Your round-ups are always excellent, and this one was particularly welcome. It was indeed heartening to see Starmer and the Labour Party finally change course. There is more to do, of course, but it was a relief to see some light finally break through. So in contrast, BTW, to the Judiciary Subcommittee meeting yesterday on pediatric gender-related medical interventions. I made a clip that includes my Congressmember, Jerry Nadler, followed by Paula Scanlan, a UPenn swimmer, and Chloe Cole. In the face of the courageous testimony from these brave young women, his partisan-fueled disregard for the calamity befalling women and girls, relying on bad evidence and sources, was particularly dismaying. https://www.c-span.org/video/?c5079931/user-clip-hearing-gender-affirming-care-minors (I, BTW, am a lifelong Democrat. I did call his office after that. I’ll lift up what I posted yesterday about the points I covered in that call, in case anyone else wants to call their own Democratic Congressmember on this.)
I commend to all here, as one example from Kate’s missive, taking some time to view presentations from the ICONS summit, all of which are now online. I have listened to all of the presentations on Day 1 so far, and they are really impressive. Carole Hooven’s presentation was particularly wrenching. I had not known that she, like Kathleen Stock, had been hounded out of her job as an evolutionary biologist at Harvard. Linda Blade had a very illuminating presentation including a timeline on how IOC has gone wrong over the years in handling the issue of including biological males who identify as trans in women’s sports. And Helen Joyce, as always, was excellent.
Sorry to go on so long, but just to say, again, Kate, your weekly missives are wonderful, and in this case so heartening. Indeed, let me not forget to underscore that the photos and reports coming out of the Mermaids v. LGB Alliance performance should lift everyone’s hearts. I am so, so grateful to Kate Harris and Bev Jackson for fighting hard and standing tall.
As promised, here is info about the Judiciary Subcommittee meeting and talking points I used with Nadler’s office:
Leor Sapir livetweeted the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution and Limited Government hearing on "The Dangers and Due Process Violations of 'Gender-Affirming Care' for Children." https://twitter.com/LeorSapir/status/1684566667685404674
I recommend that anyone with a Democratic Congressperson, particularly if the Congressmember participated in the Committee hearing, call or write and register any concerns you have. Here is what I did:
After viewing some of the hearing content, I called my Congressperson, Jerry Nadler, to note concerns I had with the Democratic side approach to the issues surrounding GAC (gender affirming care). FYI, in this case I kept to the term GAC, used in the hearings, though ordinarily I would not, so as not to get sidetracked from the overall points I wanted to make.
The very pleasant young woman with whom I spoke made sure to take down my name address information, and I feel confident she wrote my comments down as well as is possible when transcribing a call. I chose not to write in this case, as I never get an answer, and I also wanted to convey tone as well as content.
Here is what I covered with her, making sure to maintain a calm, non-combative tone throughout. After noting the hearing as the reason for my call, I made these points:
1. While Rs may be using this hearing for their own purposes, it is essential for the Democrats to become properly informed about GAC.
2. Some Ds characterized the concerns raised about GAC as “extreme right wing,” so I feel it important to note that I am a progressive Democrat, and I also have serious concerns about how GAC is being delivered on the ground.
3. I noted that I have worked hard to educate myself on the facts on the ground, including coming to know affected parents.
4. I advised that, from what I am aware of with regard to Shannon Minter’s testimony, she is not accurately representing the state of the science or quality of GAC as it is currently being delivered.
5. I recommended, as a starting point to learn more about these issues, that Nadler read Time to Think, by Hannah Barnes. I explained she was a BBC investigative reporter, and I found the book to offer a fair and thorough description of what had occurred at Tavistock.
6. I recommended also that Nadler read the Cass Report, which examined the delivery of GAC at Tavistock and determined there were many problems with the way GAC was being delivered and recommended closure of Tavistock and significant changes to the care delivery as a result.
We exchanged pleasantries about the hot weather, and I thanked her and Nadler’s office for all their hard work in our behalf.
Feel free to use any or all of this if you call or write your congressperson.
It's heartening to see a law firm is dedicating itself to detransition lawsuits. While I hate encouraging the lawyers in the US, nothing is going to shut this gender identity shit down faster than lawsuits.I hope they go after transactivists as well.
If they, or other lawsuits focus on free speech angles, then they can go after the transactivists too. Let's see how they like 'shutting down' 'women's' speech from the OTHER side of the fence.
Thank you so much, Kate! The Labour Party news feels big and the WaPo-Kaiser poll is a good tool in the toolkit for, is the active verb now, "peaking" people? Some of the people around me, when they realize that you can separate your positions on "basic human rights for people who identify as trans" and "gender affirming care for minors" or "men in women's sports/prisons", they start to reflect. It helps that the majority of those polled seemed able to walk that line.
Does anyone here read transactivist Erin Reed's substack? I recommend reading it as a way of keeping up with not only the arguments, but how they are made. Note that when she says that rapid onset gender dysphoria is debunked, that no specific mention of the work of Lisa Littman and Michael Bailey are made, as examples., etc.
To paraphrase the doctor who testified yesterday from the floor of Congress: Every "sex change" surgery is a failure. No one can change sex.
She said a euphemism when she quoted the Swedish study (death records of those who underwent surgery to "reassign" (Cecelia Dheine, 2011, Karolinska Inst.) which Ms. Dheine and her colleagues forced by combining male and female rates of suicide post "reassignment." They combined the male and female rates of suicide compared to the typical age-matched Swedish cohort. (this was death records, completed suicides). The female rate of suicide post "reassignment" surgeries was 40 TIMES higher than the intact Swedes. There were more males found for the study, so the 18 TIMES higher rate of suicide, when combined with females, brought the rate down to 19 TIMES higher among males and females a decade past the surgeries. Dr. Stephen Levine, formerly affirming psychiatrist, brought that out in his testimony in Florida.
I am happy to say that I just landed on TERF Island today! My family is visiting Scotland. My ROGD daughter asked about “whether women have rights here” and I let her know about the awesome Scottish feminists--(without mentioning the trans issue that provoked them).
"“of the estimated 1.6 million trans and non-binary Americans aged 13 and above, only 31% take cross-sex hormones and 16% opt for surgery" - Lisa, can you please give us the link to the original source of this quote , please? Thanks! (Sorry if it is in the text and I missed it)
I'm just left scratching my head at why we should try to erase the men's category in term for an "open" one. Shouldn't there just be three categories: men's, women's, and open?
It's not erasing the men's category - men will still dominate in their own terrain as well as most other areas. Reason being that women who are impersonating men don't pose a threat in sports competition with men. Isn't that what it's all been about in the first place!? Women getting squashed by male interlopers in their sports,? But you don't see any women getting hired by the Patriots football team or Arsenal or men's basketball, soccer, etc. Men not having their own domain? Hardly. Female impersonators don't want to compete with men on the male teams and women can't very well compete with men so that always leaves men's sport's unscathed.
Yeah, but boys and men also need their single sex spaces. The consequences of lack of such spaces are not as dire as for women of course, but it's not fair to them nevertheless. Men shouldn't have to accept women into their locker rooms. Men should have a chance to have a team of just men when it comes to sports. They shouldn't have to worry about injuring their female opponents or violating their "real men don't hit women" honor code in sports .
Your round-ups are always excellent, and this one was particularly welcome. It was indeed heartening to see Starmer and the Labour Party finally change course. There is more to do, of course, but it was a relief to see some light finally break through. So in contrast, BTW, to the Judiciary Subcommittee meeting yesterday on pediatric gender-related medical interventions. I made a clip that includes my Congressmember, Jerry Nadler, followed by Paula Scanlan, a UPenn swimmer, and Chloe Cole. In the face of the courageous testimony from these brave young women, his partisan-fueled disregard for the calamity befalling women and girls, relying on bad evidence and sources, was particularly dismaying. https://www.c-span.org/video/?c5079931/user-clip-hearing-gender-affirming-care-minors (I, BTW, am a lifelong Democrat. I did call his office after that. I’ll lift up what I posted yesterday about the points I covered in that call, in case anyone else wants to call their own Democratic Congressmember on this.)
I commend to all here, as one example from Kate’s missive, taking some time to view presentations from the ICONS summit, all of which are now online. I have listened to all of the presentations on Day 1 so far, and they are really impressive. Carole Hooven’s presentation was particularly wrenching. I had not known that she, like Kathleen Stock, had been hounded out of her job as an evolutionary biologist at Harvard. Linda Blade had a very illuminating presentation including a timeline on how IOC has gone wrong over the years in handling the issue of including biological males who identify as trans in women’s sports. And Helen Joyce, as always, was excellent.
Sorry to go on so long, but just to say, again, Kate, your weekly missives are wonderful, and in this case so heartening. Indeed, let me not forget to underscore that the photos and reports coming out of the Mermaids v. LGB Alliance performance should lift everyone’s hearts. I am so, so grateful to Kate Harris and Bev Jackson for fighting hard and standing tall.
As promised, here is info about the Judiciary Subcommittee meeting and talking points I used with Nadler’s office:
Leor Sapir livetweeted the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution and Limited Government hearing on "The Dangers and Due Process Violations of 'Gender-Affirming Care' for Children." https://twitter.com/LeorSapir/status/1684566667685404674
A direct link to the hearing is here: https://judiciary.house.gov/committee-activity/hearings/dangers-and-due-process-violations-gender-affirming-care
I recommend that anyone with a Democratic Congressperson, particularly if the Congressmember participated in the Committee hearing, call or write and register any concerns you have. Here is what I did:
After viewing some of the hearing content, I called my Congressperson, Jerry Nadler, to note concerns I had with the Democratic side approach to the issues surrounding GAC (gender affirming care). FYI, in this case I kept to the term GAC, used in the hearings, though ordinarily I would not, so as not to get sidetracked from the overall points I wanted to make.
The very pleasant young woman with whom I spoke made sure to take down my name address information, and I feel confident she wrote my comments down as well as is possible when transcribing a call. I chose not to write in this case, as I never get an answer, and I also wanted to convey tone as well as content.
Here is what I covered with her, making sure to maintain a calm, non-combative tone throughout. After noting the hearing as the reason for my call, I made these points:
1. While Rs may be using this hearing for their own purposes, it is essential for the Democrats to become properly informed about GAC.
2. Some Ds characterized the concerns raised about GAC as “extreme right wing,” so I feel it important to note that I am a progressive Democrat, and I also have serious concerns about how GAC is being delivered on the ground.
3. I noted that I have worked hard to educate myself on the facts on the ground, including coming to know affected parents.
4. I advised that, from what I am aware of with regard to Shannon Minter’s testimony, she is not accurately representing the state of the science or quality of GAC as it is currently being delivered.
5. I recommended, as a starting point to learn more about these issues, that Nadler read Time to Think, by Hannah Barnes. I explained she was a BBC investigative reporter, and I found the book to offer a fair and thorough description of what had occurred at Tavistock.
6. I recommended also that Nadler read the Cass Report, which examined the delivery of GAC at Tavistock and determined there were many problems with the way GAC was being delivered and recommended closure of Tavistock and significant changes to the care delivery as a result.
We exchanged pleasantries about the hot weather, and I thanked her and Nadler’s office for all their hard work in our behalf.
Feel free to use any or all of this if you call or write your congressperson.
It's heartening to see a law firm is dedicating itself to detransition lawsuits. While I hate encouraging the lawyers in the US, nothing is going to shut this gender identity shit down faster than lawsuits.I hope they go after transactivists as well.
Very true. Nothing that med centers hate more than lawsuits.
If they, or other lawsuits focus on free speech angles, then they can go after the transactivists too. Let's see how they like 'shutting down' 'women's' speech from the OTHER side of the fence.
Thank you so much, Kate! The Labour Party news feels big and the WaPo-Kaiser poll is a good tool in the toolkit for, is the active verb now, "peaking" people? Some of the people around me, when they realize that you can separate your positions on "basic human rights for people who identify as trans" and "gender affirming care for minors" or "men in women's sports/prisons", they start to reflect. It helps that the majority of those polled seemed able to walk that line.
I'm so proud of our British feminists!
Transactivists allow no dissent because they have built a house of cards that’s starting to wobble
Does anyone here read transactivist Erin Reed's substack? I recommend reading it as a way of keeping up with not only the arguments, but how they are made. Note that when she says that rapid onset gender dysphoria is debunked, that no specific mention of the work of Lisa Littman and Michael Bailey are made, as examples., etc.
https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/five-myths-in-the-house-anti-trans
And speaking of Dr. Bailey, Did anyone read this by him?...it is excellent:
https://www.thefp.com/p/trans-activists-killed-my-scientific-paper?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
To paraphrase the doctor who testified yesterday from the floor of Congress: Every "sex change" surgery is a failure. No one can change sex.
She said a euphemism when she quoted the Swedish study (death records of those who underwent surgery to "reassign" (Cecelia Dheine, 2011, Karolinska Inst.) which Ms. Dheine and her colleagues forced by combining male and female rates of suicide post "reassignment." They combined the male and female rates of suicide compared to the typical age-matched Swedish cohort. (this was death records, completed suicides). The female rate of suicide post "reassignment" surgeries was 40 TIMES higher than the intact Swedes. There were more males found for the study, so the 18 TIMES higher rate of suicide, when combined with females, brought the rate down to 19 TIMES higher among males and females a decade past the surgeries. Dr. Stephen Levine, formerly affirming psychiatrist, brought that out in his testimony in Florida.
Insurance companies do not like lawsuits so this is a could step in the right direction.
Jealous Labor is waking up here on the US the Dems are doubling down on this nonsense
I am happy to say that I just landed on TERF Island today! My family is visiting Scotland. My ROGD daughter asked about “whether women have rights here” and I let her know about the awesome Scottish feminists--(without mentioning the trans issue that provoked them).
"“of the estimated 1.6 million trans and non-binary Americans aged 13 and above, only 31% take cross-sex hormones and 16% opt for surgery" - Lisa, can you please give us the link to the original source of this quote , please? Thanks! (Sorry if it is in the text and I missed it)
The quote is from the linked Daily Mail article, MooninMamma, but they're referencing this survey: https://www.kff.org/other/poll-finding/kff-the-washington-post-trans-survey/
Thanks, Kate
I'm just left scratching my head at why we should try to erase the men's category in term for an "open" one. Shouldn't there just be three categories: men's, women's, and open?
I think it's because there currently aren't enough transgender athletes to run a separate open category for them, but who knows that the future holds!
It's not erasing the men's category - men will still dominate in their own terrain as well as most other areas. Reason being that women who are impersonating men don't pose a threat in sports competition with men. Isn't that what it's all been about in the first place!? Women getting squashed by male interlopers in their sports,? But you don't see any women getting hired by the Patriots football team or Arsenal or men's basketball, soccer, etc. Men not having their own domain? Hardly. Female impersonators don't want to compete with men on the male teams and women can't very well compete with men so that always leaves men's sport's unscathed.
Yeah, but boys and men also need their single sex spaces. The consequences of lack of such spaces are not as dire as for women of course, but it's not fair to them nevertheless. Men shouldn't have to accept women into their locker rooms. Men should have a chance to have a team of just men when it comes to sports. They shouldn't have to worry about injuring their female opponents or violating their "real men don't hit women" honor code in sports .