You wrote, "Today I am speaking out. I am doing so knowing how toxic the public conversation is around this highly contentious issue—and the ways that my testimony might be misused. I am doing so knowing that I am putting myself at serious personal and professional risk."
From the bottom of our hearts, thank you. Thank you for taking the …
You wrote, "Today I am speaking out. I am doing so knowing how toxic the public conversation is around this highly contentious issue—and the ways that my testimony might be misused. I am doing so knowing that I am putting myself at serious personal and professional risk."
From the bottom of our hearts, thank you. Thank you for taking the risk to write this. What's happening now is insane and surely one of the lowest points our culture has ever stooped to.
I think that what you've just said will make a difference.
This may be the absolute lowest point our cutlure has ever reached...lynching, gay-bashing, immigrant-bashing, slavery, et al--despicable all, but none of them seem quite as despicable as the institutionalized gender mutilation of children. Literally doing Satan's work. And our current president is applauding it.
I do abhor all those evils, and said so. But maybe "evil" is like Dante's notion of Hell, there are multiple "circles," or levels, of it...and for me, the one marked "crimes against children" is the worst. How about you?
You certainly did, and recognizing these evils is vital. Of our current crop of evils, totally agree with the transgenderization of children being the worst. Weighed against historical evils, I think we will have to see how quickly we end this particular circle to judge. Slavery continues today around the world and includes crimes against children. This is in our own country as well, courtesy of our southern "border". For those caught in any evil against children, speaking out continues to be the only way to fight it.
I just had a thought. We have been waiting to spay our pup until she had her first heat, to be certain she has achieved maximum bone development, among other body system development (her breed is susceptible to fractures). She is now in her first heat. It came to me, as I was dialing the vet to schedule her procedure, how can we be so careful of our dog, and yet our society has become so careless of our children that we are spaying and neutering (chemical or surgical) before they have reached the same level of physical development as my puppy?
I am by no means minimizing the horrors of lynching, just pointing out that both slavery and lynching were actively opposed by large segments of society...not encouraged and celebrated as a Good Thing, as is pediatric genital mutilation.
By the way: few captured runaway slaves would be lynched. They were valuable property and usually were hunted down for a reward.
Naw. Some days this is as good as I get, I swear :-)
To this point, though, pediatric mutilation is not universally celebrated. It's actively opposed by large segments of society, not just by conservatives, but by liberals like myself. Given the evidence I've seen so far, I would ban surgical reassignments and puberty blockers for anyone under 18. Adults can decide for themselves to go under the knife; children aren't mature enough to understand the finality of those decisions.
I see only a small---though noisy---segment of society celebrating reassignment surgery and puberty blockers as a Good Thing. Fortunately.
I do understand that captured runaways would mostly not be lynched, though a few were by racist mobs. Mostly they'd be whipped and starved half to death after return by slave catchers. But you do understand my point--lynched black people are dead and cannot be changed back from that particular "reassignment," so I'd argue that chattel slavery and lynching are indeed worse horrors than gender reassignment surgery.
Though we have an easy way out of that terrible comparison--block reassignment surgery and drugs for anyone under 18.
I do hear your points, Shane, and mostly agree, though I'm inclined to push the age of consent for "gender reassignment surgery" (not the term I would use) to age 25. Scientists seem to think that is only about then that the brain is fully developed and thus capable of making an "adult"decision on such a momentous question, i.e., "what gender am I?"
Again, not minimizing the horrors of lynching, and your point re: the fact that it results in death does carry a lot of weight. But as I noted in another comment, to me, there are multiople levels of evil in the world, and to me the one marked "crimes against chidlren" is the worst. At least the suffering of the poor lynched slave ended quickly. The gender mutilated child may be facing decades of pain and suffering. We shall see how this plays out in time, I suppose.
Sorry for the "you're better than that" jibe. It's an old Obama favorite line that has long bugged me. But it's snide, and I'm going to stop using it.
No worries on "you're better than that." I was a too clever by half with my reply to you, for which I apologize, and I appreciate your graciousness here.
We agree completely that crimes against children are among the most repellent. Kids cannot consent to anything and they can't generally fight back against bigger and stronger targets. Adults who target children should slide themselves into vats of boiling sewage and spare us their pathologies. Crimes against the defenseless--whether slaves or children--are the mark of cowards and should be fought by normal people at every turn.
P.S. I only pick age 18 because that's the legal age of adulthood in America. Agreed that age 25 might be more ideal for most consents, but it will never happen. I'd settle for a ban on such surgeries and potions until legal adulthood.
Yes, because slave owners and lynchers are not seen as paragons of society and upheld as those who should be listened to and heeded, such as doctors. That’s what makes this so heinous, even among the most heinous of evils.
Right. No slave-owning president was ever seen as a paragon of society. No wealthy plantation owner ever enjoyed the respect of his community. No paragons of Southern society ever picnicked under the charred body of a lynched man. I'm sorry, but you are in a state of hysteria. It's messing with your judgement. I really believe that.
Yes, I think the argument can be made that the institutionalized gender mutilation of children, supported at the highest levels, politically and culturally, is the single most despicable thing that has ever happened in US history. At least in the cases of slavery and lynching, you had broad opposition to what was occurring. Try wrapping your mind around that idea. It might be it is you who is the one who is "tripping."
Um, slavery wasn't supported at the highest levels of government? Um, police in the South didn't look away when black people got lynched - much less picnic beneath their bodies? Um, we didn't have to fight a long and bloody civil war to end slavery? How broad was that opposition again?
And, um, there isn't broad opposition to medical intervention for trans kids? When's the last time you watched the most popular news station in America?
Yes, I think you're tripping. This bugs you in some... what? religious way? It's just icky? I dunno. Yes, some kids are getting medical interventions they shouldn't be and that's tragic. And the current system of care is bad and certainly not suited to the numbers of trans-presenting youth and needs to be changed, but it ain't the horrifying crisis you think it is. Check out my post on top if you want news about real crises.
Whatever. I just want you to feel better! Come on down and meet my kid. He's great! He's doing hella better than my evangelical cousin's kids - lol. (Btw, she got a boob job - so much for loving the body God gave you.)
Per your short bio on your profile......you might be a "liberal living in a liberal bubble", but you have an odd way of "engaging with other viewpoints". Smug to the core.
If thinking that equating a small number of teens getting medical interventions to which they've consented - rightly or wrongly, and however damaging to them - to slavery (rape, beatings, murder, selling children away from their parents, etc), Jim Crow, lynching, and Nazi experimentation on Jews (and anyone else they thought inferior) is abhorrent and ignorant or, charitably, just bats*** crazy, yes, I'm smug. I'm sorry my tone rubbed you the wrong way, but I really find this view - and the doubling down on it - shocking and disgusting.
And, dude, I just came on here to agree with the author! With the caveat that I didn't think passing laws banning the procedure across the board is the right way to go. I thought there might be discussion of different ways to ensure all kids' safety and well-being. Given The Free Press says it's *about* debate, I didn't expect this to be 100% unified chorus of hysteria and hyperbole and disrespect for the one mother of a trans kid who bothered to show up. But y'all - not me - have made it perfectly clear other people's stories and experiences and opinions are not welcome. This obviously isn't the type of place I thought it was, with a mix of opinions. Sorry I interrupted the circle jerk.
Zarathustra, there is a "mix of opinions" on this page...you just may not be used to having yours challenged. How else to explain your rude and obscene replies?
This is what "a free press" feels like. Again, you may not be used to it.
Pacificus, in my anger, I unsubscribed, but as it stays active for a month, I have time to apologize for being "rude or obscene." It's truly not like me to say things like that.
The question of why I lost my temper has been troubling me. It wasn't that I've never had my views challenged. I think now it was that I was unprepared for the passionate intensity of the opposition here and, more, by how totally outnumbered I'd be. I wasn't prepared for how vulnerable I would feel, in that context, both protective of my child and defensive of myself as a mother. I felt like I'd naively strolled straight into a firehose of misrepresentation, judgement, and calumny aimed directly at my most personal experiences: mothers like me are wannabe hipsters mutilating their kids' genitals to be trendy; or we're pathetic, brainwashed dupes; or we're out-and-out child abusers.
I didn't get that feeling from most of the folks who replied to me, but from tenor of the comments as a whole. As for your comments above, I realize they upset me both for the reasons I stated, and because they functionally situated my parenting choices on a spectrum with historical horrors ranging from slavery to the Holocaust.
Anyway, I'm sure my comments weren't keeping you up at night, but it bothered me that I might remain evidence for you (and other readers) of the world being filled with rude, angry people. As evidence that we really can't get along. Especially because I don't believe that. I believe that, aside from actual psychopaths, we all mean well and we're all doing the best we can with the knowledge we have at the time. I'm sorry I was a jerk.
And please know my child is well-loved and protected. In the scheme of human suffering, he is one of the world's lucky ones.
"Especially because I don't believe that. I believe that, aside from actual psychopaths, we all mean well and we're all doing the best we can with the knowledge we have at the time." Beautifully said, and so true.
Zara, the passionate intensity of so many of the responders (myself included) was sparked by the outrageous story that confirmed what many of us already knew, sort of--that the "transition" industry for children is an incomprehensibly barbaric surgical response to the struggles with gender identity that have suddenly become epidemic, esp in girls. "We are building the plane while we are flying it"--certainly a candidate for the Grisly Quote of the Year.
And if you question any of this, or the related insanity of the "gender identity movment," you are labeled a "phobe," and cancelled--if it can happen to JK Rowling, it can happen to anyone. Again, that is where the emotional intensity of the commenters is coming from, I think.
That said, if I have uoset you with my remarks, I am deeply sorry. I will be thinking about you, and praying for you and your child, and wish you nothing but the best. Don't knowh ow we could set up an ongoing channel for communication, but if you would like that and think it might be helpful, I am willing to do so.
Thanks for this understanding and helpful response. Even liberals - especially moderate liberals like me - chafe at the severity of the “cancel culture” practiced by some impassioned activists. Their voices are powerful. Problem is we tend, as a country, to swing between extremes - the outcry then the backlash. Often caught between are the people whom the issue actually affects and who just want good information and basic compassion and not to be anybody’s political football.
I would love to be able to carry on the type of conversation that could help different “sides” understand each other even if it’s impossible to agree on everything - or anything! I don’t know how to make it happen. I don’t feel comfortable sharing any contact information here. Maybe somebody else will read this and know how to do it safely. Or if somebody knows of a website or other online space specifically for people who want to have such conversations, I’d be very interested. Folks here doubted it, but I really do love talking to my conservative family members (the only ones I socialize with). Even as they’ve gone further to the right, and even when we can’t find common ground, we’re always able to make the other feel that the most important thing is we love and respect each other as human beings. And we can still have a load of fun together. I wish more people had this experience.
Whatever happens, I’m glad we revisited our conversation and so can leave with some hope or even slightly greater faith in humanity. Thank you again for taking the time to reach out in kindness.
Zara (if I may) thank you so much for your heartfelt and sincere reply...just skimming through it here for a moment, I feel as if we have much in common--more, perhaps, than either of us thought possible as of yesterday.
Please allow me to reflect a bit on what you have said and respond in greater detail later today or tomorrow.
I'm not quarreling with you about this, that's with another commenter. However, your "tone" in your response was very smug and that's not how you engage with other viewpoints.
After reading the article (as opposed to the comments), I see that I have not spent enough time studying the transgender issue. I think my neglect is due to the fact that I have put most of my attention on the millions of people trying to recover from the abuse of their parents. A far bigger and more timeless problem than the fate of transgender children. As rabid as you are about transgender, how many of you have seriously looked at the effect of your own parenting on your children? If you have, my hat's off to you. If you haven't, you have no legs in this conversation.
Yes, we did have a "long and bloody civil war" to end slavery...that's kind of my point. The opposition to slavery began during the time of the Revolution and gained strength more or less continually until a war was fought to end it, and in the face the fact that slavery was enormously profitable. I'm just hoping we can go through a similar process with pediatric gender mutilation surgery,but that it won't take nearly as long to be successful. Never forget: their were far more "white people" who, to varying degrees, opposed slavery as compared to the relatively few in the Southern states who could afford to own one.
As for lynching: true, the Southern sheriff often looked the other way when a lynching occurred, if he wasn't involved himself. But that was not always the case--lyniching was still a crime, even if often unpunished. Can't say that about the fad for Pediatric Gender Mutilation surgery--its'fully legal, and you risk your career to speak out about it. You see my point.
And by the way: figures on the NAACP homepage suggest that roughly 4,800 people (of all races) were lynched between 1882-1968....figures from 2020 alone show that nearly 10,000 African Americans were murdered, in the vast majority of cases, by other blacks. That concerns me far far more than does lynching, which has largely been ended. How about you?
So, the craze for Pediatric Gender Mutilation surgery "ain't the horrifying crisis" that Jamie Reed and I think it is...guess we'll just have to agree to disagree on that. History will judge us both on that.
I will choose ignore the rude and insulting tone of your remarks. It does not speak well, either of you or your positions.
It bugs me in an anti gay, anti woman anti mental health and anti human flourishing kind of way. It would take ages to dissect all those angles. Simply put, the exponential degree to which kids are seeking medical transition is being co-opted by an activist class that has zero interest for their long term well-being but are very willing to make them patients of a capitalist medical system that makes them patients for life.
And this is the scariest part, seemingly kind people cannot grasp how dystopian this all is. They just can’t see the consequences of this. Like it’s no big deal. It’s actually societal collapse level stuff when you drill down and we are being prevented from speaking about it by the ruling class and the mainstream.
My question is Just who will this be Toxic to? I've never seen/heard Anything that s so Toxic you can't Talk about it. IF I were a suspicious person I might suspect something is being hidden.
We moved to Costa Rica to protect my daughters, aged 12 and 15 from this bullshit. Their private school in Colorado, Colorado Academy, had several girls convinced they were boys.
I totally support what you are doing. You are only a very small minority of people with the ability to do such a radical move. What's more, it will lead to people like yourself being the leaders of what is left after these feral monsters get done torching the world with their sickness of mind. It seems the two ends of the economic spectrum, those who can escape entirely such as you, and those far below me on the spectrum, too rooted in reality to be indocrinated, will be those left standing. Praise God. It now just all depends on how much damage the Wokies can do in the meantime.
Funny, I was looking around purple states for a non-woke high school and actually looked (on-line) at Colorado Academy. We left the hot bed of Manhattan and yep, this stuff is being introduced at child’s new (non-NYC) independent K-8 school.
Here's how it is working between the "health professionals," schools, legislators and your children in many states. We are from Colorado so here's the CO example:
1. Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment ("CDPHE") contracts with The University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Center (“Anschutz”) to survey kids about their mental health issues.
2. In 2021, Healthy Kids Colorado Survey was given to more than 106,000 students, in grades 6-12 attending 340 schools in 51 different counties in Colorado. www.coloradokids.org
3. Question #3 of the Survey asks kids to state their gender identity. Questions 4 and 5 ask questions specifically about transgenderism.
4. Questions are "aggregated and anonymized" by Anschutz to populate CDPHE's public data dashboard. In other words, CDPHE can't tell me which schools were surveyed. Schools have no duty to tell parents any information about kids social transitioning in school.
5. CRS 12-245-2035, codified in 2019, allows "youth who are 12 and over to have legal access to outpatient psychotherapy services that might otherwise be unavailable without the consent of or notification to the youth's parent or legal guardian."
6. HB 23-1003, currently about to become law, creates a Mental Health Assessment program, administered by CDPHE that specifies that "students 12 and over may consent to participate in a mental health questionnaire (presumably the same one as above), administered by a Qualified Provider who can direct additional treatment of the student without the parent's consent. Presumably all the referrals are for “specialists” at Anschutz.
11. Sex-reassignment surgery was valued at $1.9B for 2021 and “and is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11.23% from 2022 to 2030.”
Where's the new school? Colorado Academy teaches gender ideology as early as Kindergarten. We are in the process of undoing all the ideological training. We paid a ton of money to have our kids' minds totally poisoned.
A friend of mine that pulled her kids out of private school said the funniest, albeit tragic, statement: "Well, you can get it for free or you can pay for it."
Have you taken the phone away? Or at the very least, put monitors on it? Ditto on their computers? Ensured they aren't on harmful Social media apps, like Tiktok?
If you're not using one, it doesn't matter what school your kid goes to, they will get indoctrinated.
I'd ensure they go nowhere near TikTok or Discord.
I worry about my younger daughter, 12 who is very impressionable. She won't get a phone until 8th grade or later, but she has access to her IPad and my phone and my husband's phone. She is sneaky.
She was checking out Deviant Art on my mom's phone. So, I had her watch TV in my bedroom so I could keep an eye on her and she started watching a bunch of anime. I would need a phD in computer engineering to keep up with her hacking skills.
This was back in 5th grade, two years ago and she had several non-binary/trans kids in her class (all biological females). Back then, we didn't realize the pernicious progression of this nonsense; we were piecing it together.
It seems to go something like this: pronouns glorified at school > Deviant art website > Discord > Anime > Tiktok> GSA (Gay Straight Alliance which is now Gender Sexuality Alliance -- although our school denied this even though they were well aware of the rebranding) > social transitioning > puberty blockers > "top surgery." Shriver discusses a lot of this. Have any parents seen additional pathways?
Yes, it's a dangerous world. I also have conversations, probably once a month about the perniciousness and the danger of the transgender ideology. And I contrast it with how the world was...oh, up until ten years ago.
And though they sometimes go around my methods of watching them (with the apps and such), and it's no fun punishing kids (they seem not to understand that we don't buy them things for the sole purpose of the joy we get from taking them away!), in the end, I feel a lot safer knowing that they're avoiding all the "crazy" out there.
Good for you! My husband and I knew that transexual "rights" were on the rise when our daughter ROGDed but never imagined it would jump out of the middle aged men category or be promoted in high school. Perhaps parents today do have one advantage in that they know they need to tell their kids that sex is binary - a too obvious fact for us to have thought of discussing in 2017. She chastised us for never telling her about the weird nonsense - like it was truth we kept from her.
I agree that safety controls are good. I also think that having kids use computers and televisions out in the open where you can see what they watch is best. Then, if something disturbing comes up you have a chance to discuss it. Pretty much all content on TV seems to be laced with GI now. You really cannot keep this entirely away from your daughter because it is the culture now. This is why I want to see GI debunked and a museum made to the atrocities that transpired. Something you can do is get your child busy with real things in the real world - especially in nature. Maybe she could get a small job dog walking? Or, is there a nearby farm where she might pitch-in? 4thwavenow.com came before PITT and the mother who ran that site sent her teen daughter to work at a horse farm & she desisted. Maybe a little preemptive dog walking would be good?
I've had my kids computers in the open and we use them all in the same room. Even my 21 year old, still living at home son still has his computer in the same place it was seven years ago.
Hi JakeD. You offer good advice. But... nothing will be enough until society understands that GI is junk science and a junk civil rights movement wrapped up into a cult.
Our feminine daughter was half way through high school with a flip phone when we learned she'd been groomed by other kids at school. We didn't even know that any girls or women went for transexuality but we were not on board with social media (without "trans" on our brains). And, our house Wifi went off at night. ROGD hit us. Abigail Shrier published her article in the WSJ and later her book which I eagerly awaited. Lisa Littman published a study. I couldn't believe that the NYT and everywhere else just published rah rah articles like those of "Jennifer" Boylan. And, no one cared about this issue in the last election. What good are "conservatives" who cannot conserve our daughters? Now, we have First Female 4 Star Admiral Richard Levine running policy and a Supreme Court Justice who does not know what a woman is.
Our former high school now invites "FTMs" (Cosmetically Masculinized Women who I prefer to call CMW) to assemblies to talk about their lived experiences - or something.
Families move, they try to cut off everything, but just like with Anorexia and Bomelia, it finds girls in every society that hears about it. The difference is that we never celebrated those. They didn't make fetished men feel validated. People were not making vast sums of money off of them. And, there was not this potential to use body parts to fulfill a sick fantasy. Have you seen this one? https://townhall.com/tipsheet/madelineleesman/2023/01/16/childrens-hospital-talks-about-uterus-transplants-n2618349 Have you noticed that we are not allowed to say that anything at all is sick? It isn't kind. We even have the normalization of pedophilia movement with MAPS. Ok, maybe an infinitesimal number of men had this thing called Gender Identity Disorder, but lets face that it is a mental disorder - even if some of them "treat" (damage) their bodies for it.
These days our young adult daughter is very busy doing some real things in the real world. She is loving again, physically unhurt, and I suspect mostly desisted. No one in the family ever went for a nut name or pronoun so she doesn't have to explain anything to us. But, I think it is embarrassing for young people to admit they made a goof - especially with peers...
These days I want justice. I want to see some "experts" lose their licenses. I want to see jail time. I'd be fine with bringing back the gallows for a few. Examples need to be made (legally). - LM
While I agree that society needs to change - that takes time, and kids are being impacted NOW. I am recommending things that can be done now, today, so that some protections can be made and the transgender attack fought back against.
Obviously, some of those wouldn't have worked in your situation, and I can only imagine how hard all that must have been that you've had to deal with. I'm also thankful that you and your daughter have come out the other side, safe and whole.
In the end, nothing beats attentive and involved parenting, but parents can't be there all the time, and whatever tools we can find to help in this rapidly changing world, help fill the gap.
Thank you JakeD. I appreciate your responses and we are in firm agreement.
Maybe depending on circumstances and the degree to which this trans travesty grows and infiltrates all spaces, it will be impossible for some to protect their children. That's why I think hard about how it can be taken down. It's junk science and a junk "civil rights movement" in need of being exposed to the public. Then, I think we need to see a few - like Richard Levine - serve jail time for promoting the mutilation of children based on pseudoscience.
Agreed. And on the positive side, it seems like almost daily, we're seeing some of this being peeled back. In an odd way, we can thank Elon Musk - we might just owe our country to him at some point, since one of Twitter's chief content moderators was himself a Trans! Obviously, the purchase of Twitter, and the impact on the freedom of speech, and now things like the "Twitter Files" - all have impacted the level of discourse in this country.
And it seems like, while the tide hasn't turned, at least there's acknowledgement that there's actually a battle to be fought.
Loving Mother- I am sorry for the pain your daughter and self have had to endure at the hands of the school and healthcare union that abused your child. The abuse is rampant and pervasive. The Catholic Church of the 1970's have nothing on the gender identity abuse being thrust on kids. Imagine if the Cardinal of Boston said- 'The priest was not a child rapist of the altar boy- he was just Minor Attracted Person acting out. We will now send him to NM to recover"
They should lose license first and prosecute for neglect for sure. However this candle was lit a long time ago with schools & healthcare workers being involved in mandated reporters and custody cases in family court. This is where the empowerment of the beast began. Anonymous reporting that is redacted unless a criminal act is proved by the reporter. Complete lack of accountability with power. Power in the hands of people who unlike police have no training to investigate, but special policing duties to report. Due to the compartmentalization of their reports someone can easily hide a prejudice or an agenda. Most people are responsible, but if you are a bad MSW- you can cause havoc, just like the MSW's are in this story. Add money, like in custody cases and family court, and you have a lethal combination for kids and families. A whole new brand of abuse was born and in this case physicians and clinicians are lining up to reap the dollars on the souls of the kids.
They are the largest parasitic ticks buried in. Everyone needs to keep in mind it is not just their own liability, but the larger institutions liability that they endangered. The larger institutions are vicious. These are the same people who shield serial killers at hospitals to protect the institutions. i.e. The Good Nurse on Netflix. They will not report deaths and disfigurements to protect liability. These people need to be made criminally liable for hiding things like this. Once you know or suspect something is harming or killing patients you should have a mandated reporting duty when they know there is a problem within their ecosystem like within the transgender nightmare. Also if you know you have a habitual reporter who is creating false abuse claims for custody issues or a hero complex, and yes this exists with Social Workers and Nurses, these people needed to be held criminally liable and have immediate licensure suspended and/or revoked.
I agree with every word and I'm so glad your daughter is safe.
Agree with you about the "experts." I actually think parents should start patronizing Doctors who actively disagree with the gender affirming recommendations of the AAP, in favor of gender-critical practitioners.
Yes. I think it might have to be a doctor in private practice. If the doctor belongs to a medical organization it is likely the organization insists they "affirm" - at least in the US - hopefully not in Costa Rica! In some states doctors can lose their licences for being "gender-critical"/non-believers.
It's horrifying, isn't it? I actually had to write everything down because it was so surreal that I would doubt my recollection for the rest of my life if I hadn't.
Yes. I was physically shaking to find they were calling my girl a crazy name and "he". And, they refused to stop, but patronized me instead. Classroom teachers know your kid so well and you the mother must not have paid attention to her growing up or something. The other thing the teachers have been trained to do is beam and smile about it while you feel you will crumble to the ground. If someone really did have a mental disorder called gender dysphoria (which I did not think for a min our daughter did) why would you start doing a happy dance about it? The whole thing has such a cult religious nature. Like - Jesus has been found to be talking through your child! Holy holy holy holy. You've got one.
Then, since you the mother are clearly upset you are offered counseling which is all about gaslighting the parent to go along with it. Parents are pressured to attend these "support" meetings which are really all about how GI is real and getting you to believe. I did not attend.
This one really is on the adults. Teens can be driven by peers to do weird stuff - but the adults in the room? I really do think a few "experts" need jail sentences.
I am so sorry to hear about your story. I completely agree with you. The school was "agreeing" with every thing I said and then not changing a thing. My 10 year-old was having nightmares because they showed her a movie suggesting that black people were CURRENTLY in the US being handcuffed and pushed off buildings for violating curfew laws. She asked to go somewhere on spring break where segregation was illegal. There were several girls in her 4th grade class social transitioning in school. I had never heard of puberty blockers until she told me in 5th grade (!) that her classmates were taking them. I'm 48 and have voted for Democrats for most of my life. The shit that the Democrats are up to right now is so poisonous that I will never vote for another Democrat as long as I live. The overreach is horrifying.
My husband and I promised to take the year off from the stress of all this stuff in Costa Rica. But, guess what?! The first people we met had a very similar experience as yours. They were just here to keep their kids safe.
Agree with you on all fronts. Please keep fighting the fight.
Thank you for sharing your story. Terrible. It's good your family can stay in Costa Rica. So smart to leave when your daughter was so young. I am not surprised you met another family fleeing the madness. I hope the ideology does not infiltrate the culture there. Our daughter is older than yours. I don't think I'd heard of "puberty blockers" even when we had the ROGD experience in high school. I'm worried about future generations, too.
Yes, I have voted for Ds and Rs - having been an Independent all my life. I don't think I will vote for a D again and I will not vote for any R unwilling to "fight a culture war". I wonder whether Tulsi Gabbard could run on the ticket with Ron DeSantis.
Thank you for the great link you provided recently.
I’ve considered leaving again. I can hardly believe I’m saying that. But In truth the remedy is to stand up and fight this. Truth wins it’s just taking more time than it should.
It is going to take every single one of us to stop this madness. As I type this, Colorado (D) legislators are trying to codify 12 year-olds access to mental health counseling (i.e., gender confusion and ideology) in schools, over the parents' objections. The school then refers the child to a gender-affirming specialist/counselor. Because it's gender affirming and not gender-critical or gender-questioning, it's a one-way ticket to puberty blockers and "top surgery" (the current euphemism for traumatic, elective radical mastectomies in minors.)
EXACTLY THIS. Many times with this madness (Ukraine comes to mind) we are unable to do much as oftentimes these politicians say they will bring change but then they don't. In this case though speaking out can change things. This took hold by means of social contagion, and it will be the only way out.
Kind of a boring letter, but skipping ahead to the parent testimonials will give you a very good sense of what is being done in expensive private schools. I have several pages full of horror stories told to me by parents.
Making me sick every day Mc and to think this gets Federal $$$$ we are in the twilight zone, it can’t last forever. Travistock in England has already closed down. We got to hammer away at this mad administration to stop this and stop it now!!
It was really hard pulling two very happy kids out of a school with their friends that they had known for years. My husband and I fought about it daily for about a year. But, believing the transgender craze to be a contagion based on Abigail Shiver's book, we figured we had to get out. He was so pissed that the school was turning our beautiful young students/girls into anxious wanna-be boys. Here's the letter that I wrote to the Board begging them to calm the hell down with gender ideology. The school was hiring gender ideology experts to teach kids about how many different genders there were to choose from. I told the Principal at a meeting that it was emotionally inappropriate for elementary and middle-school kids and he disagreed, saying it was appropriate as early as Kindergarten. I have so many horror stories. Still trying to sort it all out and live a calm life in Costa Rica.
It is worth it, there a lot of people out there that know this is all wrong, we just have to find our own way forward collectively, we can vote this nonsense out of power and we must!!!
I don't see good trends in many areas in the US, be it DIE (yes I reversed two letters because it's more consistent with the outcome of putting demographic status over merit), ESG (a push based on bad science), surrendering self determination to international organizations (loss of self determination), "education", "science", and censorship. I looked at relocating, but the insanity is still spreading and other places have their own issues. If I had school age children, I would educate at home, or pool resources with like-minded people to develop a (monitored) tutor system. Opting out of many areas seems to be the only option left.
Even the best private schools in the country have been infiltrated, along with the religious school. This Critical Pedagogy stuff began being taught in the Education Colleges in the '90s. It's soaked through the entire pedagogy of thought in education. Wanna have your head explode? Go research 'whole word theory"...They've stopped teaching phonics as an act of 'restorative justice'. They are okay with failing to serve all but the 'under-privileged' - who they fail as well of course. Kids are learning phonics outside of school now, smart parents make sure they do. They don't really 'learn' anything anymore the way my generation thinks about learning. Rather, they are given things 'to know' and ways to navigate knowing. Imbued with hard core Marcusian Crit Theory madness.
At least relocate to the most conservative state that is practical for you to move to. "Circle the wagons" with people who share your values.
The lies of the woke tyrants cannot be made more clear than this brave author made clear. And the woke's lies pervade every aspect of our lives.
Will Bari Weiss and the other partially red-pilled "liberals" finally support leaders who understand this and have the courage to fight with those of us who see no alternative but to fight in every sane and practical way to save our once great nation. Will they support Ron DeSantis, Sen Josh Hawley? Or will they equivocate?
No. Progressives here and elsewhere will not deviate from the ingrained voting patterns that lead to such disasters. Otherwise, it would've happened long ago. Suicidal self-hatred is the very core of their raison d'ètre. I have no doubt whatsoever that the author of this piece will never support any candidate that is not explicitly vetted by the Democratic Party, and their record of catastrophic social policies.
These pieces always remind of the old B-movie trope "Stop me before I kill again!" LOL
My friend's bio daughter has been on this track since she was 12; she'll be 18 in March. Parents only allow her to bind, nothing else. She will thank them a million times over in a few more years.
This has been going on a long, long time......and you know it.
Correction: adopted daughter; my friend is the adoptive parent.
If a psychologist would have actually met with her to find out what was really going on in the 6th grade rather than just affirm these feelings, she may have revealed that her biological mother (who she has an open adoption relationship with) went on to get married and has three sons. How do we know that deep in her subconscious she might think she would have been kept by her biological mother if she had been born a boy. We may never know now.
Maybe you just started discussing it last year, but it was being discussed well before that. Abigail Shrier's book, Irreversible Damage, was published in 2020, and obviously, all her concern about the issue and research came from years before that.
I guess your ideological blinders prevented you from reading further in Elizabeth's post, to wit: "and obviously, all her concern about the issue and research came from years before that."
Oh, yes....I'm sure SHE was concerned...but YOU weren't and neither were the majority of people until last year. So, give me break that this has been something on the major cultural radar until recently.
If it weren't for Matt Walsh and Christopher Rufo, 99% of people wouldn't even know about all the stuff they're told to be concerned about.
So, I guess YOUR ideological blinders prevent you from seeing basic reality.
This "stuff" has been discussed for years. Good friends of ours have been watching helplessly as their nut-job daughter-in-law (a therapist no less!) has convinced her daughter (adopted) since she was 8 years old that she's a boy. Last year she moved into hormonal treatments, and I'm sure she will soon be pushing for surgery any day now that the girl (oops, boy!) is 13. All this started 5 years ago, not "last year". Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) was even at that time performing surgeries, so you have no idea what you're talking about with your made-up timeline.
The lunacy has been going on a long time in many forms.
Look at you: you daily demonstrate an utterly illiberal inability to recognize the validity of dissenting views, and with your handle it seems likely you are exposing our children to your bad ideas somewhere.
Common sense is not complicated. What is complicated is rationalizing obvious stupidity.
I give the same amount of validity to opinions from others as they give to mine.
Yes, you are right. I scream at white "children" (undergrad & grad) about how they're all oppressors, then I take off 10 points from their final grade for reparations, demand everyone uses pronouns and mutilate their genitalia.
Yes....I used common sense, which how I figured out no one moved their entire family to Asia to get away from trans lunacy that just started being discussed mainstream in late 2021. Kinda like people discovered "illiberal" as a buzzword....which by the way doesn't mean "you don't give other opinions validity."
Now, does ANYONE on here have any data about how many kids are transitioning or interacting with these clinics? I would legitimately like to know.
Wait, so you're lying when later you say you already knew but you were just making sure everyone did his own research? Because you're Comprof, of course. Ever the vigilant professor? You fork-tongued bloviator. You do make a really good pinata, though.
I just moved my family to Costa Rica to protect them from trans-lunacy and the first other family I met here was from the east coast doing the same thing.
People spend too much time being baited by your comments. But, it's now time for us to show you the door. We've all got work to do. Adios, sir.
100 clinics did not appear overnight, this has been going on for a long time, it is only now that is coming to the surface . Brown U. prof’s data on “social contagion”
Whatever the number, it is too many. It is totally illogical and ridiculous to say that anyone is born in the wrong body. Maybe some who are mentally disturbed, but no normal person would ever say that. It has been exacerbated by social media and it has been so lucrative to the medical industrial complex and to big Pharma. I just hope we stop this insanity.
It didn't start in 2021. According to the article, the uptick started in 2015. I noticed it personally about ten years ago, and started warning my children.
Not only is there a skyrocketing number of clinics, in other countries they are already starting to be closed. I suppose you haven't heard of the Tavistock debacle or of how some Scandinavian countries are stopping this barbarism.
Reuters has some data from Komodo Research through 2021. Based on insurance claims so doesn't include anything paid for out of pocket, and because of phrases like medical treatment of one form or another to "help alleviate their distress," and "After suppressing puberty, a child may pursue hormone treatments to initiate a puberty that aligns with their gender identity" assume extreme pro-transition bias. Results are tragic & market share of surgical treatment expected to more than double from $1.9 billion in 2021 to $5 billion by 2030.
One of the more fun factoids: "The Komodo analysis of insurance claims found 56 genital surgeries among patients ages 13 to 17 with a prior gender dysphoria diagnosis from 2019 to 2021. Among teens, “top surgery” to remove breasts is more common. In the three years ending in 2021, at least 776 mastectomies were performed in the United States on patients ages 13 to 17 with a gender dysphoria diagnosis, according to Komodo’s data analysis of insurance claims. This tally does not include procedures that were paid for out of pocket." And I wonder what happens to incidence not specifically tied to a diagnosis, but that's just me.
Hilarious that you anchored your entire bad-faith position on the idea that this just started last year and now you are demanding data.
You, as a simpleton hack, are still in the “it’s not happening” phase. I will let you know when it is time to switch over to “it’s good that it’s happening”.
The author said there were 100 such clinics. We already know that there are such clinics run by hospitals associated with major universities because they publicly announced it. Maybe someone would know if we didn't have an administration who has a comedic admiral in a dress. At least Klinger was only a corporal. And, fictional, to boot.
"Anyone who raised doubts ran the risk of being called a transphobe. "
Name calling is the first line of defense a leftist uses. It is designed to stifle any debate and the reason they don't want debate is because they have no solid ground to stand on and if you push them for a reasonable response they change the subject and leave in a self righteous huff.
Like comprof, they have this smug, superior attitude that they are intellectually better than the unwashed masses. Comprof comes off as "I'm an educated (inarticulate) college professor (a claim I dispute). How dare you question me, you uneducated boob. Plus, I am a sensitive, caring liberal and you are a NAZI, uncaring, racist, uneducated, brutal dolt. How dare you question me!"
Bruce, do you think I have summed this up, nailed it?
My daughter and her husband have asked that their kids’ personal information be limited. I never post pictures of them anywhere. I don’t use their names or specifics about their location.
The eldest grandchild is in elementary school. The youngest is a toddler. They left the US when the eldest was three.
Fishing has a lot of aspects: sometimes the most effective way for a lazy fisherman who doesn't feel like doing his homework is trolling. Rather than do the work of studying his game, the lazy fisherman just hangs some bait on his hook and drives his boat and see who bites. It's a very lazy way to fish but sometimes pretty effective. The only way to discourage such a fisherman is for fish not to bite.
I never said they moved solely because of the trans lunacy. I said that the trans lunacy coupled with the erosion of parental control over their progeny in multiple fora is one of the primary reasons they’ve decided to remain outside the country.
See: CA and WA.
So yes this subject absolutely is a major factor in their family calculus regarding whether and when to return.
If I had children that age, I would homeschool or move, if possible to a country where this is not happening. Who wants to see their children destroyed?
You wrote, "Today I am speaking out. I am doing so knowing how toxic the public conversation is around this highly contentious issue—and the ways that my testimony might be misused. I am doing so knowing that I am putting myself at serious personal and professional risk."
From the bottom of our hearts, thank you. Thank you for taking the risk to write this. What's happening now is insane and surely one of the lowest points our culture has ever stooped to.
I think that what you've just said will make a difference.
Illegally posting PHI is a crime.
Please God!!
Let's all rational people from all sides come together to fix one thing: The corruption in our systems.
It is by far our biggest problem, and it is the one they don't want us to solve so they keep us divided.
Decentralize Everything. Demand Transparency. Like this:
https://joshketry.substack.com/p/worried-about-voter-fraud-lets-build
I hope so ! This is one of the lowest points in medical history.. a giant medical malpractice case!
Our children as Guinea pigs! And caring adults accused of “ transphobes “or worse!
This may be the absolute lowest point our cutlure has ever reached...lynching, gay-bashing, immigrant-bashing, slavery, et al--despicable all, but none of them seem quite as despicable as the institutionalized gender mutilation of children. Literally doing Satan's work. And our current president is applauding it.
Deciding which horror is the most horrible is fallacy. Can't we just be principled and abhor all these evils?
I do abhor all those evils, and said so. But maybe "evil" is like Dante's notion of Hell, there are multiple "circles," or levels, of it...and for me, the one marked "crimes against children" is the worst. How about you?
You certainly did, and recognizing these evils is vital. Of our current crop of evils, totally agree with the transgenderization of children being the worst. Weighed against historical evils, I think we will have to see how quickly we end this particular circle to judge. Slavery continues today around the world and includes crimes against children. This is in our own country as well, courtesy of our southern "border". For those caught in any evil against children, speaking out continues to be the only way to fight it.
I just had a thought. We have been waiting to spay our pup until she had her first heat, to be certain she has achieved maximum bone development, among other body system development (her breed is susceptible to fractures). She is now in her first heat. It came to me, as I was dialing the vet to schedule her procedure, how can we be so careful of our dog, and yet our society has become so careless of our children that we are spaying and neutering (chemical or surgical) before they have reached the same level of physical development as my puppy?
The runaway slave dangling from the lynching tree would question your assertion of which evil is greater. But he can't because he's, well, dead.
We should’ve picked our own damn cotton
We surely should have, yes. Or offered the job to everyone, including black people, for pay, just like any other "career" back then.
But that would cost plantation owners money . . .
I am by no means minimizing the horrors of lynching, just pointing out that both slavery and lynching were actively opposed by large segments of society...not encouraged and celebrated as a Good Thing, as is pediatric genital mutilation.
By the way: few captured runaway slaves would be lynched. They were valuable property and usually were hunted down for a reward.
C'mon Shane, you're better then that!
Your history is skewed.
"Your history is skewed."
Steve, if you really understood the practice of history, you would know that it is always "skewed," in one way or another.
"C'mon Shane, you're better then that!"
Naw. Some days this is as good as I get, I swear :-)
To this point, though, pediatric mutilation is not universally celebrated. It's actively opposed by large segments of society, not just by conservatives, but by liberals like myself. Given the evidence I've seen so far, I would ban surgical reassignments and puberty blockers for anyone under 18. Adults can decide for themselves to go under the knife; children aren't mature enough to understand the finality of those decisions.
I see only a small---though noisy---segment of society celebrating reassignment surgery and puberty blockers as a Good Thing. Fortunately.
I do understand that captured runaways would mostly not be lynched, though a few were by racist mobs. Mostly they'd be whipped and starved half to death after return by slave catchers. But you do understand my point--lynched black people are dead and cannot be changed back from that particular "reassignment," so I'd argue that chattel slavery and lynching are indeed worse horrors than gender reassignment surgery.
Though we have an easy way out of that terrible comparison--block reassignment surgery and drugs for anyone under 18.
I do hear your points, Shane, and mostly agree, though I'm inclined to push the age of consent for "gender reassignment surgery" (not the term I would use) to age 25. Scientists seem to think that is only about then that the brain is fully developed and thus capable of making an "adult"decision on such a momentous question, i.e., "what gender am I?"
Again, not minimizing the horrors of lynching, and your point re: the fact that it results in death does carry a lot of weight. But as I noted in another comment, to me, there are multiople levels of evil in the world, and to me the one marked "crimes against chidlren" is the worst. At least the suffering of the poor lynched slave ended quickly. The gender mutilated child may be facing decades of pain and suffering. We shall see how this plays out in time, I suppose.
Sorry for the "you're better than that" jibe. It's an old Obama favorite line that has long bugged me. But it's snide, and I'm going to stop using it.
No worries on "you're better than that." I was a too clever by half with my reply to you, for which I apologize, and I appreciate your graciousness here.
We agree completely that crimes against children are among the most repellent. Kids cannot consent to anything and they can't generally fight back against bigger and stronger targets. Adults who target children should slide themselves into vats of boiling sewage and spare us their pathologies. Crimes against the defenseless--whether slaves or children--are the mark of cowards and should be fought by normal people at every turn.
Have a good weekend, Pacificus!
P.S. I only pick age 18 because that's the legal age of adulthood in America. Agreed that age 25 might be more ideal for most consents, but it will never happen. I'd settle for a ban on such surgeries and potions until legal adulthood.
Worse than slavery and lynching? Girl, you be tripping.
Lynching wasn't state action if nothing else
Yes, because slave owners and lynchers are not seen as paragons of society and upheld as those who should be listened to and heeded, such as doctors. That’s what makes this so heinous, even among the most heinous of evils.
Right. No slave-owning president was ever seen as a paragon of society. No wealthy plantation owner ever enjoyed the respect of his community. No paragons of Southern society ever picnicked under the charred body of a lynched man. I'm sorry, but you are in a state of hysteria. It's messing with your judgement. I really believe that.
Oh come on now, “hysteria”, such hyperbole is uncalled for, but carry on since you “really believe” it. Have a good day.
Yes, I think the argument can be made that the institutionalized gender mutilation of children, supported at the highest levels, politically and culturally, is the single most despicable thing that has ever happened in US history. At least in the cases of slavery and lynching, you had broad opposition to what was occurring. Try wrapping your mind around that idea. It might be it is you who is the one who is "tripping."
Um, slavery wasn't supported at the highest levels of government? Um, police in the South didn't look away when black people got lynched - much less picnic beneath their bodies? Um, we didn't have to fight a long and bloody civil war to end slavery? How broad was that opposition again?
And, um, there isn't broad opposition to medical intervention for trans kids? When's the last time you watched the most popular news station in America?
Yes, I think you're tripping. This bugs you in some... what? religious way? It's just icky? I dunno. Yes, some kids are getting medical interventions they shouldn't be and that's tragic. And the current system of care is bad and certainly not suited to the numbers of trans-presenting youth and needs to be changed, but it ain't the horrifying crisis you think it is. Check out my post on top if you want news about real crises.
Whatever. I just want you to feel better! Come on down and meet my kid. He's great! He's doing hella better than my evangelical cousin's kids - lol. (Btw, she got a boob job - so much for loving the body God gave you.)
Per your short bio on your profile......you might be a "liberal living in a liberal bubble", but you have an odd way of "engaging with other viewpoints". Smug to the core.
If thinking that equating a small number of teens getting medical interventions to which they've consented - rightly or wrongly, and however damaging to them - to slavery (rape, beatings, murder, selling children away from their parents, etc), Jim Crow, lynching, and Nazi experimentation on Jews (and anyone else they thought inferior) is abhorrent and ignorant or, charitably, just bats*** crazy, yes, I'm smug. I'm sorry my tone rubbed you the wrong way, but I really find this view - and the doubling down on it - shocking and disgusting.
And, dude, I just came on here to agree with the author! With the caveat that I didn't think passing laws banning the procedure across the board is the right way to go. I thought there might be discussion of different ways to ensure all kids' safety and well-being. Given The Free Press says it's *about* debate, I didn't expect this to be 100% unified chorus of hysteria and hyperbole and disrespect for the one mother of a trans kid who bothered to show up. But y'all - not me - have made it perfectly clear other people's stories and experiences and opinions are not welcome. This obviously isn't the type of place I thought it was, with a mix of opinions. Sorry I interrupted the circle jerk.
Zarathustra, there is a "mix of opinions" on this page...you just may not be used to having yours challenged. How else to explain your rude and obscene replies?
This is what "a free press" feels like. Again, you may not be used to it.
Pacificus, in my anger, I unsubscribed, but as it stays active for a month, I have time to apologize for being "rude or obscene." It's truly not like me to say things like that.
The question of why I lost my temper has been troubling me. It wasn't that I've never had my views challenged. I think now it was that I was unprepared for the passionate intensity of the opposition here and, more, by how totally outnumbered I'd be. I wasn't prepared for how vulnerable I would feel, in that context, both protective of my child and defensive of myself as a mother. I felt like I'd naively strolled straight into a firehose of misrepresentation, judgement, and calumny aimed directly at my most personal experiences: mothers like me are wannabe hipsters mutilating their kids' genitals to be trendy; or we're pathetic, brainwashed dupes; or we're out-and-out child abusers.
I didn't get that feeling from most of the folks who replied to me, but from tenor of the comments as a whole. As for your comments above, I realize they upset me both for the reasons I stated, and because they functionally situated my parenting choices on a spectrum with historical horrors ranging from slavery to the Holocaust.
Anyway, I'm sure my comments weren't keeping you up at night, but it bothered me that I might remain evidence for you (and other readers) of the world being filled with rude, angry people. As evidence that we really can't get along. Especially because I don't believe that. I believe that, aside from actual psychopaths, we all mean well and we're all doing the best we can with the knowledge we have at the time. I'm sorry I was a jerk.
And please know my child is well-loved and protected. In the scheme of human suffering, he is one of the world's lucky ones.
"Especially because I don't believe that. I believe that, aside from actual psychopaths, we all mean well and we're all doing the best we can with the knowledge we have at the time." Beautifully said, and so true.
Zara, the passionate intensity of so many of the responders (myself included) was sparked by the outrageous story that confirmed what many of us already knew, sort of--that the "transition" industry for children is an incomprehensibly barbaric surgical response to the struggles with gender identity that have suddenly become epidemic, esp in girls. "We are building the plane while we are flying it"--certainly a candidate for the Grisly Quote of the Year.
And if you question any of this, or the related insanity of the "gender identity movment," you are labeled a "phobe," and cancelled--if it can happen to JK Rowling, it can happen to anyone. Again, that is where the emotional intensity of the commenters is coming from, I think.
That said, if I have uoset you with my remarks, I am deeply sorry. I will be thinking about you, and praying for you and your child, and wish you nothing but the best. Don't knowh ow we could set up an ongoing channel for communication, but if you would like that and think it might be helpful, I am willing to do so.
Much love, Pacificus.
Thanks for this understanding and helpful response. Even liberals - especially moderate liberals like me - chafe at the severity of the “cancel culture” practiced by some impassioned activists. Their voices are powerful. Problem is we tend, as a country, to swing between extremes - the outcry then the backlash. Often caught between are the people whom the issue actually affects and who just want good information and basic compassion and not to be anybody’s political football.
I would love to be able to carry on the type of conversation that could help different “sides” understand each other even if it’s impossible to agree on everything - or anything! I don’t know how to make it happen. I don’t feel comfortable sharing any contact information here. Maybe somebody else will read this and know how to do it safely. Or if somebody knows of a website or other online space specifically for people who want to have such conversations, I’d be very interested. Folks here doubted it, but I really do love talking to my conservative family members (the only ones I socialize with). Even as they’ve gone further to the right, and even when we can’t find common ground, we’re always able to make the other feel that the most important thing is we love and respect each other as human beings. And we can still have a load of fun together. I wish more people had this experience.
Whatever happens, I’m glad we revisited our conversation and so can leave with some hope or even slightly greater faith in humanity. Thank you again for taking the time to reach out in kindness.
Zara (if I may) thank you so much for your heartfelt and sincere reply...just skimming through it here for a moment, I feel as if we have much in common--more, perhaps, than either of us thought possible as of yesterday.
Please allow me to reflect a bit on what you have said and respond in greater detail later today or tomorrow.
I'm not quarreling with you about this, that's with another commenter. However, your "tone" in your response was very smug and that's not how you engage with other viewpoints.
And, I'm not a dude.
For some reason, your comment came to me instead of Zarathustra.
I'm going to blame the Chinese spy balloon....
After reading the article (as opposed to the comments), I see that I have not spent enough time studying the transgender issue. I think my neglect is due to the fact that I have put most of my attention on the millions of people trying to recover from the abuse of their parents. A far bigger and more timeless problem than the fate of transgender children. As rabid as you are about transgender, how many of you have seriously looked at the effect of your own parenting on your children? If you have, my hat's off to you. If you haven't, you have no legs in this conversation.
Yes, we did have a "long and bloody civil war" to end slavery...that's kind of my point. The opposition to slavery began during the time of the Revolution and gained strength more or less continually until a war was fought to end it, and in the face the fact that slavery was enormously profitable. I'm just hoping we can go through a similar process with pediatric gender mutilation surgery,but that it won't take nearly as long to be successful. Never forget: their were far more "white people" who, to varying degrees, opposed slavery as compared to the relatively few in the Southern states who could afford to own one.
As for lynching: true, the Southern sheriff often looked the other way when a lynching occurred, if he wasn't involved himself. But that was not always the case--lyniching was still a crime, even if often unpunished. Can't say that about the fad for Pediatric Gender Mutilation surgery--its'fully legal, and you risk your career to speak out about it. You see my point.
And by the way: figures on the NAACP homepage suggest that roughly 4,800 people (of all races) were lynched between 1882-1968....figures from 2020 alone show that nearly 10,000 African Americans were murdered, in the vast majority of cases, by other blacks. That concerns me far far more than does lynching, which has largely been ended. How about you?
So, the craze for Pediatric Gender Mutilation surgery "ain't the horrifying crisis" that Jamie Reed and I think it is...guess we'll just have to agree to disagree on that. History will judge us both on that.
I will choose ignore the rude and insulting tone of your remarks. It does not speak well, either of you or your positions.
It bugs me in an anti gay, anti woman anti mental health and anti human flourishing kind of way. It would take ages to dissect all those angles. Simply put, the exponential degree to which kids are seeking medical transition is being co-opted by an activist class that has zero interest for their long term well-being but are very willing to make them patients of a capitalist medical system that makes them patients for life.
And this is the scariest part, seemingly kind people cannot grasp how dystopian this all is. They just can’t see the consequences of this. Like it’s no big deal. It’s actually societal collapse level stuff when you drill down and we are being prevented from speaking about it by the ruling class and the mainstream.
Guys, guys! No it's not. Society is not collapsing. I promise.
❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
My question is Just who will this be Toxic to? I've never seen/heard Anything that s so Toxic you can't Talk about it. IF I were a suspicious person I might suspect something is being hidden.
Maybe my grandchildren will move back to the US before they graduate high school.
My daughter and SIL are currently raising them in Asia to keep them away from this lunacy.
We moved to Costa Rica to protect my daughters, aged 12 and 15 from this bullshit. Their private school in Colorado, Colorado Academy, had several girls convinced they were boys.
I totally support what you are doing. You are only a very small minority of people with the ability to do such a radical move. What's more, it will lead to people like yourself being the leaders of what is left after these feral monsters get done torching the world with their sickness of mind. It seems the two ends of the economic spectrum, those who can escape entirely such as you, and those far below me on the spectrum, too rooted in reality to be indocrinated, will be those left standing. Praise God. It now just all depends on how much damage the Wokies can do in the meantime.
Insane!
Funny, I was looking around purple states for a non-woke high school and actually looked (on-line) at Colorado Academy. We left the hot bed of Manhattan and yep, this stuff is being introduced at child’s new (non-NYC) independent K-8 school.
It’s frightening!
Here's how it is working between the "health professionals," schools, legislators and your children in many states. We are from Colorado so here's the CO example:
1. Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment ("CDPHE") contracts with The University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Center (“Anschutz”) to survey kids about their mental health issues.
2. In 2021, Healthy Kids Colorado Survey was given to more than 106,000 students, in grades 6-12 attending 340 schools in 51 different counties in Colorado. www.coloradokids.org
3. Question #3 of the Survey asks kids to state their gender identity. Questions 4 and 5 ask questions specifically about transgenderism.
4. Questions are "aggregated and anonymized" by Anschutz to populate CDPHE's public data dashboard. In other words, CDPHE can't tell me which schools were surveyed. Schools have no duty to tell parents any information about kids social transitioning in school.
5. CRS 12-245-2035, codified in 2019, allows "youth who are 12 and over to have legal access to outpatient psychotherapy services that might otherwise be unavailable without the consent of or notification to the youth's parent or legal guardian."
https://casetext.com/statute/colorado-revised-statutes/title-12-professions-and-occupations/health-care-professions-and-occupations/article-245-mental-health/part-2-general-provisions/section-12-245-2035-minors-consent-for-outpatient-psychotherapy-services-immunity-definition
6. HB 23-1003, currently about to become law, creates a Mental Health Assessment program, administered by CDPHE that specifies that "students 12 and over may consent to participate in a mental health questionnaire (presumably the same one as above), administered by a Qualified Provider who can direct additional treatment of the student without the parent's consent. Presumably all the referrals are for “specialists” at Anschutz.
https://leg.colorado.gov/bills/hb23-1003
7. Under the American Academy of Pediatrics (“AAP”), gender-affirming care for adolescents is medically necessary and appropriate. The AAP isn’t saying that it might be medically necessary and appropriate. AAP providers do not need to make a finding of medical necessity. https://www.aap.org/en/news-room/aap-voices/why-we-stand-up-for-transgender-children-and-teens/
8. Anshutz has a huge educational program aimed at "convey[ing] the core concepts of gender-affirming care to prescribing primary care providers interested in improving care for transgender and gender non-binary patients." https://medschool.cuanschutz.edu/docs/librariesprovider323/default-document-library/transgender-health---core-concepts-for-primary-care.pdf?sfvrsn=b5e4f2ba_2
9. Anschutz will happily provide any and all gender-affirming related services as part of its Transgender Program.
https://www.uchealth.org/services/diabetes-endocrinology-care/uchealth-integrated-transgender-program/
10. Anshutz has 29 different providers that can help your minor with his/her "transgender journey."
https://www.uchealth.org/provider/
11. Sex-reassignment surgery was valued at $1.9B for 2021 and “and is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11.23% from 2022 to 2030.”
https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/us-sex-reassignment-surgery-market
Sorry for the long post!
OMG. Thank you for the detailed post.
"Anshutz" even sounds like "Auschwitz".
Both involve eugenics movements.
"Echoes of Eugenics: What the Doctors Trial at Nuremberg Means for Us in the US" https://pitt.substack.com/p/echoes-of-eugenics-what-the-doctors
Where's the new school? Colorado Academy teaches gender ideology as early as Kindergarten. We are in the process of undoing all the ideological training. We paid a ton of money to have our kids' minds totally poisoned.
Same here - our daughter's mind was poisoned at an Independent high school in another state. We paid a ton for it as well.
A friend of mine that pulled her kids out of private school said the funniest, albeit tragic, statement: "Well, you can get it for free or you can pay for it."
Have you taken the phone away? Or at the very least, put monitors on it? Ditto on their computers? Ensured they aren't on harmful Social media apps, like Tiktok?
If you're not using one, it doesn't matter what school your kid goes to, they will get indoctrinated.
I'd ensure they go nowhere near TikTok or Discord.
Here's a link to some parental control apps: https://www.tomsguide.com/us/best-parental-control-apps,review-2258.html
I use this: https://www.mcafee.com/en-us/parental-controls/mcafee-safe-family.html
Shuts the phones down at bedtime, and lets me know what they're using, and also has a phone tracker, so I know where they are as well.
JakeD:
This is so helpful. Thank you for the links.
I worry about my younger daughter, 12 who is very impressionable. She won't get a phone until 8th grade or later, but she has access to her IPad and my phone and my husband's phone. She is sneaky.
She was checking out Deviant Art on my mom's phone. So, I had her watch TV in my bedroom so I could keep an eye on her and she started watching a bunch of anime. I would need a phD in computer engineering to keep up with her hacking skills.
This was back in 5th grade, two years ago and she had several non-binary/trans kids in her class (all biological females). Back then, we didn't realize the pernicious progression of this nonsense; we were piecing it together.
It seems to go something like this: pronouns glorified at school > Deviant art website > Discord > Anime > Tiktok> GSA (Gay Straight Alliance which is now Gender Sexuality Alliance -- although our school denied this even though they were well aware of the rebranding) > social transitioning > puberty blockers > "top surgery." Shriver discusses a lot of this. Have any parents seen additional pathways?
Yes, it's a dangerous world. I also have conversations, probably once a month about the perniciousness and the danger of the transgender ideology. And I contrast it with how the world was...oh, up until ten years ago.
And though they sometimes go around my methods of watching them (with the apps and such), and it's no fun punishing kids (they seem not to understand that we don't buy them things for the sole purpose of the joy we get from taking them away!), in the end, I feel a lot safer knowing that they're avoiding all the "crazy" out there.
I liked this comment on today's PITT substack which is a letter to the NYT:
"Follow the money. The billionaire pritzker family makes money from trans drugs. Name, shame, and punish all the doctors who harm children: https://yuribezmenov.substack.com/p/how-to-do-no-harm-part-2"
Good for you! My husband and I knew that transexual "rights" were on the rise when our daughter ROGDed but never imagined it would jump out of the middle aged men category or be promoted in high school. Perhaps parents today do have one advantage in that they know they need to tell their kids that sex is binary - a too obvious fact for us to have thought of discussing in 2017. She chastised us for never telling her about the weird nonsense - like it was truth we kept from her.
I agree that safety controls are good. I also think that having kids use computers and televisions out in the open where you can see what they watch is best. Then, if something disturbing comes up you have a chance to discuss it. Pretty much all content on TV seems to be laced with GI now. You really cannot keep this entirely away from your daughter because it is the culture now. This is why I want to see GI debunked and a museum made to the atrocities that transpired. Something you can do is get your child busy with real things in the real world - especially in nature. Maybe she could get a small job dog walking? Or, is there a nearby farm where she might pitch-in? 4thwavenow.com came before PITT and the mother who ran that site sent her teen daughter to work at a horse farm & she desisted. Maybe a little preemptive dog walking would be good?
I've had my kids computers in the open and we use them all in the same room. Even my 21 year old, still living at home son still has his computer in the same place it was seven years ago.
Hi JakeD. You offer good advice. But... nothing will be enough until society understands that GI is junk science and a junk civil rights movement wrapped up into a cult.
Our feminine daughter was half way through high school with a flip phone when we learned she'd been groomed by other kids at school. We didn't even know that any girls or women went for transexuality but we were not on board with social media (without "trans" on our brains). And, our house Wifi went off at night. ROGD hit us. Abigail Shrier published her article in the WSJ and later her book which I eagerly awaited. Lisa Littman published a study. I couldn't believe that the NYT and everywhere else just published rah rah articles like those of "Jennifer" Boylan. And, no one cared about this issue in the last election. What good are "conservatives" who cannot conserve our daughters? Now, we have First Female 4 Star Admiral Richard Levine running policy and a Supreme Court Justice who does not know what a woman is.
Our former high school now invites "FTMs" (Cosmetically Masculinized Women who I prefer to call CMW) to assemblies to talk about their lived experiences - or something.
Families move, they try to cut off everything, but just like with Anorexia and Bomelia, it finds girls in every society that hears about it. The difference is that we never celebrated those. They didn't make fetished men feel validated. People were not making vast sums of money off of them. And, there was not this potential to use body parts to fulfill a sick fantasy. Have you seen this one? https://townhall.com/tipsheet/madelineleesman/2023/01/16/childrens-hospital-talks-about-uterus-transplants-n2618349 Have you noticed that we are not allowed to say that anything at all is sick? It isn't kind. We even have the normalization of pedophilia movement with MAPS. Ok, maybe an infinitesimal number of men had this thing called Gender Identity Disorder, but lets face that it is a mental disorder - even if some of them "treat" (damage) their bodies for it.
These days our young adult daughter is very busy doing some real things in the real world. She is loving again, physically unhurt, and I suspect mostly desisted. No one in the family ever went for a nut name or pronoun so she doesn't have to explain anything to us. But, I think it is embarrassing for young people to admit they made a goof - especially with peers...
These days I want justice. I want to see some "experts" lose their licenses. I want to see jail time. I'd be fine with bringing back the gallows for a few. Examples need to be made (legally). - LM
Sorry for the delay in response.
While I agree that society needs to change - that takes time, and kids are being impacted NOW. I am recommending things that can be done now, today, so that some protections can be made and the transgender attack fought back against.
Obviously, some of those wouldn't have worked in your situation, and I can only imagine how hard all that must have been that you've had to deal with. I'm also thankful that you and your daughter have come out the other side, safe and whole.
In the end, nothing beats attentive and involved parenting, but parents can't be there all the time, and whatever tools we can find to help in this rapidly changing world, help fill the gap.
Thank you JakeD. I appreciate your responses and we are in firm agreement.
Maybe depending on circumstances and the degree to which this trans travesty grows and infiltrates all spaces, it will be impossible for some to protect their children. That's why I think hard about how it can be taken down. It's junk science and a junk "civil rights movement" in need of being exposed to the public. Then, I think we need to see a few - like Richard Levine - serve jail time for promoting the mutilation of children based on pseudoscience.
Agreed. And on the positive side, it seems like almost daily, we're seeing some of this being peeled back. In an odd way, we can thank Elon Musk - we might just owe our country to him at some point, since one of Twitter's chief content moderators was himself a Trans! Obviously, the purchase of Twitter, and the impact on the freedom of speech, and now things like the "Twitter Files" - all have impacted the level of discourse in this country.
And it seems like, while the tide hasn't turned, at least there's acknowledgement that there's actually a battle to be fought.
Loving Mother- I am sorry for the pain your daughter and self have had to endure at the hands of the school and healthcare union that abused your child. The abuse is rampant and pervasive. The Catholic Church of the 1970's have nothing on the gender identity abuse being thrust on kids. Imagine if the Cardinal of Boston said- 'The priest was not a child rapist of the altar boy- he was just Minor Attracted Person acting out. We will now send him to NM to recover"
They should lose license first and prosecute for neglect for sure. However this candle was lit a long time ago with schools & healthcare workers being involved in mandated reporters and custody cases in family court. This is where the empowerment of the beast began. Anonymous reporting that is redacted unless a criminal act is proved by the reporter. Complete lack of accountability with power. Power in the hands of people who unlike police have no training to investigate, but special policing duties to report. Due to the compartmentalization of their reports someone can easily hide a prejudice or an agenda. Most people are responsible, but if you are a bad MSW- you can cause havoc, just like the MSW's are in this story. Add money, like in custody cases and family court, and you have a lethal combination for kids and families. A whole new brand of abuse was born and in this case physicians and clinicians are lining up to reap the dollars on the souls of the kids.
Thank you, Matt C.
I agree. A large number need to lose their licenses. A smaller number - especially those who make policy - need to go to jail. But, will they?
They are the largest parasitic ticks buried in. Everyone needs to keep in mind it is not just their own liability, but the larger institutions liability that they endangered. The larger institutions are vicious. These are the same people who shield serial killers at hospitals to protect the institutions. i.e. The Good Nurse on Netflix. They will not report deaths and disfigurements to protect liability. These people need to be made criminally liable for hiding things like this. Once you know or suspect something is harming or killing patients you should have a mandated reporting duty when they know there is a problem within their ecosystem like within the transgender nightmare. Also if you know you have a habitual reporter who is creating false abuse claims for custody issues or a hero complex, and yes this exists with Social Workers and Nurses, these people needed to be held criminally liable and have immediate licensure suspended and/or revoked.
I take one, and only one, exception to your comment: Rachel Levine is NOT female. :)
Right. He's a man named Richard who started going by the alias "Rachael" a few years ago.
I think that for people like him we need to start saying the truth - that he has an "alias" - not a spirit name or whatever.
I agree with every word and I'm so glad your daughter is safe.
Agree with you about the "experts." I actually think parents should start patronizing Doctors who actively disagree with the gender affirming recommendations of the AAP, in favor of gender-critical practitioners.
Thank you. I think she is...
Yes. I think it might have to be a doctor in private practice. If the doctor belongs to a medical organization it is likely the organization insists they "affirm" - at least in the US - hopefully not in Costa Rica! In some states doctors can lose their licences for being "gender-critical"/non-believers.
It's horrifying, isn't it? I actually had to write everything down because it was so surreal that I would doubt my recollection for the rest of my life if I hadn't.
Yes. I was physically shaking to find they were calling my girl a crazy name and "he". And, they refused to stop, but patronized me instead. Classroom teachers know your kid so well and you the mother must not have paid attention to her growing up or something. The other thing the teachers have been trained to do is beam and smile about it while you feel you will crumble to the ground. If someone really did have a mental disorder called gender dysphoria (which I did not think for a min our daughter did) why would you start doing a happy dance about it? The whole thing has such a cult religious nature. Like - Jesus has been found to be talking through your child! Holy holy holy holy. You've got one.
Then, since you the mother are clearly upset you are offered counseling which is all about gaslighting the parent to go along with it. Parents are pressured to attend these "support" meetings which are really all about how GI is real and getting you to believe. I did not attend.
This one really is on the adults. Teens can be driven by peers to do weird stuff - but the adults in the room? I really do think a few "experts" need jail sentences.
I am so sorry to hear about your story. I completely agree with you. The school was "agreeing" with every thing I said and then not changing a thing. My 10 year-old was having nightmares because they showed her a movie suggesting that black people were CURRENTLY in the US being handcuffed and pushed off buildings for violating curfew laws. She asked to go somewhere on spring break where segregation was illegal. There were several girls in her 4th grade class social transitioning in school. I had never heard of puberty blockers until she told me in 5th grade (!) that her classmates were taking them. I'm 48 and have voted for Democrats for most of my life. The shit that the Democrats are up to right now is so poisonous that I will never vote for another Democrat as long as I live. The overreach is horrifying.
My husband and I promised to take the year off from the stress of all this stuff in Costa Rica. But, guess what?! The first people we met had a very similar experience as yours. They were just here to keep their kids safe.
Agree with you on all fronts. Please keep fighting the fight.
Thank you for sharing your story. Terrible. It's good your family can stay in Costa Rica. So smart to leave when your daughter was so young. I am not surprised you met another family fleeing the madness. I hope the ideology does not infiltrate the culture there. Our daughter is older than yours. I don't think I'd heard of "puberty blockers" even when we had the ROGD experience in high school. I'm worried about future generations, too.
Yes, I have voted for Ds and Rs - having been an Independent all my life. I don't think I will vote for a D again and I will not vote for any R unwilling to "fight a culture war". I wonder whether Tulsi Gabbard could run on the ticket with Ron DeSantis.
Thank you for the great link you provided recently.
The American teachers at our (very normal international) school in Costa Rica are bringing it here. They are starting by talking about pronouns.
I’ve considered leaving again. I can hardly believe I’m saying that. But In truth the remedy is to stand up and fight this. Truth wins it’s just taking more time than it should.
Wish I knew how to fight this ! Especially living in a blue state!
Please, please, please check out these websites for information on who to send letters to:
https://feministstruggle.org/tag/erin-friday/
https://ourduty.group/2022/10/08/we-need-to-stop-transing-kids-now/
It is going to take every single one of us to stop this madness. As I type this, Colorado (D) legislators are trying to codify 12 year-olds access to mental health counseling (i.e., gender confusion and ideology) in schools, over the parents' objections. The school then refers the child to a gender-affirming specialist/counselor. Because it's gender affirming and not gender-critical or gender-questioning, it's a one-way ticket to puberty blockers and "top surgery" (the current euphemism for traumatic, elective radical mastectomies in minors.)
Speak the truth out loud.
EXACTLY THIS. Many times with this madness (Ukraine comes to mind) we are unable to do much as oftentimes these politicians say they will bring change but then they don't. In this case though speaking out can change things. This took hold by means of social contagion, and it will be the only way out.
We have to commit to the fight if Truth has to win!!
Grappling with what this looks like every day.
It looks like this: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gBQBxsdUznKcmP9R5whj0VNkJTEPqGHtloU7i6khEJQ/edit?usp=sharing
Kind of a boring letter, but skipping ahead to the parent testimonials will give you a very good sense of what is being done in expensive private schools. I have several pages full of horror stories told to me by parents.
Making me sick every day Mc and to think this gets Federal $$$$ we are in the twilight zone, it can’t last forever. Travistock in England has already closed down. We got to hammer away at this mad administration to stop this and stop it now!!
That’s quite a sacrifice, but I’m sure it’s worth it!
It was really hard pulling two very happy kids out of a school with their friends that they had known for years. My husband and I fought about it daily for about a year. But, believing the transgender craze to be a contagion based on Abigail Shiver's book, we figured we had to get out. He was so pissed that the school was turning our beautiful young students/girls into anxious wanna-be boys. Here's the letter that I wrote to the Board begging them to calm the hell down with gender ideology. The school was hiring gender ideology experts to teach kids about how many different genders there were to choose from. I told the Principal at a meeting that it was emotionally inappropriate for elementary and middle-school kids and he disagreed, saying it was appropriate as early as Kindergarten. I have so many horror stories. Still trying to sort it all out and live a calm life in Costa Rica.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gBQBxsdUznKcmP9R5whj0VNkJTEPqGHtloU7i6khEJQ/edit?usp=sharing
I applaud your and your husbands decision please God wherever you are you manage to grow your beautiful children into adulthood in peace take care!
Thank you for your sweet comment.
It is worth it, there a lot of people out there that know this is all wrong, we just have to find our own way forward collectively, we can vote this nonsense out of power and we must!!!
I don't see good trends in many areas in the US, be it DIE (yes I reversed two letters because it's more consistent with the outcome of putting demographic status over merit), ESG (a push based on bad science), surrendering self determination to international organizations (loss of self determination), "education", "science", and censorship. I looked at relocating, but the insanity is still spreading and other places have their own issues. If I had school age children, I would educate at home, or pool resources with like-minded people to develop a (monitored) tutor system. Opting out of many areas seems to be the only option left.
I told
My daughter that I would pay for private schools no way my grandkids are being indoctrinated while I’m still living
Even the best private schools in the country have been infiltrated, along with the religious school. This Critical Pedagogy stuff began being taught in the Education Colleges in the '90s. It's soaked through the entire pedagogy of thought in education. Wanna have your head explode? Go research 'whole word theory"...They've stopped teaching phonics as an act of 'restorative justice'. They are okay with failing to serve all but the 'under-privileged' - who they fail as well of course. Kids are learning phonics outside of school now, smart parents make sure they do. They don't really 'learn' anything anymore the way my generation thinks about learning. Rather, they are given things 'to know' and ways to navigate knowing. Imbued with hard core Marcusian Crit Theory madness.
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but this stuff is everywhere.
At least relocate to the most conservative state that is practical for you to move to. "Circle the wagons" with people who share your values.
The lies of the woke tyrants cannot be made more clear than this brave author made clear. And the woke's lies pervade every aspect of our lives.
Will Bari Weiss and the other partially red-pilled "liberals" finally support leaders who understand this and have the courage to fight with those of us who see no alternative but to fight in every sane and practical way to save our once great nation. Will they support Ron DeSantis, Sen Josh Hawley? Or will they equivocate?
No. Progressives here and elsewhere will not deviate from the ingrained voting patterns that lead to such disasters. Otherwise, it would've happened long ago. Suicidal self-hatred is the very core of their raison d'ètre. I have no doubt whatsoever that the author of this piece will never support any candidate that is not explicitly vetted by the Democratic Party, and their record of catastrophic social policies.
These pieces always remind of the old B-movie trope "Stop me before I kill again!" LOL
D.I.E. (commissariat)
DIE is the right term! It’s the authoritarian way to make people comply...much like the Chinese Cultural Revolution!
BOOM! You got that right. The CCP is NOT doing this to their population, however. Wonder why?
When did they move?
Before my eldest grandchild started elementary school.
What year?
TMI. Sorry.
Lol. TMI. Yeah....because they moved way before all this trans/kids trans reeassignment stuff all started being discussed last year.
My friend's bio daughter has been on this track since she was 12; she'll be 18 in March. Parents only allow her to bind, nothing else. She will thank them a million times over in a few more years.
This has been going on a long, long time......and you know it.
Correction: adopted daughter; my friend is the adoptive parent.
If a psychologist would have actually met with her to find out what was really going on in the 6th grade rather than just affirm these feelings, she may have revealed that her biological mother (who she has an open adoption relationship with) went on to get married and has three sons. How do we know that deep in her subconscious she might think she would have been kept by her biological mother if she had been born a boy. We may never know now.
Intelligent people are capable of foresight.
No wonder I never see anything coming :-)
That I do not believe.
Aw! Thanks, Lynne :-)
Maybe you just started discussing it last year, but it was being discussed well before that. Abigail Shrier's book, Irreversible Damage, was published in 2020, and obviously, all her concern about the issue and research came from years before that.
2020? Man....that's a long time ago.
I guess your ideological blinders prevented you from reading further in Elizabeth's post, to wit: "and obviously, all her concern about the issue and research came from years before that."
Oh, yes....I'm sure SHE was concerned...but YOU weren't and neither were the majority of people until last year. So, give me break that this has been something on the major cultural radar until recently.
If it weren't for Matt Walsh and Christopher Rufo, 99% of people wouldn't even know about all the stuff they're told to be concerned about.
So, I guess YOUR ideological blinders prevent you from seeing basic reality.
It is a book very well worth reading. And I’m sure since that time there have been many more children who have been abused in this way.
This "stuff" has been discussed for years. Good friends of ours have been watching helplessly as their nut-job daughter-in-law (a therapist no less!) has convinced her daughter (adopted) since she was 8 years old that she's a boy. Last year she moved into hormonal treatments, and I'm sure she will soon be pushing for surgery any day now that the girl (oops, boy!) is 13. All this started 5 years ago, not "last year". Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) was even at that time performing surgeries, so you have no idea what you're talking about with your made-up timeline.
The lunacy has been going on a long time in many forms.
Look at you: you daily demonstrate an utterly illiberal inability to recognize the validity of dissenting views, and with your handle it seems likely you are exposing our children to your bad ideas somewhere.
Common sense is not complicated. What is complicated is rationalizing obvious stupidity.
Your post has summed up this troll perfectly Thanks Barry!
Lol. Me asking how many kids have undergone gender reassignment surgery is trolling. Everyone has a psychiatric meltdown.
You people are pathetic.
Buh bye.
But the issue if the article was trans kids, etc
I give the same amount of validity to opinions from others as they give to mine.
Yes, you are right. I scream at white "children" (undergrad & grad) about how they're all oppressors, then I take off 10 points from their final grade for reparations, demand everyone uses pronouns and mutilate their genitalia.
Yes....I used common sense, which how I figured out no one moved their entire family to Asia to get away from trans lunacy that just started being discussed mainstream in late 2021. Kinda like people discovered "illiberal" as a buzzword....which by the way doesn't mean "you don't give other opinions validity."
Now, does ANYONE on here have any data about how many kids are transitioning or interacting with these clinics? I would legitimately like to know.
Wait, so you're lying when later you say you already knew but you were just making sure everyone did his own research? Because you're Comprof, of course. Ever the vigilant professor? You fork-tongued bloviator. You do make a really good pinata, though.
Thanks for your comment. For those of us who need to stop this MADNESS NOW, check out these sites:
https://feministstruggle.org/tag/erin-friday/
https://ourduty.group/2022/10/08/we-need-to-stop-transing-kids-now/
There's so much work to do. Ignore this guy.
Read this....think it helps answer your question.
https://quillette.com/2023/02/10/social-contagion-and-transgender-identities/
I just moved my family to Costa Rica to protect them from trans-lunacy and the first other family I met here was from the east coast doing the same thing.
People spend too much time being baited by your comments. But, it's now time for us to show you the door. We've all got work to do. Adios, sir.
So now you're a Tico?
The surfing is great there. Can't wait to go back.
100 clinics did not appear overnight, this has been going on for a long time, it is only now that is coming to the surface . Brown U. prof’s data on “social contagion”
Fascinating. Really.
You basicslly repeating what I'm saying. No one was talking about this or CRT until Matt Walsh and Chris Rufo started talking about it last year.
Perhaps you have only been following this since late 2021. Also someone with young children would have seen the signs of it earlier.
Whatever the number, it is too many. It is totally illogical and ridiculous to say that anyone is born in the wrong body. Maybe some who are mentally disturbed, but no normal person would ever say that. It has been exacerbated by social media and it has been so lucrative to the medical industrial complex and to big Pharma. I just hope we stop this insanity.
It didn't start in 2021. According to the article, the uptick started in 2015. I noticed it personally about ten years ago, and started warning my children.
Trans lunacy may not have been the only trigger. It could be the larger culture and the education system it has created.
Not "may not," it "wasn't" - which was my point.
Yes, it is an epidemic.
Not only is there a skyrocketing number of clinics, in other countries they are already starting to be closed. I suppose you haven't heard of the Tavistock debacle or of how some Scandinavian countries are stopping this barbarism.
Reuters has some data from Komodo Research through 2021. Based on insurance claims so doesn't include anything paid for out of pocket, and because of phrases like medical treatment of one form or another to "help alleviate their distress," and "After suppressing puberty, a child may pursue hormone treatments to initiate a puberty that aligns with their gender identity" assume extreme pro-transition bias. Results are tragic & market share of surgical treatment expected to more than double from $1.9 billion in 2021 to $5 billion by 2030.
One of the more fun factoids: "The Komodo analysis of insurance claims found 56 genital surgeries among patients ages 13 to 17 with a prior gender dysphoria diagnosis from 2019 to 2021. Among teens, “top surgery” to remove breasts is more common. In the three years ending in 2021, at least 776 mastectomies were performed in the United States on patients ages 13 to 17 with a gender dysphoria diagnosis, according to Komodo’s data analysis of insurance claims. This tally does not include procedures that were paid for out of pocket." And I wonder what happens to incidence not specifically tied to a diagnosis, but that's just me.
https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-transyouth-data/
https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/us-sex-reassignment-surgery-market
That may be the most confusing and unintelligible collection of words I have ever read.
Good. So, 56 genital surgeries and 776 masectomies, some of which cases probably overlap/had both done.
See....that wasn't so hard, was it?
Hilarious that you anchored your entire bad-faith position on the idea that this just started last year and now you are demanding data.
You, as a simpleton hack, are still in the “it’s not happening” phase. I will let you know when it is time to switch over to “it’s good that it’s happening”.
Don’t engage Kevin!
The Good News is that if "Comprof" represents "the other side," than our side--the side of justice and righteousness--will prevail.
If they can't call you a "transphobe," they got nothin.'
The author said there were 100 such clinics. We already know that there are such clinics run by hospitals associated with major universities because they publicly announced it. Maybe someone would know if we didn't have an administration who has a comedic admiral in a dress. At least Klinger was only a corporal. And, fictional, to boot.
Check out this link for financial information about the sex reassignment industry. It lists some of the big players.
https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/us-sex-reassignment-surgery-market
Here's one from PITT that charts the child gender clinics in the US:
https://pitt.substack.com/p/why-is-this-happening-and-who-can
Yeah, back in the day, "Corporal Klinger" was a joke...now he(?) is running our health care system...guess the joke is on the rest of us now.
"Anyone who raised doubts ran the risk of being called a transphobe. "
Name calling is the first line of defense a leftist uses. It is designed to stifle any debate and the reason they don't want debate is because they have no solid ground to stand on and if you push them for a reasonable response they change the subject and leave in a self righteous huff.
Like comprof, they have this smug, superior attitude that they are intellectually better than the unwashed masses. Comprof comes off as "I'm an educated (inarticulate) college professor (a claim I dispute). How dare you question me, you uneducated boob. Plus, I am a sensitive, caring liberal and you are a NAZI, uncaring, racist, uneducated, brutal dolt. How dare you question me!"
Bruce, do you think I have summed this up, nailed it?
I already know how many clinics, but that wasn't the question was it?
There's probably at least 100 auto repair shops, too.
Does anyone have data on how many kids under 18 have gone through transition surgery or interacting with these clinics?
Yeah...don't think someone wearing a dress is inhibiting the collection of this data.
My daughter and her husband have asked that their kids’ personal information be limited. I never post pictures of them anywhere. I don’t use their names or specifics about their location.
The eldest grandchild is in elementary school. The youngest is a toddler. They left the US when the eldest was three.
That enough for you?
Fishing has a lot of aspects: sometimes the most effective way for a lazy fisherman who doesn't feel like doing his homework is trolling. Rather than do the work of studying his game, the lazy fisherman just hangs some bait on his hook and drives his boat and see who bites. It's a very lazy way to fish but sometimes pretty effective. The only way to discourage such a fisherman is for fish not to bite.
Yep. Confirms the move had nothing to do with the issue/s of the article.
I never said they moved solely because of the trans lunacy. I said that the trans lunacy coupled with the erosion of parental control over their progeny in multiple fora is one of the primary reasons they’ve decided to remain outside the country.
See: CA and WA.
So yes this subject absolutely is a major factor in their family calculus regarding whether and when to return.
Marie - ignore the troll. There is absolutely nothing sincere about trying to drill into your family’s situation.
If I had children that age, I would homeschool or move, if possible to a country where this is not happening. Who wants to see their children destroyed?
Go back and read your initial comment.
You don’t owe It (I don’t want to assume pronouns) anything.