Seems Trudeau and the liberals have squeaked out a minority government. The parliamentary system is just so fundamentally different from what is done in America that it is impossible to make any real comparisons. What I would like to see given the dissatisfaction of many Canadian posters here with his initial tenure is for him to use the second chance he has been given to restore some measure of the trust he lost.
Seems Trudeau and the liberals have squeaked out a minority government. The parliamentary system is just so fundamentally different from what is done in America that it is impossible to make any real comparisons. What I would like to see given the dissatisfaction of many Canadian posters here with his initial tenure is for him to use the second chance he has been given to restore some measure of the trust he lost.
He should just do the best he can. Then trust will come automatically. Don't set out to do a song and dance. Just do a good job. No theatrics. No tweets. And try and limit the goofiness sometimes it's a bit much.
Seems Trudeau and the liberals have squeaked out a minority government. The parliamentary system is just so fundamentally different from what is done in America that it is impossible to make any real comparisons. What I would like to see given the dissatisfaction of many Canadian posters here with his initial tenure is for him to use the second chance he has been given to restore some measure of the trust he lost.
The only problem I have with Trudeau is his outright turnaround on what he promised the Native Communities in Canada. He did absolutely nothing he promised, just smoke and mirrors.
The only outcome for Canada this Election was a Liberal minority and it happened, now Trudeau will be on a shorter leash but atleast the funding will continue to social services and education.
The Green Party made some noise and the NDP did what they do best, fuck it up. Instead of ridding the Legacy of Jack Layton they tried to go deep left and it failed.
The next Election in four years will land a PC government, Liberals hands are tied now and there won't be another pretty boy drama teacher to save them.
Seems Trudeau and the liberals have squeaked out a minority government. The parliamentary system is just so fundamentally different from what is done in America that it is impossible to make any real comparisons. What I would like to see given the dissatisfaction of many Canadian posters here with his initial tenure is for him to use the second chance he has been given to restore some measure of the trust he lost.
He should just do the best he can. Then trust will come automatically. Don't set out to do a song and dance. Just do a good job. No theatrics. No tweets. And try and limit the goofiness sometimes it's a bit much.
Unfortunately it's not him doing a job at all. He ran saying that because he is young he will have many advisors to guide him, that's how he received the trust of the Canadian people.
A clearly sensationalist viral story with a ridiculous premise (a mother chemically castrating her son for absolutely no reason) that makes transgender stuff seem dangerous and crazy? It shouldn't be the least bit surprising the father has a history of deception and fraud, or that the mother's biggest opponents are anti-LGBTQ groups who are using the campaign to promote legislation against trans folks.
For the record, medical stuff like hormone therapy already requires an extensive counseling period for children. Medical health professionals who specialize in gender dysphoria generally aren't keen to rush to judgment or immediately prescribe a non-reversible treatment. Hell, adults require a counseling period in many cases, and often doctors are even more strict than the law requires. I myself have a counselor appointment this Thursday, and I'm almost 30!
I'm MTF just like Luna (James) and my life would have been a lot easier if I could have started the transition 20 years ago.
A clearly sensationalist viral story with a ridiculous premise (a mother chemically castrating her son for absolutely no reason) that makes transgender stuff seem dangerous and crazy? It shouldn't be the least bit surprising the father has a history of deception and fraud, or that the mother's biggest opponents are anti-LGBTQ groups who are using the campaign to promote legislation against trans folks.
For the record, medical stuff like hormone therapy already requires an extensive counseling period for children. Medical health professionals who specialize in gender dysphoria generally aren't keen to rush to judgment or immediately prescribe a non-reversible treatment. Hell, adults require a counseling period in many cases, and often doctors are even more strict than the law requires. I myself have a counselor appointment this Thursday, and I'm almost 30!
I'm MTF just like Luna (James) and my life would have been a lot easier if I could have started the transition 20 years ago.
There seems to be this belief on the fringes (well, let's hope it's the fringes, I have my doubts) of the right that left-wing parents all over the country are forcing their children to become gay or transgender against their will, to the point of what this story alleges and also that mothers are giving birth in hospitals, then having closed door meetings with doctors AFTER the birth and then deciding they are going to kill the child. In both cases, you basically have to believe that your average physician is Josef Mengele. Doctors aren't perfect by any means, but are we really operating under the assumption that most of them are flat-out monsters and that they have no medical or ethical standards whatsoever?? I mean, we are getting to a point here where I'm convinced phrenology is going to make a comeback as a serious point of view.
The problem is that people who believe that kind of thing lack knowledge and education. They can't and won't differentiate between science and something that someone saw in a video on Facebook.
I've had discussions with people who ignore verifiable facts in favor of personal opinions, and it's useless. They are immune to information, because they think everyone is entitled to their opinion, even if it's not supported by facts or goes against all evidence.
And yes, we doctors have no conscience, we only work for profit and experiment on unknowing subjects. And we eat babies for breakfast.
A clearly sensationalist viral story with a ridiculous premise (a mother chemically castrating her son for absolutely no reason) that makes transgender stuff seem dangerous and crazy? It shouldn't be the least bit surprising the father has a history of deception and fraud, or that the mother's biggest opponents are anti-LGBTQ groups who are using the campaign to promote legislation against trans folks..
What anti trans legislation this anti LGBTQ organizations are trying to get approved? I don't know any.
Anyway, sex exchange for children is not something that i can argue in favor. Vasectomy is restricted in my country to people over 25 years old but sex exchange is not only free but available """free""" to anyone above 18 yo(aka after a long waiting period paid via taxes) and people are demanding a reduction to 12 yo.
The problem is that people who believe that kind of thing lack knowledge and education. They can't and won't differentiate between science and something that someone saw in a video on Facebook.
I've had discussions with people who ignore verifiable facts in favor of personal opinions, and it's useless. They are immune to information, because they think everyone is entitled to their opinion, even if it's not supported by facts or goes against all evidence.
And yes, we doctors have no conscience, we only work for profit and experiment on unknowing subjects. And we eat babies for breakfast.
Did you know about Devid Reimer? He was a victim of a inhuman experiment.
People are still trying to get rid of the marriage rights that people fought to get for decades.
Who? I don't know any conservative who wanna ban gay marriage. If you take gay marriage off, you will have a judicial chaos since how heritage rights and other things will work with actual couples?
People are still trying to get rid of the marriage rights that people fought to get for decades.
Who? I don't know any conservative who wanna ban gay marriage. If you take gay marriage off, you will have a judicial chaos since how heritage rights and other things will work with actual couples?
As recently as 2004, anti-gay sentiment was still ascendant in the US. In fact, it is the only reason George W. Bush got reelected. His push to write gay discrimination in regards to marriage into the Constitution itself is without question what drove evangelical conservatives out to vote for him to provide well over his margin of victory in Ohio. He gave a prime-time address in favor of specifically barring a certain group of people from being able to do something everyone else could. Not just in a one-off law, but basically chiseled in stone for all-time, since amending the Constitution takes a political act of god. The religious right lost this battle within 6 years, and lost it badly, but they have not ceded the battlefield. And the new field of play is purposefully trying to make the lives of the transgender community as difficult as possible, from the loss of protections in school to an attempted ban on military service. They view them as the most vulnerable and easy to scapegoat target.
People are still trying to get rid of the marriage rights that people fought to get for decades.
Who? I don't know any conservative who wanna ban gay marriage. If you take gay marriage off, you will have a judicial chaos since how heritage rights and other things will work with actual couples?
As recently as 2004, anti-gay sentiment was still ascendant in the US. In fact, it is the only reason George W. Bush got reelected. His push to write gay discrimination in regards to marriage into the Constitution itself is without question what drove evangelical conservatives out to vote for him to provide well over his margin of victory in Ohio. He gave a prime-time address in favor of specifically barring a certain group of people from being able to do something everyone else could. Not just in a one-off law, but basically chiseled in stone for all-time, since amending the Constitution takes a political act of god. The religious right lost this battle within 6 years, and lost it badly, but they have not ceded the battlefield. And the new field of play is purposefully trying to make the lives of the transgender community as difficult as possible, from the loss of protections in school to an attempted ban on military service. They view them as the most vulnerable and easy to scapegoat target.
Anti gay sentiment is not a problem on US. Is a problem in few countries like Russia for eg, but lets be honest. What evangelicals fear is be legally forced to do gay marriages.
I will make a analogy with a "poly amorous relationship". IS a sin according to Christians;
I Wanna date a lot of girls/guys - Fine as longs everybody is concenting
I wanna have a poligamy marriage regognized by the state - Well, we can discuss the legal implications of it
I wanna use the state to force churches to realize polygamous marriages and trhow in jail everyone who says that i an a sinner - Obvious not ok.
I am going to procrastinate for an hour and share some highlights and thoughts of the Canadian Election, which as I predicted came out a Liberal Minority government.
The Conservatives won the popular vote, with 34.4%, gained the most seats with 26 but couldn't break through in Ontario, where the Federal Tories were being compared to the Ford leading provincial Conservatives. Hopefully the party does not implode on Sheer. I think having another Conservative leaders debate would backfire for the next election. They just need to separate themselves from the trainwreck that is Ontario politics much like the Liberals have accomplished.
The Block Quebecois made a startling comeback. In 2011, the Bloc, a Quebec separatist movement, had a pitiful 4 seats after an Orange wave led by Jack Layton swept them aside. In 2008 they had 49 seats. That was suppose to signal the demise of Separatist movement. This election, they are back up to 32 which is dangerous in a minority government.
Both the Liberals and NDP lost seats, 20 and 15 respectively, yet their combined agenda is going to dictate the coming government session, as Trudeau can't be seen snuggling up to separatist. I don't think either party learnt anything about this election and will continue with the status quo. This is just going to isolate Quebec more, and it wouldn't surprise me if the Bloc, in the next election goes back to mid 50s they were getting in the early Aughts. It's also going to isolate the Prairies where separatism talk is also heating up (but not being taken seriously).
Hopefully, the new right-wing party, People's Party of Canada is dead. They secured 1.6% of the total popular vote and didn't win a single seat including their leaders Maxime Bernier's seat staying conservative. Good riddance.
Jody Wilson-Raybould won her seat as an Independent, sticking it to Trudeau a little bit more. I am glad she is still in parliament as I have much respect for her. Although as an independent, she won't have nearly as much sway as she did when she was in the Liberal caucus. It's up to her to show why she is different than liberal candidate before the next election, or she might be swept aside by voters then.
Jane Philpot, the Liberal MP who was ousted by the Liberal caucus with JWR unfortunately lost her seat. The combined votes of the conservative candidate (19,570) and Philpott's (13,216) was more than the Liberal winner (24,743). It's hard to judge where her votes would have landed if she had not run. It's a shame that enough people of Markham-Stouffville turned a blind eye to vote the Liberals back in, but that's the entire Toronto region for you.
In most ridings, you're vote sometimes doesn't count for much. Take my riding where the incumbent Liberal trounced the rest of the candidates, receiving more votes than the 7 other candidates combined. But then you look at place like Fredericton, NB where the Green Party Candidate won by 791 votes over the Conservatives and 2,577 over the Liberal Candidate. How close is that? Well each of the garbage parties (everyone else except the NDP) combined for 1243 votes. Those votes mattered, but congrats to Jenica Atwin for securing one of the 3 Green seats.
There's also Kitchener-Conestoga, where the Liberals won 20,106 to 19,833 over the Conservatives. That's a 273 vote difference. The People's Party of Canada votes in that riding: 783. You stupid throwaways.
I honestly thought the Green and NDP would be splitting more votes, but I really can't find any. The closest might be West Vancouver, where the two combined equal more than the winning liberal, but they also came in 3 & 4th behind the conservatives in that riding as well. I think the Green Party needs to replace Elizabeth May as leader as she doesn't seem to be breaking through to Canadians enough to bring her party to respectability. But who is the biggest question.
[*}That's it for now. Back to Trump's impeachment discussion.
Anyway, sex exchange for children is not something that i can argue in favor.
It is child abuse. Period. It amazes me that it is not illegal in all states yet. You are altering the course of a young childs life in very serious and potentially very risky manner, well before they have the brain structure necessary to be making these sorts of long term decisions yet. Not to mention we have zero information on the effects 10, 20, 30 years from now.
You're basically turning your kid into a human lab rat because of some weird political fad you got into a few years ago.
I assume by the context you meant sex change, by the way.
Puberty blockers are reversible. It's only SRS and parts of HRT that are irreversible, and those are simply not done on children. Doctors aren't prescribing medication based on fads, and non-doctors can't prescribe anything. Dysphoria is a potentially crippling condition that has only one successful treatment, and that is transitioning.
This kid is apparently getting puberty blockers to buy time to figure things out. I and countless other trans folks would have been a lot better off if we had counseling and therapy to process things before puberty screwed stuff up. Puberty is irreversible, too, and the results are very painful for trans people.
A lot folks want to dismiss this as some sort of fad, but there's a reason we transition, and we don't just rush into these things without thinking. I would figuratively kill to have had this kind of opportunity, and I am most definitely not the only one.
That's the thing. The people who actually want to transition suffer when they can't, and the notion that kids are being forced, or even allowed, to go through dangerous and unknown treatments by medical professionals is simply not true. We shouldn't let an imaginary problem hold us back from solving a real one.
Around 1% of the entire population suffers from gender dysphoria, and it can be crippling. We should be treating it, and the right time to explore options is early in puberty, before the damage is done.
The serious stuff like HRT and especially SRS should be out of reach for minors without a long and consistent counseling history or very severe dysphoria, but counseling is important and blockers are valuable for kids who suffer from dysphoria. If I had gotten androgen blockers or HRT by my mid-teens, I'd have been golden.
No parent tries to make this happen. No parent wants this to happen. These feelings come from the kids themselves.
"Puberty blockers are reversible. It's only SRS and parts of HRT that are irreversible, and those are simply not done on children. Doctors aren't prescribing medication based on fads, and non-doctors can't prescribe anything. Dysphoria is a potentially crippling condition that has only one successful treatment, and that is transitioning."
You can get HRT at 16, still a child, still not a fully formed brain capable of long term decision making. And they want to lower the age range. Not only is this not morally acceptable, the trend now is to make it worse.
"This kid is apparently getting puberty blockers to buy time to figure things out. I and countless other trans folks would have been a lot better off if we had counseling and therapy to process things before puberty screwed stuff up. Puberty is irreversible, too, and the results are very painful for trans people."
I feel like this requires proof. Are kids having higher suicide or depression rates by not transitioning earlier? Given the staggering numbers of trans suicides, that would be a truly massively high rate.
It's an important question, so I don't think we should be making reckless and irresponsible claims of it being an improvement for them, if nothing at all suggests this to be the case. That will lead the into danger with the promise of it being safety.
I did a little digging and found a study that states the opposite, although this is a little researched topic at the moment.
Which feeds into my point. This is unknown territory that we are throwing little kids into with no guidance and a lot of misinformation, and a lot of dead. To call it anything other than a moral abomination is a disgrace.
"Persons with transsexualism, after sex reassignment, have considerably higher risks for mortality, suicidal behaviour, and psychiatric morbidity than the general population. Our findings suggest that sex reassignment, although alleviating gender dysphoria, may not suffice as treatment for transsexualism, and should inspire improved psychiatric and somatic care after sex reassignment for this patient group."
It's also worth noting that there is reason to doubt the supporting research for it as it is, at least according to this source. They went over quite a bit of research to arrive at that conclusion.
"Guardian Weekend asked Birmingham University's Aggressive Research Intelligence Facility (Arif) to assess the findings of more than 100 follow-up studies of post-operative transsexuals. Arif, which conducts reviews of healthcare treatments for the NHS, concludes that none of the studies provides conclusive evidence that gender reassignment is beneficial for patients. It found that most research was poorly designed, which skewed the results in favour of physically changing sex. There was no evaluation of whether other treatments, such as long-term counselling, might help transsexuals, or whether their gender confusion might lessen over time."
And the government itself has stated the evidence for the procedure is lacking. If you don't know the ramifications, you are endangering kids. Full stop.
"Based on a thorough review of the clinical evidence available at this time, there is not enough evidence to determine whether gender reassignment surgery improves health outcomes for Medicare beneficiaries with gender dysphoria. There were conflicting (inconsistent) study results—of the best designed studies, some reported benefits while others reported harms. The quality and strength of evidence were low due to the mostly observational study designs with no comparison groups, potential confounding, and small sample sizes. Many studies that reported positive outcomes were exploratory type studies (case-series and case-control) with no confirmatory follow-up."
"to go through dangerous and unknown treatments by medical professionals is simply not true. "
Based on what? Is it not dangerous? There is reason to think it is. Are the ramifications well studied? They most certainly are not.
The best you can say is, you are subjecting children to an procedure of virtually unknown long term effect, but it might end up alright.
I'm at work, so if I missed an important point, lmk.
@WarChiefZeke Shot in the dark here, but I suspect that the high trans suicide rate (41% IIRC) probably has more to do with how they are treated by the people around them, than regret over correcting their dysphoria.
I am going to procrastinate for an hour and share some highlights and thoughts of the Canadian Election, which as I predicted came out a Liberal Minority government.
The Conservatives won the popular vote, with 34.4%, gained the most seats with 26 but couldn't break through in Ontario, where the Federal Tories were being compared to the Ford leading provincial Conservatives. Hopefully the party does not implode on Sheer. I think having another Conservative leaders debate would backfire for the next election. They just need to separate themselves from the trainwreck that is Ontario politics much like the Liberals have accomplished.
The Block Quebecois made a startling comeback. In 2011, the Bloc, a Quebec separatist movement, had a pitiful 4 seats after an Orange wave led by Jack Layton swept them aside. In 2008 they had 49 seats. That was suppose to signal the demise of Separatist movement. This election, they are back up to 32 which is dangerous in a minority government.
Both the Liberals and NDP lost seats, 20 and 15 respectively, yet their combined agenda is going to dictate the coming government session, as Trudeau can't be seen snuggling up to separatist. I don't think either party learnt anything about this election and will continue with the status quo. This is just going to isolate Quebec more, and it wouldn't surprise me if the Bloc, in the next election goes back to mid 50s they were getting in the early Aughts. It's also going to isolate the Prairies where separatism talk is also heating up (but not being taken seriously).
Hopefully, the new right-wing party, People's Party of Canada is dead. They secured 1.6% of the total popular vote and didn't win a single seat including their leaders Maxime Bernier's seat staying conservative. Good riddance.
Jody Wilson-Raybould won her seat as an Independent, sticking it to Trudeau a little bit more. I am glad she is still in parliament as I have much respect for her. Although as an independent, she won't have nearly as much sway as she did when she was in the Liberal caucus. It's up to her to show why she is different than liberal candidate before the next election, or she might be swept aside by voters then.
Jane Philpot, the Liberal MP who was ousted by the Liberal caucus with JWR unfortunately lost her seat. The combined votes of the conservative candidate (19,570) and Philpott's (13,216) was more than the Liberal winner (24,743). It's hard to judge where her votes would have landed if she had not run. It's a shame that enough people of Markham-Stouffville turned a blind eye to vote the Liberals back in, but that's the entire Toronto region for you.
In most ridings, you're vote sometimes doesn't count for much. Take my riding where the incumbent Liberal trounced the rest of the candidates, receiving more votes than the 7 other candidates combined. But then you look at place like Fredericton, NB where the Green Party Candidate won by 791 votes over the Conservatives and 2,577 over the Liberal Candidate. How close is that? Well each of the garbage parties (everyone else except the NDP) combined for 1243 votes. Those votes mattered, but congrats to Jenica Atwin for securing one of the 3 Green seats.
There's also Kitchener-Conestoga, where the Liberals won 20,106 to 19,833 over the Conservatives. That's a 273 vote difference. The People's Party of Canada votes in that riding: 783. You stupid throwaways.
I honestly thought the Green and NDP would be splitting more votes, but I really can't find any. The closest might be West Vancouver, where the two combined equal more than the winning liberal, but they also came in 3 & 4th behind the conservatives in that riding as well. I think the Green Party needs to replace Elizabeth May as leader as she doesn't seem to be breaking through to Canadians enough to bring her party to respectability. But who is the biggest question.
[*}That's it for now. Back to Trump's impeachment discussion.
* Halifax (my riding) went Liberal, with the NDP and Green Party finishing second and third respectively. The combined total of their votes would have been enough to overtake the Liberals in that riding. Up until the last election, the riding had been going orange (which, full disclosure, I voted for) for the past twenty years, so this result is a bit disheartening.
* The conservatives inability to truly break out beyond their regional base of the Prairies probably tanked their chances of earning a plurality of seats in the Commons, let alone an absolute majority. The fact that Andrew Scheer wasn't entirely forthcoming about his background as an insurance broker and, more importantly, his woeful performance in the debates didn't help their cause, either.
That said, under proportional representation, they still would have earned the plurality of seats, though the LIberals would still have had the first crack at forming government either way. In a sense, that's fitting, because the conservative vote was less that 35 percent, while the center and left parties totaled 60 percent between the four of them. Typically that's the way the vote has split among the major parties in recent elections, but Conservatives have formed government on multiple occasions anyway.
* The Greens made some inroads and increased their seat total slightly, but not to the extent where we might question if Elizabeth May might need to be replaced. The NDP lost seats, mostly due to the Bloc's resurgence in PQ. Still, they managed to avoid the wholesale slaughter that was predicted for them when the election was called, and hold the balance of power. Jagmeet Singh performed well in this campaign, and if he can steer the government to a more progressive platform in the 43rd Parliament, he may well be able to build upon the base that remains.
@WarChiefZeke Shot in the dark here, but I suspect that the high trans suicide rate (41% IIRC) probably has more to do with how they are treated by the people around them, than regret over correcting their dysphoria.
I have no doubt in my mind that it plays an important factor in a great many cases, but the rate is just too high for it to be the whole story. There has to be more to it. In my view anyway.
@WarChiefZeke: I think I better understand your concerns now--but you do need to understand that medical treatments for gender dysphoria involve multiple different things, and that the trans community and its allies have very different feelings about those different treatments.
What you're talking about is SRS--sex reassignment surgery, also called "bottom surgery," in which a doctor performs plastic surgery on the patient's genitals to better match their preferred gender. Suicide rates are indeed high after this, though I will point out a possible sampling issue: the people who seek out SRS are going to be the people with the absolute most severe dysphoria, the kind of people who are mostly likely to commit suicide in general. Dysphoria is very much a spectrum, and lower-end dysphoria folks like me are both (1) much less likely to commit suicide and (2) much less likely to want SRS.
Regardless of that sampling issue, however, even the transgender community advocates great caution when it comes to SRS. Among trans folks and their allies, SRS is very much NOT recommended for the vast majority of trans people. We don't even encourage adults to undertake it, much less teenagers. SRS is a very incomplete process on top of being dangerous and expensive and irreversible.
Go to any of the trans subreddits and ask if the locals want teenagers to have easy access to SRS, and you should get a very loud "hell no."
"Top surgery" is a less destructive form of surgery which just involves modifying the chest. FFS, facial feminization surgery, involves modifying the jaw. Those are less invasive and the results are more accurate, but it's still not something trans folks would want teenagers to do.
The most common medical treatment, from what I can tell, is hormone replacement therapy, HRT. That's the recommended step for adults, and even then, people in the trans community give lots of warnings to anyone who's considering it. HRT means taking pills or weekly injections. Much of HRT is reversible, especially if it's canceled early on, but it's still not something you would recommend to a teenager--you would still reserve it for very clear and well-established cases of dysphoria, when there's very little chance of someone changing their mind about their identity.
Most trans folks don't stop being trans, even those who make the realization as teenagers. Things are different for those who make the decision before the onset of puberty, but a trans identity formed in the teenage years or later doesn't shake easily.
Adult trans people tend to be impatient to get on HRT, but that's because so many of us have already spent so much time in the closet and we've had plenty of time to figure stuff out. For teenagers, we'd still recommend years of counseling and consideration before starting HRT.
I'm anxious to get on HRT because I'm 15 years overdue, but I'm still going through the counseling process to make sure I'm not missing any key facotrs. I might do FFS in the future, but I don't want top surgery, and I would flee the country before I'd let anyone perform bottom surgery, SRS, on me. My plans are pretty standard.
The trans community is smart enough to know the dangers and drawbacks. We used to be transgender teenagers ourselves! And while naturally there's disagreement about particulars, the bulk of the community is not radical about these things.
1. We don't want teenagers to get sex reassignment surgery. We're even skeptical of adults getting SRS.
2. We don't want teenagers to get HRT unless a counseling process has confirmed a clear need. Even adults need some time to consider the ramifications.
3. We do want politicians to stay out of the way. God knows we have too many transphobic politicians who would gleefully ban all forms of transition for everyone if they had the power. We already have tons of gatekeepers and controls, and if we pile on more, we're going to see trans people seek out black market alternatives.
4. Ultimately, we want these decisions to be made by trans people and the medical health professionals who advise them.
0,00005% of guns owner commit murder = ban all guns (ignore all possible consequences of a gun ban)
100% of human experiments involving gender ideology resulted in a tragic outcome(Devid Reimer) = No problem.
Do experiments on animals = Abominable
Do experiments on children = Acceptable
Seriously. Sex exchange for children sounds like a Mengele experiment...
@WarChiefZeke Shot in the dark here, but I suspect that the high trans suicide rate (41% IIRC) probably has more to do with how they are treated by the people around them, than regret over correcting their dysphoria.
That's actually very perceptive of you. Transphobia is easily the worst of our troubles.
The other day a teenage transgender girl on Reddit was saying her farewells and preparing to commit suicide. I and the other redditors urged her not to go through with it and assured her there were good times ahead, that being transgender was not all darkness and that it could be a source of profound joy, but she was not convinced. She was too tired, and she went through with it.
I got a DM from her the next morning saying that the police had found her in time. She made it. And I hope that she stays strong, because she deserves to live out her life in the better world that's slowly coming.
Why did she try to kill herself?
She was sick of people treating her like shit for being transgender.
She didn't give any other reasons. That was the one reason she tried to commit suicide. She's not the only one to feel it that way, and not everyone survives.
God only knows how many people transphobia has killed.
Ambassador Bill Taylor drove a stake through the heart of the "no quid pro quo" defense today. Actually, it would be more accurate to say he drove a stake through it's heart, chopped it's head off, stuffed garlic in it's mouth, burned the body, then submerged the remaining ashes in holy water:
Key word here is "public". If Trump cared about corruption, there would have been no demand to ANNOUNCE an investigation. That one was taking place would have sufficed. But the explicit demand was for it to be announced, which is a iron-clad certain tell that the only thing being sought was negative domestic media coverage of Joe Biden. Arguing these facts at this point would require a professional contortionist.
@semiticgod In kind of an amazing coincidence, I learned a tiny bit of a peek of what trans people go through about a week ago. There was a bit of an uproar over a Steam game going on sale for 41% off. Which I learned was the trans suicide rate. I thought it was just an unfortunate coincidence, but the significant other of a dev went on an anti trans rant on Twitter a few days before. Which I thought was weird, the game was made LGBT devs and there's LGBT stuff all over it. But apparently there's a significant portion of the LGBT community that HATES that "T" part.
@ThacoBell: I'm not sure how large it is, of course, but there are folks in the queer community that don't want trans people to be a part of it, just like there are folks who think bisexual people shouldn't be included ("make up your mind! pick women or pick men, one or the other!"). There's actually a term for some people like that: TERF, or "trans-exclusionary radical feminist," a pun on the word "turf." It's a unique type of liberal transphobe (or cis-sexist, the word for a less serious type of transphobe) that doesn't think trans women count as women, feminism isn't meant for trans women, and that we should be treated as men. It's just another brand of intolerance using a popular ideology as a shield. Some people shield themselves with a fake brand of Christianity; some people shield themselves with a fake brand of feminism.
The national discourse is a bit more than just trans-friendly and transphobic. Within the queer community, there are lots of debates about what transgender means, what the different types are, and whether X counts as Y, or is actually just a variant of Z. Most of us, myself, prefer to err on the side of inclusion.
If it's raining outside, it's good to have a wide umbrella.
@ThacoBell: I'm not sure how large it is, of course, but there are folks in the queer community that don't want trans people to be a part of it, just like there are folks who think bisexual people shouldn't be included ("make up your mind! pick women or pick men, one or the other!"). There's actually a term for some people like that: TERF, or "trans-exclusionary radical feminist," a pun on the word "turf." It's a unique type of liberal transphobe (or cis-sexist, the word for a less serious type of transphobe) that doesn't think trans women count as women, feminism isn't meant for trans women, and that we should be treated as men. It's just another brand of intolerance using a popular ideology as a shield. Some people shield themselves with a fake brand of Christianity; some people shield themselves with a fake brand of feminism.
The national discourse is a bit more than just trans-friendly and transphobic. Within the queer community, there are lots of debates about what transgender means, what the different types are, and whether X counts as Y, or is actually just a variant of Z. Most of us, myself, prefer to err on the side of inclusion.
If it's raining outside, it's good to have a wide umbrella.
There are many folks, especially the religious types, that think bisexuals are just hyper-sexual people with little to no self-control. It kind of makes sense from a logical viewpoint too. Do you have any insights into this?
Comments
He should just do the best he can. Then trust will come automatically. Don't set out to do a song and dance. Just do a good job. No theatrics. No tweets. And try and limit the goofiness sometimes it's a bit much.
The only problem I have with Trudeau is his outright turnaround on what he promised the Native Communities in Canada. He did absolutely nothing he promised, just smoke and mirrors.
The only outcome for Canada this Election was a Liberal minority and it happened, now Trudeau will be on a shorter leash but atleast the funding will continue to social services and education.
The Green Party made some noise and the NDP did what they do best, fuck it up. Instead of ridding the Legacy of Jack Layton they tried to go deep left and it failed.
The next Election in four years will land a PC government, Liberals hands are tied now and there won't be another pretty boy drama teacher to save them.
Unfortunately it's not him doing a job at all. He ran saying that because he is young he will have many advisors to guide him, that's how he received the trust of the Canadian people.
Anyone knows if this is truth?
There's some info here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Scams/comments/aisoto/savejamescom_and_the_save_james_movement_are_a/
https://www.quora.com/How-much-truth-is-there-in-the-Save-James-case
Looks like the case is nearly a year old. Snopes doesn't have anything yet, you might try asking there.
For the record, medical stuff like hormone therapy already requires an extensive counseling period for children. Medical health professionals who specialize in gender dysphoria generally aren't keen to rush to judgment or immediately prescribe a non-reversible treatment. Hell, adults require a counseling period in many cases, and often doctors are even more strict than the law requires. I myself have a counselor appointment this Thursday, and I'm almost 30!
I'm MTF just like Luna (James) and my life would have been a lot easier if I could have started the transition 20 years ago.
There seems to be this belief on the fringes (well, let's hope it's the fringes, I have my doubts) of the right that left-wing parents all over the country are forcing their children to become gay or transgender against their will, to the point of what this story alleges and also that mothers are giving birth in hospitals, then having closed door meetings with doctors AFTER the birth and then deciding they are going to kill the child. In both cases, you basically have to believe that your average physician is Josef Mengele. Doctors aren't perfect by any means, but are we really operating under the assumption that most of them are flat-out monsters and that they have no medical or ethical standards whatsoever?? I mean, we are getting to a point here where I'm convinced phrenology is going to make a comeback as a serious point of view.
I've had discussions with people who ignore verifiable facts in favor of personal opinions, and it's useless. They are immune to information, because they think everyone is entitled to their opinion, even if it's not supported by facts or goes against all evidence.
And yes, we doctors have no conscience, we only work for profit and experiment on unknowing subjects. And we eat babies for breakfast.
What anti trans legislation this anti LGBTQ organizations are trying to get approved? I don't know any.
Anyway, sex exchange for children is not something that i can argue in favor. Vasectomy is restricted in my country to people over 25 years old but sex exchange is not only free but available """free""" to anyone above 18 yo(aka after a long waiting period paid via taxes) and people are demanding a reduction to 12 yo.
Did you know about Devid Reimer? He was a victim of a inhuman experiment.
People are still trying to get rid of the marriage rights that people fought to get for decades.
Who? I don't know any conservative who wanna ban gay marriage. If you take gay marriage off, you will have a judicial chaos since how heritage rights and other things will work with actual couples?
As recently as 2004, anti-gay sentiment was still ascendant in the US. In fact, it is the only reason George W. Bush got reelected. His push to write gay discrimination in regards to marriage into the Constitution itself is without question what drove evangelical conservatives out to vote for him to provide well over his margin of victory in Ohio. He gave a prime-time address in favor of specifically barring a certain group of people from being able to do something everyone else could. Not just in a one-off law, but basically chiseled in stone for all-time, since amending the Constitution takes a political act of god. The religious right lost this battle within 6 years, and lost it badly, but they have not ceded the battlefield. And the new field of play is purposefully trying to make the lives of the transgender community as difficult as possible, from the loss of protections in school to an attempted ban on military service. They view them as the most vulnerable and easy to scapegoat target.
Anti gay sentiment is not a problem on US. Is a problem in few countries like Russia for eg, but lets be honest. What evangelicals fear is be legally forced to do gay marriages.
I will make a analogy with a "poly amorous relationship". IS a sin according to Christians;
I Wanna date a lot of girls/guys - Fine as longs everybody is concenting
I wanna have a poligamy marriage regognized by the state - Well, we can discuss the legal implications of it
I wanna use the state to force churches to realize polygamous marriages and trhow in jail everyone who says that i an a sinner - Obvious not ok.
An interesting video from Ted Cruz.
I am going to procrastinate for an hour and share some highlights and thoughts of the Canadian Election, which as I predicted came out a Liberal Minority government.
[*}That's it for now. Back to Trump's impeachment discussion.
It is child abuse. Period. It amazes me that it is not illegal in all states yet. You are altering the course of a young childs life in very serious and potentially very risky manner, well before they have the brain structure necessary to be making these sorts of long term decisions yet. Not to mention we have zero information on the effects 10, 20, 30 years from now.
You're basically turning your kid into a human lab rat because of some weird political fad you got into a few years ago.
I assume by the context you meant sex change, by the way.
This kid is apparently getting puberty blockers to buy time to figure things out. I and countless other trans folks would have been a lot better off if we had counseling and therapy to process things before puberty screwed stuff up. Puberty is irreversible, too, and the results are very painful for trans people.
A lot folks want to dismiss this as some sort of fad, but there's a reason we transition, and we don't just rush into these things without thinking. I would figuratively kill to have had this kind of opportunity, and I am most definitely not the only one.
That's the thing. The people who actually want to transition suffer when they can't, and the notion that kids are being forced, or even allowed, to go through dangerous and unknown treatments by medical professionals is simply not true. We shouldn't let an imaginary problem hold us back from solving a real one.
Around 1% of the entire population suffers from gender dysphoria, and it can be crippling. We should be treating it, and the right time to explore options is early in puberty, before the damage is done.
The serious stuff like HRT and especially SRS should be out of reach for minors without a long and consistent counseling history or very severe dysphoria, but counseling is important and blockers are valuable for kids who suffer from dysphoria. If I had gotten androgen blockers or HRT by my mid-teens, I'd have been golden.
No parent tries to make this happen. No parent wants this to happen. These feelings come from the kids themselves.
"Puberty blockers are reversible. It's only SRS and parts of HRT that are irreversible, and those are simply not done on children. Doctors aren't prescribing medication based on fads, and non-doctors can't prescribe anything. Dysphoria is a potentially crippling condition that has only one successful treatment, and that is transitioning."
You can get HRT at 16, still a child, still not a fully formed brain capable of long term decision making. And they want to lower the age range. Not only is this not morally acceptable, the trend now is to make it worse.
"This kid is apparently getting puberty blockers to buy time to figure things out. I and countless other trans folks would have been a lot better off if we had counseling and therapy to process things before puberty screwed stuff up. Puberty is irreversible, too, and the results are very painful for trans people."
I feel like this requires proof. Are kids having higher suicide or depression rates by not transitioning earlier? Given the staggering numbers of trans suicides, that would be a truly massively high rate.
It's an important question, so I don't think we should be making reckless and irresponsible claims of it being an improvement for them, if nothing at all suggests this to be the case. That will lead the into danger with the promise of it being safety.
I did a little digging and found a study that states the opposite, although this is a little researched topic at the moment.
Which feeds into my point. This is unknown territory that we are throwing little kids into with no guidance and a lot of misinformation, and a lot of dead. To call it anything other than a moral abomination is a disgrace.
"Persons with transsexualism, after sex reassignment, have considerably higher risks for mortality, suicidal behaviour, and psychiatric morbidity than the general population. Our findings suggest that sex reassignment, although alleviating gender dysphoria, may not suffice as treatment for transsexualism, and should inspire improved psychiatric and somatic care after sex reassignment for this patient group."
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0016885
It's also worth noting that there is reason to doubt the supporting research for it as it is, at least according to this source. They went over quite a bit of research to arrive at that conclusion.
"Guardian Weekend asked Birmingham University's Aggressive Research Intelligence Facility (Arif) to assess the findings of more than 100 follow-up studies of post-operative transsexuals. Arif, which conducts reviews of healthcare treatments for the NHS, concludes that none of the studies provides conclusive evidence that gender reassignment is beneficial for patients. It found that most research was poorly designed, which skewed the results in favour of physically changing sex. There was no evaluation of whether other treatments, such as long-term counselling, might help transsexuals, or whether their gender confusion might lessen over time."
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2004/jul/31/health.socialcare
And the government itself has stated the evidence for the procedure is lacking. If you don't know the ramifications, you are endangering kids. Full stop.
https://www.cms.gov/medicare-coverage-database/details/nca-proposed-decision-memo.aspx?NCAId=282
"Based on a thorough review of the clinical evidence available at this time, there is not enough evidence to determine whether gender reassignment surgery improves health outcomes for Medicare beneficiaries with gender dysphoria. There were conflicting (inconsistent) study results—of the best designed studies, some reported benefits while others reported harms. The quality and strength of evidence were low due to the mostly observational study designs with no comparison groups, potential confounding, and small sample sizes. Many studies that reported positive outcomes were exploratory type studies (case-series and case-control) with no confirmatory follow-up."
"to go through dangerous and unknown treatments by medical professionals is simply not true. "
Based on what? Is it not dangerous? There is reason to think it is. Are the ramifications well studied? They most certainly are not.
The best you can say is, you are subjecting children to an procedure of virtually unknown long term effect, but it might end up alright.
I'm at work, so if I missed an important point, lmk.
* Halifax (my riding) went Liberal, with the NDP and Green Party finishing second and third respectively. The combined total of their votes would have been enough to overtake the Liberals in that riding. Up until the last election, the riding had been going orange (which, full disclosure, I voted for) for the past twenty years, so this result is a bit disheartening.
* The conservatives inability to truly break out beyond their regional base of the Prairies probably tanked their chances of earning a plurality of seats in the Commons, let alone an absolute majority. The fact that Andrew Scheer wasn't entirely forthcoming about his background as an insurance broker and, more importantly, his woeful performance in the debates didn't help their cause, either.
That said, under proportional representation, they still would have earned the plurality of seats, though the LIberals would still have had the first crack at forming government either way. In a sense, that's fitting, because the conservative vote was less that 35 percent, while the center and left parties totaled 60 percent between the four of them. Typically that's the way the vote has split among the major parties in recent elections, but Conservatives have formed government on multiple occasions anyway.
* The Greens made some inroads and increased their seat total slightly, but not to the extent where we might question if Elizabeth May might need to be replaced. The NDP lost seats, mostly due to the Bloc's resurgence in PQ. Still, they managed to avoid the wholesale slaughter that was predicted for them when the election was called, and hold the balance of power. Jagmeet Singh performed well in this campaign, and if he can steer the government to a more progressive platform in the 43rd Parliament, he may well be able to build upon the base that remains.
We'll see how this all plays out, anyway.
I have no doubt in my mind that it plays an important factor in a great many cases, but the rate is just too high for it to be the whole story. There has to be more to it. In my view anyway.
What you're talking about is SRS--sex reassignment surgery, also called "bottom surgery," in which a doctor performs plastic surgery on the patient's genitals to better match their preferred gender. Suicide rates are indeed high after this, though I will point out a possible sampling issue: the people who seek out SRS are going to be the people with the absolute most severe dysphoria, the kind of people who are mostly likely to commit suicide in general. Dysphoria is very much a spectrum, and lower-end dysphoria folks like me are both (1) much less likely to commit suicide and (2) much less likely to want SRS.
Regardless of that sampling issue, however, even the transgender community advocates great caution when it comes to SRS. Among trans folks and their allies, SRS is very much NOT recommended for the vast majority of trans people. We don't even encourage adults to undertake it, much less teenagers. SRS is a very incomplete process on top of being dangerous and expensive and irreversible.
Go to any of the trans subreddits and ask if the locals want teenagers to have easy access to SRS, and you should get a very loud "hell no."
"Top surgery" is a less destructive form of surgery which just involves modifying the chest. FFS, facial feminization surgery, involves modifying the jaw. Those are less invasive and the results are more accurate, but it's still not something trans folks would want teenagers to do.
The most common medical treatment, from what I can tell, is hormone replacement therapy, HRT. That's the recommended step for adults, and even then, people in the trans community give lots of warnings to anyone who's considering it. HRT means taking pills or weekly injections. Much of HRT is reversible, especially if it's canceled early on, but it's still not something you would recommend to a teenager--you would still reserve it for very clear and well-established cases of dysphoria, when there's very little chance of someone changing their mind about their identity.
Most trans folks don't stop being trans, even those who make the realization as teenagers. Things are different for those who make the decision before the onset of puberty, but a trans identity formed in the teenage years or later doesn't shake easily.
Adult trans people tend to be impatient to get on HRT, but that's because so many of us have already spent so much time in the closet and we've had plenty of time to figure stuff out. For teenagers, we'd still recommend years of counseling and consideration before starting HRT.
I'm anxious to get on HRT because I'm 15 years overdue, but I'm still going through the counseling process to make sure I'm not missing any key facotrs. I might do FFS in the future, but I don't want top surgery, and I would flee the country before I'd let anyone perform bottom surgery, SRS, on me. My plans are pretty standard.
The trans community is smart enough to know the dangers and drawbacks. We used to be transgender teenagers ourselves! And while naturally there's disagreement about particulars, the bulk of the community is not radical about these things.
1. We don't want teenagers to get sex reassignment surgery. We're even skeptical of adults getting SRS.
2. We don't want teenagers to get HRT unless a counseling process has confirmed a clear need. Even adults need some time to consider the ramifications.
3. We do want politicians to stay out of the way. God knows we have too many transphobic politicians who would gleefully ban all forms of transition for everyone if they had the power. We already have tons of gatekeepers and controls, and if we pile on more, we're going to see trans people seek out black market alternatives.
4. Ultimately, we want these decisions to be made by trans people and the medical health professionals who advise them.
0,00005% of guns owner commit murder = ban all guns (ignore all possible consequences of a gun ban)
100% of human experiments involving gender ideology resulted in a tragic outcome(Devid Reimer) = No problem.
Do experiments on animals = Abominable
Do experiments on children = Acceptable
Seriously. Sex exchange for children sounds like a Mengele experiment...
1) I've never seen a single politician try to filed a blanket gun ban.
2) What are you talking about?
The other day a teenage transgender girl on Reddit was saying her farewells and preparing to commit suicide. I and the other redditors urged her not to go through with it and assured her there were good times ahead, that being transgender was not all darkness and that it could be a source of profound joy, but she was not convinced. She was too tired, and she went through with it.
I got a DM from her the next morning saying that the police had found her in time. She made it. And I hope that she stays strong, because she deserves to live out her life in the better world that's slowly coming.
Why did she try to kill herself?
She was sick of people treating her like shit for being transgender.
She didn't give any other reasons. That was the one reason she tried to commit suicide. She's not the only one to feel it that way, and not everyone survives.
God only knows how many people transphobia has killed.
Key word here is "public". If Trump cared about corruption, there would have been no demand to ANNOUNCE an investigation. That one was taking place would have sufficed. But the explicit demand was for it to be announced, which is a iron-clad certain tell that the only thing being sought was negative domestic media coverage of Joe Biden. Arguing these facts at this point would require a professional contortionist.
The national discourse is a bit more than just trans-friendly and transphobic. Within the queer community, there are lots of debates about what transgender means, what the different types are, and whether X counts as Y, or is actually just a variant of Z. Most of us, myself, prefer to err on the side of inclusion.
If it's raining outside, it's good to have a wide umbrella.
There are many folks, especially the religious types, that think bisexuals are just hyper-sexual people with little to no self-control. It kind of makes sense from a logical viewpoint too. Do you have any insights into this?