Well, that was a depressing read. Sad to hear about Protect Kids CA. People worked really hard to make that happen. Thanks to everyone for giving it your all for our kids. We have two more weeks living in the US, I’m so done with all of it. These farewell conversations with my friends are depressing … they really just can’t believe I will move our family out of this country because it’s so bad and I want to give my daughter a chance at a normal life. They just have no idea what we’ve been through even after telling them. They don’t believe me! Busting into our meeting at an eating clinic to demand we give our girl T, constantly having the pediatrician try to send her to the gender clinic to wash their hands of her, ‘not my problem!’, and let’s not even talk about attending university here or what you see walking into the public library. Nuts. All of it.
What country, if it's okay to ask? How about just move to a better US state than California? None of my business of course. I'd love to move to Ireland myself (no children or grandchildren to protect, making me a lucky woman in that sense) but Ireland is as crazy gender-wise as the US from what I've heard. In any case, much good luck to you, and what a good mother you are! 👍❤️
Thank you! It’s a new chapter! Prefer not to say where but it has socialized medicine and therefore not going insane with medicalization as is happening here. Also, the government is actively questioning what is happening, embracing the Cass Report and the general population seems to understand that sex is real and gender is a construct. Regarding staying in the states, our daughter is college bound and I don’t think any school here is free of ideology, even the JC’s. Plus, seeing your kid be used as a political pawn by both sides isn’t a wonderful feeling, as much as I agree with the GOP on this. It’s simply become a political issue and it shouldn’t be, if only doctors and medical boards would do their jobs. Also, community. We want our daughter to live in a place where you must integrate, interact and respect one another because you live on top of each other, take transit together etc. And you touch grass a lot more than is possible here in the states. I’m sure it’s no panacea but we have to give it a shot as staying put isn’t helping her.
I hope you will write in from wherever you land—it would be cheering to learn there is a place in the world that still adheres to fact and common sense.
Thanks to you and Alejandra, as always, for your good and hard work. It is phenomenally depressing. There is currently a special election in NYC to replace the retiring state assembly person for my district. There are 5 D candidates, no R. I have written the three candidates for whom I was able to obtain a contact address to ask their position on 5 issue areas within the gender identity realm. One has asked to have a conversation with me today by phone, so I have been preparing for that. In the process, my research indicates that not one of the candidates holds a sex-realist view. This is not surprising, but it shows how entrenched these problems are. This is going to take years, perhaps generations, to undo.
FYI, here is template text of the issue areas I sent to the candidates. Feel free to use this with your candidates, if of interest:
I received a mailing from ___________, and I like what I see both in the mailing and on _______’s website. I write because there is one issue of great importance to me that I don’t see listed, which is ________’s stance on women’s rights and boundaries in the face of inappropriate transactivist demands. Please understand that I am a progressive Democrat of longstanding, and it is from that vantage point that I am alarmed by the failure of the Democrats to step up on this issue, thus leaving an open field for Republicans to weaponize it to the detriment of women and girls and their families, as well as to the chances of success for the Democratic party as a whole.
Below is an outline of areas of particular concern to me, as well as recommendations for how Democrats might wrest this contentious debate away from Republicans and position themselves in a positive way for all concerned. I look forward to your response, which will figure heavily into how I cast my vote.
Medical and Surgical Interventions for Minors with Gender Dysphoria
Issue: It has been widely noted that the profile of minors presenting to gender clinics, here and abroad, has vastly changed in recent years. This is resulting in many minors with complex psychosocial issues receiving medical and surgical interventions that are not appropriate to their needs.
Proposed Democratic Position: Pause provision of such care to minors (puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgeries) pending completion of a national systematic review, conducted by or through a respected entity such as NIH. Models for such reviews include those that have been done in England (the Cass Review), Finland, and other European countries.
Issue: Biological girls and women are losing opportunities as the result of an increasing number of biological males competing in girls and women’s sports.
Proposed Democratic Position: In all sports where male biology and physiology confer a distinct advantage (this is particularly relevant post-puberty), reserve girls’ and womens’ sports only for biological girls and women (including biological girls and women who self-identify as, eg, non-binary) and offer an “open” category in which anyone at all can compete, no matter how they self-identify.
Resource: Martina Navratilova and Kim Shasby Jones, who have researched, written, and spoken extensively on this, can point you to many useful resources.
K-12 Schools
Issue: Children are being introduced to ideas and concepts within the rubric of gender identity that do not comport with their developmental stages and that encourage disassociation from their biology.
Proposed Democratic Position: Put a moratorium on all legislation, regulatory, and public policy efforts that promote gender identity concepts in K-12 school materials, activities, and curriculum. Allow individual schools/school districts and parents, without pressure to conform to any specific model, to ascertain the best way forward for their schools.
Health Care, Public Health, and Other Data Collection
Issue: Differences between the sexes are an important factor for analysis in many areas social and health scientists address. These include, for example, demography, physical and mental health, crime, education, and employment. It is critical to retain biological sex as a data point for all such purposes.
Proposed Democratic Position: Wherever biological sex is pertinent, data collection will include biological sex as a separate and distinct data point.
Resource: “Why Do We Need Data on Sex?”, by Alice Sullivan, Kath Murray, and Lisa Mackenzie, in Sex and Gender, A Contemporary Reader.
Federal Equality Act (H.R. 15 and S. 5 118th Congress); New York State’s proposed amendment to the state constitution (A1283 and S108, 2023-24 Legislative Session)
Issue: If the federal Equality Act and New York State’s proposed Amendment to the Constitution pass as currently written, gender identity and expression (self-identification) will supersede sex for all formerly sex-based rights.
Proposed Democratic Position: Rather than, as now proposed, redefining sex to include gender identity and gender expression, make a technical amendment to the proposed legislation to protect gender identity and gender expression as a new, separate protected class, alongside sex and other existing protected categories.
Resource: “Sex, Gender, and Equality in the United States: Confusion, Conflict, and Consequences,” by Callie H. Burt, in Sex and Gender, A Contemporary Reader. (Note: While this article discusses the Federal Equality Act, the same issues pertain to the proposed New York State Constitutional Amendment.)
Thank you for your consideration, and I look forward to hearing from you.
Thank You! That Federalist article on the trans takeover of state child welfare programs has the most informative links on the trans issue that I've ever seen in 1 article. Definitely worth bookmarking.
Canada is so far behind in the gender affirming care for minors. It’s wild how so many people accept the TRAs talking point without any reflection on how new this approach is and the lack of evidence supporting long-term benefits.
Regardless, I was happy to read this article on the CASS review and on a young woman’s experience with the gender clinic in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
It's hard to believe that Democrats would be so stupid to offer the American people the choice between reelecting Trump or requiring their high school and college aged daughters to share their restrooms and locker rooms with naked boys and men (aka trans women), but this is exactly what Biden has done with the changes he has enacted to Title IX of the
1972 Education Act. Once the people of this country realize what he has done they will certainly choose to reelect Trump in November.
Here's an analysis of the new regulations by the Foundation Against Intolerance and Racism (FAIR):
"The Final Rule is likely to result in sex-integration of all bathrooms and locker rooms because it prohibits discrimination on the basis of gender identity. After August 1st, if a school requires students to use facilities that align with their biological sex (which they are currently allowed to require under Federal law and regulations), a transgender student may file a discrimination complaint alleging that the school has violated Title IX by preventing him or her from using the bathroom that aligns with their gender identity."
I have had to re-read this passage (copied below) multiple times to try to understand whether the ban was or was not allowed to go into effect. It reminds me of some biological pathways I used to teach with multiple sequential activators and repressors. As for those, I had to work backwards from the ban, raising one finger for the ban going into effect, then a second finger for the restraining order, then a third finger for the request to overturn the restraining order, then a fourth finger for the rejection of the request to overturn the restraining order: even number of raised fingers = ban does not go into effect; odd number = ban goes into effect. Therefore, the ban does not go into effect. Whew!
“Ohio Supreme Court rejected Attorney General Dave Yost’s request to overturn a temporary restraining order preventing HB 68 from going into effect. HB 68 would ban both “gender affirming” interventions and trans-identified males from female sports.”
I have to ask if anyone has spotted a political cartoon that contrasts the reality-based argument in support of civil rights expressed with those iconic photos of a black men wearing the sign "I am a Man." as part of street protests back in the 1950's with today's trans activist (perhaps a very tall natal male in a dress) holding the sign "Trans women are women!" to express the surreal argument that supposedly justifies the privileges that trans women seem to be granted by every public institution (namely, the "right" to physically dominate and even injure natal females during sports competitions, the "right" to change legal ids on a whim, the "right" to dictate what others are allowed to say they believe, the "right" to medical interventions for a condition that is simultaneously "normal or natural" but also "life-threatening," etc., etc.)
Can we just get some gender neutral bathrooms separate from male and female ones? I know how guys act in the locker-room and that trans girl would totally be bullied.
That is one way and acceptable in the moment but does not address the real issue that maybe most of the trans kids are fearing: bullying. The parents and schools should be teaching, watching, preventing and punishing the bullying. There needs to be a lot more emphasis on self-acceptance (likely to drastically reduce the number of kids calling themself trans in the first place) and being respectful to one another.
Well, that was a depressing read. Sad to hear about Protect Kids CA. People worked really hard to make that happen. Thanks to everyone for giving it your all for our kids. We have two more weeks living in the US, I’m so done with all of it. These farewell conversations with my friends are depressing … they really just can’t believe I will move our family out of this country because it’s so bad and I want to give my daughter a chance at a normal life. They just have no idea what we’ve been through even after telling them. They don’t believe me! Busting into our meeting at an eating clinic to demand we give our girl T, constantly having the pediatrician try to send her to the gender clinic to wash their hands of her, ‘not my problem!’, and let’s not even talk about attending university here or what you see walking into the public library. Nuts. All of it.
What country, if it's okay to ask? How about just move to a better US state than California? None of my business of course. I'd love to move to Ireland myself (no children or grandchildren to protect, making me a lucky woman in that sense) but Ireland is as crazy gender-wise as the US from what I've heard. In any case, much good luck to you, and what a good mother you are! 👍❤️
Thank you! It’s a new chapter! Prefer not to say where but it has socialized medicine and therefore not going insane with medicalization as is happening here. Also, the government is actively questioning what is happening, embracing the Cass Report and the general population seems to understand that sex is real and gender is a construct. Regarding staying in the states, our daughter is college bound and I don’t think any school here is free of ideology, even the JC’s. Plus, seeing your kid be used as a political pawn by both sides isn’t a wonderful feeling, as much as I agree with the GOP on this. It’s simply become a political issue and it shouldn’t be, if only doctors and medical boards would do their jobs. Also, community. We want our daughter to live in a place where you must integrate, interact and respect one another because you live on top of each other, take transit together etc. And you touch grass a lot more than is possible here in the states. I’m sure it’s no panacea but we have to give it a shot as staying put isn’t helping her.
I hope you will write in from wherever you land—it would be cheering to learn there is a place in the world that still adheres to fact and common sense.
Yes! I will! I think I will go by NorCaltoEUMom if it isn’t taken! I wish it were taken, I’d love to connect with more parents who are doing the same.
Is it my imagination or are the number of news articles about gender wars increasing?
Or is this a particularly busy week? Or catching up? Or maybe I just feel overwhelmed and can’t get through it anymore…..
Feel exactly the same. Ugh …
Thanks to you and Alejandra, as always, for your good and hard work. It is phenomenally depressing. There is currently a special election in NYC to replace the retiring state assembly person for my district. There are 5 D candidates, no R. I have written the three candidates for whom I was able to obtain a contact address to ask their position on 5 issue areas within the gender identity realm. One has asked to have a conversation with me today by phone, so I have been preparing for that. In the process, my research indicates that not one of the candidates holds a sex-realist view. This is not surprising, but it shows how entrenched these problems are. This is going to take years, perhaps generations, to undo.
FYI, here is template text of the issue areas I sent to the candidates. Feel free to use this with your candidates, if of interest:
I received a mailing from ___________, and I like what I see both in the mailing and on _______’s website. I write because there is one issue of great importance to me that I don’t see listed, which is ________’s stance on women’s rights and boundaries in the face of inappropriate transactivist demands. Please understand that I am a progressive Democrat of longstanding, and it is from that vantage point that I am alarmed by the failure of the Democrats to step up on this issue, thus leaving an open field for Republicans to weaponize it to the detriment of women and girls and their families, as well as to the chances of success for the Democratic party as a whole.
Below is an outline of areas of particular concern to me, as well as recommendations for how Democrats might wrest this contentious debate away from Republicans and position themselves in a positive way for all concerned. I look forward to your response, which will figure heavily into how I cast my vote.
Medical and Surgical Interventions for Minors with Gender Dysphoria
Issue: It has been widely noted that the profile of minors presenting to gender clinics, here and abroad, has vastly changed in recent years. This is resulting in many minors with complex psychosocial issues receiving medical and surgical interventions that are not appropriate to their needs.
Proposed Democratic Position: Pause provision of such care to minors (puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgeries) pending completion of a national systematic review, conducted by or through a respected entity such as NIH. Models for such reviews include those that have been done in England (the Cass Review), Finland, and other European countries.
Resource: Time to Think, by Hannah Barnes; The Cass Review, https://cass.independent-review.uk/home/publications/final-report/
Title IX Athletics
Issue: Biological girls and women are losing opportunities as the result of an increasing number of biological males competing in girls and women’s sports.
Proposed Democratic Position: In all sports where male biology and physiology confer a distinct advantage (this is particularly relevant post-puberty), reserve girls’ and womens’ sports only for biological girls and women (including biological girls and women who self-identify as, eg, non-binary) and offer an “open” category in which anyone at all can compete, no matter how they self-identify.
Resource: Martina Navratilova and Kim Shasby Jones, who have researched, written, and spoken extensively on this, can point you to many useful resources.
K-12 Schools
Issue: Children are being introduced to ideas and concepts within the rubric of gender identity that do not comport with their developmental stages and that encourage disassociation from their biology.
Proposed Democratic Position: Put a moratorium on all legislation, regulatory, and public policy efforts that promote gender identity concepts in K-12 school materials, activities, and curriculum. Allow individual schools/school districts and parents, without pressure to conform to any specific model, to ascertain the best way forward for their schools.
Resource: Sex Matters is an excellent resource on this issue (and many others): https://sex-matters.org/posts/publications/sex-and-gender-model-policy-for-schools/
Health Care, Public Health, and Other Data Collection
Issue: Differences between the sexes are an important factor for analysis in many areas social and health scientists address. These include, for example, demography, physical and mental health, crime, education, and employment. It is critical to retain biological sex as a data point for all such purposes.
Proposed Democratic Position: Wherever biological sex is pertinent, data collection will include biological sex as a separate and distinct data point.
Resource: “Why Do We Need Data on Sex?”, by Alice Sullivan, Kath Murray, and Lisa Mackenzie, in Sex and Gender, A Contemporary Reader.
Federal Equality Act (H.R. 15 and S. 5 118th Congress); New York State’s proposed amendment to the state constitution (A1283 and S108, 2023-24 Legislative Session)
Issue: If the federal Equality Act and New York State’s proposed Amendment to the Constitution pass as currently written, gender identity and expression (self-identification) will supersede sex for all formerly sex-based rights.
Proposed Democratic Position: Rather than, as now proposed, redefining sex to include gender identity and gender expression, make a technical amendment to the proposed legislation to protect gender identity and gender expression as a new, separate protected class, alongside sex and other existing protected categories.
Resource: “Sex, Gender, and Equality in the United States: Confusion, Conflict, and Consequences,” by Callie H. Burt, in Sex and Gender, A Contemporary Reader. (Note: While this article discusses the Federal Equality Act, the same issues pertain to the proposed New York State Constitutional Amendment.)
Thank you for your consideration, and I look forward to hearing from you.
Thank You! That Federalist article on the trans takeover of state child welfare programs has the most informative links on the trans issue that I've ever seen in 1 article. Definitely worth bookmarking.
Canada is so far behind in the gender affirming care for minors. It’s wild how so many people accept the TRAs talking point without any reflection on how new this approach is and the lack of evidence supporting long-term benefits.
Regardless, I was happy to read this article on the CASS review and on a young woman’s experience with the gender clinic in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
https://www.saltwire.com/atlantic-canada/news/uk-reversal-of-hormone-therapy-puberty-blockers-for-youth-call-ns-rules-into-question-100963727/
It's hard to believe that Democrats would be so stupid to offer the American people the choice between reelecting Trump or requiring their high school and college aged daughters to share their restrooms and locker rooms with naked boys and men (aka trans women), but this is exactly what Biden has done with the changes he has enacted to Title IX of the
1972 Education Act. Once the people of this country realize what he has done they will certainly choose to reelect Trump in November.
Here's an analysis of the new regulations by the Foundation Against Intolerance and Racism (FAIR):
"The Final Rule is likely to result in sex-integration of all bathrooms and locker rooms because it prohibits discrimination on the basis of gender identity. After August 1st, if a school requires students to use facilities that align with their biological sex (which they are currently allowed to require under Federal law and regulations), a transgender student may file a discrimination complaint alleging that the school has violated Title IX by preventing him or her from using the bathroom that aligns with their gender identity."
I have had to re-read this passage (copied below) multiple times to try to understand whether the ban was or was not allowed to go into effect. It reminds me of some biological pathways I used to teach with multiple sequential activators and repressors. As for those, I had to work backwards from the ban, raising one finger for the ban going into effect, then a second finger for the restraining order, then a third finger for the request to overturn the restraining order, then a fourth finger for the rejection of the request to overturn the restraining order: even number of raised fingers = ban does not go into effect; odd number = ban goes into effect. Therefore, the ban does not go into effect. Whew!
“Ohio Supreme Court rejected Attorney General Dave Yost’s request to overturn a temporary restraining order preventing HB 68 from going into effect. HB 68 would ban both “gender affirming” interventions and trans-identified males from female sports.”
I have to ask if anyone has spotted a political cartoon that contrasts the reality-based argument in support of civil rights expressed with those iconic photos of a black men wearing the sign "I am a Man." as part of street protests back in the 1950's with today's trans activist (perhaps a very tall natal male in a dress) holding the sign "Trans women are women!" to express the surreal argument that supposedly justifies the privileges that trans women seem to be granted by every public institution (namely, the "right" to physically dominate and even injure natal females during sports competitions, the "right" to change legal ids on a whim, the "right" to dictate what others are allowed to say they believe, the "right" to medical interventions for a condition that is simultaneously "normal or natural" but also "life-threatening," etc., etc.)
Can we just get some gender neutral bathrooms separate from male and female ones? I know how guys act in the locker-room and that trans girl would totally be bullied.
That is one way and acceptable in the moment but does not address the real issue that maybe most of the trans kids are fearing: bullying. The parents and schools should be teaching, watching, preventing and punishing the bullying. There needs to be a lot more emphasis on self-acceptance (likely to drastically reduce the number of kids calling themself trans in the first place) and being respectful to one another.