Information on puberty blocker medication used to delay the onset of puberty.
The changes to your body that happen during puberty can be distressing if they are not in line with your gender. Puberty blockers can help relieve this distress. Delaying puberty gives you more time to explore your gender identity, before changes happen to your body that can’t be reversed.
If you are under age 19, the criteria for getting a prescription for a puberty blocker are:
a long-lasting and intense pattern of gender non-conformity or gender dysphoria.
gender dysphoria emerged or worsened with the onset of puberty.
coexisting psychological, medical, or social problems, if any, are stable enough to start treatment.
the adolescent having given informed consent. The consent of your guardian is preferred but not absolutely necessary under the BC Infants Act
Usually an endocrinologist (hormone specialist) monitors puberty blockers and hormone therapy for youth, due to changing needs during adolescence. The endocrinologist can work with your primary care provider for routine monitoring.
The puberty blocker used most often in BC is called Lupron Depot. It is given through a monthly injection in the thigh. Lupron Depot is quite expensive; it costs around $400 a month. It is covered by BC PharmaCare; some families have the cost covered by the PharmaCare Plan G. Extended health care plans may also cover this medication.
Effects of puberty blockers
If you were assigned male at birth, puberty blockers will stop or limit:
growth of facial and body hair
deepening of the voice
broadening of the shoulders
growth of Adam’s apple
growth of gonads (testes) and erectile tissue (penis)
If you were assigned female at birth, puberty blockers will stop or limit:
breast tissue development
broadening of the hips
monthly bleeding
In both cases, puberty blockers will temporarily stop or limit:
growth in height
development of sex drive
impulsive, rebellious, irritable or risk-taking behaviour
accumulation of calcium in the bones
fertility
There are no known irreversible effects of puberty blockers. If you decide to stop taking them, your body will go through puberty just the way it would have if you had not taken puberty blockers at all.
Risks of taking puberty blockers
Puberty blockers are considered to be very safe overall.
We are not sure if puberty blockers have negative side effects on bone development and height. Research so far shows that the effects are minimal. However, we won’t know the long-term effects until the first people to take puberty-blockers get older.
If you have erectile tissue (penis) and think you might eventually want to have a vaginoplasty, talk with your primary care provider or endocrinologist for more information. Vaginoplasty is the surgical procedure that creates a vagina. If you start taking puberty blockers early in puberty you might not be able to have the vaginoplasty surgery that is most commonly used in Canada, later as an adult. There are alternative techniques available, such as the use of a skin graft or colon tissue.
Risks of withholding puberty blockers
Health care providers refusing to provide puberty blockers to youth can cause additional distress, and may lead to anxiety and depression.
Withholding puberty blockers and hormone therapy is not a neutral option and can result in an increased risk of mental health issues.
Under Trump's watch, the National Debt increased by $7.8 trillion, from $19.9 trillion to $27.7 trillion, due to tax cuts for billionaires. The Republicans want to make these tax cuts permanent. This will cost the Treasury another $3.5 trillion. So much for fiscal responsibility. pic.twitter.com/bHeV1lJGxW
Sen. Van Hollen: "The farce of this whole thing is that under Donald Trump, we raised the debt ceiling 3 times, 40% of our national debt was actually accumulated under Trump, and now they're not willing to talk about any revenue from very wealthy people as part of this effort." pic.twitter.com/VrkrFwj3Iv
Again the devil is in the details of the bill. At first, it sounds normal, to protect kids from sex or nudity. But then the republicans give away the game by throwing in the words abnormal, unhealthy, degrading, shameful. All words the right wing fundamentalist religious haters use to describe men wearing clothing these religious people associate with female gender. This the goal, to outlaw men dressing as women or doing drag while keeping kids from seeing it in public normalizing it for them. Instead the point is to make men dressing as women and women as men to seem harmful and shameful. It is all about rolling back the advances in acceptance and tolerance in society of people who don’t follow the social norms of the 1950s, rolling back accepting of the LGBTQ+ people. Again this is an attempt by religious groups to force Christian moral dictates on the public. Look at what bills the people involved pushed, things like mandating the Christian 10 commandments in all schools forcing the Christian religion on all students regardless of their or their families religious affiliations. Hugs
The Texas House gave initial approval to a bill restricting children from seeing sexually explicit performances on Friday. Senate Bill 12 was originally designed to restrict kids from attending drag shows, but its most recent version seeks to criminalize any live performance that the bill defines as sexual.
It defines a sexually explicit performance as one in which someone is nude or appeals to the “prurient interest in sex.” SB 12 would fine business owners $10,000 for hosting such performances in front of kids. It would also slap performers violating the proposed restriction with a Class A misdemeanor, which could result in up to a year in jail, a $4,000 fine or both.
On Friday, Republican state Rep. Matt Shaheen of Plano cited the U.S. Supreme Court’s definition of prurient interests, which is defined as “erotic, lascivious, abnormal, unhealthy, degrading, shameful, or morbid interest in nudity, sex, or excretion,” though the language’s interpretation varies by community.
The original version of the anti-drag bill has already passed in the state Senate, which will have to revisit the amended version.
Rep. Matt Shaheen [photo above] first appeared on JMG in 2015 when he introduced a bill to nullify LGBTQ protections statewide.
The author of the bill, GOP state Sen. Bryan Hughes, appeared here in April for his bill that would defund public libraries that host Drag Queen Story Hour.
In March, he appeared here for his bill to raise taxes on bars that host drag shows. A Texas lesbian bar has since been denied insurance.
Last year Hughes appeared here when his bill to force public schools to display “In God We Trust” posters went into effect.
In 2021, he appeared here for his bill banning criticism of white supremacy in history lessons.
RELATED: Several Pride organizations in Florida have banned drag performances or canceled events since DeSantis signed a similar bill that criminalizes shows that would potentially be within the view of children.
Texas House lawmakers gave initial approval to a bill restricting children from seeing sexually explicit performances.
While the bill no longer targets drag performers, LGBTQ advocates say it's vague language could still be used to criminalize such shows.https://t.co/4wKpEVcIwk
I have never seen a drag show that I would say falls in this description. But someone will say it is “abnormal,” so it will be prosecuted. These bills are intentionally vague so they can suppress any activity these christofascists don’t like.
We have a few shows here in Houston where the performers are mostly trans and strip down to just a g-string… but they’re in bars where no one under 21 is allowed.
I am getting very worried for people like you Girlgoon, some of these laws include a ban on “impersonating the opposite sex”. Although impersonation has nothing to do with trans people, I fear the fascists will eventually include all trans people as “impersonators” and start criminalizing them. They already say trans women do not exist and that they are delusional and fake. Florida is already forcing parents to detransition their trans children!!! I don’t know where this is heading but we LGBTQ cannot let it go there!
I’m not sure how nude drag would even work. Aren’t the costumes (and wigs and make-up) the whole point?
Yes, I’ve been to some drag shows that were not G-rated. (Varla Jean Merman comes to mind.) But those performers would not do that material in front of children. Those were late night performances in a bar that carded. We were all adults and it was HILARIOUS! (Varla’s R-rated Schoolhouse Rock takeoff is a personal favorite.)
I’m not sure how nude drag would even work. Aren’t the costumes (and wigs and make-up) the whole point?
Yes, I’ve been to some drag shows that were not G-rated. (Varla Jean Merman comes to mind.) But those performers would not do that material in front of children. Those were late night performances in a bar that carded. We were all adults and it was HILARIOUS! (Varla’s R-rated Schoolhouse Rock takeoff is a personal favorite.)
Yes – will they also go after R-rated movies? Or PG movies that dare to have an LGBTQ person or character?? What about TV shows?? The internet?? These right wing fascists are out of control. All for the votes of their Christian and ultra conservative base. And just like Floriduh, I don’t believe the majority of people in Texas agree with this craziness. But also very noticeable that they aren’t passing any laws to screen potential sexual groomers, predators and molesters in their churches. They are the real threat. Not drag queens. It’s fucking ridiculous.
I have been writing that this is about enforcing a 1950s society by demanding gender roles stereotypes of that time, removing civil rights for minorities, removing visibility of minorities, and removing anything but heterosexuality in public or media. It started with trans, as they are the smallest part of the LGBTQ+ and the most easily attacked. The right used the idea of protecting the children, which is what the religious hate groups have been pushing forever, that changing social norms are somehow dangerous and bad for children. That is false, and an old trope used forever against people these hate groups have targeted. This is about removing any LGBTQ+ from public and society. This is about enforcing a return to a conservative religious lifestyle, removing all progress of society to regress to a time when misunderstandings and misinformation was king, to a time when Christianity was equated with automatic good, Christianity was the only religion represented in public, White men were in charge, women were second to men who were in charge in public along with in the home, and only straight white couples were in the media of the time with blacks as servants and any representation of gays were as villains. This is the goal that people like DeathSantis and his supporters such as Lib’s of Tic Tok or the Mom’s of Liberty are pushing, which they have shown they are willing to force this ideological indoctrination in all schools both public and private. They are willing to force their views on all of the public, even though the majority doesn’t agree with them. Because they are the Christian Taliban. Hugs
Ron DeSantis just signed a new law requiring all transgender ADULTS in Florida to obtain “written consent” from multiple oversight boards whose members are appointed by DeSantis in order to get gender-affirming care.
Just hear a republican say it was not record profits and price gouging causing inflation, but the government spending. When asked about raising taxes on these record-breaking profits being made by corporations and the upper wealthy, the republican lied about how that was going to crash the economy and wouldn’t help the budget shortfalls. The host never bushed back on the republicans lies, instead framing her questions in how unreasonable the democrats were being for not being willing to entertain all the cuts and economic hardships the republicans are demanding. The republicans know what their cuts will do to the people, the harm to the poor, and wipe out every advance in policy that Biden managed to do. They want this to happen, so they can campaign on that harm, hurt, and economic collapse, blaming Biden for it and saying he has not managed to pass anything to help the people. It has nothing to do with the debt, it has to do with politics and trying to regain the Senate and White House, and keep the house. Hugs
Figure easily beats predictions and comes despite fall in oil and gas price
Shell will now offer shareholders $4bn in share buybacks after its record quarterly profit. Photograph: Dado Ruvić/Reuters
Shell has been accused of a “profiteering bonanza” after it made record first-quarter profits of more than $9.6bn (£7.6bn) and showered shareholders with more than $6bn, even as oil and gas prices tumbled from last year’s highs.
The better than expected profits in the first three months of this year were well above the $7.96bn predicted by industry analysts, and topped Shell’s previous first-quarter record set last year at $9.1bn for the same period.
Europe’s biggest oil and gas company handed shareholders $2bn in dividend payments and bought back shares worth $4.3bn over the last quarter, and plans to offer its investors another $4bn in share buybacks over the next three months.
BP’s profits labelled ‘heinous’ as calls grow for tougher windfall tax
Read more
The FTSE 100 company said profits increased despite higher taxes and lower sums paid on the market for the oil and gas it produces, thanks in part to its energy trading teams managing to mitigate against falling prices.
Global oil prices averaged $81.7 a barrel in the first quarter of this year, according to Shell, down from $102.2 a barrel in the same period a year earlier, when Russia’s invasion of Ukraine ignited a surge in oil and gas markets.
Shell has also had to pay higher taxes, reaching over $3bn globally for the last quarter. Its UK tax bill hit $134m last year after the government’s windfall energy profits levy was introduced in May. Shell expects to pay more than $500m to the Treasury this year after the levy was increased from January.
Shell’s bumper profits emerged two days after its smaller rival BP reported a profit of $4.96bn for the first quarter, down from $6.2bn in the same period last year, but well above the $4.3bn expected by analysts.
Sharon Graham, the general secretary of the Unite union, said both firms were “continuing the profiteering bonanza”, adding: “The scale of profiteering displayed today by Shell and earlier this week BP is one of the corporate scandals of our times. And this is practically untouched by Rishi Sunak’s so-called windfall tax.
“Not taking any action against ‘Big Oil’ means the profiteering plundering will continue without end.”
Charlie Kronick, of Greenpeace UK, said: “As temperatures soar from Madrid to Mogadishu, Shell is once again posting bumper profits while promising to keep extracting fossil fuels for years to come. Millions around the world are already feeling the effects of the climate crisis and it’s those who did the least to cause it who are paying the heaviest price.
“The UK government should stop issuing new oil and gas licences and force Shell and the rest of the industry to start using their obscene profits to pay for the damage that their fossil fuel habit is causing to lives and livelihoods around the world.”
Shell’s new chief executive, Wael Sawan, said the company had delivered “strong results and robust operational performance, against a backdrop of ongoing volatility”.
The company reported a record annual profit of $40bn for 2022 after posting better than expected profits in the final quarter of last year. The full-year profits were more than double what it reported in 2021 owing to rocketing oil and gas market prices last year, leading to calls for a windfall tax on the earnings.
A survey commissioned by Christian Aid, an international development charity, found nearly four in five UK adults agreed it was wrong for oil and gas companies to make record profits without taking responsibility for their role in causing the climate crisis. More than six in 10 of those surveyed said the government should tax fossil fuel profits to help pay compensation to communities that faced the impacts of the climate crisis.
Sawan succeeded Shell’s previous chief executive Ben van Beurden in January after the company moved its headquarters to London from the Hague and abolished its dual listing in the Netherlands.
He is now preparing to lead a capital markets day next month where he is expected to set out an updated strategy for the oil company. It is expected to include an exit from the UK’s home energy supply market after a little over five years by selling off Shell Energy.
Sawan told journalists the home energy business had been “very, very challenging” owing to significant government intervention to support the market.
“On balance, what we have found is that it’s not the sort of area where we can potentially outcompete others,” he said. “We’re looking at all options, everything is being considered, and I hope to have an update in the coming weeks.”
Greg Abbott is taking a brief pause from using immigrants as political pawns to attack trans kids in yet another Republican-led effort to harm LGBTQ+ people in America.
The gay-hating Texas governor announced yesterday that he plans to sign Senate Bill 14 into law ASAP. The bill, which is currently en route to Abbott’s desk, blocks trans kids from receiving gender-affirming care and effectively forces those already in the process of transitioning to de-transition and start over after they turn 18.
“I’m not going to make any secret about it. I’ll be signing it. This is about protecting children,” he misled reporters on Thursday. “A person under 18, they don’t have the mental capacity to make a life-changing decision.”
Authored by New Braunfels Republican Sen. Donna Campbell, SB 14 would prohibit trans Texans under the age of 18 from accessing transition-related medical treatments including puberty blockers, hormone therapies and surgeries — though surgeries are rarely performed on kids.
The bill would also require trans youth who are already getting this care to be “weaned off” in a “medically appropriate” manner. This is slightly out of step with the abrupt cutoff mandated by the version the Senate approved last month, but the upper chamber has chosen not to ask for a conference committee to iron out the difference.
Other states have passed similar legislation but the laws have been stalled in the courts. The same will likely happen in Texas as the ACLU, Transgender Law Center, and Lambda Legal have already announced plans to sue, citing the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.
“These laws are patently unconstitutional,” Paul Castillo, senior counsel for Lambda Legal, told reporters this week. “They interfere with the decisions of families in consultation with their doctors, and certainly no care should be stopped.”
Given the number of these laws being passed, as well as the number of lawsuits challenging them, it’s likely the matter will eventually end up at the U.S. Supreme Court, where things have gotten so chaotic that it’s hard to say which way the high court might rule on it.
Pollsters say the wave of bills targeting transgender healthcare in red states could backfire on Republicans in 2024 the same way the Roe v. Wade debacle backfired on them in 2022.
Things are certainly backfiring on Abbott and his colleagues on Twitter right now. Here’s what folx are saying…
Republicans are against big government unless when they want to make the lives of the LGBTQ community miserable
If you think racism is dead and doesn’t exist in Florida, you are wrong. It is being openly taught in Florida schools. A teacher is facing discipline and may lose her job because she showed a Disney animated movie that included a gay 16-year-old boy. That movie had no gay sex and very little talk about the boy’s feelings. But a teacher promoting: “Every year our state celebrates and memorializes that valiant, brave fight and the countless sacrifices by our men and women during what is known as the Civil War, but may be more correctly titled the War To Prevent Southern Independence,he said”, has been found to have done nothing wrong. Despite many parents complaining. Many upset parents. One parent complaint to get a teacher fired for showing just the existence of an openly gay character in a children’s movie, but many parents complaining and they are ignored when a teacher promotes racism. The entire reason the South started the civil war was they demanded to not only be allowed to keep humans as property, as slaves, but they wanted to expand that country wide. It was entirely about slavery, their own leaders wrote that themselves. Think if you are a person of color in that school, a black student maybe, think how that hits knowing a teacher is praising the very people who fought to keep you not only without rights but as their personal property to do with as they wish. Do you think black students can get fair grades, fair treatment, fair discipline compared to the white kids? Just as that teacher in Illinois said when she faced criticism for letting students read a book about coming out, she claimed that she figured she had gay students in her classes. I bet there are kids of color in the classrooms when this racist teacher showed that movie. Btw, Collier County is the next one below the one I live in. Hugs
A Florida middle-school teacher who had his class watch a self-made, pro-Confederacy video for Confederate History Month has filed a complaint against his school district for launching an investigation into his questionable teaching practices. Collier County Public Schools looked into a video that Manatee Middle School social studies teacher Jonathan Papanikolaou had his students watch during morning announcements on April 12.
Collier County Public Schools told The Daily Beast that its employee review committee met on April 27 and May 11, and went through a 90-page report about Papanikolaou’s Confederacy lesson. Ultimately the committee found that the lesson didn’t go against the school’s curriculum and there was “no just cause for discipline” despite outrage from parents and community members.
The school district wouldn’t identify the teacher but said they are investigating. “If you didn’t know, April is an officially celebrated month here in the State of Florida named Confederate History Month,” the teacher said in the video.
“Every year our state celebrates and memorializes that valiant, brave fight and the countless sacrifices by our men and women during what is known as the Civil War, but may be more correctly titled the War To Prevent Southern Independence,” he said.
So not only is the video no cause for discipline, the teacher is filing a complaint because it was even questioned. Collier County is on the southwest coast of Florida.
The social studies teacher filed a complaint against the review committee, claiming the investigation caused a “hostile work environment” because colleagues were asking why he’s racist.https://t.co/nEAveu8rGW
“Every year our state celebrates and memorializes that valiant, brave fight and the countless sacrifices by our men and women during what is known as the Civil War, but may be more correctly titled the War To Preserve SLAVERY.”
Or that Black people have worth and are an important part of our nation’s story. Or that there were people with rich history and cultures on this land thatE Europeans claimed they “discovered” and that these people still exist.
So Black history lessons can’t be taught in public schools because White children are uncomfortable but parents complaining about pro-slavery lessons must suck it.
Boycotting Florida is something every Black person should do. It’s a completely racist state.
I would like to remind all the former Ohioans in Collier Country (which there are many), we fought for the Union, were part of the Underground Railroad and Ohio was the birthplace of Grant and Sherman.
Let’s START with the fact that retitling the damn thing (“what is known as the Civil War, but may be more correctly titled the War To Prevent Southern Independence”) shows that you’ve got no grasp of the history behind slavery, therefore shouldn’t be pretending to “teach” it.
If one goes back and looks at the various letters and published speeches of the politicians of the time, not to mention the CSA Constitution and the Acts of Secession passed by the different states, they did not try to hide their motivations. A few years ago I read a history of the lead-up to the Civil War and the effects it had on the rebellious states after it was over.
The sort version is that it was essentially 14,000 people in a few hundred families who caused the Civil War. They were the most wealthy families in the United States and up in the top ranks for the world for that matter. But all their money came from slavery – either slaves used to pick cotton or tobacco or breeding slaves as if they were cattle and selling them.
In the Deep South, they essentially ran the entire state. If they did not have a family member in the governor’s mansion or the state/federal legislature, they bought one. Because of their effect on the economy, they not only exploited the slaves they owned but they financially exploited the white population as well. The slave owners used slaves as skilled craftsmen in carpentry and other skilled trades, and this meant that free white craftsmen could not economically compete. This lowered wages for the free workers. There was little cash available for the development of an diverse economy since all the money was tied up in the plantations’ economy and affiliated businesses.
When the Missouri Compromise died and territories were free to choose if they wanted to be free or slave states, they Southern elite knew it was only a matter of time before they were history. Cotton was rough on the soil and after a certain amount of time the fields had to be left fallow for a number of years until they recovered. So. they had to expand or they would die economically.
So, it really didn’t matter what Lincoln said or even if he was sincere in what he said. They knew that there were going to lose everything unless they did something, so they did something. They killed close to a million human beings, destroyed most of the South economically and physically, cemented the budding Northern Capitalist elites firmly in place, and sat back to economically exploit the Southern white and black populations right up to present. It took just over 100 years for the Southern economy to reach the same level it held just prior to the first shots over Ft Sumner.
But, these morons are still teaching the same lies about the Noble Lost Cause. It seems like 163 years is long enough to lies about that treason.
I find the while “heritage not racism’ meme to be very stupid. one of my nephew’s has this sign on the wall of his outdoor kitchen at his river cabin in southeast Missouri. funny thing is, his great great grandfather rode his horse to St Louis to join the Union Army and was a very staunch Union man. sigh…
Yes indeed, nothing like watching a film that idolizes the slave owning confederacy! But hey, at least it’s not “woke!” I’m trying to think of the proper name for it. Oh yeah, “FASCIST!”
A friend of mine who was successfully able to flee the swampland of Louisiana told me growing up in her school, it was routinely referred to as “The War Against Northern Arrogance.”
Pro-Confederacy Teacher Complains About School District’s Probe
The social studies teacher said that an investigation into his self-narrated, pro-Confederate video caused him “emotional turmoil.”
Brooke Leigh Howard
Reporter
Reuters/Jason Miczek
Listen to article3 minutes
A Florida middle-school teacher who had his class watch a self-made, pro-Confederacy video for Confederate History Month has filed a complaint against his school district for launching an investigation into his questionable teaching practices.
Collier County Public Schools looked into a video that Manatee Middle School social studies teacher Jonathan Papanikolaou had his students watch during morning announcements on April 12, local outlet ABC 7 Southwest Florida reported.
“Every year, our state celebrates and memorializes that valiant, brave fight and the countless sacrifices by our men and women during that known as the Civil War, but may be more correctly titled the War To Prevent Southern Independence,” Papanikolaou reportedly narrated in the video.
In the lesson, Papanikolaou allegedly taught about “slaves and property rights, over taxation and a variety of violations of state’s right and sovereignty,” according to ABC 7.
Collier County Public Schools told The Daily Beast that its employee review committee met on April 27 and May 11, and went through a 90-page report about Papanikolaou’s Confederacy lesson. Ultimately the committee found that the lesson didn’t go against the school’s curriculum and there was “no just cause for discipline” despite outrage from parents and community members.
A district spokesperson also told The Daily Beast that morning announcements had been evaluated, and were previewed before they were presented to students.
“The Manatee Middle School principal met with his staff to openly discuss the issues, and he continues to maintain open lines of communication for students, staff, and parents on this and any other school-related issue,” the spokesperson said.
But one Manatee parent, Christina Cooper, told ABC7, “I think there’s just cause for some type of disciplinary action.”
What’s more, Papanikolaou then filed a complaint against the review committee, claiming the investigation caused a “hostile work environment” because colleagues were asking why he’s racist.
In the complaint, Papanikolaou said the ordeal “has caused [him] grief and awkwardness in classroom and school exchanges” and that some students were no longer comfortable taking his class.
“This situation has created emotional turmoil for myself,” he said.
Collier County Public Schools declined to provide the entire contents of Papanikolaou’s video to The Daily Beast or comment on any requests the teacher made in his complaint against the district.
Shell will now offer shareholders $4bn in share buybacks after its record quarterly profit. Photograph: Dado Ruvić/Reuters
Scottie's Playtime 