Is there gender-affirming decapitation?

Another battle between/among a children’s hospital and Libs of TikTok/Chaya Raichik:

Children’s National Hospital has been inundated with threatening emails and phone calls after an influential right-wing Twitter account published a recording that falsely suggested the hospital is performing hysterectomies on transgender children, a hospital spokeswoman said…

The recording, made by Libs of TikTok founderChaya Raichik, features twotelephone operatorsat the renowned D.C. medical facility stating — in response to Raichik’squestions — that a 16-year-old trans boy would be eligible for a hysterectomy at the hospital’s gender development clinic. Children’s has not disputed the authenticity of the recording but said the employees provided inaccurate information.

“None of the people who were secretly recorded by this activist group deliver care to our patients,” hospital spokeswoman Ariana Ahmadi Perez said. “We do not and have never performed gender-affirming hysterectomies for anyone under the age of 18.”

That’s nice as far as it goes, but note that they do think there is such a thing as a “gender-affirming hysterectomy,” in other words they remove women’s healthy uteruses [or uteri if you prefer] on the basis of a belief in magic gender. That’s actually quite scandalous on its own.

The scrutiny of Children’s comes just weeks after Libs of TikTok similarly targeted Boston Children’s Hospital over its care for transgender people. In that instance, the account highlighted a video produced by the hospital discussing “gender-affirming hysterectomies.”

But there again, you see, calling it “care” is a little strange. It’s major surgery for no strictly medical reason. The reason is psychological, and the reality is it’s a very drastic kind of “care” in response to feelings and thoughts.

The uproar over transgender care at children’s hospitals comes as lawmakers in many states are seeking to curb LGBTQ rights in classrooms and on athletic fields.

That’s just meaningless slop. The issue here isn’t LGB rights at all, it’s specifically T “rights,” and it’s in dispute exactly what those rights are. Lawmakers are not trying to stop lesbians and gay men turning up on athletic fields. Precision is essential in journalism.

Raichik — a former real estate salesperson who has operated under various online pseudonyms — has amassed 1.3 million followers with posts that avidly stoke the nation’s culture wars, with a particular focus on LGBTQ issues. Her previous targets have included schools and Pride events, said Ari Drennen, LGBTQ program director for Media Matters of America.

The new focus on children’s hospitals is particularly worrisome, Drennen said, bringing the potential for violence and harassment directed at families seeking medical care.

“I think most people should be able to agree that health-care decisions are not best made by angry internet mobs,” Drennen said.

Sure, but most people should also be able to agree that health-care decisions are not best made by people in the grip of a delusion about magic gender.

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