I had a wonderful time at the Genspect conference in Denver this past weekend, listening to a variety of excellent speakers, admiring everyone’s eclectic outfits, catching up with old friends, making new ones, and, most especially, meeting several BROADview readers. New Mexico, Massachusetts, North Carolina…it was lovely to meet so many of you! If you haven’t checked out Lisa’s conference coverage yet, you can find it here. I want to touch on a few more details from the weekend before we move on:
In December, Michael Shellenberger and his team at Public, including Mia Ashton (@_crymiariver on Twitter/X), will be releasing a trove of WPATH emails, chat logs, and documents they received from one or more anonymous insiders that show the scope of medical malfeasance at that organization. We were shown examples, and while the contents were not surprising to those of us who pay close attention to WPATH, they may well catalyze the general public, insurance companies, and malpractice lawyers to a new level of awareness and action.
Christina Buttons and Wilfred Reilly each spoke about important new research that will be coming out on detransition, persistence, the links between gender and autism, and more. It’s worth watching their presentations if you have a livestream ticket, and I will post links when papers are released.
If you are interested in political organizing on trans issues, Corinna Cohn of the Heterodorx Podcast gave a practical and useful presentation (I wouldn’t be surprised if Cohn runs for office at some point). Tips included starting small, defining achievable goals, thinking in terms of compromise and incremental change, and networking.
Genspect will likely gradually release many of the presentations online, but that may take several months.
And speaking of political organizing, let’s talk about the big news of the week: America’s off-year elections. Most US jurisdictions hold their November elections in even years, so odd-year contests receive outsized attention as predictors of the national mood for the following year. I’m not a political pundit, but what I saw this week was Americans being American: we tend to not like government to be in our private business and usually support individual autonomy, so extreme religious positions on issues like abortion were unpopular. Moms of Liberty also had a bad night overall on Tuesday, which is not surprising given their broad anti-LGBT education stance and ad nauseam school library book challenges. But Americans don’t like schools to meddle in our family lives either, so moderate school board candidates who supported parental notification policies around gender identity did well. Let’s look at New Jersey in particular, since I’ve mentioned it before. The Daily Record provided a state-wide update on school board election results where LGBT education and/or parental rights issues were being contested. School board races often can’t be called until an election is certified weeks later due to the small number of votes cast, but it looks like candidates who were in favor of parental notification policies but did not favor book bans or restrictions on LGBT curricula were the ones who were mostly likely to succeed. I think the New York Times summed up the outcomes nicely here. I especially noted that voters seem to be interested in gender at the school board level when it comes to their children’s school experience but are not very interested in it when it comes to regional or state elections (and my guess is gender won’t be much of a factor in the presidential election next year).
I specifically mentioned the Toms River, NJ school board race last week—it’s not in the Daily Record article, so I’ll share that two of three candidates who favor parental notification (Lamb and Pascarella) are leading in a contest for three open seats.
What else is going on?
Science reporter Jennifer Block had a blockbuster opinion piece in the Boston Globe, Youth Gender Medicine Has Become a Hall of Mirrors. She takes the mainstream stance amongst gender medicine moderates that right-wing youth medicalization bans are bad and that a middle road that allows for further research should be possible. Researcher Leor Sapir responded on Twitter/X with concerns about the “golden mean fallacy.”
If you’re interested in the always controversial Steven Crowder and his release of purported pages from the Tennessee school shooter’s planning documents, the Associated Press covered both the release and the Nashville mayor’s response.
The University of Wisconsin Hospital is the latest medical center to find itself in detrans legal crosshairs, as a former patient is suing two hospital surgeons for removing her uterus at 19 and her breasts at 21 without her informed consent. Thank you also to a subscriber for pointing out the new lawsuit against Fenway Health in Boston that asserts that the “gender-affirming care” they provided was a form of gay conversion therapy.
In California, the proponents of three ballot measures about gender are apparently thinking of combining them.
Eight US governors wrote to the NCAA to ask them to change their policies to explicitly ban transwomen/trans-identified males from competing in the female sports category.
Speaking of sports, a federal judge has upheld Florida’s 2021 law banning transwomen and girls from playing on female sports teams. Judge Roy Altman ruled that “SB 1028's gender-based classifications are rooted in real differences between the sexes - not stereotypes. In requiring schools to designate sports-team memberships on the basis of biological sex, the statute adopts the uncontroversial proposition that most men and women do have different (and innate) physical attributes.” Uncontroversial, ha ha.
Trans voters in Kansas were able to submit their ballots this week--whew! Many were worried they might be unable to, given recent legal changes around official state IDs and much accompanying confusion.
In Texas, a female student who identifies as a man lost the male lead role in the Sherman High production of Oklahoma! because of new school policies banning cross-sex acting. KXII television also reported that the Sherman Independent School District said the “whole show needs to be postponed because of sexual content and profanity.” I guess they’re just a district that cain’t say yes…
The LGBT affinity magazine The Advocate shared a piece called Experts Weigh In on the Realities of Gender-Affirming Care and the Dangers of Disinformation featuring Admiral Rachel Levine and Dr. Jesse Ehrenfeld. Oh, the irony!
Next week is officially Transgender Awareness Week, culminating in the Transgender Day of Remembrance on November 20th. Still, some jurisdictions, like the State of New York, have also gone whole hog for Transgender Awareness Month. Check your region’s public calendars for what’s happening in your neck of the woods. November is most definitely Native American Heritage Month — perhaps they can compromise on some two-spirit themed activities.
Meanwhile, in other parts of our planet…
In Canada, nurse Amy Hamm finally took the stand in her own disciplinary hearing, but Eliza Mondegreen reported in Unherd that no decision would be reached until February 2024.
The Canadian Powerlifting Union is seeking to suspend powerlifter April Hutchinson, after she publicly criticized their trans inclusion policies.
Spiked reported that British librarians are hiding gender-critical books from their readers. Say it isn’t so, colleagues!
The British government has been promising transgender guidelines for schools since 2018 and may finally release a draft this December…but they won’t take effect until next spring at the earliest.
New Zealand Substacker and gender critical feminist Katrina Biggs shared recent survey data on gender identity ideology on her site: Kiwis Increasingly Don't Buy Into Gender Ideology, Say Five Poll Results In The Last Year.
In a Scotland-Australia clash, author JK Rowling weighed in on new South Australian court rules that implied all court participants would have to use a transgender defendant’s preferred pronouns. The judge responsible for the new guidelines swore that he didn’t mean that victims would be required to do so.
With that, it’s Friday, I’m going to pour myself a glass of chardonnay this evening and relax in the glow of a warm fire while I contemplate the Golden Rule, Golden Means, and the Golden Snitch. Have a wonderful weekend, and please share your thoughts below and through this form.
Kate, your round-up is top of the line, as always. It’s come to the point where, as soon as I see it’s available, I stop reading any other morning news and go right for it, so thank you, thank you, thank you! I was very interested in your perspective on the election outcomes, particularly as to school board races. I would love to hear more from you about what is at issue here, with your deep knowledge of school boards and the issues you’re seeing from that vantage point. You note, for example, that voters were not keen on “restrictions on LGBT curricula.” I’d be interested in learning more about what kinds of things were being proposed. I worry, for example, that schools are infested, among other things, with DEI consultants who are promoting things like the genderbread person and the gender spectrum and are generally confusing children by conflating issues of self-expression with issues of biological fact. I wonder what you’re seeing, whether you share these concerns, and what you think is the right way to go about addressing them?
Thanks, Kate - I'm with Susan, always so many great updates. I appreciated Leor Sapir's "golden mean fallacy" tweet, which unpacks why "be like Europe" may oversimplify what we want to demand of our medical system as regards "gender affirming care". I'm grateful that political scientists, and activists like Corinna Cohn, are offering ways to think through where we are and how to effect change.