Unconfirmed reports of an FBI probe in pediatric hospitals serving trans youth leaves parents, doctors and transgender youth in a suspended state of terror. That’s by design.
Sylvan Fraser Anthony nails it: "conformity" is the administration's goal. MAGA wants a country whose citizenry is entirely white, patriarchal, heteronormative, Christian, and english-speaking.
Republicans became terrified during the Obama administration when they saw data indicating a non-white majority by the 2040 census. Hence the current policymaking trajectory.
First, develop an infrastructure for genocide, deportation, incarceration, and genocide. This is currently in development using transgender Americans and foreign asylum seekers.
Secondly, use these capacities to mass arrest and deport/destroy non-whites, noncompliant women refusing to participate in White breeding programs, and of course, all queer people.
Thirdly, deliver instead of a diverse, equitable, inclusive, complex, multiracial, tolerant, secular, democratic , due process/rule of law, humanitarian Amerika by 2040, deliver instead an almost all white (some slaves will be needed for the dirty work, or "schmutzig arbeit", as Reichschancellor Stephen Miller would say), all straight Amerika that would have made the Führer happy in 1940.
Und here we are, in the Fourth Reich!
If you voted Republican and weren't aware of this essential truth, I have to ask; WHY? WHY didn't you know? How did you Nazi this coming? The GOP has been pretty transparent about their plans for White domination and Christofascist nationalistic subjugation!
I hope you enjoy your Wünderbar Amerika!
I of course won't be around to "enjoy" it, for as a queer person, multilingual, non-christian, leftist, educated, noncompliant female, disabled, I am on literally ALL the liquidation lists...I can already smell the Zyklon B warming up for me and mine!
I'll be kicked off Team Amerika and sent to the showers, FOR SURE.
The article cited for the statement about people under age 18 receiving genital surgery only rarely does not actually provide data to support that statement. The article used the age category 12-18 as the lowest grouping, meaning you can’t tell how many people under 18 are receiving this type of surgery. I didn’t think *anyone* under 18 was allowed to receive this type of surgery since that goes against WPATH guidelines.
That's not true. WPATH states that it's left up to the clinical expertise of doctors and to determine the level of maturity for each individual patient, true for puberty blockers, hormones or surgery.
They note that surgical intervention like genital surgery is typically not advocated for as standard practice for people below 18, the small amount of cases in which trans children below 18 DID get genital surgery are not only exceptionally rare, but also: most of the times have been 17 years of age, sometimes mere months away of turning 18.
By the way, The Standards of Care are not a guideline, they are more of a normbook and it's up to doctors to follow it (which most do). The Netherlands is actually a bit more conservative and upholds the 15 years of age limit for hormones most of the time, but some trans children have accessed them earlier, based on the clinical guidance of the doctor involved. Norms are allowed to be deviated from. Guidelines can also be deviated from, but tend to be more stringent.
I looked at table 1 in the mentioned article and ehm.... well. Are you seriously willing to base off your judgement on 0,84% of the total patient cohort that they studied?
Or if we take the 12-18 year olds as a category and use 3678 as 100% of that category, we are talking about around 11% of all the 12-18 year olds.
When we look at table 2 we get another quite good indication of where the numbers for 12-18 year olds might come from and pertain smaller numbers of smaller procedures prior to vaginoplasty, metoidioplasty/phalloplasty.
Because looking at the biggest genital surgeries combined, we get a number that does not fit the 12-18 year old category what so ever.
They also mention another number in the discussion (one I was not able to draw from the tables, nor the figures provided but it could also be I am tired and am missing a key statistic here):
"Our findings were also notable that GAS procedures were relatively uncommon in patients aged 18 years or younger. In our cohort, fewer than 1200 patients in this age group underwent GAS, even in the highest volume years."
Thanks for this additional insight about WPATH, Iris! I was just trying to convey that the data provided in the article could be used in a way that supports the narrative that there are a bunch of kids under 18 getting genital surgeries specifically, since they didn’t separate out the 12-17 yo kids from the 18 yo kids.
405 children between 12 and 18 are reported in the paper as having gotten some kind of gender-affirming surgery (GAS; 11% of that age cohort). However, every surgical intervention that is considered in the paper (including cosmetic surgeries) are counted as GAS, and the methods by which the authors attempt to ensure that the surgery is a "transgender" one (i.e. avoiding counting of breast surgeries on cisgender males, for example) is not perfect since it depends entirely on hospital codes.
A better reflection of reality is provided by doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.18814; where the example just cited is found to be 97% of the total reported procedures. (This paper also relies on those codes, to be sure.) This leaves 5 transgender patients in the country (out of nearly 23 million minors considered) who received this operation.
Also relevant is doi:10.7759/cureus.45948, which found exactly two youths (13.9 and 14.5 yrs) below 15 yrs; both were chest surgeries.
"This type" is a phrase which simply cannot meaningfully be used in the context of gender-affirming surgeries.
I do not disagree about “this type” of surgery being an inadequate descriptor, but that was just my poor writing using it as a shorthand to refer back to genital surgeries. I was trying to convey that I couldn’t draw any conclusions about the actual number of children under 18 who had genital surgeries from the data provided.
The numbers are often not made very clear. As a creative writer, I love ambiguity and feeling. As a scientist, I have to keep my feet firmly planted in Lord Kelvin's camp: “When you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meagre and unsatisfactory kind.” 😏
When I was writing scientific papers, there was never any doubt about the numbers!
The investigations, reconciliation boards, and prosecutions of those issuing, following, and conspiring to endorse these orders under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 & 18 U.S.C. § 242 are a thing to insist on and work towards. If such orders are linked to provoking suicide, then the death penalty should be considered for those most responsible.
“Marjorie Taylor Greene would rather force a clitoral reduction on an intersex 6-month-old than allow a transgender adolescent to get a prescription for puberty-pausing medication,”
Which is why there must be those prosecutions of the likes of her. She is the child abusing monster she pretends that she fights.
Why am I not surprised that they found a way into our private medical information anyway. They pick at minors right now, but this is for a mad dash towards ALL transgender people. All medical decisions should be in the hands of trans youth's parents, not this regime. MuskRat is sharing what he stole from government databases as the DOGE director.
So this would be all the circumcisions that are performed on MAB babies, right? Perfectly health foreskin being ripped off them all in the name of a religious belief. Which of course is the root of all the transphobia, delusional religious beliefs.
What did anyone expect - Did u think trump would just follow the courts and leave trans people alone - NO he will continue to do this and anything else he can think of - all he is doing is pushing trans people back into the closet but he will not succeed
Another cynical attempt by our kakistocracy to notch an easy "win" by making shit up that isn't happening so they can claim to have "stopped" it later. If they can intimidate a few more GAC providers out of practice while they're doing it, and drive a few more trans kids back in the closet, or into the ground, that's just gravy.
They are not only hateful in response to human difference (race and national origin as well as gender) -- their hate makes them that much more ignorant.
Sylvan Fraser Anthony nails it: "conformity" is the administration's goal. MAGA wants a country whose citizenry is entirely white, patriarchal, heteronormative, Christian, and english-speaking.
Republicans became terrified during the Obama administration when they saw data indicating a non-white majority by the 2040 census. Hence the current policymaking trajectory.
First, develop an infrastructure for genocide, deportation, incarceration, and genocide. This is currently in development using transgender Americans and foreign asylum seekers.
Secondly, use these capacities to mass arrest and deport/destroy non-whites, noncompliant women refusing to participate in White breeding programs, and of course, all queer people.
Thirdly, deliver instead of a diverse, equitable, inclusive, complex, multiracial, tolerant, secular, democratic , due process/rule of law, humanitarian Amerika by 2040, deliver instead an almost all white (some slaves will be needed for the dirty work, or "schmutzig arbeit", as Reichschancellor Stephen Miller would say), all straight Amerika that would have made the Führer happy in 1940.
Und here we are, in the Fourth Reich!
If you voted Republican and weren't aware of this essential truth, I have to ask; WHY? WHY didn't you know? How did you Nazi this coming? The GOP has been pretty transparent about their plans for White domination and Christofascist nationalistic subjugation!
I hope you enjoy your Wünderbar Amerika!
I of course won't be around to "enjoy" it, for as a queer person, multilingual, non-christian, leftist, educated, noncompliant female, disabled, I am on literally ALL the liquidation lists...I can already smell the Zyklon B warming up for me and mine!
I'll be kicked off Team Amerika and sent to the showers, FOR SURE.
Aufwiedersehen!
The article cited for the statement about people under age 18 receiving genital surgery only rarely does not actually provide data to support that statement. The article used the age category 12-18 as the lowest grouping, meaning you can’t tell how many people under 18 are receiving this type of surgery. I didn’t think *anyone* under 18 was allowed to receive this type of surgery since that goes against WPATH guidelines.
That's not true. WPATH states that it's left up to the clinical expertise of doctors and to determine the level of maturity for each individual patient, true for puberty blockers, hormones or surgery.
They note that surgical intervention like genital surgery is typically not advocated for as standard practice for people below 18, the small amount of cases in which trans children below 18 DID get genital surgery are not only exceptionally rare, but also: most of the times have been 17 years of age, sometimes mere months away of turning 18.
By the way, The Standards of Care are not a guideline, they are more of a normbook and it's up to doctors to follow it (which most do). The Netherlands is actually a bit more conservative and upholds the 15 years of age limit for hormones most of the time, but some trans children have accessed them earlier, based on the clinical guidance of the doctor involved. Norms are allowed to be deviated from. Guidelines can also be deviated from, but tend to be more stringent.
I looked at table 1 in the mentioned article and ehm.... well. Are you seriously willing to base off your judgement on 0,84% of the total patient cohort that they studied?
Or if we take the 12-18 year olds as a category and use 3678 as 100% of that category, we are talking about around 11% of all the 12-18 year olds.
When we look at table 2 we get another quite good indication of where the numbers for 12-18 year olds might come from and pertain smaller numbers of smaller procedures prior to vaginoplasty, metoidioplasty/phalloplasty.
Because looking at the biggest genital surgeries combined, we get a number that does not fit the 12-18 year old category what so ever.
They also mention another number in the discussion (one I was not able to draw from the tables, nor the figures provided but it could also be I am tired and am missing a key statistic here):
"Our findings were also notable that GAS procedures were relatively uncommon in patients aged 18 years or younger. In our cohort, fewer than 1200 patients in this age group underwent GAS, even in the highest volume years."
Thanks for this additional insight about WPATH, Iris! I was just trying to convey that the data provided in the article could be used in a way that supports the narrative that there are a bunch of kids under 18 getting genital surgeries specifically, since they didn’t separate out the 12-17 yo kids from the 18 yo kids.
405 children between 12 and 18 are reported in the paper as having gotten some kind of gender-affirming surgery (GAS; 11% of that age cohort). However, every surgical intervention that is considered in the paper (including cosmetic surgeries) are counted as GAS, and the methods by which the authors attempt to ensure that the surgery is a "transgender" one (i.e. avoiding counting of breast surgeries on cisgender males, for example) is not perfect since it depends entirely on hospital codes.
A better reflection of reality is provided by doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.18814; where the example just cited is found to be 97% of the total reported procedures. (This paper also relies on those codes, to be sure.) This leaves 5 transgender patients in the country (out of nearly 23 million minors considered) who received this operation.
Also relevant is doi:10.7759/cureus.45948, which found exactly two youths (13.9 and 14.5 yrs) below 15 yrs; both were chest surgeries.
"This type" is a phrase which simply cannot meaningfully be used in the context of gender-affirming surgeries.
I do not disagree about “this type” of surgery being an inadequate descriptor, but that was just my poor writing using it as a shorthand to refer back to genital surgeries. I was trying to convey that I couldn’t draw any conclusions about the actual number of children under 18 who had genital surgeries from the data provided.
The numbers are often not made very clear. As a creative writer, I love ambiguity and feeling. As a scientist, I have to keep my feet firmly planted in Lord Kelvin's camp: “When you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meagre and unsatisfactory kind.” 😏
When I was writing scientific papers, there was never any doubt about the numbers!
The investigations, reconciliation boards, and prosecutions of those issuing, following, and conspiring to endorse these orders under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 & 18 U.S.C. § 242 are a thing to insist on and work towards. If such orders are linked to provoking suicide, then the death penalty should be considered for those most responsible.
“Marjorie Taylor Greene would rather force a clitoral reduction on an intersex 6-month-old than allow a transgender adolescent to get a prescription for puberty-pausing medication,”
Which is why there must be those prosecutions of the likes of her. She is the child abusing monster she pretends that she fights.
Why am I not surprised that they found a way into our private medical information anyway. They pick at minors right now, but this is for a mad dash towards ALL transgender people. All medical decisions should be in the hands of trans youth's parents, not this regime. MuskRat is sharing what he stole from government databases as the DOGE director.
So this would be all the circumcisions that are performed on MAB babies, right? Perfectly health foreskin being ripped off them all in the name of a religious belief. Which of course is the root of all the transphobia, delusional religious beliefs.
Republicans are the Anti-Autonomy party. Rather than promoting freedom, they demand patriarchal obedience.
What did anyone expect - Did u think trump would just follow the courts and leave trans people alone - NO he will continue to do this and anything else he can think of - all he is doing is pushing trans people back into the closet but he will not succeed
Another cynical attempt by our kakistocracy to notch an easy "win" by making shit up that isn't happening so they can claim to have "stopped" it later. If they can intimidate a few more GAC providers out of practice while they're doing it, and drive a few more trans kids back in the closet, or into the ground, that's just gravy.
They are not only hateful in response to human difference (race and national origin as well as gender) -- their hate makes them that much more ignorant.