Imagine finally finding the cure to a lifelong battle with chronic depression. Imagine your body finally getting the fuel it needs to function—making life truly feel worth living.
Now imagine that immediately following that breakthrough, a wave of political attacks threatens to strip that very fuel away. No logic, no medical reason. Just a cruel strategy to rally a hateful base.
I think about how lucky I am, and how much privilege protects me right now. But every single attack strikes a heartbreaking new low.
We need to bring an end to this now. I'm launching a one-disabled-enby charge to reform and restore the US government with a completely free six-episode podcast miniseries from June 29 – July 4.
The American people are united like we haven't been in decades, and that gives us political and Constitutional options we haven't seen in decades. If the UTW movement swells large enough before it can be stamped out, we will rewrite the rules and create a new model for democracy.
Sadly, something I've learned in recent years is that the modern consensus on McCarthyism - that it was a dark chapter, not to be repeated - was paper-thin, if it ever existed at all. Many on the right have been defending McCarthy this entire time. Today's GOP openly looks to McCarthy as a hero and an inspiration.
None of this should surprise us.
I keep saying — and I know this might sound a little self-contradictory, but bear with me — we made a mistake by not cancelling these people harder in the 2010's. Those of us on the left kept sounding the siren — if you give these people a platform, they will use it to destroy everyone else's rights until theirs is the only voice left. It's the paradox of tolerance. We ought not to tolerate the intolerant!
But all too often, universities, media, and the government let these people broadcast their bigotry and hatred in the name of "viewpoint diversity" and "hearing from the other side." We let them do that until their radicalism became mainstream, then the established wisdom of an entire political party.
Well, now they reap the whirlwind. We all do. Those institutions that went out of their way to make a "safe space" for fascist speech are now unsafe for everyone who isn't a fascist. Appeasing ideologues, as usual, never works.
We will learn from this. We will not learn everything that we should.
Once again, the Trump administration is weaponizing the power of government to attack WPATH using the FTC along with AG's from several red states and where did they go to file this suit northern Texas of course .
This administration has repeatedly targeted transgender Americans, their families, doctors, researchers, and advocacy organizations. Now they are escalating their campaign of intimidation by going after one of the world's leading organizations for transgender healthcare. The message is clear: agree with their ideology or become a target.
These relentless attacks are cruel, discriminatory, racist, and bigoted and designed to make transgender people disappear from public life. They want hospitals to be afraid, doctors to stay silent, and families to feel isolated and powerless.
Enough is enough. Everyone who believes in equality, civil rights, and human dignity must stand up and be counted. Do not be intimidated. Do not be silenced. Do not give in. History has never looked kindly on those who used government power to bully vulnerable minorities, and it will not look kindly on this administration's actions either.
The time will come when this administration will pay for their actions, but in the meantime we must stick together and stand strong
And actually Marcie handed the right one of their greatest new fake talking points*. She is not the one to front this effort.
*The lie that all youth who under go blockers & HRT can not orgasm and have genitals unsuited for use in SRS causing surgical coomplications. You've heard that, that came from her. She has made no pushback or retraction I have ever heard of. Most of the SoCons/GenCrits claims are of course false, but are decades old.
Wasn't her statement that specifically adolescents who use blockers before Tanner stage 2 has gotten underway have that risk? She didn't say all youth, did she? (Not that that distinction will matter to the eradicationists, but still...?)
No she did not say that, and no child would be prescribed puberty blockers at Tanner 1, would they?
"Every single child who was or adolescent who was truly blocked at Tanner Stage 2 has never experienced orgasm. I mean, it's really about zero," & "I had concerns about initiating hormone blockers for children because it affected their surgical results that might affect how they respond sexually. And I got a lot of backlash on the left also for people who felt like I was abandoning the cause" - Dr. Bowers
To my knowledge she has never walked back, qualified, or clarified her claims in any way.
Of course, cisgender female people report not having orgasms ever at about the rate of 15% of them, and, even 70% woman with CAIS report having quite satisfying orgasms, and, transgender men experience orgasms becoming what they perceive to be masculine orgasms and bottom growth with male typical T no matter when in life they undertake HRT, and, anytime it is desired prior to SRS surgery for MtF people a low dose topical T creme for several weeks is reported to have good non-systemic effects.
Bowers statements remain apparently counterfactual, not just impossible to support with evidence but contrary many perfectly well known things.
Hm - I can't tell if she's describing children who have entered TS2 or completed it or what. Interesting thing about the topical T, though. Has that been studied in any way that can't be dismissed as anecdotal? (I hope so, since that sounds like a promising refinement to the process.)
"Has that been studied in any way that can't be dismissed as anecdotal?" <-- I know Dr. Will Powers reports it is used in his practice as indicated.
My point in general is that the claim by Bowers that people who are puberty blocked are unable to respond thereafter to testosterone and thereby never are able to orgasm and experience T related tissue expansion, is plainly a horseshit claim. Afterall, most by far of people who are completely unable to respond to testosterone in any way ever are still for example able to orgasm.
Unfortunately, our history is replete with such scares. In colonial days, it was the Quakers. Then, it became the Irish. Then, the Chinese. And the theme keeps reoccurring. People seem to have a fundamental NEED to find a group of people that can be blamed for whatever ills the current populist identifies for them. The thing that we all seem to have in common is that none of us targeted groups have actually DONE any damage. All of us tend to be productive. The threat is phony. The horrors brought on society are made up. Nothing gets better after the target group is expelled, but the self-styled victims never realize their error and we never seem to learn from our mistakes. None of the sycophants ever ask the simple question: So, just how many Trans folks are there, and what data exists to show them as a threat?
During the red scare, if all communists and socialists were queer and all Queers were communists/socialists, Socialist Party and Communist Party meetings would have been A LOT more fun. It’s not the sense I get from old issues of the Daily Worker.
"The complaint alleges that WPATH "provided the means for medical providers to make false and unsubstantiated claims to parents in order to sell pediatric medical transition services," and that this makes them a target under consumer protection laws. This is despite the fact that WPATH sells nothing"
If they could make a RICO charge, they would. So why can't they? Or is it too early for that to be a question? IANAL, please one chirp in.
A thing to note is, it is plain letter law all of these apply to state officials, and the latter two also to federal officials. 42 U.S.C. § 1983, 18 U.S.C. § 241, & 18 U.S.C. § 242
I have a legal theory which doesn't fee novel, voting to prohibit medical care with a <1% regret rate and which prohibition is known will cause misery, depression, and self deletion . . . is a deprivation of constitutionally protected rights as is enforcement by anyone of the same, whether an enumerated right or not.
Remember, remember, vote for Donald Out in November.
If anyone thinks that they will stop here, think again! The Transgender community makes up a mere 0.06% of the US population. You think they'll stop with just us? Our friends in the remainder of the LGB community will be next. Bye-bye gay marriages, property rights, adoption. Every right and privilege now enjoyed as with "normal" society...GONE.
They will not be happy merely to eradicate Transgender citizens. The Gay community is next.
Imagine finally finding the cure to a lifelong battle with chronic depression. Imagine your body finally getting the fuel it needs to function—making life truly feel worth living.
Now imagine that immediately following that breakthrough, a wave of political attacks threatens to strip that very fuel away. No logic, no medical reason. Just a cruel strategy to rally a hateful base.
I think about how lucky I am, and how much privilege protects me right now. But every single attack strikes a heartbreaking new low.
We need to bring an end to this now. I'm launching a one-disabled-enby charge to reform and restore the US government with a completely free six-episode podcast miniseries from June 29 – July 4.
The American people are united like we haven't been in decades, and that gives us political and Constitutional options we haven't seen in decades. If the UTW movement swells large enough before it can be stamped out, we will rewrite the rules and create a new model for democracy.
I would draw a comparison also with the Scopes Monkey Trial, as science itself is on trial, and truth probably doesn't matter.
This is a good piece.
Sadly, something I've learned in recent years is that the modern consensus on McCarthyism - that it was a dark chapter, not to be repeated - was paper-thin, if it ever existed at all. Many on the right have been defending McCarthy this entire time. Today's GOP openly looks to McCarthy as a hero and an inspiration.
None of this should surprise us.
I keep saying — and I know this might sound a little self-contradictory, but bear with me — we made a mistake by not cancelling these people harder in the 2010's. Those of us on the left kept sounding the siren — if you give these people a platform, they will use it to destroy everyone else's rights until theirs is the only voice left. It's the paradox of tolerance. We ought not to tolerate the intolerant!
But all too often, universities, media, and the government let these people broadcast their bigotry and hatred in the name of "viewpoint diversity" and "hearing from the other side." We let them do that until their radicalism became mainstream, then the established wisdom of an entire political party.
Well, now they reap the whirlwind. We all do. Those institutions that went out of their way to make a "safe space" for fascist speech are now unsafe for everyone who isn't a fascist. Appeasing ideologues, as usual, never works.
We will learn from this. We will not learn everything that we should.
Thanks for this reporting Erin, as it’s not getting nearly enough coverage from even other independent journalists.
Once again, the Trump administration is weaponizing the power of government to attack WPATH using the FTC along with AG's from several red states and where did they go to file this suit northern Texas of course .
This administration has repeatedly targeted transgender Americans, their families, doctors, researchers, and advocacy organizations. Now they are escalating their campaign of intimidation by going after one of the world's leading organizations for transgender healthcare. The message is clear: agree with their ideology or become a target.
These relentless attacks are cruel, discriminatory, racist, and bigoted and designed to make transgender people disappear from public life. They want hospitals to be afraid, doctors to stay silent, and families to feel isolated and powerless.
Enough is enough. Everyone who believes in equality, civil rights, and human dignity must stand up and be counted. Do not be intimidated. Do not be silenced. Do not give in. History has never looked kindly on those who used government power to bully vulnerable minorities, and it will not look kindly on this administration's actions either.
The time will come when this administration will pay for their actions, but in the meantime we must stick together and stand strong
I say “ Enough is Enough”
When will Americans finally stand up for decency and respect in massive numbers????????
The Donald picking a fight with Marcie Bowers MD this oughta be a good one!
And actually Marcie handed the right one of their greatest new fake talking points*. She is not the one to front this effort.
*The lie that all youth who under go blockers & HRT can not orgasm and have genitals unsuited for use in SRS causing surgical coomplications. You've heard that, that came from her. She has made no pushback or retraction I have ever heard of. Most of the SoCons/GenCrits claims are of course false, but are decades old.
Wasn't her statement that specifically adolescents who use blockers before Tanner stage 2 has gotten underway have that risk? She didn't say all youth, did she? (Not that that distinction will matter to the eradicationists, but still...?)
No she did not say that, and no child would be prescribed puberty blockers at Tanner 1, would they?
"Every single child who was or adolescent who was truly blocked at Tanner Stage 2 has never experienced orgasm. I mean, it's really about zero," & "I had concerns about initiating hormone blockers for children because it affected their surgical results that might affect how they respond sexually. And I got a lot of backlash on the left also for people who felt like I was abandoning the cause" - Dr. Bowers
To my knowledge she has never walked back, qualified, or clarified her claims in any way.
Of course, cisgender female people report not having orgasms ever at about the rate of 15% of them, and, even 70% woman with CAIS report having quite satisfying orgasms, and, transgender men experience orgasms becoming what they perceive to be masculine orgasms and bottom growth with male typical T no matter when in life they undertake HRT, and, anytime it is desired prior to SRS surgery for MtF people a low dose topical T creme for several weeks is reported to have good non-systemic effects.
Bowers statements remain apparently counterfactual, not just impossible to support with evidence but contrary many perfectly well known things.
Hm - I can't tell if she's describing children who have entered TS2 or completed it or what. Interesting thing about the topical T, though. Has that been studied in any way that can't be dismissed as anecdotal? (I hope so, since that sounds like a promising refinement to the process.)
"Has that been studied in any way that can't be dismissed as anecdotal?" <-- I know Dr. Will Powers reports it is used in his practice as indicated.
My point in general is that the claim by Bowers that people who are puberty blocked are unable to respond thereafter to testosterone and thereby never are able to orgasm and experience T related tissue expansion, is plainly a horseshit claim. Afterall, most by far of people who are completely unable to respond to testosterone in any way ever are still for example able to orgasm.
I would appreciate anything you could quote/cite from her which improves matters.
Lets call it what it is... transgender genocide.
Unfortunately, our history is replete with such scares. In colonial days, it was the Quakers. Then, it became the Irish. Then, the Chinese. And the theme keeps reoccurring. People seem to have a fundamental NEED to find a group of people that can be blamed for whatever ills the current populist identifies for them. The thing that we all seem to have in common is that none of us targeted groups have actually DONE any damage. All of us tend to be productive. The threat is phony. The horrors brought on society are made up. Nothing gets better after the target group is expelled, but the self-styled victims never realize their error and we never seem to learn from our mistakes. None of the sycophants ever ask the simple question: So, just how many Trans folks are there, and what data exists to show them as a threat?
During the red scare, if all communists and socialists were queer and all Queers were communists/socialists, Socialist Party and Communist Party meetings would have been A LOT more fun. It’s not the sense I get from old issues of the Daily Worker.
Great post, Erin. I wrote a similar and slightly longer one last month. Available for free: https://alisonyoung61.substack.com/p/lavender-scare-20
"The complaint alleges that WPATH "provided the means for medical providers to make false and unsubstantiated claims to parents in order to sell pediatric medical transition services," and that this makes them a target under consumer protection laws. This is despite the fact that WPATH sells nothing"
If they could make a RICO charge, they would. So why can't they? Or is it too early for that to be a question? IANAL, please one chirp in.
A thing to note is, it is plain letter law all of these apply to state officials, and the latter two also to federal officials. 42 U.S.C. § 1983, 18 U.S.C. § 241, & 18 U.S.C. § 242
I have a legal theory which doesn't fee novel, voting to prohibit medical care with a <1% regret rate and which prohibition is known will cause misery, depression, and self deletion . . . is a deprivation of constitutionally protected rights as is enforcement by anyone of the same, whether an enumerated right or not.
Remember, remember, vote for Donald Out in November.
Let's send them some letters.
Thank you Erin.
If anyone thinks that they will stop here, think again! The Transgender community makes up a mere 0.06% of the US population. You think they'll stop with just us? Our friends in the remainder of the LGB community will be next. Bye-bye gay marriages, property rights, adoption. Every right and privilege now enjoyed as with "normal" society...GONE.
They will not be happy merely to eradicate Transgender citizens. The Gay community is next.
Well said, and spot on! Please let that time come soon
Theoden said it best, "What can we do against such reckless hate?"