Not a "she"! While I want to be respectful, I dont want to be erased as a woman. Using their language is part of the reality-defying persuassion they insist on.
I'm with the Babylon Bee. I think this Levine guy is Man of the Year.
(Two cheers for "USA Today", which ran out out of worthwhile women to include as Women of the Year and so was forced - with the utmost reluctance, of course - to reach for men.)
Lisa, I admire your work, but why not just use the last name in place of pronouns if you don’t want to offend Levine and other trans-identified people? Yes, it’s a bit awkward but at least it’s a neutral stance.
While many on the right (including me) tended to parody and mock the ascension of Pennsylvania's failed State Health Director, Dr. "Rachel" (Richard) Levine, to Assistant Secretary of Health in the Biden Administration, we took our eye off the ball. Those of us in PA at the time suffered through her and then-Gov. Tom Wolfe's worst-in-the-nation pandemic management, including forcing Covid-positive seniors back into nursing homes, while Levin moved "her" mother out. Levine's advocacy to force trans surgeries at any age, often without parental approval, is pure evil. This execrable diversity hire must removed from the public sphere as fast as possible.
Big pharma, the medical industry. "Gender affirming care" is now big business , with hundreds of "clinics" in the U.S. They are sadly creating medical patients for life: drugs, surgeries all for the lie that humans can actually change their sex, which they never can. Two biological sexes, female and male, are binary and immutable. That is reality and fact. Anything else is illusion, delusion, fantasy and a good dose of social contagion thrown in.
I don't think science can answer the question definitively. Is it really science to say that at 17 years and 364 days a procedure is ill-advised, but the next day it becomes acceptable?
I think she's trying to get to the right answer for the most people possible. She isn't abandoning the science. She is simply acknowledging its limitations on decisions that affect real people's lives.
These are decisions that need to be made by the people most intimately involved, especially the parents and hopefully they can count on getting the best science-based data to help in their guiding their decision process. It seems WPATH is doing their best to provide them with that evidence and data. And we must remember that it will always be complicated. But I hope we can all agree that GAC is appropriate for some people, and, therefore, outright bans on GAC for people under 18 are wrong.
I have a nephew who would've been severely harmed from such a ban. We need to consider people like him in these decisions.
Sorry but do we affirm the anorexic is obese or the mentally ill that they are Jesus? Your nephew might be transing the gay away or he might have been exposed to some deranged porn. It’s a mental disease.
His conservative parents, after much discussion and counseling, decided to allow him to socially transition at about 13 or 14. Before they did, he was angry, depressed and failing in school. After the transition, he became happy, engaged and is thriving in school. He is in the top ten in his class of 800 students. He is a rising star on the debate team. At about 15 he started taking testosterone. The family knows this was the right decision for him and for the family. Maybe you don't know as much as you think you do about this issue.
Then she will be getting major health problems very shortly sadly if not already. 4000% increase in young women at Tavistock- now closed- but was largest supplier of hormones and trans surgery in the UK. This is a social contagion that has serious health reprocussions especially for a growing in both mind and body young woman. I am sorry it has impacted your family. https://www.peaktrans.org/trans-men-becoming-postmenopausal-in-their-20s/
No- I have always voted Democrat and believe in science and vaccinations. Dawkins, Heyling, Wright , Hoover are four scientists who have pushed back and their careers have suffered you can check out. Gender Ideology is a belief system that is anti-women and anti-gay that sterilizes and makes young people medical patients for life- many of them on the autism spectrum. It’s one of the biggest medical scandals in modern history.
Well, no, we cannot agree that GAC is appropriate for some people. We simply don't know. And, that is the point of the story.
No long-term studies demonstrate that GAC for children and adolescents leads to better mental health outcomes. A recent comprehensive independent review of clinical studies commissioned by Florida (May 2022) found that the evidence in support of GAC was of “low” and “very low” certainty because of small sample sizes, biased samples, limited follow-up, and inconsistent outcome measures. The Florida evidence review concluded that “[d]ue to the limitations in the body of evidence, there is great uncertainty about the effects of puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and surgeries in young people with gender dysphoria.”
Several recent European systematic reviews of evidence on GAC came to similar conclusions.
Public health authorities in the UK, Finland, and Sweden all concluded that there is insufficient
evidence to support the claim that either puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones provide mental health benefits for gender dysphoric children and adolescents. The Swedish health authority, for example, came to the stark conclusion that “the risks of puberty suppressing treatment withGnRH-analogues and gender-affirming hormonal treatment currently outweigh the possible benefits, and that the treatments should be offered only in exceptional cases.”
WPATH has been around since 1979. They are the world's foremost authority on the subject. And they strongly disagree with the Cass Report. Their Standards of Care recommendations are thoroughly grounded in science.
Part of their public statement:
"In contrast to what the Cass Review recommends, WPATH and USPATH firmly stand
by the Standards of Care for the Health of Transgender and Gender Diverse People –
version 8, which was published in 2022—and based on far more systematic reviews
that the Cass Review—in collaboration with The School of Evidence-based Practice
Center at Johns Hopkins University and considers that the (research and consensusbased) evidence is such to recommend that providing medical treatment including
puberty-blocking medication and hormone therapy is helpful and often life-saving for
young TGD people, while withholding such treatment may lead to increased gender
dysphoria and adversely affect psychological functioning. Of note, many countries
have reacted critically regarding the Cass Review, disagreeing with its unfounded
medical opinion to severely limit the use of puberty-blocking medication and
hormone therapy for TGD young people. These countries include Canada, the
Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and many states in the United
States. In Germany, a new guideline on adolescent transgender care has been
drafted (in collaboration with Austria and Switzerland) and is currently under review
by 27 professional societies. As drafted, this guideline does not restrict puberty
blockers and is in broad accordance with the WPATH SOC8 recommendations in its
adolescent chapter. The Cass Review appears to be an outlier, ignoring more than
three decades of clinical experience in this area as well as existing evidence showing
the benefits of hormonal interventions on the mental health and quality of life of
You are absolutely correct, I’m not an expert and don’t claim to be. Therefore, I must rely on scientific research and explanation, of which there is a paucity in this topic.
You can help me by explaining the precise mechanistic process by which a mood disorder can be cured by permanent disfigurement of God’s (or nature’s if you prefer) physical form.
No one has any expertise in this area, because men cannot become females.
There are zoologists who specialize in certain amphibians changing sex due to population shifts - actual science.
The cryptozoologists trying to find Bigfoot and Nessy have more scientific foundation than some dude in a dress claiming male humans can become female humans. Yes, it’s perfectly logical to argue that some men prefer wearing a dress rather than jeans (tongue-in-cheek, that’s why Scotland is part of the United Kingdom and only gets recognized at anachronistic festivals). That makes them transvestites - they trade in their shorts for skirts, not their balls for ovaries.
If your balls get lopped off, there are plenty of terms that apply (gelding, eunuch, ox, etc.), none of which is “woman.”
WPATH (and you by posting their statement) are lying. Sweden, France, Denmark, Germany, England, Wales, Scotland, Netherlands, Scotland, and Belgium have all taken action to greatly restrict puberty blockers and other gender-denial care. Additionally, WPATH internal emails have just dropped proving they forbade the release of their most recent research review findings because it DID NOT SUPPORT WPATH SOC.
They are not a lobbying organization. Nor are they masquerading.
"The World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), formerly the Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association (HBIGDA), is a professional organization devoted to the understanding and treatment of gender identity and gender dysphoria, and creating standardized treatment for transgender and gender variant people. WPATH was founded in September 1979 by endocrinologist and sexologist Harry Benjamin, with the goal of creating an international community of professionals specializing in treating gender variance."
There may not be an organization in the world that has done more research on this issue.
I agree that they may have done alot of research. but just as the cigarette companies of the past buried their evidence of harm - WPATH has a bias for what data they'll share. And this is why I refer to them as a lobby group.
in 2020 WPATH asked John Hopkins University to conduct a systematic review of existing research on cross-sex medical treatments, but then silenced the researchers from publishing their results when they found little to no evidence supporting these treatments for children and adolescents. In lawsuits currently before the courts, documents are being unearthed that show WPATH is more interested in activism than evidence-based care when it comes to children and adolescents.
Hang in there Matt! My daughters' child has gender dysphoria (age 6 and has been adamant about such for about two years). I have been reading a ton of stuff and trying to get up the curve. Actually just read the WPATH 8 yesterday (most of it). It is well reasoned and does not say thou shall do this, but instead indicates without huge amounts of scientific data that which is their best opinion. The many professionals behind it do NOT have an agenda IMO. There are many (even trained professionals) that will say their recommendations are hogwash, but I don't think so.
I am in my late 60's and remember too well playing "smear the queer" on the playground as a child. Sixty some years later I feel bad about that as I have numerous friends and other acquaintances that are gay, and I don't think it is an illness of some sort. And they deserve to be happy and loved. I wonder if 60 years from now we will have figured out the gender issue?
I remember playing that game, too. I remember how calling someone a fag was the worst thing you could say. You sound like a good man. I think we're on our way to figuring it out. I don't think it will take sixty years. The current young generation already understands.
Sorry, didn’t finish — it’s complicated a deserves compassionate, thoughtful responses, not some of the vociferous hate I see here. I’m quite surprised that readers of FP have such a degree of intolerance. I myself have doubts about trans treatment for minors, but come on folks, these guys have family members dealing with difficult questions. Let’s show some respect.
Dr. Levine has fathered children and knows he is male. And yet, to exhibit his cold, cold heart, he doesn't care that so called "gender affirming" care will sterilize children who have puberty blockers, will take away the female pleasure of breast feeding for the growing number of girls having double mastectomies because they are being lied to by politicians, the medical, media and educational institutions. The lie is that they can change sex and thus escape femaleness like a house on fire: many girls seeking "transition" have been sexually abused and have underlying mental health issues, as have the boys doing the same. The US health system is such a mess that all the medical associations/institutions support this insanity. Look to the UK Cass Review for a health system that is correcting its horrific mistakes in pushing "gender affirming care." The Cass Reviews conclusion was, basically, "gender affirming care" does nothing to alleviate these kids confusions, delusions and mental health. In the US, unlike Sweden, Norway, France, Denmark etc.,who are following its recommendations, the thorough Cass Review is ignored and lied about. Instead, the discredited WPATH (see the WPATH files) is still cited. Do the supporters of "gender identity" ideology and "affirmative care" want to safeguard our children? Or are they using them for ideological purposes?
"The puberty blocker trial previously announced by NHS England should be part of a programme of research which also evaluates outcomes of psychosocial interventions and masculinising/ feminising hormones."
"The option to provide masculinising/feminising hormones from age 16 is available, but the Review recommends extreme caution. There should be a clear clinical rationale for providing hormones at this stage rather than waiting until an individual reaches 18. Every case considered for medical treatment should be discussed at a national Multi- Disciplinary Team (MDT)."
I think a better note is in the summary, where it says:
The rationale for early puberty suppression remains unclear, with weak evidence regarding the impact on gender dysphoria, mental or psychosocial health. The effect on cognitive and psychosexual development remains unknown.
That means essentially what Karen Bee claims, at least systemically. The main issue with all of this is that such treatment may help certain individuals, while broad application is not supported by the evidence. There are cases, such as those reflected in research at https://doi.org/10.1101/253310 and https://doi.org/10.1186/s13293-015-0022-1, where there is a biological basis for gender dysphoria, but those kids are atypical. The point is: care needs to be individualized not generalized; the government (on all sides) really needs to stay out of it; medical providers should be held liable for outcomes according to an evidence based standard of care.
WPATH disagrees strongly, for science-based reasons.
In contrast to what the Cass Review recommends, WPATH and USPATH firmly stand
by the Standards of Care for the Health of Transgender and Gender Diverse People –
version 8, which was published in 2022—and based on far more systematic reviews
that the Cass Review—in collaboration with The School of Evidence-based Practice
Center at Johns Hopkins University and considers that the (research and consensusbased) evidence is such to recommend that providing medical treatment including
puberty-blocking medication and hormone therapy is helpful and often life-saving for
young TGD people, while withholding such treatment may lead to increased gender
dysphoria and adversely affect psychological functioning. Of note, many countries
have reacted critically regarding the Cass Review, disagreeing with its unfounded
medical opinion to severely limit the use of puberty-blocking medication and
hormone therapy for TGD young people. These countries include Canada, the
Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and many states in the United
States. In Germany, a new guideline on adolescent transgender care has been
drafted (in collaboration with Austria and Switzerland) and is currently under review
by 27 professional societies. As drafted, this guideline does not restrict puberty
blockers and is in broad accordance with the WPATH SOC8 recommendations in its
adolescent chapter. The Cass Review appears to be an outlier, ignoring more than
three decades of clinical experience in this area as well as existing evidence showing
the benefits of hormonal interventions on the mental health and quality of life of
I remember back in 2011 how all of this wacko stuff only existed on Tumblr. Cis, heteronormative, all of these weirdo terms to describe normal people being used.
Only a dozen years later and the Overton window has shifted massively, and now we're quite literally discussing sex changes for 11 year olds. These people are groomers.
Of course there is nothing evidence based about any of this. It doesn’t even pass a test of common sense. You can’t drive a car or a tattoo but we’ll let you remove body parts.
There is a certain viciousness that this is in keeping with. I’ve only ever had one compliant filed against my license to practice as a mental health counselor. It was after refusing to sign off on someone’s top surgery when they couldn’t articulate what it was about being boy they found appealing. I also disputed the assertion by this person that research proved the rate of detransition was zero.
Luckily, the compliant was immediately dismissed because I didn’t do anything wrong. I’m mot legally required to agree with everything a client says and wants. But still, try to push the brakes on any of this and people come for you. So, i’m not surprised that there is political interference in the guidelines. All I can is some huge lawsuits are coming in the future.
I have no musical talent and did it all wrong, everything went awry and the sailors stayed out until morning reveille (maybe I DID do it right!), but the fact remains that it is absolutely possible to drive a tattoo.
Richard Levine is no woman. Him becoming one is absolutely not possible.
Good for you. Detransitioners are the ones who can tell us truly about the great harms being done to children and youth by "gender affirming" care, and their numbers and lawsuits are growing.
First do harm, eh Admiral?
He’s not a she
Not a "she"! While I want to be respectful, I dont want to be erased as a woman. Using their language is part of the reality-defying persuassion they insist on.
He’s not acting based on the rhetoric he’s hearing from DC. He’s acting based on a need to support his divergent lifestyle choice.
Yes, choice.
She is also not a "she". Everyone knows it. Even you cowards at the Free Press know it.
The Democratic Party of America, DELENDA EST!
I'm with the Babylon Bee. I think this Levine guy is Man of the Year.
(Two cheers for "USA Today", which ran out out of worthwhile women to include as Women of the Year and so was forced - with the utmost reluctance, of course - to reach for men.)
Lisa, I admire your work, but why not just use the last name in place of pronouns if you don’t want to offend Levine and other trans-identified people? Yes, it’s a bit awkward but at least it’s a neutral stance.
While many on the right (including me) tended to parody and mock the ascension of Pennsylvania's failed State Health Director, Dr. "Rachel" (Richard) Levine, to Assistant Secretary of Health in the Biden Administration, we took our eye off the ball. Those of us in PA at the time suffered through her and then-Gov. Tom Wolfe's worst-in-the-nation pandemic management, including forcing Covid-positive seniors back into nursing homes, while Levin moved "her" mother out. Levine's advocacy to force trans surgeries at any age, often without parental approval, is pure evil. This execrable diversity hire must removed from the public sphere as fast as possible.
Stop with the falsehoods. This is a man. He is not a "she." He is not a woman.
Words matter, and the womanface needs to stop.
Who is paying to push this?
Big pharma, the medical industry. "Gender affirming care" is now big business , with hundreds of "clinics" in the U.S. They are sadly creating medical patients for life: drugs, surgeries all for the lie that humans can actually change their sex, which they never can. Two biological sexes, female and male, are binary and immutable. That is reality and fact. Anything else is illusion, delusion, fantasy and a good dose of social contagion thrown in.
I don't think science can answer the question definitively. Is it really science to say that at 17 years and 364 days a procedure is ill-advised, but the next day it becomes acceptable?
I think she's trying to get to the right answer for the most people possible. She isn't abandoning the science. She is simply acknowledging its limitations on decisions that affect real people's lives.
These are decisions that need to be made by the people most intimately involved, especially the parents and hopefully they can count on getting the best science-based data to help in their guiding their decision process. It seems WPATH is doing their best to provide them with that evidence and data. And we must remember that it will always be complicated. But I hope we can all agree that GAC is appropriate for some people, and, therefore, outright bans on GAC for people under 18 are wrong.
I have a nephew who would've been severely harmed from such a ban. We need to consider people like him in these decisions.
*he
Sorry but do we affirm the anorexic is obese or the mentally ill that they are Jesus? Your nephew might be transing the gay away or he might have been exposed to some deranged porn. It’s a mental disease.
His conservative parents, after much discussion and counseling, decided to allow him to socially transition at about 13 or 14. Before they did, he was angry, depressed and failing in school. After the transition, he became happy, engaged and is thriving in school. He is in the top ten in his class of 800 students. He is a rising star on the debate team. At about 15 he started taking testosterone. The family knows this was the right decision for him and for the family. Maybe you don't know as much as you think you do about this issue.
Then she will be getting major health problems very shortly sadly if not already. 4000% increase in young women at Tavistock- now closed- but was largest supplier of hormones and trans surgery in the UK. This is a social contagion that has serious health reprocussions especially for a growing in both mind and body young woman. I am sorry it has impacted your family. https://www.peaktrans.org/trans-men-becoming-postmenopausal-in-their-20s/
Are you also a believer in Ivermectin, and did you not get the Covid vaccine because you thought it was dangerous?
The real social contagion is the gob smacking ignorance spreading through right-wing social media. You people will believe anything.
No- I have always voted Democrat and believe in science and vaccinations. Dawkins, Heyling, Wright , Hoover are four scientists who have pushed back and their careers have suffered you can check out. Gender Ideology is a belief system that is anti-women and anti-gay that sterilizes and makes young people medical patients for life- many of them on the autism spectrum. It’s one of the biggest medical scandals in modern history.
Wait. I missed that on first reading. You are a skeptic about the vaccines?
I see. Then you don't believe in science. You are a conspiracy theorist who doesn't believe the scientific community as a whole.
So you're only confused about the fact that there are trans and nonbinary people, and there always have been.
It's not an ideology. Only someone who doesn't know a trans person intimately would say that.
Carole Hooven I meant
Well, no, we cannot agree that GAC is appropriate for some people. We simply don't know. And, that is the point of the story.
No long-term studies demonstrate that GAC for children and adolescents leads to better mental health outcomes. A recent comprehensive independent review of clinical studies commissioned by Florida (May 2022) found that the evidence in support of GAC was of “low” and “very low” certainty because of small sample sizes, biased samples, limited follow-up, and inconsistent outcome measures. The Florida evidence review concluded that “[d]ue to the limitations in the body of evidence, there is great uncertainty about the effects of puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and surgeries in young people with gender dysphoria.”
Several recent European systematic reviews of evidence on GAC came to similar conclusions.
Public health authorities in the UK, Finland, and Sweden all concluded that there is insufficient
evidence to support the claim that either puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones provide mental health benefits for gender dysphoric children and adolescents. The Swedish health authority, for example, came to the stark conclusion that “the risks of puberty suppressing treatment withGnRH-analogues and gender-affirming hormonal treatment currently outweigh the possible benefits, and that the treatments should be offered only in exceptional cases.”
Clearly you have no expertise in this area.
WPATH has been around since 1979. They are the world's foremost authority on the subject. And they strongly disagree with the Cass Report. Their Standards of Care recommendations are thoroughly grounded in science.
Part of their public statement:
"In contrast to what the Cass Review recommends, WPATH and USPATH firmly stand
by the Standards of Care for the Health of Transgender and Gender Diverse People –
version 8, which was published in 2022—and based on far more systematic reviews
that the Cass Review—in collaboration with The School of Evidence-based Practice
Center at Johns Hopkins University and considers that the (research and consensusbased) evidence is such to recommend that providing medical treatment including
puberty-blocking medication and hormone therapy is helpful and often life-saving for
young TGD people, while withholding such treatment may lead to increased gender
dysphoria and adversely affect psychological functioning. Of note, many countries
have reacted critically regarding the Cass Review, disagreeing with its unfounded
medical opinion to severely limit the use of puberty-blocking medication and
hormone therapy for TGD young people. These countries include Canada, the
Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and many states in the United
States. In Germany, a new guideline on adolescent transgender care has been
drafted (in collaboration with Austria and Switzerland) and is currently under review
by 27 professional societies. As drafted, this guideline does not restrict puberty
blockers and is in broad accordance with the WPATH SOC8 recommendations in its
adolescent chapter. The Cass Review appears to be an outlier, ignoring more than
three decades of clinical experience in this area as well as existing evidence showing
the benefits of hormonal interventions on the mental health and quality of life of
gender diverse young people (1-9)."
You are absolutely correct, I’m not an expert and don’t claim to be. Therefore, I must rely on scientific research and explanation, of which there is a paucity in this topic.
You can help me by explaining the precise mechanistic process by which a mood disorder can be cured by permanent disfigurement of God’s (or nature’s if you prefer) physical form.
No one has any expertise in this area, because men cannot become females.
There are zoologists who specialize in certain amphibians changing sex due to population shifts - actual science.
The cryptozoologists trying to find Bigfoot and Nessy have more scientific foundation than some dude in a dress claiming male humans can become female humans. Yes, it’s perfectly logical to argue that some men prefer wearing a dress rather than jeans (tongue-in-cheek, that’s why Scotland is part of the United Kingdom and only gets recognized at anachronistic festivals). That makes them transvestites - they trade in their shorts for skirts, not their balls for ovaries.
If your balls get lopped off, there are plenty of terms that apply (gelding, eunuch, ox, etc.), none of which is “woman.”
WPATH (and you by posting their statement) are lying. Sweden, France, Denmark, Germany, England, Wales, Scotland, Netherlands, Scotland, and Belgium have all taken action to greatly restrict puberty blockers and other gender-denial care. Additionally, WPATH internal emails have just dropped proving they forbade the release of their most recent research review findings because it DID NOT SUPPORT WPATH SOC.
WPATH is a lobby group masquerading as a health organization.
by all means, support and help your nephew - but find neutral, evidence-based orgs to inform your decisions
They are not a lobbying organization. Nor are they masquerading.
"The World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), formerly the Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association (HBIGDA), is a professional organization devoted to the understanding and treatment of gender identity and gender dysphoria, and creating standardized treatment for transgender and gender variant people. WPATH was founded in September 1979 by endocrinologist and sexologist Harry Benjamin, with the goal of creating an international community of professionals specializing in treating gender variance."
There may not be an organization in the world that has done more research on this issue.
I agree that they may have done alot of research. but just as the cigarette companies of the past buried their evidence of harm - WPATH has a bias for what data they'll share. And this is why I refer to them as a lobby group.
in 2020 WPATH asked John Hopkins University to conduct a systematic review of existing research on cross-sex medical treatments, but then silenced the researchers from publishing their results when they found little to no evidence supporting these treatments for children and adolescents. In lawsuits currently before the courts, documents are being unearthed that show WPATH is more interested in activism than evidence-based care when it comes to children and adolescents.
Can you cite your sources?
certainly:
https://donoharmmedicine.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/email.pdf?
in particular "we have been having issues with this sponsor trying to restrict our ability to publish"
https://open.substack.com/pub/bariweiss/p/how-young-is-too-young-for-sterilization?r=505il&utm_medium=ios
That's an opinion piece by someone who is biased against GAC.
Hang in there Matt! My daughters' child has gender dysphoria (age 6 and has been adamant about such for about two years). I have been reading a ton of stuff and trying to get up the curve. Actually just read the WPATH 8 yesterday (most of it). It is well reasoned and does not say thou shall do this, but instead indicates without huge amounts of scientific data that which is their best opinion. The many professionals behind it do NOT have an agenda IMO. There are many (even trained professionals) that will say their recommendations are hogwash, but I don't think so.
I am in my late 60's and remember too well playing "smear the queer" on the playground as a child. Sixty some years later I feel bad about that as I have numerous friends and other acquaintances that are gay, and I don't think it is an illness of some sort. And they deserve to be happy and loved. I wonder if 60 years from now we will have figured out the gender issue?
I remember playing that game, too. I remember how calling someone a fag was the worst thing you could say. You sound like a good man. I think we're on our way to figuring it out. I don't think it will take sixty years. The current young generation already understands.
Sorry, didn’t finish — it’s complicated a deserves compassionate, thoughtful responses, not some of the vociferous hate I see here. I’m quite surprised that readers of FP have such a degree of intolerance. I myself have doubts about trans treatment for minors, but come on folks, these guys have family members dealing with difficult questions. Let’s show some respect.
I just want to add my voice that this is a complicated issue
Dr. Levine has fathered children and knows he is male. And yet, to exhibit his cold, cold heart, he doesn't care that so called "gender affirming" care will sterilize children who have puberty blockers, will take away the female pleasure of breast feeding for the growing number of girls having double mastectomies because they are being lied to by politicians, the medical, media and educational institutions. The lie is that they can change sex and thus escape femaleness like a house on fire: many girls seeking "transition" have been sexually abused and have underlying mental health issues, as have the boys doing the same. The US health system is such a mess that all the medical associations/institutions support this insanity. Look to the UK Cass Review for a health system that is correcting its horrific mistakes in pushing "gender affirming care." The Cass Reviews conclusion was, basically, "gender affirming care" does nothing to alleviate these kids confusions, delusions and mental health. In the US, unlike Sweden, Norway, France, Denmark etc.,who are following its recommendations, the thorough Cass Review is ignored and lied about. Instead, the discredited WPATH (see the WPATH files) is still cited. Do the supporters of "gender identity" ideology and "affirmative care" want to safeguard our children? Or are they using them for ideological purposes?
"The Cass Reviews conclusion was, basically, "gender affirming care" does nothing to alleviate these kids confusions, delusions and mental health."
That is not true. You need to read the recommendations again.
Here is the report for those who want to see for themselves: https://cass.independent-review.uk/home/publications/final-report/
From The Overview of Recommendations:
"The puberty blocker trial previously announced by NHS England should be part of a programme of research which also evaluates outcomes of psychosocial interventions and masculinising/ feminising hormones."
"The option to provide masculinising/feminising hormones from age 16 is available, but the Review recommends extreme caution. There should be a clear clinical rationale for providing hormones at this stage rather than waiting until an individual reaches 18. Every case considered for medical treatment should be discussed at a national Multi- Disciplinary Team (MDT)."
I think a better note is in the summary, where it says:
The rationale for early puberty suppression remains unclear, with weak evidence regarding the impact on gender dysphoria, mental or psychosocial health. The effect on cognitive and psychosexual development remains unknown.
That means essentially what Karen Bee claims, at least systemically. The main issue with all of this is that such treatment may help certain individuals, while broad application is not supported by the evidence. There are cases, such as those reflected in research at https://doi.org/10.1101/253310 and https://doi.org/10.1186/s13293-015-0022-1, where there is a biological basis for gender dysphoria, but those kids are atypical. The point is: care needs to be individualized not generalized; the government (on all sides) really needs to stay out of it; medical providers should be held liable for outcomes according to an evidence based standard of care.
WPATH disagrees strongly, for science-based reasons.
In contrast to what the Cass Review recommends, WPATH and USPATH firmly stand
by the Standards of Care for the Health of Transgender and Gender Diverse People –
version 8, which was published in 2022—and based on far more systematic reviews
that the Cass Review—in collaboration with The School of Evidence-based Practice
Center at Johns Hopkins University and considers that the (research and consensusbased) evidence is such to recommend that providing medical treatment including
puberty-blocking medication and hormone therapy is helpful and often life-saving for
young TGD people, while withholding such treatment may lead to increased gender
dysphoria and adversely affect psychological functioning. Of note, many countries
have reacted critically regarding the Cass Review, disagreeing with its unfounded
medical opinion to severely limit the use of puberty-blocking medication and
hormone therapy for TGD young people. These countries include Canada, the
Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and many states in the United
States. In Germany, a new guideline on adolescent transgender care has been
drafted (in collaboration with Austria and Switzerland) and is currently under review
by 27 professional societies. As drafted, this guideline does not restrict puberty
blockers and is in broad accordance with the WPATH SOC8 recommendations in its
adolescent chapter. The Cass Review appears to be an outlier, ignoring more than
three decades of clinical experience in this area as well as existing evidence showing
the benefits of hormonal interventions on the mental health and quality of life of
gender diverse young people (1-9).
I remember back in 2011 how all of this wacko stuff only existed on Tumblr. Cis, heteronormative, all of these weirdo terms to describe normal people being used.
Only a dozen years later and the Overton window has shifted massively, and now we're quite literally discussing sex changes for 11 year olds. These people are groomers.
-----> Dr. Rachel Levine was not following the science; she was acting ‘based on the rhetoric she is hearing in D.C.’
HE. HE. HE. HE. HE. (And I'm not laughing!)
People here in D.C. are so whacked out. It's a contest to hold the most deranged luxury beliefs.
Of course there is nothing evidence based about any of this. It doesn’t even pass a test of common sense. You can’t drive a car or a tattoo but we’ll let you remove body parts.
There is a certain viciousness that this is in keeping with. I’ve only ever had one compliant filed against my license to practice as a mental health counselor. It was after refusing to sign off on someone’s top surgery when they couldn’t articulate what it was about being boy they found appealing. I also disputed the assertion by this person that research proved the rate of detransition was zero.
Luckily, the compliant was immediately dismissed because I didn’t do anything wrong. I’m mot legally required to agree with everything a client says and wants. But still, try to push the brakes on any of this and people come for you. So, i’m not surprised that there is political interference in the guidelines. All I can is some huge lawsuits are coming in the future.
I drove a tattoo, once. It’s definitely possible.
I have no musical talent and did it all wrong, everything went awry and the sailors stayed out until morning reveille (maybe I DID do it right!), but the fact remains that it is absolutely possible to drive a tattoo.
Richard Levine is no woman. Him becoming one is absolutely not possible.
Good for you. Detransitioners are the ones who can tell us truly about the great harms being done to children and youth by "gender affirming" care, and their numbers and lawsuits are growing.
Let's call on everyone, especially the press, to stop referring to males as "she, her". It's a start . . . a good start.