling ‘with a big hammer’ warned he faces jail—The offender has been bailed ahead of sentencing (The Sun UK)

Apr 25: Transgender butcher who dressed as a woman to kidnap and sexually abuse a schoolgirl is 'living as a man in prison' “Andrew Miller was jailed for 20 years last year for the abduction of a young girl. The 53-year-old took the girl back to his house in the Scottish Borders and subjected her to repeated sex attacks.” (The Daily Mail)

Apr 22: Why did adult gender clinics withhold data from the Cass Review? (Transgender Trend Blog)

Opinion Pieces

May 2: Where does the Supreme Court stand on gender-affirming care bans? —The justices have yet to take up a case on whether statewide bans on transgender health care are unconstitutional. But an upcoming Tennessee lawsuit could be pivotal. (The 19th News)

May 2: The soul of gender—How trans ideology appeals to deep spiritual instincts (The Critic) 

May 2: Opinion: Youth Transgender Care Policies Should Be Driven by Science—U.S. states should follow Europe’s example when deciding on medical care for minors experiencing gender dysphoria. (Undark)

Apr 29: Clarifying that Title IX  Protects Transgender Students from Discrimination is Important Step Forward "On the publication of the updated regulations to Title IX that clarify protections for survivors of sexual assault and harassment, pregnant and parenting students, and LGBTQ+ students, among others, Amnesty International USA National Director Tarah Demant said: ‘The Title IX clarifications are an important step forward to ensuring that all students are free from sex-based discrimination and can enjoy equal access to education and freedom from discrimination and violence.’” (Amnesty International) 

Apr 25: Why I blew the whistle on the Tavistock—Marcus Evans on how the Cass Review has exposed the junk science behind ‘trans healthcare’. (Spiked)

Apr 26: Gender therapy review reveals devastating impacts on teens (UN News)

Apr 29: Clarifying that Title IX  Protects Transgender Students from Discrimination is Important Step Forward "On the publication of the updated regulations to Title IX that clarify protections for survivors of sexual assault and harassment, pregnant and parenting students, and LGBTQ+ students, among others, Amnesty International USA National Director Tarah Demant said: ‘The Title IX clarifications are an important step forward to ensuring that all students are free from sex-based discrimination and can enjoy equal access to education and freedom from discrimination and violence.’” (Amnesty International) 

Apr 29: United States: Redefinition of ‘sex’ in Title IX will foster more violence and discrimination against women and girls, says UN expert (UN Human Rights office of the High Commissioner)

Apr 29: Post-Cass, promoting accurate data should never be seen as partisan—My government-commissioned review is seeking examples of barriers to research on sex and gender faced by UK-based individuals, says Alice Sullivan (Times Higher Education)

Apr 27: The tide is finally turning against the gender extremists—Proposals to update the NHS constitution are sensible and proportionate (The Telegraph)

Apr 26: Institutionalizing a Lie—The Biden administration’s new Title IX rules mean that all American public schools must operate on the fundamental falsehood of gender ideology. “According to the Biden administration, Title IX of the Civil Rights Act now requires schools to treat students who suffer, or claim to suffer, from gender dysphoria as though they were the opposite sex. As the Cass Review argues, this is essentially a medical intervention. If you require teachers and students to treat a girl who thinks she is a boy as though she were a boy, you increase the likelihood that she will persist in that belief. The longer she does, the more likely she is to seek sterilizing hormone treatments and mutilating surgical interventions.” (City Journal)

Apr 26: Transgender ideology will lose Biden the election—Biden’s Education Department has lit a fuse under schools across the country, drawing attention to the unpopular gender issue (The Telegraph)

Apr 30: Navigating the Transgender Legal Battlefield:  Education as Arena—Transgender students navigating public school systems face a number of challenges, from social acceptance to legal recognition of their identities. (Modern Diplomacy)

Apr 26: Opinion: The Cass review of gender identity services marks a return to reason and evidence – it must be defended (The Guardian)

Apr 29: The Perfect Storm—What drives rapid onset gender dysphoria in adolescent boys? (Reality’s Last Stand)

Apr 29: The Cass Effect—A landmark report properly emphasises the application of science, not slogans, in establishing treatment protocols for trans-identified children. (Quillette)

Apr 29: Billy Bragg still doesn’t understand feminism (UnHerd)

Apr 28: Meet the mean boys of trans activism—How a loud bunch of gay men became the chief online enforcers of a homophobic ideology. (Spiked)

Apr 27: Damien Grant: Pay attention to review into gender care for youth (Stuff, New Zealand)

Apr 30: Study finds labor market support for transgender people is lower than for other sexual minorities (phys.org)

Apr 30: Another Day, Another Blatantly False Piece of Academic Writing on Transition Regret—Why are papers on transition regret rife with ridiculous errors, and why do those errors occur in the first place? (Reality’s Last Stand)

Apr 30: Mental Health Worsens in Trans, Gender-Nonconforming Adults (Med Scape)

Apr 30: Who's Carl? When parents are the last to know about their trans kids—Some Ontario parents say school policies are cutting them out of their children’s lives and tearing apart their families (National Post)

May 1: ‘You wouldn’t tell an anorexic child to starve themselves’—Tavistock whistleblower Marcus Evans on the cruelty of gender-affirming care. (Spiked)

Apr 30: Navigating the Transgender Legal Battlefield:  Education as Arena—Transgender students navigating public school systems face a number of challenges, from social acceptance to legal recognition of their identities. (Modern Diplomacy)

Apr 30: More people regret having children than having gender-affirming care, study finds—Transition-related regret is considerably lower than that which follows having children, abortions and even knee surgery – despite what some right-wing pundits would have you believe. (Pink News)

Apr 28: How One Reaction to a Mural Tore a New England Town Apart “The 6,000 residents of Littleton, N.H., had found a way to coexist despite their differences — until a town official’s words set off a conflagration.” (The New York Times)

Apr 30: ROSICA: UK Study Has Local Implications for Children and Transgender Treatments “‘Do you want a dead daughter or a living son?’ This is the rationale often given to parents whose child is experiencing gender dysphoria or gender incongruence. Under the tenets of ‘gender-affirming’ care, some mental health professionals and physicians advise parents that they should allow their child to transition to a different gender lest they commit suicide.

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, ‘Gender-affirming care reflects a range of interventions meant to support an individual when their gender identity conflicts with the one assigned to them at birth. Until the patient is eighteen years of age, gender-affirming care generally refers to developmentally appropriate support as the child goes through a social transition (eg, changes in pronouns, names, hairstyles, and/or clothing), puberty blocking treatment, and/or hormone replacement therapy (HRT).’” (Delaware Valley Journal)

Journal Articles

Journal Article: Rapidly expanding gender-affirming care based on consensus instead of evidence justifies rigorous governance and transparency (Australian Psychiatry, April 2024)

Article: Pelvic Floor Dysfunction in Transgender Men on Gender-affirming Hormone Therapy: A Descriptive Cross-sectional Study (International Urigynecology Journal, April 2024)

Journal Article: Transgender health care in the United States: legal, ethical and practical concerns for gastroenterologists in a changing landscape “Transgender and gender-diverse patients in the United States can have difficulty finding providers who are knowledgeable about their unique health-care needs. In many states, legislation limits the ability of physicians to provide gender-affirming and supportive care. Further awareness, advocacy and research is needed to help mitigate the discrimination and stigma endured by the transgender community” (Nature News, April 2024) (NOTE: this study is discussed in the Pink News article above)

Study: A systematic review of patient regret after surgery- A common phenomenon in many specialties but rare within gender-affirmation surgery (The America Journal of Surgery, April 2024)