Friday, May 31, 2024
Thursday, May 30, 2024
Wednesday, May 29, 2024
The
Church of Trans (by TT Exulansic)
Trans ideology
consists of incoherent faith-claims, not science.
Using
Merriam-Webster’s definition, a religion is “a personal set or
institutionalized system of religious attitudes, beliefs, and practices.”
Transgender ideology, especially when mandated by the state, qualifies. When
engaging with devotees of this Church of Trans, I start from the rhetorical
standpoint that I am a gender atheist, whose counterreligious attitudes ought
to have equal protection in law, just as those of atheists have.
In
my college days, I was transgender myself. I left my church, abandoning my
spiritual belief structure in the name of truth and beauty, after a series of
formative experiences. Although trans acolytes promised me brain scans,
although they hand-wave at hysterical hormone levels, the reality is there are
irreconcilable disagreements even among believers as to the
fundamental tenets of this faith system. Even in the time since I first
detransitioned, clear schisms have formed. Sects disagree as to when gender
identity forms, and whether it stays stable across the lifespan, for the simple
reason that gender identity is an unverifiable, immaterial soul-concept. It is
not a belief arrived at scientifically. It is a belief acquired from other
people, who in turn derived it to justify behaviors that otherwise defied
explanation.
The
rest of us are told we must take it on faith that another person has a deep,
conscious sense of personal identity, undetectable by science at this time,
which may form in childhood, or may not, and may be restricted to one of two
genders, or may not, and everyone has one, or some people don’t, because they
are “agender.” We’re expected to agree we have a gender, too, and ours just
happily aligned with the scientifically observable characteristics of our
physical bodies—which is why we never noticed there was also a second,
invisible attribute of our being. We must prove our belief by saying pronoun
prayers. It is demanded that civil law and policy bend to the whims of these
conflicting faiths, somehow accommodating all of them, even at the expense of
the hard-won rights of the materially-verifiable female sex class, and even if
it costs a pound of flesh taken from the body of a child.
My
starting precept, as a gender atheist, is that I do not believe in gender
identities. I believe other people have spiritual beliefs that I have no
obligation to pretend to share, under the First Amendment. From this vantage
point, people then approach me, claiming they have a gender identity which
lives in their head and communicates to them preferences about clothing, language,
make-up, appendages, and hormone levels. My request is that they start by
defining this gender identity in a way that could be tested and at least
hypothetically falsified. Falsification is the evidence which would logically
prove gender identity does not exist. Ideas which cannot be falsified nor
verified are not scientific. We have the freedom to adopt or reject such ideas.
The
earliest iteration of this church preaches that all people have one of two
gender identities, an aspect of human development which forms by age three,
which cannot be changed and can sometimes form swapped. If you are one of the
unluckily swapped people, your body must be changed to match the gender deity,
or you are destined for torment and destruction. The gender identity is constructed as
a medical
condition, but it is clearly also considered by devotees to exist
independent of the body—hence a gender identity, conceived as synonymous with
the individual, can be born “in the wrong body.” One must exist apart from and
prior to the body to be born into the wrong body. Thus a gender identity is a
spirit. This group believes medical transition is necessary, so I refer to them
as Our Lady of the Perpetual Hormone Replacement Therapy.
The
more modern schism is a sect I call Nonbinitarianism. Nonbinitarians
(“non-binary people”) also view gender identity as existing separate from the
body, but further, as independent of the mind. A person’s gender identity can
change over time or be absent (agender). There are far more than two genders,
and humanity is drowning in sex categories, which are also on a spectrum
somehow. The purpose of transition is to align body with gender identity, even
if this means removing the nipples to create a non-man,
non-woman appearance. There are no guardrails on this highway.
These
churches find common ground in the belief they should be able to force
nonbelievers to play along with and fund their religion, i.e., their pursuit of
whatever their personal gender deity tells them is the best way for them to
look and live. I refer to this as cisgender dhimmitude. In some places, like
San Francisco, it’s becoming so formalized they are proposing tax-funded
payments to people simply for church membership. It is in everyone’s interest
to recognize this emergent, broader church before it irrevocably cements itself
as the new state religion.
The
Church of Trans - The American Mind
Genital
Mutilation for the Masses (by TT Exulansic)
The gory details and irreversible horrors of
"gender affirming" surgery laid bare.
Gender identity
ideology, the worldview surrounding the core belief that sometimes men are
women and other times women are men, has gotten the foothold that it has
because people naturally trust that medical authorities, especially surgeons,
know what they are doing. We believe that if patients were being harmed, those
patients would certainly speak up first. Proponents of gender ideology claim
that fewer than one percent of people regret surgical
sexual transition, often contrasted with the 20 percent regret rate for knee
surgery. But is this purportedly low regret rate reflective of reality? Rather
than prove that sex-organ origami is wildly successful, what this reflects is
that patients who are subjected to these highly-experimental procedures are
unable, for whatever reason, to express levels of regret one would reasonably
expect from an evidence-based surgical intervention.
Could it be that other factors, including withdrawal of community
support and loss of reputation and standing, once one becomes known as a
“transphobe” who was “never really trans,” are discouraging patients from being
open about their regret? Could mental illness or emotional immaturity be
preventing these individuals from rationally evaluating their situation or
acknowledging and naming their emotions? Having looked at dozens of these
first-hand narratives of individuals who “do not regret their surgery,” yet
take to the internet to warn others anyway, I have concluded that these
patients fear backlash for saying their actual, authentic truth out loud. Even
people who suffer horrific complications requiring unimaginable
revisions—likened to open hot dog buns by the surgeons themselves, as Ashton
Williams discovered—are loath to say, “I regret having my arm skin cut off,
stitched up, and sewn to my pubic area, and it was foolish of me to dream of
peeing standing up at all costs.” But instead, she dreams of the day when it
will all have been worth it, when she will look back on this hardship as a
“bump in the road.”
Gender-affirming surgery patients face community scorn if they discuss
the harm being done to them, their bodies, their pain levels, their wallets,
their career or educational advancement, and their sexual-urologic function.
The opportunity cost of the time spent dilating, tending to a colostomy bag, or
financing a revision, is significant. And yet, patients who discuss the cost
are cast as contributing to the zeitgeist that is “taking life-saving healthcare
away from trans kids.” A predictable comment on any such surgical narrative is,
“Be careful! Your story might be used by a transphobe to hurt trans people.”
“Regretters,” as some term them, detransitioned or not, are accused of being
“cis” because only “true trans” benefit from these interventions (making them
tests of faith). The same network which “doxxes” (publicizes documents
containing identifying information about) activists pushing back against gender
identity ideology is ready and willing to subject even members of the trans
community who have given their literal pound of flesh to this same
mistreatment. For a movement so focused on the importance of inclusivity and
tolerance, they are quick to scorn and shirk those branded non-believers.
Doxxing ignites firestorms many of us,
including myself, have been subject to. This behavior seeks to divest us of our
jobs, our homes, and our sense of personal safety as punishment for
misgendering and other crimes. I have had the names and addresses of myself and
my family members identified and circulated. As a former trans person who has
become a vocal critic of the ideology and its attendant policy demands, I have
received threats and other attempts at intimidation, such as frivolous
professional complaints from foreign nationals and harassing phone calls. I’ve
had long-time friends condemn me as a bigot on the basis of my gender-critical
views, despite knowing first-hand that I would aid and befriend a
trans-identifying person.
Surgical Simulacra
So what are these surgeries? Let’s discuss them in more depth. Graphic
description of genital modification surgery will follow. Reader discretion is
advised. Many of these interventions were initially designed for and continue
to be performed on people with disorders of sexual development, some of whom
are minors. It is important that people with a medical necessity for obtaining
these surgeries still have access to them, in light of legislative attempts to
ban these interventions. However, these interventions have
the same complications regardless
of reasons for obtaining them,
and there is a significant complication rate
for genital construction performed for any reason. The following will be a
discussion of these surgeries as they relate to transgender-identifying
individuals. These surgeries all fall under the general category of “bottom
surgeries.”
Vaginectomy is performed
on trans-identifying female patients alone or as part of another procedure.
Using either a scalpel or a laser, the interior wall of the vagina is
surgically excised, and the remaining flesh is then sewn together so that it
scars shut. Patients are typically told this eliminates the need for routine
pap smears to check for cervical cancer. Hysterectomy (removal of the uterus)
including removal of the cervix may or may not be done at this time.
Hysterectomy is the
removal of the uterus. For trans-identifying females, this is either for
non-medically necessary alleviation of “dysphoria” (a Greek term meaning “bad
mood”) or in many cases, it is made medically necessary through the
administration of cosmetic doses of testosterone, which cause fibroids to form,
resulting in pain. These fibroids can form after just a few years on
testosterone, as confirmed via dissection of removed
uteruses of trans-identifying women. A child put on testosterone in middle
school may require a hysterectomy before she graduates high school.
Testosterone (a known human teratogen, i.e., a substance which causes birth
defects) can also change the endometrial tissue (the tissue which is excreted
during menstruation), raising the risk of endometrial cancer. This has been
confirmed by microscopic examination of uteruses removed from trans-identifying
young women. The ovaries also become scarred due to exposure to high doses of
testosterone. In addition to pain, fibroids can cause excessive bleeding and
reproductive problems such as uterine-factor infertility and pregnancy loss.
Oopherectomy, removal of the ovaries, may or may not be completed at this same
time. Either procedure can put the trans-identifying woman into early
menopause and place her in an increased risk category for early-onset dementia.
Metoidioplasty is a surgery
performed on female-to-male transgender individuals. The vaginal tissue may be
discarded or utilized in urethral lengthening (see below). The clitoris, which
has been irreversibly enlarged through the use of cosmetic testosterone, is
“released” from the connective tissue that holds it in place, allowing the head
of the clitoris to point outwards from the body when erect. The inner labia are
then sewn together, partially or fully, and connected to the elongated and
“released” clitoral head, leaving a tube down the middle through which the
individual can complete the holy trans rite of “standing to pee.”
Phalloplasty is a term
that refers to the construction of a neophallus using skin from elsewhere on
the body. This skin may be a transplanted radial forearm free-flap
phalloplasty, a rotated (non-free) flap of skin from the abdomen, or
transplanted from the leg or back. When transplanted from the leg, the
thickness is typically excessive, resulting in a girth that has been likened by
recipients to being the size of a soda can, requiring multiple “de-girthing”
procedures that involve liposuction. Of course, if the person gains weight,
their neophallus may again enlarge. The phalloplasty recipient also faces the
issue of “shrinkage,” as the lack of connective tissue structure of a penis
means that over time, the transplanted skin will change in size and shape to
become smaller. This has been documented in photos by recipients and their
providers, published in peer-reviewed journals and to social media platforms
like Reddit. This lack of structure also makes the individual prone to pressure
sores internally, which result in strictures where the skin inside the tube has
become inflamed and scarred together, obstructing the flow of urine and
requiring an individual to wear a second, suprapubic catheter that goes into
the bladder through the abdomen, as well as a catheter inside the skin tube to
keep it open.
Repeated insults to
the bladder itself in some cases result in
severe and recurrent bladder stones, all of which may contribute to the
eventual loss of the bladder and need for a permanent urostomy bag.
Additionally, individuals who get vaginectomy are vulnerable to fistula, which
is an abnormal connection between two areas of the body. For one person I
interviewed, “Ryan,” a fistula formed between the excised vaginal space, the
“natal” (original) urethra, and the colon, allowing bacteria from the colon to
repeatedly infect the urethra and bladder. To prevent sepsis, Ryan’s doctors
re-routed the intestine to a stoma, or opening, cut in the side of the abdomen,
to which a colostomy bag was attached to collect stool. This reduced the
frequency of infections, but did not stop them. At the time of the interview,
Ryan had been living half a life due to this imposed, severe digestive
disability for a year and a half, with no end in sight.
Overall phalloplasty complication rates range from 60 percent to 100
percent higher when performed on females versus males, depending on the nature
of the complication, with studies loath to provide an
overall complication rate across complication subtypes. The studies that do
provide such a figure estimate rates as high as 76 percent. “[C]urrent evidence
of the various phalloplasty surgical techniques and their expected postoperative outcomes is weak.” Even
without complications, “post void dribbling,” which many “trans men”
liken to a “squirt gun” they have to “milk,” was found by one study to occur in 72 percent of female
phalloplasty recipients.
One unfortunate phalloplasty recipient has needed eight surgeries (and
counting) including the initial and all the revisions. She also spent five
weeks in the hospital, of which two were spent in the ICU on a ventilator
during COVID because her arm-skin phalloplasty had predictably become septic.
She nearly lost her leg from a giant blood clot that formed as a result of a
combination of factors, including the sepsis and the extended time spent
immobile. The clot was likely partly a result of testosterone poisoning, which
may have caused her, as she stated in a video response to me, to discontinue
testosterone shortly after that incident. Yet this individual is still looking
forward to having an erectile device implanted into this transplanted skin
tube. These erectile devices, which are acting within floppy arm skin, are
typically either balloon-based (requiring a pump to be implanted in the labial
skin which has been revised to look like a scrotal sack) or a rod that clicks
into place, similar to a futon frame. Romantic partners of phalloplasty
recipients that have agreed to be in their videos state it does not work well
for sexual intercourse, and this reality can leave recipients despondent.
In addition to phalloplasty, recipients often get additional cosmetic
procedures so that the skin tube more closely mimics a real penis. These may
include “medical tattooing,” which seeks to create the appearance of veins or
the glans from a distance. They may also get additional surgical interventions
to create the cosmetic shape of a penis via additional nips and tucks. Nerves
from the location of the graft site may also be transplanted and joined
(similar to soldering) to the clitoral nerve itself, which may require severing
the clitoral nerve from the tip of the clitoris, resulting in loss of clitoral
sensation (in addition to the loss that occurs when the phalloplasty “buries
the clitoris”). This may result in some amount of sensation in parts of the skin
tube. Since it is an arm or leg skin tube, however, it does not acquire the
erogenous sensitivity or specificity that a real penis has. Recipients will
describe having mild sensation at the tip or base, to the extent they can feel
if something is touching it or not.
In both phalloplasty and metoidioplasty, patients are increasingly
asking that their vaginas be left open and accessible, known as a
“vagina-sparing” procedures. One metoidioplasty patient had her vagina
“spared,” and subsequently, she became pregnant from having heterosexual
intercourse with her male husband. She expressed in a video,
“we did not think it was possible and were very shocked,” because in her mind,
she was a gay man having sex with another man. Her baby was exposed prenatally
to her cosmetic testosterone use, which she resumed against medical advice
shortly after her infant had to be born prematurely. Her daughter has had
developmental issues, including apparent motor and speech delays, as well as
plagiocephaly (misshapen head), which required a prescription helmet.
Buccal grafts may be required during phalloplasty, metoidioplasty, or
vaginoplasty (explained below), all with the aim of providing the mucous
membrane lining that is present in normal genitalia. Consequences of this
procedure include nerve damage, scarring, and impaired ability to chew, control
the muscles of the mouth, or speak clearly.
Urethral
lengthening is a procedure done during metoidioplasty as well
as phalloplasty (explained below). The purpose is to connect what’s termed the
“natal urethra,” otherwise known as the urethra, to the skin tube extension so
that the individual can pee from the tip of the skin tube. This may be
completed in various ways. The doctor may utilize tissue from the vagina. The
doctor may also implant a straw in the arm of the patient for several months in
hopes of creating a tube around the straw, which will then transplant with the
rest of the arm skin during a radial forearm free-flap phalloplasty.
The surgeon may also utilize skin from the inside of the cheek (buccal graft)
or mastectomy (“top surgery”) to create this new urethra. Because this tissue
did not develop for the purpose of carrying urine through a skin tube, the
neo-urethra and neo-phallus lack the internal structure to sustain itself and
have a tendency to scar together as well as create holes or cul-de-sac pockets
in which urine collects and bacterial infections can thrive. This neo-phallus
is not regularly flushed with semen as in a healthy male, nor does it have
normal tension and pressure of a healthy male urinary stream, both of which
make neo-urinary tract infections easier to develop and harder to eliminate.
These infections create conditions which promote chronic bladder and kidney
infections, and from there an infection can advance to one or multiple episodes
of sepsis (systemic bacterial infection circulating in the blood throughout the
body). Sepsis can result in brain and other organ damage as well as necessitate
amputation of limbs.
Men’s Department
Transgender
vaginoplasty is a procedure in which tissue from the penis,
scrotum, mouth, other portions of the digestive tract (sometimes from a pig),
or a tilapia fish is used to line an excavated hole in a man’s pelvis. Patients
such as Jazz Jennings, child star of the show I
Am Jazz, will often start with a penile inversion, in which the bulk of
the internal portion of the penis and the glans is removed, the shaft skin is
separated and inverted, and the urethra is split open and connected to the
shaft skin to create a wider canal, all of which is then sewn to
the posterior of the pelvic wall. Unlike a woman’s vagina, penis shaft and
urethra skin is, of course, not very stretchy, which allows these structures to
resist the pressures of urination as well as engorgement with blood occurring
during erection. Once these tissues are removed, dissected, and inverted, the
tendency of this tube is to become inflamed. Inflamed tissue that stretches
scars and calcifies. The doctors want it to scar to the interior of the pelvis
(or else the result is neo-vagina prolapse), but this tendency to scar means it
will also try to shrink, reducing in length and girth.
To compensate for this, doctors advise vaginoplasty recipients to dilate
using rods of a fixed length and graded girth. Dilation involves lying back and
inserting this rod into the neo-vagina in an attempt to either expand the
internal volume or at least prevent collapse. This process is extremely time
consuming, and dilation regimens seem to vary greatly from patient to patient,
ranging from one hour a few times a week to multiple hour-long sessions per
day. This process is typically painful and may be ineffective. Like the
strictures that form in the skin tube neo-urethra of the neo-phallus, this
penile-inverted skin tube was not designed to be resting against itself for
long periods. This is, however, unavoidable. Therefore, the tissue within this
tube is prone to strictures, or what doctors will call “vaginal stenosis” to
get insurance to pay for the revision as a result of pressure necrosis (the
tendency of tissue is to inflame, die, and scar to surrounding tissue as a
result of extended periods of pressure).
This can make dilation impossible, resulting in a warm, moist,
non-self-cleaning pocket that is an ideal environment for bacteria which is now
adjacent to a shortened urethra, capable of causing chronic infections and
sepsis. Additionally, dilation, which is sometimes performed by physicians
under anesthesia so that more force can be used, may cause tears or fistulas
between the neo-vagina and other structures such as the urethra or rectum. One
unfortunate vaginoplasty recipient I covered learned he had a recto-”vaginal”
fistula when he farted through it. This fistula was
allegedly caused by the anesthesia-enabled, surgeon-performed dilation.
At this point, gender doctors may recommend a revision. This revision
may be what is known as a “colon vaginoplasty.” In a colon vaginoplasty, an
eight-inch segment of colon is removed, and the remaining colon is rerouted to
the rectum and recombined (creating a risk of fistulas and internal infection
which may show up years later). This colon segment is then sewn shut at one end
and is used to replace the scarred, shrunken, strictured, and fistula-ridden inverted
penile shaft skin. It is advertised as “self-lubricating,” but as one recipient
explained, what the doctors may not tell patients is that this lubrication is
tied to food consumption, not sexual arousal.
Orchiectomy is the
removal of the testicles. Orchiectomy is typically performed to eliminate a
biological source of unwanted male hormones and to salvage the tissue present
in the testicles, including a portion of skin called the “vagina” (Latin for
“sheath”), to be repurposed to line the neo-vagina.
Nullification surgery is a
term for a procedure performed on either male or female people that results in
an outcome that is reminiscent of female genital mutilation. The penis, vulva,
vagina, and testicles, as applicable, are completely removed, and the overlying
tissue is sewn together to create a smooth surface with a small hole for
urination. This may be done in the name of “eunuch”
gender identity. Eunuch is a term which traditionally
refers to a castrated male with no penis, but in this modern era, of course,
sex is not gender and so “gender identity,” which would include “eunuch gender
identity,” is not limited to any particular “sex assigned at birth.”
Cui Bono?
As if the horrors of the surgeries themselves were not enough, the
reality is that these interventions are mind-bendingly expensive, entirely
cosmetic, and medically unnecessary, yet are covered by insurance (including
tax-funded insurance such as Medicaid and Medicare because not funding these
surgeries demanded by the trans lobby is considered “discrimination” equivalent
to not covering medically-necessary care for a car accident victim who happened
to be Asian). Some recipients have posted medical bills totaling hundreds of
thousands of dollars accrued in just a few years, sometimes months—even during
the COVID-19 pandemic—of which they brag they paid up to their deductible of,
for instance, $5,000. Many are rushing to get as many cosmetic modifications as
possible before they age off of their parents’ policy (which typically occurs
at age 26). The reader is encouraged to recall a time where they or a loved one
were denied or delayed coverage for a medically-necessary treatment, such as
one which returned mobility, independence, or reduced chronic pain. Did their
insurance cover gender-transition related drugs and surgeries at that time?
Transgender surgeries are medically-unnecessary interventions, not
intended to diagnose or treat a medical problem, performed on physically
healthy tissues for reasons of gender identity or subjective psychological
distress perceived to be related to a sense of gender identity (two distinct
justifications, only one of which requires a diagnosis of gender dysphoria, a
term referring merely to the distress a person with a perceived conflict may
experience). Not every trans-identifying person receiving these interventions
is professionally diagnosed or experiencing subjective distress. When no
distress (“dysphoria”) is present, individuals are able to still access these
procedures via an Orwellian process called the “informed consent model,” which
does not require a psychological evaluation to rule out delusional disorders or
confirm a gender dysphoria diagnosis.
When these interventions are performed on detransitioners, who no longer
claim to experience a conflict in identity versus body, these interventions may
not be covered. In fact, trans activists fight to remove guaranteed coverage
for so-called detransitioners from laws guaranteeing “trans healthcare.”
Gender-affirming surgeries, or as some call them, sex lobotomies, are as
Byzantine as they are treacherous, an endless complexification of
human-to-boondoggle body modification that the taxpayer and insurance
purchaser, ultimately, have to fund, both directly at the time of the surgery,
and forever after, as foolish and confused people purchase disabilities that
are not as reversible as their good health once was.
Genital
Mutilation for the Masses - The American Mind
The hidden long-term risks
of youth gender transition (by Eliza Mondegreen)
New research in the International Urogynecology
Journal raises serious concerns about testosterone use among
trans-identified female patients. Researchers found that 94% of the patients
they studied had developed pelvic floor dysfunction since starting testosterone.
What’s more, 87% suffered from issues with bladder control; 53% reported sexual
dysfunction, such as pain during intercourse; and 74% reported experiencing
issues with bowel movements, such as constipation or faecal incontinence.
In an interview with the Telegraph,
physiotherapist Elaine Miller warned that young adult females taking
testosterone appear to be on “exactly the same trajectory” as women undergoing
menopause — except that they’re encountering these issues 20 or 30 years ahead
of schedule. Miller spoke about the toll complications like this can take on a
person’s life: “Wetting yourself is something that just is not socially
acceptable, and it stops people from exercising, it stops them from having
intimate relationships, it stops them from travelling, it has work impacts.”
There’s a serious
disconnect between emerging evidence of transition’s risks and harms, and the
ways young people view these interventions. In the online spaces that I study,
young people talk about their bodies using casual, often dismissive language,
as though they were embarking on a do-it-yourself home-remodelling project.
They talk about how they prefer their bodies to run on “T” (testosterone), not
“E” (oestrogen). They deride puberty as “oestrogen poisoning” or “testosterone
poisoning”. They are also startlingly alienated from their bodies’ natural
functions, always seeking fresh euphemisms to hide uncomfortable realities,
such as the young woman who wrote that she could only cope with the “dysphoria”
her period caused by “seeing it in a[n] impersonal and logically [sic], usually
thinking ‘The cycle is occurring to this vessel.’”
Young people and
gender clinicians alike increasingly speak of detransition as no big deal —
just another stop along an edifying journey of self-discovery. Jack Turban and
Johanna Olson-Kennedy, two of the leading gender clinicians in the US, refer to “dynamic desires for gender-affirming medical
interventions”. Others prefer the term “retransition”,
which suggests a kind of equivalence between the initial decision to intervene
on a patient’s healthy body and any subsequent interventions on an altered
body. Olson-Kennedy has waved away concerns about potential surgical regret among
her young female patients: “If you want breasts at a later point in your life,
you can go and get them.”
But transition —
and detransition — is nothing like customising an avatar or tearing out a
kitchen. What hormonal and surgical interventions can offer to patients
struggling with gender dysphoria is severely limited. When these interventions
“succeed”, they imperfectly imitate physical features and functions that
medical technology cannot, in fact, replicate. When these interventions go
wrong, the complications can be life-altering,
even fatal. Meanwhile, every intervention takes an unpredictable
toll on the body. Over the coming decades, as this mass medical experiment
plays out, I worry that we will see growing numbers of young people suffering
from the kinds of diseases and disabilities that typically emerge only in old
age.
To make matters
worse, researchers also expressed concern that patients may avoid seeking help
for transition complications, citing fear of encountering discrimination in
healthcare settings, as well as discomfort and distress dealing with body parts
and functions. Patients may also fear losing access to interventions they have
come to believe are not just identity-affirming but life-saving. Discussions in
online forums frequently turn to complications patients are reluctant to bring
to their doctors’ attention, lest they lose access to hormones.
For all the trans
community’s talk about bodily autonomy, there’s little focus on the ways
medical complications can strip away the freedom to live one’s life as one
pleases. Young people flocking to gender clinics today may not realise what
life on a medical leash means. Too many will find out in the course of time.
Eliza
Mondegreen is a graduate student in psychiatry and the author of Writing Behavior on
Substack.
The
hidden long-term risks of youth gender transition - UnHerd
Tuesday, May 28, 2024
Wednesday, May 22, 2024
Tuesday, May 21, 2024
Monday, May 20, 2024
Rape crisis centre worker wins gender-critical tribunal (by Joan Smith)
If you’re trying to
get away with a lie, it had better be a big one. It’s something populist
politicians understand very well, firing up supporters with outrageous claims
designed to encourage their preexisting prejudices. One of the biggest, which
is shamefully popular on the Left in this country, is the idea that there’s no
conflict between women’s rights and the demands of identity politics.
Nothing could be
further from the truth. Women are having to dismantle the lie brick by brick,
using the courts to show how individuals have been ostracised by colleagues and
lost jobs. But the latest in a series of harrowing employment tribunal cases
demonstrates not just the damage to a particular claimant, but the devastating
impact of gender ideology on victims of sexual violence.
It shows how even
women who have been raped, who are so traumatised they can barely speak about
their experience, are of little account to a movement that prioritises men over
women. The tribunal found that the Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre
constructively dismissed and harassed an employee, Roz Adams, after she
realised that senior managers believed there is no such thing as biological
sex, and expressed her concerns about the effect of that belief on traumatised
women.
Of course this
happened in Scotland, where gender ideology is so embedded that the CEO of the
centre is a trans-identified man. Mridul Wadhwa wasted no time in demonstrating
his unsuitability for the job, suggesting in a notorious interview in 2021 that “bigoted” rape survivors
should be re-educated about trans rights. But the full extent of his influence
on the culture of the centre is exposed in the tribunal’s excoriating judgment.
It found that
Wadhwa and other members of the senior management team were on a “heresy hunt” when they began a disciplinary process
against Adams. It concluded that Wadhwa’s intention was to “cleanse the
organisation” of anyone who refused to accept views which were “at the very
extreme end of gender identity theory”. Many if not most survivors of male
sexual violence don’t feel able to disclose details of an attack to a man, yet
employees were told to give ambiguous replies when victims asked about the sex
of the counsellor they had been assigned by the centre.
Adams was not alone
in challenging this approach. Joan McAlpine, a former SNP MSP, has described a meeting at the centre during which she was
told that “anyone who identifies as a woman could be a rape counsellor”. Many
of us would regard that as a dereliction of duty towards vulnerable women, but
it gets worse.
The centre even
refused to refer rape survivors who wanted a female counsellor to a women-only service set up by J.K. Rowling. This is about
as far from a victim-centred approach as it is possible to imagine, turning
what should have been a service for distressed women into an exercise to
validate the fantasies of entitled men like Wadhwa.
No woman, not even
one who has been terrorised and beaten by a violent sex offender, is safe from
the demands of these misogynists. They have got away with it because too many
people have swallowed the big lie that men who “identify” as women are victims
who need to be cosseted. Anyone who goes on believing it, after it’s been
exposed so many times, is enabling damage to women.
Joan Smith is
a novelist and columnist. She has been Chair of the Mayor of London’s Violence
Against Women and Girls Board since 2013. Her book Homegrown: How
Domestic Violence Turns Men Into Terrorists was published in 2019.
Rape
crisis centre worker wins gender-critical tribunal - UnHerd
Friday, May 17, 2024
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Thursday, May 2, 2024
Angels (by Mary Oliver)
You might
see an angel anytime
and anywhere. Of course you have
to open your eyes to a kind of
second level, but it’s not really
hard. The whole business of
what’s reality and what isn’t has
never been solved and probably
never will be. So I don’t care to
be too definite about anything.
I have a lot of edges called Perhaps
and almost nothing you can call
Certainty. For myself, but not
for other people. That’s a place
you just can’t get into, not
entirely anyway, other people’s heads.
I’ll just
leave you with this.
I don’t care how many angels can
dance on the head of a pin. It’s
enough to know that for some people
they exist, and that they dance.
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