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?
Your worries are on point, but most liberals are already convinced we all have gender identities, meaning a deep inner feeling about our personal alignment with sex stereotypes. When school board candidates question this being taught in schools, they come across as hard-right Q-anon types who are anti-LGBT everything, and this does not play well in blue or purple districts. I think that candidates in blue or purple districts need to stick to the clear right for parents to be informed about their children's mental health. Leave it to the rest of us to gradually help those on the left to understand the larger issues.
I'm going to broaden the scope of this comment since I just listened to the latest subscriber episode of Blocked and Reported. Katie Herzog talks about school board races and is right on the money: these races are rarely about one thing. Voters are interested in academics, budgets (taxes if you're in that kind of jurisdiction), and then whatever drama is going on locally--which may be academics or budgets or perhaps the firing of the popular high school principal. If you're running, parental notification can only be one part of your message, and if any reader is considering running, let me know! I'm happy to talk!
PS: I also absolutely LOVE your definition of “gender identity” as “a deep inner feeling about our personal alignment with sex stereotypes.” I hope you don’t mind if some of us steal that one as we are out there trying to educate our friends and neighbors!
Kate, this is supremely good advice. Thank you so much for taking the time. What you say is also encouraging and validating of continuing the slow-bore, often frustrating work of educating others.
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.
Thank you for all of these updates. This is so helpful! I do want to point out one thing that bothered me. I would rather not characterize bans on unnecessary medical interventions in minors with permanent and detrimental effects and no scientific basis as “right wing” youth medicalization bans. I know these bans are often supported by people on the right, but the bans themselves are not “right wing.”
I was having a Gender Critical reddit flashback watching all the vitriol on Twitter for a man in a blue dress, Matt. I don't know if you spent any time in that subreddit, but it was astonishingly toxic--more male critical than gender critical. There are surely some angry trolls and transwidows out there who could do with some refreshers on the golden rule. For me, the entire purpose of this project is for men in dresses to wear their dresses and know they're men! I was proud of all of you sticking up for Phil, although I'm never sure if that makes things better or worse on that site. On the bright side, I bought his book as a result and will be diving into it next week.
I am not sticking up for Phil. Not mad you say so but I have literally not stuck up for him one time and it is weird that I am accused of same?
Your correspondent is perplexed that honest reporting is deemed a Trojan Horse Conspiracies™ to feed the children of the village to a dragon because a fairy showed up at the inn while St. George was in town
"Sticking up for" was too short-hand for you unashamedly noting his presence, his right to attend the conference, and your right to meet and talk with him.
I watched the Genspect conference online, and I heard a woman respond to Wilfred Reilly that the military had collected data suggesting that 30% of service people who identified as trans had detransitioned (i.e., stopped taking medication). Did anyone catch the woman's name? I would love to see this research.
That was Zhenya Abbruzzese--the data she quoted was from the VA and included military families. I imagine there are trans teens in any American subpopulation of teens these days. I'm sure you can get the papers she mentioned if you email SEGM: https://segm.org/contact_us
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?
Your worries are on point, but most liberals are already convinced we all have gender identities, meaning a deep inner feeling about our personal alignment with sex stereotypes. When school board candidates question this being taught in schools, they come across as hard-right Q-anon types who are anti-LGBT everything, and this does not play well in blue or purple districts. I think that candidates in blue or purple districts need to stick to the clear right for parents to be informed about their children's mental health. Leave it to the rest of us to gradually help those on the left to understand the larger issues.
I'm going to broaden the scope of this comment since I just listened to the latest subscriber episode of Blocked and Reported. Katie Herzog talks about school board races and is right on the money: these races are rarely about one thing. Voters are interested in academics, budgets (taxes if you're in that kind of jurisdiction), and then whatever drama is going on locally--which may be academics or budgets or perhaps the firing of the popular high school principal. If you're running, parental notification can only be one part of your message, and if any reader is considering running, let me know! I'm happy to talk!
PS: I also absolutely LOVE your definition of “gender identity” as “a deep inner feeling about our personal alignment with sex stereotypes.” I hope you don’t mind if some of us steal that one as we are out there trying to educate our friends and neighbors!
Kate, this is supremely good advice. Thank you so much for taking the time. What you say is also encouraging and validating of continuing the slow-bore, often frustrating work of educating others.
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.
Thank you for all of these updates. This is so helpful! I do want to point out one thing that bothered me. I would rather not characterize bans on unnecessary medical interventions in minors with permanent and detrimental effects and no scientific basis as “right wing” youth medicalization bans. I know these bans are often supported by people on the right, but the bans themselves are not “right wing.”
Corinna was great. But now you have to be cancelled for wrongthink I'm afraid, turn over that TERF card Kate
I was having a Gender Critical reddit flashback watching all the vitriol on Twitter for a man in a blue dress, Matt. I don't know if you spent any time in that subreddit, but it was astonishingly toxic--more male critical than gender critical. There are surely some angry trolls and transwidows out there who could do with some refreshers on the golden rule. For me, the entire purpose of this project is for men in dresses to wear their dresses and know they're men! I was proud of all of you sticking up for Phil, although I'm never sure if that makes things better or worse on that site. On the bright side, I bought his book as a result and will be diving into it next week.
I didn't understand the problem until I listened to Ritchie and Michelle some of the background. And how they feel about genspect as detransioners.
If you FF to the last 20 minutes they discuss it.
https://youtu.be/v2ZwU57McmU?si=bSCSbZVfIEdqd-6f
I am not sticking up for Phil. Not mad you say so but I have literally not stuck up for him one time and it is weird that I am accused of same?
Your correspondent is perplexed that honest reporting is deemed a Trojan Horse Conspiracies™ to feed the children of the village to a dragon because a fairy showed up at the inn while St. George was in town
"Sticking up for" was too short-hand for you unashamedly noting his presence, his right to attend the conference, and your right to meet and talk with him.
I watched the Genspect conference online, and I heard a woman respond to Wilfred Reilly that the military had collected data suggesting that 30% of service people who identified as trans had detransitioned (i.e., stopped taking medication). Did anyone catch the woman's name? I would love to see this research.
That was Zhenya Abbruzzese--the data she quoted was from the VA and included military families. I imagine there are trans teens in any American subpopulation of teens these days. I'm sure you can get the papers she mentioned if you email SEGM: https://segm.org/contact_us
You can watch an interview with Abbruzzese here: https://youtu.be/YhLA02Dtupc?si=F1G_3fl46Mpj-WQ5