215 Comments

One of the things that really pisses me off about all this is the bad faith of it.

Because I am willing to bet quite a lot that a significant percentage of the general public who are against affirming care for trans kids would be for it, if they actually knew what it was. I have people in my life - kindly, decent people - who look at what they know about teenagers, and think "letting a kid make a major life changing decision, when we know that sometimes three months later they don't even remember that they were deeply invested in a thing, is a bad idea". Which is not an unreasonable position to have - most people would be against letting a 13 year old get a tattoo.

If large numbers of kids actually were going to school and coming home that night after having had surgery on their genitals without their parents even being informed? That would indeed not be a good thing and it's understandable that a reasonable, decent, kindly person would be against it.

The people who are spreading the lies about what care for trans kids looks like know that they are lying. They know that if they talked about what really happens - changes in hair, clothing, names and pronouns, possibly puberty blockers, possibly some hormonal treatment - far fewer people would be so scared and worried.

They're betting that the people they are lying to don't know any trans people - or don't know that they know any - and fear major social change because major social change can be scary, especially if you're old. Lies and bad faith all the way down.

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JFC!! All American citizens have the exact same rights Why do dimfuk MAGA republicans have such difficulty with that?

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Biden doesn't have to face voters again. It's a free veto for him, forcing the incoming Congress to have to do it all over again.

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"Say what ought to be done, repeatedly, until it becomes something that can be done."

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On the Republican Bill of Rights, the first entry is: We are entitled to find a vulnerable group of human beings and screw them over again and again and again, ad infinitum.

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The only reason I can think of why both my senators and my district rep voted for the NDAA is because my state has many Navy, and Air Force bases and they're thinking of the service members getting better pay, but none of them will face a serious primary challenger. Murray handily won her seat in the past election, as did Larsen, and Cantwell doesn't face re-election until '28. They could have voted against it and lost very few votes, and instead shown support for transgender youth health care. I expected better from them.

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Ta, Marcie. I started designing my own Halloween costumes when I was a kid. If they needed any machine sewing, my mother, of blessed and cursed memory, would help. When I was nine, I decided to go out as half man, half woman. I needed mom's help to attach a skirt half to my corduroy pants, which I rolled up over my knee on the left (skirt) side. I made up the left side of my face; had half a theatrical mustache for the right. I slicked back the hair on the right, wearing the left long and wavy. I even wore a femme shoe on the left and a butch shoe on the right foot.

One couldn't wear such a costume today without some Chaya Raichik or Monica Cole type screaming and spreading panic about the trans kid who had to gall to trick or treat in the neighborhood. These people lack imagination as well as empathy and basic humanity. I'm so very very sorry for the kids. It's hard enough being a military brat without this.

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When I was a young teen, I loved Halloween because I could dress like a girl, and no one was aware of how much I really wanted to be a girl

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Half male half female on each side is such a cool design, but you're right that it would generate a panic.

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These people are still pissed the military integrated in WWII.

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This is going to be the narrative of the next two years:

Republicans are going to do whatever the fuck they want, Democrats will be caught between the rock of "don't help the Republicans pass shitty legislation" and the hard place of "and also don't ignore the number of people that the main part of the legislation would help".

And, as has been noted elsewhere myriad times, the blame always falls to the Democrats who are trying to help people and never to the Republicans who are trying to hurt.

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If a military parent is concerned about their gender dysmorphic child, that’s certainly a distraction for that parent, which could affect that parent’s focus on service.

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Lots of them are considering quitting the military: https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2024/12/families-consider-leaving-the-military-after-house-votes-yes-on-anti-trans-spending-bill/

Getting rid of good soldiers for reasons irrelevant to their skills is the very definition of putting culture issues above military readiness.

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So it turns out Lupron, the puberty blocking drug, is really fucking expensive (https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2022/10/26/1131130875/it-cost-38-398-for-a-single-shot-of-a-very-old-cancer-drug). It's not like they're making families fork out $50 per month for generic hormones.

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𝘢𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘴𝘬𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘪𝘴𝘩𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘶𝘭𝘵𝘴

"Along with"? All due respect, I think that that "skittishness" is almost entirely attributable to the election results. The reasoning is the Politicians' Syllogism: "Trump ran ads bashing trans, Trump won, therefore trans bad."

Democracy sucks* because idiots can vote and cowards get elected. It's too bad but it just has to be dealt with.

*To paraphrase Churchill, it sucks less than every other type of government

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Dear Chip Roy,

If there was a medical treatment to heal your grotesque ignorance, wouldn't you want your insurance to cover it?

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Ask your doctor about effective treatments for CHIP ROY

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Chip Roy, the only sibling even more of a lickspittle-ing shitass than Kendall.

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He probably wouldn't

Because he doesn't think there's anything wrong with him

Nothing at all

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AFAIK brain transplants are not yet a thing.

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"...watching the Boris Karloff-narrated cHow the Grinch Stole Christmasc (still the only acceptable Grinch adaptation)...."

WORD!

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As a liberal, I am disappointed with the lack of care people take in educating themselves about the ACTUAL side effects of "puberty blockers". Even WPATH (World Professional Association of Transgender Health) the main medical lobby group that has drawn up the protocol for transgender medicalization states that children that get puberty blockers before puberty risk losing total sexual function and sensation. Puberty is when humans develop their reproductive system - so if puberty is interfered with - sterilization is a logical conclusion. Do we REALLY want to spend our taxes sterilizing kids confused and troubled kids? There is no solid scientific data supporting successful outcomes of medicalizing kids to transition. Adolescence is NOT a time to be messing around with a child's hormones - unless we want to guarantee low cognitive development, serious reduction in bone density, and atrophy of reproductive organs. WHY is this a good idea? If you doubt me - google Lupron's side effects and the history of malpractice lawsuits against Lupron which is the main Puberty blocker. They all work the same, just Lupron has been around longer and has a horrific history of harm.

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There is plenty of data showing transition outcomes from adolescents are positive. Moreover, the recent French medical establishment guidelines after a bunch of study said that it is a bigger risk not to give kids with gender dysphoria (which may I remind you requires medical and psychological assessment) puberty blockers. It further found that it increased bone density, because surprise surprise kids who are less dysphoric are more active.

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I've already got my mitts up and ready to be mad at the ones mad at you for being mad at this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsRZmn4Erck

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Topics I’m not interested in:

- DJT’s new haircut

- all the things Democrats Are Doing Rong

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You could look at it like this: Classic Liberals failed to fight for Progressive causes like single payer healthcare and free secondary education, which has allowed Conservatives to fight them on Classic Liberal causes like voting rights and citizenship.

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Progressives decided to attack Classic Liberals any time they proposed any transition to a better health care system if the plan was not identical to St. Bernard's. This has set back the prospect of reform by a decade.

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Sure. Those poor mainstream Liberals were savaged by those mean progressives.

It's almost like Progressives don't owe Liberals anything.

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Progressives owe it to *themselves* to start understanding that politics is not a performance art. It is about the exercise of power, and teamwork is a prerequisite for having any power. Rightwingers come out and vote for their party even when the candidate doesn't take all the positions they want. Leftwingers play coy about whether they are going to bother voting. Politicians of course can only survive by paying attention to reliable voters. If you advertise that you can't be counted on, you will guarantee that you will not be listened to.

This is why the right wing owns this country.

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Corporate owned Democrats who do not put the interests of their constituents first are the reason the right "wins." Rightwing lies and propaganda spewed 24/7 to an uneducated, gullible public allow fascism to destroy democracy, or whatever is left of it.

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Looking at you, Manchin.

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Under these "corporate owned Democrats" millions of people have obtained health coverage (I am one of those who is only alive thanks to Obama), a President walked the picket line for strikers for the first time in history and made sure the NLRB was decisively pro-union (causing wage increases to decisively outpace price inflation to raise real earnings above pre-pandemic levels all the time that the corporate media was claiming we would go into recession), action has been taken for the first time in over a half century to rebuild our neglected infrastructure (creating huge numbers of good-paying jobs while improving the economic prospects of many neglected areas) and for the first time ever to address climate change (also creating jobs in the clean energy industries aside from the environmental benefits).

You and your kind disparaged all that, allowing the right wing (which does not suffer from such circular firing squads) to win against a left that intentionally tied one hand behind its back.

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"You and your kind?!". How the hell do you know what "my kind" is. That's complete bullshit, and I'm sick of hearing the same tired excuses being made for supposed Democrats who DO NOT represent their constituents. How many people have been and are currently being denied healthcare benefits? I assume you had health insurance via your job, as many Americans do. That is only as good as the corporate healthcare being contracted, and generally contains tons of caveats and deductibles. I'm a speech pathologist, and I have experienced patients/clients being denied care as though it was some type of unnecessary healthcare when the opposite is true.

Until Democrats get off the corporate gravy train and listen to their constituents, there will be no meaningful change. We need universal healthcare or Medicare for all. Rightwingers see Dems as just the same as any other politician, unable and unwilling to truly speak for the lower and middle classes. Corporate Dems will sabotage and black ball any progressive Dem before they can succeed, Bernie Sanders is one major example. Just look at what recently happened to AOC! Corporate Dems WILL align with rightwingers before they allow a progressive to succeed. That needs to change, and right now. My adult kids don't want any part of centrist, sell out Democrats, and they are both liberals. So, keep losing young people by doing the exact same thing again. THAT IS WHY DEMS ARE LOSING ELECTIONS!

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The threat of republicans taking over is pretty weak sauce when they are actually taking over. Liberals can't stop fascists. They never have and they never will. They will value stability over justice and ally with conservatives against progressives EVERY FUCKING TIME. So what's the point of an alliance? As far as things are right now? You bought it, you own it. I'm done.

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The Republican are actually taking over THANKS TO YOU. YOU bought it. YOU own it. I and many others fought against it, but you shot us in the back.

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I voted for Biden. I voted for Obama twice. I canvassed for Kerry. I voted for Gore. I voted for Clinton twice. I voted for Dukakis. You can fuck yourself.

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