I. too, have a former Guardian Reader Identity (since c. 1959 when the Daily Herald was killed off. It's despairing to see so many Democrats doubling down on these "sexist, homophobic practices and policies." AOC's little bathroom rant this week was a perfect example of cloth ears having a tantrum.
I must say that I have no comprehension of the extent of the bile you are directing toward the Guardian or Rachel Maddow concerning excessively elevating trans issues. I certainly recognize that Trump and the RNC used Harris’ prior statements about prisoners entitlement to sex-change surgeries to great effect, but I find this to be the Willie Hortonization of the issue. I live in San Francisco, I’m married and heterosexual and I’m probably more exposed to the trans community than the average American and I don’t really have much reason to think about trans issues and certainly not enough to believe that this singular group and their rights which make up 0.5-2% of the U.S. population has tanked the Democratic Party as you claim. I read the Guardian everyday and I’ve not observed anything like what you write about. It’s possible that it’s because I skip over such writings because the subject matter doesn’t interest me. But your reaction to whatever you read completely confounds me.
It’s fine to care, but caring so much about this singular issue that you’re fine with allowing wannabe fascists to come to power because the Democrats are not sufficiently caring enough about this issue that they are worth abandoning to allow authoritarianism to prosper? That’s just a ridiculous proposition 10 out of 10 times. In a two-party system where the choice is binary, you’ve allowed your passion over this issue to overcome rational thought in my opinion. You certainly aren’t advancing your cause however passionate you care about it when you align yourself with the Nancy Mace’s of the world.
I have said that I personally would have voted through gritted teeth for Harris. But democracy means you have to accept that some people are single-issue voters. And many thousands of parents with daughters, in particular, find these policies so insane, dangerous and intolerable that they voted against them.
In my own little world I can confirm this as fact. I've personally talked to a dozen people that voted for Biden but flipped to Trump or said they held their nose and voted for Harris because of this issue. These are all center left moderate voters with big problems on the trans issues Bev cites.
It's a real backlash and it was a real factor why we have this monster inbound and set to land on Jan 20.
Which polices, specifically? The ones that MAGA perpetrate which make a bunch of old men in state capitals the defining authority on pregnancy and OB-GYN care? The ones that fail to recognize that humans are analog, not binary, and force them into "male" and "female" boxes whether they fit or not? The ones that say teaching the role of slavery in US history from 1620 through (and beyond) the Civil War is "propaganda"? The ones that think teaching critical thinking and reading comprehension is a liberal plot? Please, enlighten me.
I'm far more concerned about those policies than I am about the "equipment" of someone walking into a women's (or men's) bathroom and doing their business in a stall.
You explain what you are concerned about. But you seem unwilling to process the fact that other people are concerned about different issues - which determined their vote.
I think you could advance your cause better by going directly to the girls and women who believe medical intervention is the solution rather than taking aim at a major political party in a country you’re not a citizen of which is extremely divided and where every vote counts. Particularly when your issue affects such a small number of people in a country your not seeking to be a citizen of and which will soon have substantially more problems facing it due to the outcome of this past election. It’s about on par with Nigel Farage. He and you should focus on UK politics and not ours.
That doesn’t make much sense, to be honest. If OxyContin is harming people, the solution is not to go to the people in pain who are taking it, or wanting to, but to focus on the company selling it and people in positions of leadership who can do something about it. The Democratic Party has taken a serious wrong turn on these issues and it is quite false to say only a small group is affected. Everyone who attends school or has kids who are at school - and/or using platforms like TikTok and YouTube- is affected. All women are affected if the definition of “woman” is changed to include men. All LGB people are affected if the definition of sexual orientation is changed to be based on self-identified “gender” instead of sex. And the entire nation is affected if the White House promotes lies. It has to stop.
Yet, you use your platform to promote anti-Democratic Party ideology to persuade like-minded US citizens not to vote Democrat based on your narrow personal interests. That’s rich.
Quite the opposite. Like many other left-leaning people, I have been begging the Democrats for years to change policy on these issues to avoid gifting the election to the Republicans. It’s tragic that they stubbornly ignored all these warnings and plowed ahead.
The mutilation, sterilisation and desecration of (mostly) gay children may not interest you Frank, but it is surprisingly an important issue to some of us, as is the deliberate and sinister erosion of women’s boundaries and sex-based rights in order to cater to the delusions of porn-sick, fetishistic men. Thousands, literally thousands, of girls under the age of 18 have had unnecessary double mastectomies; bodily sacrifices to the gender woo cult.
Your apathy is actually what’s confounding, but you do you.
So, to follow your logic, I should not ignore articles in The Guardian that possibly elevate trans issues that turn off people who would otherwise vote for Democrats because said hypothetical articles reveal “the deliberate and sinister erosion of women’s boundaries and sex-based rights in order to cater to the porn-sick fetishistic men”? Got it. You’re one thick fuck, aren’t you?
“…issues that affect a majority of the US electorate: issues like the attacks on women’s and girls’ sport…”
No. The issue impacts: trans kids, their parents, and I suppose girls who have a trans kid on their sports teams and their parents. Fraction of our population. You have your opinion on it, but it does not *impact* you, or me, or a majority of Americans. The transgender population and immigrants were successfully at the forefront of the Republicans’ culture war, scapegoats to distract everyone from the fact that Republicans do not have any solutions to the actual everyday issues facing Americans. Like healthcare and grocery and housing costs.
I read your piece and I find it hysterical and not in a funny way. I think you, and many others that share your viewpoint, are just simply creeped out by people who for whatever reason don’t feel comfortable with their assigned gender and go to, what I would consider, extreme lengths to address it. But I’m more laissez faire about it because it just doesn’t get me so agitated that I become victim to the obvious demagoguery Trump and the RNC was so successful at in turning you, and others like you, against the Democratic Party. In short, I think you’re a sucker.
Thanks for engaging, Frank. First, I hope you will permit me to use my own language. Since I see “gender” as relating to social expectations and stereotypes, I don’t accept that “gender” is “assigned” at birth. It is sex that is observed and recorded. Since I am a woman who rejects all social expectations and stereotypes attached to the feminine “gender” - and have been highly “gender non-conforming” all my life, what you say makes no sense to me. Silly online quizzes tell me I’m 100% masculine. But who cares, right?! It’s all rubbish.
You don’t seem concerned about the points that matter to me: lesbians being told lies, being persuaded to take testosterone and have their breasts removed, incurring numerous increased health risks. Have you read the various amicus curiae submissions to SCOTUS in the Skrmetti case coming up, oral submissions Dec. 4th?
Girl athletes having to compete against boys, incurring risks to safety and fairness as well as not being able to assert their rights to dignity. Is it that you don’t accept that “trans girls” are boys? Have you read the research by experts such as Prof Ross Tucker, Dr Emma Hilton and Dr Linda Blake?
I understand maybe none of this affects you. But why do you think it’s ok not to care?
Thank you! Well said and all very true about the gender identity issue and the takeover of our liberal institutions. I had a somewhat similar trajectory but, because of my line of work and family ties, my eyes were first opened by the lies of BLMs Defund the Police and the pretense that Critical Race Theory isn't being taught in K-12 schools when it definitely is. I'm sure many Jewish Americans could point to the pro Hamas anti Semitism since Oct 7 as their wake up call. The "progressive" left has adopted all these extreme views since Critical Social Justice is now its religion and heretics cannot be tolerated. It's much broader than any single issue and its aim is to smash the state and eliminate the "olds" by any means necessary. Past time to unite in resistance and refuse to live by lies.
The reason Maddow didn't do that is that she agrees with the reigning camp. In the same way as she laughed at women protesting against pornography. She's too far in on the institutional LGBTQI+ doctrine and is comfortable there. Never has she mentioned any contestations of women's rights coming from that camp. She's done good coverage on abortion rights, but that's about it. As for US foreign policy, she pledges allegiance to the military.
Ms. Jackson, I want to thank you perfusely! You are arguably the best writer on this subject. Your use of language is potent! I greatly appreciate how clear and interesting your writing is. Again, thank you.
After the election the Democratic Party (my party) must rethink many of its policies as it ponders its future.
To be entrusted with power again Democrats must start listening to the concerns of the working class for a change. As a lifelong moderate Democrat I share their disdain for many of the insane positions advocated by my party.
Democrat politicians defy biology by believing that men can actually become women and belong in women’s sports, rest rooms, locker rooms and prisons and that children should be mutilated in pursuit of the impossible.
They believe borders should be open to millions of illegals which undermines workers’ wages and the affordability of housing when we can’t house our own citizens.
They discriminate against whites, Asians and men in a vain effort to counter past discrimination against others and undermine our economy by abandoning merit selection of students and employees.
Democratic mayors allow homelessness to destroy our beautiful cities because they won't say no to destructive behavior. No you can’t camp in this city. No you can’t shit in our streets. No you can’t shoot up and leave your used needles everywhere. Many of our prosecutors will not take action against shoplifting unless a $1000 of goods are stolen leading to gangs destroying retail stores. They release criminals without bond to rob and murder again.
The average voter knows this is happening and outright reject our party. Enough.
Ah yes, the voice of reason from entitled white liberal Americans. Let's elevate trans rights even more:
Male convicted rapists can now claim to be women and be transferred to female prisons in CA and other blue states.
* But hey, it's only a FEW women in prison getting raped by these pigs. And they call their genitals a “lesbian p@nis.”
Lol. progressives, liberals, Democrats and other science deniers.
Male transgender-identified autogynephiles who desire heterosexual sex with women and therefore call themselves lesbians are hell bent on getting actual lesbians kicked off dating sites for not wanting to have sex with men. The last lesbian dating app was successfully taken down via a lawsuit by a middle aged man who calls himself a woman.
* But hey, if lesbians can't find dating partners, maybe they'll have sex with the “most marginalized people in the world, trans women.”
Lol. I'm afraid women and children are still the most marginalized people, especially since these pigs still rape us, sex traffic us and create/purchase billions of dollars of porn filled with violence toward us.
Trans rights are male rights over female. Many male transgenders denigrate, assault (see Reduxx.info) and even kill lesbians (see trans-identified male Dana Rivers who brutally murdered Patricia Wright, Charlotte Reed and their son). Many men who call themselves transwomen are AGP males with a sexual fetish who indulge in rape fantasies and assaults on women and children.
The Democratic Party owns this mess. They revel in it, as can be seen by Biden's idiotic support of men who call themselves women and flash their fake boobs at White House celebrations. And Kamala Harris' idiotic support of the misogynist Dylan Mulvaney who got rich teaching girls that girls are stupid and giving the same message about girls to boys.
The best thing that can happen right now is for the Democratic Party to double down and continue to blow up. In two years, if Dems continue to support male rights over female, we will fire even more of them. That's all for the best. It'll clear the field for a new party that includes both Dems and Independents and actually believes in science and sex-based rights.
I am a transgender woman. I transitioned in 2007. What you write is transgender-hating nonsense. We just want to live our lives like everyone else. But you want to prohibit us from getting the medical care we need and from playing sports. You suggest we are a danger to women’s rights. Have you ever even met a transgender person?
This is untrue and many trans-identifying people agree with me. If all you want is to live your life like everyone else I hope you will join me in opposing the ill-conceived overreach of the gender identity movement - which is harming your cause. Children do not “need” puberty blockers that block the process of maturing into mental, physical, emotional and sexual maturity. They do not “need” cross-sex hormones or surgery that set them on a path to lifelong medicalization and numerous increased health risks. Trans-identifying males are of course free to take part in sport, which is generally separated by sex for important reasons enumerated by biologists and sports scientists - regardless of how a person “identifies”.
In answer to your final question - yes, I have met several smart, interesting trans-identifying people especially in the past five years. I was a close friend of the late science fiction and Tarot writer Rachel Pollack in the 1970s but we grew apart.
Bottom line: I believe by adopting the extremist positions you appear to be advocating, you are doing a profound disservice to trans-identifying persons who just wish to “live their lives like everyone else”.
As a liberal parent of an adolescent-onset trans male minor, at first I trusted what the media said. Then I read, studied, in some cases even bought studies. Science does not support saying puberty blockers are safe or effective at improving mental health outcomes. The left has lied, the Cass review was thorough. This does not negate my belief that trans people exist and have rights. Now, the left has lost my trust they are the party of truth and science. I still voted for Kamala. So did my brother, sister, mother, father. All of us think puberty blockers for my child who learned the term transgender from Tik Tok would be a huge mistake.
I would have voted for Kamala Harris too - through gritted teeth - because Trump is obviously only interested in himself and poses a grave threat to the US and the world. But the Democrats’ misogynistic promotion of gender identity dogma is despicable.
Medical decisions should be made by the child and their parents in consultation with medical professionals. Unlike you, I actually am transgender. I actually did grow up with gender dysphoria. I transitioned from male to female in 2007. And I know my life would have been so much better if I could have avoided developing male secondary sex characteristics, and if I had been able to transition earlier. I love it when cis-gender people tell transgender people what is good for them.
Perhaps you would like to reflect for one moment on the fact that the large majority of teens seeking “transition” at the moment are girls. Teenage girls - mostly lesbians - whose experiences, and whose reasons for wanting to “transition,” have very little in common with yours.
I support your statement about medical decisions. I believe there are people who are children for whom medical intervention might be the right choice. But the left hasnt been honest about the reality of the science, which has left the left open to bigoted attacks. My child shows no signs of dysphoria except they wish people saw them as a male. I have had conversations with him about his female body going through puberty. When he got his period. No distress. All of his friends are bio-fem. He socializes like a middle school girl. Doesn't ever hang out with boys or do boy things. He wants puberty blockers "because that is what he is supposed to do" in his words.
His transition began with questioning what type of girl he was: 'im not a fancy girl, I'm not a sporty girl.'. Then he said he was non binary (right around age 10). Then he said he was transgender male.
I had been reading about trans kids: mostly a long the lines of the Dutch Protocol, where the usual presentation of GD was a younger bio-male like age 5 who said they were a girl. (They didn't say they were transgender).
I asked my child how he learned about the idea 'transgender'.
'Tik Tok, dad.'
And yet maybe his path could be similar to yours.
I hope you don't feel hate or invalidation from me. Looking at your bio: Attorney. Parent. Grandparent. Transgender.
Please feel my respect for you.
If I could buy a time machine to see my child in twenty years, my choices would be easier.
I can't trust a Doctor because that doctor could be a 'god says there are only two sexes' type, or they could be a 'whatever your child says is their gender is the truth and best to give them gonadotropin hormone releasing agonists before they kill themselves ' type.
What keeps me up at night the counter of what you say in your first paragraph in reply to me.
If I lived in Washington State, because of SB5599, my child could run away, get picked up by a homeless shelter, claim accurately that I am not supportive of giving them puberty blockers. The shelter would be required to report to the state. The state could determine that my refusal rises to the level of neglect/abuse. The state could determine that reunification of my child with me was not in my childs I interest. They could then take my child, without my consent, to a gender clinic. There, they could be proscribed GnRH agonists. Without my consent.
Kids are either trans or they are not. You can’t make a kid trans any more than you can make a kid gay or heterosexual. There are just people who can’t deal with their children if they are trans.
After I posted what I did, I did a little research on you and found out that you are an anti-transgender activist and a co-founder of the anti-transgender LGB Alliance. It fits.
I assume you think it is “anti Transgender” to point out that there are only two sexes, and that it is impossible to change sex. Facts are not this or that -phobic. Facts are just facts, however unwelcome. The lie that some children are “born in the wrong body” and need drugs and surgery to “be their authentic selves” is bs and is hurting LGB teens - especially lesbians - more than anyone else. So it’s absolutely fine if you want to call me names. What matters to me is that I receive warm expressions of gratitude every day from LGB people all over the world. I’m in it for them.
“Why can’t the Democratic Party – or any liberal media – discuss these issues frankly?” I mean, you’re just on Substack and are beating around the bush… what is your argument here, that we could have prevented fascists winning the election if only Biden had banned certain people from Women’s sports??? There is no silver bullet to fixing anything, and certainly increasing inclusivity in a flag design ain’t it. All i read here is fear and a disconnection from science in the name of botched “feminism.”
I’m sorry you think I’m beating around the bush. Please follow the oral arguments in the Skrmetti case before SCOTUS coming up on December 4th.
The gender identity issue is far wider than women’s and girls’ sport - although for most Americans that is the issue they feel strongest about. More important in my view are the lies being told - about puberty blockers in particular. No one is “born in the wrong body”. No, kids denied these drugs do not commit suicide. There are now over 100 youth gender clinics in the US. Up from just one, some ten years ago. Youth “transition” is a billion-dollar industry that is making some people rich but harming thousands of young people, especially lesbians. Happy to give you evidence for everything I say.
In any case, the “they/them” ad was the most important factor that led “undecided” voters to vote Republican. Where it was played, it moved the dial 2.7% in Trump’s favor. In a close election, that mattered.
The only “botched science” here is the position advanced by WPATH, AAP, ACLU & Co. Their lies have been exposed - as has their refusal to take on board the systematic reviews of approaches to gender dysphoria conducted in Europe. Or to publish those they commissioned themselves!
I would dearly love to see the Democrats retake Congress in 2026. But unless they stop trashing the rights of women and girls and LGB people and promoting policies that are based on a quasi-religious belief in “gender identity” that is causing harm to so many children, I’m afraid it may not happen.
You seem very convinced you are on the moral high ground. Does it never occur to you that you might be mistaken? Do you ever study the issues I’ve raised? Are you not at all interested in the “lived experience” of hundreds, thousands of lesbians in their twenties or older who deeply regret “transitioning” - and are angry at the lies they were told?
Gross. You’re offensively dismissing experiences different from your own and mislabeling it with science. Jill Stein swayed the vote by the same margin you are magically attributing to feelings about a false advertisement. Your “logic” and “reason” here is the same tact the GOP uses. You aren’t an ally.
I don’t know what you mean by an “ally”. I’m a gay rights advocate. I am not an “ally” to the TQ+ movement that is harming our gay, bisexual and above all lesbian youth. I was a founding member of the UK Gay Liberation Front and I’m fighting for the same rights now as then. I think it’s better not to insult people who disagree with you: what’s the point?
Democracy means that everyone gets to vote. That includes all the people you hold in contempt. If you want the Democratic Party to win back Congress in 2026 (as I dearly hope will happen), I humbly suggest that insulting people isn’t the way to do it. Please help the Democratic Party renounce the anti women policies that are hurting its electability - and talk to people with different views. Many of the people who voted Republican this time loathe Trump just as much as you do - and as much as I do. But spitting hate and cursing is not the way forward. Go well.
I have to say I read this twice and it still doesn’t make sense. PS there really isn’t a liberal television/print media in the US when it is owned by billionaires.
Ok. I don’t mind what labels you prefer. The Democratic establishment is currently represented by the Biden administration. This administration (through Levine) promotes puberty blockers, supports men in women’s sport, and advocates replacing sex with gender identity in Title IX. The US Government is actually (Skrmetti case, Dec 4th) opposing Tennessee before SCOTUS to reverse its ban on puberty blockers. The channels I listed all promote these views and suggest that those who oppose them are rightwing bigots. Which is completely untrue. People like Kara Dansky (or Jamie Reed) are not invited onto those channels to explain their views. That is what I mean.
the bad people might win. Once you understand that they don't really believe in Democracy and women's rights, things become clearer and easier to digest.
You nailed it Bev. Thank you.
I. too, have a former Guardian Reader Identity (since c. 1959 when the Daily Herald was killed off. It's despairing to see so many Democrats doubling down on these "sexist, homophobic practices and policies." AOC's little bathroom rant this week was a perfect example of cloth ears having a tantrum.
Anyone hanging onto what AOC says is likely unaware that her previous sole occupational experience was as a bartender.
Experience that ought to have led her to a better understanding of the importance of women-only facilities.
I must say that I have no comprehension of the extent of the bile you are directing toward the Guardian or Rachel Maddow concerning excessively elevating trans issues. I certainly recognize that Trump and the RNC used Harris’ prior statements about prisoners entitlement to sex-change surgeries to great effect, but I find this to be the Willie Hortonization of the issue. I live in San Francisco, I’m married and heterosexual and I’m probably more exposed to the trans community than the average American and I don’t really have much reason to think about trans issues and certainly not enough to believe that this singular group and their rights which make up 0.5-2% of the U.S. population has tanked the Democratic Party as you claim. I read the Guardian everyday and I’ve not observed anything like what you write about. It’s possible that it’s because I skip over such writings because the subject matter doesn’t interest me. But your reaction to whatever you read completely confounds me.
And I completely agree with YOU! Thanks Frank for being a voice of reason. Jeez. WTH Live & let live for God's sake
Thank you for your kind words.
It’s fine to care, but caring so much about this singular issue that you’re fine with allowing wannabe fascists to come to power because the Democrats are not sufficiently caring enough about this issue that they are worth abandoning to allow authoritarianism to prosper? That’s just a ridiculous proposition 10 out of 10 times. In a two-party system where the choice is binary, you’ve allowed your passion over this issue to overcome rational thought in my opinion. You certainly aren’t advancing your cause however passionate you care about it when you align yourself with the Nancy Mace’s of the world.
I have said that I personally would have voted through gritted teeth for Harris. But democracy means you have to accept that some people are single-issue voters. And many thousands of parents with daughters, in particular, find these policies so insane, dangerous and intolerable that they voted against them.
In my own little world I can confirm this as fact. I've personally talked to a dozen people that voted for Biden but flipped to Trump or said they held their nose and voted for Harris because of this issue. These are all center left moderate voters with big problems on the trans issues Bev cites.
It's a real backlash and it was a real factor why we have this monster inbound and set to land on Jan 20.
Let's hope we survive this backlash.
Which polices, specifically? The ones that MAGA perpetrate which make a bunch of old men in state capitals the defining authority on pregnancy and OB-GYN care? The ones that fail to recognize that humans are analog, not binary, and force them into "male" and "female" boxes whether they fit or not? The ones that say teaching the role of slavery in US history from 1620 through (and beyond) the Civil War is "propaganda"? The ones that think teaching critical thinking and reading comprehension is a liberal plot? Please, enlighten me.
I'm far more concerned about those policies than I am about the "equipment" of someone walking into a women's (or men's) bathroom and doing their business in a stall.
You explain what you are concerned about. But you seem unwilling to process the fact that other people are concerned about different issues - which determined their vote.
I think you could advance your cause better by going directly to the girls and women who believe medical intervention is the solution rather than taking aim at a major political party in a country you’re not a citizen of which is extremely divided and where every vote counts. Particularly when your issue affects such a small number of people in a country your not seeking to be a citizen of and which will soon have substantially more problems facing it due to the outcome of this past election. It’s about on par with Nigel Farage. He and you should focus on UK politics and not ours.
That doesn’t make much sense, to be honest. If OxyContin is harming people, the solution is not to go to the people in pain who are taking it, or wanting to, but to focus on the company selling it and people in positions of leadership who can do something about it. The Democratic Party has taken a serious wrong turn on these issues and it is quite false to say only a small group is affected. Everyone who attends school or has kids who are at school - and/or using platforms like TikTok and YouTube- is affected. All women are affected if the definition of “woman” is changed to include men. All LGB people are affected if the definition of sexual orientation is changed to be based on self-identified “gender” instead of sex. And the entire nation is affected if the White House promotes lies. It has to stop.
Yet, you use your platform to promote anti-Democratic Party ideology to persuade like-minded US citizens not to vote Democrat based on your narrow personal interests. That’s rich.
Quite the opposite. Like many other left-leaning people, I have been begging the Democrats for years to change policy on these issues to avoid gifting the election to the Republicans. It’s tragic that they stubbornly ignored all these warnings and plowed ahead.
But you didn’t. And now, you own it.
I am not entitled to vote in the US.
The mutilation, sterilisation and desecration of (mostly) gay children may not interest you Frank, but it is surprisingly an important issue to some of us, as is the deliberate and sinister erosion of women’s boundaries and sex-based rights in order to cater to the delusions of porn-sick, fetishistic men. Thousands, literally thousands, of girls under the age of 18 have had unnecessary double mastectomies; bodily sacrifices to the gender woo cult.
Your apathy is actually what’s confounding, but you do you.
So, to follow your logic, I should not ignore articles in The Guardian that possibly elevate trans issues that turn off people who would otherwise vote for Democrats because said hypothetical articles reveal “the deliberate and sinister erosion of women’s boundaries and sex-based rights in order to cater to the porn-sick fetishistic men”? Got it. You’re one thick fuck, aren’t you?
No one is telling you what to read, or not to read. But you might find it useful to read a range of media, giving different points of view.
“…issues that affect a majority of the US electorate: issues like the attacks on women’s and girls’ sport…”
No. The issue impacts: trans kids, their parents, and I suppose girls who have a trans kid on their sports teams and their parents. Fraction of our population. You have your opinion on it, but it does not *impact* you, or me, or a majority of Americans. The transgender population and immigrants were successfully at the forefront of the Republicans’ culture war, scapegoats to distract everyone from the fact that Republicans do not have any solutions to the actual everyday issues facing Americans. Like healthcare and grocery and housing costs.
I read your piece and I find it hysterical and not in a funny way. I think you, and many others that share your viewpoint, are just simply creeped out by people who for whatever reason don’t feel comfortable with their assigned gender and go to, what I would consider, extreme lengths to address it. But I’m more laissez faire about it because it just doesn’t get me so agitated that I become victim to the obvious demagoguery Trump and the RNC was so successful at in turning you, and others like you, against the Democratic Party. In short, I think you’re a sucker.
Thanks for engaging, Frank. First, I hope you will permit me to use my own language. Since I see “gender” as relating to social expectations and stereotypes, I don’t accept that “gender” is “assigned” at birth. It is sex that is observed and recorded. Since I am a woman who rejects all social expectations and stereotypes attached to the feminine “gender” - and have been highly “gender non-conforming” all my life, what you say makes no sense to me. Silly online quizzes tell me I’m 100% masculine. But who cares, right?! It’s all rubbish.
You don’t seem concerned about the points that matter to me: lesbians being told lies, being persuaded to take testosterone and have their breasts removed, incurring numerous increased health risks. Have you read the various amicus curiae submissions to SCOTUS in the Skrmetti case coming up, oral submissions Dec. 4th?
Girl athletes having to compete against boys, incurring risks to safety and fairness as well as not being able to assert their rights to dignity. Is it that you don’t accept that “trans girls” are boys? Have you read the research by experts such as Prof Ross Tucker, Dr Emma Hilton and Dr Linda Blake?
I understand maybe none of this affects you. But why do you think it’s ok not to care?
Thank you! Well said and all very true about the gender identity issue and the takeover of our liberal institutions. I had a somewhat similar trajectory but, because of my line of work and family ties, my eyes were first opened by the lies of BLMs Defund the Police and the pretense that Critical Race Theory isn't being taught in K-12 schools when it definitely is. I'm sure many Jewish Americans could point to the pro Hamas anti Semitism since Oct 7 as their wake up call. The "progressive" left has adopted all these extreme views since Critical Social Justice is now its religion and heretics cannot be tolerated. It's much broader than any single issue and its aim is to smash the state and eliminate the "olds" by any means necessary. Past time to unite in resistance and refuse to live by lies.
I think “unite in resistance and refuse to live by lies” is a great rallying cry!
What a tremendous rallying cry! You speak for me, completely. Every single word of this. Thank you!
The reason Maddow didn't do that is that she agrees with the reigning camp. In the same way as she laughed at women protesting against pornography. She's too far in on the institutional LGBTQI+ doctrine and is comfortable there. Never has she mentioned any contestations of women's rights coming from that camp. She's done good coverage on abortion rights, but that's about it. As for US foreign policy, she pledges allegiance to the military.
Ms. Jackson, I want to thank you perfusely! You are arguably the best writer on this subject. Your use of language is potent! I greatly appreciate how clear and interesting your writing is. Again, thank you.
Thank you so much! That’s very flattering.
Yes! We listened to Rachel’s podcasts, read her books, and struggled with this very issue. Thank you for expressing it so well.
After the election the Democratic Party (my party) must rethink many of its policies as it ponders its future.
To be entrusted with power again Democrats must start listening to the concerns of the working class for a change. As a lifelong moderate Democrat I share their disdain for many of the insane positions advocated by my party.
Democrat politicians defy biology by believing that men can actually become women and belong in women’s sports, rest rooms, locker rooms and prisons and that children should be mutilated in pursuit of the impossible.
They believe borders should be open to millions of illegals which undermines workers’ wages and the affordability of housing when we can’t house our own citizens.
They discriminate against whites, Asians and men in a vain effort to counter past discrimination against others and undermine our economy by abandoning merit selection of students and employees.
Democratic mayors allow homelessness to destroy our beautiful cities because they won't say no to destructive behavior. No you can’t camp in this city. No you can’t shit in our streets. No you can’t shoot up and leave your used needles everywhere. Many of our prosecutors will not take action against shoplifting unless a $1000 of goods are stolen leading to gangs destroying retail stores. They release criminals without bond to rob and murder again.
The average voter knows this is happening and outright reject our party. Enough.
XXX
Ah yes, the voice of reason from entitled white liberal Americans. Let's elevate trans rights even more:
Male convicted rapists can now claim to be women and be transferred to female prisons in CA and other blue states.
* But hey, it's only a FEW women in prison getting raped by these pigs. And they call their genitals a “lesbian p@nis.”
Lol. progressives, liberals, Democrats and other science deniers.
Male transgender-identified autogynephiles who desire heterosexual sex with women and therefore call themselves lesbians are hell bent on getting actual lesbians kicked off dating sites for not wanting to have sex with men. The last lesbian dating app was successfully taken down via a lawsuit by a middle aged man who calls himself a woman.
* But hey, if lesbians can't find dating partners, maybe they'll have sex with the “most marginalized people in the world, trans women.”
Lol. I'm afraid women and children are still the most marginalized people, especially since these pigs still rape us, sex traffic us and create/purchase billions of dollars of porn filled with violence toward us.
Trans rights are male rights over female. Many male transgenders denigrate, assault (see Reduxx.info) and even kill lesbians (see trans-identified male Dana Rivers who brutally murdered Patricia Wright, Charlotte Reed and their son). Many men who call themselves transwomen are AGP males with a sexual fetish who indulge in rape fantasies and assaults on women and children.
The Democratic Party owns this mess. They revel in it, as can be seen by Biden's idiotic support of men who call themselves women and flash their fake boobs at White House celebrations. And Kamala Harris' idiotic support of the misogynist Dylan Mulvaney who got rich teaching girls that girls are stupid and giving the same message about girls to boys.
The best thing that can happen right now is for the Democratic Party to double down and continue to blow up. In two years, if Dems continue to support male rights over female, we will fire even more of them. That's all for the best. It'll clear the field for a new party that includes both Dems and Independents and actually believes in science and sex-based rights.
Boy I think you are lost . Sorry .
I am a transgender woman. I transitioned in 2007. What you write is transgender-hating nonsense. We just want to live our lives like everyone else. But you want to prohibit us from getting the medical care we need and from playing sports. You suggest we are a danger to women’s rights. Have you ever even met a transgender person?
This is untrue and many trans-identifying people agree with me. If all you want is to live your life like everyone else I hope you will join me in opposing the ill-conceived overreach of the gender identity movement - which is harming your cause. Children do not “need” puberty blockers that block the process of maturing into mental, physical, emotional and sexual maturity. They do not “need” cross-sex hormones or surgery that set them on a path to lifelong medicalization and numerous increased health risks. Trans-identifying males are of course free to take part in sport, which is generally separated by sex for important reasons enumerated by biologists and sports scientists - regardless of how a person “identifies”.
In answer to your final question - yes, I have met several smart, interesting trans-identifying people especially in the past five years. I was a close friend of the late science fiction and Tarot writer Rachel Pollack in the 1970s but we grew apart.
Bottom line: I believe by adopting the extremist positions you appear to be advocating, you are doing a profound disservice to trans-identifying persons who just wish to “live their lives like everyone else”.
As a liberal parent of an adolescent-onset trans male minor, at first I trusted what the media said. Then I read, studied, in some cases even bought studies. Science does not support saying puberty blockers are safe or effective at improving mental health outcomes. The left has lied, the Cass review was thorough. This does not negate my belief that trans people exist and have rights. Now, the left has lost my trust they are the party of truth and science. I still voted for Kamala. So did my brother, sister, mother, father. All of us think puberty blockers for my child who learned the term transgender from Tik Tok would be a huge mistake.
I would have voted for Kamala Harris too - through gritted teeth - because Trump is obviously only interested in himself and poses a grave threat to the US and the world. But the Democrats’ misogynistic promotion of gender identity dogma is despicable.
Medical decisions should be made by the child and their parents in consultation with medical professionals. Unlike you, I actually am transgender. I actually did grow up with gender dysphoria. I transitioned from male to female in 2007. And I know my life would have been so much better if I could have avoided developing male secondary sex characteristics, and if I had been able to transition earlier. I love it when cis-gender people tell transgender people what is good for them.
Perhaps you would like to reflect for one moment on the fact that the large majority of teens seeking “transition” at the moment are girls. Teenage girls - mostly lesbians - whose experiences, and whose reasons for wanting to “transition,” have very little in common with yours.
https://www.them.us/story/gender-affirming-surgery-vast-majority-cis-kids-study
I support your statement about medical decisions. I believe there are people who are children for whom medical intervention might be the right choice. But the left hasnt been honest about the reality of the science, which has left the left open to bigoted attacks. My child shows no signs of dysphoria except they wish people saw them as a male. I have had conversations with him about his female body going through puberty. When he got his period. No distress. All of his friends are bio-fem. He socializes like a middle school girl. Doesn't ever hang out with boys or do boy things. He wants puberty blockers "because that is what he is supposed to do" in his words.
His transition began with questioning what type of girl he was: 'im not a fancy girl, I'm not a sporty girl.'. Then he said he was non binary (right around age 10). Then he said he was transgender male.
I had been reading about trans kids: mostly a long the lines of the Dutch Protocol, where the usual presentation of GD was a younger bio-male like age 5 who said they were a girl. (They didn't say they were transgender).
I asked my child how he learned about the idea 'transgender'.
'Tik Tok, dad.'
And yet maybe his path could be similar to yours.
I hope you don't feel hate or invalidation from me. Looking at your bio: Attorney. Parent. Grandparent. Transgender.
Please feel my respect for you.
If I could buy a time machine to see my child in twenty years, my choices would be easier.
I can't trust a Doctor because that doctor could be a 'god says there are only two sexes' type, or they could be a 'whatever your child says is their gender is the truth and best to give them gonadotropin hormone releasing agonists before they kill themselves ' type.
What keeps me up at night the counter of what you say in your first paragraph in reply to me.
If I lived in Washington State, because of SB5599, my child could run away, get picked up by a homeless shelter, claim accurately that I am not supportive of giving them puberty blockers. The shelter would be required to report to the state. The state could determine that my refusal rises to the level of neglect/abuse. The state could determine that reunification of my child with me was not in my childs I interest. They could then take my child, without my consent, to a gender clinic. There, they could be proscribed GnRH agonists. Without my consent.
Trans activists and their cis allies are teaching kids how to be trans.
Kids are either trans or they are not. You can’t make a kid trans any more than you can make a kid gay or heterosexual. There are just people who can’t deal with their children if they are trans.
After I posted what I did, I did a little research on you and found out that you are an anti-transgender activist and a co-founder of the anti-transgender LGB Alliance. It fits.
I assume you think it is “anti Transgender” to point out that there are only two sexes, and that it is impossible to change sex. Facts are not this or that -phobic. Facts are just facts, however unwelcome. The lie that some children are “born in the wrong body” and need drugs and surgery to “be their authentic selves” is bs and is hurting LGB teens - especially lesbians - more than anyone else. So it’s absolutely fine if you want to call me names. What matters to me is that I receive warm expressions of gratitude every day from LGB people all over the world. I’m in it for them.
Having empathy for people with gender dysphoria is something you are unable to do. I get that. It’s easier to marginalize us and demonize us.
I thought something was up thx
“Why can’t the Democratic Party – or any liberal media – discuss these issues frankly?” I mean, you’re just on Substack and are beating around the bush… what is your argument here, that we could have prevented fascists winning the election if only Biden had banned certain people from Women’s sports??? There is no silver bullet to fixing anything, and certainly increasing inclusivity in a flag design ain’t it. All i read here is fear and a disconnection from science in the name of botched “feminism.”
I’m sorry you think I’m beating around the bush. Please follow the oral arguments in the Skrmetti case before SCOTUS coming up on December 4th.
The gender identity issue is far wider than women’s and girls’ sport - although for most Americans that is the issue they feel strongest about. More important in my view are the lies being told - about puberty blockers in particular. No one is “born in the wrong body”. No, kids denied these drugs do not commit suicide. There are now over 100 youth gender clinics in the US. Up from just one, some ten years ago. Youth “transition” is a billion-dollar industry that is making some people rich but harming thousands of young people, especially lesbians. Happy to give you evidence for everything I say.
In any case, the “they/them” ad was the most important factor that led “undecided” voters to vote Republican. Where it was played, it moved the dial 2.7% in Trump’s favor. In a close election, that mattered.
The only “botched science” here is the position advanced by WPATH, AAP, ACLU & Co. Their lies have been exposed - as has their refusal to take on board the systematic reviews of approaches to gender dysphoria conducted in Europe. Or to publish those they commissioned themselves!
I would dearly love to see the Democrats retake Congress in 2026. But unless they stop trashing the rights of women and girls and LGB people and promoting policies that are based on a quasi-religious belief in “gender identity” that is causing harm to so many children, I’m afraid it may not happen.
You giving your resume makes your exclusion worse and the attention your writing is garnering worse.
You seem very convinced you are on the moral high ground. Does it never occur to you that you might be mistaken? Do you ever study the issues I’ve raised? Are you not at all interested in the “lived experience” of hundreds, thousands of lesbians in their twenties or older who deeply regret “transitioning” - and are angry at the lies they were told?
Gross. You’re offensively dismissing experiences different from your own and mislabeling it with science. Jill Stein swayed the vote by the same margin you are magically attributing to feelings about a false advertisement. Your “logic” and “reason” here is the same tact the GOP uses. You aren’t an ally.
I don’t know what you mean by an “ally”. I’m a gay rights advocate. I am not an “ally” to the TQ+ movement that is harming our gay, bisexual and above all lesbian youth. I was a founding member of the UK Gay Liberation Front and I’m fighting for the same rights now as then. I think it’s better not to insult people who disagree with you: what’s the point?
BS you’re telling me just like that you gave up everything you believed over one issue. Go be MAGA. Such disgust for people like you.
Democracy means that everyone gets to vote. That includes all the people you hold in contempt. If you want the Democratic Party to win back Congress in 2026 (as I dearly hope will happen), I humbly suggest that insulting people isn’t the way to do it. Please help the Democratic Party renounce the anti women policies that are hurting its electability - and talk to people with different views. Many of the people who voted Republican this time loathe Trump just as much as you do - and as much as I do. But spitting hate and cursing is not the way forward. Go well.
I have to say I read this twice and it still doesn’t make sense. PS there really isn’t a liberal television/print media in the US when it is owned by billionaires.
I’m referring mainly to MSNBC, NPR, CNN. None of which report on the issues I have flagged up in a remotely impartial or informative way.
You throw around terms like liberal media and Democratic establishment which are misnomers. I honestly don’t know what you are talking about.
Ok. I don’t mind what labels you prefer. The Democratic establishment is currently represented by the Biden administration. This administration (through Levine) promotes puberty blockers, supports men in women’s sport, and advocates replacing sex with gender identity in Title IX. The US Government is actually (Skrmetti case, Dec 4th) opposing Tennessee before SCOTUS to reverse its ban on puberty blockers. The channels I listed all promote these views and suggest that those who oppose them are rightwing bigots. Which is completely untrue. People like Kara Dansky (or Jamie Reed) are not invited onto those channels to explain their views. That is what I mean.
They are not liberal. That is my point.
Whatever name you want to call them, they advance the narrative on sex and gender issues that is promoted by the Democratic establishment.
Yes exactly!
This is one hundred percent right except ... they don't care about Democracy in the US. Because Democracy allows the possibility that
the bad people might win. Once you understand that they don't really believe in Democracy and women's rights, things become clearer and easier to digest.