Let’s be real. This isn’t about protecting kids. It’s about forcing everyone to fit a mold. They banned care for trans people and kept the door open for surgeries on intersex babies,because those surgeries make the parents more comfortable, not the child. That’s not care. That’s control.
It is indeed horrific that life-altering, irreversible medical treatments are being given to children who cannot even understand what is being done to them.
And remember that surgeries that create a vagina require dilation over time to stick, meaning the parents have to sexually assault their preverbal child in order to achieve results.
This practice is fear of the witch right? Witch hunting
Witch marks, an extra nipple, dual or extra genitalia, inspection, condemnation, mutilation,
What’s next ducking stools, crushing by stones, burning at the stake?
These puritanical assholes sure carry their shit with them , barbaric intolerance is what it is.
500 years and they still don’t understand the concept of love, every child is sacred, if their own god created humankind in it’s own image then who are they to question the divinity of diversity.
They act like little gods, the medical profession too, conniving to control, perfect, eugenics is what this is
Why not just abandon them on the hillside for the wolves to eat like the Romans did?
Leave the fucking kids alone you sanctimonious mentally aberrant monsters.
I remember learning about this in college, and I remember thinking at the time how the only thing normal about “normalcy” is its need for enforcement through cruelty
Thank you for that, CD -- it's enlightening, and the story is horrific, but it's not surprising, considering the long and shameful history of medicine reinforcing societal prejudices. Before I could walk, a doctor advised my parents that my bow legs would affect me for the rest of my life, and gave them a contraption that was two shoes joined at the soles by a metal bar. They put it on me when they put me in the crib in the hopes it would straighten out my legs. Apparently it was quite uncomfortable, but I barely remember it. But my legs are still bowed to the point where my knees only touch if I cross my ankles, so it didn't do a damn thing to straighten them. It probably did weaken my ankles a lot, and might be responsible for my relatively high threshold of pain.
That's nothing compared to genital mutilation of course, and I don't mean to minimize that -- only to observe that causing pain to children for medically questionable reasons wasn't a controversial issue when I was a kid. I mean I was circumcised without anyone giving it a thought (including me, apparently, since it just occurred to me), as was routine at the time. And I'm pretty sure my folks would've had my left ear looped off if that had been the fashion at the time -- they wouldn't *dream* of second-guessing a doctor, and definitely not so one of their kids might be subject to ridicule. Horrors. The pressure of conformity is reinforced from us rabble to authority and then back the opposite way -- a standing wave of bad ideas and fear that leads to inhuman acts such as the ones Congress just made an exception for.
Thank you for this hard look at the motivations and personal impact of this vile bill.
When I was pregnant my OB was a young family medicine resident, and a devout Muslim. I, a confirmed atheist, was his first pregnancy charge and he we got along extremely well. I note this, because he was wonderfully open and informative as he walked me through possibilities and plans, one of which was how we'd handle an intersex child.
To me, it was important that my baby was healthy, and that my baby was given autonomy to grow and learn who they would be should sex be indeterminate at birth. Dr M had my back 100%. My child was born with an easily identifiable sex designation, and later learned she was trans. I have her back 100% and I'm confident devout Dr M, many years into his practice now, does too.
The kid and I are Marching with the ACLU at a Pride event in a couple of weeks, and we'll wave towards the west and send love and strength to you.
Also, nicely written. Don’t think this 56.5-yr.-old didn’t beam at the proper use of “whomever.” Have a white-knuckled grasp on my beloved “whom” and family—and comma and dashes—for remainder of time on this/any planet. Pfft.
I had forgotten that story. Very glad you told it. The evil and culpability of that conference presenter, blithely using a disgusting, indefensible action to justify infant and child mutilation, defies belief. And yet, like you, I fear the “for their own good because I’m freaked out looking at my kid now and imagining what their sex and/or repro life will entail” parental argument will prevail even among those who read your piece. Thus, like always, the true evil of a person who vowed to do no harm and yet gladly encourages it will be swept away.
Brava to you for writing through fury and grief and general fuck-those-motherfucking-godsdamned-wretched-excuses-for-humans-writing-and-voting-aye
I had read about surgeries performed on intersex infants, and the doctors asking the parents (I assume they were asked), if they wanted a boy or a girl.
I had never considered the impact on the child growing up, to my shame. Thank you, CD, for helping me rearrange my thinking about this.
You would think. You would think someone would point out that gender affirming care for cis people gets covered normally, because we already know that gender affirming care is important for people's happiness.
But they know. They'd be fine with giving trans people all the surgery they wanted to stay in their assigned genders. The problem isn't with gender affirming care, the problem is choosing for yourself instead of doing what society told you to do.
Let’s be real. This isn’t about protecting kids. It’s about forcing everyone to fit a mold. They banned care for trans people and kept the door open for surgeries on intersex babies,because those surgeries make the parents more comfortable, not the child. That’s not care. That’s control.
It is indeed horrific that life-altering, irreversible medical treatments are being given to children who cannot even understand what is being done to them.
Your trolling is noted.
And remember that surgeries that create a vagina require dilation over time to stick, meaning the parents have to sexually assault their preverbal child in order to achieve results.
This practice is fear of the witch right? Witch hunting
Witch marks, an extra nipple, dual or extra genitalia, inspection, condemnation, mutilation,
What’s next ducking stools, crushing by stones, burning at the stake?
These puritanical assholes sure carry their shit with them , barbaric intolerance is what it is.
500 years and they still don’t understand the concept of love, every child is sacred, if their own god created humankind in it’s own image then who are they to question the divinity of diversity.
They act like little gods, the medical profession too, conniving to control, perfect, eugenics is what this is
Why not just abandon them on the hillside for the wolves to eat like the Romans did?
Leave the fucking kids alone you sanctimonious mentally aberrant monsters.
(Sorry everyone, think this one gets to me a bit)
Oh, CD, that they're all in on mutilation in the name of normality is heartbreaking. Thanks for letting us know.
I thought this mutilation was all behind us years ago... like everything else these days, I was dead wrong.
Also, thank you so much for this.
I remember learning about this in college, and I remember thinking at the time how the only thing normal about “normalcy” is its need for enforcement through cruelty
Thank you for that, CD -- it's enlightening, and the story is horrific, but it's not surprising, considering the long and shameful history of medicine reinforcing societal prejudices. Before I could walk, a doctor advised my parents that my bow legs would affect me for the rest of my life, and gave them a contraption that was two shoes joined at the soles by a metal bar. They put it on me when they put me in the crib in the hopes it would straighten out my legs. Apparently it was quite uncomfortable, but I barely remember it. But my legs are still bowed to the point where my knees only touch if I cross my ankles, so it didn't do a damn thing to straighten them. It probably did weaken my ankles a lot, and might be responsible for my relatively high threshold of pain.
That's nothing compared to genital mutilation of course, and I don't mean to minimize that -- only to observe that causing pain to children for medically questionable reasons wasn't a controversial issue when I was a kid. I mean I was circumcised without anyone giving it a thought (including me, apparently, since it just occurred to me), as was routine at the time. And I'm pretty sure my folks would've had my left ear looped off if that had been the fashion at the time -- they wouldn't *dream* of second-guessing a doctor, and definitely not so one of their kids might be subject to ridicule. Horrors. The pressure of conformity is reinforced from us rabble to authority and then back the opposite way -- a standing wave of bad ideas and fear that leads to inhuman acts such as the ones Congress just made an exception for.
Extremely important article to read and just one more indication of why this unreconstructed party is dangerous to all the vulnerable in America.
Thank you for this hard look at the motivations and personal impact of this vile bill.
When I was pregnant my OB was a young family medicine resident, and a devout Muslim. I, a confirmed atheist, was his first pregnancy charge and he we got along extremely well. I note this, because he was wonderfully open and informative as he walked me through possibilities and plans, one of which was how we'd handle an intersex child.
To me, it was important that my baby was healthy, and that my baby was given autonomy to grow and learn who they would be should sex be indeterminate at birth. Dr M had my back 100%. My child was born with an easily identifiable sex designation, and later learned she was trans. I have her back 100% and I'm confident devout Dr M, many years into his practice now, does too.
The kid and I are Marching with the ACLU at a Pride event in a couple of weeks, and we'll wave towards the west and send love and strength to you.
We have your back too, 100%
Thank you for being you, and for sharing the story of good Dr. M.
Also, nicely written. Don’t think this 56.5-yr.-old didn’t beam at the proper use of “whomever.” Have a white-knuckled grasp on my beloved “whom” and family—and comma and dashes—for remainder of time on this/any planet. Pfft.
I had forgotten that story. Very glad you told it. The evil and culpability of that conference presenter, blithely using a disgusting, indefensible action to justify infant and child mutilation, defies belief. And yet, like you, I fear the “for their own good because I’m freaked out looking at my kid now and imagining what their sex and/or repro life will entail” parental argument will prevail even among those who read your piece. Thus, like always, the true evil of a person who vowed to do no harm and yet gladly encourages it will be swept away.
Brava to you for writing through fury and grief and general fuck-those-motherfucking-godsdamned-wretched-excuses-for-humans-writing-and-voting-aye
I had read about surgeries performed on intersex infants, and the doctors asking the parents (I assume they were asked), if they wanted a boy or a girl.
I had never considered the impact on the child growing up, to my shame. Thank you, CD, for helping me rearrange my thinking about this.
Doesn't Viagra count as gender affirming care? What about postmenopausal hormones? Somebody didn't think this through.
You would think. You would think someone would point out that gender affirming care for cis people gets covered normally, because we already know that gender affirming care is important for people's happiness.
But they know. They'd be fine with giving trans people all the surgery they wanted to stay in their assigned genders. The problem isn't with gender affirming care, the problem is choosing for yourself instead of doing what society told you to do.
Along with hair plugs, and plastic surgery to fix a receding chin.
Also hugs.