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dog mom's avatar

Ok, I wrote to my very-left congressman, Sherrod Brown:

Dear Senator Brown and staff:

I am a knee-jerk progressive: pro-choice, pro-gay marriage, pro public schools, pro healthcare for all, etc. You get the idea. I have been voting Democrat since I was first able to vote nearly 40 years ago. And no one is more surprised than I am by what I am writing to you about today.

I am begging you to look into the medical transitioning of teens and young adults, and ask your fellow democrats to support stopping, or at least slowing, these treatments until more research is available about long-term health effects, both physiological and emotional. Other countries, more progressive than the US in many ways, have started to put the brakes on these treatments due to concerns about the lack of evidence supporting their efficacy: The UK, Finland, and Sweden.

I am the mother of a teenager who claims a trangender identity. Before this happened to my child, I reflexively supported what I was told was access to life-saving, medically necessary care for transgender children. Then one day, after being isolated by the shut-down for nearly a year, and being online for hours and hours each day, my child informed me they were trans, and would need cross-sex hormones. They were 15 years old.

There was not a hint of this before the isolation of COVID.

Please, please read this piece by author Lisa Selin-Davis (author of Tomboy: The Surprising History and Future of Girls Who Dare to Be Different.) that spells out what is actually known and not known about these treatments. The research is not nearly as cut and dry as organizations like the ACLU, Planned Parenthood, and the AMA say. (I have always given money to the ACLU and Planned Parenthood, by the way, and volunteered with both organizations in the Cleveland Area, where I live.)

https://lisaselindavis.substack.com/p/dear-merrick-garland?r=dxc6c&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

And please don't let the Republican party take the lead on this issue and use it as a wedge, to demonize helpful treatments for those trans people who truly need them. The issue has become so politicized that confused, concerned parents are stuck between bigots on the right, and extreme activists on the left, neither of whom are calling for more, and better research, and neither of whom truly seem to care about families and children caught in the middle.

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liz perez's avatar

Thank you, Lisa. Any thoughts on drafting a letter we can all sign online?

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