NEW DOC SHORT out. The fight over puberty blockers, hormones, etc. is often framed as inseparable from politics, but we show here why a broad coalition--yes, including lefties--is raising concerns or even supporting restrictions. jenniferblockauthor.substack… YouTube link below.
📰A new Finnish study reports that youth gender transitions (under age 23) did not improve mental health symptoms. For some youth, medical gender reassignment may have had a negative impact. Link ⬇️ /1
Ace reporting as always by @writingblock, about how hospitals have robbed women of even the option of delivering vaginally in the case of a breech baby, thus robbing them of providing comprehensive informed consent.
open.substack.com/pub/jennif…
It’s been three years since ‘Time to Think’ was published, so I haven’t read a review in a while. However, these reflections posted yesterday really got to me, especially in the current climate. Whoever posted has, I think, captured the essence of the book. Thank you
This is a remarkable find by @byrne_a: Dr. Loren Schecter, president elect of WPATH and head of gender-affirming surgery at Rush Univ, appears to have done a 180 on whether gender-transition surgeries prevent suicide: x.com/byrne_a/status/2018450…
Dr. Loren Schechter, 2026, on the purpose of gender-transition mastectomies: "Surgery in and of itself is not a treatment or a mechanism to prevent suicide."
Dr. Schechter, 2022: the denial of gender-affirming surgeries "is likely to perpetuate gender dysphoria...leading to an increased possibility of self-harm, negative health outcomes, and even suicide."
Matt Walsh and these other right-wing empty men who think they're avatars of über-masculinity particularly hate Alex Pretti because he exemplified the virtues they love to extol but are too cowardly to actually embody.
They cosplay as trad men by dressing up in campy plaid shirts and sitting in podcast studios with a log cabin aesthetic.
Alex Pretti went to the street to fight for causes he believed in, protected and helped others in both how he protested (he was helping two women when ICE grabbed him) and in his work as an ICU nurse. He lived the values they pretend defines them, all while they lack the courage to ever do or risk anything. He's a reminder to them of what they're not: a mirror showing their own fragility.
That's why they feel vicariously strong watching ICE agents shoot him in the back and killed him.
My mom was stopped and harassed by masked ICE agents while shopping at an outlet mall in Texas. Because she has an accent, they assumed she spoke Spanish and started talking to her in Spanish. When she said she doesn’t speak Spanish, they began demanding where she was “from,” rapidly listing countries without even giving her a chance to respond.
My mom told them she’s been in this country longer than some of them have been alive. She was only allowed to leave after showing a photo of her U.S. passport on her phone.
She is a U.S. citizen. She has lived in this country for 47 years. If you think this is just about “sending criminals back,” you are dead wrong.
I hope the vast majority of freedom-loving Americans are uncomfortable with the idea that masked police are now telling people engaged in First Amendment-protected activity that they are "domestic terrorists" who will be added to a secret government database.
On Instagram, Minneapolis journalist and anchor Jana Shortal of @kare11 - clearly wearing a press credentials - says she was pepper sprayed and punched in the eye by federal agents while trying to capture the aftermath of today’s fatal shooting.
It’s the first day. We will learn more.
A NYT analysis of video offers an initial sequence.
A citizen holding a phone is put on the ground.
His weapon is found and taken.
Only afterward is he shot, again and again and again.
Agents block police from the crime scene.
A judge has unsealed the memo ordering the detention & deportation of Rümeysa Öztürk. It confirms the sole evidence against her was that she co-wrote an op-ed the government disliked.
Here she is being arrested by men in plainclothes. Over an op-ed.
A 19-year-old college student who was on her way to surprise her family for Thanksgiving break was detained at a Boston airport and later deported despite a federal judge's order blocking her removal, according to her attorney. abcnews.link/fwaP77z
Estrogen for menopause was demonized for decades. Now some vocal, very online doctors are saying it’s a miracle drug. The FDA appears to agree. @WritingBlock reports on the latest. thefp.com/p/estrogen-is-back…
Terrific reporting by @writingblock. Exactly the thesis I would have presented. Doesn’t take a genius to see that the pendulum swinging from excessive caution to unbridled enthusiasm is a great way to cause predictable harm.
open.substack.com/pub/bariwe…
Pressure by Transgender Activists Forces Washington State University To Suspend Courses Critical of Medical Gender Treatments for Minors
I report for The @NewYorkSun: @WSU’s med school accredits physician-education courses from a nonprofit that’s skeptical of this field but comes under scrutiny from transgender activist-journalists and a national accreditation body.
nysun.com/article/pressure-b…
Puberty blockers and medical transition often mean losing sexual function. This is something that ought to be general public knowledge by now.
But I learned in producing this article that a lot of people who believe they are paying attention still don't know this.