It’s great that James has stood up and reminded NYU Langone that they need to reopen services to trans community - But the mayor who promised to stand up for the same community is silent ( Has he made a deal with trump during his 2 visits )
Trans youth/minors have rights. So do affirming/supportive parents. Anti parents really have limited input. Minors kicked out on the street deserve disability benefits then again we should have UBI, anyway. No one is pushing medicinal or surgical treatments in any arbitrary way. Nor are we interfering with or prohibiting them. Life will be life.
Thank you for stepping up, Ms. James... and now that you've got some practice, please do it sooner next time. This has been going on for a year now; you should have a stack of boilerplate legal broadsides loaded and ready for same-day delivery, at this point. It should not take weeks to have an intern fill in the names of whichever organization is over-complying in advance this time.
Meanwhile... another transphobic piece from at the Atlantic. This time from a gay man, Ben Apel. You can glean pretty much all of it just from the title and subtitle:
"In Defense of Effeminate Boys —
If anyone had suggested that I might really be a girl, I don’t know how I would have responded."
Excerpt: "My childhood experiences make me skeptical about pediatric gender medicine today. In many kids who grow up to be gay, gender nonconformity manifests long before overt same-sex attraction does. Yet from peers, from social media, and even from some school districts’ teaching material, kids learn simplistic lessons that equate gender nonconformity with gender dysphoria—in essence, If you act and dress like a girl, you are one. In recent years, many doctors and hospitals have been willing to provide puberty blockers and gender-related hormone treatments to minors after only the briefest evaluation of each patient’s circumstances, and LGBTQ activists have cheered the lack of gatekeeping."
I always wonder if these folks can back up their charged language with facts. How many is "many" and which ones, specifically? What is "the briefest evaluation," under what criteria and, again, specifically which providers are performing substandard evaluation? Those are usually signs of BS propaganda.
Why don't people understand that "sex" as it is commonly used covers both sexual attraction and gender identity? Effeminate boys identify as boys who are attracted to other men. But not all gay men are effeminate, obviously. Butch girls identify as women who are attracted to other women, but again, not all lesbians are butch. Transgender boys and girls know in their very being, from an early age quite often, that they have been born in a body that does not match who they know they are. Some transgender men and women are attracted to one sex, and some to the other sex, and some to both sexes... Sexuality and gender has many permutations, all of them just variations on the human condition. Can we just let people be who they are? And can everyone get the medical care they (and their parents in the case of minors) need as they experience their lives?
Agreed. Just one additional thing: there are plenty of effeminate men and masculine women who are, i.e., identify as, cis and straight, as well. Not to be pedantic.
But what’s with the Atlantic?! Just in the past few weeks I’ve noticed some real negative attitudes by journalists on three and now four occasions. I only started subscribing to it last fall. I won’t renew if this continues.
As an ally I am curious and ignorant about trans surgeries. Making up this example. If a parent can sign for their under the age of 19 child to have plastic surgery why would the doctors not just change the description of the surgery to plastic surgery. Am I totally out of the park with this question?
No, you’re not totally out of the park. There’s a little bit of wiggle room in what’s documented to justify a particular procedure but that’s not across the board for all procedures. But gender affirming care is comprehensive and doesn’t always include surgery. So, it’s just a lot more complicated than how any one procedure is described in the records and billed for.
In this instance, Trump is threatening to withhold all payments from Medicare and Medicaid for any and all Medicare/Medicaid patients if any gender affirming care is provided to minors. That’s something as simple as a provider helping a child sort through their questions about gender. But as Erin noted here, these providers have capitulated in advance of any law passed. “Obeying in advance,” is what Timothy Snyder calls it in his book, On Tyrrany.
It’s great that James has stood up and reminded NYU Langone that they need to reopen services to trans community - But the mayor who promised to stand up for the same community is silent ( Has he made a deal with trump during his 2 visits )
Mamdani owes us action to back up his words.
I'm glad to see someone standing up! I'm still waiting for IL's state AG to do something 🙄 so much for being a sanctuary state...
Tish for President! 🔥
Trans youth/minors have rights. So do affirming/supportive parents. Anti parents really have limited input. Minors kicked out on the street deserve disability benefits then again we should have UBI, anyway. No one is pushing medicinal or surgical treatments in any arbitrary way. Nor are we interfering with or prohibiting them. Life will be life.
Thank you for stepping up, Ms. James... and now that you've got some practice, please do it sooner next time. This has been going on for a year now; you should have a stack of boilerplate legal broadsides loaded and ready for same-day delivery, at this point. It should not take weeks to have an intern fill in the names of whichever organization is over-complying in advance this time.
God Bless Ms. James! She understands how important it is to stand behind our vulnerable communities. Hoping the mayor follows suit.
Meanwhile... another transphobic piece from at the Atlantic. This time from a gay man, Ben Apel. You can glean pretty much all of it just from the title and subtitle:
"In Defense of Effeminate Boys —
If anyone had suggested that I might really be a girl, I don’t know how I would have responded."
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/03/gay-boys-lgbtq-trans/686179/
Excerpt: "My childhood experiences make me skeptical about pediatric gender medicine today. In many kids who grow up to be gay, gender nonconformity manifests long before overt same-sex attraction does. Yet from peers, from social media, and even from some school districts’ teaching material, kids learn simplistic lessons that equate gender nonconformity with gender dysphoria—in essence, If you act and dress like a girl, you are one. In recent years, many doctors and hospitals have been willing to provide puberty blockers and gender-related hormone treatments to minors after only the briefest evaluation of each patient’s circumstances, and LGBTQ activists have cheered the lack of gatekeeping."
I always wonder if these folks can back up their charged language with facts. How many is "many" and which ones, specifically? What is "the briefest evaluation," under what criteria and, again, specifically which providers are performing substandard evaluation? Those are usually signs of BS propaganda.
Why don't people understand that "sex" as it is commonly used covers both sexual attraction and gender identity? Effeminate boys identify as boys who are attracted to other men. But not all gay men are effeminate, obviously. Butch girls identify as women who are attracted to other women, but again, not all lesbians are butch. Transgender boys and girls know in their very being, from an early age quite often, that they have been born in a body that does not match who they know they are. Some transgender men and women are attracted to one sex, and some to the other sex, and some to both sexes... Sexuality and gender has many permutations, all of them just variations on the human condition. Can we just let people be who they are? And can everyone get the medical care they (and their parents in the case of minors) need as they experience their lives?
Agreed. Just one additional thing: there are plenty of effeminate men and masculine women who are, i.e., identify as, cis and straight, as well. Not to be pedantic.
But what’s with the Atlantic?! Just in the past few weeks I’ve noticed some real negative attitudes by journalists on three and now four occasions. I only started subscribing to it last fall. I won’t renew if this continues.
That's good in terms of NYU Langone but what about Mount Sinai? How are they getting away with the same cowardly behavior?
As an ally I am curious and ignorant about trans surgeries. Making up this example. If a parent can sign for their under the age of 19 child to have plastic surgery why would the doctors not just change the description of the surgery to plastic surgery. Am I totally out of the park with this question?
No, you’re not totally out of the park. There’s a little bit of wiggle room in what’s documented to justify a particular procedure but that’s not across the board for all procedures. But gender affirming care is comprehensive and doesn’t always include surgery. So, it’s just a lot more complicated than how any one procedure is described in the records and billed for.
In this instance, Trump is threatening to withhold all payments from Medicare and Medicaid for any and all Medicare/Medicaid patients if any gender affirming care is provided to minors. That’s something as simple as a provider helping a child sort through their questions about gender. But as Erin noted here, these providers have capitulated in advance of any law passed. “Obeying in advance,” is what Timothy Snyder calls it in his book, On Tyrrany.