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Donna speaking.
There is so much cringeworthy misinformation and disinformation about transgenderism out there that I just had to speak up. And btw, it doesn't all come from conservatives, although most of it does. Anti-trans politicians and pundits, overwhelmingly Republicans, simply don't know what the hell they're talking about and are using fallacies about transgenderism to boost their political ambitions, while on the other side of the political spectrum many Democratic politicians and pundits are refusing to speak out against transwomen athletes competing with genetic women because of fears of alienating young voters which would likely damage their own political ambitions.
For example, we have this post from Hts:
"No one here, on SS, begrudges you the right to choose, as an adult, to address your issues with gender dysphoria by having surgery. But, for you to suggest that it's appropriate for employees of the community, i.e., PUBLIC school teachers, to undermine the relationship between parent and child, and to encourage children to change gender when they're not old enough to choose their bedtime, is indescribably anti-American."
My wife already did a good job deconstructing the well-promoted fallacy in the second part of Hts's statement. To the first part of what Hts said, something significant happened in the Missouri legislature this week that was brought to the attention of our niece who lives in Missouri.
From the first link at the bottom:
"Missouri’s Attorney General Andrew Bailey just signed an “emergency rule” that for all intents and purposes bans transitioning, flat out. While it is technically not a complete ban, the stipulations of the bill are so complex that only a razor-thin margin of trans people may be safe from it. For an adult to transition in the state of Missouri, they must have had “persistent and intense” gender dysphoria for three years and must have also received 18 months of therapy. The bill also does not allow people with autism or depression to transition under any circumstances.
This is tantamount to the “eradication” of trans people that the GOP recently called for at CPAC. After all, the emergency itself is a catch-22. The rule says that trans people must suffer through three years gender dysphoria and yet be depression free to be eligible to transition. As a practical matter, what’s the difference between the two states of mind? Gender dysphoria is a primary cause of depression. The term “dysphoria” is a literal synonym for depression. It’s like making a rule that says to be eligible to drink water your mouth must be dry for three days but you can’t feel thirsty. One simply does not exist without the other. In fact, depression is likely to worsen the longer that a person experiences dysphoria."
Back when I transitioned (1996-2000) in California, I had to see a therapist just to get hormones. I forget how long I was required to attend therapy. And in order to get SRS, I had to get 2 letters of approval from psychiatrists. I think all of that is reasonable, but it's looking like the Republican House in Missouri has entered the ridiculous zone.
I'd like to make another comment about the importance of intervention for minors who are suffering from gender issues.
When I was a child going through that, I was frightened to bring it up to anyone because I was afraid of the backlash I'd receive from my three brothers as well as my parents. So I suffered in silence. I was so affected by the stigma that I didn't come out to anyone until I was 35, and even then, it was a therapist who I came out to, not a friend or family member.
If I had been a child in a society where such a stigma or taboo didn't exist against transgenders ( or as I prefer, the outdated term "transsexuals", ) I wouldn't have felt the need to wait so long to do anything about it. My parents would have taken me to our family doctor, who would have referred us to psychological professional who was educated in gender issues, perhaps even a psychiatrist, and together we would have decided on the best approach to alleviate my suffering. But I didn't come up during a time where that happened anywhere. Even the psychological and medical communities were largely uneducated on transgenderism, sometimes resorting to shock therapy to "cure" a transgender person. YIKES.
Contrary to what the loudest voices in the anti-trans community are saying, TG children don't decide the course of action, and hormone blockers that are used to delay puberty are only prescribed in the most severe cases of gender dysphoria. SRS (sex reassignment surgery) is almost never performed on minors.
Even as an adult, back around 1996 when I saw my first therapist about my gender issues and thereafter with other psychologists and psychiatrists, none of them ever tried to push me towards SRS. In fact they wanted me to consider less drastic approaches. I'm sure that the vast majority of psychological and psychiatric professionals would use the same approach with minors suffering from gender dysphoria.
Of course, as with everything, there are always going to be outliers who don't follow standards. That happens in education, politics, and just about every part of society. When that happens, we need to go after the violators, not the entire institution they're part of.
Deciding whether or not to introduce a hormone blocker regimen to a prepubescent transgender child is a tough call. On one hand, we don't know the long-term effects. On the other hand, if a TG child goes through normal puberty for their biological sex, transitioning after all of those physical changes have taken place becomes much more difficult. M2F transitioning after puberty, which I have first-hand experience with, involves in addition to an estrogen regimen, hundreds of hours of costly and painful electrolysis in which the electrologist inserts a needle-fine shaft into each hair follicle and gives it an electric shock to kill it, which back when I transitioned I paid for entirely out of pocket. To this day it isn't generally covered by health insurance. I probably spent $10K on electrolysis alone. And even then, it didn't entirely remove my facial and neck hair because of regrowth. In fact I still have to shave. Electrolysis did cut way down on the number of facial hairs I have though, so it was beneficial; it just isn't 100% effective. It can also physically scar your skin because the electric charge can damage your collagen.
If I had been put on hormone blockers before puberty, I wouldn't have had to go through all of that pain and expense to get rid of my facial hair. My body also wouldn't have gone through irreversible physical changes like the broadening of my shoulders and the deepening of my voice. And for those with early onset male pattern baldness, they wouldn't have to go through the psychological pain of seeing their scalp hair disappear and then having to replace it with costly procedures like hair transplants and wigs and other hair systems.
Looking back, I doubt that I would have been prescribed hormone blockers as a child because even though I suffered from gender dysphoria, I was able to function pretty normally as a boy and had a happy childhood despite the secret problem I dealt with every day.
But for other TG children whose gender dysphoria is more pronounced as in the case of Becky Pepper Jackson ( see 2nd link below ), hormone blockers would probably be the best approach. She seems to be what used to be called a "Harry Benjamin 6" after the Johns Hopkins psychiatrist who back in the 60s identified six distinct levels of transgenderism, six being the most severe ( I'm probably a 5 ).
Sheri and I are good friends with such a TG. She knew from since she was a toddler that she was, at least in her mind, a girl. Everything about her besides her sex chromosomes screams female. She transitioned around the age of 20 back in the 70s. Luckily for her, she never developed much facial hair, and she's also naturally small. But that's not the case with most TGs.
If you're interested in the truth about transgenderism, talk to someone who's been through it, preferably someone older like Ponderer or myself who have acquired a wealth of knowledge over the decades about it, not a politician with a personal agenda.
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