It’s been a while since I allowed my subscribers to interact—mostly because, you know, I’m knee-deep in book-writing. But I wanted to hear your thoughts on what’s going on. Most of the executive orders, including those cutting off funds to hospitals that provide “gender-affirming care” to minors, have been blocked in the courts. Democrats have climbed to the top of the gender hill, determined to die there. Where are we? Where are you? What do you think has happened and will happen and should happen?
I moved our entire family including our 20 yo trans id’ed to the NL last June. Yes, I know. The home of it all. Well, it’s nowhere near as insane here as it is in the US. Amsterdam I’m sure has its pockets but it’s not really a thing where we live. Our daughter is slowly coming around and is happy here. But I want to say, looking back at the U.S. from afar … it looks completely off the rails. Especially watching the left double down. Our liberal friends thought we were crazy to leave when we did and when we told them it was the liberal policies in CA that led us to leave, they scratched their heads but seemed to listen. Now they tell us ‘you were so wise to leave now that Trump’s in office’ and then launch into how horrible it is for trans kids. Did they not hear me?! I get a lot of virtue signaling from them now. I’ve given up trying to correct them, though I ask them if they have actually read Trump’s EO’s but none of them have bothered. Now, I am no longer corrected when I ‘misgender’ my kid, have no fear that our daughter’s doctor will lie to her, and don’t have watch our small town go up in flames from the stupid protests. Here, people go about their daily lives and couldn’t care one bit for any of this insanity. It’s a good place for our daughter to be right now.
This is such an interesting perspective. I have been thinking about leaving the US with my trans-identified young-adult and wondering where to go. Thanks for sharing.
I am thrilled to see the LGBT Courage Coalition in action.
The Democrats keep digging in. Elizabeth Warren, with her thumbs down on the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Acts.
It certainly seems that Transgender Hill is where the Democrats are willing to die.
Certainly, there must be some with nagging doubts. Yet, all for one and one for all?
Do they think regrets (about transition) are rare? Do they think that testimonies--LGBT Courage Coalition and others are funded by Right-Wing hate groups?
I was pleased by the EOs on gender. I wasn't pleased with the way it all rolled out with a flourish.
There is no doubt much panic in Genderland. I don't find this funny. Give people a landing place.
We must acknowledge that many people will with stick with this identity. We must allow for different presentations while insisting on the reality of sex.
When insurance companies refuse to pay for sex trait modification, that will slow things down. The lawsuits by detranstioners will give insurers pause.
When my friends screamed about how quickly the EO’s were rolled out, I point out to them that Biden’s title IX insanity was rolled out in the first months his presidency. Of course they think that E.O. was normal so …
According to an expert in contracts law, Randy Barnett, DOGE is not much different from something Obama set up to implement Obamacare. https://youtu.be/R79-Vc0c9R0?si=HbyyiFSVApwPwxBn&t=445 (bookmarked at the 7:25 minute mark)
Congress has been leaving a power vacuum (by not really doing their f***ing jobs when it comes to oversight and power of the purse) that Presidents and the Federal Agencies have been shoving their way into for decades now. "The Imperial Presidency" and badly-written bills have been things that small-c conservative types have been complaining about in publications like Reason Magazine for a loooong time.
Still dealing with the carnage in my household. When you secretly tell teens so much garbage, some of them believe it long after it’s been proven false. The gender ideology took a huge bite out of years of what could have been better friendships, better growth, and better grades. These are just the soft costs. Yet, I am thankful that some people are starting to think for themselves. The Emperor’s New Clothes are still high fashion in too many places.
Same here, friend. Our kid is away at college, but started hormones courtesy of planned parenthood before he left. I have friends on the left who understand my concerns ( my kid is on the spectrum and was molested), even agree to some extent, but mostly see it as a civil rights issue, or are caught up in the idea that if the right is against it, the left must protect it. But I just hope that I have maybe planted some seeds of doubt.
I’m sorry you’re going through this too. I try not too think too much about all the lost years, it would depress me too much. If people really understood what this does to a family … I would hope they would think differently.
I gave my U.S. House Representative my business card and let her know that I'm a psychologist in her community, in case she wants to discuss what some Democrats are concerned about with transgender social contagion among young people. Otherwise, I don't see it as the responsibility of government to regulate this -- it's the ethics of professional organizations that should be guiding treating gender distressed young people appropriately. I do appreciate the advocacy of those who educate legislators as well as everyone else who has not been given correct information. Meanwhile, I'm caught in the paradox of being opposed to medicalizing those caught up in social contagion while also being the parent of a medicalized young adult.
Ann, I am sorry we landed on government to legislate this. But the professional organizations have refused to regulate. There is a lot of money in "gender medicine." It's a career path. I am happy that the ASPS no longer endorses GAC.
My impression having gone home to the US (blue state) recently is that Democrat voters (not to mention politicians) remain in denial - about why they lost the election, and how destructive gender identity theory is. There also seems to be a failure to understand that it isn't just a handful of freak cases, but well-funded campaigns to promote gender across schools, health, social services, media, etc. AND a failure to understand that the EOs (and Trump himself) are a backlash to extremism on "our side".
I see this too, a very well orchestrated and finance campaign. My question remains - who are the powers that be that are pushing this behind the scenes?
Look at the Who's who of Davos. We know who they are. Arcus Foundation. Pritzkers. Soros. Martine Rothblatt. If you follow Jen Bileck, she follows the money to the power behind the throne.
Many Democrats are going to lose their seats in 2026, including the women. We are going to have fewer women in office thanks to the Democrats, including the Democratic Women's Caucus. No amount of wearing pink is going to protect them.
Maybe, but I'd be surprised to see it. Generally speaking the party in power loses seats in mid-term elections, and if Trump's popularity continues to decline, Republicans may lose a LOT of seats. If the threatened recession materializes, 2026 could be a bloodbath for the GOP.
I think we gender-crits should always bear in mind that most Americans just don't care about this issue nearly as much as we do. As usual, most Americans vote based on high-level forces, like the economy, incumbency, any foreign wars, and things like that. They're not paying much attention to what Erin Reed says...and that's a good thing.
I too worry that Trump's tariffs will tank the economy so that the majority of folks will forget all about the macabre outcomes of all those 'kind' people wrapping themselves in rainbow flags. They'll instead focus more on the price of eggs.
It’s really hard to get a good sense of this from my vantage point in NYC, and also in communicating with friends in the purple part of the Hudson Valley, where I lived for 15 years. Again, only speaking from the vantage point of these locations, the potential depth and breadth of the grass roots mobilization by sex-realist women-led groups is not even visible as yet, let alone in a position to run candidates for office to challenge incumbents. Instead, the general reaction I get (offline as well as on) is that these issues are a side show without the potential to effect election results. On our side, I think we have yet to arrive at the best mobilization strategies in many places—though that will come in time. Of course, we do have to keep trying, in the ways we can.
I continue to hope that you might mention Behind the Looking Glass documentary in your activism and explain what trans widows are. Thanks for all you do.
Thanks. I've contacted both Schumer and Gillibrand requesting they watch it, as my senators. Schumer sent me a reply falsely claiming the suicide rate is very high when these patients are not affirmed. Gillibrand had no response.
I think more elected Democrats could be "get-able" on sports and pediatric gender affirming care with legislation that is written with, you know, getting Democratic support in mind and not, as many believe, to trap them into digging in. Anyone who is truly serious about legislation that protects kids should park their butt in Seth Moulton's office and ask him 1. What he needs to see and hear to publicly support a bill and 2. Who does he think he can bring along. And I am sure Seth is not the only one (he's not my Rep but a lot of people, including me like him). As for Democratic voters, we could be very get-able on sports and pediatric gender affirming care if we can be convinced that this is not part of a broader "anti-LGBTQ+" campaign by the right. And yes, I understand how controversial the "TQ+" designation is, but you know what? Many, many democrats do not. You can call it willful ignorance and unacceptable, and given that it lost us the last election I would agree. But if we are interested in real change, liberals need to feel that the people promoting change are truly concerned with the best interest of children and parents. Lisa-I've heard you speak and I've read a lot of what you write, especially about the stuff going on in schools right now. I can very much understand how shocking this must be for parents. I live in a very liberal region, and my kid is, I'm guessing, 8-10 years older than yours and we had NONE of this. So, my frame of reference is people who experienced none of what you and parents of younger kids are experiencing. I'm telling you that my highly educated normie-liberal friends simply have no clue what you all are facing. We have not had to face biological boys playing on our daughters' teams (one of these days I will write about my experience in the girls vs boys lacrosse helmets controversy) or being in the bathrooms. We have not had to face our own reactions to one girl after another in our daughters' friend groups wanting to transition. We have not had to deal with teachers keeping this information from us because they fear we are being abusive. We live and work in worlds where we affirm that adults can make any choices they want about their lives. We live in worlds where if a doctor or the AAP says "this is all for good", we assume that is so, because it is not a factor in our lived experience. I'm not defending this lack of critical thinking but you can't get people to think critically if they feel their values are being attacked. I've come around on sports and pediatric care because I've made an intellectual commitment to doing so. I am trying to get others to come around. Again, if Republicans are serious about the protection of children, they should be trying to win over Democrats, not pushing them further away.
Any young adults under 35...and under 30 even more likely, are still at risk especially if they come across as gender neutral or are neurodivergent and liberal. College age kids most specifically. Avoid liberal colleges is all I can say. The mentors will groom your children even if they are 75 yrs old.
I fell slightly guilty for admitting this but when my moderate liberal daughter chose a college that has the reputation of being conservative (in actuality, it's more apolitical and moderate rather than being truly conservative), I was sort of relieved. And last spring I was much more than "sort of" relieved.
When you get this list, please publish it! My "litmus test" would be to see which colleges did not mandate the COVID vaccines, especially past 2021 - they are least likely to push woke nonsense.
Don't feel guilty.. Had I known, I would have steered my kid towards University of Austin. Intelligent, critical thinking is clearly stressed over wokeism, and oppression of everyone by everyone else is the mantra in liberal colleges.
But you know, sorry but 30 year olds are adults. Personally I am uncomfortable with 18-21 year olds doing this. I truly am. But I don't know how to tackle this, legally or culturally.
Everything you describe here comports with what I experience too. I am quite a bit older (76), as are almost all the people I know, and, except for the few I’ve coaxed along over a very long time, they really do still have no clue. And most of the people I know are still not willing to engage on this at all, no matter how gently I tread (and, though my impatience with this has increased a lot, I am still capable of doing that with friends 😎). What most people I know see (all liberal or progressive Democrats) is nothing other than denigrating a marginalized group, and they have too much cognitive dissonance for them to be willing to take a look under the hood.
In public fora, I see this too. There, these days, I do often swing a lot harder, though I also make it a point to engage with individuals who appear to engage with me in good faith, but disagree. What I find most often there, too, is that they have a combination of bad and no information, so I try to address that.
One really big stumbling block, which Lisa has noted here many a time, is that the media my friends and neighbors consume—the New York Times, PBS, PSA (Lovett demonstrated himself to be off the rails on this again yesterday)—don’t give them anything close to accurate information on these issues. So there is no question that there is still a lot of slow boring of hard boards to be done. From time to time I “see” you out there working hard to do just that. Tip of the 🎩 for that.
The problem, of course, is that the country is in desperate straits. We are fast running out of time for a course-correction on these out of touch positions that will get traction when it comes time to vote (if we make it that far). So, I am very worried, and while I press ahead in the ways I can, I fear for the future every day and often feel at a loss.
Bingo about the MSM. I'm 71, had gay friends since 1972, been a right libertarian for 40+ years, & used to live & work in the SFBA, so I've had decades of experience watching my liberal friends & neighbors slide further left on culture war issues. They watch CNN, listen to NPR & believe it all, reinforced by almost everyone around them. Until they can see outside the blue bubble, they remain unreachable.
Trouble is, once you start stating the material truths of what is being done and said in the name of "kindness," they think you're a loon . . . AND, I suspect simply describing what is being done brings up aspects of human nature that most people feel is too "icky" to contemplate. So you get dinged for bringing it up . . . you become the "fart in the elevator."
I don't think you're going to be able to tease people out until the T and all its activism is first teased out of LGB. Many LGB are disavowing the T for this very reason. And also, what you describe as far as the normies go, is an unquestioning allegiance to institutions and whatever those institutions tell them to think, say, and do. It's a terror to leave the authority of the institutions. This is why many (like me) have left the left and have found a comfortable home further right.
Thanks for this. I feel the same. I am astonished how hard it is for those who have to identify as "liberal" to admit that the EOs are actually accurate language, structured to protect women and children. These people lecture about boycotting LL Bean because "they dropped their DEI" and advise me that perhaps I should have "tried to stay" in an untenable marriage to a husband who suddenly said he's born in the wrong body.
I do think that when more liberals understand this, more liberals will come around. Many of them (including me until recently) see trans issues as an extension of the gay rights movement of the 90s-2010s. I have only recently learned from my gay and lesbian friends that this is not the case.
Interesting that you note this. I am actually the gay and lesbian friend to many of my friends . For the most part, it doesn’t even occur to friends who are not LGB to ask me what I think from that vantage point, and opening a discussion, no matter how gently, remains extremely difficult, if not impossible. I do applaud your approach, though, don’t get me wrong. Keep going!
This is so true for me too, Susan. A lot of my friends are heterosexual female college professors who are 60+ years old, and the universities are thoroughly on board with gender ideology as inviolable truth.
I can’t tell you how much I appreciate you saying this. Though I make a good effort to set it aside, it is actually quite hurtful. And what is happening to younger lesbians is beyond awful. Yet friends like these are completely lacking in the ability to understand that, if you want to support a truly marginalized community, you should be doing everything you can to support young lesbians.
Yup! I have lived in Park Slope for 30+ years and for the past several years I’ve seen increasing numbers of young women who have medicalized. I think nostalgically of the 1990s, when we affectionately referred to my neighborhood as dyke slope. I thank my lucky stars for having been born when I was, but I feel profoundly sad for young lesbians today.
I suggest you watch Behind the Looking Glass at Lime Soda Films YouTube channel to get some details on how adult "transition" harms women and children. Vaishnavi Sundar, the cancelled auteur who spend 3 years interviewing trans widows, has also posted the long form interviews with trans widows there. We who witnessed the indoctrination strategies of these gender therapists first hand, and were told by them that we are now "lesbians," know that this is also social contagion among adults, with a strong sissy hypno pornography connection. Trans ideologues are the bullies and the Dems have adopted their bullying language.
"Anyone who is truly serious about legislation that protects kids should park their butt in Seth Moulton's office and ask him 1. What he needs to see and hear to publicly support a bill"
I'm convinced that there is no bill that Moulton would support.
He saw what happened to him after just a few stray remarks: his chief of staff resigned, he was denounced as a literal Nazi by his own constituents.
And I'm 99% sure that the facts of Democrat political life in a deep blue state were explained to him behind closed doors: come back under the big TQ thumb, or be primaried and removed from office in 2026.
So he meekly came back under the big TQ thumb, where he plans to stay forever.
Agreed. Yesterday's vote was an incredible tell-all about party line submission. I would be vastly interested in knowing the source of this incredible power that some donors must have over the party on this issue. Does anyone have any insights?
Trump and "trans" must both go, by the ballot or by the bullet.
And because I keep having to say it -- by ":trans", I don't mean the victims, I mean the monsters who castrate children & the morons who condone that barbarity.
Where am I in this madness? I am ANGRY. I started out hopeful, but I live in the State of Washington, one of the states that sued over the EOs. We now have a bill to amend the state constitution to make access to gender affirming care a constitutional right. Of course, this is sneakily tacked onto the end of a reproductive rights amendment. Don't even get me started on what the state superintendent of education and the local school district are doing. It is absolute insanity. Of course, our state is also making sure to let everyone know they can still choose "X" as a sex marker on their driver's licenses, and of course, my kid is running down to the licensing office to do just that. This all just makes it harder to pull one's child out of the madness.
Here's a potent argument: "trans medicine" is no different from any other form of elective cosmetic surgery. A woman using testosterone to look "more like a man" is no different from Arnold Schwarzenegger using testosterone to look like "more of a man."
The Hippocratic Oath goes, "First do no harm." So why are "doctors" cutting people open - often with serious consequences -- for the sole purpose of cosmetic vanity?
None of it is a proper part of medicine. The whole malformed tree must be uprooted, or we will be back here again before we know it.
Given the effectiveness of Trumps ads attacking Harris on trans issues in the lead up to the election and the post-election polling on the most controversial topics that showed even most democrats didn’t support them, I am genuinely surprised that Democratic leaders seem to have done almost no exploratory research into why that is. Did they just dismiss it as bigotry? Do they really think 80% of Americans are bigots? Or do they understand the valid criticisms people have regarding gender identity ideology and ignore it because they are beholden to the activist arm of the party with the loudest voices and most money? How can anyone support these positions after taking some time to look under the hood? How do you get them to listen to the normie-liberals out there?
I am afraid (speaking as a person who's historically gravitated towards libertarianism) that there is a tendency in those of a progressive bent to focus too much on intent of government policies and to forget the problem of micromanaging the lives of citizens. Just like a body needs gravity to avoid muscular atrophy, grown adults need the risk of financial hardship to avoid shirking their responsibilities. There's been too much vilifying of the conservative perspective among progressives so that the wisdom within it is no longer available to temper Utopianist excesses . . . Adults in my country have the responsibility to prioritize for making things stable in the lives of the kids they bring into this world. They also have the responsibility to not fall for the "bread and circuses" strategies of their elected officials.
Also, I recently heard someone say that when a society "normalizes" a behavior, whatever distress that behavior may cause for the children exposed to it becomes stigmatized . . . Between when I was a kid (I'm in my 50's) and now, the list of things adults may do that children are taught they should consider "no big deal" has gotten pretty long . . . casual divorce was just the start of it, I fear . . . now some expect them to be cool with Daddy transforming into Mommy.
Bottom line. No EO is changing anyone’s mind. It was nice to hear sane words coming out of a not so sane person’s mouth for a bit last night (ie. there are only 2 genders,” Payton McNabb, etc.), but that it was Trump speaking only made those who don’t understand the issue more unwilling to try. Unfortunately, the messenger matters.
We need to get people to think seriously about what is happening, who is being harmed, and just the general insanity of putting men in women’s spaces and sports and medically altering and harming young people’s bodies with extreme cosmetic alterations so they can look like the the opposite sex.
Until then, parents like me, watching their older teens and young adults live a lie while harming their bodies, will continue to be frustrated and disgusted with all of the false messaging coming from every major institution, authoritative figure and so many of our neighbors.
In short, it’s not great and my patience is wearing thin.
So well put, Hippiesq. There was an upside-down moment last night when Trump said "all our children need to know they're perfect as they are" or some such. Can't we all stand up and cheer for that, with an "amen"? Not our Democrats.
I share your frustration and disgust - and the impact on my young adult daughter is heart-breaking and infuriating.
I'm feeling increasingly disgusted. I can't understand misogynistic females that champion their own erasure. These women, in particular, are leading the charge that IS ending any standing the Democratic Party had, by betraying themselves. Who are they pandering to? I hope they all keep wearing pink so we can identify them.
They can't die fast enough. The visuals of their ritual humiation last night will never be forgotten; wearing pink to celebrate child sterilization, sitting for harm to children, sitting for concussed basketball player, sitting for child killed by migrants, sitting for law enforcement killed by migrants to name a few.
Ritual humiliation is a good way of putting it. Only cultic thinking would self-immolate with such fervor. I know it is based on a form of nihilism, but it's almost too bald-faced to be be believed.
I am thinking the only way to roll back this medical scandal and to take a page from the trans lobbyist strategy handbook and do the un-sexy, low-profile work of tackling where it's gotten embedded in the healthcare system bureaucracy . . . Blue-haired idiots interested in showing up at public events to mindlessly chant slogans as they LARP as saviors of imaginary trans children everywhere wouldn't be as likely to follow and shout-down sex realist activism there . . . Problem is, I don't know how to do this. I would like to volunteer for a group that consults with experts on how the healthcare policy sausage is made . . . Jamie Reed's LGBT Courage Coalition is where I am hoping such "boring" "behind-the-scenes" appealing-to-the-pragmatic-interests-of-bureaucrats projects are in the works . . . Remember that Fibber Island article about Diagnostic Codes? And such a project's beneficiaries are arguably anyone, no matter what might be going on between their ears regarding "gender" beliefs . . . it's intent is to save human bodies from pain, and shortened lives caused by iatrogenic harm, period.
I think we need to write op-eds continually, as well as writing to our legislators. Over and over again. But I think we need to show up and be visible everywhere. Most people are appalled at what has happened, but are too bullied to speak up. Set the precedent. Courage Coalition is a good org.
Are there any people in the Gender Critical/Sex Realist movement exploring the possibilities of using AI to make a "letter to the editor" generator to help individuals who aren't necessarily skilled writers put together decent and unique letters that draw from all the resources already online revealing the lies and pseudoscience spread by the activists and practitioners of lazy journalism? I've been playing around with loading up NotebookLM with my favourite articles and other sources of sanity, in order to sort of "prime the pump" (save me from the terror of the blank page) whenever I am irritated enough by some published nonsense . . . such a thing could be way more powerful than those online petition forms that prompt signers to modify a given template for a letter to their local representative or whatever .. . .
Obamacare set up the third party payments for "gender healthcare" so it's quite possible for the current administration to make CMS change the stance on payments. That would put a significant spoke in the industry, which was much smaller when people had to pay OOP for hormones & surgery.
I've enjoyed reading everyone's comments here - so much insight, and willingness to consider another perspective in spite of the political polarization on this topic (eg from the Progressives here who were willing to pivot). As a therapist, I am concerned about professional licensing and advocacy organizations (American Counseling Association, American Academy of Pediatrics, the APA, etc) continuing to stick to their insistence that "Gender Affirmative Care" is the ONLY way to practice ethically. This is keeping many mental health and medical providers from working with gender-distressed clients and patients, so it is very hard for parents to find a non-affirming provider. "Conversion therapy" laws are still held in 27 (I believe) states, and working in a developmental framework (non-affirming of claimed identities, but rather, taking a developmental and exploratory approach) can potentially set a practitioner up for being accused of conversion therapy. Grad schools over the last several years have ONLY pushed "Gender Affirmative Care" as a therapeutic approach, anything else is considered bigoted and a human rights violation. CEU trainings for providers are ALL "affirming", although Therapy First is thankfully starting to provide trainings with a developmental approach (non-affirming). I am hoping that legislation changes, in order to protect providers who want to practice in a way that is the actual ethical way, not the ideological way that is currently framed as the only approach.
As many have said here, the majority of Democrats and people who consider themselves "socially liberal," remain in the dark on the true scope of gender ideology and the impact of queer theory on our society. They think that since they are nice, compassionate people, of course they will support "transgender rights." But they are largely consuming media that have essentially brainwashed them with the way their headlines twist the truth and shape the perspective to align with "LGBTQ+ rights." This is why it's so important that each of us here engage in one-on-one conversations with people we know and who "know our hearts." This is how I have managed to change people's minds, including other therapists, neighbors and family members. I don't think people change their minds with facts as much as in relationship, and through an emotional story. In the meantime, I believe that as much as I lean Libertarian, we need legislation to establish guardrails given the way our educational institutions, medical industry, therapy profession, etc have been captured by ideologically-driven activists.
Also, I was a bio major and took a Women's Studies course in the 80s and I swear to god that the dogma in Women's Studies back then was aligned with the biology: sex is biological and based on chromosomes and gametes, and gender is about presentation and identity and social/relational factors. And I remember discussing various biological variations on XX=female and XY=male in my Women's Studies class (!!) almost as exceptions that prove the rule. Please someone GenX or older help me out-am I remembering this correctly, that the leftists feminist dogma at that time was that sex and gender are different things and sex is (mostly) binary and biological? Why has this changed??? Carole Hooven's (yay, GenX!) book "T" and her recent op-ed in the Boston Globe are excellent on the subject of sex and gender.
I teach in what used to be called women’s studies before gender took over, and I’m still upholding reality, although every once in a while I get called a transphobe in my teaching evaluations.
Yes, I had a women's studies class in the 80s at a Chicago college and this distinction was made - my takeaway was "gender is how you want to come across" regardless of your sex, which endures.
Gender Trouble (Judith Butler) came out in the mid 90s. My sister was her student. At the time, I didn't realize how it took over academia. I just remember my sister (a somewhat narcissistic, academic theorist) ooohing and ahhing about her professor.
Speaking as a developmental psychologist with additional educational background in biology, ethics, and psychopathology. who taught in the schools of education associated with two universities, I see a large part of the problem in the U.S. as resulting from
(1) declines in the integrity of universities and scientific research in the U.S.,
(2) increasing failure to teach critical thinking to university students,
(3) the reduced content and declining quality of public school education in the U.S.,
(4) the money that gender transition has provided and will continue to provide to the U.S. medical profession and pharmaceutical companies, combined with their ability to bribe politicians, and
(5) the utterly dishonest and hateful rejections handed out to those who draw attention to the facts that the current gender ideology has NO VALID BASIS and that it is doing a great deal of HARM TO TWO VULNERABLE GROUPS whose interests are being ignored, and who are ethically entitled to protection: women and minors.
Doctors and mental health practitioners will start peeling off of "trans train." Welsh surgeon, Dr. Joseph Chrysostom wrote an open letter to the medical organizations in the UK, making the accurate report that "vaginoplasties" have a 100% failure rate. He noted that the female vagina is "a highly distensible fibromuscular elastic tube," meaning it expands (accordion-like and in width as well, I tell you as a mother who experienced procreative sex and subsequent natural childbirth.) The "neo-vagina" that surgeons make false promises about is, according to Dr. Chrysostom, "a non-distensible surgical wound in the perineum, which contracts during healing." This public statement will, in fact, help male detransitioners who were told false promises about the surgery results to succeed in medical malpractice cases. It could even be that states passing laws prohibiting these surgeries for minors will require this language for informed consent for adults seeking this fake "reassignment surgery." The linguistic capture, the "embodiment goals" and "born in the wrong body" phrases have to be corrected, and the malady described accurately as Identity-Based Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, a term coined by Dr. Elliot Kaminetsky, a child psychologist in NYC.
My belief is that it will take another 10 years to truly see things turn, and it will only happen if and when the generation of teens who got the blunt end of this madness grow up and tell their own stories, and those of siblings and friends that were sent down the road to hell pursuing surgery and hormones as a result of social transition.
I think we need to urge Democrat electeds (state and national) to propose “compassionate” alternatives to the Trump sex/gender EO’s in the form of legislation, study/investigations, and public discussions. For example re legislation: insurance coverage for detransitioners, extending the statute of limitations for sex-trait modification medical malpractice and curriculum transparency requirements. Dems want to be seen as expanding rights, so we need to play into this. This won’t work in all areas, but its a way to chip away at the wall of illiberalism and allow Dems to respond to the concerns of their constituents without directly endorsing the Trump agenda.
I'm watching my social media suddenly having posts from friends who never posted anything about this issue now posting about their support for trans kids and how their lives are being put at risk. My fear about Trump being elected is that we would lose what little progress had been made on this issue with centrists and those on the left, and I fear that I'm watching exactly that happen.
Wasn’t it just recently that every single senate democrat voted to block the bill to ban trans atheletes MEN in women’s sports, saying ‘they need an ally?’
I think “my people” – traditional liberals in professional psychotherapy and healthcare spaces – are too stunned overall to calmly and thoughtfully engage in conversation about the youth gender medicine scandal. I know I am feeling sick and somewhat overwhelmed about the incendiary rhetoric and bullying behavior of this administration. I think we would be in a better position to be fighting this fight on the ground of a Harris administration; it still blows my mind that people think choosing Trump was the lesser of two evils. (And I am still friends with my friends and colleagues who voted differently than I did.) I know many will disagree with me but nothing is simple and clear cut about any of this and I believe it is a mistake when people – in leadership, especially -- behave as if it is. I’m trying to be mindful of my own behavior as I struggle with the weight of my own obsessions. That’s where I’m at as I opened my email this morning.
I grew to be so frightened of what a Harris/Walz administration would mean for free speech in this country that supporting that ticket seemed like more of a hazard to me than allowing the prospect of a populist berserker re-accessing the Presidency. (Did the best I could. It's an uncertain world.)
In my mind, being exposed to the news and personal experiences of my little corner of the world, it was like this country had a choice between being slowly strangled while high on laughing gas versus being subjected to a game of Russian roulette. The odds of surviving one scenario with our civil rights intact seemed to me to be (only slightly) better under Trump, as awful as he is. Americans have elected populists fueled by cults of personality before . . . Hopefully we'll get through this with a higher amount of hard-won wisdom.
But it's a question of what you tend to focus on and who you listen to for your news, I guess. I tend to seek out the individuals who can't sleep at night keeping quiet about the whitest of lies, or who feel sick at the prospect of keeping quiet about what seems wrong just to keep the home team united . . . like Lisa Selin Davis. Listening to one's conscience, even though you know it might get you ostracized, is the "rugged individualism" that we in the U.S. need more of at this moment in history.
Very much with you on this. As a former lifelong 'progressive liberal democrat' the utter disregard for our constitutional rights, the censorship, propaganda and gaslighting, etc., etc., etc. under the Biden/Harris administration steered me away from the Dems. Additionally over the last decade or so they abandoned any real democratic process in national elections and pre-selected candidates (Hilary v. Bernie in 2016 - Bernie was the favorite, Biden?! in 2020, Harris in 2024). The DNC is a private corporation and does whatever it wants. It didn't want RFK Jr running as a Democrat so they made it impossible for him to do so by changing and jerry-rigging the primary rules. Then when he ran as an Independent they spent MILLIONS actively sabotaging his campaign. The Dems rejected Kennedy and Gabbard (another lifetime Democrat) and drove them into Trump's arms. I held my nose and voted for Trump because of RFK Jr & Gabbard and actually, Vance too (he is sensible, intelligent, SANE). I'm so glad I did. I was a victim of TDS and now I'm cured. Harris and Walz (he acted as if he wanted to personally perform gender reassignment - a euphemism for genital mutilation - surgeries on minors himself) were looney tunes - a disaster waiting to happen if they won.
As much as I vehemently disagreed with Biden/Harris on matters of Covid and gender ideology, I never understood how anyone could think that Trump was going to be a champion of free speech. As bad as the Biden administration's involvement in censorship in the name of the Covid response was, it was always blatantly obvious to me that Trump's authoritarian tendencies were much more sinister, comprehensive, and self-serving.
And as much as I applaud the gender- and even DEI-related executive orders, seeing how Trump/Musk have been taking a wrecking ball to both the alliances of the free world and the civil service over the past month, I think it should now be clear to everybody that the costs are too high. Especially since the gender EOs will only harden the fronts and make the left dig in their heels. As someone said above, the messenger matters, and Trump is not going to convince anybody of sound mind that he actually cares about women and children, so it's easy to dismiss anything he says on this issue as bigotry.
So you didn’t think that this was good…from last night, January LittleJohn recognized for her work after her daughter was socially transitioned at school??
I've met her, she's smart and doing good and difficult work trying to educate the public. How any of us choose to fight this fight is a deeply personal one. Nothing in this landscape is simple, easy and clear.
Agreed, I go almost entirely off my own experience, because that is real, & that of whistleblowers. And whilst I honestly get buzzed & hopeful over some of the government so called overreach & bullying, I am in favor of it. It’s bold & it needs to be. On the flip side, much of it won’t be enacted or will be delayed at best. Going up to the Supreme Court & that is not a done deal as most people seem to think. Some unhappy faces from the judges at the address to Congress last night. These are truly divisive times & whilst each one of us thinks the other side is hateful, it’s honestly not is it, it’s ignorance. It’s a huge battle all round. Detransitioners will tell the story & their truth needs to be shared. And the cost of detransitioner healthcare needs to be addressed. Who is listening??
Even if and when these horrible practices and the doctors who push them are finally discredited, and the clinics and insurance companies understand how expensive mangling young bodies and minds can be once enough attorneys catch the scent, I fear that the majority of young women like my daughter will be left broke and sick and deeply harmed, as is typical for the nameless tens of thousands of casualties from past medical scandals. It is my understanding that most of the Thalidomide babies never got restitution of any kind, and their injuries are even more obvious than those done to my loved one.
Of course, which is why we must stop it. Our children have been sacrificed. Infected with a false mind virus, which they have adopted as their own. They think they are in control, but they are not.
I try to pan back and realize that other generations of youths have gotten carried away with their own visions of a Brave New World, succumbing other mind viruses, like "patriotism" as they marched off to fight in WWI, or "Turn on, tune in, drop out" as they blew out their own fuses with drugs . . . how could they have known?
I see a lot of this, too: people “too stunned overall to calmly and thoughtfully engage in conversation about the youth gender medicine scandal.” Like you, also, I did not think the current admin was a solution to any of this, which is why I voted for Harris. I stay away from discussing the EOs at all, because no matter how well crafted they may be (and the two I have read are very well-crafted), the overreach in implementation has been horrific on many fronts. People in public health, eg, are rightly horrified, for one. But I judge no one for making different choices than I did, particularly parents whose children have been directly affected. The Democrats just blew this, from top to bottom—and that the are doubling down at this point is mind-boggling.
at least one of Democrats now proves he can read. He says the Trump ads clearly won the election for Trump & notes how Kamala didn't even respond to them.
...
but if you read the Politico article he qualifies his point of view as "personal" and claims impotence re: the law, noting that it was enacted prior to his taking office, in 2014 under Gov. Brown, and therefore it is fait accompli in California.
My view is that the sequestration that Trump and Musk are doing, refusing to spend money designated by Congress, is a huge deal, and I'm going to support Democrats on these issues, even if I find their positions on trans-women in sports and kids put on puberty blockers indefensible. The number of people affected when say 20% of VA doctors are fired, the NSF and NIH suspend many of their grants, is just way higher than people affected by puberty blockers, especially since parents can just refuse to put their children on those drugs.
No to mention the President of the US dropping charges against people like Justin Sun just because he spent money on World Liberty Financial, a simple bribe to Trump.
Lisa, thank you for opening up this discussion. I appreciate reading through the different thinking and responses, and the efforts people are continuing to make to try and break through.
I assume the Dem politicians doubling down on anti-women and children trans issues is a) the funders want it and b) resistance type rhetorical stance. I’d recommend pushing left or centrist leaning voters vote in primaries for people who will protect these rights. I’d like to see (or help create) more non-partisan networks of people working to push back against the ideology while respecting the basic rights (marriage, work, housing, healthcare) of people. Within such networks women could become accustomed to talking about women’s rights without apologizing. We need to grow the ranks of female self advocacy. Most Democratic men aren’t going to do much, which leaves only ourselves and the Republicans, who often have their own agenda.
What’s happening is a classic example of Right vs. Left approach to the situation. While I can agree with some of the new US mandates regarding trans people, I disagree with the hysterical and genuinely hateful (plus lies) approach. Trump’s executive orders do “us” no service. In fact, it entrenches the issue in a political divide of Trans vs. Trump in which siding with Trump is indefensible. To use the worn-out-but-in-this-case-appropriate Hitler analogy, if it was Trans vs. Hitler, obviously you can’t side with Hitler.
Ultimately this is a women’s rights issue, and neither of those sides supports women’s rights. While the Left has not been good to us, they have been the traditional home of women’s rights, and it’s necessary to keep at the Left for women’s rights without supporting either side of T vs. T.
Focus on Women, not on Trans. My current slogan is “Women Don’t Matter”—because why are men allowed in women’s spaces; why do ‘trans’ concerns and feelings in locker rooms matter more than girls; why has the definition of “woman” been arbitrarily redefined; why have female-related words been circumvented in health care; why is women’s sports open to men? All because Women Don’t Matter. And women don’t matter to Trump and his ilk, either. So that’s what needs to change.
Just reposting.. for anyone with older kids. Any young adult under 35...and under 30 even more likely, are still at risk especially if they come across as gender neutral or are neurodivergent and liberal. College age kids most specifically. AVOID liberal colleges is all I can say. The mentors will groom your children even if they are 75 yrs old.
My kid attended an extremely liberal college in 2017-2021.. I had no clue I would end up here. Check out what happened at Evergreen college at the same time.. A 3 part series on youtube. I think it shows a lot of overlap as to why we have these issues. https://youtu.be/FH2WeWgcSMk?si=Cd7w60QZU8v0hZ2n
The Skermetti case is before the Supreme Court. The ACLU admitted in oral arguments that completed suicides do not go up if an adolescent doesn't get hormones and sex trait modification surgeries.
Where am I at? The thrill from the EOs has subsided. Now I worry that the Trump administration will bungle this opportunity. Has it been bungled already? I don’t think so—I’m still confident that the power of the trans movement has crested. But there are no easy wins ahead.
I feel politically homeless, but I don’t think I can return to the Democrats. They have lost my trust.
I’m really struggling with who to target..who will listen. Hate is too strong a word but that’s how it feels from the other side. I had an hour long discussion about politics with my doctor yesterday. I was there for an annual check up & prompted by the endless check in forms & ridiculous questionnaires, I told him I was severely depressed & identified as male. I asked him what were the next steps. As we talked he said he was not ok with preferred pronoun use & he would not want his daughters to compete against men in womens sports. He was clueless about Trumps EO’s because he simply switched off & loathes everything about him. He is from the South & says his entire family are Trump supporters so he doesn’t go to any family reunions. He harped on about the canceling of USAid which actually just got overturned by the Supreme Court I believe & how embarrassing that was going to the starving in Africa. All I could think was that was precisely where it should be going & not to fund the clinics set up for transgender clinics in India. Sigh.
I assume the reasons Dem politicians doubling down on anti-women and children trans issues are a) the funders want it and b) resistance type rhetorical stance. I’d recommend pushing left or centrist leaning voters to vote in primaries for people who will protect these rights. I’d like to see (or help create) more non-partisan networks of people to push back against the ideology while respecting the basic rights (marriage, work, housing, healthcare) of people. Within such networks women could become accustomed to talking about women’s rights without apologizing. We need to grow the ranks of female self advocacy. Most Democratic men aren’t going to do much, which leaves only ourselves and the Republicans, who often have their own agenda.
I find it unlikely that Dems will allow any of their primary candidates to espouse a rational, evidence-based approach to Identity-Based Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. I do not predict that the midterms will bring more Dems into office. If the medical malpractice cases, with 2 dozen of them waiting adjudication, are reported on, perhaps the medical and mental health professionals will start admitting this was a mistake along the lines of lobotomies, DES and thalidomide.
Damn it! It was an amazing skit! The doctor supposedly defies all odds because 100% of the babies he delivered were supposedly female. A reporter comes to interview him and eventually realizes that he's been surgically removing the penis and testicals of all the baby boys he's delivered . . . I am sure that it's removal is justified by copyright law . . . but for this to happen within an hour or two of my having watched it and shared it on a platform makes me suspect it's more than just copyright. There are tons of other Phil Hartman skits available online . . .
I know the EO’s are beautifully written and there is a lot of momentum due to the men in women’s sports angle being discussed more publicly, as well as the abject failure, immaturity and cowardice of the democrats lately, But, this week I am super depressed. I fear there is no going back. I literally ran to the polls to vote for Trump after this hellish gender cult issue poisoned my daughter and, through my desperate and copious research I awoke to the lies and censorship that we have been fed for decades by our government, media, and the powers controlling them. About all kinds of issues. I am disgusted. Trump won the first time b/c he was the outsider. Its why he won again.
This ideological capture and abuse of our children will not stop until the traditional MEDIA stops pushing the slogans, agenda and misrepresentations that it is being fed…by whom exactly?
I have suspicions but they must be pinpointed and that is like catching a wave. There are billions of dollars at stake. The media is covering for everyone from politicians to doctors to the schools that indoctrinate the next generation of believers. It’s been a plan decades in the making. “They” -the ones running this global abuse scandal -conquered the media b/c the media are the gate keepers and pushers of the cultural heartbeat. Kindness. Lockdowns. Men can be women. Censorship is necessary. Mandate untested vaccines and rat on your neighbors. Dissent is hate. Words are violence. The border is secure. Biden is sharp as a tack. The science is settled. Parents, Affirm your children! Schools, lying to parents. No one is giving young girls mastectomies…
I know your hard work and the work of countless others has made a HUGE dent in the best way. And it matters and will continue to save parents and kids. It’s just that this is a huge machine. And I am so sad.
Lisa, In your words to Democrats, ‘It did not have to be this way.’ I wish people would drop left and right identity altogether. F-it! Be done. Vote on a hand full of important issues to one’s self. Stop letting a ‘party’ or a friend tell us how to think. It’s conforming to group thought in its own way.
I do love Informed Dissent. Keep it up. It’s helpful to public discourse. You each have great insight and are thought provoking.
I've been plumbing the waters on my favorite progressive news blog for a shift in opinion. The dynamic which seems to play itself out over and over is the emergence of one take no prisoners bully who will intimidate people with rancid ad hominem attacks on their motivations. Then there are the sympathizers for whom the little trans children will always be the victims they care for most. In short, though there's pushback from people who can read polls the main thrust is still "we are the virtuous, they are the infidels." It's a narrative that seems impervious to dismantling because it's vital to people's perceptions of who they are as moral beings.
Again, because of what we might call the Helen Joyce rule: every trans kid creates a cadre of people who become devoted advocates, and because democratic power structures are now peopled with trans parents, we will not be able to avoid a rupture between the pragmatists and the t-parents.
I was simply mentioning that as a head's up. Unfortunately, there is nothing that can be done except mandating Dr's truly inform the patient with the global information regarding the true side effects. My kid wasn't 30 when this happened but their partners were close to 30, and they were very caught up in this until they decided it would be better for my daughter to be taking T instead of them. It's a thing! Scott Newgent also was convinced at 40 and has major regrets as do many. Just an FYI
I moved our entire family including our 20 yo trans id’ed to the NL last June. Yes, I know. The home of it all. Well, it’s nowhere near as insane here as it is in the US. Amsterdam I’m sure has its pockets but it’s not really a thing where we live. Our daughter is slowly coming around and is happy here. But I want to say, looking back at the U.S. from afar … it looks completely off the rails. Especially watching the left double down. Our liberal friends thought we were crazy to leave when we did and when we told them it was the liberal policies in CA that led us to leave, they scratched their heads but seemed to listen. Now they tell us ‘you were so wise to leave now that Trump’s in office’ and then launch into how horrible it is for trans kids. Did they not hear me?! I get a lot of virtue signaling from them now. I’ve given up trying to correct them, though I ask them if they have actually read Trump’s EO’s but none of them have bothered. Now, I am no longer corrected when I ‘misgender’ my kid, have no fear that our daughter’s doctor will lie to her, and don’t have watch our small town go up in flames from the stupid protests. Here, people go about their daily lives and couldn’t care one bit for any of this insanity. It’s a good place for our daughter to be right now.
This is such an interesting perspective. I have been thinking about leaving the US with my trans-identified young-adult and wondering where to go. Thanks for sharing.
Good luck, be sure to start a blog or a channel if your move succeeds in returning your child to reality.
I highly recommend it. Even if just for a few years!
And it is completely off the rails! Appreciate your perspective.
Indeed! Good luck to you if you’re there.
I am thrilled to see the LGBT Courage Coalition in action.
The Democrats keep digging in. Elizabeth Warren, with her thumbs down on the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Acts.
It certainly seems that Transgender Hill is where the Democrats are willing to die.
Certainly, there must be some with nagging doubts. Yet, all for one and one for all?
Do they think regrets (about transition) are rare? Do they think that testimonies--LGBT Courage Coalition and others are funded by Right-Wing hate groups?
I was pleased by the EOs on gender. I wasn't pleased with the way it all rolled out with a flourish.
There is no doubt much panic in Genderland. I don't find this funny. Give people a landing place.
We must acknowledge that many people will with stick with this identity. We must allow for different presentations while insisting on the reality of sex.
When insurance companies refuse to pay for sex trait modification, that will slow things down. The lawsuits by detranstioners will give insurers pause.
Thanks for your work, Lisa.
Love the Informed Dissent podcast!
When my friends screamed about how quickly the EO’s were rolled out, I point out to them that Biden’s title IX insanity was rolled out in the first months his presidency. Of course they think that E.O. was normal so …
According to an expert in contracts law, Randy Barnett, DOGE is not much different from something Obama set up to implement Obamacare. https://youtu.be/R79-Vc0c9R0?si=HbyyiFSVApwPwxBn&t=445 (bookmarked at the 7:25 minute mark)
Congress has been leaving a power vacuum (by not really doing their f***ing jobs when it comes to oversight and power of the purse) that Presidents and the Federal Agencies have been shoving their way into for decades now. "The Imperial Presidency" and badly-written bills have been things that small-c conservative types have been complaining about in publications like Reason Magazine for a loooong time.
Thanks for posting this Randy Barnett interview!
They fear being cancelled. They're cowards.
The ratio of cultists to cowards is an interesting question. Among Democrats in Congress, I think it's around 90% cultists.
For example, Fetterman has announced that he is a cultist: https://x.com/SenFettermanPA/status/1896728606812028954
Still dealing with the carnage in my household. When you secretly tell teens so much garbage, some of them believe it long after it’s been proven false. The gender ideology took a huge bite out of years of what could have been better friendships, better growth, and better grades. These are just the soft costs. Yet, I am thankful that some people are starting to think for themselves. The Emperor’s New Clothes are still high fashion in too many places.
Same here, friend. Our kid is away at college, but started hormones courtesy of planned parenthood before he left. I have friends on the left who understand my concerns ( my kid is on the spectrum and was molested), even agree to some extent, but mostly see it as a civil rights issue, or are caught up in the idea that if the right is against it, the left must protect it. But I just hope that I have maybe planted some seeds of doubt.
I’m sorry you’re going through this too. I try not too think too much about all the lost years, it would depress me too much. If people really understood what this does to a family … I would hope they would think differently.
Sending strength. 😘
I gave my U.S. House Representative my business card and let her know that I'm a psychologist in her community, in case she wants to discuss what some Democrats are concerned about with transgender social contagion among young people. Otherwise, I don't see it as the responsibility of government to regulate this -- it's the ethics of professional organizations that should be guiding treating gender distressed young people appropriately. I do appreciate the advocacy of those who educate legislators as well as everyone else who has not been given correct information. Meanwhile, I'm caught in the paradox of being opposed to medicalizing those caught up in social contagion while also being the parent of a medicalized young adult.
Ann, I am sorry we landed on government to legislate this. But the professional organizations have refused to regulate. There is a lot of money in "gender medicine." It's a career path. I am happy that the ASPS no longer endorses GAC.
I did not know this-thank you! Here's a link https://www.sanfranciscoplasticsurgeryblog.com/asps-statement-on-gender-affirming-surgery-for-adolescents/#:~:text=The%20American%20Society%20of%20Plastic,%2C%20%E2%80%9CDo%20No%20Harm.%E2%80%9D
Great—happy to see that practices are publishing this statement.
I would think that makes you an incredibly valuable and balanced voice on this.
You are a religious practitioner. The psyche is not a proper subject of medicine. Sorry you wasted your life.
My impression having gone home to the US (blue state) recently is that Democrat voters (not to mention politicians) remain in denial - about why they lost the election, and how destructive gender identity theory is. There also seems to be a failure to understand that it isn't just a handful of freak cases, but well-funded campaigns to promote gender across schools, health, social services, media, etc. AND a failure to understand that the EOs (and Trump himself) are a backlash to extremism on "our side".
I see this too, a very well orchestrated and finance campaign. My question remains - who are the powers that be that are pushing this behind the scenes?
Look at the Who's who of Davos. We know who they are. Arcus Foundation. Pritzkers. Soros. Martine Rothblatt. If you follow Jen Bileck, she follows the money to the power behind the throne.
Yes, I see all of this, too.
These astroturf campaigns are precisely what the Trump EOs are intended to defund.
Many Democrats are going to lose their seats in 2026, including the women. We are going to have fewer women in office thanks to the Democrats, including the Democratic Women's Caucus. No amount of wearing pink is going to protect them.
Maybe, but I'd be surprised to see it. Generally speaking the party in power loses seats in mid-term elections, and if Trump's popularity continues to decline, Republicans may lose a LOT of seats. If the threatened recession materializes, 2026 could be a bloodbath for the GOP.
I think we gender-crits should always bear in mind that most Americans just don't care about this issue nearly as much as we do. As usual, most Americans vote based on high-level forces, like the economy, incumbency, any foreign wars, and things like that. They're not paying much attention to what Erin Reed says...and that's a good thing.
I too worry that Trump's tariffs will tank the economy so that the majority of folks will forget all about the macabre outcomes of all those 'kind' people wrapping themselves in rainbow flags. They'll instead focus more on the price of eggs.
The pink just identifies them as being anti-woman, on every front. The uniform is helping in identifying female misogynists.
It’s really hard to get a good sense of this from my vantage point in NYC, and also in communicating with friends in the purple part of the Hudson Valley, where I lived for 15 years. Again, only speaking from the vantage point of these locations, the potential depth and breadth of the grass roots mobilization by sex-realist women-led groups is not even visible as yet, let alone in a position to run candidates for office to challenge incumbents. Instead, the general reaction I get (offline as well as on) is that these issues are a side show without the potential to effect election results. On our side, I think we have yet to arrive at the best mobilization strategies in many places—though that will come in time. Of course, we do have to keep trying, in the ways we can.
I continue to hope that you might mention Behind the Looking Glass documentary in your activism and explain what trans widows are. Thanks for all you do.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Frffv2sB8zE
I do. https://karadansky.substack.com/p/listen-to-womans-hour-the-terf-report-6f5
Thanks. I've contacted both Schumer and Gillibrand requesting they watch it, as my senators. Schumer sent me a reply falsely claiming the suicide rate is very high when these patients are not affirmed. Gillibrand had no response.
Are you going to be voting for Republicans in Florida?
I think more elected Democrats could be "get-able" on sports and pediatric gender affirming care with legislation that is written with, you know, getting Democratic support in mind and not, as many believe, to trap them into digging in. Anyone who is truly serious about legislation that protects kids should park their butt in Seth Moulton's office and ask him 1. What he needs to see and hear to publicly support a bill and 2. Who does he think he can bring along. And I am sure Seth is not the only one (he's not my Rep but a lot of people, including me like him). As for Democratic voters, we could be very get-able on sports and pediatric gender affirming care if we can be convinced that this is not part of a broader "anti-LGBTQ+" campaign by the right. And yes, I understand how controversial the "TQ+" designation is, but you know what? Many, many democrats do not. You can call it willful ignorance and unacceptable, and given that it lost us the last election I would agree. But if we are interested in real change, liberals need to feel that the people promoting change are truly concerned with the best interest of children and parents. Lisa-I've heard you speak and I've read a lot of what you write, especially about the stuff going on in schools right now. I can very much understand how shocking this must be for parents. I live in a very liberal region, and my kid is, I'm guessing, 8-10 years older than yours and we had NONE of this. So, my frame of reference is people who experienced none of what you and parents of younger kids are experiencing. I'm telling you that my highly educated normie-liberal friends simply have no clue what you all are facing. We have not had to face biological boys playing on our daughters' teams (one of these days I will write about my experience in the girls vs boys lacrosse helmets controversy) or being in the bathrooms. We have not had to face our own reactions to one girl after another in our daughters' friend groups wanting to transition. We have not had to deal with teachers keeping this information from us because they fear we are being abusive. We live and work in worlds where we affirm that adults can make any choices they want about their lives. We live in worlds where if a doctor or the AAP says "this is all for good", we assume that is so, because it is not a factor in our lived experience. I'm not defending this lack of critical thinking but you can't get people to think critically if they feel their values are being attacked. I've come around on sports and pediatric care because I've made an intellectual commitment to doing so. I am trying to get others to come around. Again, if Republicans are serious about the protection of children, they should be trying to win over Democrats, not pushing them further away.
Any young adults under 35...and under 30 even more likely, are still at risk especially if they come across as gender neutral or are neurodivergent and liberal. College age kids most specifically. Avoid liberal colleges is all I can say. The mentors will groom your children even if they are 75 yrs old.
I fell slightly guilty for admitting this but when my moderate liberal daughter chose a college that has the reputation of being conservative (in actuality, it's more apolitical and moderate rather than being truly conservative), I was sort of relieved. And last spring I was much more than "sort of" relieved.
Please DM me and tell me the name of the college! I need a list of non-woke schools as possible choices for kids.
When you get this list, please publish it! My "litmus test" would be to see which colleges did not mandate the COVID vaccines, especially past 2021 - they are least likely to push woke nonsense.
A Google search will tell you that many, many colleges and universities did not nor do not mandate the COVID vaccine.
I’m guessing these were mostly in the South?
Don't feel guilty.. Had I known, I would have steered my kid towards University of Austin. Intelligent, critical thinking is clearly stressed over wokeism, and oppression of everyone by everyone else is the mantra in liberal colleges.
But you know, sorry but 30 year olds are adults. Personally I am uncomfortable with 18-21 year olds doing this. I truly am. But I don't know how to tackle this, legally or culturally.
Everything you describe here comports with what I experience too. I am quite a bit older (76), as are almost all the people I know, and, except for the few I’ve coaxed along over a very long time, they really do still have no clue. And most of the people I know are still not willing to engage on this at all, no matter how gently I tread (and, though my impatience with this has increased a lot, I am still capable of doing that with friends 😎). What most people I know see (all liberal or progressive Democrats) is nothing other than denigrating a marginalized group, and they have too much cognitive dissonance for them to be willing to take a look under the hood.
In public fora, I see this too. There, these days, I do often swing a lot harder, though I also make it a point to engage with individuals who appear to engage with me in good faith, but disagree. What I find most often there, too, is that they have a combination of bad and no information, so I try to address that.
One really big stumbling block, which Lisa has noted here many a time, is that the media my friends and neighbors consume—the New York Times, PBS, PSA (Lovett demonstrated himself to be off the rails on this again yesterday)—don’t give them anything close to accurate information on these issues. So there is no question that there is still a lot of slow boring of hard boards to be done. From time to time I “see” you out there working hard to do just that. Tip of the 🎩 for that.
The problem, of course, is that the country is in desperate straits. We are fast running out of time for a course-correction on these out of touch positions that will get traction when it comes time to vote (if we make it that far). So, I am very worried, and while I press ahead in the ways I can, I fear for the future every day and often feel at a loss.
Bingo about the MSM. I'm 71, had gay friends since 1972, been a right libertarian for 40+ years, & used to live & work in the SFBA, so I've had decades of experience watching my liberal friends & neighbors slide further left on culture war issues. They watch CNN, listen to NPR & believe it all, reinforced by almost everyone around them. Until they can see outside the blue bubble, they remain unreachable.
Trouble is, once you start stating the material truths of what is being done and said in the name of "kindness," they think you're a loon . . . AND, I suspect simply describing what is being done brings up aspects of human nature that most people feel is too "icky" to contemplate. So you get dinged for bringing it up . . . you become the "fart in the elevator."
True of any divisive issue, especially those around sexuality. So figuring out how to frame conversations for maximum impact is essential.
I don't think you're going to be able to tease people out until the T and all its activism is first teased out of LGB. Many LGB are disavowing the T for this very reason. And also, what you describe as far as the normies go, is an unquestioning allegiance to institutions and whatever those institutions tell them to think, say, and do. It's a terror to leave the authority of the institutions. This is why many (like me) have left the left and have found a comfortable home further right.
Thanks for this. I feel the same. I am astonished how hard it is for those who have to identify as "liberal" to admit that the EOs are actually accurate language, structured to protect women and children. These people lecture about boycotting LL Bean because "they dropped their DEI" and advise me that perhaps I should have "tried to stay" in an untenable marriage to a husband who suddenly said he's born in the wrong body.
I do think that when more liberals understand this, more liberals will come around. Many of them (including me until recently) see trans issues as an extension of the gay rights movement of the 90s-2010s. I have only recently learned from my gay and lesbian friends that this is not the case.
Interesting that you note this. I am actually the gay and lesbian friend to many of my friends . For the most part, it doesn’t even occur to friends who are not LGB to ask me what I think from that vantage point, and opening a discussion, no matter how gently, remains extremely difficult, if not impossible. I do applaud your approach, though, don’t get me wrong. Keep going!
This is so true for me too, Susan. A lot of my friends are heterosexual female college professors who are 60+ years old, and the universities are thoroughly on board with gender ideology as inviolable truth.
I can’t tell you how much I appreciate you saying this. Though I make a good effort to set it aside, it is actually quite hurtful. And what is happening to younger lesbians is beyond awful. Yet friends like these are completely lacking in the ability to understand that, if you want to support a truly marginalized community, you should be doing everything you can to support young lesbians.
Yup! I have lived in Park Slope for 30+ years and for the past several years I’ve seen increasing numbers of young women who have medicalized. I think nostalgically of the 1990s, when we affectionately referred to my neighborhood as dyke slope. I thank my lucky stars for having been born when I was, but I feel profoundly sad for young lesbians today.
The "T" Coat-tailed on the rest
I suggest you watch Behind the Looking Glass at Lime Soda Films YouTube channel to get some details on how adult "transition" harms women and children. Vaishnavi Sundar, the cancelled auteur who spend 3 years interviewing trans widows, has also posted the long form interviews with trans widows there. We who witnessed the indoctrination strategies of these gender therapists first hand, and were told by them that we are now "lesbians," know that this is also social contagion among adults, with a strong sissy hypno pornography connection. Trans ideologues are the bullies and the Dems have adopted their bullying language.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Frffv2sB8zE
"Anyone who is truly serious about legislation that protects kids should park their butt in Seth Moulton's office and ask him 1. What he needs to see and hear to publicly support a bill"
I'm convinced that there is no bill that Moulton would support.
He saw what happened to him after just a few stray remarks: his chief of staff resigned, he was denounced as a literal Nazi by his own constituents.
And I'm 99% sure that the facts of Democrat political life in a deep blue state were explained to him behind closed doors: come back under the big TQ thumb, or be primaried and removed from office in 2026.
So he meekly came back under the big TQ thumb, where he plans to stay forever.
The woke madness is far from over. Look at how democrats have voted and behaved the past few days. We must continue subverting their subversion.
Agreed. Yesterday's vote was an incredible tell-all about party line submission. I would be vastly interested in knowing the source of this incredible power that some donors must have over the party on this issue. Does anyone have any insights?
Leor Sapir (@leorsapir) yesterday (3/4) on X posted a tweet on this topic, that I think answers your question.
Thank you. Reading now. We have quite the battle in front of us.
^^^ Trump-fellating crackhead
Trump and "trans" must both go, by the ballot or by the bullet.
And because I keep having to say it -- by ":trans", I don't mean the victims, I mean the monsters who castrate children & the morons who condone that barbarity.
Where am I in this madness? I am ANGRY. I started out hopeful, but I live in the State of Washington, one of the states that sued over the EOs. We now have a bill to amend the state constitution to make access to gender affirming care a constitutional right. Of course, this is sneakily tacked onto the end of a reproductive rights amendment. Don't even get me started on what the state superintendent of education and the local school district are doing. It is absolute insanity. Of course, our state is also making sure to let everyone know they can still choose "X" as a sex marker on their driver's licenses, and of course, my kid is running down to the licensing office to do just that. This all just makes it harder to pull one's child out of the madness.
Here's a potent argument: "trans medicine" is no different from any other form of elective cosmetic surgery. A woman using testosterone to look "more like a man" is no different from Arnold Schwarzenegger using testosterone to look like "more of a man."
The Hippocratic Oath goes, "First do no harm." So why are "doctors" cutting people open - often with serious consequences -- for the sole purpose of cosmetic vanity?
None of it is a proper part of medicine. The whole malformed tree must be uprooted, or we will be back here again before we know it.
Given the effectiveness of Trumps ads attacking Harris on trans issues in the lead up to the election and the post-election polling on the most controversial topics that showed even most democrats didn’t support them, I am genuinely surprised that Democratic leaders seem to have done almost no exploratory research into why that is. Did they just dismiss it as bigotry? Do they really think 80% of Americans are bigots? Or do they understand the valid criticisms people have regarding gender identity ideology and ignore it because they are beholden to the activist arm of the party with the loudest voices and most money? How can anyone support these positions after taking some time to look under the hood? How do you get them to listen to the normie-liberals out there?
I am afraid (speaking as a person who's historically gravitated towards libertarianism) that there is a tendency in those of a progressive bent to focus too much on intent of government policies and to forget the problem of micromanaging the lives of citizens. Just like a body needs gravity to avoid muscular atrophy, grown adults need the risk of financial hardship to avoid shirking their responsibilities. There's been too much vilifying of the conservative perspective among progressives so that the wisdom within it is no longer available to temper Utopianist excesses . . . Adults in my country have the responsibility to prioritize for making things stable in the lives of the kids they bring into this world. They also have the responsibility to not fall for the "bread and circuses" strategies of their elected officials.
Also, I recently heard someone say that when a society "normalizes" a behavior, whatever distress that behavior may cause for the children exposed to it becomes stigmatized . . . Between when I was a kid (I'm in my 50's) and now, the list of things adults may do that children are taught they should consider "no big deal" has gotten pretty long . . . casual divorce was just the start of it, I fear . . . now some expect them to be cool with Daddy transforming into Mommy.
How do we get people to look under the hood?
Bottom line. No EO is changing anyone’s mind. It was nice to hear sane words coming out of a not so sane person’s mouth for a bit last night (ie. there are only 2 genders,” Payton McNabb, etc.), but that it was Trump speaking only made those who don’t understand the issue more unwilling to try. Unfortunately, the messenger matters.
We need to get people to think seriously about what is happening, who is being harmed, and just the general insanity of putting men in women’s spaces and sports and medically altering and harming young people’s bodies with extreme cosmetic alterations so they can look like the the opposite sex.
Until then, parents like me, watching their older teens and young adults live a lie while harming their bodies, will continue to be frustrated and disgusted with all of the false messaging coming from every major institution, authoritative figure and so many of our neighbors.
In short, it’s not great and my patience is wearing thin.
So well put, Hippiesq. There was an upside-down moment last night when Trump said "all our children need to know they're perfect as they are" or some such. Can't we all stand up and cheer for that, with an "amen"? Not our Democrats.
I share your frustration and disgust - and the impact on my young adult daughter is heart-breaking and infuriating.
I'm feeling increasingly disgusted. I can't understand misogynistic females that champion their own erasure. These women, in particular, are leading the charge that IS ending any standing the Democratic Party had, by betraying themselves. Who are they pandering to? I hope they all keep wearing pink so we can identify them.
They can't die fast enough. The visuals of their ritual humiation last night will never be forgotten; wearing pink to celebrate child sterilization, sitting for harm to children, sitting for concussed basketball player, sitting for child killed by migrants, sitting for law enforcement killed by migrants to name a few.
Ritual humiliation is a good way of putting it. Only cultic thinking would self-immolate with such fervor. I know it is based on a form of nihilism, but it's almost too bald-faced to be be believed.
I am thinking the only way to roll back this medical scandal and to take a page from the trans lobbyist strategy handbook and do the un-sexy, low-profile work of tackling where it's gotten embedded in the healthcare system bureaucracy . . . Blue-haired idiots interested in showing up at public events to mindlessly chant slogans as they LARP as saviors of imaginary trans children everywhere wouldn't be as likely to follow and shout-down sex realist activism there . . . Problem is, I don't know how to do this. I would like to volunteer for a group that consults with experts on how the healthcare policy sausage is made . . . Jamie Reed's LGBT Courage Coalition is where I am hoping such "boring" "behind-the-scenes" appealing-to-the-pragmatic-interests-of-bureaucrats projects are in the works . . . Remember that Fibber Island article about Diagnostic Codes? And such a project's beneficiaries are arguably anyone, no matter what might be going on between their ears regarding "gender" beliefs . . . it's intent is to save human bodies from pain, and shortened lives caused by iatrogenic harm, period.
I think we need to write op-eds continually, as well as writing to our legislators. Over and over again. But I think we need to show up and be visible everywhere. Most people are appalled at what has happened, but are too bullied to speak up. Set the precedent. Courage Coalition is a good org.
Are there any people in the Gender Critical/Sex Realist movement exploring the possibilities of using AI to make a "letter to the editor" generator to help individuals who aren't necessarily skilled writers put together decent and unique letters that draw from all the resources already online revealing the lies and pseudoscience spread by the activists and practitioners of lazy journalism? I've been playing around with loading up NotebookLM with my favourite articles and other sources of sanity, in order to sort of "prime the pump" (save me from the terror of the blank page) whenever I am irritated enough by some published nonsense . . . such a thing could be way more powerful than those online petition forms that prompt signers to modify a given template for a letter to their local representative or whatever .. . .
Obamacare set up the third party payments for "gender healthcare" so it's quite possible for the current administration to make CMS change the stance on payments. That would put a significant spoke in the industry, which was much smaller when people had to pay OOP for hormones & surgery.
I've enjoyed reading everyone's comments here - so much insight, and willingness to consider another perspective in spite of the political polarization on this topic (eg from the Progressives here who were willing to pivot). As a therapist, I am concerned about professional licensing and advocacy organizations (American Counseling Association, American Academy of Pediatrics, the APA, etc) continuing to stick to their insistence that "Gender Affirmative Care" is the ONLY way to practice ethically. This is keeping many mental health and medical providers from working with gender-distressed clients and patients, so it is very hard for parents to find a non-affirming provider. "Conversion therapy" laws are still held in 27 (I believe) states, and working in a developmental framework (non-affirming of claimed identities, but rather, taking a developmental and exploratory approach) can potentially set a practitioner up for being accused of conversion therapy. Grad schools over the last several years have ONLY pushed "Gender Affirmative Care" as a therapeutic approach, anything else is considered bigoted and a human rights violation. CEU trainings for providers are ALL "affirming", although Therapy First is thankfully starting to provide trainings with a developmental approach (non-affirming). I am hoping that legislation changes, in order to protect providers who want to practice in a way that is the actual ethical way, not the ideological way that is currently framed as the only approach.
As many have said here, the majority of Democrats and people who consider themselves "socially liberal," remain in the dark on the true scope of gender ideology and the impact of queer theory on our society. They think that since they are nice, compassionate people, of course they will support "transgender rights." But they are largely consuming media that have essentially brainwashed them with the way their headlines twist the truth and shape the perspective to align with "LGBTQ+ rights." This is why it's so important that each of us here engage in one-on-one conversations with people we know and who "know our hearts." This is how I have managed to change people's minds, including other therapists, neighbors and family members. I don't think people change their minds with facts as much as in relationship, and through an emotional story. In the meantime, I believe that as much as I lean Libertarian, we need legislation to establish guardrails given the way our educational institutions, medical industry, therapy profession, etc have been captured by ideologically-driven activists.
Also, I was a bio major and took a Women's Studies course in the 80s and I swear to god that the dogma in Women's Studies back then was aligned with the biology: sex is biological and based on chromosomes and gametes, and gender is about presentation and identity and social/relational factors. And I remember discussing various biological variations on XX=female and XY=male in my Women's Studies class (!!) almost as exceptions that prove the rule. Please someone GenX or older help me out-am I remembering this correctly, that the leftists feminist dogma at that time was that sex and gender are different things and sex is (mostly) binary and biological? Why has this changed??? Carole Hooven's (yay, GenX!) book "T" and her recent op-ed in the Boston Globe are excellent on the subject of sex and gender.
I teach in what used to be called women’s studies before gender took over, and I’m still upholding reality, although every once in a while I get called a transphobe in my teaching evaluations.
This is true!! It’s like no one takes bio 101 anymore! Including doctors and psychologists!
And you’re right about women’s studies courses too!
Yes, I had a women's studies class in the 80s at a Chicago college and this distinction was made - my takeaway was "gender is how you want to come across" regardless of your sex, which endures.
Gender Trouble (Judith Butler) came out in the mid 90s. My sister was her student. At the time, I didn't realize how it took over academia. I just remember my sister (a somewhat narcissistic, academic theorist) ooohing and ahhing about her professor.
Speaking as a developmental psychologist with additional educational background in biology, ethics, and psychopathology. who taught in the schools of education associated with two universities, I see a large part of the problem in the U.S. as resulting from
(1) declines in the integrity of universities and scientific research in the U.S.,
(2) increasing failure to teach critical thinking to university students,
(3) the reduced content and declining quality of public school education in the U.S.,
(4) the money that gender transition has provided and will continue to provide to the U.S. medical profession and pharmaceutical companies, combined with their ability to bribe politicians, and
(5) the utterly dishonest and hateful rejections handed out to those who draw attention to the facts that the current gender ideology has NO VALID BASIS and that it is doing a great deal of HARM TO TWO VULNERABLE GROUPS whose interests are being ignored, and who are ethically entitled to protection: women and minors.
Doctors and mental health practitioners will start peeling off of "trans train." Welsh surgeon, Dr. Joseph Chrysostom wrote an open letter to the medical organizations in the UK, making the accurate report that "vaginoplasties" have a 100% failure rate. He noted that the female vagina is "a highly distensible fibromuscular elastic tube," meaning it expands (accordion-like and in width as well, I tell you as a mother who experienced procreative sex and subsequent natural childbirth.) The "neo-vagina" that surgeons make false promises about is, according to Dr. Chrysostom, "a non-distensible surgical wound in the perineum, which contracts during healing." This public statement will, in fact, help male detransitioners who were told false promises about the surgery results to succeed in medical malpractice cases. It could even be that states passing laws prohibiting these surgeries for minors will require this language for informed consent for adults seeking this fake "reassignment surgery." The linguistic capture, the "embodiment goals" and "born in the wrong body" phrases have to be corrected, and the malady described accurately as Identity-Based Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, a term coined by Dr. Elliot Kaminetsky, a child psychologist in NYC.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YH1LbsnZ2zM
I write somebody every day.
My belief is that it will take another 10 years to truly see things turn, and it will only happen if and when the generation of teens who got the blunt end of this madness grow up and tell their own stories, and those of siblings and friends that were sent down the road to hell pursuing surgery and hormones as a result of social transition.
I think we need to urge Democrat electeds (state and national) to propose “compassionate” alternatives to the Trump sex/gender EO’s in the form of legislation, study/investigations, and public discussions. For example re legislation: insurance coverage for detransitioners, extending the statute of limitations for sex-trait modification medical malpractice and curriculum transparency requirements. Dems want to be seen as expanding rights, so we need to play into this. This won’t work in all areas, but its a way to chip away at the wall of illiberalism and allow Dems to respond to the concerns of their constituents without directly endorsing the Trump agenda.
I'm watching my social media suddenly having posts from friends who never posted anything about this issue now posting about their support for trans kids and how their lives are being put at risk. My fear about Trump being elected is that we would lose what little progress had been made on this issue with centrists and those on the left, and I fear that I'm watching exactly that happen.
Wasn’t it just recently that every single senate democrat voted to block the bill to ban trans atheletes MEN in women’s sports, saying ‘they need an ally?’
I think “my people” – traditional liberals in professional psychotherapy and healthcare spaces – are too stunned overall to calmly and thoughtfully engage in conversation about the youth gender medicine scandal. I know I am feeling sick and somewhat overwhelmed about the incendiary rhetoric and bullying behavior of this administration. I think we would be in a better position to be fighting this fight on the ground of a Harris administration; it still blows my mind that people think choosing Trump was the lesser of two evils. (And I am still friends with my friends and colleagues who voted differently than I did.) I know many will disagree with me but nothing is simple and clear cut about any of this and I believe it is a mistake when people – in leadership, especially -- behave as if it is. I’m trying to be mindful of my own behavior as I struggle with the weight of my own obsessions. That’s where I’m at as I opened my email this morning.
I grew to be so frightened of what a Harris/Walz administration would mean for free speech in this country that supporting that ticket seemed like more of a hazard to me than allowing the prospect of a populist berserker re-accessing the Presidency. (Did the best I could. It's an uncertain world.)
In my mind, being exposed to the news and personal experiences of my little corner of the world, it was like this country had a choice between being slowly strangled while high on laughing gas versus being subjected to a game of Russian roulette. The odds of surviving one scenario with our civil rights intact seemed to me to be (only slightly) better under Trump, as awful as he is. Americans have elected populists fueled by cults of personality before . . . Hopefully we'll get through this with a higher amount of hard-won wisdom.
But it's a question of what you tend to focus on and who you listen to for your news, I guess. I tend to seek out the individuals who can't sleep at night keeping quiet about the whitest of lies, or who feel sick at the prospect of keeping quiet about what seems wrong just to keep the home team united . . . like Lisa Selin Davis. Listening to one's conscience, even though you know it might get you ostracized, is the "rugged individualism" that we in the U.S. need more of at this moment in history.
Very much with you on this. As a former lifelong 'progressive liberal democrat' the utter disregard for our constitutional rights, the censorship, propaganda and gaslighting, etc., etc., etc. under the Biden/Harris administration steered me away from the Dems. Additionally over the last decade or so they abandoned any real democratic process in national elections and pre-selected candidates (Hilary v. Bernie in 2016 - Bernie was the favorite, Biden?! in 2020, Harris in 2024). The DNC is a private corporation and does whatever it wants. It didn't want RFK Jr running as a Democrat so they made it impossible for him to do so by changing and jerry-rigging the primary rules. Then when he ran as an Independent they spent MILLIONS actively sabotaging his campaign. The Dems rejected Kennedy and Gabbard (another lifetime Democrat) and drove them into Trump's arms. I held my nose and voted for Trump because of RFK Jr & Gabbard and actually, Vance too (he is sensible, intelligent, SANE). I'm so glad I did. I was a victim of TDS and now I'm cured. Harris and Walz (he acted as if he wanted to personally perform gender reassignment - a euphemism for genital mutilation - surgeries on minors himself) were looney tunes - a disaster waiting to happen if they won.
As much as I vehemently disagreed with Biden/Harris on matters of Covid and gender ideology, I never understood how anyone could think that Trump was going to be a champion of free speech. As bad as the Biden administration's involvement in censorship in the name of the Covid response was, it was always blatantly obvious to me that Trump's authoritarian tendencies were much more sinister, comprehensive, and self-serving.
And as much as I applaud the gender- and even DEI-related executive orders, seeing how Trump/Musk have been taking a wrecking ball to both the alliances of the free world and the civil service over the past month, I think it should now be clear to everybody that the costs are too high. Especially since the gender EOs will only harden the fronts and make the left dig in their heels. As someone said above, the messenger matters, and Trump is not going to convince anybody of sound mind that he actually cares about women and children, so it's easy to dismiss anything he says on this issue as bigotry.
So you didn’t think that this was good…from last night, January LittleJohn recognized for her work after her daughter was socially transitioned at school??
https://x.com/donoharm/status/1897140200633196784?s=46&t=62fv6pdK3A-58j_yzVnWwQ
I've met her, she's smart and doing good and difficult work trying to educate the public. How any of us choose to fight this fight is a deeply personal one. Nothing in this landscape is simple, easy and clear.
Point well taken!
Agreed, I go almost entirely off my own experience, because that is real, & that of whistleblowers. And whilst I honestly get buzzed & hopeful over some of the government so called overreach & bullying, I am in favor of it. It’s bold & it needs to be. On the flip side, much of it won’t be enacted or will be delayed at best. Going up to the Supreme Court & that is not a done deal as most people seem to think. Some unhappy faces from the judges at the address to Congress last night. These are truly divisive times & whilst each one of us thinks the other side is hateful, it’s honestly not is it, it’s ignorance. It’s a huge battle all round. Detransitioners will tell the story & their truth needs to be shared. And the cost of detransitioner healthcare needs to be addressed. Who is listening??
Even if and when these horrible practices and the doctors who push them are finally discredited, and the clinics and insurance companies understand how expensive mangling young bodies and minds can be once enough attorneys catch the scent, I fear that the majority of young women like my daughter will be left broke and sick and deeply harmed, as is typical for the nameless tens of thousands of casualties from past medical scandals. It is my understanding that most of the Thalidomide babies never got restitution of any kind, and their injuries are even more obvious than those done to my loved one.
Of course, which is why we must stop it. Our children have been sacrificed. Infected with a false mind virus, which they have adopted as their own. They think they are in control, but they are not.
I try to pan back and realize that other generations of youths have gotten carried away with their own visions of a Brave New World, succumbing other mind viruses, like "patriotism" as they marched off to fight in WWI, or "Turn on, tune in, drop out" as they blew out their own fuses with drugs . . . how could they have known?
I see a lot of this, too: people “too stunned overall to calmly and thoughtfully engage in conversation about the youth gender medicine scandal.” Like you, also, I did not think the current admin was a solution to any of this, which is why I voted for Harris. I stay away from discussing the EOs at all, because no matter how well crafted they may be (and the two I have read are very well-crafted), the overreach in implementation has been horrific on many fronts. People in public health, eg, are rightly horrified, for one. But I judge no one for making different choices than I did, particularly parents whose children have been directly affected. The Democrats just blew this, from top to bottom—and that the are doubling down at this point is mind-boggling.
Simple truth can feel like incendiary rhetoric to cult members.
very notable news that Gavin Newsom has broken with Democratic Lock-step against protecting women & girls' sports
:https://www.politico.com/news/2025/03/06/gavin-newsom-breaks-with-democrats-on-trans-athletes-in-sports-00215436
He’s reading the tea leaves and wants to be President.
at least one of Democrats now proves he can read. He says the Trump ads clearly won the election for Trump & notes how Kamala didn't even respond to them.
...
but if you read the Politico article he qualifies his point of view as "personal" and claims impotence re: the law, noting that it was enacted prior to his taking office, in 2014 under Gov. Brown, and therefore it is fait accompli in California.
All of that is merely "weasel words" ...
My view is that the sequestration that Trump and Musk are doing, refusing to spend money designated by Congress, is a huge deal, and I'm going to support Democrats on these issues, even if I find their positions on trans-women in sports and kids put on puberty blockers indefensible. The number of people affected when say 20% of VA doctors are fired, the NSF and NIH suspend many of their grants, is just way higher than people affected by puberty blockers, especially since parents can just refuse to put their children on those drugs.
No to mention the President of the US dropping charges against people like Justin Sun just because he spent money on World Liberty Financial, a simple bribe to Trump.
Lisa, thank you for opening up this discussion. I appreciate reading through the different thinking and responses, and the efforts people are continuing to make to try and break through.
I assume the Dem politicians doubling down on anti-women and children trans issues is a) the funders want it and b) resistance type rhetorical stance. I’d recommend pushing left or centrist leaning voters vote in primaries for people who will protect these rights. I’d like to see (or help create) more non-partisan networks of people working to push back against the ideology while respecting the basic rights (marriage, work, housing, healthcare) of people. Within such networks women could become accustomed to talking about women’s rights without apologizing. We need to grow the ranks of female self advocacy. Most Democratic men aren’t going to do much, which leaves only ourselves and the Republicans, who often have their own agenda.
What’s happening is a classic example of Right vs. Left approach to the situation. While I can agree with some of the new US mandates regarding trans people, I disagree with the hysterical and genuinely hateful (plus lies) approach. Trump’s executive orders do “us” no service. In fact, it entrenches the issue in a political divide of Trans vs. Trump in which siding with Trump is indefensible. To use the worn-out-but-in-this-case-appropriate Hitler analogy, if it was Trans vs. Hitler, obviously you can’t side with Hitler.
Ultimately this is a women’s rights issue, and neither of those sides supports women’s rights. While the Left has not been good to us, they have been the traditional home of women’s rights, and it’s necessary to keep at the Left for women’s rights without supporting either side of T vs. T.
Focus on Women, not on Trans. My current slogan is “Women Don’t Matter”—because why are men allowed in women’s spaces; why do ‘trans’ concerns and feelings in locker rooms matter more than girls; why has the definition of “woman” been arbitrarily redefined; why have female-related words been circumvented in health care; why is women’s sports open to men? All because Women Don’t Matter. And women don’t matter to Trump and his ilk, either. So that’s what needs to change.
Thought this was interesting as it relates to the right/Trump and women's rights. If you haven't listened Tara Henley is a Canadian Journalist. https://open.substack.com/pub/tarahenley/p/joanna-williams-on-trump-and-womens?r=actun&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
Just reposting.. for anyone with older kids. Any young adult under 35...and under 30 even more likely, are still at risk especially if they come across as gender neutral or are neurodivergent and liberal. College age kids most specifically. AVOID liberal colleges is all I can say. The mentors will groom your children even if they are 75 yrs old.
My kid attended an extremely liberal college in 2017-2021.. I had no clue I would end up here. Check out what happened at Evergreen college at the same time.. A 3 part series on youtube. I think it shows a lot of overlap as to why we have these issues. https://youtu.be/FH2WeWgcSMk?si=Cd7w60QZU8v0hZ2n
Has any of this risen to the Supreme Court? I wouldn't take district court decisions as the final word.
The Skermetti case is before the Supreme Court. The ACLU admitted in oral arguments that completed suicides do not go up if an adolescent doesn't get hormones and sex trait modification surgeries.
Where am I at? The thrill from the EOs has subsided. Now I worry that the Trump administration will bungle this opportunity. Has it been bungled already? I don’t think so—I’m still confident that the power of the trans movement has crested. But there are no easy wins ahead.
I feel politically homeless, but I don’t think I can return to the Democrats. They have lost my trust.
I’m really struggling with who to target..who will listen. Hate is too strong a word but that’s how it feels from the other side. I had an hour long discussion about politics with my doctor yesterday. I was there for an annual check up & prompted by the endless check in forms & ridiculous questionnaires, I told him I was severely depressed & identified as male. I asked him what were the next steps. As we talked he said he was not ok with preferred pronoun use & he would not want his daughters to compete against men in womens sports. He was clueless about Trumps EO’s because he simply switched off & loathes everything about him. He is from the South & says his entire family are Trump supporters so he doesn’t go to any family reunions. He harped on about the canceling of USAid which actually just got overturned by the Supreme Court I believe & how embarrassing that was going to the starving in Africa. All I could think was that was precisely where it should be going & not to fund the clinics set up for transgender clinics in India. Sigh.
https://x.com/thetruthin/status/1895426013586473227?s=46&t=62fv6pdK3A-58j_yzVnWwQ
I assume the reasons Dem politicians doubling down on anti-women and children trans issues are a) the funders want it and b) resistance type rhetorical stance. I’d recommend pushing left or centrist leaning voters to vote in primaries for people who will protect these rights. I’d like to see (or help create) more non-partisan networks of people to push back against the ideology while respecting the basic rights (marriage, work, housing, healthcare) of people. Within such networks women could become accustomed to talking about women’s rights without apologizing. We need to grow the ranks of female self advocacy. Most Democratic men aren’t going to do much, which leaves only ourselves and the Republicans, who often have their own agenda.
I find it unlikely that Dems will allow any of their primary candidates to espouse a rational, evidence-based approach to Identity-Based Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. I do not predict that the midterms will bring more Dems into office. If the medical malpractice cases, with 2 dozen of them waiting adjudication, are reported on, perhaps the medical and mental health professionals will start admitting this was a mistake along the lines of lobotomies, DES and thalidomide.
I have to share a bit of cultural history from the 1980's I learned about just this a.m.
SNL Throwback: Girl Crazy Obstetrician Skit
By
Wes Carroll
Oct 29, 2019
https://newsradio540.iheart.com/content/...cian-skit/
source:
Bill Murray on Joe Rogan:
https://youtu.be/f_fM6v64-NQ?si=6Lv_L3SQfZIXwEDc&t=3822 (1:03:42)
Oh jeez, the clip is gone now!
Damn it! It was an amazing skit! The doctor supposedly defies all odds because 100% of the babies he delivered were supposedly female. A reporter comes to interview him and eventually realizes that he's been surgically removing the penis and testicals of all the baby boys he's delivered . . . I am sure that it's removal is justified by copyright law . . . but for this to happen within an hour or two of my having watched it and shared it on a platform makes me suspect it's more than just copyright. There are tons of other Phil Hartman skits available online . . .
Here's another link:
https://mix1029.iheart.com/content/2019-10-29-snl-throwback-girl-crazy-obstetrician-skit/
I know the EO’s are beautifully written and there is a lot of momentum due to the men in women’s sports angle being discussed more publicly, as well as the abject failure, immaturity and cowardice of the democrats lately, But, this week I am super depressed. I fear there is no going back. I literally ran to the polls to vote for Trump after this hellish gender cult issue poisoned my daughter and, through my desperate and copious research I awoke to the lies and censorship that we have been fed for decades by our government, media, and the powers controlling them. About all kinds of issues. I am disgusted. Trump won the first time b/c he was the outsider. Its why he won again.
This ideological capture and abuse of our children will not stop until the traditional MEDIA stops pushing the slogans, agenda and misrepresentations that it is being fed…by whom exactly?
I have suspicions but they must be pinpointed and that is like catching a wave. There are billions of dollars at stake. The media is covering for everyone from politicians to doctors to the schools that indoctrinate the next generation of believers. It’s been a plan decades in the making. “They” -the ones running this global abuse scandal -conquered the media b/c the media are the gate keepers and pushers of the cultural heartbeat. Kindness. Lockdowns. Men can be women. Censorship is necessary. Mandate untested vaccines and rat on your neighbors. Dissent is hate. Words are violence. The border is secure. Biden is sharp as a tack. The science is settled. Parents, Affirm your children! Schools, lying to parents. No one is giving young girls mastectomies…
I know your hard work and the work of countless others has made a HUGE dent in the best way. And it matters and will continue to save parents and kids. It’s just that this is a huge machine. And I am so sad.
Lisa, In your words to Democrats, ‘It did not have to be this way.’ I wish people would drop left and right identity altogether. F-it! Be done. Vote on a hand full of important issues to one’s self. Stop letting a ‘party’ or a friend tell us how to think. It’s conforming to group thought in its own way.
I do love Informed Dissent. Keep it up. It’s helpful to public discourse. You each have great insight and are thought provoking.
I've been plumbing the waters on my favorite progressive news blog for a shift in opinion. The dynamic which seems to play itself out over and over is the emergence of one take no prisoners bully who will intimidate people with rancid ad hominem attacks on their motivations. Then there are the sympathizers for whom the little trans children will always be the victims they care for most. In short, though there's pushback from people who can read polls the main thrust is still "we are the virtuous, they are the infidels." It's a narrative that seems impervious to dismantling because it's vital to people's perceptions of who they are as moral beings.
Again, because of what we might call the Helen Joyce rule: every trans kid creates a cadre of people who become devoted advocates, and because democratic power structures are now peopled with trans parents, we will not be able to avoid a rupture between the pragmatists and the t-parents.
I was simply mentioning that as a head's up. Unfortunately, there is nothing that can be done except mandating Dr's truly inform the patient with the global information regarding the true side effects. My kid wasn't 30 when this happened but their partners were close to 30, and they were very caught up in this until they decided it would be better for my daughter to be taking T instead of them. It's a thing! Scott Newgent also was convinced at 40 and has major regrets as do many. Just an FYI
Is that Chase Strangio in the photo?