“Before patients know who they really are”
The New York Times rows back just a little:
As the number of adolescents who identify as transgender grows, drugs known as puberty blockers have become the first line of intervention for the youngest ones seeking medical treatment.
Which is a very worrying observation all by itself. The number of adolescents who identify as transgender is growing…so the medical system is stepping in to block their puberties. The medical system is treating something that’s obviously a trend, a fashion, an idea-based cool kids thing to do, as a reason to interfere with a crucial stage of development. It’s batshit crazy.
But as an increasing number of adolescents identify as transgender — in the United States, an estimated 300,000 ages 13 to 17 and an untold number who are younger — concerns are growing among some medical professionals about the consequences of the drugs, a New York Times examination found.
Good but what took them so long?
Dutch doctors first offered puberty blockers to transgender adolescents three decades ago, typically following up with hormone treatment to help patients transition. Since then, the practice has spread to other countries, with varying protocols, little documentation of outcomes and no government approval of the drugs for that use, including by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Well, hey, it’s just a little thing, like cutting your fingernails or ripping out your pubic hair, so no need for all those fiddly precautions and documentations. Right?
Well not quite, on account of how for instance it may weaken the bones.
“There’s going to be a price,” said Dr. Sundeep Khosla, who leads a bone research lab at the Mayo Clinic. “And the price is probably going to be some deficit in skeletal mass.”
Oh well, bones. Nobody sees them, so why worry?
Many physicians in the United States and elsewhere are prescribing blockers to patients at the first stage of puberty — as early as age 8 — and allowing them to progress to sex hormones as soon as 12 or 13. Starting treatment at young ages, they believe, helps patients become better aligned physically with their gender identity and helps protect their bones.
But that could force life-altering choices, other doctors warn, before patients know who they really are. Puberty can help clarify gender, the doctors say — for some adolescents reinforcing their sex at birth, and for others confirming that they are transgender.
Newsflash: people never know who they really are. That’s not a thing. People change from year to year and from moment to moment – there is no “really are.” Forget about the self, forget about Who You Really Are, look outward and move on with life.
Republican governors and lawmakers in more than a dozen states are working to limit or even criminalize the treatments, as some in their party also seek to restrict access to sports and bathrooms, ban discussion of gender in public schools, and call into question whether transgender identity even exists.
Even in a “wait let’s think some more about this” piece they can’t get it right. Nobody is seeking “to restrict access to sports and bathrooms.” Nobody wants kids who claim to be trans to hold their pee all day or give up sports. The issue is toilets divided by sex and sports divided by sex. Yes it’s very unfortunate that the Dems are so stupid and wrong on this and that the Republicans for once are right, but don’t put a brick on the scale by wording things wrong.
That is such a perfect summary of Buddhist philosophy :)
I have never seen it in so few words.
Is it?!
There’s nothing like a fashion for utter self-absorption for turning people Buddhist.
But there are some who apparently want girls to hold their pee all day, at least if they don’t want to share a bathroom with a penis-haver.
I’ve resisted Buddhism almost more than Christianity, because of the stuff like meditation and so forth. Maybe I should look at it again.
There’s a lot in it that’s not bullshit at all.
The public schools aren’t having “discussions of gender.” That implies presenting multiple perspectives, a give-and-take, a situation where some students believe in an innate gender identity and other students don’t so let’s talk about the merits and problems with both. What they’re doing is teaching gender ideology as fact which, when an area is as controversial as this one, amounts to ‘indoctrination.”
The rest of the sentence confirms that, with questioning whether transgender identity “even” exists placed outside of the “discussions of gender.” The fact that the news report isn’t willing to come out and accurately state exactly what it is that lawmakers want to ban teaching but instead weasel around it suggests the Republican platform on this may have broader support than Republicans.
I don’t think we even need to know the TRA definition of “woman” (if they had one) to say that it excludes any biological female who fails to think/feel/”present” etc. in whatever way Ivy or Thomas do from using the “ladies room” as well as participating in “women’s” sports. Actual women are allowed in only under the assumption that they do indeed think/feel/”present” in the way required. As I keep saying I really wish the gender critical side would raise a much greater stink on this point:
• “This facility only has bathrooms for people who think/feel/”present” in ways I don’t. What are the rest of us supposed to do? Pee our pants?”
• “Why are all the sporting events reserved for people who think/feel/”present” in ways I don’t?”
• “I demand to be let out of here! This jail is for people who think/feel/”present” in ways I don’t!”
• “How am I supposed to fill out this form when it requires me to tick off some box committing me to ways of thinking/feeling/”presenting” that don’t apply?”
• Etc. etc.
If anyone tries to argue that the new definition (best left unspecified) doesn’t exclude “cis men”/”cis woman”, demand an explanation:
• “Why is that relevant?”
• “What do you mean by ‘cis’?”
• “What does that have to do with me?”
• “What exactly makes people with certain physical traits and people who think/feel/”present” in ways best left unspecified subsets of the same group?”
• Etc. etc.
Who is removing the words ‘opposite sex’ from all discussion of so-called ‘bathroom bans’ and ‘sports bans’? Editors? Authors?
“…as some in their party also seek to restrict access to opposite sex sports and bathrooms…” would make it obvious that they are being the reasonable ones, with whom most people agree.
Regarding the weakened bones (among other possible problems), I can’t help but think of Thalidomide, and wonder, “How, how the holy dumbfuck have we not learned this lesson, yet?” Even if there is something clinical behind the surge of diagnoses, it is still ethical insanity to prescribe drugs on a massive scale without proper testing.
Transidomide.