Thank you for staying on top of this stuff. It must take an unbelievable amount of determination to wake up every day and analyze this garbage. As the mom of a trans kid, I am extremely grateful to you.
I viewed the hearing held today and must say that my analysis of the hearings is that they were patently unfair and biased on a number of points. However, being a Republican chaired committee hearing, this was bound to be the case.
It was good to see my friend Shannon Minter in good health and just as sharp on the facts as I have always seen him. I was disappointed to not see HRC evident however, who could more address the political reasons for this hearing’s necessity. I was also very disappointed to not see any medical associations present.
I also thank Erin for outlying some of the points made by the infamous Friends of the Family, and note that I was dumbfounded by the comparison of Republicans to equate Trans youth to a list of prohibited deserts children should not be allowed. Truly incredible stupidity continues to try and make any Republican arguments reasonable.
However, it is apparent that the convoluted testimony of Republicans that jump from pre-teen, to pre-18, to post-18 year old trans people to justify their positions did nothing but contribute to making all the testimony miss understood and confusing.
In fact, no one has broken down the timelines of being transgender and providing suitable healthcare for trans people, but I do know that there are timelines that need to be explained.
Being trans from preschool to 4th Grade, then from 4th Grade to 8th Grade, are very different experiences for trans children. Being trans from 8th Grade to 18, presents new and other experiences for trans people. There may be some overlap in those ages based upon the intelligence, experiences and awareness of the trans children.
But, after all the talking, accusations and discussion, much of the argument comes down to the same old things, bathrooms and showers and women losing competitions to men.
What we know is that if given time and adequate health care from pre-school to 5th Grade, there are few issues because sexual maturity doesn’t happen for either sex until later. There are no fourth grade boys who have been allowed to live as girls, out there molesting 4th Grade girls.
So bathroom and shower issues don’t really apply until later on.
By the time those issues may become relevant, puberty blockers tend to blunt those tendencies by not allowing puberty to advance normally. We know this. So the issue becomes trans children in high schools and beyond who have not had access to any trans healthcare. So the argument about providing trans healthcare to children only concerns pre-puberty children and if Republicans can stop that care, their arguments about showers and sports could be valid. That is what they are trying to accomplish.
The availability of sports for Trans children needs to be taken on a sport by sport basis. Many school level sports that have distinctions between male teams and female teams should not be a problem for even conservatives. School teams like debate teams and cheerleading teams already pave the way for this. Other sports like archery, bowling, golf, billiards, table tennis, and diving, just to mention a few where achievements can be equally won by both sexes should be encouraged as determined by their oversight committees.
In short, one day, if we continue to fight for it and trans children can find places to compete, there will be equality for everyone and no need to stop trans healthcare at any age.
With all of the serious problems confronting our country, it is shocking and sad to see a subset of our congress spending time with all this political polarization, misinformation, and cruelty. We can only hope that regardless of what happens in congress, that the politically blue “safe” states - particularly those that have guarantees of gender-affirming care access written into their state constitutions - will somehow find a way to remain safe.
Thank you for all this excellent information. I would have like to see HRC there but as this is a Republican lead committee I felt assured they would not have been invited.
Using lies instead of decades of medical research that doctors use, republicans are trying to kill children just to score political points instead of doing anything good. This says a lot about republicans right now.
"The Swedish Study" is one of the most-abused studies by anti-trans activists, for the reasons Erin mentioned. Throughout the whole 30 years between 1973 and 2003 there were only 10 suicides among the 324 transitioners, so they weren't able to break that figure down by years. However, during that time there were 29 suicide attempts, which was just enough for them to compare the first vs. last 15 years.
And lo and behold, in the last 15 years (1989 - 2003), transitioned people were just as likely to make a suicide attempt as non-transitioned people! the "adjusted hazard ratio" was 0.7 - 5.3. If I understand that correctly, it means that I can say with 95% confidence that transitioning lowered the risk of the person attempting suicide compared to cis people, while someone else can also say with confidence that transitioning raised the suicide attempt risk. In other words, a statistically insignificant difference.
Thank you for staying on top of this stuff. It must take an unbelievable amount of determination to wake up every day and analyze this garbage. As the mom of a trans kid, I am extremely grateful to you.
These fucks are willing to kill us for political clout, and that makes me sad.
Keep up the good work and keep up the process of debunking the lies and keep illuminatung the darkness propaganda creates
Their arguments haven't changed and our rebuttals keep slapping them down but it doesn't seem to matter. At what point will the truth matter.
Truth stopped mattering to these people long ago. This is so sad and infuriating at the same time
I viewed the hearing held today and must say that my analysis of the hearings is that they were patently unfair and biased on a number of points. However, being a Republican chaired committee hearing, this was bound to be the case.
It was good to see my friend Shannon Minter in good health and just as sharp on the facts as I have always seen him. I was disappointed to not see HRC evident however, who could more address the political reasons for this hearing’s necessity. I was also very disappointed to not see any medical associations present.
I also thank Erin for outlying some of the points made by the infamous Friends of the Family, and note that I was dumbfounded by the comparison of Republicans to equate Trans youth to a list of prohibited deserts children should not be allowed. Truly incredible stupidity continues to try and make any Republican arguments reasonable.
However, it is apparent that the convoluted testimony of Republicans that jump from pre-teen, to pre-18, to post-18 year old trans people to justify their positions did nothing but contribute to making all the testimony miss understood and confusing.
In fact, no one has broken down the timelines of being transgender and providing suitable healthcare for trans people, but I do know that there are timelines that need to be explained.
Being trans from preschool to 4th Grade, then from 4th Grade to 8th Grade, are very different experiences for trans children. Being trans from 8th Grade to 18, presents new and other experiences for trans people. There may be some overlap in those ages based upon the intelligence, experiences and awareness of the trans children.
But, after all the talking, accusations and discussion, much of the argument comes down to the same old things, bathrooms and showers and women losing competitions to men.
What we know is that if given time and adequate health care from pre-school to 5th Grade, there are few issues because sexual maturity doesn’t happen for either sex until later. There are no fourth grade boys who have been allowed to live as girls, out there molesting 4th Grade girls.
So bathroom and shower issues don’t really apply until later on.
By the time those issues may become relevant, puberty blockers tend to blunt those tendencies by not allowing puberty to advance normally. We know this. So the issue becomes trans children in high schools and beyond who have not had access to any trans healthcare. So the argument about providing trans healthcare to children only concerns pre-puberty children and if Republicans can stop that care, their arguments about showers and sports could be valid. That is what they are trying to accomplish.
The availability of sports for Trans children needs to be taken on a sport by sport basis. Many school level sports that have distinctions between male teams and female teams should not be a problem for even conservatives. School teams like debate teams and cheerleading teams already pave the way for this. Other sports like archery, bowling, golf, billiards, table tennis, and diving, just to mention a few where achievements can be equally won by both sexes should be encouraged as determined by their oversight committees.
In short, one day, if we continue to fight for it and trans children can find places to compete, there will be equality for everyone and no need to stop trans healthcare at any age.
Your reporting is clear, accurate, and life-saving. Thank you!
With all of the serious problems confronting our country, it is shocking and sad to see a subset of our congress spending time with all this political polarization, misinformation, and cruelty. We can only hope that regardless of what happens in congress, that the politically blue “safe” states - particularly those that have guarantees of gender-affirming care access written into their state constitutions - will somehow find a way to remain safe.
The "Subcommittee on the Constitution and Limited Government" is the most ironic name they could have chosen.
Hunt is butter-butters..
Gaetz belongs in prison.
Thank you for all this excellent information. I would have like to see HRC there but as this is a Republican lead committee I felt assured they would not have been invited.
Great job! Super informative;another archival save “go to”resource for all things trans. Love the citations,banging!
Why is this any of their business?
These people, & their "opinions" really piss me off. 😤 (Will now share your article with my groups.🙏🏼)
Using lies instead of decades of medical research that doctors use, republicans are trying to kill children just to score political points instead of doing anything good. This says a lot about republicans right now.
"The Swedish Study" is one of the most-abused studies by anti-trans activists, for the reasons Erin mentioned. Throughout the whole 30 years between 1973 and 2003 there were only 10 suicides among the 324 transitioners, so they weren't able to break that figure down by years. However, during that time there were 29 suicide attempts, which was just enough for them to compare the first vs. last 15 years.
And lo and behold, in the last 15 years (1989 - 2003), transitioned people were just as likely to make a suicide attempt as non-transitioned people! the "adjusted hazard ratio" was 0.7 - 5.3. If I understand that correctly, it means that I can say with 95% confidence that transitioning lowered the risk of the person attempting suicide compared to cis people, while someone else can also say with confidence that transitioning raised the suicide attempt risk. In other words, a statistically insignificant difference.