While it is unlikely to pass, new legislation criminalizing the refusal of parents to affirm their children’s LGBT identity would trigger a likely successful constitutional challenge. WJLA reported that Democratic Virginia Delegate Elizabeth Guzman will introduce a bill that will expand the state’s definition of child abuse and neglect to include parents and guardians who do not affirm the gender identity declared by their children. In the meantime, a journalist, David Leavitt, reported Virginia state senate candidate Tina Ramirez to Child Protective Services over a tweet celebrating Columbus Day as creating an abusive environment for her children. Such unhinged efforts are further pushing parental rights higher among the top concerns for voters.
Leavitt, who has written for media outlets like bylines for CBS and Yahoo, was upset when Ramirez tweeted on Columbus Day that “I teach my daughter real American history. I refuse to join the radical left’s campaign to erase history.”
Leavitt lost it and called on his supporters to file complaints with child welfare:
“Why are you celebrating torture, rape, murder, and enslavement?” Can someone please call child care services on Tina Ramirez who’s teaching her child to be a racist?”
He then reported that he was miffed that he was on hold with child welfare to report Ramirez:
“The Virginia State hotline for child abuse has a 43+ minute hold and is experiencing ‘high call volumes’ with 14 callers ahead of me. This is unacceptable. How many people try to report child abuse and hang up? How many children will continue to be abused?”
Ramirez responded: “Mighty bold and liberal of you to lecture a Hispanic mother with a black daughter on racism.”
Leavitt then declared again that he was reporting her to authorities for how she was raising her children: “The lady who’s teaching her kids how to be racist thinks I’m “bold.” Does she know I’m [on] hold to report her to child and family services?”
It did not seem to matter to Leavitt that he was jamming the lines of the child welfare office with frivolous claims as people tried to get through to report real and dangerous situations. Those children would have to wait as Leavitt told his over 300,000 Twitter followers to flood the lines.
The license assumed by Leavitt to dictate the values of parents is hardly unique. Indeed, the new legislation would make it a crime not to recognize a change in gender identity of a child.
Democratic Virginia Delegate Elizabeth Guzman proclaimed that it should be a crime for parents to hold an opposing view on such changes for their children. She was less specific on the details: “It could be a felony, it could be a misdemeanor, but we know that CPS charge could harm your employment, could harm their education, because nowadays many people do a CPS database search before offering employment.”
Such a law would be flagrantly unconstitutional under the First Amendment if written as described. However, it likely does not matter for Guzman any more than it mattered to Leavitt that he was making a frivolous report to child welfare.
Notably, both Sen. Tim Kaine (D., Va) and Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D., Va.,) were campaigning last week with Guzman in the midst of the outcry over her push for this criminal law.
With the recent election of Glenn Youngkin on a parental rights platform, Virginia is shaping up as ground zero for the issue. It is clearly gaining importance in other states with education as a midterm election issue.
It’s beyond shocking that some parents are so deluded that they can approve of irreparable harm to their children.
They agree to major surgery to assuage sick ideology.
Remember if it saves one child it’s worth it?
We knew it was filthy politics then but this is evil on a demonic scale.
The prog/left has gone a bridge too far with their stance on parental rights. We can tolerate high taxes, even a flaming queen in military dress but touch my child and that is a totally different ballgame – that they will loose. Drag queen reading hours just illustrates how far out of touch with reality the left has become and the adults in the room are going to fight for their family much more fervently than any tranny will for his right to wear a dress.
Here’s a news tip Mr. Leavitt can use in a followup article:
https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title63.2/chapter15/section63.2-1513/
Are there any serious politicians left? Seems clamoring for attention on social media seems to be the only legislating they do.
Mom, dad, you’re not viable, deplorable, take a knee, but your unPlanned children are so delightful and gay.
So now if you want to protect your child from being brainwashed and sliced with a scalpel you are the one who is guilty of child abuse. If you are the one who wants to stop someone from giving your child brain and bone altering drugs you are somehow a danger to your loved one. No one dare call it genital obsession by our leftist leaders but obsession is what it is. Ask Jeffrey Toobin. We have a report that you didn’t take your Soma today so you should know that we are monitoring your activity.
Just 10 years ago, had anyone suggested any of these Leftists ideas, they would of been arrested.
What is wrong with these people?
Let the battle begin against Peru’s finest Shining Pather Guzman and the rest of the Dimons. Rarely has the choice been so stark for Virginians like me. I think we’ll continue the Youngkin Revolution and put and end to this political/social mayhem. If not, there’s always Texas and Florida.
I’m from Peru. They elected an actual Marxist, Castillo, as President. He’s been having members of the Shining Path over to his residence. Wealthy Peruvians are leaving the country now. They’re very afraid of what comes next and are rapidly moving their assets to safer locales. These are frightening times indeed.
It’s odd that Turley didn’t say anything when Arkansas passed a laws that did the opposite. Criminalizing parents’s who WANTED to help their children transition or get therapy for gender dysphoria. In Arkansas it seems parental rights only matter when the state says it is. In Texas the governor considered it child abuse regardless of parental rights. These issues are about the state butting in on parent’s own decisions regarding their children. Quite the hypocrites republicans are.
The bottom line is it doesn’t matter if you are a parent or a medical professional, don’t medicate or mutilate a child. Why is common sense suddenly controversial?
That right there.
Common sense is something that has left the Democrat party. That is why so many are either leaving the party, or just wont vote in the mid-terms. They see this insanity, are sickened by it, and rejecting it in droves.
Good for those who do.
Nobody is mutilating children. Those claims are not true. The only people pushing that BS are people who don’t know what they are talking about.
A parent has the ultimate say on what’s best for their children. Not the state, not a legislator, or some conspiracy theorist nut job. The decision falls only to parents, their children and their doctor.
Stay away from schools, parks and small children.
“Nobody is mutilating children. Those claims are not true. The only people pushing that BS are people who don’t know what they are talking about.”
And yet the number of such surgeries is skyrocketing, the age at which they are being performed is declining. and the actual diagnostic treatment given before surgery is now non-existant.
I do not know the truth – nor does anyone else. There is no objective test for homosexuality – much less gender dysphoria.
Worse we are treating a psychological condition by making often irreversible physical changes.
Psychology is important – but in over 100 years it is still good at very little. Trained criminal psychologists do no better at evaluating inmates for risk of recidivism than ordinary people off the street.
The fact is that with very few exceptions we really suck at diagnosing psychological disorders, and we are even worse at treatment.
So why are we jumping into mutilating myriads of people who have decided they were born in the wrong body.
Many of these are teens. It is not as if teenagers have a good track record of making wise decisions about their lives.
The job of parents is to give teens the freedom to learn to be adult while protecting them from choices that have lifelong and disasterous consequences.
Parents are often not that good at their jobs – but government is NOT better – in fact they are much worse.
“A parent has the ultimate say on what’s best for their children. Not the state, not a legislator, or some conspiracy theorist nut job. The decision falls only to parents, their children and their doctor.”
I agree completely. Yet, all to often that is not how things are.
My wife graduated with a degree in social work in 1981. One of the books she read for classes was “Weeping in the playtime of others”
I would highly recomend it. It was a broad assessment of how well institutionallizing the children of bad parents had worked. Parents who beat their kids, who sexually abuse their kids. There were findings that a sexually abused child was less likely to endure further sexual abuse being returned to the care of the abuser than being in state care. Nothing has changed since then.
There are many many many problems we are not good at. That we do not have answers to. Most everything involving the human mind is far beyond our real comprehension. We have made little progress and it has been excruciatingly slow.
It is hubris to pretend that we know more than we do.
A century ago we institutionalized people with mental health issues – that was rife with abuse.
Half a century ago we de-institutionalized them, and massively increased the homeless and rug addiction. In many places today we are criminally incarcerating them.
In the end the FACT is we really do not know what to do 200 years and we have no answers and we are doing little better than we were then.
So why would you expect that we know what we are doing with trans issues ?
Ultimately like all leftist nonsense this problem will solve itself. In a decade or so we will have large numbers of pissed of people who have been ill served by this process.
I do not doubt there are some people for whom surgical and hormonal interventions might be beneficial.
But I would be shocked if it were more than a tiny fraction of those getting interventions today.
suicide actually increases dramatically after transitioning. That should be a huge clue that we used the scalpel without fixing the problem.
Regardless, we are messing in things we have very little skill at.
We are good at surgery. We are not good at psychiatry.
“And yet the number of such surgeries is skyrocketing, the age at which they are being performed is declining. and the actual diagnostic treatment given before surgery is now non-existant.”
That is not true. You cite no statistics. Surgery is still rare and when it does occur it’s only after long hard look at their decision and consultation with their doctor. There are multiple people spreading these kinds of falsehoods in order to spread fear, making the gullible believe there is a growing trend. There is not.
This is not a mental illness or a symptom of something that is influencing kids or young adults. This is recognized as a genuine human condition that has existed throughout history. Homosexuality has always existed and so has gender dysphoria. The difference today is that it is more widely accepted and recognized. It’s always been there. Critics pointing out the increasing trend don’t realize that it is just more coming out that were always in hiding. It’s the same when homosexuals were always hiding their true selves until their lifestyles were becoming the norm that more and more were identifying as homosexual freely.
Children are NOT being coerced or influence to become transgendered. The process in identifying their difference is a long drawn out process and there ARE guidelines created by professionals who DO understand what those children are going thru. Puberty blockers are NOT irreversible. The treatments just delays the process. It’s not harmful or irreversible and it is STIILL the parent’s decision NOT the state.
“suicide actually increases dramatically after transitioning. That should be a huge clue that we used the scalpel without fixing the problem.”
False. Suicide decreases after transitioning. The majorly of those opposing parents deciding what is best for their children are those who insist on butting in on other people’’s business and forcing governing to do it for them. These are the same people who cry foul when THEY are being told what to do by government.
It’’s bigots and religious zealots who won’t let this issue “solve itself”. They don’t want this issue to become a normal part of our society. That is why there are so may anti-trans laws and laws that have no purpose other than to prevent this from becoming normal by spreading falsehoods and misinformation to the more gullible and easily offended.
“That is not true. You cite no statistics. Surgery is still rare and when it does occur it’s only after long hard look at their decision and consultation with their doctor.”
Absolutely FALSE and the very core of the problem.
Do I need statistics when we hospitals across the country are performing surgeries on children under 10. When we have Dr. Teetus Deletus on Instagram or Tik Tok performing thousands of masectomies a year on teens. When we have Dr.s and groups publicly stating they will help teens get surgery without their parents permission
https://www.medpagetoday.com/pediatrics/generalpediatrics/101252?xid=nl_mpt_DHE_2022-10-17&eun=g394940d0r&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Daily%20Headlines%20Evening%202022-10-17&utm_term=NL_Daily_DHE_dual-gmail-definition
“There are multiple people spreading these kinds of falsehoods in order to spread fear, making the gullible believe there is a growing trend. There is not.”
You are clueless. The rate of surgeries – particularly for girls is increasing exponentially. The rate of self identification as the opposite sex has increased even faster. This is all well documented. Further most on the left acknowledge that and think it is a good thing.
“This is not a mental illness”
Soxiopathy is not a mental illness, nor is alcoholism and drug addiction. They are all problems for OTHERS.
Regardless, the claim that an unusual condition that only manifests itself in the mind is not about mental health is dubious.
“or a symptom of something that is influencing kids or young adults.”
When something changes radically and exponentially – there is a cause.
“This is recognized as a genuine human condition that has existed throughout history. Homosexuality has always existed and so has gender dysphoria.”
Not in anyway that has consequence to conditions today.
“The difference today is that it is more widely accepted and recognized.”
Nope.
” It’s always been there.”
In very tiny numbers – I would note that is self evident, because large numbers of non reproductive adults have not been even close to sustainable until the survival rates of children became high in modern times.
“Critics pointing out the increasing trend don’t realize that it is just more coming out that were always in hiding.”
Nope.
“It’s the same when homosexuals were always hiding their true selves until their lifestyles were becoming the norm that more and more were identifying as homosexual freely.”
Nope, there has been a slight increase in homosexuality as it has become more acceptable. That likely reflects changes in acceptance – Trans – particularly FTM trans has exploded since 2013 with exponential increases.
“Children are NOT being coerced or influence to become transgendered.”
BS, we have long known how incredibly easy it is to influence children. Have you learned nothing from the McMartin Preschool fiasco.
Even looking at Young adults today – we have an ungodly large proportion of college grads self identifying as marxists, or socialists – ideologies that to anyone with the slightest grasp of history would know have never bore anything but evil fruit. Hundreds of millions were murdered by socialism in the 20th century.
OBVIOUSLY teens and young adults are easily influenced.
I beleived things that I am now embarrased by as a teen and young adult.
Do you live in the real world ? Did no one ever teach you anything about human development.
Full brain development does not occur until a decade into adulthood or more.
“The process in identifying their difference is a long drawn out process and there ARE guidelines created by professionals who DO understand what those children are going thru.”
Nope, that was somewhat true in the past. It is not today.
“Puberty blockers are NOT irreversible. The treatments just delays the process. It’s not harmful or irreversible and it is STILL the parent’s decision NOT the state.”
Nope, Nope, Nope. ALL Hormones and hormone blockers are dangerous – in many many many ways.
“False. Suicide decreases after transitioning. ”
Actually it increases between 70-98% depending on the study.
Your claim is based on a single small badly conducted study that onely followed for a year or two.
“The majorly of those opposing parents deciding what is best for their children are those who insist on butting in on other people’’s business and forcing governing to do it for them.”
Very very very few people seek to interfere with choices made by parents, children, and doctors.
The HUGE deal here is that a significant and growing portion of these are done without parents knowledge or involvement.
The 2nd problems is a tiny number of badly done studies that conflict with DECADES of work are being offered to parents as the indisputable truth so that parents are lead to beleive this will fix problems when it usually makes things worse.
If my child was suicidal, and people I trusted told me that surgery would fix it – I would be behind that.
But that is not what we have. Real gender dysphoria is substantially more rare than homosexuality – that is true now and was true in the past.
But young adults with mental health issues who are often highly suggestible are being told by peers, teachers, doctors, that the fix is drugs or surgery. But the data does not support that. It is probable that the actual number of trans people is about double what it was 50 years ago – that is about what happened when being gay become less stigmatized. But the actual increase – particularly recently has been exponential.
Most teens are atleast mildly suicidal. All nor even a tiny fraction of suicidal tens are trans.
“These are the same people who cry foul when THEY are being told what to do by government.”
Yes, very few on the right are looking to see this taken away from parents.
“It’’s bigots and religious zealots who won’t let this issue “solve itself”.”
The issue does solve itself if you leave it alone. No one can, and few of us would try to stop adults from making choices like this.
“They don’t want this issue to become a normal part of our society.”
Regardless of what people want – if this becomes too common place you will either see population collapse or government step in and FORCE the issue.
Government that can allow you to transition without your parents consent, can also force you to have children.
“That is why there are so may anti-trans laws and laws that have no purpose other than to prevent this from becoming normal by spreading falsehoods and misinformation to the more gullible and easily offended.”
Actual anti=trans laws are extremely rare – unlike modern purportedly trans people.
“I do not know the truth – nor does anyone else. There is no objective test for homosexuality – much less gender dysphoria.
Worse we are treating a psychological condition by making often irreversible physical changes.”
They know the truth. It’s everyone else’s who doesn’t understand that thinks they know better than those who are actually experiencing gender dysphoria or homosexuality, Those who are NOT psychologists or doctors seem to be more “knowledgable” about that others are going thru. The ignorant.
When people are depressed only THEY know there are. When people have mental issues only THEY know they do or know something is off. Homosexuality and gender dysphoria are no different. People notice something is different. When others who live in ignorance or have no idea what that is like are the ones making these false claims and spreading misinformation. Because of ignorance, religious intolerance and bigotry, or just plain hatred at the idea that something like that can exist. It exists in nature. There are animals that can change their sex from male to female. Animals that have virgin births. Males that give brith.
There are effeminate males and masculine females in our own species. There never was a strict binary gender designation. Gay people existed long before it was openly recognized. Heck even in the 1950’s children’s cartoons displayed homosexual situations and crossdressing. How many times did we see Bugs Bunny kissing Elmer Fudd? Yosemite Sam dressing as a woman? Etc. Nobody lost their minds and started accusing others of indoctrination children into homosexuality or cross-dressing. Now conservatives and religious zealots are losing their minds at the notion that this “new” social construct may have always been there and that is not possible because it did not “exist” before. it was always there.
“They know the truth.”
Anyone who says that has never been a teen, nor raised a teen.
They litterally KNOW all kinds of things that are WRONG.
The responsibility of adults – parents, is to give them the freedom to learn adulting while protecting them from the potentially disastrous cost of mistakes.
“It’s everyone else’s who doesn’t understand that thinks they know better than those who are actually experiencing gender dysphoria or homosexuality”
You start with a false premise – there is pretty compelling evidence that most people who THINK they are experiencing gender dysphoria are not.
In the UK as Trans became more fashionable the number of girls suffering from gender dysphoria skyrocketed and the numbers suffering from anorexia and bulimia tanked. I highly doubt anything changed except the self diagnosis.
Again you seem to not recall ever being a teen. I am 64 and I still recall. I knew all kinds of things then – including things about myself that were not true.
I have no doubt that some small percentage of people claiming gender dysphoria might have THAT mental health problem. I would be shocked it the vast majority were not suffering from entirely different problems.
I suspect a very large number are suffering from the problem of being a teenager.
“Those who are NOT psychologists or doctors seem to be more “knowledgable” about that others are going thru.”
That is far more plausible than you think. I think MOST parents know more about their children than any shrink.
There are bad parents – what is new. We should not be F’ing up thousands of kids over a few bad parents.
Regardless, as much respect as I have for psychology, it is the most immature science we have. It is not even close to the point where psychologists can be trusted on more than a few narrow diagnoses that they we have gotten very good at.
As I noted before – which you ignored, The average man on the street does as good a job of identifying prisoners who can be safely released as prison psychologists. Robert Hare the god of the psychology of sociopaths we repeatedly fooled by sociopaths.
I would go further – even in professions that are far less ubjective than psychology – 10% of practitioneres are very good. Most of the rest suck.
The average psychologicist is not better much less significantly better than the ordinary person on the street. The average psychologist is NOT an expert. That is worse in psychology than harder sciences – but it is ALWAYS a problem.
Most of us learned from Covid – though you clearly did not, that most public health “experts” – aren’t.
“When people are depressed only THEY know there are.”
Nearly always that is false and stupid. Quite frequently it is everyone else that KNOWS.
” When people have mental issues only THEY know they do or know something is off.”
Nope.
“Homosexuality and gender dysphoria are no different.”
That is correct. Teens are not good at knowing.
One part of the reason you THINK as you do is because under the normal conditions of the past, the vast majority of people with problems as teens – work it out by the time they are adults.
Getting it wrong about homosexuality is not the end of the world. Deciding wrongly that you are homosexual does not leave you ACTUALLY in the wrong body and with potentially life long health problems.
I would further note that it is highly unlikely that the human species is radically different from other mammals. The frequency of these issues should be the same across mammalian species. And the evidence is that in other species homosexuality and other similar divergences exist but are rare. This should not surprise as anything more than a small percent of the species not being reproductive is the death of the species.
We have a few decades before we see damaging population collapse – but it is with certainty coming. When it does, I fully expect those like YOU to be driven by a new crop of experts FORCING people to be straight and reproductive.
As Ford once said – any state big enough to give you what you want can take from you whatever you have.
What you allow experts to do today, they can just as easily reverse and impose on you by force tomorow.
“People notice something is different.”
Each of us is different, that is one of the most distinctive charcteristics of humans.
“When others who live in ignorance or have no idea what that is like are the ones making these false claims and spreading misinformation.”
I am far better informed than most of those you call ignorant, and certainly more than you, and YOU are the one obviously spreading misinformation. Obviously homosexuality exists – but we have no actual gaydar to identify those who are and are not. And the gay community has resisted anyone even trying to find if there is a biological basis. But being a gay teen has one huge advantage over trans. If you find that you are wrong, there is no permanent harm.
“Because of ignorance,”
Look in the mirror.
Regardless, it is stupid for you to keep playing this game that those who disagree with you are ignorant.
It is self evidently not true.
There are actually ignorant people on this blog – some right, more left – you definitely among them. There are also lots of intelligent people – who mostly if not completely disagree with you.
Labeling those who disagree as ingorant because they disagree with you is idiotic – proof of your own ignorance.
“religious intolerance and bigotry, or just plain hatred at the idea that something like that can exist.”
Today by far the worst intolerance is from the left. YOU are incredibly intolerant. You are also incredibly religious.
You do not need to beleive in god to be religious.
“It exists in nature.”
To a very small percent at best or the species would not survive.
“There are animals that can change their sex from male to female. Animals that have virgin births. Males that give brith.”
Each of these have foundations in BIOLOGY. You are discussing something that even you claim is about psychology.
“There are effeminate males and masculine females in our own species.”
Absolutely – and that has nothing to do with gender dysphoria.
“There never was a strict binary gender designation.”
False. There has always been, there has just been a range of what is acceptable or tolerated for men, and for women.
“Gay people existed long before it was openly recognized.”
In very small numbers. No species survives if the number of homosexuals is too large.
” Heck even in the 1950’s children’s cartoons displayed homosexual situations and crossdressing.”
Cross dressing is something entirely different. It is practiced by people who are not confused about their sex, it is not much different from any other fetish.
“How many times did we see Bugs Bunny kissing Elmer Fudd? Yosemite Sam dressing as a woman? Etc. Nobody lost their minds and started accusing others of indoctrination children into homosexuality or cross-dressing. Now conservatives and religious zealots are losing their minds at the notion that this “new” social construct may have always been there and that is not possible because it did not “exist” before. it was always there.:
The fact that you think that Bugs Bunny kissing Elmer Fudd – which was NEVER sexual or romantic, is the same thing demonstrates YOUR ignorance.
“ The responsibility of adults – parents, is to give them the freedom to learn adulting while protecting them from the potentially disastrous cost of mistakes.”
It’s also their responsibility to recognize that their children know something parents don’t or don’t understand themselves. Gender dysphoria is not mental illness. It’s a psychological condition that has always been present. It wasn’t recognized in the past because doctors and psychologists didn’t have enough understanding of the condition AND the danger of the stigma associated with it. Now that it is better understood and more widely recognized the full realization that there is more than just male and female individuals who are biologically male and female are psychologically the opposite. It’s no different than how homosexuality is now widely recognized as an entirely separate category of human sexuality.
It’s those who cling to past preconceptions and religious beliefs that are challenged by these new realities. They are trying to deny their existence because it threatens their perception of what reality is supposed to be.
You were once a teenager. But you were from a generation that saw teen mothers and single mothers with scorn and contempt. That includes homosexuals who risked getting killed because of who they are.
You can’t compare your experiences as a teenager to those of today. That’s a major flaw in you reasoning.
“It’s also their responsibility to recognize that their children know something parents don’t or don’t understand themselves.”
That MIGHT be true – but it is up to the PARENTS to decide that – not the government, not their children.
Some parents will do that badly. But history teaches us that, there is no better alternative. We can not get perfection. It is very hard to make things better – it is trivial to make things worse.
That should be repeated because it applies accross the board to ALL you left wing nonsense.
There are problems that are unsolvaable. Some may never be solved, some may not be solveable now.
It is very hard to make things better – it is trivial to make things worse.
“Gender dysphoria is not mental illness.”
Because you say so ?
“It’s a psychological condition that has always been present.”
yes, it was present 40 years ago, and inarguably we managed better that today.
That is one of your fundimental problems. Lets say that it was not dealt with perfectly in the past – I will cede that.
It is not being dealt with perfection today.
AGAIN -It is very hard to make things better – it is trivial to make things worse.
You are clueless regarding that.
Honestly it does not matter what the issue is – It is very hard to make things better – it is trivial to make things worse.
“It wasn’t recognized in the past because doctors and psychologists didn’t have enough understanding of the condition AND the danger of the stigma associated with it.”
This is BS, Gender Dysphoria has been almost my entire life. It first appeared in the DSM-II in 1980.
Gender Transition surgery dates back tot he early 20th century.
“Now that it is better understood and more widely recognized the full realization that there is more than just male and female individuals who are biologically male and female are psychologically the opposite.”
Why do you think it is better understood – you make big claims with no evidence.
We have had massive changes in the field of psychology in the past 50 years. These have NOT been rooted in a rejection of centirues of societal norms, but the falsification of some of the most significant work of psychology in the 50’s and 60’s – because THEY FAIL TO REPLICATE.
You and most of those on the left do not get it REAL SCIENCE is hard. Cognative bias is a massive problem.
Given that we are in the process of throwing out purported Truths in psychology that are as much as 70 years old
Why should I trust some badly done studies by woke leftists done recently ?
The big change in gender dysphoia recently was the removal of the word “disorder” – nothing else changed – just the label.
Regardless, if a person came to mean and said their body did not match their mind – that would be a disorder. If you are proposing to alter the body as a result – that would be a disorder. If the person beleives that the mismatch between their mind and body is a problem, if it is causing them unhappiness, increasing rates of suicide anxity and depression – that would be a disorder.
Further our ACTUAL past experience when rates of gender dysphoria were much lower, and where a patient had to have therapy for other problems, and spend at least a year living as the opposite sex before they would be considered for surgery found that with only a few exceptions surgical interventions did not some the underlying mental health problems.
Yet, you magically think that something that did not work in the past when only the most serious received surgical intervention is going to suddenly work well on an exponentially larger scale – and that we should start doing it to teens ? Or children much younger ?
If a child, or teens is happy as their are – We should not be surgically or hormonally altering them.
If they are not happy as they are – then by defintion they have a mental health problem.
“It’s no different than how homosexuality is now widely recognized as an entirely separate category of human sexuality.”
You are inaccurate about homosexuality, but mostly that is unimportant. The big deal is that we no longer criminalize homosexuality.
We saw an increase in people who were open about being homosexual as a result – We did not see a sudden exponential explosion of homosexuality. I would further note that homosexualtiy still poses significant problems for homosexuals. Male homosexuals have far lower rates of being able to sustain long term sexual relationships. That appears to be inherent in the nature of males.
Regardless, we do not engage in surgical interventions for homosexuals.
“It’s those who cling to past preconceptions and religious beliefs that are challenged by these new realities.”
It is very hard to make things better – it is trivial to make things worse.
You do not seem to grasp that – guess what even when past preconceptions and religious beliefs are wron, that RARELY means replacing those willy nilly will improve anything.
Ideologically I am libertarian. Conservatism is not an actual ideology – ignoring that many people who call themselves conservative – mean adherance to a set of specific policies – real conservisim means – It is very hard to make things better – it is trivial to make things worse.
So when you seek to make change – proceed with great caution – something you are not able to do.
“They are trying to deny their existence because it threatens their perception of what reality is supposed to be.”
This is just nonsensical faux mind reading. You really should spend some more time arround the actually people you constantly insult because you are clueless about them.
“You were once a teenager. But you were from a generation that saw teen mothers and single mothers with scorn and contempt.”
Yoday single parent children remain at far more risk of serious future problems – like criminality, that children with both parents.
You do not seem to grasp that there was very good reason for that stigma.
“That includes homosexuals who risked getting killed because of who they are.”
Several people have been killed recently for being pro-life. People kill other people for all kinds of stupid reasons.
“You can’t compare your experiences as a teenager to those of today. That’s a major flaw in you reasoning.”
Of course I can – that is quite litterally how humans understanding each other – because of our shared experiences as humans.
Regardless, do you think some mind virus has produced far more transgendered people ?
Or is it GMO Foods ?
The major flaw is in YOUR reasoning. We still do not know the root causes of homosexuality – the gay community fights any attempt to find a scientific basis for it. They want it to concurrently be a choice, but not a choice, biological. but not biological.
You went to surgically mangle kids to correct gender dysphoria – without bothering to actually look for the root causes.
There is a great deal of evidence hat gender dysphoria may not be a condition at all – it may just be an uncommon symptom of other disorders like anxiety and depression. In the UK as the number of women beleiving they were TRans spiked – the number of women with anorexia and bulimia tanked. We have known for along time that the root issues in anorexia and bulima are depression and anxiety. They appear to be the root issus for some, most, possibly all gender dysphoria.
Regardles, I do not need to be right – you would still be wrong. You are doing what doctors are not supposed to do – you are treating symptoms not the underlying problem.
And just to be clear – if you think you need surgery to be happy – there is an underlying problem – a disorder — even if surgery should ultimately prove the correct remedy.
We are all to blame we sat back and thought eventually these people would go away. We thought who in their right mind would try to give the state authority for children over their parents? In the meantime we elected people like Barry who certainly can be blamed for kickstarting where we are today. We sit back now and do nothing when we have a President who applies more thought eating an ice cream cone then securing our border, the economy, gas prices and crime. Who would have believed the FBI would morph into what it is today?
We’re all to blame, the question is can we reverse the damage done or is the constitution and the nation doomed?
Remember Hilary, it takes a villae.
Vote GOP in the midterms and in 2024.
It is the only sane choice.
Neither a Republican nor Democrat be
For Republicans oft lose both themselves
and campaign contributions
And Democrats dull the edge of
husbandry.
Is it April 1st already? Lea it must think SNL’s political skits are hilarious.
David Leavitt and Democrat Elizabeth Guzman are the unfortunate products of social media that allow people to make fools of themselves without limits or restraints. Such people used to be known as busy-bodies, intruding into the lives of others through their social media bullhorns and irrational thinking. Busy-bodies were ridiculed and ignored in past, as these two nitwits richly deserve to be. Sad that the Democratic Party has been taken over by the likes of such people.
Spa better just pulled out of a debate to which she had previously agreed, presumably because she feared being confronted about Guzman’s behavior.
I typed “Spanberger,” but I guess Autocorrect corrected that away to “Spa”.
Kids ‘experiment’ with their bodies from an early age. When 7 year old boys notice that where they pee is different from girls, kids naturally get curious, and explore.
Whether they are ‘playing Doctor,’ or other similar kid fantasy, when two girls explore, or when two boys explore, it is both harmless as well as a pretty normal occurrence with no downside….are those girls lesbians? are those boys gay? We now live in an age in which loud adults are advocating homosexuality in every corner of the human growth process.
Who hasn’t read the article out of Harvard (I think it was Harvard) that a fetus in the womb already knows if it is cis-gender or not.
I wonder how they did the scientific experiments that led to that scientific conclusion?
Professor Turley,
The Ramirez proposal is ridiculous and will never become a reality, but as a free speech advocate, you completely ignored any commentary on Youngkin’s policy proposal for schools referred to in the WJLA article that you posted. This policy proposal is a much greater real threat to free speech. Efforts to curtail free speech occur on both sides of the political aisle, yet you focus only on the fringe ideas of the left rather than the mainstream ideas on the right.
Youngkin’s policy proposal bars teachers and students from using the name a student prefers, which infringes on the First Amendment rights of both parties.
Finally, the policy itself, which also requires transgender students to be categorized by their biological sex when it comes to using the bathroom, locker room and other facilities and participating in sports and other activities “except to the extend required by federal law”, is intended to discriminate unconstitutionally against transgender students. The policy refers to Gorsuch in Grimm v. Gloucester County School Board (2020), in which Justice Gorsuch held that transgender students must be allowed to use restroom facilities that correspond to their gender, but does not provide a directive on how to accommodate observance of this federal requirement and still categorize students by sex. It also fails it direct schools on whether Grimm should extend to similar activities (such as locker rooms, school events or athletics). The end result is to direct VA schools to intentionally operate in a likely unconstitutional manner until a federal court inevitably applies Grimm to strike down such practices as unconstitutional.
Forcing trangenders into the birth sex rolls is so odious.
Everytime I think about Biden forcing transwomen to register for the draft, as if they were males.
What is a birth sex roll? I have no idea what this post means.
That might be one of the first times you have told the truth.
“Unhinged” says it all.
For Sammy and others, Gender Dysphoria and it’s treatment and the actions of parents is much more subtle than what you write. I am not sure if you are being sarcastic or what. Gender dysphoria is a type of mental illness. There is no doubt about that. The question is treatment and how appropriate it is. The illness has been around for a long time and did not just suddenly appear. The standard of care was psychological evaluation and counseling and therapy, which might last years. But the vast majority of these kids resolved their issues by the age of 20 and moved on.
The problem is the move to puberty blockers and “gender affirming” surgeries for a condition that has a high likelihood of resolving without either of those modalities ever being used. Parents fear seeing their children affirmed as having gender dysphoria and then pushed into a medical-sexual complex where multiple practitioners are just waiting to use these drugs and surgeries before the condition runs it’s course and resolves. It’s all about the bottom line, with self justification of practitioners that they are on the side of light. Almost messianic with no need to court real science with double blind studies, and random assignments to treatment groups.
The medical profession sees tremendous income potential in these children with the use of hormones and surgeries and it has grown corrupt enough that the needs and care of the patient become secondary if they are truly considered at all. I think the parents have the right to fear this.
Medicine is a great profession and I spent 46 years in it as an Internist and Pulmonary/Critical care physician and I am proud of what it has accomplished. But I also was a president of hospital staffs and chief of medicine in others and sat on hospital and physician group boards and dealt with physician problems that required discipline, dismissal or even trials. Medicine has had a darker side that constantly needs to be watched. It is easy to cast off the science and pursue the dollars and never think twice about it.
Think about this. Operating on secondary and primary sexual organs when the sick organ (the brain remains untouched). Pause.
GEB wrote, “Operating on secondary and primary sexual organs when the sick organ (the brain remains untouched).”
When it comes to non-adult persons (children & teens), doesn’t that directly violate the intent of “first do no harm” in the hypocritic oath?
Thats correct, Mr. Witherspoon but unfortunately some people are so dedicated to the rightness of their cause that they lose sight of the “first do no harm”. I would suggest all readers here go to Wikipedia, certainly not a right wing rag” and read “High-dose chemotherapy and bone marrow transplant” with breast cancer. Another messianic movement and you would be struck by it’s similarity to “gender affirming care”. I will add nothing of my own opinion so you read it unfettered.
A technicality Steve, but it is not in the Hippocratic Oath. It is found in the Hippocratic Corpus.
I was once amused to see some atheist medical students complain about the Hippocratic Oath because it was to pagan gods. I asked them what they cared because they didn’t believe in anything. It sort of makes sense for a Christian or Jew to hesitate but there is no rational reason for an atheist to be militant about it. Personally, I thought it would be kind of fun to share a bit of ancient history like that. Basically, I decided they just wanted to be A Holes rather than atheists.
Young wrote, “A technicality Steve, but it is not in the Hippocratic Oath. It is found in the Hippocratic Corpus.”
Fair point.
Thanks
It is unfortunate but there will always be people like Leavitt, radical and extreme to the point of not making sense. There is nothing the human race can do about this, at least not in a civilized country. The problem here is that his positions have considerable support within one of the two major parties. The Democratic Party is controlled by ideologues who, while perhaps not having a numerical majority still pull the puppet strings. This can be observed by their insistence on maintaining unpopular policies like open borders, the sexualization of minor children in school, and the elimination of cash bail, to name a few. This point is willfully excluded from the daily news narrative despite its obvious existence. I have always believed that the way to combat this is by organizing a non woke media to compete with the daily party line.
Republicans are now claiming a 1A right to engage in child abuse. I am not surprised.
(For the unaware, gender dysphoria is a real mental illness that leads to increased suicides and other issues, so parents intentionally withholding treatment is abuse).
Sammy wrote, “Republicans are now claiming a 1A right to engage in child abuse.”
That’s an extrapolation to absurdity and a propaganda lie.
What’s actually happening is that irrational woke activists are literally trying to b-a-s-t-a-r-d-i-z-e the meaning of abuse to include disagreement. Woke totalitarian wackos are in the process of trying to outlaw thoughts that don’t align with their hive mind indoctrination.
Sammy wrote, “I am not surprised.”
Based on what you wrote, that statement is pure bigotry and signature significant.
Bigotry: obstinate or unreasonable attachment to a belief, opinion, or faction; in particular, prejudice against a person or people on the basis of their membership of a particular group.
Sammy wrote, “For the unaware, gender dysphoria is a real mental illness…”
I’m really curious, was it your intention to call all transgender persons mentally ill because that’s exactly what you just did, and as such, you’re directly implying that all transgender persons need psychological medical attention to correct their transgender mental illness?
“What’s actually happening is that irrational woke activists are literally trying to b-a-s-t-a-r-d-i-z-e the meaning of abuse to include disagreement.”
Actually it was the governor of Texas who did that first. He was the one who called parents who just wanted to do what they thought was right for their child “child abuse”.
Svelaz wrote, “Actually it was the governor of Texas who did that first. He was the one who called parents who just wanted to do what they thought was right for their child “child abuse””
That’s a pure blood whataboutism deflection; but what the heck, it’s always fun to challenge an internet troll to back up their claim with hard evidence. Please provide your supporting hard evidence and the context that the statement was made. An actual link to a video showing both would be helpful.
Witherspoon,
“The governor of Texas wants gender-affirming treatment for transgender kids classified as child abuse. The state’s attorney general agrees.”
https://www.npr.org/2022/03/01/1083775568/the-battle-around-medical-treatment-for-transgender-kids-in-texas-continues
This was back in March.
Svelaz wrote earlier, “Actually it was the governor of Texas who did that first. He was the one who called parents who just wanted to do what they thought was right for their child “child abuse””
As evidence to support the claim, Svelaz now quotes NPR, “The governor of Texas wants gender-affirming treatment for transgender kids classified as child abuse. The state’s attorney general agrees.”
NPR is a very poor source for unbiased information, they wear their partisan hat where everyone can see it. NPR twists facts and intentionally withholds relevant facts making what they present to the public propaganda. Since you’re a trolling partisan parrot, it comes as no surprise that you’re parroting the likes of NPR.
What Svelaz wrote and what NPR presented is twisted partisan propaganda and not factual. What came first, the chicken or the egg. The fact is that Governor Greg Abbott, who swore an oath to “preserve, protect, and defend” the laws of the State of Texas, gave a directive to the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) based on the legal opinion of the law by the Texas Attorney General. Whether you like it or not, Governor Greg Abbott did his job based on the law.
Here’s what NPR won’t tell you.
Based on documentation linked to below, it appears that the Chair of the Texas House Committee on General Investigating, Texas House of Representatives, Representative Matt Krause asked the Texas Attorney General the following question, “Whether certain medical procedures performed on children constitute child abuse”. The Attorney General did his due diligence and answered the question presented by Representative Krause in a fully referenced official opinion of the law, that opinion in its entirety is in the PDF document that’s linked below.
Here are a couple of excerpts from the linked documentation…
Use your brain, if you have one, and read the entire directive from Governor Abbot and the opinion on the law from the Attorney General for yourself instead of swallowing the propaganda from NPR.
If Texas doesn’t like their law, then it’s up to Texas to change their law. Partisans smearing Governor Abbot for doing his job are immoral political hacks.
Now you’re welcome to disagree with the AG’s opinion on existing law and you’re welcome to disagree with the Governor Abbot’s directive but you’re NOT welcome to your own facts.
Fin.
” all transgender persons need psychological medical attention to correct their transgender mental illness?” Yes they do, what they are experiencing is not germane to regular human experience and they need help understaanding this situation that they are in. Please don’t say that we need to accept them any more than we need to accept kleptomaniacs or pyromaniacs etc.
“gender dysphoria is a real mental illness”
Which is why it needs to be treated, not affirmed. People should not be abusing their child by enabling and reinforcing their mental illness anymore than they should be calling someone who dons a Napoleon hat “Your Highness”.
Gender dysphoria is a real mental illness and people like you are massively exaggerating about the issue by a factor of 13,333 and causing great harm to children.
The DSM-5 estimates that about 0.005% – 0.014% of boys and 0.002% – 0.003% of girls are diagnosable with gender dysphoria. However, people like you spread misinformation suggesting that any child who claims they are gender dysphoric should be given drugs or genitally mutilated. Some surveys show that a whopping 40% of young girls are claiming gender dysphoria or LGBTQ.
And you are right that gender dysphoria leads to increased suicides. But again your logical fallacy is that studies have shown that people with gender dysphoria are more likely to commit suicide, WHETHER OR NOT they are given drugs or are subject to genital mutilation like medically unnecessary mastectomies’ or having their genitals removed.
The false purveyors of this LGBTQ misinformation are absurd. They say that a claimed feeling is a diagnosis. That’s like saying any young 15y/o who weighs 70lbs but says she is fat should be put on a diet. Instead we know they aren’t fat, they are anorexic.
Those who push this gender misinformation are committing child abuse. (It just takes a little math to realize you’ve been fooled!)
I would think ‘learned behavior’ plays some role. .. apart from low, low DSM estimates on ‘diagnosable’ gender dysphoria?
In any case, it seems to be all the rage nowadays. And ‘Virginia is for Lovers’.. . to hear them tell it.
*Imho, we all suffer from ‘gender dysphoria’ in some way (e.g. I was praying to the Lord just last night and a bunch of bare naked highly educated ladies walked in .. . I figured it was a sign!).
“Love rests on no foundation. It is an endless ocean, with no beginning or end.” ― Rumi
“That’s like saying any young 15y/o who weighs 70lbs but says she is fat should be put on a diet. Instead we know they aren’t fat, they are anorexic.”
Thank you! I use this analogy any time I talk with people about the sick surgical treatment of children.
You must be kidding! joking! This kind of FOOLish statement reflects the influence of the transgender industry/business — social workers, phony psych practitioners, surgeons who chop and stitch, MDs who prescribe dangerous meds, clinics and “hospitals” who lend their facilities for butchering, etc. etc.
“gender dysphoria is a real mental illness…so parents intentionally withholding treatment is abuse”. How did you determine that cutting children’s and teen’s private areas is the appropriate ‘cure’ for “a real mental(<<<<keyword) illness"? Does that process suddenly change the X chromosome in every cell to Y, or Y to X? Please be specific.
It appears that Sammy might be a Hit & Run Troll.
In the end it will be said the WOKE shot themselves. Self-inflicted gunshot wound.