Well what a mind altering interview. I know the video is described as a debate but it really was a conversation. At first I was bored and almost shut it off even though I mostly enjoy the channel. Then I noticed something. The call in guest got angrier and ever more abusive getting very insulting yet Vaush never reacted to that and instead tried to keep the conversation going centered on the topic. I loved it. I have tried to talk to right wing bigots and I have not had the same composure that Vaush did. It is a great watch if you want to see how a person on the right starts out trying to show how trans people are bad and confused then moves to the point where the one saying this stuff gets very abusive and then just gets really out classed with information to the point where he has to just admit he doesn’t like those trans and hates those people that accept them. Like I said the first part is boring and forgettable, but fast forward through that if you must and watch the rest. For me it was worth it. Hugs
As is the normal fact all the sky is falling from all the claims of what horrible things will happen from accepting gay people or trans people never happen, yet these same people making these claims never apologies and admit they were wrong when the horrible shit they predicted never happened. I say this because in the US these anti-gay people claimed all the horrible effects from recognizing the fact that gay people exist will destroy the country. But that did not happen. So the anti LGBTQ+ people then said letting gays marry legally would destroy the country / society, but again that did not happen. In fact different countries have had legal gay marriage for over 20 years and the Christian god has not destroyed the world. Plus in the US same sex marriage has been legal country wide since 2015! Yet no country destroying events not already underway due to climate change and republican obstruction to make a decent country has happened. Yet again no republican or religious leaders have every admitted they were wrong. They keep repeating all their dire warnings with no proof and withholding the information that they things they are claiming are the key to their go destroying the nation has already been here a long time. I am 60 years old. Ron and I promised ourselves to each other 33 years ago and there were many others before us who did so longer than we have. Yet these god thumpers that want to force the country to follow their view fail to point out that their god never acted to stop that. Why would a supreme power deity need to depend on a religious leader demanding money to accomplish its goal? I am not going to colorize this one, sorry. I recently got up and Ron just came over and told me I am looking very bad and need to go to bed. We argued about it, but I am now so tired I may do so after refusing just on principle. I hate being told what I should do. I was in too much pain to eat tonight and now Ron is hovering over me to force me to bed. Hugs
Ruadhán Ó Críodáin, executive director of Irish charity ShoutOut, received his gender recognition certificate eight days after he applied thanks to self-ID. (Supplied)
One day in December, Ruadhán Ó Críodáin applied for a gender recognition certificate (GRC) over noodles in a Dublin restaurant. Eight days later, it arrived.
That’s because in Ireland trans people can self-declare their own gender under the Gender Recognition Act 2015. There’s no need for a medical diagnosis or doctor’s reports, nor is there a panel of experts who get to decide if you are who you say you are.
Instead, trans people simply fill out a form, have it witnessed by a solicitor or another official, send it to the government, and wait to receive their GRC in the post.
“It was pretty simple for me,” Ruadhán tells PinkNews. “I was very fortunate in that I have a friend who works as a solicitor who was willing to come and witness it for me, for free. She witnessed and signed the document, but also – helpfully – walked me through it so I knew exactly what to fill out and where, and so that I understood everything on the form.”
Self-ID, as it’s often known, has been a quiet, everyday reality for trans people in Ireland for more than seven years. And as Ruadhán points out, “the sky hasn’t fallen in”.
None of the baseless fearmongering pushed by those who describe themselves as “gender critical” has come to pass. Instead, all self-ID has done is make the legal system a little bit more compassionate.
Ruadhán Ó Críodáin, executive director of ShoutOut, an Irish LGBTQ+ charity. (Supplied)
Living in a country with a simplified gender recognition process means “nothing and everything all at once” to Ruadhán. The whole thing was “a bit of an afterthought” to him when compared to the more complicated aspects of transitioning, such as coming out and navigating Ireland’s “mess” of a healthcare system.
But it’s also true that having self-ID was exactly the reason getting a GRC wasn’t much of a concern – he knew it would be straightforward.
“It was pretty emotional when the certificate came in the post. It felt like a huge relief,” he says.
“I’m really grateful to live in a country where it is so easy, and I know it’s all thanks to the long, lonely battle of Dr Lydia Foy [a trans woman who fought for 20 years for the legislation] and her fellow activists.
“We’d be tempted to pat ourselves on the back for that here in Ireland but Dr Foy fought 23 years for this legislation. Every trans person here who gets a GRC only has one thanks to her.”
UK gender recognition process is ‘paternalistic and unfair’
Still, Ruadhán knows how lucky he is when he looks at the UK, where anti-trans figures often baselessly claim introducing self-identification would put women and girls in danger.
The culture war reached a fever pitch in December when the Scottish government passed its own reforms to the Gender Recognition Act to ensure trans Scots could self-declare their own gender.
The UK government swiftly invoked Section 35 of the Scotland Act to stop the bill going for royal assent. Nicola Sturgeon has vowed to challenge the decision in court, and the row seems certain to fuel the devolution movement.
First minister Nicola Sturgeon vowed to fight back after the UK government decided to block Scotland’s gender reform bill from becoming law. (Getty)
Watching on from Ireland, Ruadhán can’t help but feel angry.
“I’m devastated to see the UK government has decided to block it. It’s infuriating on a political level to see the UK government interfere with Scottish political autonomy for a bill which would affect such a tiny community, and to further fan the flames on this ridiculous debate,” he says.
Ruadhán adds: “The current process for getting a GRC in the UK is brutally paternalistic and unfair.
“Why should a panel of strangers decide if you deserve a GRC or not? Why make someone go through two years of social transition before being eligible? Why is a diagnosis of gender dysphoria or proof of surgery needed?
“Trans people are the authorities in our own gender. We know who we are. Transition is already difficult enough without adding further barriers. And crucially, being trans isn’t an illness.”
Ruadhán Ó Críodáin with a giant “R” balloon. (Supplied)
Self-ID should be seen as a basic human right – Ruadhán just wishes all trans people were trusted to know who they are.
“I’m grateful for my GRC, and how easy it was to obtain, but I’m also entitled to it.
“No politician, no legislator, no change in public opinion, can take it away from me. This is who I am, and I shouldn’t be expected to live any other way.”
While watching the morning Sunday broadcast shows I was helping Ron deal with getting Sunday breakfast together. Ron likes to do a big breakfast on Sunday morning, but as we age it has shrank in size but not in stuff. As we were getting stuff out of the bottom freezer drawer Ron was on one side I was on the other. After getting stuff out I was holding a couple things in my hands so I lowered down and stretched out to place them on Ron’s side of the large drawer to better even things out in the freezer. As I was putting the first of the things down I got a horrible stabbing pain in my middle back and then the muscles contracted adding more pain. I gave a gasp and cried out. I dropped the things in my hands and partially stood up, turned and leaned up against the nearby door frame and just tried to breathe. My right leg from the calf down went numb. Ron rushed over to me but the damage was done. I was in trouble. I shuffled to my desk, took more medications, sitting was very painful, but standing was also very painful each time I tried. I am not going to be able to help Ron with breakfast as we planned. Just that damned quick a mistake, an action without thinking has seriously impacted me this morning.
A time later. Ron made a great breakfast of hashbrowns and an egg scramble with mushrooms, tri-colored peppers, and bacon. Normally we have ham steak and maybe sausage with breakfast but after I hurt myself Ron declared we did not have those things and did not need them. Plus we had toast. I ate until I was a bit overfull. I won’t be able to help him clean up like I normally do and when the current show “Face the Nation” is over I am going to bed for a long while to release my back. I took extra medication when it happened and that plus the food is making me very tired. I hope when I get up, I can get to some comments. If you don’t hear from me, you know I was not able to do so. My right foot still is screaming with the stinging numbness feeling. Hugs for everyone.
This is well known and the medical has repeatedly said that affirming the gender identity of the person while assisting with necessary age appropriate treatments including puberty blockers or hormone therapy when needed is the best medical practice. That is something the anti-trans people cannot refute, the majority of medical associations including the AMA and the largest pediatric medical associations believe in supporting trans people transitioning. But at the same time the red state republican leaders who mostly have no medical training are trying hard to ban or make the need medical assistance illegal. Why are they doing this? For political gain mostly, and religious indoctrination for others. This is very much like these same legislators denying abortion / reproductive rights to pregnant people or requiring women to cover their arms and where long skirts in state legislative bodies. It is people acting on an ideology to roll back advances in medical understanding and society to return to a time they feel more comfortable with. It is about their comfort not your needs and their ability to force their ignorance on others against the doctors best medical advice. ** BTW this happened to me in Florida. I was on a great medication for muscle spasms called Soma. The state legislators in an attempt to look tough on opioid addictions made it nearly impossible for pain doctors, and only pain doctors, to prescribe Soma. I spent months trying to get a replacement that worked and none were as good. **Hugs
Researchers tracked 315 trans and non-binary young people in what is reportedly the largest study in the U.S. to date.
Hormone therapy improves the mental health of transgender youth. That’s the takeaway from a new study from The New England Journal of Medicine, released last week.
The study is reportedly the largest in the U.S. to date. Over the course of two years, researchers tracked 315 trans and non-binary young people between the ages of 12 and 20 receiving hormone therapy. According to a summary of the research, “During the study period, appearance congruence (alignment between gender identity and physical appearance), positive affect, and life satisfaction increased, and depression and anxiety symptoms decreased.”
Researchers reported that young people who were assigned female at birth saw greater benefits when taking testosterone than those assigned male at birth who took estrogen. Several factors could be at play here, they speculated, including the speed with which the outward effects of testosterone manifest and greater social stigma faced by transfeminine people compared to transmasculine people.
The authors note that “marked increases in referrals but limited evidence as to long-term outcomes have led to controversies and debate” over providing adolescents with gender-affirming hormones (GAH). Across the U.S., state legislators have introduced bills restricting or outright banning gender-affirming care for transgender youth.
“Research like this is significant because it provides more longitudinal data,” Dr. Kareen Matouk, a clinical psychologist in the gender identity program at Columbia University Irving Medical Center, told Self magazine. “This helps individuals and their families navigate the health care system with more ease and confidence, and protects access to gender-affirming care that lawmakers are attempting to deny.”
Opponents of gender-affirming care for trans young people frequently argue that puberty blockers and GAH may have harmful or irreversible effects. But Matouk said, “We have some data suggesting that gender-affirming hormone therapy is generally safe and effective under the supervision of an endocrinologist or medical provider who specializes in transgender health care and has experience initiating hormone therapy.”
Gender-affirming care for both adolescents and adults has been endorsed by the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Psychiatric Association, and many other professional groups as necessary and frequently lifesaving for transgender individuals.
While the authors of the new study stress that more research into other factors – including access to mental healthcare and the quality of peer relations and family support – is needed, their findings show that “that mental health improves with GAH, whereas withholding treatment may lead to increased gender dysphoria and adversely affect psychological functioning.”
A person holds up a sign that reads “Trans athletes belong in sports” during a demonstration. (Getty/Michael M Santiago)
A new report has found trans women do not have any advantages over any other women, when competing in elite sport, if existing rules are followed.
Findings from a report, which was commissioned by the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport, clarified that biomedical factors do not pose an advantage, but suggests social factors – like nutrition and training quality – do.
The new reportis an in-depth review of all scientific literature published between 2011 and 2021 in English regarding trans women and their participation in elite-level sports.
These studies show there is little evidence to show that factors relating to male puberty – such as lung size and bone density – produce an advantage for trans athletes.
Existing rules regarding trans women in sport most often relate to the suppression of testosterone to certain low levels.
The report concluded that trans women that have begun testosterone suppression have no clear biological advantage.
“There is not one discrete biomarker that allows easy comparison of athletes’ bodies to each other in terms of performance,” thereport reads.
Trans people, especially trans women, have been unfairly targeted in the elite and grass-roots sports worlds, with some even being banned entirely from competing due to anti-trans rhetoric.
Thereport found“strong evidence” that “elite sport policy is made within transmisogynist, misogynoir, racist, geopolitical cultural norms”.
These ‘norms’ are the outcome of a long history of exclusion of women in sports, especially women whose bodies did not conform to standards of femininity.
British Cycling suspended its trans and non-binary participation policy. It comes after trans cyclist Emily Bridges (pictured) was banned from participating in a top women’s event. It is still being updated. (YouTube/Sky News)
Bridges, whocame out publicly as trans in October 2020, was due to compete against some of the top female cyclists in what would have been her first women’s event on 2 April (2021).
British Cycling said it was informed shortly before the event by the UCI that Bridges was not eligible to compete under its guidelines at the time.
Despite new evidence proving that biological traits from trans people pose no real threat to cisgender men and women, the community is still vilified and barred from competitive sports.
Quick update on me before the video that has information that everyone should hear. I hurt so bad right now I can only stand a few minutes before the pain is so bad I either have to sit or fall. Of course it is better earlier when I first get up by noon or 1 PM I can barely get up and go to the bathroom before the pain is so severe I am in danger of falling down. But if I sit the pain builds up in the upper part of my back instead of the lower part so again I have to move. Mostly right now it seems I get about 3 hours up at most and then 2 hours laying down. When I take enough medication to help cover the pain which lately has been the maximum of my medications, the next day I am sick to my stomach and have nausea issues. Think of it like being on a drunken night out at the bars, and how you would feel the next day. That lasts until I get enough medication back in my system again, and then if I take the maximum again I am sick the next day. It is a cycle I cannot stand. Be pain controlled in the afternoon and rest of the day while befuddled with confusion of the medications and the next morning wake up sick with a rolling stomach and nausea that either makes me vomit (three times yesterday) or just feel like I am going to vomit such as today when I did not vomit but felt I could until about 1 PM. I have an MRI on the 25th. I am losing the good from the last set of spine shots in the bottom of my spine, so tomorrow I need to call the pain clinic and see if they can adjust my appointment to get another set of spine epidurals for all three sections. Right now I am spending as much time laying down as I am upright. However this morning and yesterday morning Ron and I did take a short walk as we used to before the hurricane. It is much shorter than the other walks were because my back gives out and his hip starts to bother him too much to do a longer one. If the new spine shots don’t fix this, then I need to change medications to fentanyl or something as strong. The doctor tells me that fentanyl is much stronger than the medications I am currently taking. One last thing. Randy my wonderful brother has tried to get me to look at getting an over the bedside table like hospitals use and using a couple of the old laptops we have or at least the bedroom TV and a laptop to read and answer comments which I bitch constantly I am missing. Today Ron and I have started talking about it. It will depend on what the doctors can do. Hugs
An update and a photo. The update from last week is the testing seriously poisoned me and I was very sick. When I told that she was cruel and even told the doctor I should report him to the Geneva Convention both were stunned until they looked at my back. Then they kept saying I should have called in. But I reminded them I was reacting so badly during the midweek visit they already claimed it was a serious problem and gave me a list of things to avoid in products. On Thursday Ron started using every medication we could get including the ones given me from the allergy office. By Friday afternoon I was a raw mass on my back and so sick I was throwing up. Ron wanted to take me to the emergency room. I decided to take a bunch of Benadryl as that was what they would do in the ER. It was a long weekend.
Today I was starting to feel better, but still so very tired. But ready to seriously get back to my blog rather than just read / watch stuff and post it. But the universe is not done messing with me yet.
Ron has not been feeling well either this last week he has been in a lot of pain in his back and hip. But today he decided to put up the shelves I have been asking for … a long time. Due to the small space and James being at work I needed to help Ron. That was a mistake that couldn’t be avoided.
The effort involved with putting up the shelves aggravated and caused serious spasms in my back. Due to that I started having trouble walking and couldn’t stand without support. Lucky for me I have lots of great canes. The pain caused my heart at one point to peak at about 168 and go out of rhythm for a bit. I took my medication and it settled at about 115. Then slowly slowed to 95, 85, and then down to 83. Right now it is 80. But the good news is my disk has a lot less stuff on it and will have even more stuff tomorrow when I feel like moving more of the wired stuff. Odie is happy he has more room to spread out. I did not get back to the comments and other blogs like I planned today but I sure have that as my goal. Anyway here is a picture of the new shelves long after the sun went down and I could stand again. I was able to move a lot of stuff off the desk which was over crowed and yet the other set of speakers the cord is too short. I have to look in my many boxes of extra cords for an extensions of the right wires / jacks … (What I want is a new set of much better sounding surround sound speakers …) Hugs and lots of love. Scottie Oh Yes that is Odie on my desk, now that Tupac is a house permanent person Odie is making sure he gets as much desk time as possible. Hugs
The popular ‘gender critical’ theory about pelvic bones is simply nonsense. (Credit: GiaPratamaMD | Twitter)
It’s a popular ‘gender critical’ argument, that if archaeologists were to dig up a skeleton in hundreds of years from now they’d be able to tell whether it was male or female.
Sadly for them, it’s total nonsense.
The belief that birth sex is identifiable through skeletal structure is entirely “misleading” according to various experts.
The myth became popularised by so-called gender-critical individuals following claims of a physical disparity between pelvic bones of those assigned male at birth and those that were assigned female.
It is routinely used as an argument by anti-trans groups to claim that the concept of gender identity is useless because of its impermanence.
You can say gender neutral, you can have many sexual orientation.
But hundreds years from now, if Archeologist find your bone, they will say you either Male or female. pic.twitter.com/tamYUUxCPF
But, according to several experts in archaeology, the claim ignores a number of fundamental steps when identifying skeletal remains.
ATSU assistant professor and biological anthropologist Caroline VanSickle told AFPthat professionals often cannot say with any certainty if an individual was male, female or other just by looking at their bones.
“We can offer a fairly educated guess, but even then we sometimes get the answer wrong or end up with inconclusive results,” VanSickle says.
She added there is currently “limited data” on how hormone replacement therapy (HRT) affects bone structure, which makes it even more tricky to define the facts about a centuries-old skeleton.
“We also lack methods to identify intersex individuals, who make up around two per cent of the population,” she added.
The pelvic bone is not reliable enough to identify a male or female skeleton
Because of this ambiguity, archaeologists often refrain from definitively identifying the sex of a skeleton unless there is further proof to corroborate the decision.
When examining a skeleton, Osteoarchaeologists often consider both the physical characteristics of the skeleton, while also considering evidence of the person’s gender identity – especially in cultures which have exhibited gender-neutral or third-gender identities.
Durham university archaeology professor Rebecca Gowland said that skeletons are often categorised as male, probable male, unknown, female, or probable female.
She said the categorisation is based “on a number of different factors… [including] poor preservation, or it could be that some of the skeletal traits used to estimate sex are ambiguous.”
Archaeologists have routinely said that a person’s skeleton isn’t enough to identify their sex, let alone their pelvic bone. (Getty)
Sexual dimorphism – the biological or physical difference between the sexes of a species – is reportedly so slight in the skeleton of a human that the margin of error can be exceptionally high.
Gowland added that professionals are aware “biological sex exists on a spectrum, of which skeletons and the sexual variation they show is only one part of a greater whole.
“They also understand that the assessment of sex using skeletons is not 100 per cent accurate and this analysis may not align with an individual’s biological sex or gender identity.”
But, as many trans activists have pointed out, the concept of being misgendered in hundreds or thousands of years from now is not exactly on the top of their anxieties list.
“I won’t be alive by then, so I don’t really care,” journalist Katelyn Burns said in response to a post using the argument.
“Oh no! I’ll be so embarrassed when my bones are dug up in several hundred years! What ever will I do!?” another sarcastically wrote.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) held an anti-trans rally at the Capitol this week. A whopping 12 or so people attended and no major media outlets covered it.
The rally was a veritable who’s who of contemporary transphobic trolls, including members of the book-banning “parents’ rights” group Moms for Liberty; members of the anti-LGBTQ conservative think tank Heritage Foundation; de-transitioned young adult right-wing media darling Chloe Cole; J.K. Rowling fanboy Chris Elston; conspiracy theorist James Lindsay; sexually harassing “comedian” Alex Stein; and of course, Greene herself.
The protestors held signs proclaiming, “Children cannot consent to puberty blockers,” “Gender ideology does not belong in schools,” and signs that defined the words “mom” and “dad” as “a human parent who protects kids from gender ideology.”
Greene brought the transphobic sign that she hangs in front of her congressional office which says, “There are two genders: male and female. ‘Trust the science.’” In reality, biology has proven the existence of numerous animals that can change gender and that gender and sex are both more complicated than binaries.
The protestors spent their time taking pictures of each other and then re-tweeting one another’s posts about the protest.
In a tweet tagging many of the protestors, the Heritage Foundation wrote that the demonstrators were “calling out policies that push for minors to have access to puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and sex-reassignment surgeries.”
This is a lie, of course. No policies are “pushing” minors to undergo gender-affirming treatment, and surgeries aren’t conducted on minors either. The policies the protestors oppose include acknowledging the existence of LGBTQ+ people in schools and ensuring that trans youth have access to life-saving care as well as an equal education.
Right-wing transphobes imagine that LGBTQ+ people and allies, drag queens, and medical professionals all use “gender ideology” to “indoctrinate” and “groom” impressionable young kids into states of “gender confusion” and “rapid onset gender dysphoria” in order to “mutilate” their bodies in profitable surgeries.
However, every major medical and psychological association recognizes that trans youth self-identify consistently, insistently, and persistently from young ages. They also have deemed access to gender-affirming care as necessary for ensuring the emotional and physical well-being of trans youth.
Scottie's Playtime 