BROADview in Brief

Hang it up and see what tomorrow brings...

Movement Advancement Project. 2024. "Equality Maps: Bans on Best Practice Medical Care for Transgender Youth." https://www.mapresearch.org/equality-maps/healthcare/youth_medical_care_bans

Let us all gather ‘round and say a million thank yous to Kate, who has done an amazing job on BROADview in Brief! For some bizarre reason, she has a few other things going on in her life besides uncompensated chronicling of the gender culture wars, so she’s hanging up her hat…although I hope it won’t be permanent! I am up to my ears in work so for now, we might publish Alejandra Q’s exhaustive weekly list of comments without commentary. But when can I keep myself from commentating? Thank you so very much, Kate. You’ve helped all of us stay informed and entertained.

—LD

So, where are we at in the continuing American conflict over the medicalization of gender at the end of January 2024? Even the LGBT think tank Movement Advancement Project (MAP) can’t keep up with the daily changes. That asterisk on Ohio was based on Governor Mike DeWine’s proposed administrative medical restrictions before the veto override—which was completed by the Ohio Senate on Wednesday. Meanwhile, Maine legislators were seeking this week to add the green shield and become a gender medicalization refuge state. Minors would have been able to travel to Maine to become wards of the state and seek state-funded housing, drugs, and surgeries over the objections of their parents in other parts of the country. The bill--which conservatives naturally called the gender trafficking bill--failed in committee on Thursday, 12-0.

Note that MAP repeatedly refers to gender medicalization as “best practice,” and many journalists regularly refer to the support of American medical organizations for these interventions without acknowledging that it’s the questioning of these so-called best practices that’s at the heart of many of the new legal restrictions. The focus from the left is almost invariably on anti-LGBT sentiment, sweeping any concern or curiosity about the evidence base for medicalizing gender under the rug. But polling released this week shows that nearly 30% of Gen Z Americans identify as LGBT, and at some point, this group needs to get curious about its own healthcare. Bring on that American Academy of Pediatrics evidence review of gender-affirming care, please--timing unknown.  As the AAP is a medical lobby group, as opposed to a national research institution, I’m skeptical that they will ultimately commission a genuinely independent review or transparently release the results, given the enormous legal liability this may put them under in American courts. We’ll see.

What else is new this week?

• The Associated Press reported that a group of transgender veterans is suing the Department of Veterans Affairs to provide coverage for gender surgeries.

• Missouri legislators are debating whether to remove the four-year sunset on that state’s gender medicalization ban. 

• Meanwhile, in Mississippi, a bill is advancing that would require teachers to inform parents if their child identifies as another gender at school, is using facilities intended for the opposite sex, or identifies as “non-human.” No more coming out as a furry at school, kiddos--ruff!

• I tried to find less biased reporting on West Virginia’s proposed SB 194, which would raise the age of majority for gender medicalization to 21, but I couldn’t, so I’ll share the bill's text here. It is certainly more extreme than what has passed in other states, but some reporters claim that it calls for therapists to “cure” being transgender when what it calls for is for therapists to intend to cure gender dysphoria, not affirm the distress. Please read SB 194 and the similarly controversial SB 197 for yourselves. 

• In sports news, the Florida High School Sports Association has refused to lower the $16,500 fine against Monarch High School in Coconut Creek, FL. Monarch allowed a transwoman/trans-identified male high school athlete to play in 33 interscholastic games against other teams over two years, in violation of Florida state law.

• Also in sports news, the Ladies Professional Golf Association has commissioned a poll of its players after a transwoman/trans-identified male won the ironically named NXXT Women’s Classic at Howley-in-the-Hills, FL. More like NX?T, right? The LPGA dropped its requirement that players be born female when it was sued by a transwoman golfer in 2010. 

• And finally, Lia Thomas has asked the Court of Arbitration in Sports to overturn the World Aquatics ban on swimmers who have gone through male puberty in female swimming competitions.

The biggest international news was probably British professor Jo Phoenix’s legal victory against Open University for unfair dismissal, victimization, and harassment over her gender-critical views. Thank you also to subscriber Sue for sharing the link to Phoenix’s interview on the BBC’s Women’s Hour. It’s well worth the listen. Almost every week, I am impressed by the clear progress being made in UK courts by British believers in biological sex, as they win the right to state their views in more and more public settings. I am simultaneously gobsmacked every week by the continuing challenges over there—this time by the London area council that is prosecuting a resident for putting gender-critical posters on her own front door. Good grief!

• Also in the UK, British boarding schools are making the news for following American protocols instead of British government guidance and allowing students to sleep in dorms based on their gender identity instead of their sex. This has been common practice in the United States for years. In addition, many American boarding schools have created all-gender coed dorms specifically to accommodate non-binary students (that article is older, all-gender high school dorms are now commonplace).

• In Canada, teachers will learn that the gender binary is a colonial, white supremacist construction thanks to a federally funded Trans-Affirming Toolkit.

• An Italian hospital discovered that a transman was five months pregnant right before a scheduled hysterectomy. According to the Daily Mail, the transman will be the child’s biological mother but the legal father. There were naturally many concerns about the testosterone the patient was taking. Excess androgens, such as testosterone, are known to cause birth defects in humans.

• The South Korean government is proposing that non-medicalized transwomen be subject to the same military service requirement as other males, but they’ll be allowed to work in social services roles rather than serve active duty.

Finishing this In Brief is bittersweet, as it is my last. The new year swept in with some expected changes and some surprises, too. I’d long known that I needed to shake up my work life, so I handed in my resignation this month, effective June 1. Yes, I’m job hunting, so if you know anyone who needs a librarian/researcher/editor, please let me know! However, I was simultaneously asked to step into a temporary teaching position for these last months that is requiring enough classroom prep to keep me from writing Lisa’s weekly news summary. Many thanks to Lisa for allowing me to help with her wonderful BROADview project. Working with her and Alejandra Q has been a delight, and I hope it’s been helpful for you to get a regular news round-up of this crazy, crazy ride we call gender. If you’d like to keep in touch, you can reach me at klgparker@gmail.com or find me online at X at kateparkersb. Cheers, and keep truckin’.

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I am always grateful for the research assistance of Alejandra Q.