The Republican's unrelenting war on transgender youth is taking a toll

A mother with her trans daughter at the Arkansas State House protest
Used with permission

To justify laws targeting trans children, GOP legislators have recently looked to a conservative-led country, England, and its failed system of socialized healthcare. They routinely mischaracterize the NHS decision not to give hormone blockers to youth under 16 as a total country-wide ban.

They fail to note that the NHS is a bungling bureaucratic behemoth that takes years, even a decade to begin the process of determining if a person is even eligible to receive hormone blockers. Anyone in the UK who can afford it has long ago gone to the private sector for their Transgender healthcare.

GOP legislators also don't mention that every creditable medical and physiological association in the US and Europe fully supports gender medical transition regardless of age. In fact, the American Psychological Association (APA) just overwhelmingly passed a policy in February 2024 to that effect.

The AP reports that "legislators in at least two U.S. states are citing a recent decision in England to restrict gender transitions for young people as support for their own related proposals."

"They weren’t the first to turn to other countries, notably in Europe, for policy and research ideas. Lawmakers across the U.S., where at least 23 states now have tightened or removed access to transgender health care for minors, have routinely cited non-U.S. research or policies as justification for their legislation."

And that these red states lawmakers are continuing to target trans youth despite leading health organizations in the United States and Europe decisively endorsing gender-affirming care for both transgender youths and adults.

The end game: Total eradication of transgender people, nothing less than gendercide.

Republicans know that if they can keep trans youth from medically transitioning they will be easy targets for their politically motivated discriminatory legislation such as athletic and public accommodation and adult healthcare bans. They often cite the physiological differences that they create by denying youth hormone blockers as the reason for the discriminatory laws that they endorse.

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It's all in the plan to eradicate transgender and gender-expansive people as advocated for by The Heritage Foundations Project 2025.

These legislators couldn't care less about transgender children. And their hate isn't justified biblically. It's all in the Bible. God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit have called us by name and shown us that we are loved.

 It's all political. The Republican party is now what Southern Democrats used to be. The party of hate.

Related

Massive Defeat For Anti-Trans And Anti-LGBTQ+ Riders In Spending Bill As Dems Hold Firm

Minn. Court of Appeals Sends Trans Discrimination Case Back to District Court

AberroCreative on pixabay

On Monday the Minnesota Court of Appeals affirmed that discrimination against transgender people is against the law. It then sent Cooper vs. USA Powerlifting back to the district court so it could clarify why transgender woman JayCee Cooper was not allowed to compete.

"USA Powerlifting did not exclude JayCee Cooper because of her gender identity," the organization's lead attorney Ansis V. Viksnins told Fox News Digital in a statement. "USA Powerlifting excluded her from competing in the women’s division because of her physiology: she enjoys strength advantages over other women because she went through puberty as a man."

The APA defines a transgender person as: "Transgender is an umbrella term for persons whose gender identity, gender expression or behavior does not conform to that typically associated with the sex to which they were assigned at birth. Gender identity refers to a person’s internal sense of being male, female or something else; gender expression refers to the way a person communicates gender identity to others through behavior, clothing, hairstyles, voice or body characteristics."

The above video is from Feb 3, 2021 before USA Powerlifting appealed the district court ruling.

Gender Justice, the orgainization that represents JayCee Cooper said in a statement, "Today the Minnesota Court of Appeals affirmed that discrimination against athletes based on gender identity violates the Minnesota Human Rights Act, but sent the case of a transgender woman who was denied entry into USA Powerlifting (USAPL) competitions back to a district court to determine whether USAPL rejected her because she is transgender."

“The Court of Appeals affirmed that it is illegal to discriminate against transgender people in sports, but sent the case back down for trial to determine whether that is what happened here,” said Jess Braverman, legal director for Gender Justice. “We believe that it is crystal clear that JayCee Cooper experienced exactly this kind of discrimination, and we are confident that the courts will ultimately agree.

“We remain committed to vindicating Ms. Cooper’s rights and advocating for a future where everyone, regardless of gender identity, has equal access to a full range of opportunities in sports and every life pursuit. Our fight continues for fairness, equality, and the basic human rights of transgender people in Minnesota and beyond.”

Attorneys on the case are Jess Braverman, Christy Hall, and Sara Jane Baldwin of Gender Justice, David Schlesinger and Riley Palmer of Nichols Kaster, and Matt Frank of Premo Frank.

Supreme Court lets stand Indiana court ruling denying parents custody of their trans daughter

Mark Thomas / Pixabay

The Supreme Court on Monday decided not to hear the appeal made by self-described 'devout Christian" parents who wanted to regain custody of their transgender daughter.

The case began in 2021 after the Indiana Department of Child Services received two reports of abuse or neglect, both related to the teen’s transgender identity, according to USA Today. One accused the parents of verbally and emotionally abusing their child because they did not accept that the teen was transgender.

According to court records on May 11, 2021, DCS received a report alleging that Mother was verbally and emotionally abusing then-sixteen-year-old Child by using rude and demeaning language toward Child regarding Child’s transgender identity, and as a result, the Child had thoughts of self-harm.

On May 21, 2021, DCS received a second report alleging that the Parents were verbally and emotionally abusing the Child because they do not accept the Child’s transgender identity, the abuse was getting worse, and the Parents were being mean to the Child due to Child’s transgender identity. A DCS family case manager (FCM) investigated reports, met with the Parents, Child, and Child’s siblings, and spoke by phone to a representative from Child’s residential school.

The FCM prepared a preliminary inquiry report (PIR), which indicated the following: Mother and Child both stated that Child had been suffering from an eating disorder for the past year but had yet to be evaluated by a medical professional; the Parents had withdrawn Child from school, and DCS was unaware of the family’s intent to enroll Child in a new school for the upcoming school year; Child had been in therapy, but the Parents had discontinued it; Child did not feel mentally and/or emotionally safe in the home; Mother said things such as “[Child’s preferred name] is the bitch that killed my son”

A "parental rights" bill that would prohibit courts from removing a minor from their home even if they were dying from abuse passed the Indiana House while this case was before the Supreme Court. The mother testified before the Indiana House Committe that she disagreed with the diagnosis of gender dysphoria her child received from multiple mental health professionals.

The bill will most likely die in the Senate Rules committee. A spokesperson for Senate President Pro Tempore Rodric Bray (R-Martinsville) said on March 13 that Bray “did not see a path forward” for the bill, both because of concerns about the policy and the ongoing lawsuit.

The mother told lawmakers her child had aged out of the system and gone no-contact after turning 18.

The Indiana Court of Appeals in October 2022 found that the Coxes’ parental rights were not violated by their child’s removal.

“The parents have the right to exercise their religious beliefs, but they do not have the right to exercise them in a manner that causes physical or emotional harm to [their] child,” the court said in its opinion.

Nex Benedict Parents: Bullying Began When Bathroom Bill Became Law

Owasso Police Body Cam

Benedict’s family told ABC News that the teen had experienced bullying from other students which began after Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt signed SB 6, a law that barred transgender and gender-expansive youth from using bathrooms consistent with their gender identity.

Benedict, 16, died on Feb. 8, one day after what one witness described as an assault perpetrated by others against Benedict in an Owasso High School bathroom. According to Benedict's family, Benedict was nonbinary and went by they/them pronouns.

Education department investigating bullying at Owasso schools

The American Psychological Association (APA) overwhelmingly passes policy condemning transgender healthcare bans

Oklahoma State Sen. Tom Woods doubles down on his statement calling LGBT people "Filth" in response to the death of Nex Benedict.

Glaad responds to the death of Nex Benedict with several questions. First and foremost is "Why is the police department rushing to release premature and incomplete information? As reported before, Owasso police have already rushed to release incomplete information about Nex’s death amid an ongoing investigation, admitting that doing so was not normal practice and that it was to “head off” national scrutiny."

American Medical Association (AMA) policy supports transgender and gender-expansive individuals’ use of public restrooms in line with their gender identities and opposes laws barring non-binary and transgender people's use of those facilities.

Project 2025 Primary Goal is to Eradicate Transgender People

Screenshot Stop Project 2025 Protest

The most dangerous internal threat to our constitutional federal republic is Project 2025, backed by the Heritage Foundation. These right-wing extremists understand that they need to intensify the dissatisfaction of their followers and to be successful as they have been in the past, focus that anger on transgender people. Brynn Tannehill is sounding the alarm at The New Republic

"At the 2023 Conservative Political Action Conference, Michael Knowles took the main stage and called for the “eradication of transgenderism from public life” to a standing ovation. Not long after, Project 2025 (led by the Heritage Foundation) published the “Mandate for Leadership,” a 900-plus-page blueprint for the next Republican administration. The first legislative item in the executive summary declares that “transgender ideology” is a form of pornography, and that all pornography should be outlawed. It then goes on to call all trans people “child predators and misogynistic exploiters of women.” It further demands that anyone who is a “purveyor of transgender ideology” be put on sex offender lists and imprisoned."

New episode of #ForJustice. Have you heard about Project 2025? Probably. Have you actually read it? Probably not—who has the time? We do. I take you through the introduction so that you can form your own thoughts/nightmares. It’s as bad as you’ve been told https://t.co/Vye3vXD8is

— Schemin’ for Justice (@BrooksRakim) March 1, 2024

Medical Study of Youth Transition Shows only 1% returned to Gender at Birth

Perth Children's Hospital / Wiki

A groundbreaking study published by renowned Jama Pediatrics on March 4, 2024, has shown that of 552 medically and socially transitioned children and youth only 1 percent returned to their gender at birth.

Perth Children's Hospital Gender Diversity Service's relative isolation in Western Australia put it in a unique position to look at the patients up to age 18 who were treated and determine their retransition rate. Out of the 995 enrolled patients who between 2014 and 2020, 552 had voluntarily closed their cases and only 1% returned to their gender as assigned at birth. 

The study Reidentification With Birth-Registered Sex in a Western Australian Pediatric Gender Clinic Cohort shows that of 548 individuals with closed referrals, 29 (5.3%) reportedly reidentified with their birth-registered sex before or during assessment. Two of these individuals reidentified during medical treatment, which corresponds to 1.0% of all patients who initiated medical treatment.

Erin Reed (Erin In The Morning) writes "The study contributes to a substantial body of literature indicating low detransition rates. A study of 317 transgender youth in the United States reported similar findings of low detransition or desistance rates, with only 2.5% of transgender youth identifying as cisgender after five years of follow-up. A Dutch study also reported comparably low rates. According to a review of literature by Cornell University, the regret rate for gender-affirming care ranges from 0.3% to 3.8%, depending on the study's methodology. However, this study stands out due to its very large sample size, data spanning six years of transgender care, and and which does not suffer from "loss to follow-up.”

Related

APA overwhelmingly passes policy supporting trans afirming healthcare and condemning transgender healthcare bans

APA overwhelmingly passes policy condemning transgender healthcare bans

APA YouTube Screenshot

The American Psychological Association, the world's largest of its kind with 157,000 members passed a policy supporting transgender Psychological and medical care. The new policy which passed overwhelmingly by a margin of 153-9 also takes the extraordinary measure of condemning transgender healthcare bans.

This policy statement affirms APA’s support for unobstructed access to health care and evidence-based clinical care for transgender, gender-diverse, and nonbinary children, adolescents, and adults.

Furthermore, this policy statement addresses the spread of misleading and unfounded narratives that mischaracterize gender dysphoria and affirming care, likely resulting in further stigmatization, marginalization, and lack of access to psychological and medical supports for transgender, gender-diverse, and nonbinary individuals.

“The adoption of this resolution reaffirms APA’s dedication to promoting inclusivity, dignity and access to quality health care for all individuals, regardless of their gender identity or expression,” said APA President Cynthia de las Fuentes, PhD. “It sends a clear message that state bans on gender-affirming care disregard the comprehensive body of medical and psychological research supporting the positive impact of such treatments in alleviating psychological distress and improving overall well-being for transgender, gender diverse and nonbinary individuals throughout their lives.”

Click the link for the four page APA Policy Statement on Affirming Evidence-BasedInclusive Care for Transgender, Gender Diverse,and Nonbinary Individuals, Addressing Misinformation,and the Role of Psychological Practice and Science

BREAKING! The results of the USTS 2020 survey of 93,329 trans and gender-diverse people have just been released. The survey indicates that 98% of respondents said that trans-affirming care has had a positive effect on their lives. However, nearly half of those surveyed said that they were either contemplating moving from their home state or already have due to trans care bans.

Indiana Federal Court Lifts Stay on Trans Health Care Devastating Hundreds

On Tuesday an Indiana federal Appeals Court without so much as an appeal lifted a stay on a legislative ban on transgender youth health care. This unilateral action signals the weaponization of the court by far-right anti-LGBT politicans in successfully circumventing established procedures for their war on transgender people.

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PFLAG Responds to Texas Demand For Information

PFLAG National CEO Brian Bond said on Instagram that he will not comply with TX AG Ken Paxton's unprecedented, and outrageous demand for information on trans youth in Texas.

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ACLU National is suing to stop a request from office of the Texas Attorney General for PFLAG to turn over information about their support of families in Texas seeking gender-affirming medical care for their trans youth.

Breaking An Austin judge issued a temporary injuction blocking Paxton from collecting information about transgender children from PFLAG National

KSAT reports that Travis County District Court Judge Maria Cantú Hexsel said in an order that providing the information would harm PFLAG and its members in several ways, including violating their rights of free speech, association and protection from unreasonable searches. Additionally, the judge said, it would be a “gross invasion” of privacy. A hearing was scheduled for March 25 to give the attorney general's office a chance to make the case for why Friday's order shouldn't continue.

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President Biden: Florida Trans People are dying! Act now to stop this travesty

Dozens of activists held die-ins at Florida DMV's

A Trans Floridian with a driver's license correctly identifying their legal gender is now committing fraud and soon a felony. Biden can stop this by enforcing The Real ID Act which is currently set to go into effect in 2025.

Up until Feburary 2024 trans Floridians were free to amend gender on legal documents, including state IDs and driver's licenses. But that has changed, illegally, under the fascist Desantis regime.

In a written statement to WMFE News, FLHSMV Director of Communications Molly Best said the agency requires satisfactory proof of identity, including biological sex, to obtain a driver's license.

“In Florida, you do not get to play identity politics with your driver license,” Best said. “No changes have been made to the process of establishing gender on a newly issued Florida credential, governed by s. 322.08, F.S.”

And according to the Jan. 26 memo from FLHSMV Deputy Executive Director Robert Kynoch: “misrepresenting one’s gender, understood as sex, on a driver license constitutes fraud,” and can lead to criminal and civil penalties.

When asked what the change means for Floridians who have already changed the gender marker on their driver’s license, per the previous guidance, Best did not respond to WMFE directly, only saying the previous guidance is not supported by statutory authority.

Right now, Florida lawmakers are considering a House proposal (HB 1639) that would enshrine the recent agency memo in state law: by requiring licenses to reflect a person’s sex, based on “the person’s sex chromosomes, naturally occurring sex hormones, and internal and external genitalia present at birth.”

Florida Dem Congresspeople To Biden: Block Trans License Ban With Real ID Act

If the Biden administration remains silent this will spread like a cancer to other states. You will not only fail them but the nation as a whole. Now we understand that the orange thug isn't an option but you got our votes in 2020 by a statement that you understood that transgender rights are the civil rights issue of our generation. It's time for you to put up or get the hell out of the way.

Father: bullying targeting his daughter by Utah state school board might have led to her suicide

Natalie Cline, a member of the Utah State Board of Education. Image Salt Lake Tribune

In a since-deleted Facebook post, Natalie Cline, a member of the Utah State Board of Education since 2020, posted a photo of the high school basketball player on Tuesday and falsely implied the student is transgender, writing: “Girls’ basketball…” reports CNN.

The intense bullying of the cisgender student could have resulted in her taking her own life if not for her caring and supportive family her father said in a statement.

“What if our daughter didn’t have that strong character and have our support, and community support to where she internalized this? Worst case scenario, she could’ve ended her own life,” Al van der Beek said in a statement to KSL TV.

Gov. Spencer Cox and Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson condemned Cline for her social media posts in a joint statement Wednesday. They urged the state’s board of education to hold her accountable. They also praised the Granite School District “for taking swift action to protect this student’s safety and well-being.”

Following the joint statement, the Utah State Board of Education said in a news release Thursday it can vote on actions to reprimand or censure a member, but it does not have the power or authority to unseat them. The board’s leadership is “very concerned” about Cline’s post and “the harm it has caused to students and families in Utah. We are deeply saddened by the events that may have taken place and will be taking prompt action regarding this matter as determined by the full Board.”

The hypocrisy expressed in the school board statement is mind-blowing. Do they only care about cisgender students? What about the UTAH population that isn't cisgender? Is it ok to bully trans and non-binary students causing their death? Because, obviously, that is what the school board implied.

Tragically, more than half of transgender youth do not have supportive families.

The just released results of 92,329 Transgender and non-Binary people surveyed in 2022 indicated that among 16- and 17-year-old respondents who said that some or all of their immediate family knew that they were transgender, 27% said their family members were “supportive” of them being transgender, and 17% said they were “very supportive.” 

Fifteen percent (15%) said their immediate family was “unsupportive” of them being transgender, 14% had “very unsupportive” immediate families, and 28% reported that they were “neither supportive nor unsupportive,” in other words, they didn't know.

Related: AP: Kansas attorney general sends directive to schools to out trans kids despite having no legal requirement.

Iowa Judiciary committee halts latest attempt to strip civil Rights from transgender people

Screenshot One Iowa Action

The latest attempt by the state of Iowa to strip rights from transgender people failed Wednesday when the three-member House Judiciary subcommittee said they would not advance the bill.

If HF 2082 had passed the legislature Republican Governor Kim Reynolds indicated she would have signed it.

A tragedy of epic proportions averted at least temporarily.

If passed this would have marked the first time in American history that civil rights had been removed from a protected class of people. The bill would have regulated gender other than that assigned at birth as a disability under Iowa law.

Executive Director Cortney Reyes of One Iowa Action, an organization that aims to protect the rights of LGBTQ+ Iowans, released a statement on Thursday following the announcement of the subcommittee hearing.

"Once again, we find ourselves grappling with the disgraceful attempts by Iowa Republicans to strip fundamental rights away from a group of Iowans. The privilege of navigating daily life without the weight of discrimination might be taken for granted by those who’ve never faced it, but make no mistake. These protections are not just essential but non-negotiable. If this bill passes, transgender people will be able to be discriminated against in every way imaginable. Landlords will be able to deny them the ability to rent an apartment legally, banks will be able to legally deny them a car loan, and hotels will be able to turn them away, all for no other reason than because they are transgender. That is cruel, and it is wrong. We call on Iowa legislators, Iowa business leaders, and every Iowan with a moral compass to stand up against this harmful proposal. We are all created equal, and no group of Iowans should be relegated to second-class status. Every Iowan must stand against this blatant assault on equality."

The Iowa Civil Rights Act remeins intact still prohibiting discrimination based on race, creed, color, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, religion, ancestry, disability and gender identity reports USA Today. Lawmakers added the protections for gender identity in 2007 when Democrats held the Iowa Legislature and governor's office.

Florida Bills to compel Gender Conversion and legal detransition

A terrified child surrenders to Nazies. Florida white nationalists under the fascist Gov. Ron DeSantis have already passed laws targeting children and parents of trans kids criminalizing their medical care, forcing those who can to flee in terror .

As reported by the advocacy group Truth Wins Out, (CS/HB 1639: Gender and Biological Sex) gives free rein to unethical charlatans to practice gender conversion, a debunked, medically unsound practices that are rejected by every respected medical and mental health association in the world.

On Monday, January 23, 2024, Florida Today reports that the Florida House Select Committee on Health Innovation OK'd legislation (HB 1639) on a 11-4 vote that would require driver's licenses to display the carrier's sex at birth rather than their gender identity.

It would also require all insurances, health benefit plans and health maintenance contracts in the state that cover trans-related health care to also cover detransition care, defined as discontinuing or seeking to reverse gender-affirming medical or surgical interventions.

School Board overrules superintendent: Trans youth to play lead roll in Oklahoma!

Sherman High School theater students will get their roles back in Oklahoma! Watch the NBC report below.

Dallas Morning News reports "After an emotional school board meeting Monday night, trustees emerged from a lengthy closed session and voted on a total reversal: They directed the superintendent to reinstate Sherman High students in the roles they held at the beginning of the month, prior to a decision to revoke their parts based on gender. They also directed the school to return to the original script, rather than an abbreviated “youth” version."

Texas Transgender Families File Lawsuit To Stop Youth Healthcare Ban

Parents of children being treated for gender dysphoria and others are suing Texas over a recently passed bill that bans such medical care.

The parents of transgender youth filed a lawsuit asking for A temporary  injunction halting the trans youth healthcare ban that is set to begin on Sept. 1, 2023.

The complaint reads in part:

On June 2, 2023, Governor Greg Abbott of Texas signed into law Senate Bill 14 (“SB14” or the “Ban”), categorically banning the provision of necessary and often lifesaving medical treatment to transgender adolescents in Texas. The law passed despite the sustained and robust opposition of medical experts and the Texas families that stand to be severely negatively impacted. Absent intervention from this Court, the Ban will take effect on September 1, 2023.

Read the full complaint HERE

Michigan To Outlaw Misgendering in New Bill Passed By The House

The Michigan House of Representatives has passed a bill that will make intentionally misgendering a person a felony. If passed by the Democrat-controlled Senate and signed by Governor Whitmer House Bill 4474 will replace Michigan's existing Ethnic Intimidation Act, expanding the existing law to cover sex, sexual orientation, age, gender identity or expression, and physical or mental disability.

According to News Week, religion, ethnicity and race were already included in the previous legislation and will still be covered under the new law. The bill would make it a hate crime to cause someone to "feel terrorized, frightened, or threatened" with words—including by deliberately misgendering them.

Republicans naturally oppose expanding the hate crime law. Republican State Rep. Steve Carra tells CBS News Detroit he's concerned the expansion goes too far. "Threats and violence and things of that nature and protecting against crime is certainly something that we absolutely should be doing in Michigan. But we shouldn't be building that around an individual's feelings of being frightened," Carra said.