Mississippi lawmakers propose ‘license to harass’ for transphobic teachers

We live in a time when so-called “Christians” channel the darkness of the Anti-Christ and where so-called “radical feminists” attack and humiliate women. Please keep in mind that these transphobes do not represent the majority. Good will prevail, if we show good people what kind of evil these activists represents.

Here is an example of what kind of actions they are willing to take.

Mississippi Republicans are now proposing a law that is to protect teachers who bully children and teenagers:

HB 1176 would update state law determining how school employees may be disciplined, adding specific language prohibiting their dismissal or suspension “for referring to any individual student’s immutable biological sex as objectively determined by anatomy and genetics at time of birth.”
School employees would be barred from being disciplined “despite the student’s preference to identify as the opposite gender after undergoing stages of transition as a pansexual, transsexual or transgender, whether through sex reassignment, gender identity transitioning, hormonal therapy treatment or other philosophical processes.”

We need to make this clear: This is not only about allowing teachers to harass transgender students. This is about a policy that allows teachers to harass children and youth in support of a specific political goal. These law makers are establishing a precedence for using the harassment of kids as a legitimate political tool.

That is pure evil, plain and simple.

The law is sponsored by Tom Weathersby, a Republican law maker. Send a polite email to tweathersby@house.ms.gov or a letter to this address and ask him to stop defending violence against young people. If you live in Mississippi send a copy to your own representative.

This is the face of a man who want to protect teachers who torment kids.

By the way: Tom Weathersby is also known for proposing a law that would lead to fines and even counseling for people who wear “sagging” pants, or a style in which pants hang so low that underwear is exposed. It seems to me that it is Mr. Weathersby who needs counseling.

The proposed law.

This is an amazing text. Weathersby & Co seems to think of transitioning as some kind of “philosophical process”. They also seem to think that “pansexual” – which is a sexual orientation – means more or less the same as transsexual. They could at least bother to read up on the topic first.

Anonymous asked

hi! can you explain the whole "you don't need dysphoria to be trans" thing to me? i'm trans myself and i of course want to be accepting this idea, but i don't understand. i'd be super happy if you could help.

crossdreamers answered

You do not need dysphoria to be trans

The term transgender has, at least since the 1990s, been a broad umbrella term referring to many types of gender variance, including nonbinary identities and people with gender expressions outside the binary. Many of them do not suffer from gender dysphoria.

It could be, though, that your question is based on a more narrow understanding of transgender, as in “those who have transitioned or want to transition to another gender”, whether this is socially, legally or through body modifications.

This is where things are getting complicated, because the answer to your question depends on your understanding of gender dysphoria.

In this debate a lot of people equal gender dysphoria with body dysphoria, referring to some kind of alienation from your given body. This is indeed a very common expression of gender dysphoria, but the American psychiatric manual, the DSM-5, allows for other variations, as well.

Here’s what the DSM-5 says. I have added emphasis to some very important phrases.

Gender Dysphoria in Adolescents and Adults 302.95 (F64.1)

A. A marked incongruence between one’s experienced/expressed gender and assigned gender, of at least 6 months’ duration, as manifested by at least two of the following:

1. A marked incongruence between one’s experienced/expressed gender and primary and/or secondary sex characteristics (or in young adolescents, the anticipated sex characteristics).
2. A strong desire to be rid of one’s primary and /or secondary sex characteristics because of a marked incongruence with one’s experienced/expressed gender (or in young adolescents, a desire to prevent the development of the anticipated secondary sex characteristics)
3. A strong desire for the primary and/or secondary sex characteristics of the other gender.
4. A strong desire to be of the other gender (or some alternative gender different from one’s assigned gender).
5. A strong desire to be treated as the other gender (or some alternative gender different from one’s assigned gender).
6. A strong conviction that one has the typical feelings and reactions of the other gender (or some alternative gender different from one’s assigned gender).

[p. 453] B. The condition is associated with clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.

You need to tick off only two of the six variables to be diagnosed as gender dysphoric, and as you can see, three of them are not referring to the body.

By the way, in the DSM-5 the term transgender “refers to the broad spectrum of individuals who transiently or persistently identify with a gender different from their natal gender.” This is a much broader concept than “those diagnosed with gender dysphoria” (who are normally referred to as “transsexuals” in the medical community).

As I see it, gender dysphoria is the mind and the body’s way of expressing some kind of distress caused by a misalignment between your real gender identity and the one you are expected to present to the world. This does not have to be a feeling of “being trapped in the wrong body.”

I personally find it hard to understand how someone would be motivated to go through all the pain of transitioning socially and/or medically without feeling some kind of distress because of their present gender status.

I know that some argue that there are trans women and trans men who transition for purely sexual reasons (”fetish!”, “autogynephilia!”). But DSM-5 is clear in this respect: Sexual frustration may also be a sign of gender dysphoria, and you will find that those trans people who do have cross-gender fantasies, also report many other reasons for wanting to transition.

Note also that gender dysphoria will be significantly reduced or disappear in trans people who have transitioned. They are still trans.

To sum up:

1. Transgender is an umbrella term that encompasses all types of gender variance, and gender dysphoria is not required.

2. Gender dysphoria does not require that you are feeling alienated from your body.

Researchers lie about transgender youth

Lisa T Mullin makes some important observations regarding a letter from British and Irish researchers.

Note the following:

Transphobic researchers and TERF activists mix data about children with data about youth. These are dissimilar groups.

Secondly: They confuse data about gender variant kids and youth (which is a broad category that includes both gender nonconforming kids and gender dysphoric kids) with data about those who suffer from gender dysphoria. The fact that many gender nonconforming kids do not chose to transition when they get older, should come as no surprise. This does not mean that the same is true for gender dysphoric kinds. We know that it isn’t!

TV Line presents the first images of Supergirl’s new transgender super hero Dreamer (also known as CatCo reporter Nia Nal). The role is played by transgender actor Nicole Maines.

People have been gendering robots for a long time in popular culture. Genitals have nothing to do with it.

Via Marianne Oakes over at twitter.

“This is me”Norwegian transgender woman and trans activist Christine Marie Jentoft over at twitter.

“This is me”

Norwegian transgender woman and trans activist Christine Marie Jentoft over at twitter.

Not everyone transitions

bigtransmoods:

So I don’t hear very often a lot of support for those who don’t transition whether that is at all or those who only transition to a certain extent. Some people only feel dysphoria on the top and therefore a trans woman may decide to have breast augmentation and nothing more as she doesn’t want to transition fully. Shes still a woman, shes still trans and for whatever reason she has for not wanting to transition is none of your business. A transman may decide to just be on T and have no surgeries. He is still a man and doesn’t need to explain that decision to you.
I used to struggle to understand why someone wouldn’t transition fully but from thinking perhaps I wouldn’t either, I’ve grown to understand and accept it. I want to transition fully but that doesn’t mean someone who chooses not to isn’t trans.You and I have no right to ask why or make out that they aren’t trans, if they have dysphoria they are trans and that is it. Some people risk health conditions, some people aren’t financially stable enough, and some people just prefer to not transition completely.
I respect you. I value you in the community. No matter how far you transition there will always be a place for you in LGBT and there will always be people for you to talk to and be accepted by.

Bigtransmoods makes some important points.

Although there is no doubt that a lot of transgender people benefit greatly from being allowed to transition, and that this it especially important for those who are gender dypshoric, we should keep in mind that some find that transitioning will not be a part of their transgender journey.

There are many possible reasons for this:

- Maybe they are not gender dysphoric and manage to express and experience their gender variance by other means.

- Some may be some shade of nonbinary, so legally and physically transitioning to the other side of the binary makes little sense.

- There could be health reasons.

- Some feel that they are too old, and that they will not be able to live the life they have wanted.

- Some fear that transitioning will cause them to lose their loved ones. Sure, this is probably because they live in a transphobic community or prejudiced family, but that does not make this problem less real.

- People are different. Some are outgoing daredevils who are able to violate social expectations, while others believe that they will not be able to “pull it off”. They may be wrong about this, but we do not have the info needed to judge them.

As for “transitioning fully”: I think most trans people these days agree that “bottom surgery” is not required for someone to transition. If you live and present as your real gender, you have transitioned, regardless of what is found between your legs.

Transgender Activist Raquel Willis Appointed Executive Editor at Out Magazine - Essence

Announced on Monday, Willis has joined the team at the long-running publication that has been dedicated to LGBT issues since 1992.

Essence writes:

Prior to packing up and moving cross-country from Oakland, Calif., to New York City to accept the position, the Black, trans journalist made a name for herself as an outspoken advocate for social justice issues. In the frays of the Black Lives Matter Movement, Willis emerged as an eloquent speaker, writer, and organizer on the topics of police brutality, racial profiling, the targeting of sex workers, and the fight of queer and trans Black people to be heard and respected. Her efforts led to her speaking at the 2017 Women’s March in Washington, D.C. and she believes it’s also what steered her back to the publishing world.

Mass Psychogenic Illness: The Latest Make-Believe Cause of Transgender Identity

Trans philosopher and activist Julia Serano has published a new important article on the pseudo-science of transphobic activists.

Since the great majority of researchers and trans health providers realize that trans people are neither mentally ill nor delusional, right wing extremists and trans-exclusionary radical feminists try to dig up transphobes in the scientific community who can help them come up with some science-sounding terms. And if that does not work, they make up terms themselves.

Serano starts out like this:

Last week, Psychology Today published an article entitled “Why Is Transgender Identity on the Rise Among Teens?” Most contemporary trans health professionals will tell you that such increases should not be such a surprise, as the reduction in societal stigma and increasing transgender awareness has simply made it possible for kids who would have been forced to remain closeted and repress their feelings during past generations (such as my own) to now openly explore and express their genders — I discuss this in detail (along with a helpful analogy to the relatively recent rise in left-handedness) in my essay Transgender Agendas, Social Contagion, Peer Pressure, and Prevalence. Unfortunately, Samuel Veissière (the author of the Psychology Today article) doesn’t even consider this possibility. Instead, he turns the “inciting moral panic” dial up to eleven, as we’ve seen far too often from pop-science and op-ed writers lately.
Veissière spends the bulk of the article promoting Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria (ROGD) as a cause of transgender identity, without ever mentioning to readers that trans health professionals do not consider ROGD to be a valid condition or diagnosis, or that the research study he cites in support of it is horribly flawed and provides no actual evidence (other than mere anecdotes and innuendo) that “social contagion” is “turning teenagers transgender.” (My critique of the ROGD study, and the concept more generally—including claims about “peer clusters,” social media influences, and false assertions that “late onset” gender dysphoria is a new phenomenon — can be found via that link.)
In addition to promoting ROGD, Veissière forwards his own make-believe cause of transgender identity, one that I have never heard before in my two decades of researching and writing about trans people and issues. Veissière argues that “Mass Psychogenic Illness” may be causing teenagers to come out as transgender en masse, and he cites rare past occurrences of mass fainting or face-twitching, along with The Dancing Plague of 1518, as potential analogies. Hell, if we’re reaching all the way back to medieval times to account for modern-day transgender teenagers, why not invoke The Western Schism of 1378? Or The Wolves of Paris of 1450?

More here!

Photo: Avesun.

Crossdresser, Transgender, Bigender: In Search of an Explanation

Jemimah looks at what it means to be bigender over at Crossdreamers.com, and explains what this means for their identity, gender expression and sexuality.

What is the difference between being a crossdresser, being a transsexual or being bigender? Jemimah argues that what we face here is more of a continuum.

Click here to read Crossdresser, Transgender, Bigender: In Search of an Explanation

Illustration: Jupiter Images