Trans community praised for bravery in new film

Says the BBC, drooling slightly.

Film-makers have praised the bravery of the trans community in Cumbria for sharing their experiences in a new documentary.

Oh yes, it’s very brave to yammer at the BBC about how brave you are for being gender-special. The risks are horribly real: you might be laughed at!

I ME US chronicles the stories of those living in the county who are transgender, non-binary or gender non-conforming.

Ah, gender non-conforming – so it includes women who wear jeans and men who wear pink T shirts? So it’s everyone in Cumbria then? Being all brave n shit?

It is being screened for free in venues across Cumbria over July and August, including Rheged cinema in Penrith and Tullie in Carlisle.

Producer and project manager at PINC, Pam Eland, said they wanted to take a snapshot of community “to get their voices heard out there”.

Yes, because otherwise they are so very silent.

Talk about rubbing salt into the wound…

A divorcee has been forced by a judge to pay half for her ex-husband’s trans surgery.

The mother argued that it was unfair that she had to stump up £80,000 for the procedure when the decision to transition had led to the breakdown of her marriage.

But in what is believed to be the first case of its kind, the judge said that the surgery was a “need”, not a “whim”, and therefore it was “reasonable” for the cost to be met out of their joint funds.

But the relevant antonym here is not “whim” but “delusion.” It’s a delusion that surgery can change people’s sex, so it seems absurd as well as unfair to tell a dissenting spouse to pony up for half the cost.

The husband, 58, had said that the argument was “like saying someone who had cancer should not have the surgery” during the hearing at Brighton Family Court.

Yeah well people who believe in magic gender will say any old shit. Of course it’s not like that. Wanting to be the opposite sex is not like cancer. Trying to change sex is not like medical treatment for cancer. The simile is not a simile.

But the husband, who says his wife always knew he was trans, said that it should be “treated in the way of any other medical costs which would ordinarily be met from the joint assets”.

No, because it’s not comparable to “any other medical costs” because it’s not medical. A mistaken warped fashionable stupid idea about the self is not a medical issue.

[The judge] said he was satisfied the “surgery was meeting a genuine and deep-felt medical/psychological need”.

“This cannot be, and has not been, said to have been carried out as a whim when all of the effort and time that the respondent has invested in the process is considered,” the judge noted.

Deep felt, maybe, but genuine, of course not. Dude wanting to play-act being a woooman is not a medical need no matter how “deep-felt” it is. That’s an argument from early childhood. “I neeeeeeed the toy or I will die!!!!” sobs child in the toy store, but child is wrong about that.

It’s disturbing when even judges believe the lies.

FEMA wasn’t answering the phone.

Two days after catastrophic floods roared through Central Texas, the Federal Emergency Management Agency did not answer nearly two-thirds of calls to its disaster assistance line, according to documents reviewed by The New York Times.

The lack of responsiveness happened because the agency had fired hundreds of contractors at call centers, according to a person briefed on the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss internal matters.

The agency laid off the contractors on July 5 after their contracts expired and were not extended, according to the documents and the person briefed on the matter. Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, who has instituted a new requirement that she personally approve expenses over $100,000, did not renew the contracts until Thursday, five days after the contracts expired. FEMA is part of the Department of Homeland Security.

So in other words there is no federal emergency management. We’re on our own. Good luck!

The details on the unanswered calls on July 6, which have not been previously reported, come as FEMA faces intense scrutiny over its response to the floods in Texas that have killed more than 120 people. The agency, which President Trump has called for eliminating, has been slow to activate certain teams that coordinate response and search-and-rescue efforts.

Sorry, folks, disaster relief is a luxury we just can’t afford.

After floods, hurricanes and other disasters, survivors can call FEMA to apply for different types of financial assistance. People who have lost their homes, for instance, can apply for a one-time payment of $750 that can help cover their immediate needs, such as food or other supplies.

On July 5, as floodwaters were starting to recede, FEMA received 3,027 calls from disaster survivors and answered 3,018, or roughly 99.7 percent, the documents show. Contractors with four call center companies answered the vast majority of the calls.

That evening, however, Ms. Noem did not renew the contracts with the four companies and hundreds of contractors were fired, according to the documents and the person briefed on the matter.

The next day, July 6, FEMA received 2,363 calls and answered 846, or roughly 35.8 percent, according to the documents. And on Monday, July 7, the agency fielded 16,419 calls and answered 2,613, or around 15.9 percent, the documents show.

Look, the federal government has more important things to do, like flying Trump back and forth to Mar a Lago every weekend.

“Responding to less than half of the inquiries is pretty horrific,” said Jeffrey Schlegelmilch, who directs the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University.

“Put yourself in the shoes of a survivor: You’ve lost everything, you’re trying to find out what’s insured and what’s not, and you’re navigating multiple aid programs,” Mr. Schlegelmilch said. “One of the most important services in disaster recovery is being able to call someone and walk through these processes and paperwork.”

Most people apply for FEMA aid by calling the disaster assistance line or visiting the agency’s website, said Jeremy Edwards, a former FEMA spokesman under the Biden administration who is now at the Century Foundation, a liberal research organization. The Trump administration last month ended FEMA’s longstanding practice of going door-to-door in disaster-battered areas to help survivors apply for aid.

Sure he did, because the Merican People are not babies, they don’t need door-to-door help just because a flood has wiped out their entire neighborhood. What they need is Donald Trump running his mouth when he’s not too busy playing golf at Mar a Lago.

Yes and I’m considering revoking Trump’s membership in the human race. I suspect he’s a mustelid.

Trump says he’s considering revoking Rosie O’Donnell’s citizenship.

I know nothing about Rosie O’Donnell apart from what I’ve just read in the past few minutes. The name is familiar but I thought she was that other Ros-something person. Rosie Duffield is my idea of a Rosie.

“Because of the fact that Rosie O’Donnell is not in the best interests of our Great Country, I am giving serious consideration to taking away her Citizenship,” Trump wrote. “She is a Threat to Humanity, and should remain in the wonderful Country of Ireland, if they want her. GOD BLESS AMERICA!”

The mind of a child – a younger child every day. US citizenship is not dependent on being in the best interests of our Great Country, whatever that’s supposed to mean. Nothing is dependent on that, except perhaps the continued employment of people who work in the government – like everyone who works for Trump for instance.

And even if it did mean something, he can’t just up and do it, the way you can up and tidy the kitchen or feed the cat.

Steve Vladeck, CNN Supreme Court analyst and professor at Georgetown Law, said Saturday that Trump’s threat of “coercive expatriation” was “patently unconstitutional.”

“For good reasons, it is difficult to denaturalize a U.S. citizen and even harder to expatriate one,” Vladeck wrote in April. “Congress has provided for only a handful of circumstances in which the executive branch is empowered to pursue such a move; and the Supreme Court has recognized meaningful constitutional limits (and an entitlement to meaningful judicial review) even in those cases.”

And Trump should be sharply aware of that, and disgusted by the very idea that a president could cancel someone’s citizenship because he’s in a snit, let alone that a president could publicly fantasize about doing so.

Trump has called O’Donnell “a real loser,” “crude, rude, obnoxious, and dumb,” and “a pig” over the years.

Ironic, isn’t it, when he is so very much all those things himself? When they are literally at the top of the list of accurate descriptors of Donald Trump?

The Trump admin has made it impossible for FEMA to do its job. Since that job is responding to emergencies, that’s unfortunate.

As monstrous floodwaters surged across central Texas late last week, officials at the Federal Emergency Management Agency leapt into action, preparing to deploy critical search and rescue teams and life-saving resources, [as] they have in countless past disasters.

But almost instantly, FEMA ran into bureaucratic obstacles, four officials inside the agency told CNN.

As CNN has previously reported, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem — whose department oversees FEMA — recently enacted a sweeping rule aimed at cutting spending: Every contract and grant over $100,000 now requires her personal sign-off before any funds can be released.

How stupid (and destructive) can you get? Note the E in FEMA – it stands for EMERGENCY. You don’t want to put bureaucratic obstacles in the way of EMERGENCY disaster relief. Floods don’t wait for the boss to wake up and agree to release the funds.

For example, as central Texas towns were submerged in rising waters, FEMA officials realized they couldn’t pre-position Urban Search and Rescue crews from a network of teams stationed regionally across the country.

In the past, FEMA would have swiftly staged these teams, which are specifically trained for situations including catastrophic floods, closer to a disaster zone in anticipation of urgent requests, multiple agency sources told CNN.

But even as Texas rescue crews raced to save lives, FEMA officials realized they needed Noem’s approval before sending those additional assets. Noem didn’t authorize FEMA’s deployment of Urban Search and Rescue teams until Monday, more than 72 hours after the flooding began, multiple sources told CNN.

Sorry, drowned people – sucks to be you.

About this whole “raid the kitchens” thing…

A federal judge in Los Angeles ordered the Trump administration to stop carrying out immigration sweeps in which she said federal agents have been indiscriminately arresting people across southern California without reasonable suspicion that they’re in the country illegally.

Since early June, agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Border Patrol and other federal agencies have been roving Los Angeles and surrounding counties arresting thousands of people in what civil rights lawyers characterized in a lawsuit last week as an unconstitutional and “extraordinary campaign of targeting people based on nothing more than the color of their skin.”

Well, the color of their skin plus California plus Los Angeles. Add it all up and it spells Demonic Invasion by Wrong Kind of Foreigners.

[The judge] issued two temporary restraining orders — one prohibiting immigration agents from arresting people without reasonable suspicion that they’re in the country illegally, and the other requiring agents to give people they arrest immediate access to lawyers. The orders, which apply to Los Angeles and six surrounding counties, are temporary while the case moves forward. But they could severely restrict the Trump administration’s ability to continue carrying out the raids that have sown fear and terror in immigrant and Latino neighborhoods since they started on June 6.

“It’s an extraordinary victory,” said Mark Rosenbaum, a senior lawyer with Public Counsel, one of the legal advocacy groups that filed the suit. “It is a complete repudiation of the racial profiling tactics and the denial of access to lawyers that the administration has utilized, and it means that the rule of law is back in Los Angeles.”

In a statement, Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin criticized the ruling.

“A district judge is undermining the will of the American people,” McLaughlin said. “America’s brave men and women are removing murderers, MS-13 gang members, pedophiles, rapists — truly the worst of the worst from Golden State communities. Law and order will prevail.”

Yes, that’s what judges are supposed to do. Sometimes the will of the ___ people entails a violation of human rights, and the role of judges is to prevent such violations.

Since early June, agents have repeatedly raided known hubs for Latino workers, including car washes, day laborer gathering spots, and street vendor corners. They’ve also pulled people who appear to be Latino out of their cars, and picked them up from bus stops and on sidewalks. They’ve arrested immigrants without legal status and U.S. citizens alike. Many of the arrests have been filmed by bystanders and posted to social media.

I wonder how many Latino workers there are at Mar a Lago.

Janice Turner on the problems with Pride Policing:

In 2019, Stephen Ireland posted a film of himself at Surrey police HQ in Guildford beside a Jaguar patrol car customised with a swirling rainbow design and the name of the organisation he founded and controlled, Pride in Surrey (PiS). “This is what I will be riding around in today,” says an ecstatic Ireland, as the officer who will act as his chauffeur waves.

Ireland energetically cultivated Surrey police. He spoke on panels alongside officers, attended joint school visits, befriended its LGBT staff group. PiS was a “partner agency” on the force’s website. Most significantly, he was highly regarded by the then chief constable Gavin Stephens. After Surrey’s police and crime commissioner Lisa Townsend expressed gender critical views, Ireland launched a vicious campaign to have her sacked. Stephens, instead of offering her support, told her to apologise because Ireland “is a friend of Surrey police”.

Now that “friend” is serving 24 years in prison for raping a 12-year-old boy. Ireland had messaged his partner David Sutton, 27, (jailed for four and a half years) to say he’d found a “14-year-old baby” on Grindr who “wants to play with men’s bodies”. Discovering he was even younger, Ireland said: “OK, we just have to keep it a secret.” The couple smoked methamphetamine with the boy, described in court as “highly vulnerable”, filmed the rape and added it to their bank of paedophilic images.

I still, for the millionth time, have to wonder why Surrey police was so cuddly with Pride in Surrey and not with women in Surrey.

Paedophiles don’t all creep in the shadows: some know it’s safer to loom large on the landscape. That master of hiding in plain sight, Jimmy Savile, held a Friday morning breakfast club for West Yorkshire coppers at his Leeds flat. After his crimes were exposed, detectives said his friendly openness closed their minds to rumours. Likewise, it is not suggested Surrey police knew about Ireland’s crimes — its eventual investigation was thorough — but that its institutional approval acted for years as a protective forcefield.

Plus he’s a guy and guys are trustworthy, while women…well, you know.

The Mediterranean is too hot.

…recent ocean heat in the Mediterranean Sea has been so intense that scientists fear potentially devastating consequences for marine life.

The temperature of the sea surface regularly passed 30C off the coast of Majorca and elsewhere in late June and early July, in places six or seven degrees above usual…It has been the western Med’s most extreme marine heatwave ever recorded for the time of year, affecting large areas of the sea for weeks on end.

…

“What is different this year is that 30C sea temperatures have arrived much earlier, and that means that we can expect the summer to be more intense and longer,” said Marta Marcos, associate professor at the University of the Balearic Islands in Spain. “I grew up here, so we are used to heatwaves, but this has become more and more common and intense.”

We’re all familiar with heat, but more and more of it where it shouldn’t be is still a bad thing.

A letter to the editor:

The 2022 Census found that just under 0.5% of people in Scotland are trans. The Scottish Government employs 9,300 staff, so perhaps 40 are trans. Most will have been working at the government for years, and happily using the toilets in a way that matches their gender identity and appearance. For many of them, their work colleagues may not know that they are trans.

No.

Grown-ass adult people know a woman when they see one, and they know a man when they see one. The end.

There have been no reported cases of a trans person causing trouble or harassment in any of those toilets.

Oooh imagine that – in a climate of intense bullying of people who know what sex other people are, the people being bullied don’t dare complain.

But the group Sex Matters wants those trans people now to be forced to switch to using the other toilet – trans women required to use the men’s toilet, and trans men to use the women’s (“Seven-day ultimatum to ministers over trans toilet policy”, The Herald, July 4). That will be a mismatch with their presentation and appearance.

How fascinating; now think about what it will be for everyone else.

Such a change would humiliate trans staff and reveal their trans status to colleagues and other users. 

Again. Fascinating; now think about other people. Think about the women humiliated by years of having men in their toilets.

If this does go to the legal action threatened by Sex Matters, we will see how the Scottish courts decide between the privacy and dignity of trans employees and the insistence by Sex Matters that everyone has to always be treated as the sex on their original birth certificate…

Er, no, we will see how the Scottish courts decide between the privacy and dignity of everyone and the bizarre unreasonable demands of a handful of people who claim to be trans.

effectively an insistence that trans people, as such, do not exist. Of course trans people do exist

Stop right there. Manipulative wording foul, as usual. Of course people who claim to be trans exist; the issue is that they claim to be the opposite sex, and that claim is absurd and impossible. Of course they do exist, but they are wrong (or dishonest) about their claims to be the sex they are not.

From The Independent:

“I’m appalled by my party’s stance on trans rights,” says Nadia Whittome, Labour MP for Nottingham East, over the ban on puberty blockers and the government’s response to the Supreme Court ruling on the definition of a woman.

Then she’s a fool. (To be fair, we already knew that.) There’s no such thing as a “right” to receive puberty blockers because you believe you are the sex other than the one your body has. That’s not a right, it’s tampering.

It’s such a prominent topic, that Whittome’s been asked many times by her constituents if she thinks about leaving the party, or if the Labour party – founded by the trade union movement, as a party for the working class – no longer serves her and her beliefs. 

Yes, the trade union movement, for the working class – wtf does that have to do with puberty blockers?

Whittome says she’s “really proud that this government’s pledged to half violence against women and girls,” but thinks that the increasing attacks on trans women in the news, the courts and on TV, which are “rooted in very archaic and misogynistic ideology,” are harmful for all women. 

Then she’s stupid and wrong.

“If we’re continuing to marginalise and scapegoat trans people, especially trans women, as a threat to other women, that means we’re not focusing on the real problem – men who are violent.”

Trans women are men. The ones who are violent are men who are violent. That’s the whole point.

The number of male violence offenses of stalking, harassment, sexual assault and domestic violence have grown by 37 per cent in the past five years. Trans people, particularly trans women, are far, far more likely to be victims,” she says.

Than women? Where did she get that statistic? Her dreams?

Ok so what about this then.

On a lighter note, when did the fascist playbook become throwing a strop?

Trump has been randomly holding back funds for things he might not like if he had any clue what they are. Better penniless than sorry, right?

The Trump administration has declined to release nearly $7 billion in federal funding that helps pay for after-school and summer programs, support for students learning English, teacher training and other services.

The money was expected to be released by Tuesday. But in an email on Monday, the Education Department notified state education agencies that the money would not be available.

Because it’s bad to fund education. Ignorance is good – just look how far it’s taken Trump!

“It’s catastrophic,” said Jodi Grant, executive director of the Afterschool Alliance, a group that works to expand after-school services for students. She estimated that the federal dollars for after-school and summer-school programs — about $1.3 billion annually — support 1.4 million students, mostly lower income, representing about 20 percent of all students in after-school programs nationally.

Among other things, those after-school programs make it possible for parents of young children to have jobs. Trump is keen for the working class to be working, right? Well, having 6-year-olds sent home at noon is not going to help with that.

Heidi Sipe, the superintendent in Umatilla, Ore., a low-income, rural district, said her district’s after-school program has traditionally gone until 4:45 or 5:30 p.m. and was fully funded through federal dollars.

She recently sent a note to parents urging them to make backup plans, though few exist in her community, where she said there is no Y.M.C.A. or similar alternatives.

Which means some people (mostly women) are going to have to quit their jobs, which will make their families poorer.

Robert Reich in a rally the troops screed on Facebook:

[Trump] is targeting universities that he believes haven’t adequately eliminated DEI, or have allowed transgender athletes to compete, or failed to stop demonstrations against Israel’s war in Gaza. Last week, his regime forced a major university president to resign.

It doesn’t help the cause of resisting Trump to lie about the trans issue. The issue is not “allowing trans athletes to compete.” The issue is letting men compete against women.

Huh. After all these years, Frances Coppola (not the movie guy) is still being horrible.

I bet you thought tariffs were something to do with international trade. Silly you; no, they’re to force naughty countries to do what Trump tells them to do.

Trump sent his Brazilian counterpart a stunning letter Wednesday, informing President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva that his country would face a new 50% tariff “due in part to…the way Brazil has treated” former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, a Trump political ally.

Also Brazil hasn’t made its bed or put away its toys.

Trump blamed the massive spike in tariffs partly on “Brazil’s insidious attacks on Free Elections, and the fundamental Free Speech Rights of Americans.” The first reference is related to the trial of Bolsonaro, a one-time frequent visitor to Mar-a-Lago, on charges of attempting to illegally overturn his country’s presidential election results in 2022. “This trial should not be taking place,” Trump wrote. “It is a Witch Hunt that should end IMMEDIATELY!”

Trump really does not like it when a guy who merely tries to overturn his country’s election results is charged with the crime of trying to overturn his country’s election results.

But Trump also attempted to frame the decision as one grounded in legitimate economic and trade issues. “In addition, we have had years to discuss our Trading Relationship with Brazil, and have concluded that we must move away from the longstanding, and very unfair trade relationship engendered by Brazil’s Tariff, and Non-Tariff, Policies and Trade Barriers. Our relationship has been, unfortunately, far from Reciprocal,” he wrote. Contrary to Trump’s claims, though, the United States holds a $7 billion trade surplus with Brazil.

So??? It should be 70 billion, no make that 700 billion. It should be so huge it can be seen from the moon.

So much for emergency management.

More cabins and buildings at Camp Mystic — the tragic site of more than two dozen deaths in the Texas flood — were at risk of flooding than what the federal government had previously reported, according to new analysis from NPR, PBS’s FRONTLINE and data scientists.

Maps by First Street, a climate risk modeling company in New York City, show at least 17 structures in the path of flood waters, compared to maps produced by FEMA, highlighting a longstanding risk facing many Americans. The analysis also shows at least four cabins for young campers were in an area designated by FEMA as an extreme flood hazard, where water moves at its highest velocity and depth.

For decades, FEMA’s maps have failed to take rainfall and flash flooding into account, relying instead on data from coastal storm surges and large river flooding, even as climate change is supercharging rainfall intensity. Nationwide, First Street found more than twice as many Americans live in dangerous flood-prone areas than FEMA’s maps suggest, leaving many homeowners and even local officials unaware of the risk.

You’d kind of hope the federal agency would do better.

But in recent years, many properties affected by disasters are turning up outside FEMA’s floodplains. When Hurricane Helene struck western North Carolina last year, 98 percent of the damaged homes were not included in FEMA’s maps. This meant that not only were most homeowners unable to claim flood insurance, most of them had not been obligated to build in a way that could have helped them better survive the storm.

FEMA has known about this problem for years, but the agency lacks the mandate and funding from Congress to address it, according to Porter.

So we’re on our own.

Even when FEMA does mark the most dangerous flood areas, though, those warnings are not always heeded. At Camp Mystic, NPR found at least eight buildings, including four cabins used to house younger campers, are located inside what FEMA designates a floodway, the most dangerous area of the floodplain where water is expected to move rapidly during a storm.

Yes but they’re beside the river, where it’s pretty.

Even better is that they sat there whispering to each other like two kids who haven’t done their homework and are arguing over whose dog ate it.

President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth are facing ridicule after a reporter’s question seemed to catch both off guard, prompting the two to exchange whispers before passing the question off on another official.

“Psst, the what?”

“I don’t know, I couldn’t hear.”

“Did you finish yours?”

“I didn’t start it, did you?”

During the presidential cabinet meeting on Tuesday, a journalist asked about Russia’s alleged use of chemical weapons in Ukraine. Trump leaned toward Hegseth and whispered, “What do you know about this?” Hegseth responded quietly, “John might know,” prompting Trump to say aloud, “Well, I’d ask John to discuss it.”

Sir sir sir sir sir you’re supposed to be the big boss here, you went out of your way to get to be the big boss, so newflash, you’re at the top of the chain, you’re supposed to know. You’re not supposed to run around asking your flunkies or whisper like a child who’s wet his pants. This is your responsibility, not anyone else’s.

This is normal, everything is fine, they know exactly what they’re doing.

President Donald Trump’s decision to send more defensive weapons to Ukraine came after he privately expressed frustration with Pentagon officials for announcing a pause in some deliveries last week — a move that he felt wasn’t properly coordinated with the White House, according to three people familiar with the matter.

The Pentagon, which announced last week that it would hold back some air defense missiles, precision-guided artillery and other weapons pledged to Ukraine because of what U.S. officials said were concerns that American stockpiles were in short supply. Trump said Monday that the U.S. will have to send more weapons to Ukraine, effectively reversing the move.

Do they talk to each other? Do all parties make sure all other parties know what is being done? Or is it all just free-form, everyone acting on divine inspiration and nobody communicating?

Trump makes sure to tell everyone he never knew anything about any of it, which is a good look for a top boss.

But in a series of public comments that seemed to only cause further confusion about who exactly is in charge of the administration’s foreign policy, Trump pleaded ignorance about the halted delivery, telling Volodymyr Zelenskyy last Friday that he, as commander-in-chief, was not responsible. Asked by a reporter during a televised Cabinet meeting on Tuesday who had ordered the pause, Trump shot back, “I don’t know. Why don’t you tell me?”

Uhhh because I’m the reporter and you’re the top boss, it’s not my job to know, it’s your job to know. It’s your job to know.

The White House declined to confirm that Hegseth made the call to stop the shipment to Ukraine, perhaps aware that having a rogue Defense secretary is just as alarming as having a president who’s oblivious to major foreign-policy decisions.

It’s all just as alarming as everything else.

GB News has more.

Labour’s LGBT+ group has sparked outrage after nominating a transgender woman to become their next Women’s Officer.

Delivering his verdict on GB News, commentator Alex Armstrong declared that a “man cannot understand women’s issues”.

That, but even more basically, the very act of accepting such a nomination is a massive insult to women. Men who do that to women are misogynists to their core, so what the hell business does a Labour group have making a misogynist man their Women’s Officer?

This is useful, as an illustration of the broken thinking that got us here.

Hello? Anybody home? Children age 3 say a lot of things that are not purely factual/accurate. Children age 3 are not the first people we turn to when evaluating truth claims. Children age 3 are not aware of a sharp distinction between fantasy and reality. Children age 3 enjoy pretending to be a range of things: animals, toys, shrubbery, monsters, dragons, adventurers, cartoon characters and the like.

If your boy age 15 tells you he’s a girl there’s an issue. If your boy age 3 tells you he’s a girl you nod absent-mindedly and get on with your day.