Thomas Steensma, a gender clinician and researcher at the Center of Expertise on Gender Dysphoria, VU University Medical Center, in Amsterdam. (Courtesy Thomas Steensma)
The phenomenon of transgender children “growing out of” their transgender identity by the time they are adolescents or adults is called “desistance” by gender researchers.
For decades, follow-up studies of transgender kids have shown that a substantial majority — anywhere from 65 to 94 percent — eventually ceased to identify as transgender.
These findings have become part and parcel of the “How young is too young?” debate over “social transitioning,” the term for allowing kids to publicly live as their identified gender in every way short of medical treatment.
If most kids will eventually cease to be transgender, some clinicians have reasoned, isn’t it more prudent to take the least disruptive path in coping with a child’s gender dysphoria? That way, if or when kids later stop identifying as transgender, they will have less to “undo.”
In recent years, though, a new school of thought has emerged. Many gender specialists now believe that the best course for a transgender child is often “social transition,” where kids as young as three are allowed to change their names, pronouns and style of dress to match the gender they identify with.
Looking at the Research
One reason many researchers believe it’s unnecessary to delay the social transition of a child is that they don’t think the research on desistance is valid. In other words, they think the number of children who “grow out of” their transgender identity has been vastly overblown.
This school of thought holds that because the criteria for a diagnosis of gender dysphoria (previously called gender identity disorder) was less stringent in the past, the earlier desistance studies included a large cohort of children who today would not be diagnosed with gender dysphoria, gay boys who may have been experimenting with different ways of expressing gender but who were never really transgender in the first place.
“The methodology of those studies is very flawed, because they didn’t study gender identity,” said Diane Ehrensaft, director of mental health at UCSF’s Child and Adolescent Gender Clinic. “Those desistors were, a good majority of them, simply proto-gay boys whose parents were upset because they were boys wearing dresses. They were brought to the clinics because they weren’t fitting gender norms.”
In Amsterdam, clinicians at the Center of Expertise on Gender Dysphoria are much more cautious about recommending social transitions because of the statistics on desistance. Thomas Steensma, a researcher and clinician at the center, acknowledges these studies probably included some kids who would not be diagnosed with gender dysphoria today. Nevertheless, despite the problems with the way they classified children, “the only evidence I have from studies and reports in the literature … is that not all transgender children will persist in their transgender identity,” Steensma said.
In 2013, Steensma co-authored an oft-cited study that examined 127 adolescents, all of whom had displayed various levels of gender dysphoria as children. The researchers found that 80 of the children had desisted by the ages of 15 and 16. That works out to 63 percent of kids who basically stopped being transgender — a lower rate than in previous studies, but still a majority.
Some clinicians criticize this study, however, on methodological grounds, because the researchers defined anyone who did not return to their clinic as desisting. Fifty-two of the children classified as desistors or their parents did send back questionnaires showing the subjects’ present lack of gender dysphoria. But 28 neither responded nor could be tracked down.
“You can’t do that in scientific studies,” Ehrensaft said. “You have to have your subjects in front of you and know who they are. You can’t just assume somebody is in a category because you don’t see them anymore.”
In addition, 38 of the 127 kids were originally designated “subthreshold” for gender identity disorder, meaning they did not fulfill all the criteria for meeting the official diagnosis.
This, according to Erica Anderson, a gender clinician at UCSF, makes the desistance findings even more suspect.” [It] begs the question of whether these kids were actually divergent [in their gender identity] before the study selected them,” she said.
Steensma stands by the study’s methodology. But interestingly, he added that citing these findings as a measure of desistance is wrongheaded, because the study was never designed with that goal in mind.
“Providing these [desistance] numbers will only lead to wrong conclusions,” he said.
Diane Ehrensaft, director of mental health at UCSF’s gender clinic. (Lauren Hanussak/KQED)
Rather, he says, the researchers wanted to see if they could find predictors of persistence. Which they did: The study found that transgender children who were older, born female, and reported more intense gender dysphoria were more likely to stick with their transgender identity than younger children, natal boys and those with less pronounced gender dysphoric traits.
Steensma and colleagues also culled one very specific indicator of future persistence: When asked when they were children, “Are you a boy or a girl?” those who answered the opposite of their birth sex were found more likely to have retained their gender identity in adolescence. The desistors, on the other hand, tended to merely wish they were the opposite sex.
“(E)xplicitly asking children with GD (gender dysphoria) with which sex they identify seems to be of great value in predicting a future outcome for both boys and girls with GD,” the study says.
Today, Steensma cautions that this question is not a litmus test for which children will persist in their transgender identity. He believes that gender identity in kids is still developing, and that it’s responsive to what occurs at different life stages. He also says it’s possible that a social transition could lead to persistence where it otherwise might not have occurred.
“That’s not something we can answer,” he said. “It’s something we have to study and find out.”
‘It’s Time to Teach Society’
Another contentious topic in the transgender community is what the literature calls “detransitioning,” or reverting back to one’s natal gender.
The current Standards of Care written by the World Professional Association for Transgender Health cautions that “a change back to the original gender role can be highly distressing” The guidelines use that assertion as a reason to be cautious about early social transitioning.
But the cautionary language, Ehrensaft points out, is based on one qualitative study, coauthored by Steensma, which looked at the dilemma of just two Dutch girls who’d transitioned when they were in elementary school and wanted to switch back. She doesn’t think it’s particularly relevant.
“The stress [of detransitioning] comes from microaggressions and lack of acceptance in the environment,” she said. “If we offer social support and opportunities for children over time, we don’t have any evidence that [detransitioning] will be damaging for them.”
Ehrensaft believes the conventional treatment of transgender children has been based, for the most part, on traditionally negative views of gender nonconformity. So, she believes, the burden is now on the culture to see transgender children as they really are.
“Why are we asking a child to conform to something that is not them because society hasn’t done its learning yet?”she says. “It’s time to teach society.”
Toward the Nonbinary
One of the more interesting takes I heard on persistence and desistance came from UCSF gender clinician Erica Anderson, who is transgender herself. She views the very notion of measuring persistence/desistance as something of a fool’s errand, because such definitions are mediated by changing cultural norms, the self-perceptions of children and the ways that researchers interpret them.
“We’ve got kids of varying sophistication levels of language trying to explain to other people who have no experience [being transgender],” Anderson said, “and it’s being driven by shifting professional understanding or consensus and culture. You’ve got moving parts. In that context we’ve got a dynamic situation where kids who might say ‘I’m a girl’ might have said five years ago ‘maybe I’m a girl.’ ”
Ehrensaft herself doesn’t even like to use the terms persistence and desistance. Those words imply something fixed — a binary state of yes or no. But younger generations of transgender people — and even younger generations in the general population — see gender as more protean, even customizable. Of nearly 28,000 respondents to the 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey, more than one-third said they were some form of nonbinary. That means they may identify as both male and female, neither male nor female, or sometimes male, sometimes female.
This, in theory, could solve a lot of problems. After all, if the gender fluidity trend continues, perhaps many people will have no unitary gender to “persist” or “desist” from.
A Fox News panel debating abortion rights got pretty heated as Cassie Smedile, the executive director of pro-Trump PAC America Rising, baselessly peddled a talking point about Democrats advocating for killing babies after birth. While this is obviously false and a deliberate smear attack, Democrat strategist Kevin Walling offered almost no pushback when he responded to her ridiculous claim.
“A Fox News panel discussion got heated on Tuesday when one of the guests falsely claimed Democrats are pushing to have “abortion beyond the birth of the child” during a discussion of yesterday’s leaked draft decision that would potentially overturn Roe v. Wade. Cassie Smedile, the executive director of America Rising pro-Trump PAC, was asked by anchor Sandra Smith to weigh in on Senator Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s (D-NY) comments denouncing the draft decision by Justice Samuel Alito. “I think as a pro-life person what about the rights of the tens of millions of unborn babies relentlessly under attack by the left, for decades now,” responded Smedile. “We’re not talking about 40 years ago. Today’s Democrats are advocating for the right to have an abortion beyond the birth of the child. And most Americans would say, ‘That’s not something that sits well with me.’””
Civilians trying to leave Mariupol after weeks of siege
Moscow steps up assault in Ukraine’s south, eastern Donbas
KYIV/LVIV, May 2 (Reuters) – The European Union was preparing sanctions on Russian oil sales over its invasion of Ukraine after a major shift on Monday by Germany, Russia’s biggest energy customer, that could deprive Moscow of a large revenue stream within days.
The European Commission is expected to propose a sixth package of EU sanctions this week against Russia over its Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine, including a possible embargo on buying Russian oil.
Kyiv says Russia’s energy exports to Europe, so far largely exempt from international sanctions, are funding the Kremlin war effort with millions of euros every day.
“This package should include clear steps to block Russia’s revenues from energy resources,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address.
Germany said on Monday it was prepared to back an immediate EU embargo on Russian oil.
“We have managed to reach a situation where Germany is able to bear an oil embargo,” German Economy Minister Robert Habeck said. read more
Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who has been more cautious than other Western leaders in backing Ukraine, has been under growing pressure to take a firmer line.
Scholz vowed sanctions will not be lifted until Russian President Vladimir Putin signs a peace deal with Ukraine that Kyiv can support, he said in an interview with ZDF public television. read more
Weaning Europe off Russian oil is likely to be easier than reducing dependence on Russian natural gas. Moscow has demanded European customers pay for gas in rubles, which the EU rejects. Last week, Moscow cut off supplies to Poland and Bulgaria.
EU ministers meeting on Monday warned that complying in full with Moscow’s demand for gas payments in roubles would breach existing EU sanctions.
Ambassadors from EU countries will discuss the proposed oil sanctions when they meet on Wednesday.
The first civilians to be evacuated from a giant steel plant in Mariupol arrived on Monday in the Ukrainian-held city of Zaporizhzhia after an overnight bus journey across the front-line.
Ukraine says hundreds of civilians have been trapped inside the Azovstal plant along with the city’s last Ukrainian defenders. Dozens were able to leave on Sunday in an evacuation organised by the United Nations, the first to escape since Putin ordered the plant barricaded last week.
Captain Sviatoslav Palamar, 39, a deputy commander of Ukraine’s Azov Regiment, told Reuters from inside the plant that fighters could hear voices of women, children and elderly people trapped below ground, and lacked the equipment to dig them out. read more
“We were planning to tear up the bunkers, the entrance to which is blocked, but all night into Monday naval artillery and barrel artillery were firing. All day today aviation has been working, dropping bombs,” Palamar said by Zoom.
Efforts to organise the evacuation of civilians from other parts of the city, now held by the Russians, ran into delays. Ukraine says 100,000 people are still in the ruined city, enduring desperate conditions after months of Russian siege.
“Our house is completely destroyed. We had a two-story building, it’s not there anymore. It burned to the ground,” said Natalya Tsyntomirska, a Mariupol native who reached Zaporizhzhia on Monday in a funeral service van.
Zelenskiy said the evacuation effort was continuing and he expected more movement of people through humanitarian corridors on Tuesday from Berdyansk, Tokmak and Vasylivka.
For its part, Kyiv hopes a massive influx of Western military aid will allow it to repel that assault and then turn the tide with a counter-attack.
Russian forces shelled the city of Kharkiv five times on Monday, injuring five people, according to regional governor Oleh Sinehubov. Further south, Izyum remained a battleground, with most of the houses in the city destroyed, he said.
After being forced to abandon an assault on Kyiv at the end of March, Russia launched a major offensive in eastern Ukraine focused on the Donetsk and Luhansk provinces, parts of which were already held by Russian-backed separatists before the invasion. Russian troops are now trying to encircle a large Ukrainian force there, attacking from three directions with massive bombardment along the front.
Ukraine’s military said on Monday Russian forces were trying to take over the frontline Luhansk province town of Rubizhne and prepare an assault on nearby Sievierodonetsk.
The heaviest clashes were taking place around Popasna, farther south. Shelling was so intense it was not possible to collect bodies, said regional Governor Serhiy Gaidai.
”I don’t even want to speak about what’s happening with the people living in Popasna, Rubizhne and Novotoshkivske right now. These cities simply don’t exist anymore. They have completely destroyed them.”
Russia has also been striking targets far from the front line with missiles. A 14-year-old boy was killed and a 17-year-old girl was wounded in a missile strike in the southern port of Odesa when a missile hit a dormitory, Zelenskiy said. read more
A courageous move on Germany’s part. It’s going to hit them hard in the pocketbook, but kudos to them for taking the plunge anyway for all the right reasons. If we experienced the same degree of economic impact as Germany’s about to experience the deplorables would be blaming it all on Biden then lighting up their tiki torches to march in the streets in thug gangs demanding Biden’s head on a stick.
These insane republican campaign ads will make your head explode. With JD Vance, Josh Mandel and Dave White, all sounding incredibly racist while explaining how they are not racist. John Iadarola and Rayyvana break it down on The Damage Report.
“JD Vance, author and Republican Candidate for Senate in Ohio, has released a new campaign ad in which he asks “are you a racist?” and “do you hate Mexicans?” before blaming his mother’s addiction issues on immigrants. The Hillbilly Elegy author released the 30-second video on Tuesday. “The media calls us racist for wanting to build Trump’s wall. They censor us, but it doesn’t change the truth,” Mr Vance says in the video. “Joe Biden’s open border is killing Ohioans, with more illegal drugs and more Democrat voters pouring into this country,” he adds.”
Christian media company Good Fight Ministries has released the first installment of its seven-part Marvel and DC’s War on God series.
Entitled The Anti-Christ Agenda and narrated by Pastor Joe Schimmel, the company says the 150-minute film “documents how popular comics and the movies that they have spawned are riddled with anti-Christ themes that glorify gratuitous violence, sexual perversion, blasphemy, and the occult.”
“Many leading comic book writers have admitted that they are using seduction, manipulation, the occult, and even the Bible to influence children to view the God of the Bible from a twisted slant,” Pastor Schimmel says.
Satan is after your children, and he’s cleverly using comic book movies to deceive them. Marvel & DC’s War on God will show you exactly how they’re targeted and open your eyes to the war on Christianity.
New installments in the Marvel and DC’s War on God series are expected to be released every three months and will be available on Vimeo on Demand for $3.99 to rent and $8.99 to buy. DVDs will also be made available.
The press release goes on to boast that Schimmel’s previous series exposed Elvis Presley, Led Zeppelin, U2, Britney Spears, and other pop stars as Satanists.
The right wing haters are going after Disney for supporting the LGBTQ community. This election isn’t about what the Republicans have to offer, it’s about hatred, bigotry and racism. And the Democrats needs to get up off their asses and vote-especially the LGBTQ community.
I want to thank Ali for sending the links to this story. The hate and misinformation pushed by the Republican anti-trans attempt to villainize and demonize trans people. I am surprised that the Republican judges other women by their looks, seems every feminist should be outraged about that. If a man did it the outrage would be non-stop. Also notice the law is simply to make a political point and to grandstand as the problem doesn’t exist in that state. Byers said .000047% of athletes in Kansas schools are transgender girls. But even more they say no minors will “No surgeon can cut, remove, wop, add to change the biology that is chemically occuring [sic] in each and every fiber, bone and molecule of every human being,” Wow so no more circumcisions of little boys! Some one better tell the religions that insist on mutilating boys right after birth or on their 7th birthday. What about intersex babies and kids, they have surgery to correct genital issues all the time. This is a political bill to make a scary enemy they can attack for political gain. Fear, fear, fear. Be very afraid of the large men who pretend to be women so they can enter the bathroom and assault and rape you. But as she showed you don’t need to be trans to walk into a bathroom. If someone is going to rape or assault, they are not going to play a long term game of changing their life to living as a woman. That makes no sense. Plus notice that men are all bad, and trans women are evil deviants who only want to get into a female bathroom to assault a woman? That makes no sense and is a weird way to look at men. The last post I did on this claimed that sharing bathrooms made all the boys in to degenerates that peed in the sinks and assaulted all the girls. I guess either the boys did that all the time and no one cared, or only when a girl was present? The story made no sense, and neither does this one when you look at it. But she did get god into the story because we all know this is a theocracy drive by the dictates of her religion. Medical science be damned because god told them something at a time people did not know about germs and to wash their hands.
In email to trans college student, Rep. Cheryl Helmer says she entered men’s restroom to make point
Rep. Cheryl Helmer, R-Mulvane, offers her comments on biology, bathroom usage and transgender athletes in response to an inquiry from a college student concerned about anti-transgender legislation. (Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)
TOPEKA — Rep. Cheryl Helmer told a transgender college student she doesn’t appreciate sharing a restroom at the Statehouse with a “huge transgender female” and falsely claims transgender people are assaulting “wee little girls” in school restrooms.
Helmer’s hate-filled remarkswere made in an April 23 email from her legislator address to Brenan Riffel, a graduate student at the University of Kansas who identifies as transfeminine and provided a copy of the exchange to Kansas Reflector. Helmer, a Republican from Mulvane, didn’t respond to questions for this story.
Riffel contacted Helmer and three other House Republicans to express disappointment in their sponsorship of House Bill 2210, which would make it a crime for a doctor to perform gender reassignment surgery or hormone replacement on minors. The legislation, introduced Feb. 3, 2021, has not received a hearing.
“No surgeon can cut, remove, wop, add to change the biology that is chemically occuring [sic] in each and every fiber, bone and molecule of every human being,” Helmer wrote in her email to Riffel. “A doctor can inject meds and dilute but cannot destroy what God has done in the perfection of the HUMAN BEING.”
Helmer’s comments about sharing a restroom with a transgender colleague are an apparent reference to Rep. Stephanie Byers, a Wichita Democrat and the state’s first transgender legislator.
“Now, personally I do not appreciate the huge transgender female who is now in our restrooms in the Capitol,” Helmer wrote. “It is quite uncomforting. I have asked the men if they would like a woman in their restroom and they freaked out. Just to make my point — I went into their restroom one day. They were all standing in a circle talking but they all in unison started screaming like girls ‘Cheryl – you’re in the men’s restroom!’ It was quite apparent by their bright red faces that they were extremely embarrassed that I had entered ‘their territory’.
“But now we have a very unfair situation. We as women have humans that are much larger, stronger, more adrenaline and testosterone and therefore possibly more dangerous and we have to share our restrooms. Not only that but our wee little girls in elementary and middle and high school are having to be exposed and many have been raped, sodomized and beaten in the restrooms by these supposedly transgenders who may or may not be for real.”
There is no evidence to support Helmer’s claims of sexual assaults.
Riffel initiated contact with the legislators to let them know how harmful House Bill 2210 would be for transgender children in Kansas.
“With the rise in attacks of trans people and with the growing acceptance of violence towards the trans community, it’s important to advocate and fight back this legislation that aims to erase us and make us targets,” Riffel said in an email to Kansas Reflector.
“Unfortunately,” Riffel said, “I expected such a bigoted and close-minded response.”
Riffel said the representative’s willingness “to make a political point” by going into a men’s restroom was surprising. Riffel said they didn’t know “the trans individual” referenced in the email, “but I am sorry that you have to deal with Rep. Helmer’s antics and discrimination.”
“I am appalled that she is in office with such beliefs,” Riffel said. “My concerns about the well being of our trans kids was not addressed by Rep. Helmer and all I got back in return was blatant transphobia fueled by hateful religious rhetoric.”
Helmer’s comments “were perhaps some of the most hateful things I have ever been sent,” Riffel said.
Rep. Stephanie Byers, D-Wichita, says in an interview at her office at the Statehouse in Topeka that discriminatory legislation is “heartbreaking” for the transgender community. (Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)
Byers said Helmer’s email is emblematic of disinformation and talking points provided by politically motivated national organizations.
Helmer took it to the “next level,” Byers said, with her comments about sharing a restroom.
“How embarrassing is it that this is the same argument that was said in the 1950s and 1960s about why you couldn’t have Black people in the same restroom — because they were predators,” Byers said. “And you know, that stigma carries on. We still see it.”
Byers said her response to Helmer would be: “Learn to live her life out of love instead of out of fear, and to put people first, above politics.”
Tom Witt, executive director of Equality Kansas, said Helmer’s comments point to the motivation behind the attempt to ban transgender athletes from school sports.
“It’s rare that they say the quiet part out loud, but it’s clear that the backers of this bill are driven by nothing but hatred,” Witt said.
Senate Bill 160 is model legislation backed by anti-LGBTQ organizations who say it is necessary to protect Kansas girls from the hypothetical threat of losing scholarships. The law has been struck down by federal courts as unconstitutional when enacted in other states.
Helmer concluded her email to Riffel by saying it is “totally, 1000% unfair that a man can ‘feel’ like a woman and change his sex” in order to “compete against women.”
“Offended? Disdain? That doesn’t even begin to speak for the women who are being cheated out by males now dominating the women’s sports world,” Helmer wrote. “I believe the only fair proposition is if transgender males compete in their own category and must fund it themselves.”
House Minority Leader Tom Sawyer, D-Wichita, said Helmer’s “dehumanizing commentary” is evidence the ban on transgender athletes is not about empowering young girls.
“It is quite the opposite,” Sawyer said. “It is about a deep hate of others. It’s about endorsing state-sanctioned discrimination.”
Byers said .000047% of athletes in Kansas schools are transgender girls.
The legislation is about “bullying somebody who’s different,” Byers said.
“It’s heartbreaking for the community at large,” Byers said. “You get a 15-year-old kid who’s going to try to tell his classmates that he’s really a girl. And she’s all set, ready to do this. And she’s found a teacher who’s supportive, and she’s found a counselor who is supportive. And then an article runs about the state banning trans girls, or an article runs about other states like Alabama or Florida or wherever, considering or passing laws to ban affirmative health care. All that bravery begins to wane. Because the minute you say something, people are looking at you differently.”
Notice the talking point about males dominating women’s sports. She and the right keep shouting that men are taking all the titles, all the records, all the awards, and so on over and over. But it is not happening any more than Ivermectin cures covid or the vaccines have tracking chips in them. It is made up. If this was true why are not the Olympics full of trans woman winning all the medals? ESPN would be full of trans women teams sweeping everything. It is not happening because there just is not that many trans people in sports. Also it is about them bad transwomen, but never about the transmen because it is harder to make them scary to people. They are men, just as capable, but it ruins the narrative of women as the small little victims of the big bad men. Look at the truth behind the lies, because the right is pushing a large lie, they are pushing magic beans to get your cow.
Your denialism that this is even an issue is the problem I’m trying to address. I’m trying (and failing) to point out that denying the very real issues of implementing this ideology throughout institutions like education is a significant factor at driving a small subset of moderate voters into the arms of voting Republican. Because I think the Republican party is an existential threat to the US remaining a liberal democracy, I raise the issue that not enough people on Left realize that their denialism of these very real concerns are helping the Republicans win at the polls. Blanket support for any and all trans and race and gender ideology implemented by Democrats is a very real problem in this regard, as is the automatic vilification of any real liberal who criticizes this identity ideology. The Left is eating its own.
You automatically damn the person raising criticism as some kind of right wing bigot because, in your mind, there is no issue on one side and nothing but bigotry and disinformation on the other. Hence, I call this denialism similar to a creationist religious belief and any refutation by facts blasphemy.
For example, the BC School Trustees Association voted almost unanimously (97.2%) to continue the implementation of unisex bathrooms in all schools. So enlightened. Parents of girls prior to the vote told these trustees that their daughters aren’t using the bathrooms, are too uncomfortable using the facilities when a period arrives, that they are skipping school, wanting to stay home, refusing to go into a bathroom where the boys are peeing in the sinks and who enjoy ‘teasing’ girls – sometimes much younger girls – and sometimes assaulting them.
Facts don’t matter.
Along comes a champion of social justice and insists this is all made up, that anyone who raises an issue like this is a bigot, that such parents are transphobic, that such occasions are so rare that there’s really no issue at all so it’s hate and fear driving the criticism.
Sound familiar? Guess how those parents are going to vote when they have an opportunity to express their very deep anger at this treatment in the secrecy of the ballot box?
Oh right… it’s all made up. And besides, think of the suicide rate of the the poor trans sexual children we’re ‘saving’. So virtuous. So many still to save. Let the door knocking begin: do you have a moment and have you heard the “Good News”?
Hello Tildeb. You are failing because it is a political driven issue that is not a real life problem in the world. The moderates that are being driven to the republicans is a talking point and something used to cause fear to prevent speaking up on trans rights. Polly said something similar a long time ago, she said it is only the trans part driving the Republican party as gays were accepted a long time ago. Turned out we see that is false also.
The people making this an issue are going to vote conservative anyway. The people making trans issues a problem are watching conservative media, they are conservative in thought, they feel more comfortable on that side of the spectrum. I am talking about those who are making it an issue. Not those who are unsure or feel that some parts may go too far. The ones pushing this such as yourself are actively pushing an anti-trans agenda. That is why you do not care about any other topic I post accept spending less money on the military to give the people more benefits. Notice the two issues you objected to on my blog? What do they have in common? Oh yes they are right wing positions and the data you used is from right wing sources. Ah enlightenment.
Your dooms day scenarios are not happening. Trans people are not sweeping all the women’s sports trophies. They are not pushing women out of sports. It is a ginned-up fear mongering attempting to hurt trans women, just as if a trans women uses the women’s bathroom they will rape your little daughter and assault your wife bullshit. Again, all out of the right-wing playbook. Never a thought that trans women might just need to relieve themselves. They have to be there to rape and assault.
I admit the left is not good at handling the messaging coming out of the right, simply because the corporate Democrats are afraid of upsetting their wealthy donors, who are the same wealthy donors to the Republicans. The days of the Ted Kennedy type liberal Democrat was almost over. But they are coming back and the people like that. tRump showed the people like fighters who will claim to stick up for their interests against the wealthy and big business. Of course tRump lied, but that is what the right does. But the liberals are making a resurgence and that terrifies the right, because they know the public supports the liberal positions. Why do you think there is such an attempt on the right to silence any mention of the positives of the LGBTQ+? It is clear, the majority of the public support the LGBTQ+ and that support has been growing. So the right has to stop anything positive while keep hammering how evil, bad, horrible, woman raping, girl destroying the LGBTQ+ really is. I wish I could post all the stories I see that are just this fear mongering to get the idea into the public, and you help do that for them.
The latest I read is the idea that in 20 years or so, there won’t be lesbians because all the girls who like girls will be trans boys. That trope has been pushed by TERFs in the UK for a while. But it is really playing into the right wings idea that peoples gender and sexuality is a choice that can be changed at a whim. It is not like that.
I understand Tildeb you are male? Could you tomorrow really say you believe you are female and go through years of abuse and social / medical treatments to transition? No, because you are male gendered in your head. That part that tells you who you are. It is the same for transgender people, the part in their head that tells them who they are tells them they are in the wrong body. To remedy that is not a threat to anyone else, but there are people who see it as a threat to their ability to force others to live by their narrow view of what must be allowed. Transgender doesn’t mean criminal psycho that the right is trying to make it
Tildeb dear, I call those using these issues against trans as bigots because it doesn’t affect them, and these issues are made up to appeal to bigots. Really. Oh my god women who look manly may be using the same bathroom, flee for your life! I don’t use female bathrooms I don’t know about you, but when I go into a bathroom I don’t inspect everyone coming in or going out to see if I think they are manly enough. I have known all levels of men in my life, and I can tell you what is shown up top never tends to match what is below. Are women doing that, have an inspection before use. I have posted of women stopped and assaulted trying to use the bathroom because some right winger did not think they were feminine enough. My gods that should drive real feminist crazy and does I can tell you the TERFs are a small but very loud group like magas. Judge a female on her looks, how dare you.
I do not automatically damn any idea or person. I have investigated the issues deeply and found they are crap made up to scare people. Be afraid, be very afraid, the gays are coming the gays are coming … oh, not scared of the gays anymore … okay … the trans are coming the trans are coming, be afraid be afraid. This too shall pass if the right wing doesn’t have its way with these anti LGBTQ+ laws.
Good gods I hope people see through you. Unisex bathrooms mean boys are peeing in the sinks. Girls with periods are afraid to go into them … because girls first are always afraid of boys and boys seeing a girl will have to rape them right? Then the girls are afraid because of their period … are girls just disrobing at the door and waving bloody clothing around while dripping blood. Shit as a boy that would have terrified me. And assaulting the girls of course the boys are. No girls are assaulting the little boys as that is not allowed in that boys are never weak but always the strong aggressors because that causes fear. Girls are little defenseless unable to protect themselves, unable to remember which boy it was and tell the teacher or authorities, but yes it really is happening. Sure believe me it is, and big foot and ET are having a baby on the school playground next week.
Hey Tildeb I seen those same parents on TV storming US school board meetings claiming that asking kids to wear face masks was making it so they couldn’t breathe and god created their faces to be seen so masks were the work of Satan. You know a cloth across a kids face on Halloween was ok but in school was an abomination of the worse kind.
Again all bullshit designed to cause fear. I bet if I tracked the article back it would be to a radical right wing outlet. Why do you not provide links to these big important news stories, is because they are always on a anti-trans site? How many parents told the school their girls would skip vs how many parents supported it. Was it two? Five? How many kids in the school? Just as an aside many countries use unisex bathrooms with no issues or trouble. I used them in Germany. No problems. Peed, popped, showered, brushed my teeth all the other stuff one did in a big unisex bathroom with no issues or problems. Good lord, google Chinese kindergarten bathrooms. No stalls, just toilets with small dividers and the boys and girls all doing it with no problem, the bigger girls help the little boys clean their bottoms. Maybe what we should do its not teach kids that thing between their legs makes the entirety of who they are and is the most important that must always be a hidden part of themselves. Kids don’t learn to fear that thing until adults teach them too.
Oh an on the girls period thing. I grew up with a couple hell spawn of that gender. They bragged about how if they wanted to get out of a class or skip school they would use that issue, that “evil menstruation thing” and get out of class or school. One sibling must have had a running period flow for all of high school to get out of PE. Every few days of the week they had PE. All month. For years. They were proud of them selves. They are also all maga right wing Republicans now.
It is driven by hate, these attacks on the trans gender. Trust me I know it is not made up, the information claimed is but the hate is real. Is racism made up? But this tells me all I will ever need to know about you Tildeb. You don’t care about the death of a child as long as the child is a child acting as you don’t support. You now sicken me.
<blockquote> And besides, think of the suicide rate of the the poor trans sexual children we’re ‘saving’. So virtuous. So many still to save. Let the door knocking begin: do you have a moment and have you heard the “Good News”? </blockquote>
See I care about all children and especially the children in right wing family’s being indoctrinated who might be LGBTQ+ being told they are the worst possible thing their parents can imagine and so hated. I care about the sexually abused children being denied sexual education that might inform them they can tell on their parents who are doing it. Again due to the lack of good sexual education I went several years wondering if every time I was raped as a kid I would become pregnant like my hell spawn sisters. So you make light and jokes about saving kids, it seems what the right does. I will keep fighting for every kid I can against the bigotry of the right and the misinformation you push.
Scottie's Playtime 
Your denialism that this is even an issue is the problem I’m trying to address. I’m trying (and failing) to point out that denying the very real issues of implementing this ideology throughout institutions like education is a significant factor at driving a small subset of moderate voters into the arms of voting Republican. Because I think the Republican party is an existential threat to the US remaining a liberal democracy, I raise the issue that not enough people on Left realize that their denialism of these very real concerns are helping the Republicans win at the polls. Blanket support for any and all trans and race and gender ideology implemented by Democrats is a very real problem in this regard, as is the automatic vilification of any real liberal who criticizes this identity ideology. The Left is eating its own.
You automatically damn the person raising criticism as some kind of right wing bigot because, in your mind, there is no issue on one side and nothing but bigotry and disinformation on the other. Hence, I call this denialism similar to a creationist religious belief and any refutation by facts blasphemy.
For example, the BC School Trustees Association voted almost unanimously (97.2%) to continue the implementation of unisex bathrooms in all schools. So enlightened. Parents of girls prior to the vote told these trustees that their daughters aren’t using the bathrooms, are too uncomfortable using the facilities when a period arrives, that they are skipping school, wanting to stay home, refusing to go into a bathroom where the boys are peeing in the sinks and who enjoy ‘teasing’ girls – sometimes much younger girls – and sometimes assaulting them.
Facts don’t matter.
Along comes a champion of social justice and insists this is all made up, that anyone who raises an issue like this is a bigot, that such parents are transphobic, that such occasions are so rare that there’s really no issue at all so it’s hate and fear driving the criticism.
Sound familiar? Guess how those parents are going to vote when they have an opportunity to express their very deep anger at this treatment in the secrecy of the ballot box?
Oh right… it’s all made up. And besides, think of the suicide rate of the the poor trans sexual children we’re ‘saving’. So virtuous. So many still to save. Let the door knocking begin: do you have a moment and have you heard the “Good News”?
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My response.
Hello Tildeb. You are failing because it is a political driven issue that is not a real life problem in the world. The moderates that are being driven to the republicans is a talking point and something used to cause fear to prevent speaking up on trans rights. Polly said something similar a long time ago, she said it is only the trans part driving the Republican party as gays were accepted a long time ago. Turned out we see that is false also.
The people making this an issue are going to vote conservative anyway. The people making trans issues a problem are watching conservative media, they are conservative in thought, they feel more comfortable on that side of the spectrum. I am talking about those who are making it an issue. Not those who are unsure or feel that some parts may go too far. The ones pushing this such as yourself are actively pushing an anti-trans agenda. That is why you do not care about any other topic I post accept spending less money on the military to give the people more benefits. Notice the two issues you objected to on my blog? What do they have in common? Oh yes they are right wing positions and the data you used is from right wing sources. Ah enlightenment.
Your dooms day scenarios are not happening. Trans people are not sweeping all the women’s sports trophies. They are not pushing women out of sports. It is a ginned-up fear mongering attempting to hurt trans women, just as if a trans women uses the women’s bathroom they will rape your little daughter and assault your wife bullshit. Again, all out of the right-wing playbook. Never a thought that trans women might just need to relieve themselves. They have to be there to rape and assault.
I admit the left is not good at handling the messaging coming out of the right, simply because the corporate Democrats are afraid of upsetting their wealthy donors, who are the same wealthy donors to the Republicans. The days of the Ted Kennedy type liberal Democrat was almost over. But they are coming back and the people like that. tRump showed the people like fighters who will claim to stick up for their interests against the wealthy and big business. Of course tRump lied, but that is what the right does. But the liberals are making a resurgence and that terrifies the right, because they know the public supports the liberal positions. Why do you think there is such an attempt on the right to silence any mention of the positives of the LGBTQ+? It is clear, the majority of the public support the LGBTQ+ and that support has been growing. So the right has to stop anything positive while keep hammering how evil, bad, horrible, woman raping, girl destroying the LGBTQ+ really is. I wish I could post all the stories I see that are just this fear mongering to get the idea into the public, and you help do that for them.
The latest I read is the idea that in 20 years or so, there won’t be lesbians because all the girls who like girls will be trans boys. That trope has been pushed by TERFs in the UK for a while. But it is really playing into the right wings idea that peoples gender and sexuality is a choice that can be changed at a whim. It is not like that.
I understand Tildeb you are male? Could you tomorrow really say you believe you are female and go through years of abuse and social / medical treatments to transition? No, because you are male gendered in your head. That part that tells you who you are. It is the same for transgender people, the part in their head that tells them who they are tells them they are in the wrong body. To remedy that is not a threat to anyone else, but there are people who see it as a threat to their ability to force others to live by their narrow view of what must be allowed. Transgender doesn’t mean criminal psycho that the right is trying to make it
Tildeb dear, I call those using these issues against trans as bigots because it doesn’t affect them, and these issues are made up to appeal to bigots. Really. Oh my god women who look manly may be using the same bathroom, flee for your life! I don’t use female bathrooms I don’t know about you, but when I go into a bathroom I don’t inspect everyone coming in or going out to see if I think they are manly enough. I have known all levels of men in my life, and I can tell you what is shown up top never tends to match what is below. Are women doing that, have an inspection before use. I have posted of women stopped and assaulted trying to use the bathroom because some right winger did not think they were feminine enough. My gods that should drive real feminist crazy and does I can tell you the TERFs are a small but very loud group like magas. Judge a female on her looks, how dare you.
I do not automatically damn any idea or person. I have investigated the issues deeply and found they are crap made up to scare people. Be afraid, be very afraid, the gays are coming the gays are coming … oh, not scared of the gays anymore … okay … the trans are coming the trans are coming, be afraid be afraid. This too shall pass if the right wing doesn’t have its way with these anti LGBTQ+ laws.
Good gods I hope people see through you. Unisex bathrooms mean boys are peeing in the sinks. Girls with periods are afraid to go into them … because girls first are always afraid of boys and boys seeing a girl will have to rape them right? Then the girls are afraid because of their period … are girls just disrobing at the door and waving bloody clothing around while dripping blood. Shit as a boy that would have terrified me. And assaulting the girls of course the boys are. No girls are assaulting the little boys as that is not allowed in that boys are never weak but always the strong aggressors because that causes fear. Girls are little defenseless unable to protect themselves, unable to remember which boy it was and tell the teacher or authorities, but yes it really is happening. Sure believe me it is, and big foot and ET are having a baby on the school playground next week.
Hey Tildeb I seen those same parents on TV storming US school board meetings claiming that asking kids to wear face masks was making it so they couldn’t breathe and god created their faces to be seen so masks were the work of Satan. You know a cloth across a kids face on Halloween was ok but in school was an abomination of the worse kind.
Again all bullshit designed to cause fear. I bet if I tracked the article back it would be to a radical right wing outlet. Why do you not provide links to these big important news stories, is because they are always on a anti-trans site? How many parents told the school their girls would skip vs how many parents supported it. Was it two? Five? How many kids in the school? Just as an aside many countries use unisex bathrooms with no issues or trouble. I used them in Germany. No problems. Peed, popped, showered, brushed my teeth all the other stuff one did in a big unisex bathroom with no issues or problems. Good lord, google Chinese kindergarten bathrooms. No stalls, just toilets with small dividers and the boys and girls all doing it with no problem, the bigger girls help the little boys clean their bottoms. Maybe what we should do its not teach kids that thing between their legs makes the entirety of who they are and is the most important that must always be a hidden part of themselves. Kids don’t learn to fear that thing until adults teach them too.
Oh an on the girls period thing. I grew up with a couple hell spawn of that gender. They bragged about how if they wanted to get out of a class or skip school they would use that issue, that “evil menstruation thing” and get out of class or school. One sibling must have had a running period flow for all of high school to get out of PE. Every few days of the week they had PE. All month. For years. They were proud of them selves. They are also all maga right wing Republicans now.
It is driven by hate, these attacks on the trans gender. Trust me I know it is not made up, the information claimed is but the hate is real. Is racism made up? But this tells me all I will ever need to know about you Tildeb. You don’t care about the death of a child as long as the child is a child acting as you don’t support. You now sicken me.
<blockquote> And besides, think of the suicide rate of the the poor trans sexual children we’re ‘saving’. So virtuous. So many still to save. Let the door knocking begin: do you have a moment and have you heard the “Good News”? </blockquote>
See I care about all children and especially the children in right wing family’s being indoctrinated who might be LGBTQ+ being told they are the worst possible thing their parents can imagine and so hated. I care about the sexually abused children being denied sexual education that might inform them they can tell on their parents who are doing it. Again due to the lack of good sexual education I went several years wondering if every time I was raped as a kid I would become pregnant like my hell spawn sisters. So you make light and jokes about saving kids, it seems what the right does. I will keep fighting for every kid I can against the bigotry of the right and the misinformation you push.
Oh and bless your heart.