At the link https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/people-vaccinated-covid, there is an interactive chart of how many people in each country have taken the vaccines. In India it is over 1.3 billion, the US has 270.23 million. And governments still want people to get the vaccine and boosters. If they were that bad and deadly, why would a government still want people to take it.
70.6% of the world population has received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. 13.57 billion doses have been administered globally, and 11,909 are now administered each day. 32.7% of people in low-income countries have received at least one dose.
I recently had the WPATH files thrown at me as a gotcha by a couple anti-trans people. Even though I pointed out that The Guardian say “Despite its grand title, WPATH is neither solely a professional body – a significant proportion of its membership are activists – nor does it represent the “world” view on how to care for this group of people.” If you want the truth of this “disturbing leak of trans kids being abused and medically mistreated” read this article. Please consider following Erin’s substack for more trans information and the laws attacking the LGBTQ+. Hugs. Scottie.
On Monday, anti-trans groups released a set of highly editorialized and decontextualized leaks dubbed the “WPATH Files.” A fact check reveals 216 errors, misrepresentations, and faulty citations.
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On Monday evening, prominent right-wing activist Michael Shellenberger, known for pushing anti-scientific views, released what he dubbed “the WPATH files.” In this highly editorialized document, select decontextualized images of forum posts from the World Professional Association for Transgender Health were made public. The document, replete with 37,569 words of editorial commentary before even presenting the so-called leaks, leans heavily into opinion and pseudoscience, urging readers to view it as a “groundbreaking scandal.” However, a closer inspection of the actual messages, achievable only after wading through the equivalent of a novella’s worth of editorial content, reveals rather mundane and often almost dull exchanges between doctors, psychologists, and therapists. These professionals are seen asking about edge cases and seeking advice from colleagues on patient circumstances. Despite attempts to cast the messages in a negative light, the report significantly misses the mark. In a thorough fact-check of the document, I have uncovered 216 instances of factual inaccuracies, erroneous citations, misinterpretations of what is “leaked,” and purposeful omissions contradicting the authors central editorialized claims.
The files were quickly shared by nearly every major anti-trans organization and journalists aligned with them. Genspect described it as “one of the worst medical scandals in history.” Riley Gaines claimed it unveiled “one of the most profitable yet destructive social experiments in history.” The Alliance Defending Freedom termed it a “deep-rooted medical scandal.” Given the rapid pace at which news stories emerged from these and other organizations, it likely was the result of a coordinated and organized embargo campaign, leaving those in support of care with scant time to review the voluminous documents and respond. In anticipation of such a response, the right-wing, Edelman-funded anti-trans organization FAIR in Medicine even published a fake screenshot of their own analysis of the report, labeling it “true” in a “fact check” with a big red bar—a direct nod to the fact checks presented in my own reports.
The factual inaccuracies, incorrect citations, and misrepresentations of both the literature and the “leaks” in the report are pervasive, affecting every section. In many instances, the authors reference their “leaks,” which are not searchable without optical character recognition (OCR) processing, presumably banking on the assumption that readers will not verify the context, thus missing the misrepresentations. The editorial section serves as a prime example of a “Gish gallop”—a tactic where numerous errors are thrown at once to overwhelm those attempting to critically respond, a strategy first attributed to creationist debater Duane Gish. Given the sheer volume of errors, it is impractical for a single fact-check to address each one comprehensively. Instead, this fact-check will highlight clear examples of each type of error to illustrate the wide chasm between the documented evidence and the report’s exaggerated claims.
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Misrepresented Citations
The editorialized report relies heavily on citations that are misrepresented, either in terms of what the citations actually claim, their quality, or whether the arguments in the citations support the point being made by the author. For example, one section claims that the WPATH Standards of Care 8th revision “sent shockwaves through the medical profession,” and “provided the catalyst for the Beyond WPATH declaration, now signed by over 2,000 concerned individuals, many of whom are clinicians working with gender diverse young people.” A closer examination of the “Beyond WPATH” letter itself reveals signatories such as “John Howard – DJ” and “Collin Wynter, yoga instructor.” A majority of the signatories appear to be from non-relevant categories, and a significant chunk are not medical providers at all, such as “concerned grandparent” or “parent.” While the report presents the “declaration” as a document of primarily medical professionals, it omits that it is essentially a freely available online petition form.
When addressing supposedly “scientific” citations, the report’s performance is equally lacking. For example, in the editorialized section, the report asserts that transgender individuals who undergo gender reassignment surgery “do not show positive outcomes,” citing four references to support its claim. These citations include a 2004 article from The Guardian, an article from a conservative site called “The New Atlantis,”which self-describes not as an academic journal but as a “public journal of ideas,” the frequently misquoted “Swedish Study” whose author has expressly corrected misinterpretations by anti-trans organizations, and a quality of life study that is 15 years old, evaluating surgeries performed 30 years ago, when social discrimination likely significantly influenced the outcomes. This contrasts sharply with muchnewerresearch from peer-reviewed articles that demonstrate a substantial improvement in the quality of life for transgender individuals.
Another claim was that a study supported a “2% fatality rate” for gender affirming surgery for those who have a sigmoid vaginoplasty, of which the report states “This one death represents an almost 2% fatality rate. In any other field of medicine, such a high fatality rate would result in the experiment instantly being halted and carefully studied to investigate what went wrong.”A review of the citation reveals a single case report of a death which occurred from a wound infection, a potential complication for any surgery. What the report leaves out, however, are that there are many recent studies designed to look at surgical complication rates, including a much newer study with a sample size of 366 patients and only 2 who experienced “major complications,” with no deaths.
All of these and many more misrepresented citations are then used to frame various portions of the “leaks” as scandalous or negative. For instance, they follow the incorrect claim that citations “do not show positiveoutcomes” with a discussion between WPATH members centering best practices on the ability transgender people to orgasm after puberty blockers, presumably to highlight the aforementioned “no positive outcomes.” To ensure factual accuracy, studies have shown that those who took puberty blockers are capable of orgasm and are satisfied with their sex lives, with 84% reporting orgasm capability and 12% not trying, similar to cisgender rates of anorgasmia. (Update: some critical responses have only read the sentence stating “female sexual function scores are low.” The FSF questionnaire measures include things like “lubrication” and the study is critical of the use of FSF in measuring transgender women’s sexual health. The study argues that instead of relying on FSF, other measures should be used. The study notes high satisfaction and indicates the vast majority of trans women can orgasm after surgery even with puberty suppression).
Errors About Trans Care
In numerous cases, the report not only misrepresents citations but also commits outright factual errors about trans care. For instance, it incorrectly conflates gender identity and sexuality, claiming that gender-affirming care is “a new form of conversion therapy” that “sterilizes lesbians and gays.” Gender identity and sexuality are fundamentally distinct. Regarding the claim of transition being a form of “conversion therapy,” evidence indicates that the vast majority of transgender individuals do not identify as straight after transitioning. Therefore, if transition were meant to serve as “conversion therapy,” it is notably ineffective in such an endeavor.
Similarly, the report claims that “the majority of gender dysphoric children would naturally desist and reconcile with their birth sex after puberty” if “not affirmed.” The studies cited all point to the same two sources continually used to make this claim – Kenneth Zucker’s research from the 1990s, which uses outdated diagnostic criteria for “gender identity disorder” that misclassified feminine gay men as “disordered,” and Steensma’s studies from 2011/2013, known for similar methodological shortcomings. They utilize old criteria which did not require a “desire or insistence to be the other sex,” and purposefully included in the disorder feminine boys who parents wished were more masculine. Modern studies show desistance rates of only 2.5%, with 97.5% of patients continuing to identify as transgender after social transition. The report claims that social transition prevents this “natural” desistance, a hypothesis that has not been validated, and instead seemingly advocates that trans youth should be disallowed social transition, which consists haircuts, clothing, pronouns, and names.
The report also states that “hormone therapy places an enormous medical burden on the body and impairs sexual function.” This is a claim made in multiple instances in the article, implying that sexual functionality is low and poor. In some sections, the authors lament that sexual function will be so poor, “the ability to form long-term sexual relationships is drastically compromised.”Research shows, however, that 65% of post op transgender women see an improvementin sexual satisfaction, with the majority rating their experiences with their body parts as “satisfying” or “very satisfying.” One review concluded, “We find that the most well-established changes associated with [hormone therapy] are initial changes to libido and increased sexual satisfaction.” Low sexual satisfaction is not supported by research.
These factual errors would be enough by themselves to discredit a report like this. In this report, however, it is compounded by using it to make innocuous and important discussions between clinicians seem nefarious. For example, the report uses the claims of low sexual satisfaction to then paint a discussion between clinicians about teenagers understanding trans care as harmful and evidence of wrongdoing, even though the claim is both incorrect and completely decontextualized from the actual discussion.
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Misrepresentations of “Leaked Material”
One of the most prevalent tactics used by the document is the misrepresentation of “leaked material,” frequently obscuring the actual statements (which are relegated to the end of the document) with an editorialized interpretation. For instance, an editorialized description of an exchange in the WPATH forums suggests that “a patient was leaking prostate secretions through the urethra after vaginoplasty and found it bothersome.” However, upon examining the actual exchange, it is revealed that the patient was actually “noticing an ejaculate with orgasm through her urethra,” which significantly alters the context – directly contradicting the editorialized assertions made earlier that transgender individuals are often incapable of orgasm.
Editorialized claim states that “prostate fluids leak after vaginoplasty.” Actual “leak” shows this is due to orgasm.
Another misrepresentation of the leaked material states, “There is talk about detransition being just another step in a patient’s “gender journey.” The document mentions detransition 54 times, suggesting it is a frequent occurrence among transgender individuals. However, a closer examination of the actual WPATH leak reveals that it was not a clinician but the detransitioner themselves who described their experience as part of a “gender journey,” specifically noting they were detransitioning without regret – something that harms the editorialized report’s portrayal of regret among trans people.Additionally, it is disclosed that one doctor has encountered only four detransition cases in their practice across 25 years and 600 patients. This information is not directly presented in the editorialized report but is instead interpreted in a way that precludes readers from forming their own conclusions, which would contradict the report’s assertions.
Editorialized claim stating that providers treat detransition as a “gender journey.” The actual leak reveals this was language used by the patient to indicate no regret.
Another portion of the editorialized assertions includes a patient discovering “two liver masses” identified as hepatic adenomas, with doctors suggesting “the likely offending agents are the hormones.” However, this claim omits the fact that the patient was also taking “oral contraceptives,” and it fails to mention that hepatic adenomas are benign. These tumors are more commonly observed in individuals who use birth control pills and are described as “rare but benign epithelial tumors of the liver frequently associated with oral contraceptive pill use.” This omission likely explains why the phrase “and/or oral contraceptives” was excluded from the editorialized claim. Furthermore, this information, alongside a solitary post about a transgender individual developing cancer, has been inaccurately used to assert that WPATH privately considers hormone therapy a cause of cancer.
The editorialized claim mentions hepatic adenomas without mentioning they are benign and associated with birth control. The actual leak reveals “and/or oral contraceptives,” a phrase left out of the editorialized claim.
Conclusion
It is evident that numerous anti-trans organizations contributed to the creation of the report, laden with misinformation. According to one post, Stella O’Malley from Genspect, an organization which has previously teased a young trans girl testifying in front of a school board, played a role in its development. Similarly, Carrie Mendoza of FAIR In Medicine, which has received significant funding from anti-trans billionaire Joseph Edelman to combat trans healthcare, appears to have been involved as well. The report, editorialized to transform relatively innocuous discussions among clinicians about best practices and specific cases into a purported major medical scandal, relies on factually incorrect assertions and misrepresentations to build its case. This approach, however, is unconvincing upon closer scrutiny.Instead of uncovering wrongdoing, the report inadvertently highlights the actions of an organization engaging in what is a standard procedure for medical entities: remaining engaged with ethical care discussions and seeking collaborative advice for emerging questions.
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Updates: I previously included a quality of life study whose limitations make the results non-generalizable in similar ways to the criticized QOL studies of the author, and so I have removed it. I have replaced it with another one, as there are many to draw from.
This very quickly went to being a right vs left talk about abortion and even teaching girls on how not to become pregnant. Again I ask why it is so vitally important for the fundamentalist Christian maga right to prevent young girls learning how to keep from getting pregnant or learning sexual educations about their bodies !!!! Hugs. Scottie
Thank you Personnelente for the link. This is grand news for those who live in where ticks lurk. Like the article says, if we can do it for our pets, why not for humans. Hugs. Scottie
This is from corporate mainstream media. Let’s hope it ends the myth the anti-trans haters have been pushing, which has long been debunked. Maybe now they will stop spreading lies and learn that they have been wrong, stop hating trans people, and accept them. Oh well, I know, some people just can not accept change and new information / understanding. For those wanting to watch the video and better see the graph please go to the link. Best wishes. Hugs. Scottie
Most people are satisfied with life after transition. More than 9 in 10 respondents were at least a little more satisfied with their life after transitioning.
The National Center for Transgender Equality released early insights from its 2022 U.S. Transgender Survey, the largest survey of trans people in U.S. history.
A survey of more than 90,000 transgender people in the U.S. — the largest nationwide survey of the community ever — found that trans people continue to experience workplace and medical discrimination. However, the overwhelming majority of them still report more life satisfaction after having transitioned.
The National Center for Transgender Equality, or NCTE, one of the country’s largest trans rights organizations, released its 2022 U.S. Transgender Survey Early Insights report Wednesday after a yearslong delay due, in part, to the pandemic. The survey, the most comprehensive look to date at life for transgender people in the U.S., comes as hundreds of bills in the last three years have attempted to roll back trans rights, most often by restricting trans people’s access to transition-related health care and trans students’ abilities to play school sports.
“There’s still a drought of information available to lawmakers, the media and advocates regarding our experiences and our needs,” NCTE Executive Director Rodrigo Heng-Lehtinen said at a news conference Tuesday. “At best, we’re working in a vacuum of information. At worst, we’re combating dangerous misinformation being spread by anti-trans extremists. Without question, the misinformation and lack of understanding is underpinning these escalating legislative attacks against our community.”
A woman attends a rally in support of trans youth in schools on June 26, 2023, outside the Fayette County Public Schools central office in Lexington, Ky.Ryan C. Hermens / Lexington Herald-Leader via Getty Images file
The organization’s 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey had been the largest survey of trans people in the country, with nearly 28,000 respondents 18 and older, and it has been widely cited, including by Congress and the Supreme Court. Josie Caballero, the director of the survey, said the 2022 iteration more than tripled the number of respondents — with a total of 92,329 from every state and many U.S. territories — and was improved in a number of other ways. For example, it included 605 possible questions (though no respondent received all possible questions), up from 324 in the 2015 survey, and it included more than 8,000 respondents who were 16 and 17. However, study authors note that respondents who participated in the online survey were not drawn from a random sample and that though the sample is large, the findings might not be representative of all trans people.
Of the 84,170 adult respondents, 38% identified as nonbinary, 35% identified as transgender women, 25% identified as transgender men and 2% identified as cross-dressers.
Continued discrimination and mistreatment
Among the key findings released Wednesday, the survey found that trans people continue to report experiencing discrimination and mistreatment because of their gender identities and/or expressions.
More than one-third of adult respondents, or 34%, were experiencing poverty at the time of the survey, and 18% were unemployed. More than 1 in 10, or 11%, of respondents who had ever held jobs said they had been fired or forced to resign or had lost jobs or been laid off because of their gender identities or expressions. And, in line with previous survey findings, 30% of respondents had experienced homelessness in their lifetimes.
Of adult respondents who saw health care providers in the previous 12 months, 48% reported having had at least one negative experience because they were transgender, including being refused health care, having staff members use the incorrect pronouns for them or having providers use abusive language or be physically rough or abusive while treating them. Fear of mistreatment prevented 24% of respondents from seeing doctors when they needed it in the 12 months before the survey.
Many respondents also reported past mistreatment in school. Of adult respondents, 80% who were out or perceived as trans in K-12 experienced one or more forms of mistreatment, including verbal harassment, physical attacks, online bullying or being denied use of the restrooms or locker rooms that matched their gender identities. Of the 8,159 respondents who were 16 and 17, 60% reported such mistreatment.
Higher life satisfaction after transition
Despite those negative experiences, the vast majority of adult respondents, 79%, who lived at least some of the time in different genders from the ones they were assigned at birth reported that they were “a lot more satisfied” with their lives. An additional 15% reported they were “a little more satisfied.”
——————————————————————————————
Please see the chart at the link above. The written version I have included below.
Most people are satisfied with life after transition
More than 9 in 10 respondents were at least a little more satisfied with their life after transitioning.
This bar chart shows how respondents who had transitioned genders described their satisfaction with life after transitioning. 79% were a lot more satisfied, 15% a little more, 3% neither more or less, 1% a little less and 2% a lot less satisfied.
A lot more satisfied. 79%
A little more satisfied. 15%
Neither more or less satisfied. 3%
A little less satisfied. 1%
A lot less satisfied. 2%
Respondents who received transition-related medical care reported similarly high rates of satisfaction. Of respondents who were currently receiving hormone treatment, 84% said receiving such treatment for their gender identities/transitions made them “a lot more satisfied” with their lives, and 14% said it made them “a little more satisfied.” Just 1% said hormone treatment made them neither more nor less satisfied, and less than 1% said hormone treatment made them a lot less satisfied.
Of respondents who underwent at least one form of gender-affirming surgery, 88% said it made them “a lot more satisfied,” and 9% said it made them a little more satisfied. Less than 2% total said surgery made them a little less or a lot less satisfied.
“That might seem obvious to some of us that of course if you’re transgender and you need transition-related health care, of course your life is better off when you get that health care,” Heng-Lehtinen said Tuesday. “But it’s really important to have actually asked people and found out objectively what is their experience, because transition-related health care is otherwise so under attack in state legislatures around the country.”
Effects of anti-trans legislation
In the last three years, 23 states have restricted gender-affirming health care — including puberty blockers, hormone therapy and surgeries — for minors and, in a few cases, adults, according to the Movement Advancement Project, an LGBTQ think tank. Half of states have banned trans student-athletes from playing school sports on the teams that align with their gender identities rather than their assigned sexes at birth, while 10 states have passed laws restricting what bathrooms trans people can use in schools, colleges and/or government-owned buildings.
Nearly half of respondents to the latest U.S. Transgender Survey said they had thought about moving to other states because their state governments considered or passed such laws that target transgender people, and 5% — about 4,600 people — said they had actually moved to other states because of such legislation.
The top 10 states where trans respondents most often reported moving from were, in alphabetical order, Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia.
The state of trans rights across the country does not necessarily reflect what trans people are experiencing at home with their families. Of adult respondents, 67% reported that their immediate families were either supportive or very supportive, while 22% reported they were neither supportive nor unsupportive and 12% reported they were either unsupportive or very unsupportive.
Of 16- and 17-year-old respondents, 44% reported that their families were either supportive or very supportive, while 28% reported that they were neither supportive nor unsupportive and 29% reported they were unsupportive or very unsupportive.
“It’s important to see that many trans people do have supportive families, since we often hear and see otherwise,” Sandy James, one of the report’s authors, said at Tuesday’s news conference.
Heng-Lehtinen said the new data will revolutionize the field of transgender advocacy.
“I am confident that the results of the 2022 survey will not only serve as a crucial tool for education, research and policy, but it will catalyze a paradigm shift for the movement for transgender advocacy by empowering advocates with robust and current data regarding our needs and experiences,” he said.
Do 80% of transgender kids grow out of gender dysphoria? Do 80-90% of trans people desist? Here, we look at the Desistance Myth using an informed understanding of Gender Dysphoria and its diagnostic criteria in the DSM 5, the defunct diagnosis of Gender Identity Disorder from the DSM 4, and recent research from reputable medical institutions. And yes, we analyze the famous Thomas Steensma study (2013) and detransition rates overall.
And this scammer con artist who has been accused of falsifying the results of a “vaccine injury risk” study along with being debunked by the large medical organizations, is taking the political way forward rather than protect the children by telling parents the best thing they can do is get their child vaccinated. If you are anti-vaccine think about this, the only children at risk are the unvaccinated! What does that tell you! Hugs. Scottie
While measles cases are popping up across the country, nowhere has been hit as hard as Manatee Bay Elementary School in Weston, just west of Fort Lauderdale. There, a single case reported Thursday spiraled into a half-dozen infected students by Tuesday evening. John J. Sullivan, a spokesperson for Broward County Public Schools, said the school underwent a deep cleaning and was safe for vaccinated students to continue going to class this week.
Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo wrote a letter Tuesday that urged the parents of unvaccinated students to keep them home until the school is confirmed to be rid of measles entirely. He said the infectious period would likely be over by March 7, and that the district would provide materials to keep the students learning while they’re physically away from school.
Read the full article. According to school officials, around 11% of the students have not gotten the traditional childhood vaccinations. Ladapo, as most of you surely know, is infamously anti-vax and has been accused of falsifying the results of a “vaccine injury risk” study.
FL Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo issues deeply irresponsible guidance to community hit with measles outbreak: notes "high likelihood of infection" for unvaxxed kids but leaves it to parents to decide what to do. Reminder: ~1 in 5 who get measles will be hospitalized. pic.twitter.com/QRzKTRgLFu
FL surgeon gen says unvaccinated kids can continue to go to school.
This is *unprecedented* Unvaccinated kids need to stay home for 21 days during an outbreak. Why? A very real chance of infection, hospitalization, death or serious damage to the immune system.
Florida demon sperm "Surgeon" general who helped turn state into a petri dish of pestilence & ignorance defers to parents on if kids should return to school as measles outbreak hits a 6th unvaxxed child at school where 11% are unvaxxed. Read more at: https://t.co/7uQQlhZyUG
Measles is mainly airborne – a “deep cleaning” is theater, not protection. A sane state would forbid unvaxxed kids at school, but of course a sane state would have no unvaxxed kids except for the very rare ones who can’t tolerate or respond to vaccinations.
Not only is Ladapo’s letter to parents full of very bad advice (like deferring to parents to decide whether or not to expose their unvaccinated children to a virus that can be deadly, or allow those children who may already be infected to spread it to others at school), it’s appalling that nowhere in his letter does he urge the parents of unvaccinated students to get them vaccinated. How does this guy still have a medical license?
“until the school is confirmed to be rid of measles entirely”
I’m curious, since he doesn’t trust scientists to say what will help fight measles, who does he trust to say the school is confirmed to be rid of it? An exorcist?
Scottie's Playtime 