Some states are forming public health coalitions, largely in response to Kennedy shredding vaccine recommendations. These groups are issuing vaccine guidance to member states based on science and not Kennedy's ideology. The coalitions may also benefit from hearing from state constituents that people want the coalitions to also follow science on reproductive health and gender affirming care.
Capitalism is an economic system where the means of production is privately owned and laborers are forced to sell their labor for less than its use value to sustain themselves. I don't agree that abolishing capitalism necessarily equals liberty for trans people, but I also know that capitalism is not synonymous with liberty, despite what the Western/American capitalist propaganda machine would have us believe.
I’m surprised you didn’t contact the AMA for clarification, particularly for their stance to bans and non surgical treatment. Their statement didn’t mention non surgical treatment so I assume they still support puberty blockers and hormones and they also didn’t explicitly support banning care even though the NYT framed it that way. So I was really hoping you could get clarification on that…
Erin and community, where specifically can you recommend for us to donate funds to trusted, nonprofit clinics providing gender affirming healthcare to minors? As a community, we could probably donate enough to keep some of those clinics open for awhile - I mean, if we can buy 71,000 boxes of Girl Scout Cookies, it seems like a lot of us can find another $6 - $24 to keep some doors open. Let's continue to rely on each other, while the hospitals and AGs fight it out.
Thank you for the article. Bemoaning it may be cathartic, how do we fight it?
This is being based on their (or maybe just the APS President) taking seriously frauds like Cass, Zucker, Bailey, Littmann, and yes even RFK Jr. There is no evidence backing this up, just none at all.
Per that, and I'd love to confirm it, "All told, 28 detransitioner lawsuits are now in different stages of legal proceedings across the US."
28. That's it! In a nation where the minimum credible estimate of those who have undergone gender affirming surgeries is ~230k, and a plausible estimate for medically assisted transition of some sort for gender dysphoria is ~760k -- after over a decade of Social Conservatives spending tens of millions of dollars on ambulance chasing, and GAC never being immune to malpractice suit in the first place, and no few states beginning the clock ticking for filing a suit from the date of discovery of harm not date of service -- there are only 28 cases.
That by itself dispositively proves the <1% regret rate.
So what is ASPS and AMA really thinking?
Of note, yes, the person who is currently ASPS President has only ever donated to the GOP candidates . . .
"it was shortsighted not to anticipate that such testimony—offered in a blue state—would play into the kind of coordinated blitz now unfolding" <-- I don't even see a way to sign up for notifications from WPATH. They or someone should, I agree, be more proactively getting ahead of things like this. Why did the WPATH not have a statement ready to go as to the unusualness of the circumstance of Varian Fox, and how the rarity of such suits itself speaks to the integrity of the process when actually followed?
So much of the impact of the administration's policies has been small, incremental changes by healthcare organizations and individual professionals that make it harder and harder for us to get care. Conservative lawmakers are largely not the one taking away necessary healthcare services. No one's been prosecuted yet. Most of the problems in care access are created by preemptive compliance.
Just to name a few recent examples from my work as a therapist, I heard through the grapevine yesterday that at a gender-affirming surgeon in my city is now requiring (adult) patients to be in ongoing therapy before and after surgery to address potential regret. In another state, someone I know (again, an adult!) got dropped by their primary care doctor for being trans and on HRT. I'm sure there are a thousand other small changes happening around the country every day that aren't on my radar because I'm not Dr. So-and-So's patient who just got their surgery cancelled or Big Regional Insurance's subscriber whose plan now makes them jump through ten more hoops just to get their hormones. Trans healthcare is being taken apart bit by bit, and right now, it's largely healthcare professionals and organizations doing it.
The AMA isn’t surprising. People need to remember that fewer than 20% of US physicians are members, largely because its leadership has long skewed further right than most physicians. This is true for most of the professional organizations and is why most physicians aren’t members of their specialty’s organization.
For years I have blamed the american doctors for placing political and religious beliefs above their Hyppocratic Oath to care for every human life without discrimination.... working in a hospital I try to convince doctors and provide them with the study completed by European doctors about the importance and necessary care to transgenders. So disappointed with American medical field... bunch of cowards.
We are going to have to go back to the work we were doing twenty years ago, telling our stories, sharing rough hewn personal narrative and most especially sharing the stories of those no longer with us because they were killed or killed themselves. We are going to have to bare our souls and re-humanize ourselves.
No cisgender person or group is going to save us.
No Allies are riding in on M-4 Sherman tanks to rescue us from sweeping fascism and eradication.
If we survive it's because we made killing us softly a worse thing to be seen doing in our society than allowing us to live.
It's going to be very difficult.
Many of us will not survive.
This is the best case scenario.
I doubt I die free in my own country. I turn sixty this year; as a Trans woman I've already lived past my expiry and have less to lose than younger people in fighting against the fascist and the feckless, the fearful and the faint.
Allies. Hah.
I remember years ago in the early teens reciting the pros and cons of the arguments for "the third A" inclusion in LGBTQIA+ in its expanded then proposed 17 letter full version sans plus, without dupes. There was so much debate and furor on how to construct the most inclusive and most final initialism for our communities! So much time and energy expended from Taskforce Conference workshops, WebEx planning sessions, community deep canvassing, uncountable survey monkeys, organizational leadership qualtrix polls. Many objected to "allies" included with "asexual" and "agender" on the basis that we haven't always had allies worthy the name and may not always be able to expect them to stand with us.
And they for damned sure don't share our risks.
I laugh now at the waste of it all.
The jackboots coming don't give a damn what we call ourselves. And they aren't just coming for we Trans and gender expansive folks, 47 rightwing orgs have joined together with "Greater Than" to ban same gender marriage in the US, then UK, then the EU.
We will have to expose our suffering and our scars and once again sing for our supper, begging the nice straight cisgender people not to murder and exterminate us just to verify the color of our blood.
I lived through the 80's when so very very many did not. I suppose I can survive this, too.
"For decades, medical institutions forced transgender women to socially transition for years before granting access to hormones" -- My understanding was the 'real-life experience requirement' also applies to transgender men and basically to anyone trans. Was my understanding inaccurate?
There is no such hard and fast rule, but generally yes a year of living in your preferred gender is required before letters for any surgery are written. Again it is a generality, not a "rule". Also there is no requirement at all anymore for someone who is adult to live as their preferred gender a year before they access HRT, and there never was really any basis for such a rule. For youth, a usual minimum timeframe would be a year on puberty blockers, and year on HRT, and only then possibly surgery offered for youth at least 16 to 17 years old in perfectly straightforward cases. For 15yo, 14yo, 13yo . . . it is terribly unusual for anyone to be offered surgery of any sort at those ages, and there does seem to be an elevated regret rate when it is undertaken. My overall feel for that is that it still does not exceed 5%, but that is quite a bit more than the <1% which is generally typical.
I suggest you read again. The case of Varian Fox seems to be inarguably an example of actual malpractice -- the therapist and surgeon doing it wrong.
Literally the therapist in their letter endorsing surgery apparently called it "gender dysmorphia" and not gender dysphoria, and the therapist had no training in gender related care.
I agree WPATH needs to be making the effort to get ahead of the political process, and I see no sign they are doing so or even perceive the need for it.
Some states are forming public health coalitions, largely in response to Kennedy shredding vaccine recommendations. These groups are issuing vaccine guidance to member states based on science and not Kennedy's ideology. The coalitions may also benefit from hearing from state constituents that people want the coalitions to also follow science on reproductive health and gender affirming care.
The only way Trans people are going to get our rights is if we get rid of the Capitalist System Of Government and we become HUMAN BEINGS AGAIN! 👿🖕🏽🔥
No, capitalism is liberty itself, if you have one you have the other. The last thing we want is to be the inconvenient property of government.
Capitalism is an economic system where the means of production is privately owned and laborers are forced to sell their labor for less than its use value to sustain themselves. I don't agree that abolishing capitalism necessarily equals liberty for trans people, but I also know that capitalism is not synonymous with liberty, despite what the Western/American capitalist propaganda machine would have us believe.
I’m surprised you didn’t contact the AMA for clarification, particularly for their stance to bans and non surgical treatment. Their statement didn’t mention non surgical treatment so I assume they still support puberty blockers and hormones and they also didn’t explicitly support banning care even though the NYT framed it that way. So I was really hoping you could get clarification on that…
Erin and community, where specifically can you recommend for us to donate funds to trusted, nonprofit clinics providing gender affirming healthcare to minors? As a community, we could probably donate enough to keep some of those clinics open for awhile - I mean, if we can buy 71,000 boxes of Girl Scout Cookies, it seems like a lot of us can find another $6 - $24 to keep some doors open. Let's continue to rely on each other, while the hospitals and AGs fight it out.
www.transhealth.org
Thank you for the article. Bemoaning it may be cathartic, how do we fight it?
This is being based on their (or maybe just the APS President) taking seriously frauds like Cass, Zucker, Bailey, Littmann, and yes even RFK Jr. There is no evidence backing this up, just none at all.
https://nypost.com/2026/01/31/us-news/detransitioner-wins-2-million-against-new-york-docs-who-pushed-double-mastectomy/
Per that, and I'd love to confirm it, "All told, 28 detransitioner lawsuits are now in different stages of legal proceedings across the US."
28. That's it! In a nation where the minimum credible estimate of those who have undergone gender affirming surgeries is ~230k, and a plausible estimate for medically assisted transition of some sort for gender dysphoria is ~760k -- after over a decade of Social Conservatives spending tens of millions of dollars on ambulance chasing, and GAC never being immune to malpractice suit in the first place, and no few states beginning the clock ticking for filing a suit from the date of discovery of harm not date of service -- there are only 28 cases.
That by itself dispositively proves the <1% regret rate.
So what is ASPS and AMA really thinking?
Of note, yes, the person who is currently ASPS President has only ever donated to the GOP candidates . . .
"it was shortsighted not to anticipate that such testimony—offered in a blue state—would play into the kind of coordinated blitz now unfolding" <-- I don't even see a way to sign up for notifications from WPATH. They or someone should, I agree, be more proactively getting ahead of things like this. Why did the WPATH not have a statement ready to go as to the unusualness of the circumstance of Varian Fox, and how the rarity of such suits itself speaks to the integrity of the process when actually followed?
So much of the impact of the administration's policies has been small, incremental changes by healthcare organizations and individual professionals that make it harder and harder for us to get care. Conservative lawmakers are largely not the one taking away necessary healthcare services. No one's been prosecuted yet. Most of the problems in care access are created by preemptive compliance.
Just to name a few recent examples from my work as a therapist, I heard through the grapevine yesterday that at a gender-affirming surgeon in my city is now requiring (adult) patients to be in ongoing therapy before and after surgery to address potential regret. In another state, someone I know (again, an adult!) got dropped by their primary care doctor for being trans and on HRT. I'm sure there are a thousand other small changes happening around the country every day that aren't on my radar because I'm not Dr. So-and-So's patient who just got their surgery cancelled or Big Regional Insurance's subscriber whose plan now makes them jump through ten more hoops just to get their hormones. Trans healthcare is being taken apart bit by bit, and right now, it's largely healthcare professionals and organizations doing it.
The AMA isn’t surprising. People need to remember that fewer than 20% of US physicians are members, largely because its leadership has long skewed further right than most physicians. This is true for most of the professional organizations and is why most physicians aren’t members of their specialty’s organization.
Being treated as expendable gets old
Someone needs to press these cowards on whether or not they still consider it acceptable to perform surgery on minor cis boys with gynecomastia.
For years I have blamed the american doctors for placing political and religious beliefs above their Hyppocratic Oath to care for every human life without discrimination.... working in a hospital I try to convince doctors and provide them with the study completed by European doctors about the importance and necessary care to transgenders. So disappointed with American medical field... bunch of cowards.
We are abandoned.
We are going to have to go back to the work we were doing twenty years ago, telling our stories, sharing rough hewn personal narrative and most especially sharing the stories of those no longer with us because they were killed or killed themselves. We are going to have to bare our souls and re-humanize ourselves.
No cisgender person or group is going to save us.
No Allies are riding in on M-4 Sherman tanks to rescue us from sweeping fascism and eradication.
If we survive it's because we made killing us softly a worse thing to be seen doing in our society than allowing us to live.
It's going to be very difficult.
Many of us will not survive.
This is the best case scenario.
I doubt I die free in my own country. I turn sixty this year; as a Trans woman I've already lived past my expiry and have less to lose than younger people in fighting against the fascist and the feckless, the fearful and the faint.
Allies. Hah.
I remember years ago in the early teens reciting the pros and cons of the arguments for "the third A" inclusion in LGBTQIA+ in its expanded then proposed 17 letter full version sans plus, without dupes. There was so much debate and furor on how to construct the most inclusive and most final initialism for our communities! So much time and energy expended from Taskforce Conference workshops, WebEx planning sessions, community deep canvassing, uncountable survey monkeys, organizational leadership qualtrix polls. Many objected to "allies" included with "asexual" and "agender" on the basis that we haven't always had allies worthy the name and may not always be able to expect them to stand with us.
And they for damned sure don't share our risks.
I laugh now at the waste of it all.
The jackboots coming don't give a damn what we call ourselves. And they aren't just coming for we Trans and gender expansive folks, 47 rightwing orgs have joined together with "Greater Than" to ban same gender marriage in the US, then UK, then the EU.
We will have to expose our suffering and our scars and once again sing for our supper, begging the nice straight cisgender people not to murder and exterminate us just to verify the color of our blood.
I lived through the 80's when so very very many did not. I suppose I can survive this, too.
Bon chance, mi famille en l'tragedie de vie.
"For decades, medical institutions forced transgender women to socially transition for years before granting access to hormones" -- My understanding was the 'real-life experience requirement' also applies to transgender men and basically to anyone trans. Was my understanding inaccurate?
There is no such hard and fast rule, but generally yes a year of living in your preferred gender is required before letters for any surgery are written. Again it is a generality, not a "rule". Also there is no requirement at all anymore for someone who is adult to live as their preferred gender a year before they access HRT, and there never was really any basis for such a rule. For youth, a usual minimum timeframe would be a year on puberty blockers, and year on HRT, and only then possibly surgery offered for youth at least 16 to 17 years old in perfectly straightforward cases. For 15yo, 14yo, 13yo . . . it is terribly unusual for anyone to be offered surgery of any sort at those ages, and there does seem to be an elevated regret rate when it is undertaken. My overall feel for that is that it still does not exceed 5%, but that is quite a bit more than the <1% which is generally typical.
Even WPATH was captured I see. It's gonna be decades before we ever have rights again.
"Even WPATH was captured I see."
I suggest you read again. The case of Varian Fox seems to be inarguably an example of actual malpractice -- the therapist and surgeon doing it wrong.
Literally the therapist in their letter endorsing surgery apparently called it "gender dysmorphia" and not gender dysphoria, and the therapist had no training in gender related care.
I agree WPATH needs to be making the effort to get ahead of the political process, and I see no sign they are doing so or even perceive the need for it.