It’s great to celebrate our victories. This is big. Republican lawmakers using radical feminist (politically left) arguments. Journalists disregarding the “no-debate” cry from the supposedly fragile misogynists.
That is awesome news! I am so grateful for you, Kara, and the other women who are tirelessly working and taking endless fire from the wokish on this front.
This is great news. We need similar legislation in blue states, but I'm not holding my breath. If detransitioner Chloe Cole wins her suit against Kaiser in California, that may, hope to god, have a chilling effect on the youth gender clinic industry.
The model legislation is an excellent piece of drafting, with thanks to Kara and WDI for doing this hard and good work. It is, as Kara has noted, an educative, as well as legislative, tool. And, as a recovering attorney (read: long retired), I am particularly appreciative of the care taken with definitions, for, as gender ideology makes all too clear, definitions are the font from which all legal determinations flow.
I am interested, as an aside, what the thinking of folks here is on strategy, particularly, vis-a-vis Democratically controlled states. I recognize the below may both be controversial, but hope we can, within this forum, anyway, shed light, rather heat. Toward that end, I welcome your thoughts:
Is there something less than an outright ban that could be workable, perhaps making an exception for those already embarked on a course of care, and/or where a validly thorough psychological assessment in accordance with clear, appropriate guidelines, was made? (I know this was something Dr. Cass was sensitive to when she published her interim report.)
Also, I see this as a medical malpractice, rather than a child abuse, issue. With the latter, I worry that families may be prosecuted, when what they are doing, however misguided and ill-informed, is trying to do the best for their children. I haven’t read the model act closely enough yet, so I may be wrong on this, but it does seem to be framed as a medical malpractice approach, which I think is good.
1. National strategy: State laws establishing “gender identity” and erasing sex must be challenged in federal court.
2. Our position is that all of “gender identity” is a toxic lie. Compromise on less than an outright ban on child castration and other sexual mutilation would be like allowing a few lobotomies.
Lauren: and thank YOU for your thoughtful and straightforward reply. I am with you 💯on point one, and your position on point 2 is certainly reasonable, even for those of us who are not altogether comfortable with that strategic approach. I continue to learn on this, and one of the voices I also listen to is Lisa Selin Davis. In this post, she articulates the question I also have on strategy: https://open.substack.com/pub/lisaselindavis/p/corinna-cohns-testimony?r=16541&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post But please know this is NOT a criticism of the WDI’s approach, it is simply a concern I have about which I continue to think, as I learn more. I am forever grateful for all the hard work you do.
Lisa opposes the WDI-USA legislation because of her "feeling that bans on medical gender transition for minors are not the best way to get to a cease fire the culture war".
I see zero evidence that she is right about this. I see zero evidence that the transification movement has any interest in any sort of compromise.
In any case, the disistance rate for children with gender dysphoria who are treated with watchful waiting (rather than blockers and hormones) is 60% to 98%, depending on which study one looks at. In other words, a very high "false positive" rate for being "trans".
Given this ridiculously high false positive rate, drugs and/or surgery is simply NOT an acceptable treatment protocol, and it should and must be banned.
If the medical community was doing its job of properly evaluating things, this would be not be necessary. But the medical community has failed us all.
MarkS: I agree with you 💯 that “If the medical community was doing its job of properly evaluating things, this would be not be necessary. But the medical community has failed us all.” I also understand completely what you are responding to what Lisa indicates, and your reasoning is sound. I do appreciate Lisa’s efforts, however, to try and open up another channel. (She is, BTW, excellent in terms of research she has done and in being a powerful, if lonely, voice in her deep blue area of Brooklyn, where she has two children who are directly affected by this is the public schools.) Most of all, I want to say I really appreciate having this interchange with you, and all here. You have made some excellent recommendations directly in response to my questions, and I will follow up on them in my continued efforts. I have come to recognize my allies in fighting gender ideology and self-ID require me to think completely independently of my “normal” party affiliation and political views, and I am grateful to anyone who stands arm in arm in this fight. As Posie Parker says, if we stand together, regardless of our views on anything else, “We will win.” So thank you, truly, for this engagement. It means a great deal.
I know and appreciate Lisa's work, I just disagree with her conclusion as to the steps that are needed to correct the current situation. And I completely agree with Posie Parker that we can and should all stand together on this, regardless of our views on anything else. I have become a "single issue voter" on this, largely because I am horrified that it is my people, my tribe, the blue tribe, that is responsible for this. I feel guility about it, and I feel the need to do all I can to change it.
History demonstrates that you need both approaches: the hard-asses and the negotiators. Look back at the women's suffrage movement. The hard-asses forced their hand, the negotiators were then available to sit down at the table with them. Both WDI and Lisa are doing exactly what they should be doing. I've never been prouder to contribute to this cause.
MarkS: I am so glad to get to “know” you, if only virtually, and I share your horror. There are few things worse than being betrayed by your own people (I am a great admirer, eg, of Elizabeth Warren, and am livid with her about this), but that is where we are. Thinking about our exchanges earlier today, something occurred to me that Posie Parker/Kelly-Jean observed about the situation in the UK. As you probably know, she is going to mount a campaign v. Starmer, not with the idea to win, but to put him, and the entire Labour Party on the spot by asking them what a woman is. Part of her reasoning is that she thinks it likely the voters will want change and will throw the Tories out, so it’s essential that Labour be pushed as hard as possible on these issues. I like the strategy, and I am interested in seeing how she fares with this, and whether it might offer us some ideas this side of the pond as 2024 approaches.
In blue states, I think the politically most viable course is to push parental rights, along the lines of Tom Cotton's federal proposal, S.3037 - Empower Parents to Protect Their Kids Act: A bill to require elementary schools and secondary schools that receive Federal funds to obtain parental consent before facilitating a child's gender transition in any form. https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/senate-bill/3037/titles I would like Republicans to embrace this, copy it at the state level, and force Democrats to take a stand on it.
I also agree with those who categorize the issue as medical malpractice, but empowering parents can’t be a bad thing. No “transition” without parental consent would stop the brainwashing at school from going on behind parents’ backs, and both tactics are needed. Thanks for your comment and the link!
There are so many moving parts to all of this - medical societies such as the APA and their capture by the trans agenda, informed consent as it plays out with med mal, parental rights, etc. I believe it is a matter of time before the APA, AMA, the Endocrine Society become dislodged from the tenacles of the trans agenda such as WPATH. Eventually they must buckle under the weight of evidence. I am very optimistic, too, that whistleblower Jamie Reed's affidavit to the Missouri AG will have a ripple effect across the country with regard to gender "medicine."
State legislators behind these bills need to know the facts about what is being done to children. An NYT article on Missouri showed that a state senator there clearly did not, so I sent him the following info, which should be widely shared. I hope WDI-USA is doing that:
>The Komodo analysis of insurance claims found 56 genital surgeries among patients ages 13 to 17 with a prior gender dysphoria diagnosis from 2019 to 2021.
>Among teens, “top surgery” to remove breasts is more common. In the three years ending in 2021, at least 776 mastectomies were performed in the United States on patients ages 13 to 17 with a gender dysphoria diagnosis, according to Komodo’s data analysis of insurance claims. This tally does not include procedures that were paid for out of pocket.
>At least 14,726 minors started hormone treatment with a prior gender dysphoria diagnosis from 2017 through 2021, according to the Komodo analysis.
MarkS: thanks so much for flagging the Reuters, and I applaud your good spotting and quick thinking to send the information on while the bill was being considered. This is something each of us can do as individuals, and I’ve flagged the article for just that purpose. Also appreciate your observation on the empowering of parents bill. I mean, really, that’s the minimum of what we should expect. How I wish a D would step up and propose this. I’m a solid D, in NY, and I am continually dismayed by how badly my D reps, who otherwise do good work, are falling down on the job here. There is just no willingness to recognize the harms.
I'm in California, and the Democrats (I was one all my life until very recently; I'm 67) are hopeless. A horrific bill making California a "sanctuary state" for kids fleeing parents who want to keep them safe, and violating cooperation rules on divorce agreements, was recently passed, despite heartrending live testimony from some detransitioners. In Virginia, a parents-rights bill was just defeated by Democrats, who of course called it "transphobic". Every single Democrat in Congress, both House and Senate, is on record as supporting the Equality Act, which would make instant gender self-ID federal law. (Manchin has wavered a bit, saying he supports unspecified changes, but that's it.) Kara has written that the Equality Act has been quietly sidelined, but I am not convinced. Certainly no Democrat in Congress is on the record as opposing instant gender self-ID.
So: I now vote for, and work hard to elect, Republicans. Because they are the only (kinda sorta) organized opposition to this ongoing crime against humanity.
MarkS: I understand your dismay, particularly given that you are in CA, and I respect your choice on how to proceed. I am sure you are not alone, and the Ds need to grasp that this is not a little sideshow they can ignore, and they had better wake up to losing voters like you. I share your concern about the Equality Act, also. (What I understand Kara to be saying as to that is it’s temporarily on hold as it likely cannot get through the House.) For myself (I am 74 and a lifelong D), I will continue to do what I can to press my D officials at all levels and do what I can to educate D friends and neighbors. It’s a vertical climb, to be sure, but neither do I want Medicare and Social Security, on which I and so many depend, to go down the tubes.
Thanks for the vitally important work you are doing, and for the comment section being opened. Help is on the way for parents and children, sounds like. I agree that medical malpractice is the best route, as that’s what this is, but parents being empowered is another important part of it, particularly in the “blue” states where the cult is in full sway. It’s going to take all of us who can say or do anything to counteract this madness to get the brakes on this perverted ideology. ☮️❤️🐾
It would be great if this became a national movement. Girls and women refusing to compete against boys and men, if it happens on a large enough scale, would send a powerful message.
It’s great to celebrate our victories. This is big. Republican lawmakers using radical feminist (politically left) arguments. Journalists disregarding the “no-debate” cry from the supposedly fragile misogynists.
That is awesome news! I am so grateful for you, Kara, and the other women who are tirelessly working and taking endless fire from the wokish on this front.
This is great news. We need similar legislation in blue states, but I'm not holding my breath. If detransitioner Chloe Cole wins her suit against Kaiser in California, that may, hope to god, have a chilling effect on the youth gender clinic industry.
Excellent work! Thank you.
The model legislation is an excellent piece of drafting, with thanks to Kara and WDI for doing this hard and good work. It is, as Kara has noted, an educative, as well as legislative, tool. And, as a recovering attorney (read: long retired), I am particularly appreciative of the care taken with definitions, for, as gender ideology makes all too clear, definitions are the font from which all legal determinations flow.
I am interested, as an aside, what the thinking of folks here is on strategy, particularly, vis-a-vis Democratically controlled states. I recognize the below may both be controversial, but hope we can, within this forum, anyway, shed light, rather heat. Toward that end, I welcome your thoughts:
Is there something less than an outright ban that could be workable, perhaps making an exception for those already embarked on a course of care, and/or where a validly thorough psychological assessment in accordance with clear, appropriate guidelines, was made? (I know this was something Dr. Cass was sensitive to when she published her interim report.)
Also, I see this as a medical malpractice, rather than a child abuse, issue. With the latter, I worry that families may be prosecuted, when what they are doing, however misguided and ill-informed, is trying to do the best for their children. I haven’t read the model act closely enough yet, so I may be wrong on this, but it does seem to be framed as a medical malpractice approach, which I think is good.
Thanks for your thoughtful comment.
1. National strategy: State laws establishing “gender identity” and erasing sex must be challenged in federal court.
2. Our position is that all of “gender identity” is a toxic lie. Compromise on less than an outright ban on child castration and other sexual mutilation would be like allowing a few lobotomies.
Lauren: and thank YOU for your thoughtful and straightforward reply. I am with you 💯on point one, and your position on point 2 is certainly reasonable, even for those of us who are not altogether comfortable with that strategic approach. I continue to learn on this, and one of the voices I also listen to is Lisa Selin Davis. In this post, she articulates the question I also have on strategy: https://open.substack.com/pub/lisaselindavis/p/corinna-cohns-testimony?r=16541&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post But please know this is NOT a criticism of the WDI’s approach, it is simply a concern I have about which I continue to think, as I learn more. I am forever grateful for all the hard work you do.
Lisa opposes the WDI-USA legislation because of her "feeling that bans on medical gender transition for minors are not the best way to get to a cease fire the culture war".
I see zero evidence that she is right about this. I see zero evidence that the transification movement has any interest in any sort of compromise.
In any case, the disistance rate for children with gender dysphoria who are treated with watchful waiting (rather than blockers and hormones) is 60% to 98%, depending on which study one looks at. In other words, a very high "false positive" rate for being "trans".
Given this ridiculously high false positive rate, drugs and/or surgery is simply NOT an acceptable treatment protocol, and it should and must be banned.
If the medical community was doing its job of properly evaluating things, this would be not be necessary. But the medical community has failed us all.
MarkS: I agree with you 💯 that “If the medical community was doing its job of properly evaluating things, this would be not be necessary. But the medical community has failed us all.” I also understand completely what you are responding to what Lisa indicates, and your reasoning is sound. I do appreciate Lisa’s efforts, however, to try and open up another channel. (She is, BTW, excellent in terms of research she has done and in being a powerful, if lonely, voice in her deep blue area of Brooklyn, where she has two children who are directly affected by this is the public schools.) Most of all, I want to say I really appreciate having this interchange with you, and all here. You have made some excellent recommendations directly in response to my questions, and I will follow up on them in my continued efforts. I have come to recognize my allies in fighting gender ideology and self-ID require me to think completely independently of my “normal” party affiliation and political views, and I am grateful to anyone who stands arm in arm in this fight. As Posie Parker says, if we stand together, regardless of our views on anything else, “We will win.” So thank you, truly, for this engagement. It means a great deal.
I know and appreciate Lisa's work, I just disagree with her conclusion as to the steps that are needed to correct the current situation. And I completely agree with Posie Parker that we can and should all stand together on this, regardless of our views on anything else. I have become a "single issue voter" on this, largely because I am horrified that it is my people, my tribe, the blue tribe, that is responsible for this. I feel guility about it, and I feel the need to do all I can to change it.
History demonstrates that you need both approaches: the hard-asses and the negotiators. Look back at the women's suffrage movement. The hard-asses forced their hand, the negotiators were then available to sit down at the table with them. Both WDI and Lisa are doing exactly what they should be doing. I've never been prouder to contribute to this cause.
MarkS: I am so glad to get to “know” you, if only virtually, and I share your horror. There are few things worse than being betrayed by your own people (I am a great admirer, eg, of Elizabeth Warren, and am livid with her about this), but that is where we are. Thinking about our exchanges earlier today, something occurred to me that Posie Parker/Kelly-Jean observed about the situation in the UK. As you probably know, she is going to mount a campaign v. Starmer, not with the idea to win, but to put him, and the entire Labour Party on the spot by asking them what a woman is. Part of her reasoning is that she thinks it likely the voters will want change and will throw the Tories out, so it’s essential that Labour be pushed as hard as possible on these issues. I like the strategy, and I am interested in seeing how she fares with this, and whether it might offer us some ideas this side of the pond as 2024 approaches.
In blue states, I think the politically most viable course is to push parental rights, along the lines of Tom Cotton's federal proposal, S.3037 - Empower Parents to Protect Their Kids Act: A bill to require elementary schools and secondary schools that receive Federal funds to obtain parental consent before facilitating a child's gender transition in any form. https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/senate-bill/3037/titles I would like Republicans to embrace this, copy it at the state level, and force Democrats to take a stand on it.
I also agree with those who categorize the issue as medical malpractice, but empowering parents can’t be a bad thing. No “transition” without parental consent would stop the brainwashing at school from going on behind parents’ backs, and both tactics are needed. Thanks for your comment and the link!
Yes - agreed! This would be an excellent approach! Parental power is a must!
Thank you Kara and WDI!
Thank you so much!!!
There are so many moving parts to all of this - medical societies such as the APA and their capture by the trans agenda, informed consent as it plays out with med mal, parental rights, etc. I believe it is a matter of time before the APA, AMA, the Endocrine Society become dislodged from the tenacles of the trans agenda such as WPATH. Eventually they must buckle under the weight of evidence. I am very optimistic, too, that whistleblower Jamie Reed's affidavit to the Missouri AG will have a ripple effect across the country with regard to gender "medicine."
State legislators behind these bills need to know the facts about what is being done to children. An NYT article on Missouri showed that a state senator there clearly did not, so I sent him the following info, which should be widely shared. I hope WDI-USA is doing that:
>The Komodo analysis of insurance claims found 56 genital surgeries among patients ages 13 to 17 with a prior gender dysphoria diagnosis from 2019 to 2021.
>Among teens, “top surgery” to remove breasts is more common. In the three years ending in 2021, at least 776 mastectomies were performed in the United States on patients ages 13 to 17 with a gender dysphoria diagnosis, according to Komodo’s data analysis of insurance claims. This tally does not include procedures that were paid for out of pocket.
>At least 14,726 minors started hormone treatment with a prior gender dysphoria diagnosis from 2017 through 2021, according to the Komodo analysis.
https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-transyouth-data/
If you pass on this info, please include these quotes from the article. THE LINK ALONE IS NOT ENOUGH. 90% of the time, it will not get clicked on.
MarkS: thanks so much for flagging the Reuters, and I applaud your good spotting and quick thinking to send the information on while the bill was being considered. This is something each of us can do as individuals, and I’ve flagged the article for just that purpose. Also appreciate your observation on the empowering of parents bill. I mean, really, that’s the minimum of what we should expect. How I wish a D would step up and propose this. I’m a solid D, in NY, and I am continually dismayed by how badly my D reps, who otherwise do good work, are falling down on the job here. There is just no willingness to recognize the harms.
I'm in California, and the Democrats (I was one all my life until very recently; I'm 67) are hopeless. A horrific bill making California a "sanctuary state" for kids fleeing parents who want to keep them safe, and violating cooperation rules on divorce agreements, was recently passed, despite heartrending live testimony from some detransitioners. In Virginia, a parents-rights bill was just defeated by Democrats, who of course called it "transphobic". Every single Democrat in Congress, both House and Senate, is on record as supporting the Equality Act, which would make instant gender self-ID federal law. (Manchin has wavered a bit, saying he supports unspecified changes, but that's it.) Kara has written that the Equality Act has been quietly sidelined, but I am not convinced. Certainly no Democrat in Congress is on the record as opposing instant gender self-ID.
So: I now vote for, and work hard to elect, Republicans. Because they are the only (kinda sorta) organized opposition to this ongoing crime against humanity.
MarkS: I understand your dismay, particularly given that you are in CA, and I respect your choice on how to proceed. I am sure you are not alone, and the Ds need to grasp that this is not a little sideshow they can ignore, and they had better wake up to losing voters like you. I share your concern about the Equality Act, also. (What I understand Kara to be saying as to that is it’s temporarily on hold as it likely cannot get through the House.) For myself (I am 74 and a lifelong D), I will continue to do what I can to press my D officials at all levels and do what I can to educate D friends and neighbors. It’s a vertical climb, to be sure, but neither do I want Medicare and Social Security, on which I and so many depend, to go down the tubes.
Thanks for posting this!
Thanks for the vitally important work you are doing, and for the comment section being opened. Help is on the way for parents and children, sounds like. I agree that medical malpractice is the best route, as that’s what this is, but parents being empowered is another important part of it, particularly in the “blue” states where the cult is in full sway. It’s going to take all of us who can say or do anything to counteract this madness to get the brakes on this perverted ideology. ☮️❤️🐾
Yes yes! Me too!!
It would be great if this became a national movement. Girls and women refusing to compete against boys and men, if it happens on a large enough scale, would send a powerful message.
This story made my day!
me too