".. in the 2010s, morphed into a battle between parents who understood their children as transgender, and those understood their children as not conforming to stereotypes, with no particular label, no singular future, attached to their gender-different kids."
And then there were those of us parents who had totally gender conforming girls struggling with significant mental health issues brought on by puberty and Covid lockdowns and we were begging the therapists, the doctors, the nurses, and our liberal friends and family to please give our kids the mental healthcare help they needed and stop telling them they were actually boys who needed binders and testosterone and to get away from their bigoted parents.
there are also boys/young men who are ROGD. The betrayal of these young men by all the authority figures who should have helped to guide them to their-own-kind-of-manhood is stunning and will very possibly never leave me. I feel physically ill when I allow myself to feel the betrayal by, can we count them all?, schools -- including teachers, counselors, administrative leaders who set the agenda --, medical personnel of all types (nurses, doctors, emergency responders, health clinics, psychologists, psychiatrists, surgeons), city administrators and law makers, non-profit organizations funded by "trans rights" deep pocketed advocates, and more.
Truly, it "takes a village" to turn a vulnerable teen into a trans lab experiment for the medico-industrial complex. ... and those of us now in exile from that village, where do we go? what do we do to help our poor lost children?
I completely agree. It makes me very concerned and upset that there are people on "our side" who claim ROGD doesn't exist in teen boys. That's the same kind of absolutist, only one answer for everyone kind of thinking that got us into this mess. I talk about the girls because my personal experience is with the girls, but boys are absolutely getting overlooked and, even worse, being put in a one size fits all box.
I don't mean to be mean, but I think you should have begged the doctors and the nurses for healthcare, if she was sick, and if she wasn't sick, I think you should have begged the friends and family for the "mental" -- if my meaning is unclear, I apologize, as I am slightly sick, I think, or coming down with something, anyway.
As for the therapists, I think you should have told them to pound sand. For what one pays those people, you could probably buy her attention from someone who teaches something useful, like, I don't know, drumming. It is high time to admit that "therapy" is just buying a friend -- a useful service, but at the same time, you can sometimes find friends for free if you look around, and if you have to pay, you can usually get a cherry or two on top...and I would venture to guess that people probably remember their music lessons in a more positive light than their "treatments" even if, like me, they never get anywhere in music.
I was about to say that I shouldn't knock what I haven't tried, but a therapist is kind of just a person, and I've talked to at least a few people, and it has been helpful, so it probably is helpful, but I think the people I talked to were funnier.
If anyone reading this is around Brooklyn, I know a woman named Doreen who can be found, usually, in the general area of the President Street and Nostrand Ave intersection, between about 6 and 9 in the morning, usually. If she's not around, check the deli on the corner, and ask the man there if he can hold a beer & your number to give her when she comes in. Heineken.
She'll talk to anyone for free, and she'll even give you a complimentary joint if you look funny or down -- and if you're willing to cover incidentals, and you have a tenner for when Mr Stone comes around, she has all day. She'll introduce you to lots more people, too. (And believe me, you *really* want to meet the chick from St Lucia.) You might hear some scary stuff, but hey, that's life, and Doreen is better than you might think at keeping secrets. If you're not sure what to say, tell her your daughter wants to be your son, or vice versa, and it's jamming you up so bad you're having a panic attack. Or, if you want to be funnier, say your daughter wants to grow a moustache. ("She can have mine!") Or you could ask about her stick. (It's long.)
Try to keep the conversation light. You may see or hear some subtly or not-so-subtly alarming things, but unless you're prepared to really commit, and I mean really commit -- I mean sponge baths commit -- or unless you're going to be the new Mr Stone, you probably need her help more than she needs yours. She has benefits and an apartment -- she just, as I said, likes fresh air.
Doesn't surprise me about your friends. The hatches have been battened down everywhere, largely thanks to the New York Times. In my life, people who may have been a little bit open to my perspective are no longer. Since Trump, more have cut me off for my TERFy views on social media and on my Substack list, even though I largely do not write about this issue--they know I have in the past. I have one super liberal LA artist friend who actually engaged with me early on about gender, who actually watched the early documentaries and read the articles, who came to the same conclusions about this medical scandal and the assault on women's rights. She battled her (smart, successful, NY city) millennial aged kids about it a bit, and then decided to tune out for a few years as it was just too hard. Recently she reached out to say that she wanted to talk about gender again, as she is reacting with shock and horror to the executive orders (and everything else Trump and Elon are doing). She quoted one of the EAs: "there are two sexes," and said, "but that is just not true!" She has been talking to people in her life, and her views have shifted back to something that includes this belief, that there are not just two sexes. I don't know what good a conversation can be when she can quote some scientists pushing back against the EA and I can just quote others. (Although at least I have Richard Dawkins.) The good news, for me, is that our love and friendship are solid. Being lifelong lefties who have good communication skills developed as part of that culture and who have room for respectful difference is something I am grateful for. I told her we can talk about it, yes, I will hear what she thinks and why, yes--later, when I have the bandwidth. I have a few other dear friends who I never got through to, who also did not cut me off. Until the election, I was hopeful they would eventually wake up. My hope is now entirely shattered. I am unwilling to further risk those precious friendships by talking more about this, when I have no hope of getting through. If I had a trans id-d kid or was a detransitioner, it would probably be impossible to remain friends, but I have realized that I need friends. I wish someone would write about this incredibly alienating experience for liberals in this fight who are like me, who are genuinely horrified about many of Trump's actions, even as I largely agree with the EAs on gender. I did my part to ensure he was not elected, including trying to get through to Democrats for many years so they would not lose so miserably because of this issue. I am sorry to report that this climate has entirely shut me up.
Yeah, that's tough (wrt "That's just not true!"). Have you tried saying "there are other things than the two sexes... but they're not _sexes._" Sure, there are people with disorders of sexual development, or peculiar genetic profiles, but those aren't different sexes, they're coding errors on the way to the same two sexes.
I'm an introvert, so I haven't actually lost friends by believing in reality, but my son has, and it's pushed him away from liberals. Luckily, the people who get all holy trans on me are the same people swanning about in keffiyahs and praising Hamas, so I already don't talk to them. When I talk about the issue, I try not to focus on the X/Y, but on the obligation we men have to accept men who express themselves differently, including feminine men. Free to be you and me, innit? Focus on the upside, maybe now we can have a gay/straight alliance but for real.
Good suggestion for phrasing it when we do get around to the chat, thanks! I like "coding errors on the way to the same two sexes" line. With this friend, she will hear me and listen carefully. Not a flouncy keffyah-wearer. After writing my initial comment I realized that there is a difference in generations between people over 50 or so and those younger. So being in the older camp, I'm lucky that way perhaps, and it may account for the fact that (some friends) can still love and accept me, even as they think I am terribly wrong on this issue, and vice versa. We older progressives did not come of age in an extreme social justice warrior environment. Many of my friends have accepted the basic tenets of these ideologies--but that all evolved later in their lives so it's not as hard wired in the same way. They are also wiser because some people get wiser with age.
What did I do last week? I talked to a friend who is a pediatric nurse about this issue. Sent her a couple of your articles, an interview with Kathleen Stock, and Jamie Reed's Free Press whistleblower piece. She said she didn't know much about this but seemed interested to hear my perspective. She said she used to think these interventions were bad until she had a patient who had a long history of severe mental health issues and treatments, until she went on testosterone and then all her problems were solved, according to the mother, which made her think maybe some kids need this...
I think the problem is really that most people are pretty low-information on this issue. They have never thought about the fact that the whole house of cards rests on the concept of an innate gender identity, and that there is no scientific evidence for this concept and it can only exist based on stereotypes. It doesn't help that the legacy media are now finding ideologically captured scientists who will assert that sex is indeed a spectrum and that the sex binary is an outdated concept. Great response to that in the Boston Globe (I'm sure you've seen it): https://archive.ph/9tC5u
On the other hand, the New Yorker's recent piece on the issue was maddening (https://archive.is/i6ufG). Shocking to read about all these kids on puberty blockers at 9 or 11 years old. And then the story of that six year old boy whose severe mental distress supposedly resolved after socially (and later medically) transitioning him... I'm sure that's compelling to many readers of the New Yorker. What I'm thinking is, a) how much of this is a retrospective narrative to justify having gone down this dangerous path, and b) why does nobody ask themselves why this boy thought that he was "a girl in his heart and brain"? Could it have something to do with the fact that someone taught him what it means to be a boy, and he doesn't like it? Was there really no other path than one that ultimately will lead to castration?
Another reason that people, like my nurse friend, who might otherwise be critical of this phenomenon don't see it as a problem is that they think it isn't really happening. She insisted that the concept of "gender identity" is a thing of popular culture, and that sex still rules in science and medicine, and that she also had only ever encountered one case of transition in a minor at her large clinic. She is in her sixties, doesn't have young children, and works primarily with newborns, but I think there are lots of people who are not actually aware of how pervasive this ideology is and how many kids fall victim to it.
Janet Mills, the Democrats, have chosen "gender" as their hill to die on. It's incredibly depressing. You cannot get through to people who hold a firm Belief System. The media obviously censors the gender skeptics, the cautious, while boosting the Gender Belief System. No, GAC is not life-affirming care.
As a longtime New Yorker subscriber, I cringed at this piece.
It's true that a child or an adult might be quite happy that they are affirmed as transgender, that they are undergoing massive cosmetic sex trait modification.
Yet, we all know they would be just fine if they didn't follow this path.
People make decisions daily on which path to take in life, where to live, where to attend school, whether to marry--and whom, to have children? And there is a part of us that realizes no matter what we choose, we will still be okay.
But GAC locks one in to one pathway. It is incredibly difficult for teen and adult detransitioners to walk away from this trans decision. Children will be locked in.
Wish: May the Informed Dissent panel be boosted by The New York Times, The New Yorker, Bill Maher? How about adding Ben Ryan, while avoiding the distraction of pronoun showdowns?
I’m hoping that by describing the interactions in which I was an asshole an ineffective, I’m showing how I fail and fuck up and not lauding myself. I’d rather share the shame publicly than have it foisted upon me later.
Well, I did not see your communication to these people, but I very much doubt you were an asshole, even if you were ineffective. Good to be accountable, but some currents in the zeitgeist of now are also completely outside your control. Maybe there is some way you could have worded it differently and gotten through--but I doubt it, based on my own experience anyway. I believe this is the very difficult and painful moment we are in. There is less room than there ever has been to get through to most liberal or progressive people, which is the point I tried to make in my comment. I do think one-to-one communications might have a higher chance of success. This past week I reached out privately to a long-time elected Democrat friend who used to be a colleague. My goal is to prick a pin in his blue bubble with all the frantic conversations going on, so he might begin to bring new perspectives about gender to other Democrats in power. He engaged with me and didn't cut me off, so I call it a tiny win. I think he just thinks I am old and clueless, but he also respects me so, who knows? I had to try. The good thing: this difficulty I describe will not be here forever. Things will keep changing. We all must do what we are called to do in this world, whether in our jobs or as volunteers. But if there is one thing I have learned, it is that gender ideology has a deep and brutal grip in our world, and it might be here a very long time. It's not getting abolished any time soon.
The best we can hope is that it decreases over time in the general culture, that science reporting gets more honest, and that our institutions stop promoting it.
I was definitely the asshole. I mean, well, there were multiple assholes. But I was one of them for sure! And to them, I was the only asshole. Which is fine. But I wish I'd done better.
I agree with Kate and Melissa R. that so many people simply aren’t aware of what’s going on. They think it’s either “just a woke thing” affecting very few people or they think they’re being “inclusive” and “kind” (gawd, how they’ve twisted that word) by embracing what they perceive as harmless wackiness.
Especially on my end of the spectrum, the left, which has bought into this trans shit hook, line, and sinker. It’s very disheartening. I’ve been trying to get through to these people for almost 20 years, to no avail. And now with all the men-faux-women invading women’s spaces and even assaulting them there, it’s just getting worse.
Slipping into a valley of depression after being disappointed yet again by conversation partners who are not willing to focus on any concept that takes longer than 15 minutes to absorb. (If I have any faith, it's currently invested in the proposition that states of depression will eventually end and I just need to wait a bit and this enervated state I'm in will be interrupted by another period of optimism and energy). Depressed that the only being around willing to engage in careful thought with me the past few days has been the AI on X.com called "Grok." Meanwhile, my daughter's body is another week closer to chronic illness and sterility . . . while she sleepwalks through her current comfortable existence like a lotus eater.
Let's see, I wrote a blog article about how often the suddenly crossdressing husbands demand the wife do "sex role play," meaning pretend she's male and into kink, linking the replies of 6 women to a question in my survey for trans widows, 20 Questions to Ask a Trans Widow. Then I took myself out to eat. Next, I beautify myself before my zoom interview with an NY Post writer. Then, I sweep melting ice off the back deck. I got to ski also, but the good snow didn't last. No moguls--the Nordic kind I can do in my woods. Gotta go, the Post writer says she is watching the documentary Behind the Looking Glass to prepare for her profile of me and other trans widows. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Frffv2sB8zE
Thanks. She actually writes for the Daily Mail now. I'm hoping they give me a week or so to tidy up my house--the editor liked the zoom material so much they're sending Jane and a photographer to expand the story.
I so appreciate your honesty and your sharp sense of humor with it. It does feel better to have something concrete to contribute, so I've been volunteering with our local NYC women's group, have volunteered with and always look for ways to support DIAG, and am contributing $$ to the Courage Coalition and encouraging others to do so as well.
In re conversations, I tried having lunch with a neighbor who reads the New Yorker cover-to-cover and has been going to protests v the current admin on a daily basis. We got through the lunch OK, though when I tried to raise, gently, a tiny aspect of the problem, I felt she might leave the table. We moved on from that, got through lunch OK, and later she even proposed having lunch again.
I think, though, that lunch now may be off the table. I was having an exchange with one of our building staff and asked him how many sexes he thought there were. He looked at me like I was crazy, then burst out with "Two!" He then threw his hands up in the air and, as I laughed in agreement, went on a riff about how ridiculous this all is that I wish I had on tape--including "Did you see what happened in Olympic boxing!" He then ticked off all the physiological differences between men and women.
As he was doing this, with me laughing and applauding along, the neighbor I'd had lunch with came in, I am sure overheard, and walked past, refusing a hello or eye contact, with a decided scowl on her face. I have a feeling that second lunch may be a long time coming--though I would be glad to give it a try, if she's willing. She just has no idea whatsoever of the issues here, and none of her trusted news sources, electeds, or activist friends, are helping, to say the least.
Regarding liberals wanting to die on the gender hill (Chase Strangio shoutout there?), yesterday ABC published a poll about how much Americans agree with Trump's agenda:
One of these things is not like the other: Trump's "LGBTQ" policy is his most popular by far. The trans issue must have had an effect on the election. It is an albatross around the neck of Democrats.
Jealous that you can get on skis. My knee and hip won't cooperate. I am finding there to be a little bit of shutdown from my left leaning friends and family who were open to my views. My personality disordered sister who lives in Europe keeps lobbing things on the family chat trying to bait me into sounding like a rabid MAGA supporter. Despite her knowing that my kid got roped into the contagion and has never presented remotely as a boy in her entire life. However this sister was also a student of a young Judith Butler back in the 90s so she is eating this sh*t up. My accomplishment? Not taking the bait.
"5. I realized that liberals really want to die on the gender hill."
This is my experience as well but I'm not certain why this is the case. My intuition tells me this is simply about the desire not to rock the boat. When your peers have trans kids there really isn't any good place to start the discussion that isn't existentially threatening.
In theory, this will be the last chapter of the book: why we couldn't let go. I have a lot of theories, but it's impossible to tell. It could be that they really can't tell the difference between gay rights and trans rights, and that's compounded by TDS: if conservatives are for it, it's bad. Polarization skews the lens. It could be they've invested too much to pull back. It could be they're the most likely to have trans kids in their families. What else?
It's everything you all said, and one more thing, I think. It seems that there is a certain level of joy in simply being one of the good ones. This feels to these people like some sort of accomplishment. I got that idea when at the NYU Langone protest. People felt pretty good about protesting and being good as they were fighting the evil decisions of NYU Langone and, of course, Trump. However, they felt even better when they saw the 10 of us standing there with our little signs saying "Children Can't Consent," "Stop Cutting Kids," "Read the Cass Review," and "Save Tomboys." You see, they now knew they are truly good. They haven't fallen into the horrible, evil trap that we fell into. They haven't drunk the Koolaid that made us so "hateful" that we would consider denying "life-saving" healthcare to 12-year-olds.
There apparently is something truly satisfying about being in the good camp, something that wouldn't be as good if there was only one camp. If everyone agreed that children should be socially and medically transitioned, they wouldn't have the same joy. Fighting against the evil of us sex realists, being right, being good in the face of such evil, is what brings them such joy.
Yes, ultimately I see it as a quest to be seen as a good person. And the only way out is to make peace with not caring about being seen as a good person. Which I think is super hard for liberals.
I'd agree with all the comments above but maybe phrase it as simply "status." Status uber alles. Have y'all read the book The Status Game by Will Storr? Highly recommend.
As has been discussed many times, the left's primary interest is defining itself as the party of the virtuous and conversely the opposition as evil. If that's your baked in premise, it's difficult to move the needle. The fierce commitment of parents with trans kids is also a factor. They police the discussion with understandable rigor. I can't help but think their doubts must be crippling even as they define the case as open and shut.
I don't think you can underestimate the effect of the mob. Confessing to TERFism is an invitation to excommunication, banning, even death threats. The most vicious people in the world are Trans Rights Activists. Look what they do to the lovely JK Rowling. I am not so beloved, what will they do to me?
I heard someone saying recently (I think it was an interview with Helen Joyce), that for each trans identified kid, there are 100 adults in their lives (parents, friends, teachers, neighbors) who feel they just cannot speak up on this issue because of that kid. I am not going to post anything on Facebook about it either, because our neighbor's son has been identifying as a girl/woman (he is 22) for at least five years now, and I am FB friends with the mother and other neighbors who happily go along with the tragic charade. (And I could never go truly public with my opinions because I do freelance work for a liberal organization, and I fear they'd never send me any more jobs if they knew I was a "TERF".)
I think Helen's correct and the ambivalence in our quarters about moving forward is hinged on those cadres of 100. I'm betting there's a battle brewing in Democratic power centers between the pragmatists who know the working class will be out of our reach if we don't mediate our stance and those who have family or community in the trans world. Operatives in the GOP are targeting that latter group with their Draconian words and deeds, knowing this will cement their resistance and impede movement toward the center.
I remembered where I heard the "100 adults" quote: it was in this interview with Kathleen Stock, and it was a quote from Maya Forstater: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgEjwxeS2go
I truly appreciate your determination and principle, Lisa – thank you for sharing the hard parts of the fight as well as the breakthroughs (especially in constant self-overcoming and progress in clarity).
For some reason, I have got myself stuck on the idea that opposing the very same tribalism I spent most of my life subscribing to, is now clear (and unavoidable) duty. I would say it “wins me no friends” but that’s actually not so (as I’m sure you’ve experienced also). What it does is win me friends I never expected, with skills and intellection I find very welcome and stimulating – while also turning people who I was once sure would be life-long allies into very bitter (weirdly nasty) critics. Blasphemy and treason is the general feel of the accusations – but all I’m doing is calling out destructive dogma, and suggesting we do more thinking and talking to real human beings. Waste less time on symbol fights and rationalizing lousy maps, spend more time DOING – including overcoming false division to recognize common principle again, instead of always going for – and then lazily capitlating to, the easiest available line of division we can find.
Anyhow – I’ve been reading your stuff for years – just thought I should say your struggles are beyond sympathetic, and steadily inspiring for far more people than say so.
Keep it up! I know care and duty propel (compel?) you. Please know your cause resonates, also.
Thank you, Paul. You're right—I have not just lost people and community, I've gained people and community. The experience of wandering outside of your bubble—it's a bit like the Truman Show. There's a whole world out there I never knew anything about. Wouldn't it be nice, though, to bring more people from inside the bubble out here to join us? To do that, one must be very careful in speaking to them. And that, I'm just not good at.
I wrote to the Opinion Editor of the Seattle Times, Melissa Davis, mdavis@seattletimes.com, about the fact that the Times REWROTE a letter to the editor that supported an amendment to the Washington Interscholastic Athletic Association policy to provide for an Open sports category and a natal Girls category. I thought letters to the editor were, in fact, the words of the person writing it, and that changing those words, including falsely describing the amendment, is fraud or something, certainly unethical. Here is the letter, https://www.seattletimes.com/opinion/youth-sports-in-wa-allowing-trans-athletes-on-girls-teams-violates-title-ix/. The most concerning change the Times made, without consulting or apprising the letter writers, was to the second to the last paragraph which was changed to read: "The opportunity for reform is now. The Lynden School District has submitted Amendment No. 7 to the WIAA, which proposes an open category, where athletes can compete based on gender identity, while maintaining the boys’ and girls’ divisions. It is supported by several other school districts. (Another proposal would prohibit trans girls from competing in girls sports.)" That's incorrect and it's not what the letter writers submitted. The amendment proposes an Open category for anyone regardless of sex or identity, and a category for natal Girls. The editors added the parenthetic sentence about another proposal.
I've never heard of an editor tampering with a letter to the editor before, especially one that introduces an error and changes the meaning of the letter. If you'd like to write to Melissa Davis and let her know the Times has committed a crime against journalism, you can add that to your What I Did list
I know the Times made these changes without consulting or apprising the letter writers because I worked with the two women, Carol Brown and Anne Simpson, to write the letter. They were shocked to see what actually came out in print this morning, and emailed me the link to the printed letter and the letter that was accepted for publication by the Times. An earlier paragraph speaking to girls' loss of opportunity was also changed by the Times. I've never heard of an editor tampering with a letter to the editor before, and frankly, I don't even know how to lodge a complaint about it. Though I wrote to Merlissa Davis, it seems unlikely she will admit something so grossly unethical
They never ran the changes by the writer? No copy editor called? Did the changes alter the meaning of the letter? Do they want to print their unedited version and the edited version here? THIS IS NOT COOL
The Times accepted a letter written by Carol Brown and Anne Simpson supporting Amendment 7 to the WIAA policy that currently allows sports participation based on gender identity.The Amendment. The editor, Melissa Davis, told Anne and Carol she had accepted the letter weeksago and emailed again to say the Times would publish it today, Feb 25. Neither she nor any other editor asked Anne or Carol to make changes to their letter nor told them the editors had made changes. The letter writers found out changes had been made when they read it in the Seattle Times today. Yes, it changed the meaning of the letter. In the second paragraph, the editors left out examples that the letter writers had included of ways girls lost opportunities because boys are allowed to participate in girls' sports. Most critically, the editors changed the description of Amendment 7 so that it was wrong, not correctly as the letter writers had worked hard to ensure. I'll ask Anne and Carolif they'd like to print here on Broadview (thanks!) but this is so egregious, so unethical, I want to see if some news program (dang can't think of her name) would like to look intoit
Yes, please do tell them I'm happy to put that up here and show what happened. In the meantime, if there's a public editor or ombudsman of some kind there, have them reach out and complain.
Anne and Carol received a reply from the Seattle Times opinion editor Melissa Davis, saying she was sorry for the "screw up," that she was trying to edit for clarity (the writers' explanation of Amendment 7 was perfectly clear) but ended making it factually incorrect. Oops. Davis reprinted their letter today with a correction, using their original language. But, Davis defended herself in the email to Anne and Carol by saying that all letters to the editor are edited for clarity, grammar, usage, etc. It is fixed but I am of the opinion Davis's edits were at the very least, overreach.
White Lotus’ small nods to gender culture war have made me laugh in the past (s2’s “young white college girl” archetype bemoaning the difficulty of finding a guy who is not ‘non-binary’). The ladyboys in this past episode weren’t referred to as women or as transgender so i liked that.
“I managed to alienate an entire group of liberal acquaintances, by emailing about The Issue in a way that did not account for the fact that the acquaintances were New York Times readers who believe that the story of the youth gender culture war is Left versus Right: good libs versus bad conservatives.” Lisa, would you be willing to turn this email into a generic one that others with an alienation wish can follow you down the hill? Similar to your collection of other beautifully argued generic letters?
Last week I started to write a “Dear Parents of my daughter’s male friends” letter in which I explain to them why I start behaving passive aggressively whenever they refer to her as a boy, why I keep slipping references to “she” into the conversation, etc. Very few of these adults are people I knew before my daughter entered high school. Some of them have already distanced themselves from me in response to my resolute use of sex-based pronouns. Why not go to whole way and lay it out for them just one time? Needless to say I didn’t finish the letter. Too many other things to do unrelated to the gender madness. But I did have a back and forth with a NYT-reading lesbian friend I have known for decades. She was outraged about the changes at Stonewall. I told her how I saw it and we are still friends so that’s something!
And, if you or any of your subscribers can come out TODAY (February 26, 2025) at 6pm to fight the "transmafia" at a school venue, they will be coming out in full force at P.S. 130 at 143 Baxter Street in Manhattan. They OPPOSE the commonsense proposal of 248, which would allow for the RESEARCH of the impact of having males compete on girls' sports teams.
These are monthly CECD2 (Community Education Council District 2) meeting, and the transactivists have numbered over 100 in attendance in the past.
-Joanna from NYC's Medical Freedom Alliance (www.mfany.org) .
Children can no more "consent" to have their healthy breasts and genitalia removed or take puberty blockers than they can "consent" to have sex with an adult. Similarly, parents and doctors can no more approve such permanent mutilation simply because a minor child desires it than they can approve their participation in pedophilia. Ultimately society will see the truth and ban the practice as we have banned female genital mutilation. Do people support that practice if the parents consent? I truly hope not. It is monstrous to believe otherwise and those who do will ultimately be held to account for their actions. The obscene (now happily fired) bureaucrat Richard Levine among those in the dock.
In my state, if a girl wanted to get a radical double mastectomy and then have fake nipples tattooed on where her nipples used to be, it would be illegal. Because minors can't get tattoos.
".. in the 2010s, morphed into a battle between parents who understood their children as transgender, and those understood their children as not conforming to stereotypes, with no particular label, no singular future, attached to their gender-different kids."
And then there were those of us parents who had totally gender conforming girls struggling with significant mental health issues brought on by puberty and Covid lockdowns and we were begging the therapists, the doctors, the nurses, and our liberal friends and family to please give our kids the mental healthcare help they needed and stop telling them they were actually boys who needed binders and testosterone and to get away from their bigoted parents.
there are also boys/young men who are ROGD. The betrayal of these young men by all the authority figures who should have helped to guide them to their-own-kind-of-manhood is stunning and will very possibly never leave me. I feel physically ill when I allow myself to feel the betrayal by, can we count them all?, schools -- including teachers, counselors, administrative leaders who set the agenda --, medical personnel of all types (nurses, doctors, emergency responders, health clinics, psychologists, psychiatrists, surgeons), city administrators and law makers, non-profit organizations funded by "trans rights" deep pocketed advocates, and more.
Truly, it "takes a village" to turn a vulnerable teen into a trans lab experiment for the medico-industrial complex. ... and those of us now in exile from that village, where do we go? what do we do to help our poor lost children?
I completely agree. It makes me very concerned and upset that there are people on "our side" who claim ROGD doesn't exist in teen boys. That's the same kind of absolutist, only one answer for everyone kind of thinking that got us into this mess. I talk about the girls because my personal experience is with the girls, but boys are absolutely getting overlooked and, even worse, being put in a one size fits all box.
I don't mean to be mean, but I think you should have begged the doctors and the nurses for healthcare, if she was sick, and if she wasn't sick, I think you should have begged the friends and family for the "mental" -- if my meaning is unclear, I apologize, as I am slightly sick, I think, or coming down with something, anyway.
As for the therapists, I think you should have told them to pound sand. For what one pays those people, you could probably buy her attention from someone who teaches something useful, like, I don't know, drumming. It is high time to admit that "therapy" is just buying a friend -- a useful service, but at the same time, you can sometimes find friends for free if you look around, and if you have to pay, you can usually get a cherry or two on top...and I would venture to guess that people probably remember their music lessons in a more positive light than their "treatments" even if, like me, they never get anywhere in music.
I was about to say that I shouldn't knock what I haven't tried, but a therapist is kind of just a person, and I've talked to at least a few people, and it has been helpful, so it probably is helpful, but I think the people I talked to were funnier.
If anyone reading this is around Brooklyn, I know a woman named Doreen who can be found, usually, in the general area of the President Street and Nostrand Ave intersection, between about 6 and 9 in the morning, usually. If she's not around, check the deli on the corner, and ask the man there if he can hold a beer & your number to give her when she comes in. Heineken.
She'll talk to anyone for free, and she'll even give you a complimentary joint if you look funny or down -- and if you're willing to cover incidentals, and you have a tenner for when Mr Stone comes around, she has all day. She'll introduce you to lots more people, too. (And believe me, you *really* want to meet the chick from St Lucia.) You might hear some scary stuff, but hey, that's life, and Doreen is better than you might think at keeping secrets. If you're not sure what to say, tell her your daughter wants to be your son, or vice versa, and it's jamming you up so bad you're having a panic attack. Or, if you want to be funnier, say your daughter wants to grow a moustache. ("She can have mine!") Or you could ask about her stick. (It's long.)
Try to keep the conversation light. You may see or hear some subtly or not-so-subtly alarming things, but unless you're prepared to really commit, and I mean really commit -- I mean sponge baths commit -- or unless you're going to be the new Mr Stone, you probably need her help more than she needs yours. She has benefits and an apartment -- she just, as I said, likes fresh air.
Doesn't surprise me about your friends. The hatches have been battened down everywhere, largely thanks to the New York Times. In my life, people who may have been a little bit open to my perspective are no longer. Since Trump, more have cut me off for my TERFy views on social media and on my Substack list, even though I largely do not write about this issue--they know I have in the past. I have one super liberal LA artist friend who actually engaged with me early on about gender, who actually watched the early documentaries and read the articles, who came to the same conclusions about this medical scandal and the assault on women's rights. She battled her (smart, successful, NY city) millennial aged kids about it a bit, and then decided to tune out for a few years as it was just too hard. Recently she reached out to say that she wanted to talk about gender again, as she is reacting with shock and horror to the executive orders (and everything else Trump and Elon are doing). She quoted one of the EAs: "there are two sexes," and said, "but that is just not true!" She has been talking to people in her life, and her views have shifted back to something that includes this belief, that there are not just two sexes. I don't know what good a conversation can be when she can quote some scientists pushing back against the EA and I can just quote others. (Although at least I have Richard Dawkins.) The good news, for me, is that our love and friendship are solid. Being lifelong lefties who have good communication skills developed as part of that culture and who have room for respectful difference is something I am grateful for. I told her we can talk about it, yes, I will hear what she thinks and why, yes--later, when I have the bandwidth. I have a few other dear friends who I never got through to, who also did not cut me off. Until the election, I was hopeful they would eventually wake up. My hope is now entirely shattered. I am unwilling to further risk those precious friendships by talking more about this, when I have no hope of getting through. If I had a trans id-d kid or was a detransitioner, it would probably be impossible to remain friends, but I have realized that I need friends. I wish someone would write about this incredibly alienating experience for liberals in this fight who are like me, who are genuinely horrified about many of Trump's actions, even as I largely agree with the EAs on gender. I did my part to ensure he was not elected, including trying to get through to Democrats for many years so they would not lose so miserably because of this issue. I am sorry to report that this climate has entirely shut me up.
Yeah, that's tough (wrt "That's just not true!"). Have you tried saying "there are other things than the two sexes... but they're not _sexes._" Sure, there are people with disorders of sexual development, or peculiar genetic profiles, but those aren't different sexes, they're coding errors on the way to the same two sexes.
I'm an introvert, so I haven't actually lost friends by believing in reality, but my son has, and it's pushed him away from liberals. Luckily, the people who get all holy trans on me are the same people swanning about in keffiyahs and praising Hamas, so I already don't talk to them. When I talk about the issue, I try not to focus on the X/Y, but on the obligation we men have to accept men who express themselves differently, including feminine men. Free to be you and me, innit? Focus on the upside, maybe now we can have a gay/straight alliance but for real.
Good suggestion for phrasing it when we do get around to the chat, thanks! I like "coding errors on the way to the same two sexes" line. With this friend, she will hear me and listen carefully. Not a flouncy keffyah-wearer. After writing my initial comment I realized that there is a difference in generations between people over 50 or so and those younger. So being in the older camp, I'm lucky that way perhaps, and it may account for the fact that (some friends) can still love and accept me, even as they think I am terribly wrong on this issue, and vice versa. We older progressives did not come of age in an extreme social justice warrior environment. Many of my friends have accepted the basic tenets of these ideologies--but that all evolved later in their lives so it's not as hard wired in the same way. They are also wiser because some people get wiser with age.
What did I do last week? I talked to a friend who is a pediatric nurse about this issue. Sent her a couple of your articles, an interview with Kathleen Stock, and Jamie Reed's Free Press whistleblower piece. She said she didn't know much about this but seemed interested to hear my perspective. She said she used to think these interventions were bad until she had a patient who had a long history of severe mental health issues and treatments, until she went on testosterone and then all her problems were solved, according to the mother, which made her think maybe some kids need this...
I think the problem is really that most people are pretty low-information on this issue. They have never thought about the fact that the whole house of cards rests on the concept of an innate gender identity, and that there is no scientific evidence for this concept and it can only exist based on stereotypes. It doesn't help that the legacy media are now finding ideologically captured scientists who will assert that sex is indeed a spectrum and that the sex binary is an outdated concept. Great response to that in the Boston Globe (I'm sure you've seen it): https://archive.ph/9tC5u
On the other hand, the New Yorker's recent piece on the issue was maddening (https://archive.is/i6ufG). Shocking to read about all these kids on puberty blockers at 9 or 11 years old. And then the story of that six year old boy whose severe mental distress supposedly resolved after socially (and later medically) transitioning him... I'm sure that's compelling to many readers of the New Yorker. What I'm thinking is, a) how much of this is a retrospective narrative to justify having gone down this dangerous path, and b) why does nobody ask themselves why this boy thought that he was "a girl in his heart and brain"? Could it have something to do with the fact that someone taught him what it means to be a boy, and he doesn't like it? Was there really no other path than one that ultimately will lead to castration?
Another reason that people, like my nurse friend, who might otherwise be critical of this phenomenon don't see it as a problem is that they think it isn't really happening. She insisted that the concept of "gender identity" is a thing of popular culture, and that sex still rules in science and medicine, and that she also had only ever encountered one case of transition in a minor at her large clinic. She is in her sixties, doesn't have young children, and works primarily with newborns, but I think there are lots of people who are not actually aware of how pervasive this ideology is and how many kids fall victim to it.
You are right, Kate. Your nurse friend is just unaware of what's actually going on.
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/article-abstract/2828427?utm_campaign=articlePDF&utm_medium=articlePDFlink&utm_source=articlePDF&utm_content=jamapediatrics.2024.6081
By age 17, about 1 in 1,000 privately insured minors were receiving gender-transition hormones between 2018 and 2022.
And I bet the percentage is much higher in our area (and other blue cities/states), if this study was looking at a nationwide sample.
You are a shero, Lisa!
Janet Mills, the Democrats, have chosen "gender" as their hill to die on. It's incredibly depressing. You cannot get through to people who hold a firm Belief System. The media obviously censors the gender skeptics, the cautious, while boosting the Gender Belief System. No, GAC is not life-affirming care.
As a longtime New Yorker subscriber, I cringed at this piece.
It's true that a child or an adult might be quite happy that they are affirmed as transgender, that they are undergoing massive cosmetic sex trait modification.
Yet, we all know they would be just fine if they didn't follow this path.
People make decisions daily on which path to take in life, where to live, where to attend school, whether to marry--and whom, to have children? And there is a part of us that realizes no matter what we choose, we will still be okay.
But GAC locks one in to one pathway. It is incredibly difficult for teen and adult detransitioners to walk away from this trans decision. Children will be locked in.
Wish: May the Informed Dissent panel be boosted by The New York Times, The New Yorker, Bill Maher? How about adding Ben Ryan, while avoiding the distraction of pronoun showdowns?
I’m hoping that by describing the interactions in which I was an asshole an ineffective, I’m showing how I fail and fuck up and not lauding myself. I’d rather share the shame publicly than have it foisted upon me later.
Well, I did not see your communication to these people, but I very much doubt you were an asshole, even if you were ineffective. Good to be accountable, but some currents in the zeitgeist of now are also completely outside your control. Maybe there is some way you could have worded it differently and gotten through--but I doubt it, based on my own experience anyway. I believe this is the very difficult and painful moment we are in. There is less room than there ever has been to get through to most liberal or progressive people, which is the point I tried to make in my comment. I do think one-to-one communications might have a higher chance of success. This past week I reached out privately to a long-time elected Democrat friend who used to be a colleague. My goal is to prick a pin in his blue bubble with all the frantic conversations going on, so he might begin to bring new perspectives about gender to other Democrats in power. He engaged with me and didn't cut me off, so I call it a tiny win. I think he just thinks I am old and clueless, but he also respects me so, who knows? I had to try. The good thing: this difficulty I describe will not be here forever. Things will keep changing. We all must do what we are called to do in this world, whether in our jobs or as volunteers. But if there is one thing I have learned, it is that gender ideology has a deep and brutal grip in our world, and it might be here a very long time. It's not getting abolished any time soon.
The best we can hope is that it decreases over time in the general culture, that science reporting gets more honest, and that our institutions stop promoting it.
I was definitely the asshole. I mean, well, there were multiple assholes. But I was one of them for sure! And to them, I was the only asshole. Which is fine. But I wish I'd done better.
I agree with Kate and Melissa R. that so many people simply aren’t aware of what’s going on. They think it’s either “just a woke thing” affecting very few people or they think they’re being “inclusive” and “kind” (gawd, how they’ve twisted that word) by embracing what they perceive as harmless wackiness.
Especially on my end of the spectrum, the left, which has bought into this trans shit hook, line, and sinker. It’s very disheartening. I’ve been trying to get through to these people for almost 20 years, to no avail. And now with all the men-faux-women invading women’s spaces and even assaulting them there, it’s just getting worse.
Slipping into a valley of depression after being disappointed yet again by conversation partners who are not willing to focus on any concept that takes longer than 15 minutes to absorb. (If I have any faith, it's currently invested in the proposition that states of depression will eventually end and I just need to wait a bit and this enervated state I'm in will be interrupted by another period of optimism and energy). Depressed that the only being around willing to engage in careful thought with me the past few days has been the AI on X.com called "Grok." Meanwhile, my daughter's body is another week closer to chronic illness and sterility . . . while she sleepwalks through her current comfortable existence like a lotus eater.
Let's see, I wrote a blog article about how often the suddenly crossdressing husbands demand the wife do "sex role play," meaning pretend she's male and into kink, linking the replies of 6 women to a question in my survey for trans widows, 20 Questions to Ask a Trans Widow. Then I took myself out to eat. Next, I beautify myself before my zoom interview with an NY Post writer. Then, I sweep melting ice off the back deck. I got to ski also, but the good snow didn't last. No moguls--the Nordic kind I can do in my woods. Gotta go, the Post writer says she is watching the documentary Behind the Looking Glass to prepare for her profile of me and other trans widows. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Frffv2sB8zE
Good list!
Thanks. She actually writes for the Daily Mail now. I'm hoping they give me a week or so to tidy up my house--the editor liked the zoom material so much they're sending Jane and a photographer to expand the story.
Thanks for this link. Brilliant.
I so appreciate your honesty and your sharp sense of humor with it. It does feel better to have something concrete to contribute, so I've been volunteering with our local NYC women's group, have volunteered with and always look for ways to support DIAG, and am contributing $$ to the Courage Coalition and encouraging others to do so as well.
In re conversations, I tried having lunch with a neighbor who reads the New Yorker cover-to-cover and has been going to protests v the current admin on a daily basis. We got through the lunch OK, though when I tried to raise, gently, a tiny aspect of the problem, I felt she might leave the table. We moved on from that, got through lunch OK, and later she even proposed having lunch again.
I think, though, that lunch now may be off the table. I was having an exchange with one of our building staff and asked him how many sexes he thought there were. He looked at me like I was crazy, then burst out with "Two!" He then threw his hands up in the air and, as I laughed in agreement, went on a riff about how ridiculous this all is that I wish I had on tape--including "Did you see what happened in Olympic boxing!" He then ticked off all the physiological differences between men and women.
As he was doing this, with me laughing and applauding along, the neighbor I'd had lunch with came in, I am sure overheard, and walked past, refusing a hello or eye contact, with a decided scowl on her face. I have a feeling that second lunch may be a long time coming--though I would be glad to give it a try, if she's willing. She just has no idea whatsoever of the issues here, and none of her trusted news sources, electeds, or activist friends, are helping, to say the least.
Regarding liberals wanting to die on the gender hill (Chase Strangio shoutout there?), yesterday ABC published a poll about how much Americans agree with Trump's agenda:
https://abcnews.go.com/538/americans-voted-trump-support-agenda/story?id=119136603
One of these things is not like the other: Trump's "LGBTQ" policy is his most popular by far. The trans issue must have had an effect on the election. It is an albatross around the neck of Democrats.
Jealous that you can get on skis. My knee and hip won't cooperate. I am finding there to be a little bit of shutdown from my left leaning friends and family who were open to my views. My personality disordered sister who lives in Europe keeps lobbing things on the family chat trying to bait me into sounding like a rabid MAGA supporter. Despite her knowing that my kid got roped into the contagion and has never presented remotely as a boy in her entire life. However this sister was also a student of a young Judith Butler back in the 90s so she is eating this sh*t up. My accomplishment? Not taking the bait.
I set a bait trap AND took the bait and argued with people. I am annoyed at myself.
"5. I realized that liberals really want to die on the gender hill."
This is my experience as well but I'm not certain why this is the case. My intuition tells me this is simply about the desire not to rock the boat. When your peers have trans kids there really isn't any good place to start the discussion that isn't existentially threatening.
In theory, this will be the last chapter of the book: why we couldn't let go. I have a lot of theories, but it's impossible to tell. It could be that they really can't tell the difference between gay rights and trans rights, and that's compounded by TDS: if conservatives are for it, it's bad. Polarization skews the lens. It could be they've invested too much to pull back. It could be they're the most likely to have trans kids in their families. What else?
It's everything you all said, and one more thing, I think. It seems that there is a certain level of joy in simply being one of the good ones. This feels to these people like some sort of accomplishment. I got that idea when at the NYU Langone protest. People felt pretty good about protesting and being good as they were fighting the evil decisions of NYU Langone and, of course, Trump. However, they felt even better when they saw the 10 of us standing there with our little signs saying "Children Can't Consent," "Stop Cutting Kids," "Read the Cass Review," and "Save Tomboys." You see, they now knew they are truly good. They haven't fallen into the horrible, evil trap that we fell into. They haven't drunk the Koolaid that made us so "hateful" that we would consider denying "life-saving" healthcare to 12-year-olds.
There apparently is something truly satisfying about being in the good camp, something that wouldn't be as good if there was only one camp. If everyone agreed that children should be socially and medically transitioned, they wouldn't have the same joy. Fighting against the evil of us sex realists, being right, being good in the face of such evil, is what brings them such joy.
Yes, ultimately I see it as a quest to be seen as a good person. And the only way out is to make peace with not caring about being seen as a good person. Which I think is super hard for liberals.
I'd agree with all the comments above but maybe phrase it as simply "status." Status uber alles. Have y'all read the book The Status Game by Will Storr? Highly recommend.
As has been discussed many times, the left's primary interest is defining itself as the party of the virtuous and conversely the opposition as evil. If that's your baked in premise, it's difficult to move the needle. The fierce commitment of parents with trans kids is also a factor. They police the discussion with understandable rigor. I can't help but think their doubts must be crippling even as they define the case as open and shut.
I don't think you can underestimate the effect of the mob. Confessing to TERFism is an invitation to excommunication, banning, even death threats. The most vicious people in the world are Trans Rights Activists. Look what they do to the lovely JK Rowling. I am not so beloved, what will they do to me?
I heard someone saying recently (I think it was an interview with Helen Joyce), that for each trans identified kid, there are 100 adults in their lives (parents, friends, teachers, neighbors) who feel they just cannot speak up on this issue because of that kid. I am not going to post anything on Facebook about it either, because our neighbor's son has been identifying as a girl/woman (he is 22) for at least five years now, and I am FB friends with the mother and other neighbors who happily go along with the tragic charade. (And I could never go truly public with my opinions because I do freelance work for a liberal organization, and I fear they'd never send me any more jobs if they knew I was a "TERF".)
I think Helen's correct and the ambivalence in our quarters about moving forward is hinged on those cadres of 100. I'm betting there's a battle brewing in Democratic power centers between the pragmatists who know the working class will be out of our reach if we don't mediate our stance and those who have family or community in the trans world. Operatives in the GOP are targeting that latter group with their Draconian words and deeds, knowing this will cement their resistance and impede movement toward the center.
I remembered where I heard the "100 adults" quote: it was in this interview with Kathleen Stock, and it was a quote from Maya Forstater: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgEjwxeS2go
Around minute 41.
I truly appreciate your determination and principle, Lisa – thank you for sharing the hard parts of the fight as well as the breakthroughs (especially in constant self-overcoming and progress in clarity).
For some reason, I have got myself stuck on the idea that opposing the very same tribalism I spent most of my life subscribing to, is now clear (and unavoidable) duty. I would say it “wins me no friends” but that’s actually not so (as I’m sure you’ve experienced also). What it does is win me friends I never expected, with skills and intellection I find very welcome and stimulating – while also turning people who I was once sure would be life-long allies into very bitter (weirdly nasty) critics. Blasphemy and treason is the general feel of the accusations – but all I’m doing is calling out destructive dogma, and suggesting we do more thinking and talking to real human beings. Waste less time on symbol fights and rationalizing lousy maps, spend more time DOING – including overcoming false division to recognize common principle again, instead of always going for – and then lazily capitlating to, the easiest available line of division we can find.
Anyhow – I’ve been reading your stuff for years – just thought I should say your struggles are beyond sympathetic, and steadily inspiring for far more people than say so.
Keep it up! I know care and duty propel (compel?) you. Please know your cause resonates, also.
Thank you, Paul. You're right—I have not just lost people and community, I've gained people and community. The experience of wandering outside of your bubble—it's a bit like the Truman Show. There's a whole world out there I never knew anything about. Wouldn't it be nice, though, to bring more people from inside the bubble out here to join us? To do that, one must be very careful in speaking to them. And that, I'm just not good at.
I wrote to the Opinion Editor of the Seattle Times, Melissa Davis, mdavis@seattletimes.com, about the fact that the Times REWROTE a letter to the editor that supported an amendment to the Washington Interscholastic Athletic Association policy to provide for an Open sports category and a natal Girls category. I thought letters to the editor were, in fact, the words of the person writing it, and that changing those words, including falsely describing the amendment, is fraud or something, certainly unethical. Here is the letter, https://www.seattletimes.com/opinion/youth-sports-in-wa-allowing-trans-athletes-on-girls-teams-violates-title-ix/. The most concerning change the Times made, without consulting or apprising the letter writers, was to the second to the last paragraph which was changed to read: "The opportunity for reform is now. The Lynden School District has submitted Amendment No. 7 to the WIAA, which proposes an open category, where athletes can compete based on gender identity, while maintaining the boys’ and girls’ divisions. It is supported by several other school districts. (Another proposal would prohibit trans girls from competing in girls sports.)" That's incorrect and it's not what the letter writers submitted. The amendment proposes an Open category for anyone regardless of sex or identity, and a category for natal Girls. The editors added the parenthetic sentence about another proposal.
I've never heard of an editor tampering with a letter to the editor before, especially one that introduces an error and changes the meaning of the letter. If you'd like to write to Melissa Davis and let her know the Times has committed a crime against journalism, you can add that to your What I Did list
I know the Times made these changes without consulting or apprising the letter writers because I worked with the two women, Carol Brown and Anne Simpson, to write the letter. They were shocked to see what actually came out in print this morning, and emailed me the link to the printed letter and the letter that was accepted for publication by the Times. An earlier paragraph speaking to girls' loss of opportunity was also changed by the Times. I've never heard of an editor tampering with a letter to the editor before, and frankly, I don't even know how to lodge a complaint about it. Though I wrote to Merlissa Davis, it seems unlikely she will admit something so grossly unethical
They never ran the changes by the writer? No copy editor called? Did the changes alter the meaning of the letter? Do they want to print their unedited version and the edited version here? THIS IS NOT COOL
The Times accepted a letter written by Carol Brown and Anne Simpson supporting Amendment 7 to the WIAA policy that currently allows sports participation based on gender identity.The Amendment. The editor, Melissa Davis, told Anne and Carol she had accepted the letter weeksago and emailed again to say the Times would publish it today, Feb 25. Neither she nor any other editor asked Anne or Carol to make changes to their letter nor told them the editors had made changes. The letter writers found out changes had been made when they read it in the Seattle Times today. Yes, it changed the meaning of the letter. In the second paragraph, the editors left out examples that the letter writers had included of ways girls lost opportunities because boys are allowed to participate in girls' sports. Most critically, the editors changed the description of Amendment 7 so that it was wrong, not correctly as the letter writers had worked hard to ensure. I'll ask Anne and Carolif they'd like to print here on Broadview (thanks!) but this is so egregious, so unethical, I want to see if some news program (dang can't think of her name) would like to look intoit
Yes, please do tell them I'm happy to put that up here and show what happened. In the meantime, if there's a public editor or ombudsman of some kind there, have them reach out and complain.
Anne and Carol received a reply from the Seattle Times opinion editor Melissa Davis, saying she was sorry for the "screw up," that she was trying to edit for clarity (the writers' explanation of Amendment 7 was perfectly clear) but ended making it factually incorrect. Oops. Davis reprinted their letter today with a correction, using their original language. But, Davis defended herself in the email to Anne and Carol by saying that all letters to the editor are edited for clarity, grammar, usage, etc. It is fixed but I am of the opinion Davis's edits were at the very least, overreach.
White Lotus’ small nods to gender culture war have made me laugh in the past (s2’s “young white college girl” archetype bemoaning the difficulty of finding a guy who is not ‘non-binary’). The ladyboys in this past episode weren’t referred to as women or as transgender so i liked that.
AP English is another show that poked fun at the gender stuff.
I think Mike White is terfy
What a list! I have no accomplishments to share. Nada.
“I managed to alienate an entire group of liberal acquaintances, by emailing about The Issue in a way that did not account for the fact that the acquaintances were New York Times readers who believe that the story of the youth gender culture war is Left versus Right: good libs versus bad conservatives.” Lisa, would you be willing to turn this email into a generic one that others with an alienation wish can follow you down the hill? Similar to your collection of other beautifully argued generic letters?
Last week I started to write a “Dear Parents of my daughter’s male friends” letter in which I explain to them why I start behaving passive aggressively whenever they refer to her as a boy, why I keep slipping references to “she” into the conversation, etc. Very few of these adults are people I knew before my daughter entered high school. Some of them have already distanced themselves from me in response to my resolute use of sex-based pronouns. Why not go to whole way and lay it out for them just one time? Needless to say I didn’t finish the letter. Too many other things to do unrelated to the gender madness. But I did have a back and forth with a NYT-reading lesbian friend I have known for decades. She was outraged about the changes at Stonewall. I told her how I saw it and we are still friends so that’s something!
Thanks, Lisa.
And, if you or any of your subscribers can come out TODAY (February 26, 2025) at 6pm to fight the "transmafia" at a school venue, they will be coming out in full force at P.S. 130 at 143 Baxter Street in Manhattan. They OPPOSE the commonsense proposal of 248, which would allow for the RESEARCH of the impact of having males compete on girls' sports teams.
These are monthly CECD2 (Community Education Council District 2) meeting, and the transactivists have numbered over 100 in attendance in the past.
-Joanna from NYC's Medical Freedom Alliance (www.mfany.org) .
Children can no more "consent" to have their healthy breasts and genitalia removed or take puberty blockers than they can "consent" to have sex with an adult. Similarly, parents and doctors can no more approve such permanent mutilation simply because a minor child desires it than they can approve their participation in pedophilia. Ultimately society will see the truth and ban the practice as we have banned female genital mutilation. Do people support that practice if the parents consent? I truly hope not. It is monstrous to believe otherwise and those who do will ultimately be held to account for their actions. The obscene (now happily fired) bureaucrat Richard Levine among those in the dock.
In my state, if a girl wanted to get a radical double mastectomy and then have fake nipples tattooed on where her nipples used to be, it would be illegal. Because minors can't get tattoos.
Great encapsulation of the informed consent issues!