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coochiequeens · 1 year

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A UK-based drag queen well known for his performances to children is fundraising for the funeral costs of a convicted child sex offender he calls his “friend.”

On January 23, drag queen Aida H. Dee, the stage name of performer Sab Samuel, announced on Facebook that he was fundraising for the funeral costs of Darren Moore, a fellow drag queen.

“Taken unjustly!” Samuel wrote in his post. “I’d like to help give my friend the send off he deserves,” he wrote, providing the link to a GoFundMe campaign for Moore and affixing to the post a photo of Moore and his husband.

But what Samuel neglected to mention was that Moore is a convicted child sex offender.

Moore, 39, was found dead in full drag costume on the streets of Cardiff City Centre on the morning of 22 January. Previously known as Darren Sewell, Moore was convicted of four counts of rape on a boy under the age of 14 while living in South Wales. As a result, he spent 3 years in a Young Offenders’ Institution.

Following his offense, Moore was also banned from having contact with children. But in 2011, he was caught working with youth as a gymnastics and dance tutor and was convicted of breaching the lifetime order. He was sentenced to a three-year sex offender’s treatment program, a 24-month supervision order, 300 hours of community service, and a six-month curfew with an electronic tag.

Moore changed his name after he married his husband, who is also named Darren.

At the time of his death, Moore had worked as a jeweler and performed drag under the names Crystal Couture, CC Quinn and Dolly. Moore had exhibited his jewellery at RuPaul’s annual Dragcon event in London in 2020.

As a drag queen, Moore once represented British Airways at a Pride Festival in Brighton in 2018. When his previous convictions came to light, British Airways released a statement saying he did not work for the airline but was brought in by a “third party entertainment agency who supplied a number of people for the event.” They also said they were unaware of his convictions under his previous name.

Also in 2018, audience members walked out of a “Pride Without Prejudice” performance of Moore’s after he made light-hearted comments about child abuser Jimmy Saville.

Investigations are still on-going into Moore’s cause of death, but police have cautioned the public against speculation. Despite this, some members and supporters of the drag queen community have already begun to claim Moore’s death was the result of a “hate crime.”

Upon announcements of his death, the drag queen community, particularly in Cardiff, began mourning the loss of Moore on social media.

Sab Samuel, known as “the story time drag queen” Aida H. Dee, posted on his Facebook page that Moore was “an exuberant human being, taken from the world too early,” adding: “Rest In Power!”

He also shared that he wore jewelry that Moore made for him, and provided a link to a fundraiser to raise money for his funeral costs. Samuel has been seen wearing the ADHD necklace he references in the post at story time events with children and in official Drag Queen Story Hour UK photos.

Just over two hours later, Samuel posted again in memory of the child sex offender, writing: “Taken unjustly! I’d like to help give my friend the send off he deserves. Please see the link below. This is to support the husband in this horrible horrible time.”

The top comment on the post raised awareness of Moore’s previous convictions saying “Lots of media now reporting on this death but referring to him as a convicted pedophile.” Comments have since been disabled on the page.

Samuel shared the link to a Gofundme for Moore a third time today, which reads:

“Anyone who knew Darren would know how he was never understated in his appearance and costume. His larger than life character and charisma was something that you’ll never forget. We’d like to support Darren and the family and give Darren the biggest send off. If you’re able to and can afford a few quid, please donate what you can to ensure we do him proud.”

The fundraiser has already surpassed the £3,000 (approx. $3,700 USD) target and has raised £4,875 (approx. $6,000 USD) at the time of this writing. One donator left a message on the page reading, “Had the pleasure of meeting Darren last year in Gran Canaria, although very briefly, you could just tell what a beautiful soul he truly had.”

Another donor wrote: “Darren was and will always be a very special person to have known and been a friend with, his out there personality was contagious and he was someone who you couldn’t but love.”

Samuel has raised concerns on social media in the past for his conduct around children, with some calling his drag costume inappropriate due to its sometimes prominent genital “bulge.”

Despite tremendous backlash, he continues to be routinely booked for “story hour” gigs in libraries and public venues across the United Kingdom.

Just weeks prior to posting in support of Moore, Samuel, who is the founder of Drag Queen Story Hour UK, announced he was set to perform for children at The Tate Gallery in London.

Concerned parents in the nation opposed to Drag Queen Story Hour have established a group called “Art Not Propaganda” and recently stated they have formally complained to The Tate regarding their decision to host the story hour event.

The parents have established a petition which currently has 3,400 signatures, and lists historical posts made by Samuel the group says raises safeguarding concerns.

“Sab Samuel has shared multiple images and comments on social media which raise serious safeguarding red flags. A teacher would be dismissed for the same,” they wrote in the petition. Amongst the infractions are a Twitter post from July of 2020 which Samuels captions “love has no age.” The parents point out that the phrase was popularized by a group which once campaigned to lower the age of sexual consent.

Other groups, such as Safe Schools Alliance UK and the Family Education Trust, have similarly raised concerns about Samuel’s past conduct. On January 13, Samuel responded to the backlash in an interview with Pink News where he blamed the conservative government for enabling “queer hate.”

Just last year, Pink News named Samuel “Leader of the Year” at their annual awards show for his “work with children, helping them fall in love with literature.”

Samuel first rose to infamy after he began touring libraries across the UK to read in his drag persona. He founded the UK branch of Drag Queen Story Hour in 2019, and his enterprise proudly boasts it has been featured by the National Health Service, Greenpeace, Forbes, and more.

In November of 2022, Samuel uploaded a video to Facebook in which he was almost on the verge of tears while recounting his experience hiding his sexuality from a family member’s children.

“I did not want to tell my family member or their children about me being gay because I could have been a danger — I don’t know, it was weird … I think back to that moment, I felt like a disgusting human being. I’d grown up with the idea that being gay was disgusting,” Samuel says. “People wonder why I do drag queen story hours, it’s because of those reasons there. Because I grew up hating who I was. Now, any kids who are queer are not going to grow up with that in their life. I want kids to grow up to love themselves, but to be surrounded by those who love them too.”

As backlash continues to mount against “drag queen story hours” around the world, Samuel’s events have been met with protests.

During one demonstration at Reading Library last year, two protesters managed to interrupt the session while about 25 others continued outside the venue. They were escorted out by staff and the event continued.

There have been similar demonstrations against such events in North America. As a result, antifa militants wielding guns have been seen standing “guard” in front of some venues hosting drag shows for children.

By Shay Woulahan Shay is a writer and social media content creator for Reduxx. She is a proud lesbian activist and feminist who lives in Northern Ireland with her partner and their four-legged, fluffy friends.

#Aida H. Dee is Sab Samuel #Darren Moore was a sex offender #Drag Queen Story Hour UK #Art Not Propaganda #Love has no age #People campaigning to lower the age of consent #Drag is for adults

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ukrfeminism · 3 months

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We’ve been chatting for about half an hour when Eloise lowers her voice to a whisper. Until now she’s been confidently talking through the ups and downs of being a 19-year-old woman in a world she finds unsteady.

She’s annoyed that, on TikTok, the advertisements she gets are keyrings with rape alarms and “stabby kitties” (a cat-shaped metal keychain with pointed ears sharp enough to cause damage), feels that modern feminism sometimes goes a bit too far, but having grown up in the age of nudes, she doesn’t really trust men. Which is unsurprising considering the story she tells me next.

“So a boy I know was asking a girl at his school for nudes,” she says, quietly. “And then when she refused, he threatened to rape her.” The boy was 14 and had recently posted an Andrew Tate video to his Instagram page, which was Eloise’s first encounter with the online influencer.

“It said stuff like how women are your property and that it doesn’t matter if women say they’ve been sexually assaulted; if you’re with them that’s your right. I didn’t like it,” she adds.

Tate has made several appearances in the headlines this week. On Tuesday, a Romanian court rejected his appeal to ease the ban on him leaving the country as a legal case against him – in which he’s charged with human trafficking, rape and forming a criminal gang to sexually exploit women – continues. He denies all charges against him. The following day, Ipsos polling for King’s College London’s Policy Institute and the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership found that one in five men aged 16-29 who have heard of Andrew Tate have a positive view of him.

Separately – or, arguably, perhaps not – another survey published in the same week underpinned a renewed focus on the attitudes and beliefs of Generation Z, this time from the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS). The research asked just over 3,000 adults of varying ages – 50.6 per cent of whom were female – about their understanding of rape and serious sexual offences, and the law on consent, and drew troubling conclusions.

Overall, 74 per cent of people surveyed understood that it can still be rape if a victim doesn’t resist or fight back, but the number fell to just over half (53 per cent) of 18-24-year-olds who had the same understanding. Less than half of respondents from this age group recognised that victims might not report a sexual offence to police immediately, that being in a relationship or marriage doesn’t mean consent can be assumed, or that if a man has been drinking or taking drugs, he’s still responsible if he rapes someone. More than 70 per cent of over-65s recognised that even if no physical force is involved a person might not be free or able to consent to sex, compared to just 40 per cent of young people.

Previous generations have become used to hearing that rape myths and misconceptions continue to persist, but that’s precisely why this week’s grim trinity of headlines stings. “There tends to be a public assumption that things are generally always getting better,” says author and feminist campaigner Laura Bates. “Actually, views like these are incredibly widespread among young people.”

Bates regularly works with schools, talking to pupils who often tell her that “rape is a compliment”, that “it’s not rape if she likes it” or, “it’s your boyfriend, you have to have sex with him”.

She adds: “Attitude surveys have to be taken seriously because they are a real red flag that we’re going backwards – we’re seeing much more extreme and concerning misogynistic attitudes among the youngest generations than we are among the oldest. We have to face up to that and ask, why is that happening?”

Gen Z has never been neatly contained. Growing up as the first digital natives in the chokehold of crisis – climate, Covid, cost of living – has seen them praised for their social awareness, but disenfranchised and forgotten by politics. Their extremely online nature has given them unprecedented access to the world and other people – but, of course, that’s a double-edged sword.

“The internet has made everyone’s voices louder, but that means the most misogynistic people in the world are heard more too,” says Niya Clement-Hickson, a 26-year-old marketing designer from London. He says his generation has been “kind of ruined” by social media.

“You’d be surprised at just how many people around my age will argue that Andrew Tate is not as bad as he seems.”

When I spend an hour talking to 16-year-old Tate fan Manus from Ohio on TikTok, he says exactly that. He’s relatively timid and seems unsure of what he thinks at times, but came across Tate aged 12, being drawn to his motivational speeches, humour, and attitude towards making money. “[Tate] kinda showed me how people really are in reality,” he says. On Tate’s assertions that women are the property of men, he says those beliefs are simply from the Bible (though Manus himself is Muslim).

He maintains he’s never seen Tate speak violently about women, and when I send him leaked voicenote recordings of Tate saying that he enjoyed raping a woman, Manus is certain it’s fake “probably to make him look bad”. I ask for his views on feminism and he responds that feminists now want “superiority” and “more rights”. What rights exactly? “More rights in general,” he says, vaguely.

This opinion is not a rarity – there’s a pervasive idea circling comments sections and pub corners that the pendulum has “swung too far”. “Some of us warned that when you continue to suppress their identity by telling young boys that they are inherently toxic, they’ll start acting irrational,” one comment under an Andrew Tate post this week read. But it’s not just boys who hold this idea. Early last year, a survey from Ipsos UK and the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership at King’s College London echoed this and some of Eloise’s views that feminism has gone too far. They found that 52 per cent of Gen Z and 53 per cent of millennials believe that we’re now discriminating against men. Less than half of Gen Z respondents said they defined themselves as a feminist.

Was it coincidence then, to see that shortly after the research was published in March 2023, the year of the girl was in full swing? A persistently pink summer was punctuated with girl dinners, #tradwives – modern women who believe in traditional gender roles – and stay-at-home girlfriends sharing their daily rituals on news feeds. New York magazine’s The Cut declared it “Woman in Retrograde” as the year came to a close; a cluster of reactionary elements to a significant demise of mainstream feminism.

This shift back to traditional behaviours is also present in younger men, says Niya. “A lot of guys feel that their role is all about providing money, being a protector. But they feel they deserve to get something out of the interaction. They just can’t deal with being told no.”

In terms of consent, does he hear attitudes that put women in danger? “Absolutely,” he replies. Niya didn’t learn about consent in school – “I don’t think it was ever talked about beyond ‘don’t have sex until you’re old enough’” – and thinks this is quite common for men of his age. For Maya, who’s 24 and neurodivergent, the line of consent is difficult to pinpoint and somewhat shaped by social media. There’s a “disconnect” from what she really wants – and is able to articulate – in the moment.

“I think that we do have less and less sex and more and more porn,” Niya adds. “And I think that once porn is your main and in some cases, only engagement with sex and women, then that is going to completely screw up how you see sex.”

Do all roads lead to porn? Probably. Clare McGlynn, who is a professor of law with particular expertise in sexual violence and online abuse, says: “We know that algorithms promote more extreme content, more hate – and many, many younger people, men and women, are getting this. Millions of people, as we speak, are watching mainstream online pornography that is racist, sexist, misogynist and violent in its content. Of course, it’s shaping attitudes and lives.”

“There’s certainly a pressure on young boys and men, for example, to be taking and sharing nudes – they’re part of a culture that is encouraging them to,” McGlynn explains. During a study, she looked at what material was presented on the homepage of popular sites – she found landing pages which were filled with sexually violent material. “So it’s also not them even actively choosing that material; we’re part of a culture that is grooming young men, teaching them expectations around sex – and asking them to accept and normalise it.”

What appears clear from the survey conducted by the CPS is a dangerous lack of understanding of what constitutes a crime. “I do lectures on criminal law and I’ve had students come up to me afterwards and say that they didn’t know they had been sexually assaulted or raped,” McGlynn adds.

Laura Bates says that we’re in the midst of a “crisis of sexual violence among young people”.

“Deeply misogynistic misinformation is being spread to young people online at a rate that most people just have absolutely no idea about,” she says. “And there is a massive knock-on effect.

“Some will look at these surveys and go, well, what does attitude matter? But you have to draw a connection between these really worrying attitudes about rape and the fact that nearly 80 per cent of young people told Ofsted inspectors recently that sexual assault is normal and common in their friendship groups.”

So what can be done? More responsibility and accountability from social media companies, says Bates. Tate’s content – some of which reportedly shows him attempting to beat a woman with a belt; she later hides behind a locked door – has been viewed more than 11 billion times on TikTok, she says, adding: “That’s more than the population of the planet.” Last year, advocacy group HOPE found that more 16-17-year-old boys had watched Tate’s content than had heard of Rishi Sunak. “I think it’s really important that the government supports high quality, age-appropriate sex and relationships education,” she adds.

Actively listening to and engaging with boys – as seen in initiatives like the state of New York’s Starting the Conversation campaign – is also important. Boys must have a safe and judgement-free environment to express themselves: the more their experiences of rape culture are internalised, the more difficult they are to see.

The Online Safety Bill, which was enacted in October last year, she says, was a missed opportunity for change. While it asks for more transparency on social media platforms and imposes sanctions for those not following the act, along with criminalising cyberflashing and sending unsolicited nude images, “it went 250 pages without mentioning women and girls once, until campaigners changed that”, Bates says.

“It’s so much more effective to focus on prevention of radicalisation than trying to unpick it once it’s happened,” she says. “Young people really are prepared to listen and prepared to change their minds, it’s just a shame this isn’t happening in every school.”

“It does make me worried about how safe the world is going to be,” says Eloise, who will begin her twenties in the summer. “What if people really start thinking that women are property again?” Then, she’s quiet again. “I really hope it can change.”

#Articles #community #MVAWG

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wildpeachfarm · 1 month

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Thank you for being such a level headed blog in a time it is much needed while providing much needed relief today with the dnf omega verse posting 😂

While I agree with everything being said, I do think people are missing a big point trying to claim Caiti is an adult woman just bc she turned 18. Talk to most 21 year old and they say 18 is a baby, 25 say 21 is a baby so on. 18 is not some number where magically you stop having childish feeling and emotions. Humans are still developing and maturing all the way into their 20s

It’s about experience and adulting. she wanted to take adult actions while not making mature choices. It is a nuanced thing being 18 because you are still a teenager but also legally an adult but you just left high school but have a job but you can’t drink but but but

I just think people need to be very careful about saying…well she is 18, she is a fully fledged mature adult., cable of adult decision making and rationalization of complex feeling they may be feeling for the first time. That is something you’ll see predators use especially when grooming their victims where the second they turn 18, they go public with their “relationship” (this was something forever q/smp did, claiming the age of consent is lower in Brazil so it was okay)

The point is: Caiti was aware of the choices she was making, cognizant of her options (despite drinking), and choice to remain in a situation that made HER uncomfortable. If she cannot communicate her feeling in a situation like this, she should not be going to parties. She is of an age where she SHOULD be mentally mature enough to recognize some of this. This is not infantilizing her but stating a fact that she is immature and her actions have shown that. She needs to grow the hell up. And she better get used to being uncomfortable because that’s part of what being an adult is. It’s dealing with the uncomfortable-ness of situation and dealing with them in a mature and reasonable way. This is coming from a 30 year old touch adverse person who has to navigate a friendship with someone who is very touch affectionate and knowing not every touch is malice even though it makes me extremely uncomfortable to people to touch anywhere that isn’t my hands…so like I get it but Caiti can’t take this high road without taking personal responsibility that she was irresponsibility and overreacted. (I also think her ‘friends’ gaslit her into believing it was something it was not and she truly needs therapy to sort though all these feelings and emotions to even hope of having a functioning adult life with relationships)

I can only hope her vacation gave her time of reflection and she can see how far she has caused this to spiral and apologize to George in private at least. Because she just started and lead a hate campaign against a man who took responsibility and apologized for how his actions made her feel even if it was not his intentions. Her feelings are valid but that does not excuse her actions which were very malicious (side-eyeing her initial statement and subsequent responses). This is something that never should’ve been made public and should have been handled between the two of them and no one else

-sorry for the word vomit, it wasn’t sitting well with me seeing multiple platforms saying 18 year old are adults and can’t be treated like children. I hope those people are all under the age of 25 bc many adults reflect on how wrong they were when they thought they knew everything at 18-19 and were convinced they were emotionally intelligent. Hell I look back at 25 and realize how stupid I was and readily admit that. I worry for the youth growing up with social media as their morality benchmarks

thank you for adding your thoughts very appreciated :)

#ask #anon #anti drummyache tag

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justinspoliticalcorner · 5 days

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Ryan Adamczeski at The Advocate:

Forced outing has devastating consequences for LGBTQ+ people, and queer youth are at an even greater risk. One-third of LGBTQ+ minors who were outed without their consent were more likely to experience depression, as well as face less support from their families, according to a new study from the University of Connecticut. Two-thirds said that the event caused significant stress. Outing is the act of revealing a person's sexual orientation or gender identity without their consent. The UConn study analyzed responses from 9,200 queer youth ages 13 to 17 in the Human Rights Campaign's 2017 LGBTQ National Teen Survey which showed a correlation between outing and stress.

The data also showed that LGBTQ+ youth experience stress from outing differently, as transgender, nonbinary, and asexual respondents reported higher stress levels than cisgender gay, lesbian and bisexual participants. In all cases, respondents reported lower stress when they also reported have parents or guardians who are educated on sexuality and gender identity. More than 550 anti-LGBTQ+ bills were introduced across the U.S. in 2023, and 80 were passed into law. In 2024, 487 anti-LGBTQ+ bills have been introduced and 20 have passed into law, according to the American Civil Liberties Union. There are currently five states that mandate schools report transgender children to their parents if they request to go by a different name or pronouns. Another six “promote” forced outing, according to the Movement Advancement Project.

A new study from UCONN that came out reveals that anti-LGBTQ+ forced outing policies lead to higher rates of depression and familial rejection among LGBTQ+ youths.

#LGBTQ+#Studies #Forced Outing #LGBT Youth #University of Connecticut #Transgender Youth #Movement Advancement Project

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thedrunkenminstrel · 1 year

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My thing about Rowling is usually I’m a proponent for the whole separate the art from the artist. There’s creators I don’t support for personal reasons but I don’t fool myself into thinking that the nickels I deny them is going to make a difference. It’s for my own satisfaction. So I don’t really begrudge someone who still likes a movie by Coppola or a Joss Whedon TV show. We do what we gotta do to get through the day sometimes.

With Rowling I find her in a unique position, not wholly, but certainly different where her entire fictional world has been subsumed by her quest to make the world a worse place. Not only does she campaign on it, she drags her stories into it calling trans people Death Eaters.

Like I dunno. Justin Roiland is a piece of shit who stays in jail, but he’s not out there campaigning to lower the age of consent. I suppose this is a utilitarian way of looking at it, but maybe that’s also just me doing shit to feel better about myself.

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qnewslgbtiqa · 4 months

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From the Archives. Barnaby Joyce on marriage & Asian perception

New Post has been published on https://qnews.com.au/barnaby-joyce-on-marriage-equality-asia-will-see-us-as-decadent/

From the Archives. Barnaby Joyce on marriage & Asian perception

The Deputy Leader of the Nationals Barnaby Joyce on marriage in 2015: Asia will see Australia as ‘decadent’ if the country legalises same-sex marriage.

QNews updates a 2015 story about Barnaby Joyce and marriage following his recent wedding to the former staffer he impregnated while married to someone else.

First published July 5, 2015 by Staff Writers.

Update by Destiny Rogers December 26, 2023.

This didn’t age well for the rabble-rousing attention seeker. Barnaby Joyce first entered parliament as a Queensland senator tagged Barnaby Rubble by political opponents. He moved to the lower house in 2013 as member for the NSW seat of New England.

Elected Nationals leader in 2016, Joyce became Deputy Prime Minister of Australia. 😳

Marriage Equality

Following the nonsensical comments reported in this article, Joyce continued to campaign in defense of ‘traditional marriage’.

But within months of Australia voting overwhelmingly for same-sex marriage, the Australian media finally published a story already well-known to the Twitterverse.

Joyce had left his wife and was living with a former media advisor almost 20 years his junior — WHO WAS PREGNANT TO HIM!

How’s that for traditional marriage?

After resigning as Nationals leader during the consequent controversy, Joyce returned to the position in 2021 but lost a leadership spill following the coalition’s 2022 election loss.

The original 2015 article

Barnaby Joyce has joined the anti-same-sex marriage chorus, warning of consequences with Asian trading partners.

“I think that what we have to understand is that when we go there (Asia), there are judgments, whether you like it or not, that are made about us and they see in how we negotiate with them whether they see us as – whether they see us as decadent.”

Joyce says Australia should not necessarily take its cues or cultural values from its near neighbours. However, his comments echo fellow cabinet minister Eric Abetz’ warning last week that Australia should not legalise gay marriage because no Asian country has done so.

You Can’t Always Get What You Want.

Joyce told ABC’s Insiders that he doesn’t believe we should be redefining marriage.

“Marriage for me is in the traditional form.

“In life, everybody doesn’t get everything they want.”

Marriage should be “inherently there for the support of children or given the prospect of children or the opportunity of children.

“I think that every kid has a right, absolute right to know her or his mother and father and also has – should be given the greatest opportunity to know their biological mother and father.

“I don’t think if you go and pass a piece of legislation and say a diamond is a square, (that) makes diamonds squares, they’re two different things.”

Australian Marriage Equality national director Rodney Croome told Fairfax Media that “to say children are better off brought up by a mum and dad reinforces prejudice against the children raised by same-sex couples and is just plain wrong”.

Horse has bolted

Rodney Croome said the horse has bolted on gay parenting in Australia.

“Aout 20 percent of Australia’s 50,000 same-sex couples are raising children.”

Meanwhile, Abetz defended penning a rebuke to Hobart City Council for expressing support for same-sex marriage.

The senator said the council’s resolution “undermines the important social institution of marriage.” He said it had nothing to do with the priorities of ratepayers.

Senator Abetz earlier suggested frontbenchers who supported change should resign. He said allowing same-sex marriage would open a Pandora’s box. It could potentially lead to polyamory (the practice of engaging in multiple sexual relationships with the consent of all people involved).

Coalition divisions erupted over same-sex marriage last week. A marriage equality bill moved by Liberal Warren Entsch, seconded by Labor’s Terri Butler and backed by a multi-party grouping, will be introduced when Parliament resumes in August

Abbott a roadblock

Senator Penny Wong slammed Abetz’s comments, labeling them “illogical and outright offensive”.

She also accused Prime Minister Tony Abbott of being an extraordinary roadblock on the issue.

“He keeps finding excuses not to talk about it,” she said. “It’s time for him to get out of the way.”

Abbott has played down the prospect of a vote on Mr Entsch’s bill. He warned it was unusual for a private member’s bill to get that far.

It has prompted speculation he will use parliamentary processes to shut debate down.

More about the man Twitter Wits tagged The Beetrooter :

WATCH: John Oliver Roasts ‘Hypocritical’ Joyce Over Affair Scandal.

Was Joyce just tip of traditional marriage hypocrisy iceberg? (Spoiler – YEP!)

Barnaby In Art: Kulcha with a capital K.

Image: @DirtyCreature__ Twitter

The fall and fall of Anti-Marriage Equality Pollies.

For the latest LGBTIQA+ Sister Girl and Brother Boy news, entertainment, community stories in Australia, visit qnews.com.au. Check out our latest magazines or find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.

#barnaby joyce #marriage equality australia

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veritywarner90 · 5 months

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🇺🇳🤛🚫The UN, WEF, politicians and bureaucrats are intending to protect and normalise these people in society, that is pedophiles or Minor Attracted People (MAP)!

The Pedophile Information Exchange (PIE) was a British-based pro-pedophile activist group, founded in 1974. The group campaigned for the age of consent to be lowered to the age of four or to make it non existent, while receiving significant funding from the British Home Office and was affiliated with the National Council for Civil Liberties. Although since disbanded, they have been lobbying ever since.

Pedophilia is considered psychiatric disorder, still a crime in which an adult or older adolescent experiences a primary or exclusive sexual attraction to prepubescent children. These individuals have successfully infiltrated the UN and attached themselves to the LGBTQIA+ infinite movement to legitimise their unnatural sexual urges and predisposition!

Read more articles at:

https://veritywarner90.wordpress.com

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coochiequeens · 1 year

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Looked up the author of this story. Not surprised it’s by a TRA.

ByKiara Alfonseca

November 23, 2022, 6:30 AM

Ky Schevers is fighting back against the anti-trans movement she once took part in.

Schevers was assigned the sex of female at birth and later chose to start gender-affirming care by taking testosterone to transition from female to male in her mid-20s. She stopped taking testosterone, though, in the years that followed while she continued to explore and question her gender, later falling into an online anti-trans group of "detransitioners" – people who once did but no longer identify as transgender.

Now, Schevers says she has “retransitioned," identifying as transmasculine and gender queer, which means she identifies with both genders. Schevers uses she and her pronouns, but heavily identifies with masculinity, as defined by the LGBTQIA+ Health Education Center states.

She says she considers herself to be a part of the transgender community.

When Schevers initially stopped taking testosterone, she sought out advice and companionship in online forums about detransitioning. In this virtual community is where she began to adopt anti-trans beliefs that misogyny and a patriarchal society caused her to initially transition from female to male. In blog posts, YouTube videos, interviews and workshops, she spread and promoted these beliefs. These posts became a popular tool for anti-trans activists looking to discredit the trans community in the name of feminism.

A 50-year study in the Archives of Sexual Behavior performed in Sweden estimated that less than 3% of people who medically transitioned experienced "transition regret." Other studies have estimated similar results, some citing even lower figures.MORE: Amid anti-LGBTQ efforts, transgender community finds joy in 'chosen families'

Despite this low percentage, these individuals have become a focal point of anti-transgender legislation and activism.

More than 300 proposed bills across the country have targeted LGBTQ Americans in the last year, according to the Human Rights Campaign. Health care for trans youth in particular has become the target of such efforts.

Before the ages of 16-18, youth are treated with reversible treatments based on guidance from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Irreversible medical interventions, such as surgeries, are typically only done with consenting adults, or older teens who have worked through the decision with their families and physicians over a long period of time, physicians across the country have told ABC News.

Despite these common practices, officials in many states have launched efforts to crack down on gender-affirming care for minors. Some legislators have cited disputed research on this topic, stating that the majority of gender dysphoric youth will grow out of their dysphoria. The methodology in these studies has been highly critiqued.

Major medical associations support gender-affirming care for youth and adults. Transgender youth tend to have high rates of suicide, but those who transition often experience significantly reduced psychological distress.

A recent large study from Harvard found that gender-affirming surgery was associated with improved mental health outcomes in those who are transgender.

Another recent large study from Harvard found that even among those who do go on to detransition, it is often due to external pressures such as stigma and non-acceptance in their environments, rather than a sudden resolution of gender dysphoria.

But that's where “detransitioners" come in. Detransitioned activists have often testified in public hearings on policies concerning the transgender community.

"I was 30 and at the end of my rope when I transitioned … If I made this mistake as an adult, a young girl could too," said one detransitioned speaker at the Oct. 28 Florida medical board hearing concerning a ban on gender affirming health care for youth. "Not only did my surgery exacerbate my mental health issues, I now struggle with physical complications as well."

Another speaker at the hearing, who said she started gender-affirming treatments at the age of 16 and regrets it, spoke about struggling with her mental health while transitioning. She urged the board to ban hormones for people under 18 and surgeries for people under 21. "In 2019, I had a life-changing encounter with Jesus and began to find deep healing within myself. After nearly 4 years of being on testosterone, I decided to detransition and accept my womanhood," she said.

The Florida Medical Board later passed a ban on gender-affirming care for youth. The decision would prohibit providers from administering gender affirming care, including puberty blockers, hormones, cross-hormone therapy and gender-affirming surgery for people under the age of 18.MORE: Transgender youth health care ban approved by Florida medical boards

When Schevers was in similar circles, she said she tried to ignore her uncertainty about her gender and how it conflicted with the message she was promoting.

"I never liked people who call transitioning mutilation or call trans bodies mutilated...A lot of them called trans people delusional," Schevers said. "Living as a trans person was something that people did to survive and actually, I didn't think of it as crazy or irrational because I had lived that life."

She continued, "I get why someone would do this. Like, it did help me. I did get satisfaction from transitioning and I had to rationalize that experience and make it fit with this anti-trans ideology."

Schevers said cracks began to show in her beliefs as more of the detransitioners and other activists she worked with began to partner with far-right groups like the Proud Boys on an anti-trans platform.

"That was kind of a huge wake-up call," said Schevers. "It didn't make sense to ally with the people who were creating the oppressive conditions."

Her use of the hormone testosterone helped her embrace her gender queer identity, she now says.

When Schevers sees or hears anti-transgender detransitioners speak about their experiences, she thinks of her past self. She says she feels guilty, like she set the stage for them.

Schevers says she wants people to turn their attention to the dangers of anti-trans outreach to youth as well as the ongoing legislative attacks on trans Americans.

In Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton also launched an effort to investigate gender-affirming youth care treatments as "child abuse" through the state department of child protective services. A state judge later issued a temporary injunction blocking the effort.

An Alabama law made it illegal to give any type of gender affirming care to anyone under the age of 18. This would criminalize parents and physicians.

Joseph Ladapo, Florida's surgeon general, released a memo in June saying treatments like sex-reassignment surgery, and hormone and puberty blockers are not effective treatments for gender dysphoria.MORE: Florida to ban gender-affirming care under Medicaid for transgender recipients

This memo contradicts guidance from organizations including the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Public Health Association.

These organizations say that research does show that the aforementioned gender-affirming treatments are safe and effective. Some, like the American Medical Association, even deem it "medically necessary."

Gender exploration is an ongoing journey for Schevers, and she hopes the trans and gender queer youth in the U.S. continue to be able to access a journey of their own.

"I do feel more firmly rooted in who I am. It's easier for me to accept myself as someone who has, like, multiple genders," Schevers said.

Anyone else think she detransitioned and was treated horribly by the TRAs and faced regular misogyny from normies and figured it was just easier to go make to having a special identity?

#detransitioners #retransitioners #Biased reporting #Being critical of giving minors irreversible surgeries doesn’t make you anti-trans #Being concerned for women’s Rights doesn’t make you anti-trans #More framing women speaking up for causes important to them as angry harpies #ABC news

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dwellordream · 3 years

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“After the coronation ceremony in December 1154, Eleanor and Henry II both remained in their new kingdom for over a year until, in January 1156, the king left for France to contend with his brother Geoffrey’s rebellion in Anjou. Eleanor, often parted from her husband for long periods when he was fighting on England’s frontiers or on campaigns in his French lands, may have experienced feelings of isolation in England from time to time. Adding to the queen’s loneliness was her inability to have the company of more than a handful of her fellow Poitevins serving in her household.

Eleanor, living in the midst of foreigners withholding from her the admiration accorded their earlier queens and whose language she never learned to speak, may have faced her days in England with some foreboding. Henry’s frequent absences from his kingdom would become a cause of concern for his English subjects. In a letter addressed to the king by the archbishop of Canterbury in spring 1160, he was urged to return to England, and reminded of his offspring, “those children from the sight of whom scarce even the hardest-hearted father could any longer withhold his gaze.”

While in England, Henry had much work to do, taking him away from his queen’s side in his task of reversing the diminution of royal rights during the civil war under King Stephen. Not long after his coronation, he headed for the north to reassert royal power there, while Eleanor remained behind at Bermondsey in the last stage of her second pregnancy by the English king. When Eleanor gave birth to their second son on 28 February 1155, Henry II was in Northampton. This was their first child “born to the purple,” and he was named Henry to commemorate his great-grandfather King Henry I of England, linking the boy to the Anglo-Norman royal line.

At the end of March, the king returned from his northern expedition in time for the Easter festivities at Merton Abbey, and afterward he held a great council at London, where Eleanor had a prominent part in the festivities as the mother of two young princes. Two weeks later another council took place at Wallingford, where little William and his month-old brother were presented to the assembled magnates. The king, mindful of the uncertainty about the succession that had caused years of civil war, 1139–53, insisted that his barons swear their fealty to William and to his infant brother Henry.

By June, Henry had left his wife’s side again to go on campaign, this time in the west country, conducting sieges of castles at Bridgnorth, Wigmore, and Cleobury. Eleanor would be separated from her husband for much of 1156, for Henry II crossed the Channel to Normandy in January on his first visit to his Continental lands as English king. He would be absent from his kingdom for the entire year, not returning to England until April 1157, while Eleanor remained in England acting as regent. Some time during Henry’s absence, William died at the age of three, although the date of his death is not known.

Henry had left Eleanor pregnant for a third time, and in June 1156 she gave birth to a daughter, christened Matilda. The name linked the child to her Anglo-Norman ancestors, honoring her grandmother, the former German empress, whose own mother, William the Conqueror’s wife, had also borne the name Matilda. Eleanor’s first two children born in England were both christened by Archbishop Theobald of Canterbury at Holy Trinity, Aldgate, a London house of Augustinian canons founded by Henry’s grandmother, Henry I’s queen. Eleanor joined her husband at Angers in the summer of 1156, following William’s death. On that Continental sojourn, she took with her both Young Henry and the infant Matilda, no more than three months old.

The following autumn the royal couple would make a tour together of Eleanor’s duchy of Aquitaine, her first visit to her people in over two years. On this first visit since their coronation as king and queen of England, they revisited Limoges. Henry II intervened again in the Limousin to enforce his lordship, this time in the succession to the territory, enforcing his right as lord to guardianship over the deceased viscount’s minor son, even though previous count-dukes had not exercised such a privilege. He claimed custody of young Aymar V, and placed the viscounty in the hands of two Norman officials, despite the boy’s paternal uncles’ claim that tradition gave them the guardianship by their right as his closest kin.

Later Henry would take advantage of his lordship to arrange the young viscount’s marriage to a daughter of his uncle, the powerful Earl Reginald of Cornwall. Such “feudal” prerogatives of lordship were not customary in Eleanor’s lands, and Henry’s attempted introduction of them would not be appreciated by her nobility. From Limoges, Eleanor and Henry continued south, visiting Bordeaux at the invitation of her former guardian Archbishop Geoffrey du Loroux. The state visit to Eleanor’s lands culminated with a Christmas court at Bordeaux, where Henry proclaimed his peace to the nobility and people of Gascony.

This ceremony marked the end of Eleanor’s autonomy as ruler of her duchy. The five surviving documents issued by her as duchess during her 1156 visit reveal the limits of her authority over her ancestral lands, for three are merely confirmations of Henry’s acts. The two documents that Eleanor issued, evidently without Henry’s sanction, are routine orders to her Poitevin local agents to observe her father’s grants of privileges to religious houses. After this visit, Eleanor’s name disappears from Aquitanian charters, and none recording her as grantor, either alone or jointly with her husband, is found until her return over a decade later.

During those years, Henry was issuing charters for his wife’s subjects in Poitou with no mention of her consent, although many of them were likely confirmations of grants originally made by her. Following the Christmas court at Bordeaux, the queen returned to England with her children early in 1157, pregnant once more, to resume her duties as regent until Henry’s arrival in April. Neither Eleanor nor Henry would visit her duchy again until 1159 at the beginning of the failed Toulouse campaign. Prolonged visits to Eleanor’s lands by Henry were rare, and most were no more than a month long.

Two years after the 1156 visit, Henry would tangle with the viscount of Thouars, the most important noble in the northern and western parts of Poitou with territory stretching from his ancient fortress at Thouars, guarding the Poitevin frontier below the River Loire south of Saumur to the Atlantic coast near the Île d’Oléron. Henry took the castle of Thouars in 1158 after a three-day siege and then sent the viscount into exile, ruling his territory through Angevin or Norman appointees. Supposedly Henry had moved against the viscount of Thouars because of his support for Henry’s rebellious younger brother, Geoffrey count of Nantes; but according to some accounts, he acted out of a desire to please Eleanor, who considered the viscount a quarrelsome vassal.

She counseled Henry to forceful action, urging him to raze the castle and its walls just as earlier she had pressed her first husband for strong measures against the Poitevins. Whatever the cause, Henry’s brutality toward the viscount only alienated the nobles of Eleanor’s duchy. The Poitevin nobility viewed Henry Plantagenet as tampering with their traditional “liberties” in his attempt to transform vague ties that had bound them to Eleanor’s predecessors into defined duties owed to him as lord. As usual, the instigators of resistance were the lords along Poitou’s southern frontier in the lower Charente and upper Vienne valleys, most prominent among them the counts of Angoulême.

Despite the English king’s success in taking custody of the minor viscount of Limoges, the great men of Poitou rejected his “feudal” right to wardship and marriage, and Henry would never succeed in imposing on them the obligations owed by his Norman and English nobles. Nor would they admit that they held their lands of him as count-duke conditionally in return for payments and services; they only acknowledged a longstanding duty as landowners to perform ancient “public” services. Eleanor had urged Louis VII to strong measures against her subjects, but eventually she would come to see Henry’s authoritarian actions against the Poitevin aristocracy as contrary to her homeland’s traditions and her sympathies would shift toward her own people.

After Eleanor’s return from Poitou, she would remain in England throughout the summer and autumn of 1157, and on 8 September she was at Oxford, where another son Richard was born. The source of Richard’s name is uncertain; it had been borne by several Norman dukes, but Robert was also a common name in the ducal lineage of Normandy. Henry on rejoining his family in England in April 1157 would remain in his island kingdom for fifteen months, except for a Christmas visit to Normandy with Eleanor for the Christmas court at Cherbourg. In mid-August 1158, the king left again for a long absence of four and a half years, not returning until late January 1163.

Eleanor would recross the Channel to join her husband for the 1158 Christmas court at Cherbourg, leaving her infant son Geoffrey behind in England little more than two months after his birth on 23 September 1158. Geoffrey’s name, of course, honored Henry’s own father, Count Geoffrey of Anjou. The name Fulk that alternated with Geoffrey as a male name in the comital family of Anjou was also available for one of the sons, but never selected. Eleanor’s own ancestors afforded no additional choices, since all dukes of Aquitaine took the name William.”

- Ralph V. Turner, “Once More a Queen and Mother: England, 1154–1168.” in Eleanor of Aquitaine: Queen of France, Queen of England

#eleanor of aquitaine #eleanor of aquitaine: queen of france queen of england #history #high middle ages #medieval #ralph v. turner #henry ii of england

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germanicseidr · 3 years

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Chatti

The Chatti were a Germanic tribe located in modern day Hesse and southern Saxony, Germany. They were one of the largest and most powerful tribes of Germania, only the Cherusci were as large as the Chatti tribe. I have written a post about this tribe last year but I wanted to add more information and of course this group has gained so many new members since last year, that most probably missed my previous post on this tribe. Also thanks to Netflix’ new show ‘the Barbarians’ the Chatti has gained more attention. Somewhere around 100BC, there was a huge internal conflict in the Chatti tribe, this conflict resulted in the split of the tribe. Two groups of Chatti tribesmen/women migrated towards the lower Rhine area in modern day Netherlands, this is how the Batavi and Cananefates were born.

The meaning of the tribe’s name isn’t 100% certain but most theories lead to the following meaning: ‘the angry’ or ‘the haters’ from the Proto-Germanic word Hataz. If this is the correct meaning of their name, it is quite a curious one. Why would a tribe call themselves like that? It might have something to do with a conflict that they experienced with another tribe or the conflict that caused the tribe to split back in 100BC. Perhaps the tribe’s name isn’t Germanic in origin at all. Another theory suggests that the word Chatti comes from the Proto-Celtic word Cat which means ‘battle’ or ‘fight’. If this is the case, the pronunciation is also different ‘Khatti’. Yet again these are just theories and nothing is 100% certain. The modern day region of Hesse, where the Chatti once lived, has most likely been named after the tribe.

The first written records about this tribe came from Nero Claudius Drusus Germanicus, the stepson of emperor Augustus. After Germanicus was appointed as the governour of Gaul, he launched a series of campaigns into Germania in an attempt to conquer Germania just like how Gaul was conquered and added to the Roman empire. The first of his campaigns started in 12BC and was very succesful for Germanicus. He crossed the Rhine with his army and subjugated the Sicambri tribe. Germanicus was also the first Roman to reach the Weser river in northern Germany, close to modern day Denmark.

During a later campaign in the same year, he also subjugated the Batavi and the Frisii and defeated the Chauci at the river Weser. In the following year, 11BC, Germanicus defeated the Marsii, Bructeri and the Usipetes. From 10-9BC Germanicus also defeated the Chatti, Cherusci and Marcomanni. It seems as though nothing could stop him from conquering all of Germania, he almost succeeded at this until a fall from his horse during his fourth campaign killed him. It is likely that Germania would have become a Roman province if Germanicus didn’t fell off his horse.

It was during Drusus Germanicus’ campaigns that the famous Arminius of the Cherusci was sent to Rome as tribute by his father, together with his brother Flavus. Relationships between the Cherusci and the Romans continued to sour in the following years after their defeat by the Romans during Germanicus’ campaigns. This eventually led to Arminius revolting against the Romans in 9AD. The king of the Chatti, Adgandestrius, was quick to join Arminius. The Chatti also haven’t forgotten Germanicus’ campaigns in Germania. The revolt led to the famous Teutoburgerwald battle during which three Roman legions were completely destroyed

This battle would be the biggest military defeat for Rome. While Germanicus almost succeeded at conquering Germania, this battle led to the abandonment of all plans to expand the Roman empire into Germania. Permanent borders were established along the Rhine river which kept Germania free. Interestingly enough, Adgandestrius turned against Arminius in 19AD. He even went as far as to ask Rome for help in assassinating Arminius with poison. This request was denied by the Romans as they saw this as a dishonourable way to defeat Arminius, the Romans prefered to meet him in battle. Arminius died two years later, betrayed and murdered by his own people who thought that Arminius was getting way too powerful. (Hope I didn’t just spoil the show for you guys, I still haven’t watched it)

Almost half a century later, another conflict broke out, this time between the Chatti and the Hermunduri in 58AD. Both tribes fought for control over a river that was rich in salt that flowed between the two tribes. This whole conflict has been recorded by Tacitus who described that this river was also very religiously important to the Germanic people. It is not certain which river is mentioned by Tacitus, it is either the Rhine or Main (a river connected to the Rhine). The Germanic people believed that this river was closely connected to the realm of the Gods. If you would make a prayer at the banks of the river Rhine, it would be directly received by the Gods. Both tribes also vowed their enemies to Tyr and Wodan before the battle started. This vow meant that the defeated party was sacrificed to Tyr and Wodan, unfortunately for the Chatti, they lost this battle.

Another revolt broke out in 69AD, this time the Batavi revolted against the Roman empire. The Chatti also joined this rebellion, even though the Batavi were once part of the Chatti and left due to a conflict. The Batavi were able to destroy two Roman legions and several Roman fortifications before the revolt was put down. The Chatti laid siege to Mogontiacum, modern day city of Mainz. Even though the Romans lost their trust in the Batavi, they recognized their strong fighting power and are named the strongest of all the Germanic tribes, not in number but in skills.

20 years later in 89AD, the Chatti joined another revolt. This time two Roman legions under Antoninus Saturninus revolted against emperor Dominitan. Unfortunately all documents describing this event are lost or destroyed so we can sadly never know what event led to two Roman legions revolting against their emperor. There is a theory that the revolt was caused by Dominitan’s strict moral policies for the officers of the army. The revolt however failed before it could really begin. It would have been interesting to observe this revolt if it had succeeded, a curious sight Romans and Chatti warriors fighting side by side.

In 98AD Tacitus published his famous work the Germania, in this work he describes the Chatti as following: “Beyond these dwell the Chatti, whose settlements, beginning from the Hercynian forest, are in a tract of country less open and marshy than those which overspread the other states of Germany, for it consists of a continued range of hills, which gradually become more scattered and the Hercynian forest both accompanies and leaves behind, its Chatti.

This nation is distinguished by hardier frames, compactness of limb, fierceness of countenance, and superior vigor of mind. For Germanics, they have a considerable share of understanding and sagacity, they choose able persons to command, and obey them when chosen, keep their ranks, seize opportunities, restrain impetuous motions, distribute properly the business of the day, intrench themselves against the night, account fortune dubious, and valor only certain, and, what is extremely rare, and only a consequence of discipline, depend more upon the general than the army.

Their force consists entirely in infantry who, besides their arms, are obliged to carry tools and provisions. Other nations appear to go to a battle, the Chatti, to war. Excursions and casual encounters are rare amongst them. It is, indeed, peculiar to cavalry soon to obtain, and soon to yield, the victory. Speed borders upon timidity slow movements are more akin to steady valor.

A custom followed among the other Germanic nations only by a few individuals, of more daring spirit than the rest, is adopted by general consent among the Chatti. From the time they arrive at years of maturity they let their hair and beard grow and do not divest themselves of this votive badge, the promise of valor, till they have slain an enemy. Over blood and spoils they unveil the countenance, and proclaim that they have at length paid the debt of existence, and have proved themselves worthy of their country and parents. The cowardly and effeminate continue in their squalid disguise.

The bravest among them wear also an iron ring (a mark of ignominy in that nation) as a kind of chain, till they have released themselves by the slaughter of a foe. Many of the Chatti assume this distinction, and grow hoary under the mark, conspicuous both to foes and friends. By these, in every engagement, the attack is begun: they compose the front line, presenting a new spectacle of terror. Even in peace they do not relax the sternness of their aspect. They have no house, land, or domestic cares, they are maintained by whomsoever they visit, lavish of another's property, regardless of their own till the debility of age renders them unequal to such a rigid course of military virtue.” – Tacitus

Not much is further known about the Chatti besides the fact that they raided Roman territory between 160-170AD. Eventually elements of the Chatti, together with the Batavi, Cherusci, Tencteri, Tubantes, Chamavi, Bructeri, Sicambri and the Ampsivarii formed together in a confederation called the Franks. They settled in modern day southern Netherlands and Belgium around 300AD and were first of the Franks who eventually founded modern day France. The remaining Chatti remained in their original location and continued raiding the Romans wherever they could, by 300AD the Roman western borders were severely weakened by internal conflicts.

Eventually the remaining Chatti became the Hessi during the early medieval ages, this was first recorded in 782AD. Hesse itself has a long and rich history but that is not a topic for this group, feel free to explore this topic further if you are interested in Hesse’s history.

Here is a map which shows the location of the Chatti, a map showing Roman campaigns into Germania before the Teutoburgerwald battle and a depiction of Germanic warriors from the game Rome 2 total war.

#History #Germanic #Germanic Tribes #Chatti

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and-then-there-were-n0ne · 3 years

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On May 14th, 2021, The Lancet published an editorial titled “A flawed agenda for trans youth”. This contains a number of weak or flawed arguments and rhetorical framing that I believe are far below the quality one might reasonably expect from a publication as prestigious as The Lancet.

On April 6, 2021, amid a flood of new bills to curb the rights of transgender and gender diverse (trans) youth in the USA, Arkansas became the first state to prohibit doctors from providing youth (<18 years) with gender-affirming treatment: puberty blockers, hormone therapy, and gender-affirming surgery.

From the outset, the focus is on the political and legal situation in the US, which of course is not reflective of the global picture. Seen from the UK, our legislative, medical and political landscape are markedly different, but that has not stopped this article being shared approvingly by UK-based lobbyists such as Stonewall’s Nancy Kelley.

Here we see that editorials such as this are not merely narrowly focused on the specifics - and ethics - of care of vulnerable youth, but actually in service of wider political lobbying. This is evident from the language and framing of the whole editorial:

However, what the bills seek to protect appears to be traditional gender norms, using a vulnerable group in a protracted culture war. The bills' socially conservative advocates create fear by focusing on emotive issues, honing the same messaging around protecting women and children that was used in earlier campaigns against abortion and same-sex marriage. As clinicians, it is important to use evidence to debunk the false claims being made.

The author castigates “social conservatives”, and links opposition to euphemistically titled “gender-affirmative care” as akin to anti-abortion or anti-gay marriage.

This is a binary framing that bears no real relation to the actual breadth of opinion and concern out there. For sure, many social conservatives are in opposition on those grounds - but there is a failure to recognise and account for the positions of the many people who come from an entirely different position. People who embrace and encourage gender nonconformity, who fought for gay marriage, and who now see current attitudes as a regressive approach to behavioural stereotypes that are harming predominantly gay and lesbian youth.

Disproportionate emphasis is given to young people's inability to provide medical consent, a moot point given that—like any medical care—parental consent is required.

This is not a moot point. A parent does not have unlimited power to subject a child to elective medical treatment. Indeed, this is the entire crux of the matter: is the treatment necessary? Does the potential benefit outweigh the potential harm? Is a child capable of understanding what they are consenting to?

This is why so much of this is framed in life-or-death terms - because absent some imminent threat, there is no justification for subjecting a child to experimental treatment in the first place.

Supplanting parents with the law for this decision presumes that a parent living alongside their child cannot grasp what is best for them, despite often witnessing many years of struggle.

And yet, parents abuse their own children, and sometimes the duty of the state is to intervene in the best interests of the child. This is a legitimate conflict - simplistically pretending it doesn’t exist, or that a balance is not needed to be struck, denigrates the debate.

Driving this consent narrative is the anxiety evoked by focusing on the minority who regret transition (estimated as 1% of adults who had gender-affirming surgery as adolescents).

This cites a recent meta-analysis of 27 articles, going back to the 80s. As such, I think it has the following weaknesses for making this specific claim:

It covers decades of adult transitioners. Adults are not directly comparable to children because there is wide variation in the persistence of dysphoria past adolescence (as high as 88% in a recent study). This is a key point of contention with early intervention, because this would indicate a nearly 9-in-10 chance of unnecessarily and permanently medicating a child. If regret samples are only drawn from the pool of those who persist into adulthood, then of course regret measures will be lower.

It covers surgical outcomes only. This again does not apply to children maybe given puberty blockers and hormone treatments.

Patients lost to followup or who (for whatever reason) do not proceed to surgery are often not accounted for - and by the above metric these could easily be patients who presented for treatment, before desisting, something much more likely with younger patients. For example, the meta-analysis cites the following paper as having a cohort of 132, only 2 of whom express regret. But actually, the paper starts with 546, which becomes 201 participants, only 136 of whom proceed to surgery, 4 of which are lost to followup. This is a very different picture, with 75% of the recruited sample an unknown quantity - and it is those lost to contact, or refusing to participate, or who simply drop out that are most likely to contain those with regret.

Whatever else, I don’t think that regret rates of adult surgical transition are a useful proxy for regret rates of children who have been affirmed as the opposite sex from a young age and proceed through puberty blockers to cross-sex hormones. I think these are entirely different groups, and using the best-case success rate of one to downplay concerns about the other is disingenuous.

However, in any situation when medical treatment will alter a person's identity, no one can know whether post-treatment regret will occur; therefore what matters ethically is whether an individual has a good enough reason for wanting treatment. Regardless of law makers' stance on identifying with a gender other than one's birth-assigned sex, the autonomy for this decision lies with young people and their parents.

Autonomy, but also clear and informed consent. A child who simplistically believes they are in the wrong body, who may be struggling with internalised homophobia - or homophobic parents - and comorbid mental health issues. Who has been told by people they trust that blockers and other interventions are necessary, and that they will simply go through the “correct” puberty for their “identity”, is being told lies. Phrasing such as “birth-assigned sex” is part of that lie - for sex is determined at conception, and cannot be changed. The association of the word “gender” with “sex” is part of that lie. How can anybody meaningfully consent when surrounded by such imprecise language? Why are children encouraged to change their sex characteristics to express their “gender identity”? What does any of this even mean? When even the Lancet publishes misleading data about rates of regret, or the reversibility and side effects of blockers (see below), how can a child understand this complicated and contradictory picture and offer informed consent?

More fear is stoked by rhetoric about a malevolent threat to children. Social conservatives in the USA, UK, and Australia frame gender-affirming care as child abuse and medical experimentation. This stance wilfully ignores decades of use of and research about puberty blockers and hormone therapy: a collective enterprise of evidence-based medicine culminating in guidelines from medicalassociations such as the Endocrine Society and American Academy of Pediatrics. Puberty blockers are falsely claimed to cause infertility and to be irreversible, despite no substantiated evidence.

Again, the editorial frames opposition as “socially conservative” - and completely ignores the social progressives who are expressing concern. This is simply not a narrative that fits the polarised binary of US liberal/conservative politics. In fact - especially in the UK - opposition is largely left wing, from those who don’t believe that gender nonconformity is something that should be medicalised, and who are worried at the prevalence of gay and lesbian youth in the cohort of children now being referred for paediatric transition.

It is telling also that the study offered to rebut the claims about infertility or irreversibility of blockers is not applicable. The cited paper is a study of the effects of blockers as a treatment for several conditions, but the author here cites the outcome when treating precocious puberty, ie in the instances where a young child is given blockers to halt early pubertal development for a short period, and then allow the remainder of normal adolescence to continue as much as possible.

This is not at all applicable to the treatment of children who go on to cross-sex hormones. These children never experience natural puberty. Blockers in this instance do not delay, they prevent it entirely, and substitute with synthetic hormones to encourage the development of opposite sex characteristics. This is a wholly different treatment pathway, and yes, blockers cause infertility and in some cases complete loss of sexual function, as well as other long term issues.

And the paper itself confirms this:

I believe The Lancet are wholly wrong to present this position with such certainty, and that by making claims that are contradicted by the given citation they fatally undermine this claim.

The dominance of the infertility narrative, usually focused on child-bearing ability, perhaps reveals more about conservatives' commitment to women's role as child-bearers.

Again, this does a huge disservice to the actual debate. The focus is on such things as fertility and sexual function because these are the very things children are incapable of consenting to lose. A child cannot know if they will never want to have a child of their own. A child too young to experience an orgasm cannot consent to never experiencing one.

Puberty blockers are framed as pushing children into taking hormones, whereas the time they provide allows for conversations with health providers and parents on different options. Gender transition involves many decisions over a long time, and those who take hormones do so because they are trans. Contrary to claims of a new phenomenon, trans youth have always existed; historians show they have sought trans medicine since it became possible: the 1930s in the USA.

The concern is that affirming the social sexual transition of a child too young to understand what sex is, is fixating on a fantasy identity that then becomes a medical one, again before a child is too young to know the implications. This is something borne out by the difference in desistance rates between children left to resolve their gender identity in adolescence (ie, allowing non-conforming boys and girls to simply be authentically nonconforming boys and girls) which are up to 88%, and the <1% desistance rate seen with the affirmation approach at the Tavistock. If the intervention itself is fixating and medicalising an otherwise fluid identity, is that really in the interests of the child? And again, this was found in the Keira Bell case - blockers are not in practice “a pause” for “time to think”, rather an early intervention to avoid the development of secondary sexual characteristics and lay the ground for inevitable cross-sex hormones.

Focusing on potential harms ignores the fact that wellbeing is broader than physical health alone. The harms to wellbeing posed by prohibiting care are huge. Being a marginalised group (<2% of US youth), trans youth already experience the stress of discrimination and stigmatisation. They have high rates of depression, anxiety, and suicide: almost double the rates of suicide ideation of their cis peers. As Laura Baams discusses in her Comment, puberty blockers reduce suicidality.

Except as the published work by the Tavistock shows, this is not true. Blockers don’t improve mental health outcomes at all, and indeed the focus on avoiding the development of secondary sex characteristics may even be creating distress.

Additionally, such studies of mental health and suicidality are skewed both by sex differences and confounding comorbidities. Notably, girls are more likely to suffer poor mental health than boys, especially lesbian and bisexual girls. There are large numbers of co-presenting conditions, like eating disorders and self-harm - and it is specifically among girls that we are seeing a large rise in identifying as trans or non-binary.

The author says they have poor mental health because of discrimination and stigmatisation. However, another hypothesis might be that children are identifying as trans as a response to homophobia (as has been reported at the Tavistock), or - in the case of girls - as an escape from a highly sexualised culture of objectification, or experiencing social contagion in friendship groups as has been shown with eating disorders and self-harm in the past. Do they have poor mental health because they are trans, or do they identify as such in response to poor mental health and other social factors?

Separating out whether identifying as trans is a cause of or a response to such things is difficult, but statements like the above are reductive and simplistic. The author leaves no room for such alternative interpretations of the same evidence, which again falls into the whole polarised culture-war framing of the article. Such alternatives invariably are not given weight in pieces like this because they do not fit that narrative.

Removing these treatments is to deny life.

And here is the crux of it - the emotional blackmail. The only thing that could possibly justify the risk of unnecessarily sterilising children is the threat of death.

Moreover, whereas the bills focus on medical treatments, the care trans youth receive is far wider in scope. Those seeking care typically also see social workers and psychiatrists, and much of health providers' work involves listening, talking, and setting up support in their families, schools, and communities. Health providers also discuss with them the idea that gender is something we “do” in social practice and can take many forms.

I struggle to see what the point of this paragraph is. If wider care and therapy are not under threat, why mention them? If the focus of legislation is on medical interventions, then talking about other forms of care is irrelevant. If people are arguing for less medical intervention and more of these wider social measures, then what is the author taking issue with?

Indeed, some choose social transition without medical treatment, and it is useful to remember that the notion of gender dysphoria perpetuates the historical pathologisation of gender diversity. Challenging the current social construction of male–female will undoubtedly ease trans youths' lives, reducing the pressure of rigid definitions. But alongside these social aspects is a pressing need for medical care.

This is pure doublespeak. What is more pathologising of gender diversity than the medication of children who display it, to “fix” their bodies so that they match their expression?

It is precisely the opposition to the pathologisation of gender nonconformity that is at the heart of many progressive objections to the current treatment regime.

We would agree that encouraging children to express themselves however they like is the aim - but we argue that telling them that they need to somehow “correct” their bodies in order to do this is a regressive step. You cannot literally change sex, and telling young children that you can, or connecting such things to stereotypical dress and behaviour and ephemeral feelings is so bizarre that I am still staggered as to how prevalent such a conservative idea is among supposed “progressives”.

Indeed, the idea that you can literally change your sex in this way also means that you can literally change your sexuality. With the right treatment, apparently a gay child becomes the straight one they truly were all along. Can the author really not see how some gay and lesbian people might be appalled by such measures? Might see such interventions as conversion therapy?

This editorial is partisan and polarising. It relies on limited or questionable evidence, does not consider the full range of contradictory evidence, and focuses on a narrow - and false - political framing of a complex and wide-ranging issue. It does nothing more than provide superficial legitimacy and ammunition to a particular political stance, rather than any sort of informative or open assessment of the evidence or genuine criticism.

As such, it is no different to 99% of what is written on this subject, but I do feel that The Lancet ought to aspire to more.

#trans #trans kids #transgender #lancet

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