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Follow the money. The billionaire Pritzker family funds many trans health initiatives because they make money from drugs that these patients must take for the rest of their lives. These doctors should lose their licenses for violating the Hippocratic oath.

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author

My sense is that it's ideology-driven more than profit-driven—although the business certainly helps reinforce and expand it.

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Not to mention drilled into our childrens minds while At School! YES PUBLIC SCHOOLS, PRIVATE SCHOOLS, RELIGIOUS SCHOOLS Too!

I cant imagine the horror we will find when DAY CARES GET INVESTIGATED!!!

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Feb 8·edited Feb 14

We have allowed this creeping crud to invade our nation and common since, it started in the grade schools and kept going as the children grew up through High School, college and then recycled with teachers trained in college to cycle more into the system that will propigate the problems. Its called Socialism which results in Communism, which basically means we lose our identity in favor of letting Deep State tell us what we can do and what we cannot do, what you will submitt to and what you will not believe, that you are all nothing more than a collecton of pusstulates for the minupulation of the Megga Wealthy and Deep State, New World Order, or Globalists.

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Bill Gates is a Prime Example

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Have you heard of Harris County Judge “Phyllis” Frye?

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They should go to prison.

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No, that is way too good for them.

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Eunuchs

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A well placed .045 projectile can take care of that problem

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Yes, sin has alway been around. That is no excuse to have hedonistic rituals. You have to study the entire scripture to see the reaction of Christ in repelling these sick demons. And he especially had compassion for the protection of children.

Back to follow the money. Hormone replacement or withdrawal impact on the brain is measurable. Suicides are high. These are test kids for the avant- guard hospitals to make money under the disguise of “compassion”. Wait until a person is full developed mental maturity at 23 yrs, and then have a discussion after they have researched and interviewed a few groups joy or trials.

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So what do you think is happening? Are you suggesting gay people are pushing gender identity ideology? Why would they do that, since most gender non conforming children grow up to be gay or bisexual if adults keep their scalpels away from them and let them grow up naturally. Wouldn’t that be directly against their own self interest?

I might be misunderstanding you.

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Well, firstly, I don’t misunderstand the nature of these “treatments.” There was no way for you to know that, of course. I’ve been spending the last six years sounding the alarm about them. This is the worst medical scandal in history.

I was actually asking you why you think gay people, in particular, would support “transing” kids that will likely grow up gay. It seems like they’d remember how difficult it was and would want to protect them. Of course, if you already think all gay people are horrible deviants, then I can understand why you might think their intentions were good, or that they’d have empathy at all.

I happen to be acquainted with several gay people who are actually being shut down and shut out of the discussion, though. Jennifer Bilek being one of them, and Fred Sargeant being another, who was there at Stonewall the night the infamous first brick was thrown, and all throughout the riot. He went on to found the very first event, the Christopher Street Gay Liberation March: what later was appropriated by libertines to become the display of grotesque sexual excess that is “Gay Pride.” He’s been absolutely horrified by what’s happening, particularly with kids and women. It was never covered by mainstream news outlets, but he was actually attacked and injured at a Vermont Gay Pride parade by “queer” people (read: most likely straight) who didn’t like his sign, which read “Gay, not Queer” on one side and “woman face” crossed out on the other. These idiots not only attacked a 70+ year old man, and they had NO idea who he even was. The judge didn’t even want to hear from him.

I also follow Josh Slocum, here on Substack, who is a gay man and former leftist who has seen the light, so to speak. His Substack, Podcast, YouTube, and Rumble channels are called “Disaffected” and I think you’d find them enlightening. Gay people are far from united on the subject of “trans.”

The insidious and legitimately evil thing about this castration cult isn’t just that it’s a parasitic, fake movement. Bilek is correct about where the money comes from, but it’s much more complicated than that. I worry that “normal” gay people, who aren’t out parading naked in the streets or trying to teach kids bullshit while they dress like the world’s ugliest strippers, are going to suffer the brunt of our anger and rage once people finally wake up to this Mengele level medical torture.

Whatever you feel about gay people, or their life choices, they are not driving this madness. There has been quite the effort to make it *appear* like the T belongs with the LGB, but it didn’t. In fact, all the gay people I know are against it. Of course, this trans madness did fool some gay folks, and they’re still oblivious to its harm, like a lot of straight folks. and both groups, bless them, think they are helping distressed kids. But they haven’t thought hard about it, and all it’s implications.

It took so much work and so many years for gay people to finally be seen as legitimate members of society, both under the law and in the eyes of heterosexuals. Why would they support their own destruction? Why would gay people, who make up less than 10% of our population (in actuality it’s far less, I’m pretty sure) want to tell Christian parents “Hey, thanks for the rights! We’re gonna start your child, castrate him, put him in a dress and give him to a pervert to raise!” It would be literal suicide! Plus, whatever you think about gay sex, being gay does not make someone evil, or paedophilic. Paedophiles are nothing but sexual predators, in the most literal sense possible, and studies show that orientation has little to nothing to do with it. It’s just predators looking for easy victims. If they could rape adults, they would.

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Thanks, Justine. You're absolutely right. I've seen the drags at Stonewall now being labeled as "trans", no doubt as part of the trans ideologues' propaganda efforts to falsify history.

The word "queer" is now and always has been a slur of the worst sort, right up there with the forbidden "N word". I'm sure it was adopted by the anti-truth postmodernist (un) Critical Gender Theorists for its shock value, and it is apparently now being used as an all purpose, all inclusive term for anyone who wants to claim some of the social cachet of oppression. In fact, the only survey data I have found that roughly half the people who self identified as "queer" had never had any experience or even a fantasy that was anything but entirely conventional heterosexual in nature.

From my standpoint, the radical trans ideology is the new homophobia. So-called "conversion therapy" (old style), now considered unethical if not illegal, sought to eliminate the socially unacceptable same-sex attraction and replace it with the accepted opposite sex attraction. So-called "gender affirming medical care" is the new style of conversion therapy. It aims, indeed promises to reconfigure a body afflicted with an unacceptable same-sex attraction to a different body for which that attraction is acceptable. As a gay man, I will never be interested in a natal female who has mutilated her body to be a pitifully poor imitation of a male, and I doubt any heterosexual female would be either. Any minor who presents as trans should be shown pictures of the outcome of surgery and warned, "this is the best we can do".

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Can you explain to me why Heterosexuals don’t wave a flag about their sexuality?

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Yes. I agree completely. This the worst conversion therapy our country(s) have ever seen. I’m so glad that you can see it, too.

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Would it surprise you to find out that the men who “transition” to a female “identity” in middle age are overwhelmingly straight and married, with young kids? It’s true. I was in a relationship with one. Fortunately

Trans-identifying people are mostly straight. Keep in mind that the gay population is very small. The “queer” population is much, much bigger. The gay people I know are offended, but not surprised, that “queer” is the word of choice. For most of them, that word was what they heard as they were being heated up and harassed. It’s a huge slur. Of course, the gender identity’s borg don’t care how gay bigots are offended (they’re bigots, see, because they only have same sex relationships. Queer warriors think everyone should have sex with everyone.

I’m going to go ahead and just let you know that I’m a 50 year old bisexual woman who has been married to a man for almost 30 years. I’m not going to ever agree that sexual relationships between adults is sinful or immoral. I grew up religious, and I have zero problem with Christians or anyone else for their beliefs. My extended family is evangelical and we get along fine. I really only want to point out that this isn’t coming from gay people. In order for us to stop this destructive cult, we’re going to need to join together to say no. Getting the truth out about exactly who is behind this, and what their agenda is, is more important to me than anyone’s political affiliation, religious beliefs, or anything else.

Stonewall, and just about every other organization that we’re once dedicated to gay rights, are at this moment run by a majority of straight “advocates.” Stonewall actually purged all dissenting voices from their ranks when they started defending transgender ideology, including longtime gay and lesbian employees who pointed out that trans was in direct opposition to gay rights. It is, of course. What I’ve been able to find out is basically Stonewall and the other orgs, once marriage equality was achieved, decided that “trans” was the Next Big Fight. Planned Parenthood did the same thing when Roe was overturned. This is absolutely a $$$ thing. No more money in abortions and securing equal rights? Throw out the gays and erase women! Gotta stay profitable!

If you like, I can cite my sources for you. If you’re looking for truth, like I am, you’ll find it very interesting and infuriating.

As far as rights go, it’s true that the Constitution does not guarantee gay rights. That’s not how the Constitution works, though. You don’t have to have a thing mentioned, specifically, in the Constitution in order to be free to act. That was by design. Imagine how complicated, limiting, and frustrating it would be if you couldn’t make a move without checking to see if the Constitution listed it as one of the approved actions! In the USA, we are allowed freedom to make our own decisions, associate with the people we choose to, and make our own way in the pursuit of happiness. So... the decision to allow gay marriage was 100% Constitutional.

Do check out Josh Slocum’s “Disaffected” Substack while you’re here. I highly, highly recommend it. The man sees the situation very clearly. He’s also recently spoken up in defense of Christians, especially after the Nashville shooting, where a deluded female member of the trans cult shot up a Christian school. Josh has gotten a LOT of hate and been called all sorts of horrible things for not being in lockstep with all things “left” and “queer.” In his own town in Vermont, he’s seen as a villain by the idiots running the schools and government.

If you appreciate a blunt, funny, and stubborn contrarian, you’ll enjoy Josh’s thoughts. Plus he’s been right 100% of the time, as far as I can tell. Dennis Kavanagh is also good. He’s another acquaintance of mine who has a Substack. He’s a barrister in a England and head of the Gay Men’s Association there. He has a very funny series of videos following the gender cult shenanigans in the UK, and all the shit the cult has tried to sneak by the public and into law.

The truth behind our current situation is SO much more nefarious than “the gays are at it again.” As I said before, I’m more than happy to share my citations.

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Until there are severe penalties, these hospitals will continue to do it.

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founding

But why? How can trained medical professionals actually think it’s a good practice of medicine instead of experimentation on children? When and how have these doctors been brainwashed?

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author

They justify it to themselves a million ways, but mostly through bogus, ideologically-driven studies.

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It appears that some percentage of the better known doctors and psychologists who carry out "affirmative care" are people who transitioned in adulthood. Trans-identified healthcare professionals have also held leading positions in WPATH, the organization that sets standards of care for trans-identified patients.

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founding

Marci Bowers comes to mind - the man who thinks he is a woman surgeon.

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Yes, Dr. Bowers has been in the leadership at WPATH.

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The Texas House and the Texas Senate have just passed SB 14 which bans Gender Modification on minors. The governor will sign the bill and it will, I think, go into effect on September 1st.

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author

I hope they don't muck it up at the finish line. This story should help motivate them.

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founding

Yes it did. What’s very interesting is that one Democrat legislator, a woman named Shawn Thierry, gave an impassioned speech in favor of this bill, SB 14. One wonders if, sometimes, an occasional Democrat feels a slight wind of change coming and votes against the pack in hopes of being on the right side of history.

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The Democrats who take courageous votes for laws like this are disproportionately Black. The Black community has had some relevant past experience with immoral medical procedures being done on them, and hence are more willing to stand up and speak out this time around.

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Black people are on the average more socially conservative than "liberal," except on abortion access.

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founding

Let's hope that she felt the call of something higher and better. It is possible...

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May 16, 2023·edited May 16, 2023

Once people become convinced that they have achieved an exalted level of wisdom and morality, that they are the Good and Smart who know better than the unenlightened lesser orders, that their idealism-colored glasses give them a glimpse of the Promised Land, there is no atrocity they won't commit because of "good intentions" "for a better world" etc etc (insert self-flattering delusion here).

The Trans cult baptized in Gender ideology really believe that they are saviors of the marginalized, that the holy Trans child was put on earth to teach us all about "inclusion" and being your True Authentic Self™, and that with their scalpels and hormones they will sculpt their version of the Soviet New Man, the New They/Them.

These people really believe that mutilation and sterilization are compassion, and that biology and reality are illusions while the feelings of disturbed children are holy writ etched in stone.

In their minds hiding a child from their parents, changing their sex behind their parents' backs, and starting them on their "gender journey" with drugs and surgeries, makes them the moral equivalent of the French Resistance, hiding and saving poor victims from the evil oppressors trying to kill them (those oppressors being Mom and Dad, and the immutable reality of human sex).

They will not stop until some opposing force stops and defeats them.

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author

They absolutely believe they are the advanced, enlightened class, performing miracles for "trans kids."

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It is bizarre and fascinating how many prior religious rituals and beliefs are embedded in the supposedly atheistic Church of Social Justice.

The Trans Child is to the Left what the Christ Child is to Christians, the innocent who has arrived to cleanse away our sins and lead us to a better purer world. With the very American difference that we can each have (or at least worship and adore) our very own living one!

Only some sort of mania or delusion could actually lead someone to believe that they are providing "compassionate care" to a child by mutilating and sterilizing them.

It is modern barbarism, an updated therapeutic sacrifice of innocents.

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founding

I agree with you, Christopher, but still, the strange thing to me is that the US persists in treating children with these outrageous methods while the more socially liberal countries (Netherlands, Sweden, etc.,) no longer follow the Dutch protocol in treating childhood dysphoria. Puberty blockers followed by cross sex hormones may now only be used within a clinical trial setting. These countries performed systematic reviews on the small number of existing studies and found very little, if any evidence for the value of these so-called treatments. The Europeans also understand that there is some level of very real danger and serious side effects from all of this. The growing number of "gender clinics" here in the US push this stuff while continuing to site the support of the agenda driven medial associations which all follow WPATH direction. My question is this - clearly these US physicians understand the quackery of all this- why do they push the limits. This model will eventually fall and lawsuits will follow...

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It’s my understanding they want children to experience childhood. It’s a special time.

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They won’t even stop then ( when it’s illegal) but once the wealth of the physicians is curbed by law, “cut and paste-on sideshow monstrosities” will be big capitalism only overseas where body maiming is still for profit - there will be noble nations morally opposed ( Russia comes to mind) but in a lot of nations either Woke Ideologies or third world safety standards will guarantee results.

In the long run, the new type of human stitched together by Mary Shelly will finally question the whole new outfit. Meanwhile gender dysphoria’s single benefit is to spill filthy lucre into medical markets.

By the way - your precise writing style makes for a powerful read . Thanks 😊

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You are right, people could still take their kids (or someone else's kids) to Thailand or someplace to have them neutered, and they probably would. That is what many adult trans-identified people have done for decades. It will really help this country, however, when more families start suing the physicians here for participating in this anti-scientific, harmful practice.

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Hey thanks!

In the words of Thomas Bernhard: "One describes best what one hates."

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founding

"Last spring, executives at Texas Children’s Hospital announced that they would cease performing transgender medical procedures on children,..."

"I have obtained exclusive whistleblower documents showing that, despite its public statements, the Houston-based children’s hospital—the largest in the United States—has secretly continued to perform transgender medical interventions, including the use of implantable puberty blockers, on minor children."

Of course - but proof is important, and can be carried over as prima-facie cause for looking into other purported stoppages, elsewhere. "Trust but verify."

This conduct is like the lying - is an extension of it. They cannot stop acting upon their ideology any more than they can stop advocating for it - ideology is a compulsion which defies reason. This is the outcome.

This will require licensure and criminal penalties to gain a semblance of lawfulness.

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author

Yes, you'll see in the linked source documents just the tip of the iceberg of what they're doing.

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founding

These doctors should be outed and publicly shamed.

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author

Yes.

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Chris, I don't know how to do it, but thank God that you do.

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Criminal prosecution with hard prison time, followed by civil lawsuits, is the only answer when dealing with sociopaths and greed.

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founding

I believe that you are realistic, here.

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May 17, 2023·edited May 17, 2023Liked by Christopher F. Rufo

I teach at a community college, and without a doubt, the Left has won the race through the institutions. I am now a subversive, with my students, quietly teaching normie values such a 2+2=4!

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May 16, 2023Liked by Christopher F. Rufo

Mengele redux.

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SB 14 needs some amendments and it needs to start YESTERDAY!!!

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author

Agreed.

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A "Childrens Hospital".Really?

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They do it at a Children’s hospital in Los Angeles too

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Our problem here is that the child sterilizing cult actually believes in itself. They really do think they are doing right by these kids to sterilize them and inject them with carcinogenic wrong-sex hormones. This is the pattern with the child sterilizing cult: some practitioners will continue in secrecy because they believe their own nonsense so completely. Helen Webberly (in the UK) is the most famous example. So much of the cult has taken place online, in "communities" out of sight of regulators, that demand continues to keep the quacks in business. These "communities" egg the ruminating child on, love bomb them, tell that they just need to keep the faith and everything will be fine. Believe, and everything will be fine. They go so far as to kill detransitioner insurance coverage bills because the strict church succeeds by making it hard to leave.

It's a cult, Chris. I'm not just saying that to be mean.

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Obamacare helped grease the wheels for these horrific surgeries being done with insurance coverage approval. Obamacare also gave rise to abortion coverage for same reason. Women made a big deal about having to pay for birth control pills, voila now no problem. No responsibility to not get pregnant nor stay pregnant.

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Although I am stridently left wing on many issues, I part company with so many of my leftist allies who are under the spell of a crypto psychotic movement to modify genders, reshape the human body in the image of a mutiliated victim who they will consider liberated, and turn us into sexless, organless, politically correct automatons.

Among other things, they are too stupid to understand that a young child's desire to be a member of the opposite sex is often a transitory interest which will pass with the next TV season. Show an impressinable 4 year old boy a cartoon about a girl who fights monsters and he may think he wants to be a girl. Unfortunately , our social justice warriors are too pathetically stupid to understand this.

I knew a boy who, at the age of 5, wanted to be female. His Mother cured him of his transgenderism. She taught him all the favorite male sports, he was very good at them, the other guys loved him and he suddently found make up and rouge very boring. I have a piece on substack in which I enumerate 9 reasons why transgenderism is a warped political agenda masquerading as a "scientific phenomenon."

https://davidgottfried.substack.com/p/9-proofs-demonstrating-maternal-culpability

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"sex-change interventions"?

No one -- at least no human -- ever changes sex. And I wish people -- particularly those critical of "gender affirming surgeries" -- would stop using the phrase, at least absent a bunch of scare quotes. Doing so just gives credence to the "argument" that sex changes in humans are actually possible; it just contributes to an egregious medical scandal, to another Big Lie.

While our genitalia are euphemistically referred to as our sexes, that is most certainly not at all what the standard biological definitions stipulate:

"sex: 1.1) euphemistic in singular A person's genitals"

IF having a vagina or a penis was sufficient to qualify a person as a female or as a male, respectively, THEN, sure, we might reasonably talk about people changing their sex. But, again, that is most certainly not what "male" and "female" denote in a scientific and biological context -- or even in credible dictionaries:

"sex: 2) Either of the two main categories (male and female) into which humans and most other living things are divided on the basis of their reproductive functions."

https://web.archive.org/web/20190326191905/https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/sex

As indicated, having a sex is all about having a reproductive function. Somewhat more precisely, see the definitions from the Glossary of this article in the Journal of Molecular Human Reproduction:

"Female: Biologically, the female sex is defined as the adult phenotype that produces [present tense indefinite] the larger gametes in anisogamous systems.

Male: Biologically, the male sex is defined as the adult phenotype that produces [present tense indefinite] the smaller gametes in anisogamous systems."

"Gamete competition, gamete limitation, and the evolution of the two sexes" (Lehtonen & Parker [FRS]):

https://academic.oup.com/molehr/article/20/12/1161/1062990

Seems that virtually every last man, woman, and otherkin has their own rather idiosyncratic if not self-serving definitions for the sexes. If we're going to resolve the transgender clusterfuck then it seems wiser to base our policies on scientific principles and definitions.

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author

It's not a perfect term, but "child sex-change procedure" is immediately understandable to the public and much more accurate regarding its intention—which, yes, is impossible—than "gender-affirming care," the new euphemism they're pushing.

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Why not "child sexual mutilation and sterilization"?

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Thank you. Anytime anyone refers to “gender affirming care” or “sex change” or whatever, I correct them and call it what it actually is too - mutilation and sterilization. Period.

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I like to use "turning dysphoric and autistic children into sexless eunuchs" -- about time we started calling a spade a fucking shovel -- so to speak:

https://web.archive.org/web/20201113021904/https://standpointmag.co.uk/speaking-up-for-female-eunuchs/

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Sadly, what the "public understands" -- i.e., MIS-understands -- by both "sex" and "gender" is a major part of the problem. Don't think that it helps at all to give any sort of credence or weight to such.

Though that misunderstanding isn't helped much by the fact that far too many so-called biologists and philosophers are a large part of the problem -- witness the "debate" over whether sex is a binary or a spectrum; see my post:

https://humanuseofhumanbeings.substack.com/p/binarists-vs-spectrumists

But, maybe arguably, a bigger part of the problem is that some half of the population see "sex" and "gender" as synonymous -- mostly those on the Right and among the religious -- while many on the Left, somewhat more credibly, see "gender" as a rough synonym for personalities and personality types. For examples, see this British Medical Journal editorial, even if they're a bit vague on the specifics:

BMJ: "Sex and gender are not synonymous. Sex, unless otherwise specified, relates to biology: the gametes, chromosomes, hormones, and reproductive organs. Gender relates to societal roles, behaviours, and expectations that vary with time and place, historically and geographically."

https://www.bmj.com/content/372/bmj.n735

And the late Justice Scalia had a usefully illuminating and cogent analogy:

“The word 'gender' has acquired the new and useful connotation of cultural or attitudinal characteristics (as opposed to physical characteristics) distinctive to the sexes. That is to say, gender is to sex as feminine is to female and masculine is to male.”

https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/service/ll/usrep/usrep511/usrep511127/usrep511127.pdf

But see this tweet by evolutionary biologist Colin Wright which succinctly summarizes the problem re those conflicting definitions for gender -- even if his idiosyncratic definitions for the sexes contribute to the general problem:

"Most confusion about 'gender' results from people not defining it. Many definitions are in circulation:

1. Synonym for sex (male/female)

2. A subjective feeling in relation to one's sex

3. Societal sex-based roles/expectations

4. Sex-related behavior

5. Personality traits"

https://twitter.com/SwipeWright/status/1234040036091236352

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We should consider we've been handling this wrong in so many ways. Perhaps we ought to practice saying "thank you for self-eugenicizing your family" as a response to every proud announcement that Timmy is now Tina. In a sense they're doing society a favor.

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Yeah. Though maybe more pointedly, "thanks for turning your kid into a sexless eunuch, for taking them out of the gene pool".

ICYMI, an old article by Helen Joyce in Stand Point magazine -- no longer in operation but one I had thankfully archived, although the formatting is a bit screwed up:

https://web.archive.org/web/20201113021904/https://standpointmag.co.uk/speaking-up-for-female-eunuchs/

But, apart from emphasizing or promoting the idea both human females and males can be turned into eunuchs, I think it's useful that she also emphasized that most kids will grow out of that dysphoria -- at least if greedy "doctors" don't take advantage of them:

"Every study of pre-pubescent children with gender dysphoria has found that the great majority become comfortable with their birth sex before reaching adulthood. Many turn out to be gay. Now, however, clinicians regard their condition as signaling a cross-sex identity."

Seems that society owes something of a "duty of care" to such kids who may well turn out to be good parents themselves otherwise.

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founding

Yes, and I believe that some of the European studies, or maybe it was the Cass review from England that observed that the majority of these kids outgrow "gender dysphoria."

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Among the many things that trouble me, though, is that there's no shortage of ways to permanently harm or modify the body of one's children, or to severely damage them in other ways that will affect their future lives and happiness, and there are religious customs such as circumcision, which some European countries have tried from time to time to outlaw, and I'm not so comfortable about that.

How far can "duty of care" go in a society that purportedly respects freedom of religion and of the rights of parents (which are so brutally under attack these days)? Schools and other mandated reporters are both the good and evil faces of intervention to protect kids from harm.

I think as usual with many weighty issues there is never one good umbrella-policy answer, and there are always horrors we are too late to prevent.

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Quite agree -- on pretty much all accounts. 🙂

Reminds me of an article by "English neuropsychologist" Nicholas Humphrey which I'd first run across in Dawkins' The God Delusion:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_Humphrey

"In short, children have a right not to have their minds addled by nonsense. And we as a society have a duty to protect them from it. So we should no more allow parents to teach their children to believe, for example, in the literal truth of the Bible, or that the planets rule their lives, than we should allow parents to knock their children's teeth out or lock them in a dungeon."

https://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/humphrey/amnesty.html

"nonsense" in this case at least being much of "gender ideology".

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And yet here we are with all those brains addled by "the Science" too.

I think it's wrong, all those cults all over the place, and some of them called "mainstream religion" and some of them defined as "secular," putting the guilt and terror of "sin" into kids from an early age, however one defines the various sins in question, but I really do have a greater horror of gubmint deciding what is safe and approved, or otherwise, for parents to do with their children.

It's very grim to recognize that every day babies and children are savagely harmed and killed. And yet when the social workers and emergency room physicians were given lots of power to determine what abuse was, awful horrors were sometimes perpetrated against innocent parents and their families destroyed forever.

[edited for typo]

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Yeah -- too many "scientism-ists", even among so-called scientists and biologists. As you know 😉🙂, I'm not too impressed that too many of them are "reluctant" to accept the biological definitions for the sexes by which to have a sex is to have functional gonads of either of two types -- though most of the "lay public" is likewise:

https://humanuseofhumanbeings.substack.com/p/on-being-defrauded-by-heather-heying

But sadly, misuse or abuse of power, and outright ignorance is the proximate cause of a lot of grief. Reminds me of the satanic abuse panic which likewise destroyed many "innocent parents":

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satanic_panic

Somewhat more broadly, reminds me of "Hanlon's razor" -- "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity":

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanlon%27s_razor

Of particular note is the painting Wikipedia chose to illustrate the phenomenon:

"The Court of Foolishness of Gerard de Lairesse. The accused, pursued by Hatred, is led by Calumny, Envy and Perfidy before a judge with donkey ears, surrounded by Ignorance and Suspicion."

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If the mental disturbances that afflict the children are even partially hereditary, removing them from the gene pool would help.

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Except of course "mental disturbance" too is always open to interpretation and one's own biases.

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I disagree completely. This is a typical Post Modern obfuscation that does not reflect the true state of psychiatric science.

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One can consider religious faith of all sorts to be a kind of mental disturbance.

Me, I ain't no postmodern. But I dislike dishonesty in all its forms.

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"the true state of psychiatric science" is arguably a big part of the problem -- far too many have swallowed -- hook, line, & sinker -- the whole concept of "gender affirmation surgery", AKA turning dysphoric children into sexless eunuchs.

Though the record of the profession is rather "spotty" at best; see this case in an old version of Wikipedia's article on "perverse incentives":

"The Duplessis Orphans – Between 1945 and 1960, the federal Canadian government paid orphanages 70 cents per day, per orphan, and paid psychiatric hospitals $2.25 per day, per patient. Allegedly, up to 20,000 orphaned children were falsely certified as mentally ill so that the province of Quebec could receive the larger payment."

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Perverse_incentive&oldid=1113809074

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How about childhood sexual mutilation?

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Sorry for the late “Like”🙂.

Though I think that Substack is falling down on the job with their notifications.

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May 16, 2023·edited May 16, 2023

How about childhood sexual mutilation?

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founding

You are absolutely right.

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Thanks. 🙂

But such a clusterfuck, such a "perfect storm" driven by greed, "perverse incentives" -- and in more than one sense (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perverse_incentive), ignorance, pigheadedness, vanity, envy, and a pervasive scientific illiteracy.

Big part of the problem, particularly relative to that scientific illiteracy, is that most people seem not to realize that -- as that Oxford Dictionary entry emphasizes -- the sexes are just categories, are not any sort of "immutable identity". And as categories, there's the question of exactly what are the criteria of membership, what are the "membership dues".

Apropos of which, you may have some interest in my kick at the kitty, at that "age-old question" of "What is a woman?": 🙂

https://humanuseofhumanbeings.substack.com/p/what-is-a-woman

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