BROADview in Brief

State mayhem, pregnancy experiments, spa mayhem and more!

Photo by Jess @ Harper Sunday on Unsplash

The states continue to battle it out over gender, with citizens reacting in horror or gratitude, depending on their attitude toward youth gender medicine. Some docs in Texas report looking to leave the state because of recent bans—a ban some families are suing to reverse—and some families are driving hours to access puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones. Families and providers are suing to undo the ban in Montana, too. In some states, The Hill reports, those seeking either gender interventions or abortion may be at increased risk of state surveillance.

Continuing the overreaction on the left, The Daily Mail reports that Seattle schools may offer “gender-affirming care” to students as young as 11—for free! Maine is also expanding efforts to increase youth access to gender medicine without parental consent. “Gov. Janet Mills signed the law on Tuesday, which will allow older teens to receive gender-affirming care if they have been diagnosed with gender dysphoria, have received counseling, are experiencing harm from not receiving care, and have parents that refuse to support treatment,” Maine Public reports.

Perhaps policymakers in those states should read the story of Prisha Mosely, the latest detransitioner to launch a lawsuit against her providers. In other misguidedness, some of these bans provide exceptions for intersex surgeries, when in fact many people with intersex conditions have lobbied for the right to not be medicated or operated on, and simply allowed to be different.

Louisiana legislators overrode Governor Edwards’ veto to pass HB 648, which prevents medical transition until adulthood in that state, aka a “ban.” At this point, more than 20 states have passed laws that ban hormonal or surgical transition for minors or both. A judicial injunction against the ban in Kentucky that isn’t noted on the New York Times map due to its timing was lifted on July 14th. 

In Virginia, Governor Youngkin is trying to thread the trans rights needle for Virginia students and parents. Does he get it right? His legislative efforts may be necessary for those of us with concerns about the impact of social transition, especially if more judges find that absent such laws, the Constitution does not prevent schools from hiding social transitions from parents. 

This week, journalists noticed the June publication of an academic paper in Qualitative Research in Health called Medical Uncertainty and Reproduction of the “Normal”: Decision-making Around Testosterone Therapy in Transgender Pregnancy, and it certainly feels like we’re finding new lows in gender research. The authors argue that “health care providers’ precaution-focused labor in this highly-gendered context of pregnancy care seems driven largely by their concerns about producing normative offspring rather than [the] non-normative gestating patients themselves.” They suggest that perhaps clinicians should conduct live experiments on pregnant transmen and their fetuses to learn more about the impact of testosterone—a known teratogen [which can cause fetal malformation]—on babies. The story was covered in The Daily Mail, where we learned that the British government funded this research with £500,000 in grants paid for by UK taxpayers. Medical ethicists Jennifer Lahl and Kallie Fell went into even more depth at Reality’s Last Stand. I’m trying to understand how the paper’s authors could go so far wrong in their conclusions. I can only believe that they lack foundational moral principles around the well-being of babies and children that most of us take for granted. I’m sure there will be more rebuttals, but it is profoundly troubling that they need to be written. Still, it’s good to see the words “medical uncertainty” so prominently in a gender research paper.

Also in science news, the Society for Evidence Based Medicine published an analysis of recent Danish research on transition and suicide. They note the paper’s strengths and weaknesses and ultimately conclude that it doesn’t help much with current clinical dilemmas. However, if you’ve wondered why so many peer-reviewed medical papers don’t make it into evidence-based reviews, this is a terrific breakdown of the challenges in finding quality research that actually answers key questions. 

Meanwhile, Natasha Robinson writes in The Australian that psychiatrists in Australia and New Zealand have started speaking up about the difficulty of speaking up when it comes to the weak evidence for current practices in youth gender medicine. As someone once said (not sure if it was Lisa Littman or Abraham Lincoln), courage is a social contagion; I have every faith that as more clinicians share their questions and concerns out loud and in public, more tolerant and productive professional conversations will return.

A BROADview subscriber noted that sex-segregated nude spas continue to make headlines. After last month’s ruling against the Olympus Spa in Seattle—a Korean spa that had only allowed women and post-op transwomen before being threatened by the Washington State Human Rights Commission, spa owners vowed to take their case to the Supreme Court. The knock-on effect was predictable from the left, as a local public facilities district passed a vote of no confidence in its only Asian member to try to strong-arm her into resigning because she supported the spa during June protests. News flash: claiming that she should be censured due to the protest’s costs is a red herring. Many protests, marches, and calls to action cost money due to business closures and police involvement. Think CHOPS/CHAZ—the surrendering of a protest/riot-filled Seattle neighborhood, post-George Floyd, which cost both lives and money. You’ll only get called to personal account for those costs if you’re elected or appointed to a public position and have a minority viewpoint.

Last week, I’d forgotten to include the Florida ruling against New Orleans House, a gay spa that had areas for male-only nudity. I’m puzzled by the Florida decision since it seems to imply that no type of sex or even gender segregation in intimate spaces is acceptable. It’s hard to believe all the locker rooms in Florida need to be unisex…but maybe I’ll be surprised in more ways than one if I ever see Ron DeSantis at the Tallahassee Y.

If only I had a lot more frequent flyer miles! What I’d give to be in London on Saturday for the staged reading of Mermaids vs The Alliance! I mentioned this case out of the UK a couple of weeks ago and remember flipping from amusement to astonishment to awe as I read the live coverage from Tribunal Tweets back in 2022. It’s delightful to see that playwright Phelim McAleer is bringing the court transcript to life, and I’d love to hear who you think should be cast in a movie version. I’m thinking something like “The Alliance Battles the Pink Robots, Pt 1” for the main musical theme, but perhaps Disney Studios will have other suggestions. Are any subscribers going?

Cheers, and as always, share your tips and suggestions here.