Links - 4th November 2019 (1) (Trans Mania)

Misunderstanding a New Kind of Gender Dysphoria - "After a 30-minute consultation with a physician’s assistant, Molly was given an appointment for the following week to begin testosterone injections. There was no exploration of her other physical and mental health issues, and whether these may have influenced her belief that she was trans. There was also no caution expressed about how hormone treatment might affect Crohn’s disease. Molly simply had to sign a consent form stating that she identified as male and understood the risks associated with testosterone.The PA (physician assistant) also suggested that Molly schedule top surgery – a double mastectomy – within a few months. When Claire stated that she and Jeff wanted time to do research and consider alternatives before allowing Molly to begin taking testosterone or have surgery, the PA told her that their job as parents now was to support and affirm their ‘son.’ In front of Molly, he told Claire she ought to get her own therapist to deal with her issues so that she could be a better support person to ‘Max.’ When Claire and Jeff expressed concerns about Molly’s anxiety and isolation, the PA stated that these were likely a result of Molly being transgender, and would resolve once she began to transition. Up until about ten years ago, gender dysphoria presenting for the first time in adolescence was virtually unknown in natal females... "It is a socially contagious phenomenon, reminiscent of the multiple personality disorder epidemic of the 1990s.”Although not much is known at this time about ROGD, it appears likely that it may be a kind of social contagion in which young people – often teen girls – come to believe that they are transgender. Preliminary research indicates that young people who identify as trans “out of the blue” may have been influenced by social media sites that valorize being trans. In addition, researchers have observed a pattern of clusters of friends coming out together... Bulimia was virtually unknown until the 1970s, when British psychologist Gerald Russell first described the condition in a medical journal... Scientists have been able to track bulimia’s transmission even into culturally remote enclaves following the introduction of Western media sources. It is estimated that bulimia has since affected 30 million people... The growing community of detransitioners – mostly young women in their 20s – suggests that loosening the standards for accessing medical transition hasn’t served everyone well... In spite of having transitioned, Max did not blossom into his “authentic self.” In fact, his mental health worsened. He was more anxious and isolated than ever and rarely left the house, spending most of his time online. He told his mother that he feared people would know he was trans and try to harm him were he to go out in public. When Claire tried to reassure him by offering to accompany him, Max often refused, expressing a lack of trust for Claire and her motives because, in Max’s words, Claire was a “transphobe.” “I feel as though my child has been taught to be paranoid about me”... "These people not only encouraged her to believe that she was trans, but also that she needed to transition medically or risk being unhappy and suicidal. And once she had transitioned, there was an online community encouraging her to believe that the world would hate her because she is trans. They have sealed her in a cave, and I fear there may be no way back.”"

As a Former Dean of Harvard Medical School, I Question Brown’s Failure to Defend Lisa Littman - "The fact that Brown University deleted its initial promotional reference to Dr Littman’s work from the university’s website—then replaced it with a note explaining how Dr Littman’s work might harm members of the transgender community—presents a cautionary tale.Increasingly, research on politically charged topics is subject to indiscriminate attack on social media, which in turn can pressure school administrators to subvert established norms regarding the protection of free academic inquiry. What’s needed is a campaign to mobilize the academic community to protect our ability to conduct and communicate such research, whether or not the methods and conclusions provoke controversy or even outrage... Many papers face questions after they have been published, which is well and proper: the systematic assessment and scrutiny of published work is a core method by which the scientific community corrects errors, and builds upon imperfect preliminary observations. There is a real problem with a lack of reproducibility of published science in many academic fields. Efforts to understand and respond to this problem are receiving justified attention. But that is not what has happened in regard to Dr Littman, whose critics have not performed any systematic analysis of her findings, but seem principally motivated by ideological opposition to her conclusions.Avenues for challenging an academic paper include letters to the editor, journal editorials, invited comments, and efforts by others to conduct research in the same area. Aside from this, critics may allege research misconduct in the form of plagiarism, fabrication or falsification. If an informed party credibly asserts one of these three claims in regard to a published article, it is the academic institution’s responsibility to investigate and reach a fair conclusion. The outcome of such inquiries sometimes requires that the paper in question be retracted, or in some way modified—though this typically follows confidential investigations that can take months or even years. Absent evidence of academic misconduct, an institutional inquiry of this sort rarely, if ever, occurs to address the validity of a faculty research paper, in my experience.There is no evidence for claims of misconduct in Dr Littman’s case... In all my years in academia, I have never once seen a comparable reaction from a journal within days of publishing a paper that the journal already had subjected to peer review, accepted and published. One can only assume that the response was in large measure due to the intense lobbying the journal received, and the threat—whether stated or unstated—that more social-media backlash would rain down upon PLOS One if action were not taken.There were also said to be unidentified voices within the Brown community who expressed “concerns” about the paper. But when Brown responded to these concerns by removing a promotional story about Dr Littman research from the Brown website, a backlash resulted, followed by a web petition expressing alarm at the school’s actions. The dean of the School of Public Health, Bess Marcus, eventually issued a public letter explaining why the removal of the article from news distribution was “the most responsible course of action.” In her letter, Dean Marcus cites fears that “conclusions of the study could be used to discredit the efforts to support transgender youth and invalidate perspectives of members of the transgender community” (my italics). Why the concerns of these unidentified individuals should be accorded weight in the evaluation of an academic work is left unexplained.The idea that unnamed parties might apply conclusions from a study such as to cause some vaguely defined harm to other third parties is a spurious basis for the university’s actions. Virtually any research finding related to human health may be used for unrelated and inappropriate purposes by independent actors. Indeed, this happens frequently in medical science, as when nutrition research is used to promote diets far beyond the validity of the underlying data. When this occurs, responsibility lies with those committing these acts, not the paper or its author... For centuries, universities struggled to protect the ability of their faculties to conduct research seen as offensive—whether by the church, the state, or other powerful influences"
On the attempt to censor the Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria study

U.S. parents accept children's transgender identity by age three - "Increasingly across the United States, doctors and parents of transgender children are embracing their identity as soon it starts becoming obvious, sometimes around age 3. Many say they are finding much greater chances of happiness and well-being when children are nurtured in their new gender identity at such a young age. Although there is not a consensus on the issue, some clinicians who work with transgender children have concluded that when children persistently identify as the nonconforming gender, the best course is to socially transition, or live as the other gender, even at age 3.Other specialists in the field advocate a more cautious approach because the long-term psychosexual results for young children can vary widely and unpredictably."

MoonQueen on Twitter - "Reminder that the WHO stating transgender isn't a mental disorder means doctors will no longer have to cover ANY therapy, surgeries, hormones, medication, etc dealing with it. So thanks. You've fucked us over.
"but that" No it IS how it works. The reason insurances covered our TREATMENTS is because it AIDED A MENTAL CONDITION. Now that it is no longer considered one insurances will see NO reason to cover it because "it does no harm because it doesnt' cause any mental conditions."
They'll just give anti depressants for depression stemming from it instead if ACTUAL treatment. People who scream that trans people aren't mentally ill have fucked us over. because dysphoria is a mental illness and now the WHO no longer recognizes it as such. Now we're screwed.
Cheaper insurances will 100% drop ALL support because it makes no sense to cover something that ISN'T even considered "unhealthy for the brain or body" it's the assumption that trans people do not NEED treatment which we freaking do.
So ALL these people celebrating this are gonna do a 180 when their insurance companies and doctors tell them they are no longer covered for surgeries, hormones, therapy costs, etc and have to pay out of pocket.
As somewho's genderfluid myself it ticks me off that a vocal minority of the community has dictated such a massive change that is going to 100% cost us everything unless we're rich or have really really good insurance who just dont' care."
You can't win
The World Health Organisation is transphobic?

Meme - "When You're a Man in a Woman's Bathroom and You Get Upset Because a Man Is in the Woman's Bathroom
Daniel Goes: 'So I Was in the Ladies Room in McDonald's Today When This Male Employee Just Comes in and Starts Cleaning. I Flushed to Toilet and He Still Didn't Leave. It Made Me Super Uncomfortable. Am I Over Reacting or Is That Messed Up. I Am a Transgender Female and Use the Ladies Room Where I Feel Safer and This Totally Defeats the Purpose"

Left Vows To Topple Patriarchy By Allowing Biological Males To Dominate Women's Sports | The Babylon Bee

‘Mentrification’: how men appropriated computers, beer and the Beatles - "a fan post on Tumblr from user @obstinatecondolement mourned the lack of acknowledgment given to women as the source of the series’ original popularity. They wanted to know when “Star Trek stopped being perceived as light, fluffy, not-really-legitimate sci-fi that ~housewives~ liked and started being seen as serious nerd business that girls had to keep their gross cooties off”?A reply repeated the question, but in regards to the Beatles. When did the group “start to be remembered as rock legends, rather than a silly boy band teenaged girls liked?” Another user answered: “when men decided they liked them”.With this, a new term was coined by @thelilithnoir: “Mentrification”. And as is the tradition when a single word arrives to describe something widely perceived and innately known yet not already explained, the original post went very, very viral.If “gentrification” describes the process by which one “improves” a place so it “conforms to middle-class taste”, mentrification achieves an equal status transformation by taking the history of female participation and achievement, and festooning its narrative with phalluses."
The ultimate mentrification is letting biological men appropriate femaleness itself

For Trans People, Gender-Swap Photo Filters Are No Mere Game - "Snapchat's new photo filter that allows users to change into a man or woman with the tap of a finger isn't necessarily fun and games for transgender people.Some say it reduces their very real and often painful experiences to folly.Thirty-one-year-old Bailey Coffman is a transgender woman from New York. She says that "my gender is not a costume." But some others see the potential for such tools to lead to self-discovery among people struggling with their gender identity."

Peeping Tom in China disguised as a woman is caught lurking in toilets - "A Peeping Tom has been arrested in China's Shandong province, after he was caught dressing up as a woman to sneak into the ladies' loos.But the culprit – only identified by his surname Zhang – seems to have some very unusual ideas when it comes to women's anatomy, as his outfit predominantly featured a pair of exceptionally large breasts... His outrageously garish outfit also included bright red tights, a mini-skirt, high-heels and thick make-up... this isn't Zhang's first time playing dress-up.Various snapshots of his large-bosomed get-up have been circulated online, as he patrolled the streets of Tengzhou city. The many different outfits suggest he has done it on many different occasions."

Brazil: Couple Stabs Nine-Year-Old Boy To Death After Makeshift Gender Reassignment Surgery - "The boy was stabbed to death as he slept after suffering for a year after a botched gender reassignment surgery.According to Brazil’s Child Protective Services, the boy had a“kind of a sex-change surgery. After removing the penis, they sewed the mutilated region and improvised a version of a female genital organ, making a cut in the groin”The surgery had apparently been performed with no medical supervision after Rhuan’s mother had decided to turn her son into a girl."

The Homework Postponement Project - ""yeah!!! fucking around with health insurance forms!!!!"
"I hate when people complain about “oh health forms are stupid they want my biological sex instead of my gender!!!!” or “they only have male or female!!!”There’s a reason for that, you dumb fucks, and they’re referring to biological sexDifferent health risks are present in different sexes, and whatever gender is in your head does not change the fact that if you were born female, you have a higher risk for certain cancers and osteoporosis, and if you were born male you have a higher risk for heart disease and often a shorter lifespan than a female.In other words, your biological sex is an important factor in health and health insurance, and your special snowflake status doesn’t change that."
"Doctors don’t give a flying fuck what you identify as. All they want to know is do you have two X chromosomes or an XY? Because cancer and lupus and certain medicines don’t give a flying fuck what pronouns you use. This is about your fucking LIFE. stop being angsty for TWELVE SECONDS because when you’re in an ambulance or going into cardiac arrest or whatever the situation may be, it’s ESSENTIAL that you get your head out of your ass long enough to tell them your BIOLOGICAL SEX that you were BORN WITH. It literally may save your life."
Actually since trans people have such medical problems, knowing that someone is "special" does provide you with useful medical information (as well as insurance data, e.g. to be strict with coverage since a lot of it may be frivolous)