I am a cisgender man with dual citizenship between the USA and the UK. My husband is a transgender man who does not have UK citizenship.

As part of our threat modeling, we are developing a shortlist of nations where we would migrate if things get rough. The UK, while being on a worrisome trend line with regards ro trans rights, made the list because it would be relatively simple for us to move and work there with my citizenship already sorted.

Could any UK trans people help us to understand the GRC? My husband has fully transitioned with respect to his US documentation. When we married, he was also a man. Since all his documents match, could he get by without a GRC, or would he be forced through the humiliation of immigrating as his birth-sex and then acquiring a GRC once we moved? Would a GRC be necessary to receive basic healthcare and/or hormones?

In relation to the recent Indiana ban for transgender youth care, some thoughts that I think have a broader outlook as rebuttals of a commonly held trope that adolescents can't give medical consent to gender treatment.

Also consider this BBC article about a judge deciding under 16s might not be able to consent to gender care in the UK AFAIK this had been later overturned on appeal . As for one of the cases explored in the dishonest Reuters article debunked by Vaush it turns out one of the cases (the trans boy one) under Ontario laws where he lives, he had medical consent since he was 15. So Why is it different for transgender care specifically?

Here are my thoughts:

Adolescents presented as "technically kids" always gets my gears grinding, since it is dishonest to equate adolescents and children on so many levels. For example they might have medical consent which should be enough. They might drive in some places, and also they can have intimate relations to another adolescent. Toddlers can't do any of that. There are grades of consent that are legally and rationally different between adolescents and kids, so "technically a kid" is a far fetch, a dishonest prevarication, and just plain wrong on so many levels.

They just don't say that when kids of essentially the same age are allowed to get married and become "technically" parents. They don't say a word for actual infant mutilation in the cases of intersex genital normalization surgeries, nor circumcision. They did not get out of the way to ban breast enhancement in teenage cis girls. They just never fucking uttered "they are technically kids" in any of these equivalent cases.

And there is another underlying problem, that most advocates fail to bring up while they are distracted by bullshit like the "technically kids" fallacy. That in contrast to strictly sexual orientation and needs that start during and after puberty, gender identity is something that manifests way earlier, typically in early childhood. This is extensively documented before the 2020s craze with transgender condemnation.

Mind you, transphobes have dealt with and exploited this fact for a long time. It is not that they do not know it. They do, but they strategically suppress it all the same. There are at least two ways they know and leverage this fact: in separating trans people into genuine and fake, like with the "homosexual transexual" pseudoscience; and in developing and popularizing concepts of social contagion of transgender ideation in adolescent. Even though implicitly, both notions require that true transexuals manifest themselves during childhood, but none of the real trans people we hear about are true trans. This is in turn the True Scotsman fallacy.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/32677832

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/3635039

Various thoughts:

• Around 20 people weren't properly covered by the gender categories, obviously we're trying to be as inclusive as possible and a different approach will be tried next time

• There were about 600 respondents, which gives us a accurate sampling of the active userbase. If you multiply any number by 3, you'll get a fairly accurate representation of the full userbase each week. This means there are around 800-900 people who don't identify fully as cis each week on this site.

• Nearly 300 trans/gender diverse/questioning people unanimously agree that hexbear is an inclusive space

• There was so much data on gender that I was really struggling to find a way to convey the data that wasnt a pie chart, graph, or an incomprehensible kalaeidoscope. If you have an idea on how to beautify the data, you can download the raw data here: https://pad.artemislena.eu/file/#/2/file/xzy4pck8on+oZp9yGRUIezR+/ - I further anonymized this data by removing time of response and any specific comments, I don't think it would be easy for anyone to figure out who is who.

• There were a couple of text responses that really needed further elaboration, I noted hexbear's rules next to these comments

• I'll probably be doing a demographics survey sometime in the future, including basic fairly anonymous stuff like "what region were you born in" "where do the languages you speak originate" "would you describe yourself as a POC" "what age range are you in".

• The percentage of people answering they were cisgender increased by 8% than the previous survey. This could be for a myriad of reasons, such as cis people being afraid trans people will hunt them down in the public thread and assassinate them. Anonymity may have made them feel safer to respond. Regardless, way more people responded this time, which signifies that people felt safer responding to the cryptpad or it was easier to do. The leading question was a bit more inclusive than last time, but I think I'll include both questions (are you transgender / gender diverse and are you cisgender) to see how people respond.

• We have a lot of people that aren't binary trans on this site.

• Some of the questions were pretty funky and we got a lot of fuzzy responses on them as a result. In particular "After you realized you were trans/gender diverse, how long did it take for you to begin to act on it?" and "At what age did you begin transition?" caused a lot of friction, I think I will ask more vague questions in the future that lead to a path of more specific questions to capture better data, and to save people time. Questions like "Do you feel your gender transition had a defined starting point?" and some further ones.

• Around 20 people each week on this site are cis she/hers, which is very low and roughly the same as last time. I feel like if hexbear ever starts hosting other federated stuff (like a federated tiktok or something) and can hook into it natively with lemmy, we'd see a better ratio.

• I tried to be very sure any data with >2 people on it was clearly legible, I think some people might find it fun that there are others with their same fairly specific classifications per this survey lurking around on the site.

• Overall I feel like the survey was a success despite some bumps.

• You can find the other surveys/links here: https://hexbear.net/post/3016455

• I made these graphs on company time

cross-posted from: https://lemmygrad.ml/post/5865085

Love this discussion!

cross-posted from: https://lemmygrad.ml/post/5779704

Subtitle:

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The letter, which was sent to the president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, attempts to use consumer protection laws to make it against the law to support puberty blockers.

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From the article:

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On Tuesday, a group of 22 Republican attorneys general, led by Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador, sent a letter to the president and vice president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, accusing the organization of violating consumer protection laws by endorsing the use of puberty blockers. The letter also demands answers to 14 probing questions and extensive access to internal documents. While the letter carries no legal authority, states have increasingly used vague and broad consumer protection laws to investigate the records of gender-affirming care and abortion providers, often with little to no judicial oversight.

The letter, bearing the seal of the Idaho Attorney General's office, seeks to prohibit the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) from endorsing puberty blockers as a form of reversible gender-affirming care for transgender teenagers, using consumer protection laws as the basis. "Statements made by medical trade organizations, like the AAP, are subject to state consumer protection laws… misleading and deceptive statements of medical trade associations are connected to commerce and reach consumers," the letter states, asserting the authority of Republican-controlled states to challenge the AAP’s endorsement of puberty blockers and justify extensive investigations into the organization's documents.

The letter leans on flawed science and previous hit pieces from far-right, anti-transgender think tanks that have struggled to gain credibility in scientific and medical communities. It criticizes the organization for describing puberty blockers as “reversible,” a stance supported by several medical and scientific organizations, backed by studies, and decades of use in treating precocious puberty and other conditions. A review by the Sax Institute found that “two systematic reviews reported that puberty suppression treatment is reversible,” and that the treatment is “effective, safe, well tolerated, and reversible.”

The letter heavily references the Cass Review. On the second page, for example, it asserts that the claim puberty blockers are reversible is false, “beyond medical debate.” To support this assertion, it cites the Cass Review, which identifies several "possible" irreversible consequences, such as interference with neurocognitive development, bone density, and “blocking normal pubertal experience and experimentation.”

See this claim here:

These claims, however, are not well-supported by evidence. For instance, the assertion regarding neurocognitive development in the Cass Review is entirely speculative. In contrast, the Sax Review found that transgender youth who received gender-affirming hormone therapy demonstrated better cognitive development compared to those who did not, meaning that gender affirming care actually improved the cognitive development for many trans youth through a reduction in negative psychological symptoms. It likewise states that one study making this assertion did not control for ASD and anxiety, which have proven impacts on cognitive development. Other studies on brain development primarily focus on sheep or on youth experiencing precocious puberty.

Similarly, bone density concerns are frequently cited to justify bans on puberty blockers. However, the Sax Review notes that bone density reductions are “within one standard deviation of normal,” and that bone density is restored once puberty resumes. Additionally, most youth in the studies showing bone density reductions were deficient in vitamin D, according to the Sax Review. This is why the informed consent form for puberty blockers addresses this risk and its mitigation, stating, “It is important that patients on Lupron Depot® take other measures to protect their bones: keeping active and ensuring good calcium and Vitamin D intake.”

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Read the rest here.

Just trying to support this person. Good Substack.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/post/15865014

Hi, everyone! So, I'm moving toward going on estrogen in the next year. Before I do that, there are some steps I want to take to prepare. I'm using an at-home IPL machine now for hair removal, and I'd like to get some voice lessons under my belt as well. The main step I want to take next is sperm cryopreservation. My fiancee and I want kids, but I'm not certain it would be a good idea to have a kid during puberty. So, we want to freeze my sperm or our embryos, and I was wondering if ya'll have any resources you could share? I've looked into a few at-home sperm freezing kits, but it's such a big deal to place your fertility in the hands of a company like that and any advice would be much appreciated! <3

hello :) i‘ve been thinking about detransitioning lately, but i can't quite figure out how to go about this. I feel like „it’s too late now.“ I can't really explain why, but i feel a very strong feeling telling me that it would be much harder than the first transition. Do you have any advice on how to detransition? I haven't done any surgery. I only changed my clothes a little bit and changed my hair.

PinkNews CEO Benjamin Cohen refusing to campaign on trans issues ahead of the election, dismissing them as "incredibly contentious" and insisting they’re different to the equal marriage fight.

He doesn’t want Pinknews to be seen as "some sort of charity” for the trans community

twitter link to the audio.

I hope someone will find those helpful

just wondering if there's been any updates since nutomic's transphobic behaviour anyone can report on.

Shinigami Eyes is an indispensable tool for trans people and allies alike, as it lets others know whether an account/username is transphobic or trans-supporting across several websites/social media.

I sometimes look up some new transphobe and they are not highlighted yet, so I suppose the popularity of the extension has dropped?

Shinigami Eyes is an important activist tool and we should not let it be forgotten. In my opinion it has been under-harnessed by journalists and other outlets, as it could - possibly - protect from spreading transphobic disinformation.

Let me take this opportunity to remind you of other important tools like Tweeter extension BlockParty, for example, which used to allow you to block en masse anyone who has liked or retweeted a particular tweet. Among other mass blocking options.

Here is an archive of this app's hiatus announcement , but this together with shinigami can be said to form the seed of a toolbox for safer experience online for trans, feminist, queer and other groups.

Don't forget Activity Pub itself, the protocol Lemmy uses, has this philosophy built-in, and it was designed with these people in mind that want to evade "unsolicited communication".

For an inclusive and activist open-source enthusiast community it is important that the Internet is equally safe for all people to use, and with the global developments we see, it is daily getting more and more important for tech-savvy activist communities to invent and foster similar technology tools.

I'm calling for https://lemmy.ml/u/[email protected], the most prolific user of the transgender comm here on lemmy.ml, to be immediately unbanned and nutomic to be removed as admin. It is good and correct to leak the DMs of transphobes.

@[email protected] @[email protected] @cypherphunks

edit: you can find more info from kristinas post here and beavers post here

edit 2: proof, also beaver was banned from the whole instance modlong

edit 3: For trans people looking for a safer instance, I suggest Hexbear. They have a very active trans user base and are extremely supportive.

If you have no preferred pronouns, just say (none) or something

This will help make people feel more comfortable in this comm and has a side effect of showing you support trans people when making comments in other communities. It will also make reactionaries seethe and make it easier for mods to purge them, and make trans people feel safer all over the fediverse.

Hello, if you are transgender and socialist, please make an application below. We have lax requirements, I'm basically hoping to copy the success of Hexbear's trans community. Basic ideas of modding this space:

• Rule with an iron fist. This is meant to be a safe place for transgender people. If someone is making that not happen / is fucking the vibes, they should be gone.

• Purge transphobes on sight

• No leftist infighting. Anarchists and communists can be friends

• Suggest to cis and trans people that they change their username to include pronouns so no one misgenders them