New Jersey GOP Senator Intros “Don’t Say Gay” Bill

New York City’s CW affiliate reports:

A New Jersey Republican introduced legislation that would prohibit teachers from bringing LGBTQ-related instruction into classrooms from kindergarten through sixth grade.

The bill, proposed by State Senator Edward Durr, is even more restrictive than the Florida’s controversial “Don’t Say Gay” bill. Seventh through 12th grade students only be exposed to LGBTQ topics if consent is given by a parent under Durr’s proposal.

If the bill is passed, parents would be allowed to sue schools that employ educators who violate the law by incorporating topics such sexual orientation or gender identity into the curriculum without a parent’s consent.

Changing America reports:

“Any student whose parent or guardian does not provide prior written consent shall be excused from that portion of the course where such instruction is provided and no penalties as to credit or graduation shall result therefrom,” reads a portion of the bill introduced by state Sen. Edward Durr.

Durr, a Republican and former commercial truck driver made headlines last year when he defeated former New Jersey Senate President Steve Sweeney (D) — at that time one of the most powerful elected officials in the state.

If a school district or employee “knowingly violates” the proposed law, the state Office of the Attorney General may seek an injunction.

The bill has zero chance of passing.

Durr, who famously spent less than $100 on his campaign, was exposed after being elected for a history of racist social media posts. He then issued the standard “sorry if anybody was offended” fauxpology.

 

Brian Green • 2 days ago • edited

It was tough growing up gay in small town America in the 70s, there was still next
no societal support, much less family, and I’m not going to lie, it left me with a number of scars.

These past 20 years, we’ve come so far! It felt good to see the work that all of us who came before did paying off in increasing acceptance and equality. It felt good to know that we were paving the way, making it easier for young people to come out with less fear or shame.

And now this…..And tens if not hundreds of thousands of gay youth are once again being told in the news media that they under attack, being told that they are somehow something shameful or wrong, that they do not deserve to be treated as their heterosexual classmates are.

Obviously, none of us are happy with the direction this country has been headed of late, and the need to continue to fight for equality is now more important than ever.

What’s breaking my heart right now is I know how hard all this anti-LGBTQ stuff is on our children. A child who has an inkling at 8 or 9 or 10 that they are LGBTQ, who is living in one of these states trying to pass these laws, is growing up learning to hide who they really are out of fear and shame.

The lawmakers who are pushing these discriminatory laws are 100% guilty of child abuse… there will be more broken lives, more kids killing themselves because of these people.

Sorry so verbose… just really needed to vent.

Brian Green AyJayDee • 2 days ago

While there has always been something of a backlash against our community for every gain we’ve made, I honestly think the current hate surge has more to do with courting conservative voters than really having a moral objection to the queer community… The people using us as a wedge issue know better and are merely triggering bigoted voters by spotlighting us. More “practical” than revenge, though certainly you are correct that some fall into that category.

S1AMER • 2 days ago

We’ll be seeing many more such bills introduced in state legislatures in the coming months, and in many other states (not NJ) they will pass.

And each bill, as it comes along, will be worse than the one before.

Damn Republicans for many reasons, but double-damn them for picking on kids as a GOTV tactic.

Progressive German Newspaper Asks for State-Funded ‘Educational’ Porn

https://www.xbiz.com/news/266390/progressive-german-newspaper-asks-for-state-funded-educational-porn

This is a great idea!   Recently I posted how a 17 year old was so ashamed of his nude body and that he was recorded masturbating that he first paid off the scammers then killed himself when they wanted more with threats to show the pictures / videos to his parents.  I said then we need to teach kids what their bodies are, what they are feeling is natural, what to do in some situations (I read in one of the Scandinavian countries they teach teen boys how to discretely hide their erections until they subside) and to not be ashamed to talk about things that they need to ask or tell an adult what is happening to them.    It is a fact that young people / kids see porn and nude bodies.  They shouldn’t be terrified of seeing a nude person or their developing feelings.   It is a fact kids will explore each other.  It is a fact that kids have sexual feelings and desires.  It is a fact that how an adult reacts or talks about bodies, nudity, and sexual acts can leave a kid scared they are broken and that they are abnormal.   Often how an adult reacts to catching a teen in a sexual situation is more traumatic than the actions they were involved in.   Remember kids will talk to each other about sex / feelings and if they cannot talk to an adult then the information they get from the other kids their age maybe be badly wrong.   

Porn is another area where comprehensive sexual education is needed.   Kids of all ages see porn.  Younger kids won’t care, but as kids get older toward puberty (around 10 / 11 years old most kids get really interested) and what they see / what their older siblings watch for porn will give them wrong ideas.   Adults know or should know that porn is a game, a story acted out for the pleasure of the watcher.   It is not real, it is not how real sex happens, and it is often geared to a segment of the audience.   I have read studies of what kids think their sex acts should be based on the porn they watched, and it is scary how misinformed they are.   Some boys thought girls liked to be abused and called names during sex.  There were other misconceptions based on duration of the acts and other things, but the thing that stood out to me was that because boys were seeing men aggressively take women and dominate them, they thought that was the way they had to act.    When the girls objected, the boys were confused.   So I think that these types of educational opportunities should be explored.   

In doing some research into the idea of how to publicly teach kids about their bodies, nudity, and sexual feelings I found this 8 part series.  https://nrksuper.no/serie/newton-pubertet / https://tv.nrk.no/serie/newton-pubertet/sesong/1  .   This should be redone in English and shown in our schools.     Hugs

Progressive German Newspaper Asks for State-Funded 'Educational' Porn

BERLIN — Progressive German publication Taz published an opinion piece last week suggesting that state public media fund “educational” porn as part of their mandate to “protect children,” rather than attempt to censor the commercial variety.

The article argues that “so far, an inefficient fight against free porn platforms is being waged.”

“There is no need for bans, just good alternatives,” Taz’s Arabella Wintermayr noted.

The “bans” the article refers to are efforts related an ongoing censorship campaign being waged by obscure local politician Tobias Schmid, director of the State Media Authority of North Rhine-Westphalia, and Germany’s self-appointed one-man War on Porn. Schmid has been fighting in the courts to push for “age verification compliance.” 

Last month Schmid bragged about an AI tool called KIVI, which automatically scans all online content to determine which images are not compliant with the AV law.

He explained that he coined the name KIVI after “KI” — the German initials for AI — and “VI” from the Latin word “vigilare,” meaning “to survey.”

While some might view such surveillance as an authoritarian fantasy, Schmid called it a “fantastic combination,” German tech news site NetzPolitik.org reported.

Schmid was also the architect of the judicial “network block” against xHamster, one of the country’s most popular tube sites.

The Case for Government-Funded Porn

Taz quoted pornographer and activist Paulita Pappel, who leads the European chapter of the Free Speech Coalition, and who criticized Schmid’s approach.

“They try de facto to silence the discourse about pornography in public and hide behind the protection of minors,” Pappel told Taz. “The idea that these network blocks would make sense is completely absurd. A 12-year-old can bypass them in no time with a VPN.”

The magazine also noted that Pappel’s Lustery studio recently released a scene in partnership with mainstream public broadcasting talk show “ZDF Magazin Royale,” which the company promoted as “the first-ever government-funded porn film.”

According to Lustery, the talk show’s producers reached out to them to “produce an ethical porn film as an alternative to the many tube sites.”

“Since the show is part of a public service broadcaster,” a Lustery rep explained, “they were able to use German TV tax [monies] paid by private individuals, companies and institutions in Germany” to produce the almost 30-minute scene titled “FFMM straight/queer doggy BJ ORAL orgasm squirting ROYALE (gebührenfinanziert).”

“Many people are loudly supporting it because they feel like the tax — annually, €220.32 — that everyone needs to pay is finally being used for something important and useful,” the rep noted. “Others are outraged because they either don’t understand why they’d need to pay for porn or they demonize porn and don’t want their money being used for such things.”

“But the fact is every German paid for it, no matter their attitude towards the genre,” the rep added.

A Proposal With Intriguing Potential

Taz concluded that this approach “would have potential.”

“In addition to normalizing feminist perspectives on sexuality and competing with the market power of free platforms,” they wrote, “the relationship to pornography would also change if it suddenly no longer took place on questionable websites but in the mainstream.”

“Consuming pornography would no longer be associated with something dirty,” Pappel theorized. “As a result, people would be freer from feelings of guilt, and communication about sexuality might be more open. Which may even prevent aggression.”

“There is a public broadcasting mandate to provide a basic supply of information, education, entertainment and advice,” added a legal expert consulted by Taz. “It should expressly reflect diversity that cannot be represented in the mainstream of the private sector.”

The educational mandate, the expert continued, “could be fulfilled, for example, by the films shown illustrating how consensus, communication and genuine desire work. This would set an appropriate framework that implements this basic service.”

Taz concluded by questioning the censorship-first approach, and suggested that the state media authorities should welcome “the approach of [public media] competing with the big free porn platforms … if they are actually concerned with the protection of minors. After all, [public media networks] are already taking age control very seriously.”

 

Republican Senators Pressure TV Ratings Board Over ‘Disturbing’ LGBTQ+ Content

https://www.xbiz.com/news/266341/republican-senators-pressure-tv-ratings-board-over-disturbing-lgbtq-content

Republican Senators Pressure TV Ratings Board Over 'Disturbing' LGBTQ+ Content

WASHINGTON — Five Republican senators are demanding an overhaul of the current TV ratings system to include warnings about LGBTQ+ content, which they claim “not only harms children, but also destabilizes and damages parental rights.”

The effort to expand labeling is spearheaded by Senator Roger Marshall (R-Kan.), who is joined by Mike Braun (R-Ind.), Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), Steve Daines (R-Mont.) and Mike Lee (R-Utah).

The five senators penned a highly homophobic and transphobic letter sent on Wednesday to Charles Rivkin, chairman of the TV Parental Guidelines Monitoring Board, which regulates the parental guidance ratings broadcast before television programs. The letter includes shocking, stigmatizing language about trans people and their experiences.

In the letter, Sen. Marshall and his fellow Republican legislators claim that “concerning topics of a sexual nature have become aggressively politicized and promoted in children’s programming, including irreversible and harmful experimental treatments for mental disorders like gender dysphoria.”

“To this end,” the anti-trans senators continue, “we strongly urge you to update the TV Parental Guidelines and ensure they are up-to-date on best practices that help inform parents on this disturbing content.”

Besides asking for an expansion of government-backed intervention on the definition and labeling of sexual content, the senators tendentiously quote background material surrounding the Telecommunications Act of 1996 — which was struck down by the courts as unconstitutional on First Amendment grounds — alleging that Congress found that “studies indicate that children are affected by the pervasiveness and casual treatment of sexual material on television, eroding the ability of parents to develop responsible attitudes and behavior in their children.”

The Republican senators then go on to conflate “sexual situations,” which the ratings system is meant to flag, with the very existence of LGBTQ+ characters.

Targeting a Disney policy of inclusivity, the senators claim that, “to the detriment of children, gender dysphoria has become sensationalized in the popular media and television with radical activists and entertainment companies” and assert that this “not only harms children, but also destabilizes and damages parental rights.”

Reductive, Pseudo-Medical Musings About ‘Puberty’

Senator Marshall and the others also condemn Disney in the letter for denouncing Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law. “Sexual orientation and gender identity instruction,” the senators declared, without providing any meaningful evidence, “often entails a discussion concerning an individual’s pattern of emotional, romantic and sexual attraction.”

The letter also includes shockingly reductive, pseudo-medical statements about human sexual development by the avowedly anti-sex, religiously-inspired politicians.

“Considering that the cognitive markers of sexual desire emerge during puberty when adolescents undergo natural hormonal and physiological changes,” they write, “it is wholly inappropriate to display this content in a TV-Y7 category and for other young audiences. This dialogue often involves the promotion of irreversible experimental treatments that involve surgical and otherwise invasive cosmetic procedures that are detrimental and life-altering, and do not evidence medical necessity.”

The letter also implies deliberate “grooming” on the part of Disney executives and TV producers, a smearing accusation which appears intended to chill free speech.

“The motivations of hyper-sexualized entertainment producers striving to push this content on young audiences are suspect at best and predatory at worst,” the senators write.

The senators then double down on the threat by summoning the members of the TV Parental Guidelines Monitoring Board to attend Congress for “an in-person briefing.”

Sen. Marshall Demands Answers About ‘Problematic’ She-Ra, Princesses of Power

According to a Rolling Stone report today, although the senators “do not cite any problematic shows in their letter,” Marshall’s office “provided the Kansas City Star with a list of four: Nickelodeon’s ‘Danger Force’ and ‘The Loud House,’ and Netflix’s ‘She-Ra and the Princesses of Power’ and ‘Dead End: Paranormal Park.’”

Disney, Rolling Stone points out, “has been under assault from conservatives for speaking out against Florida’s new law that prohibits teachers in kindergarten through third grade from discussing sexual orientation or gender identity. The law also allows parents to sue over alleged violations.”

Senator Marshall accompanied Wednesday’s letter with a tweet lambasting “Disney’s latest campaign to embed left-wing sexual politics in its children’s programming.”

This Texas school blocked suicide prevention websites. Students are fighting back.

https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2022/05/texas-school-blocked-suicide-prevention-websites-students-fighting-back/

 
web censorship, Texas schools, Trevor Project, Katy Independent School District
Photo: Shutterstock

A non-binary Texas high schooler is rallying fellow students and community members to oppose their school district’s ban on LGBTQ websites, which includes suicide prevention websites.

Cameron Samuels, a senior in the Katy Independent School District (KISD) of southeast Texas, says the district does little to address anti-LGBTQ bullying and slurs. The district also has an internet filter that blocks content related to “Human Sexuality” from school computers.

Related: Majority of Americans support talking about LGBTQ people in schools

 

KISD said the filter was implemented to comply with the Children’s Internet Protection Act, a federal law meant to protect children from online predators. But the filter specifically blocks access to LGBTQ resources, including The Trevor Project, an organization dedicated to preventing suicide among LGBTQ youth.

District officials told Samuels that KISD blocked the Trevor Project because of the “chat capabilities” on the organization’s website. However, the district’s web filter still allows students to access social media platforms, including Twitter and Facebook. Both websites have chat capabilities that have been used by online sex traffickers to exploit children.

“The assumption that people communicating on the Trevor Project are predatory is bigoted and homophobic,” Samuels wrote for The Los Angeles Blade.

School officials also told him that students can still access non-LGBTQ suicide prevention resources. However, Samuels doesn’t understand why the district wouldn’t want its students to have complete access to any resources that might help save lives.

 

The web filter allows access to the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network, to websites covering heterosexual marriage, as well as to Alex Jones’s rabidly anti-LGBTQ disinformation website InfoWars.

However, the filter blocks access to LGBTQ news websites, the Human Rights Campaign and LGBTQ community resource centers.

Students struggling with their LGBTQ identities may rely on private, free computer access provided by schools to safely search for queer-affirming resources away from their families, Samuels added. By denying students access, the district prevents students from supporting their emotional and mental well-being, they said.

 

“School officials have said sites with LGBTQ+ content are not part of the educational curriculum or common classroom activities,” Samuels continued. “Yet they won’t explain how People magazine, ESPN, Gun Show Trader, or Breitbart meet this same standard.”

For almost a year now, Samuels and their classmates have asked district and school board officials to un-block the resources. The officials have promised to do so, but have yet to follow through on their promises.

So the students have launched a petition calling for the unblocking of LGBTQ sites and the inclusion of sexual orientation and gender identities in KISD’s publicly available non-discrimination statements. The school districts of Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston and San Antonio have all included them in their statements.

Baby Formula and Christian Hospitality

Hello all my Playtime viewers.  Does it surprise anyone that I have a Christian preacher in my YouTube feed?   That I watch his channel now and again.   He keeps me from hating all Christians.  He shows me the decent side of some who preach the Christian faith.   If you are Christian, I recommend checking him out.  If he can get a science only believing atheist to watch him, think of how he could resonate with a believer.   I am off to bed, it has been a long , long day.    Hugs

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2izP34AJVcoD24bsxlXhmw/videos

Hey everyone – hit like and subscribe to see what we produce next! I’m an Anglican Priest in the Diocese of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island and I get to serve in the Parish of St Margaret of Scotland, in the beautiful city of Halifax, NS, that sits on the ancestral and unceded territory of the Mi’kmaq people. My pronouns are he/him/his. My theology is primarily Christo-centric – Jesus is at the centre and it is against Him that all values are bounced off. I believe all people are created in the image of God and are children of God and are heirs to the throne of God – no conditions – therefore every single person we meet deserves our love, and respect.

Republican leader called Democrats “pedo grifters” for giving baby formula to immigrants

https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2022/05/republican-leader-called-democrats-pedo-grifters-giving-baby-formula-immigrants/

I want to point out the shortage of baby formula is because of deregulation and the defunding / lack of personnel of the FDA that was done under the tRump administration.   The restricting of imports of formula was done to increase profit.   The company that was shut down for killing babies with contaminated product tried to hide the contamination from the FDA so they could make more profit.   Yet they are championed and rewarded by the elected Republicans in congress.   Also those same elected Republicans voted this week against funding so the FDA can find and fix problems like the contaminated formula that killed babies.  Those same Republicans voted against ways to increase the amount of safe formula in the country because they don’t care about the hungry babies, they care about politics and want to hurt Joe Biden and the Democrats.   It is a game to them, and it is people’s lives to the Democrats.   Yet the Republicans are winning with a rabid base willing to do violence because of Republican lies.   Hugs
 
 
Rep. Elise Stefanik with Donald Trump
Rep. Elise Stefanik with Donald TrumpPhoto: Office of Congresswoman Elise Stefanik
 

One of the top Republicans in Congress is calling Democrats “pedo grifters” because immigrant detention centers have baby formula.

House Republican Conference chairperson Elise Stefanik – the third-highest member of House GOP leadership – said that “pedo grifters” are sending food to immigrant babies as the right continues to use baseless accusations of pedophilia as insults against pretty much anyone who disagrees with them.

“The White House, House Dems, & usual pedo grifters are so out of touch with the American people that rather than present ANY PLAN or urgency to address the nationwide baby formula crisis, they double down on sending pallets of formula to the southern border,” she wrote. “Joe Biden has NO PLAN.”

Stefanik’s casual use of the word “pedo” shows just how mundane it has become for rightwingers to call anyone they disagree with a pedophile.

For years, the rightwing QAnon conspiracy theory has claimed that there is a secret cabal of pedophiles operating a Satanic international child sex ring led by Hollywood celebrities and Democratic elites. Effectively, the QAnon conspiracy theory allowed believers an intellectual shortcut: instead of trying to understand why people would disagree with their policy preferences – a process that requires listening to others and the ability to understand multiple ideas at once – they could just accuse anyone who disagreed with them of being a Satanic pedophile, and who really cares why Satanic pedophiles believe what they believe?

The casualization of accusing political opponents of pedophilia heightened over the last couple of months as conservatives started referring to LGBTQ people – especially teachers – as well as anyone who supports LGBTQ equality as pedophiles and groomers. Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) accused Tyra Banks of grooming children because she produced a documentary about teen drag queens. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s (R) press secretary accused anyone who opposes the Don’t Say Gay bill of being a groomer or supporting grooming.

Chaya Raichik of the anti-LGBTQ Twitter account “Libs of TikTok” regularly accuses LGBTQ teachers of “grooming” even though she has no evidence of sexual abuse occurring. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) said it was grooming for a science camp to have non-binary counselors, and conservatives even called the anti-suicide organization The Trevor Project “a grooming organization.”

While Stefanik may have been saying that those who want babies in detention centers fed so that they can later be sexually abused, it’s more likely that she does not have any ability to engage her political opponents other than to accuse them of pedophilia. Actually presenting a plan for what to do about baby formula shortages in the U.S. – and then arguing why that plan is better than the Biden administration’s plan – is a lot harder than just calling people pedophiles.

And the baby formula shortage is real. Currently, 40% of formula is out of stock in the U.S., which has led parents to stockpile formula, exacerbating the shortage. The shortage follows the recall of a major formula producer’s products because deadly bacteria was found in a factory, the COVID-19 pandemic’s effects on supply chains, and restrictive trade policies around formula.

Stefanik was echoing rightwing complaints that immigrants forced to live in processing centers near the U.S.-Mexico border.

“What is infuriating to me is that this is another example of the ‘America Last’ agenda the Biden administration continues to perpetuate,” Rep. Kat Cammack (R-FL) said last week, not presenting any alternative to immigrant access to formula other than letting babies in processing centers starve.

President Joe Biden announced a plan to address the crisis last week that included making it easier to use WIC benefits to buy formula of different sizes and types, increasing imports of formula, and cracking down on price gouging.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said that the House will soon vote on a bill to grant emergency authority to WIC  to address supply chain disruptions and relax certain regulations not related to the safety of baby formula.

In a later statement Stefanik’s office said that “pedo grifters” was referring to the Lincoln Project, a group of Republicans and former Republicans who advocated against the reelection of Donald Trump. They are not involved in the baby formula shortage and they aren’t in charge of presenting a plan to end the baby formula shortage, so it’s unclear how that statement explains what she said.

Texas Paul REACTS to Republicans Spreading Racist White Replacement Theory

This is the best video I have ever seen about immigrants.  This really is a must watch video.   I love it.   Hugs

Parent brings THE HOUSE DOWN after board member tries to justify bigotry using religion

Colorado school board member Jamilynn D’Avola told a child Jesus justified her bigoted views. Parent Lacy Carroll fought back.

Republicans DEMOLISHED for Voting Against Bill to Solve Baby Formula Crisis

The House on Wednesday passed a $28 million emergency spending bill to address the nationwide shortage of baby formula — and 192 Republicans voted against it. Tony Michaels reacts.

New Study Shows Trans Youth Are Extremely Unlikely to Detransition

https://www.them.us/story/trans-youth-desistance-rare-study-pediatrics

94% of trans youth in the sample identified as trans five years later.
 
Members of the Transgender community and their supporters hold a rally and march to City Hall before the midterm...
Mark Ralston / AFP via Getty Images

Conservatives and assorted anti-trans reactionaries like to claim that trans kids don’t understand their own identities, and that almost all young trans people will eventually end up identifying with their birth gender. But a new study is blowing that assertion out of the water.

Published this month in the medical journal Pediatrics, it reveals the findings of a five-year longitudinal study of trans youth conducted by Princeton University’s Trans Youth Project. Out of more than 300 young trans-identifying people aged 3-12, only 2.5% identified as cisgender at the end of the five-year period, with 94% identifying as trans girls or boys and 3.5% identifying as nonbinary.

This stands in sharp contrast to inflated figures cited by anti-trans pundits, who often claim that a majority of trans youth will “detransition” and experience significant psychological distress as they return to presenting and living as their birth gender. (The Princeton team uses the term “retransition” in place of the more loaded term “detransition,” which other researchers have noted has “become associated with politically motivated attempts to impede access to gender-affirming care.”)

 

“These results suggest that retransitions are infrequent,” the Princeton study authors concluded. “More commonly, transgender youth who socially transitioned at early ages continued to identify that way.”

 

This doesn’t mean the researchers believe retransition is so rare as not to be worth studying; to the contrary, they argue that “understanding retransitions is crucial for clinicians and families to help make them as smooth as possible for youth.”

 

And this study did uncover some early data about children who retransition. “Later cisgender identities were more common amongst youth whose initial social transition occurred before age 6,” the study noted, with most of those children retransitioning to a cisgender identity before age 10.

This new data blows previous datasets out of the water, particularly the thoroughly debunked (but still widely cited) studies which claim as many as 80% of trans-identified young people will eventually “desist” from their gender identity. Those statistics have been used to stoke fears that prepubescent children are undergoing “irreversible” medical procedures that most of them will regret, as seen in the language of anti-trans bills like South Carolina’s S1259 and journalist Abigail Shrier’s infamous book Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters.

Members of the Transgender community and their supporters hold a rally and march to City Hall before the mid-term elections to protest against what they say are continual attacks from the Trump administration, in Los Angeles, California on November 2, 2018.
The legislation aims to protect families of trans youth who have fled their home states.

Contrary to such hyperbolic claims, hundreds of thousands of lives are not in the process of being ruined as we speak. “I think the critical piece is that we’re seeing the retransitioning happening before the ages at which kids were beginning medical transition,” said Kristina Olsen, the study’s lead author, in comments to NBC News.

Only one child in the cohort later identified as cisgender after being prescribed puberty blockers or hormone therapy, and the others who re-identified as cis did so “before blockers were even on the table,” Olsen added.

After two years of bewildering opposition to wearing masks during a pandemic, we won’t hold our breath for conservatives to listen to this science either. But the Trans Youth Project’s work — which Olsen says will continue for a total of twenty years — is giving doctors and health providers more data to work with, and shoring up what many trans people already know to be true: trans-affirming care works, and it can change countless lives for the better.