Bethel McGrew's essay "Mutilating Our Bodies" appeared in the Christian magazine First Things (July 1, 2022).
McGrew (no pronouns in this article, but uses "she" according to her bio at World, another Christian outlet) names five people who regret their gender transitions. She also deadnames someone who doesn't regret transitioning, and she flaunts the term "deadnaming" in that sentence to show awareness of doing it. She suggests, as a remedy, criminalizing trans people's surgeons.
She warns of "vulnerable, disturbed individuals of all ages hastily ushered into procedures that are nothing short of medical malpractice. Justice demands a reckoning in the form of penalties and strictures..." (emphasis mine). She calls these transitions "trans 'medical' experimentation on children," and although she appeals to the idea of "minor boys and girls who are socially brainwashed into making catastrophic, self-harming decisions," she also includes adults. She cites David Berlinski who argued in 2019 that "society has a duty to enforce certain taboos" for collective wellbeing. A blanket prohibition on gender transition would apply equally to all people — those who would never consider it anyway, along with those who do want it — in which case, as McGrew phrases it with a shrug, "some individuals can’t satisfy all their desires."
McGrew says the correct anti-trans position, in her view, ought to avoid libertarianism (i.e., letting people make their own choices) and instead be "grounded in metaphysical sureties and animated by a passion for the common good."
She compares gender transition to intentionally disabling someone, using the real-life example of one "woman who 'identified' as blind and found a psychologist willing to pour drain cleaner in her eyes....how are his [this psychologist's] actions different in kind from those of the surgeon who amputates healthy breasts or male genitalia?" I want to point out that she's basically saying eyeballs are just like boobs and dicks and putting the burden of proof on trans people to explain why these body parts are different. I am not falling into that trap and would instead reply that the burden of proof is on McGrew, as she brought it up, to explain to us how an eyeball is exactly like a boob in all relevant ways.
Her rhetoric takes this tack: "We are talking here about the full removal of healthy sex organs, which is if anything a deeper physical and psychological trauma than the amputation of a healthy limb." She simply asserts this without backing it up in any way, and of course a relevant point would be that everyone's psychology is different, and that if someone seeks out a particular kind of surgery then it is, for them, likely not a deeper trauma than a surgery they don't want.
If anyone is experiencing psychological trauma here, I think it is the theocrats who realize they don't have control over this area of people's lives in the 21st century.
Except when they do find ways to accomplish that control.
I came across McGrew's name again in this article, "When evil is unmasked: Andrea Long Chu’s New York essay reveals the true motivation behind trans activism." (World, March 15, 2024). She ends the article by saying she isn't looking for compromise: "Christians," she says, have a firm position, so all "attempts to find a 'moderate' compromise are dead in the water." However, "we don’t despise the troubled agnostics. We wait ready to welcome them with open arms as they continue to back away slowly, terrified by the face of pure evil unmasked." [emphasis mine] If your characterization of gender-affirming care for children is language like that, the word transphobia is etymologically appropriate.
As some places have their eyes set on removing gender affirming care for trans adults, note the speed of the Overton window shift.
— Erin Reed (@ErinInTheMorn) July 21, 2022
Just a few months ago we were talking about trans people in sports.
Now it’s trans adult HRT with murmurs of gay marriage and anti-sodomy laws.
Florida is about to medically detransition all of its trans teenagers and ban puberty blockers under 18.
— Erin Reed (@ErinInTheMorn) July 31, 2022
Laws that do this have been blocked in court in ALL other states. Florida COULDNT pass a law, so DeSantis is using state regulation.
FLORIDA BoM Meeting Aug 5! Be there! pic.twitter.com/eL2ieyZlro
As promised, it's now all ages. Thousands of people are about to have their endocrine systems hit with a truck because DeSantis wants to be president. pic.twitter.com/78RAiBZSqR
— jess kant (@jessdkant) August 13, 2022
Under a section called "Gender Dysphoria," Medicaid in Florida is going to drop coverage for puberty blockers, hormones, and surgery, beginning August 21.
"It’s understandable for parents to want to know what is happening in their children’s schools. But it is not possible for transgender minors to access hormone therapy without the consent of at least one of their parents. And school nurses are not giving out puberty blockers, a rarely used and extremely expensive medication, like candy. Many school nurses are not even allowed to provide medication like Tylenol without written parental permission."
But there are schools where teachers will not automatically out a student to their parents, and there’s a really good reason for that. Information about your child that you might approach with curiosity and empathy, far too many parents approach in a way that is dangerous to their own child.
— "Are teachers really transitioning kids in secret?" Ari Drennen. Ask Ari (Substack). November 24, 2023
"A New Oklahoma Bill Will Attempt to Criminalize Trans Care for Adults," Samantha Riedel (Jan 6, 2023):
"SB 129, a new bill introduced by Oklahoma state senator David Bullard on Wednesday, would prohibit medical professionals in the state from providing gender-affirming care to anyone under 26 years old. The bill also prohibits providers or hospitals who provide such care from receiving government funding, and allows individuals to pursue legal action up to 40 years after receiving gender-affirming care — a clause designed to encourage people who regret transitioning, like new right-wing darling Chloe Cole, to go after doctors who Republicans like Bullard claim are 'mutilating' other kids.
A medical provider who still offers gender-affirming care to those under 26 could be found guilty of a felony, which in Oklahoma carries penalties including a $1,000 fine or two years in prison. As with many previous bills of this bent, Bullard carves out an exception for nonconsensual surgeries performed on intersex children."
* * *
"Bullard has titled his legislation 'The Millstone Act of 2023,' apparently in reference to the Bible verse Luke 17:2, which posits it is 'better for him if a millstone is hung around his neck and he is thrown into the sea' than to cause children to 'sin.'"
* * *
"A similar bill authored by Rep. Jim Olsen in December will be introduced at the first session of the Oklahoma House in February. HB 1011 would place an age restriction of 21 on gender-affirming care, five years earlier than Bullard’s bill, but would allow courts to hand down a sentence of up to ten years in prison and fines up to $100,000 to any providers who violate the act."
A bill called the "Millstone Act," referring to a bible verse about penalties for sin, is one clue that the religious right is turning much of its attention to LGBTQ people after successfully overturning Roe v. Wade
— Ari Drennen (@AriDrennen) January 31, 2023
From @herong & @amylittlefieldhttps://t.co/AM3vZzYuGl
From the PB at the Silver Spring event:
— Erin Reed (@ErinInTheMorn) February 20, 2023
Calls for violence are explicit. It used the Millstone verse of tying a stone around someone’s neck and throwing them into the sea, and said “it’s Millstone time!”
Legislators have introduced anti-trans “Millstone Acts” in several states. pic.twitter.com/j1JL4HaePf
this has always been anti-trans activists' game-plan: 1) mischaracterize social transition & puberty blocker as "irreversible", 2) raise the age of consent to gender-affirmative care to the arbitrary & ridiculously high age of 25, 3) then ban it completely... pic.twitter.com/FJOnNVojS7
— Julia Serano (@JuliaSerano) August 17, 2022
...in my research, the 1st instance of anyone suggesting that trans ppl should wait until the age of 25 to transition appeared in April 2016 on the anti-trans website 4thwavenow (who also invented the idea of "transgender social contagion"; details at: https://t.co/DsrYGI3vM1)... pic.twitter.com/Qk1KkQAWxQ
— Julia Serano (@JuliaSerano) August 17, 2022
FYI:
"We identified 55 studies that consist of primary research on this topic, of which 51 (93%) found that gender transition improves the overall well-being of transgender people, while 4 (7%) report mixed or null findings."
— Konomi ๐ณ️⚧️ ๐ณ️๐ (@KonomiKitten) August 16, 2022
There is no other side.https://t.co/xJGt9GasOm
Of 97 trans youth aged 4-20 taking or who would later take hormones or blockers, Norman Spack of the Boston Children's Hospital found that none regretted their decision. His thorough 2012 study examined patients from 1998-2010. https://t.co/Fs8yksdQwe pic.twitter.com/tThQgNYJBB
— Eli Erlick (@EliErlick) October 6, 2022
"Would it shock you to learn that a medical treatment has side effects?" Evan Urquhart opened an article for Assigned Media, "Conservatives In Shock Over List of Drug Side Effects," September 21, 2023. After all, "drugs to treat gender dysphoria have the same sorts of risks and benefits as any other medical treatment." Patients sign "informed consent" forms to acknowledge the "lists of potential side effects for a medication prescribed by a doctor." Urquhart was writing about a press release put out the previous day by America First Legal, titled "SMOKING GUN DOCS: America First Legal Confirms Utah Gender Clinic Knew of Deadly Side-Effects and Risks of Permanent Damage Resulting from “Transgender” Drugs Given to Children." Just from the title, you can see the fallacy. All medication has risks. You can die from literally anything. That's why you sign forms when you see your doctor for anything.
Also, please: Researchers Ask Why Regret is So Rare for Trans Patients, What Can Be Learned, Mira Lazine, Assigned Media. January 9, 2024.
I don’t know how to stress this enough re trans rights: there is no global conspiracy of evil doctors plotting to mutilate children for financial gain and to vanquish feminism. Think of all the impossible things that would have to be true for that to be the case. Come on.
— Sara Gibbs (@Sara_Rose_G) October 11, 2022
TERFs really think that cis girls walk into a doctor’s office and make one comment about feeling off in their body before the knives are whipped out for tit chopping time
— DemoNic Anstett (@NicAnstett) October 11, 2022
How does trying to limit care and legal protections for trans people become so many people's entire personality?
— Chase Strangio (@chasestrangio) October 12, 2022
thanks to the transgenders, a girl i want to have sex with can walk into a clinic and get the procedure to be ugly in mere minutes! a girl i wouldve fucked can become unfuckable to me very quickly, and that is so so so scary. that is so scary please
— DIRT - Chromatic Fantasy REAL soon sorry (@dirtcup_art) October 13, 2022
thanks to trans people a girl i wanted to fuck can become something i dont want to fuck and a someone i didnt want to fuck can become a girl that i do want to fuck. this is a disaster and i have to kill people now
— DIRT - Chromatic Fantasy REAL soon sorry (@dirtcup_art) October 13, 2022
gender critical trans moral panic asks the big tough questions like what if there was a girl i cant have sex with
— DIRT - Chromatic Fantasy REAL soon sorry (@dirtcup_art) October 13, 2022
due to the potential existence of people i dont want to have any sex with, i will have to commit a lot of laws and murder
— DIRT - Chromatic Fantasy REAL soon sorry (@dirtcup_art) October 13, 2022
Something to note about the bans on gender-affirming health care for trans youth is courts have, for decades, consistently found it's cruel and unusual punishment to withhold it from incarcerated trans people https://t.co/EvsfmsP9IF
— Gillian Branstetter (@GBBranstetter) April 7, 2023
You can tell that the anti-LGBTQ (& esp anti-trans) movement is a fascist moral panic bc of the way it exists in a vacuum without any reference to proven structural harms to children.
— Dr. William Horne (@wihorne) October 12, 2022
Dr. Horne lists things that are bad for children that the anti-LGBTQ movement doesn't care about, then concludes:
Republicans engage in this scapegoating, not bc they care abt children (they don't), but bc they care abt power. It is, for the bazillionth time, a fascist movement & those still ignoring that fact do so at their (& everyone else's) peril.
— Dr. William Horne (@wihorne) October 12, 2022
In May 2022, a 20-year-old trans woman died by suicide after waiting three years (1,023 days) for an initial assessment from the NHS Gender Identity Development Service.
Of course, the people in power don't want social transition either. They're unhappy with non-medical solutions. As of October 2022, the NHS in the UK says that most kids who say they're trans are going through a "phase," and the NHS doesn't want doctors to encourage kids to change their names and pronouns.
BREAKING: A new poll found that nearly 80% of American voters believe that minors should be required to wait until they are adults to pursue transgender procedures. Read my latest for @realDailyWire.https://t.co/qRXxL0Qaqj
— Christina Buttons (@buttonslives) October 20, 2022
Happening now...
— Erin Reed (@ErinInTheMorn) February 14, 2023
In 1 minute, a senate committee in Kansas will be holding a hearing to ban gender affirming care up to the age of 21.
It is one of the most cruel anti-trans bans in the country.
I will be covering it live. Follow along.
๐งต pic.twitter.com/qN755xTDX9
Happening now: The Arkansas Senate Judiciary is meeting on SB199, which would be a new medical restriction on trans youth, and SB270, which would ban trans ADULTS from bathrooms and charge them with sex crimes if they walk in and children are present.
— Erin Reed (@ErinInTheMorn) February 20, 2023
Follow along live. ๐งต pic.twitter.com/jFaNToaSTS
this has always been anti-trans activists' game-plan: 1) mischaracterize social transition & puberty blocker as "irreversible", 2) raise the age of consent to gender-affirmative care to the arbitrary & ridiculously high age of 25, 3) then ban it completely... pic.twitter.com/FJOnNVojS7
— Julia Serano (@JuliaSerano) August 17, 2022
There is no evidence that "fewer and fewer" trans kids in the United States are being assessed before receiving gender affirming care.
— Michael Hobbes (@RottenInDenmark) October 27, 2022
Nor is it "apples and zebras" to consider whether Dutch medical practices are relevant to the US. pic.twitter.com/cxiYDWGuEs
They're just openly stating now that they want to ban gender affirming care entirely, including adults. They don't care about individual autonomy, they want to subjugate trans people to their view of what's best for them. pic.twitter.com/51rRqtu349
— Alejandra Caraballo (@Esqueer_) January 16, 2023
In February 2023, a bill introduced in Texas (SB1029) would allow people to sue physicians and insurers for any issue resulting from the gender-affirming care they received at any age.
Florida, one of the worst states for anti-trans legislation, now sees a new bill called the "Reverse Woke" act.
— Erin Reed (@ErinInTheMorn) February 20, 2023
The aim? To remove all gender affirming care coverage for trans adults from private coverage.
Subscribe to support my work.https://t.co/d8yyWDYFJe
I'm in shock.
— Allison Chapman ๐ณ️⚧️ (@AlliRaine22) February 18, 2023
Texas has introduced a bill (SB1029) to effectively BAN ALL GENDER AFFIRMING CARE COVERAGE FOR ALL AGES. If a Doctor or Insurance provides gender affirming care they could be sued for malpractice. pic.twitter.com/EdplcNvw0K
Texas bill goes a bit further in that it targets Texas doctors malpractice insurance as well as health insurance companies.
— Erin Reed (@ErinInTheMorn) February 20, 2023
But Florida is unique in that it is targeting companies.
I anticipate both of these strategies will materialize into the next wave of anti-trans bills.
In one year we have shifted from trans kids shouldn't play in sports to adults shouldn't have hormones.
— Allison Chapman ๐ณ️⚧️ (@AlliRaine22) February 18, 2023
This was never and will never just be about protecting kids.
Bill Text: https://t.co/4tWEDjrdyX
We really escalated from "no trans people in women's sports" to "no gender affirming care for minors" to "no gender affirming care for adults" to "let's try and ban public market coverage for trans adults nationwide" in like less than two years.
— Nic Anstett (@NicAnstett) February 21, 2023
The obsession cis people have with the possibility, no matter how small, of transition regret is fundamentally a fear of the trans body. They'd rather throw all trans people under the dysphoria bus than risk a single member of their own kind living like we do.
— Gillian Branstetter (@GBBranstetter) February 18, 2023
Gender affirming care saves lives!
— Erin Reed (@ErinInTheMorn) February 23, 2023
A new study in the Journal of Plastic and Reconstructive surgery shows AMAZING satisfaction rates.
Of all people who received gender affirming surgery (1,989 sample size), only 6 patients - 0.3% - regretted it and wanted to detransition. pic.twitter.com/y7U53qFa7V
Florida introduced the "Reverse Woke" Act that requires employers cover detransition care in perpetuity if they cover gender affirming care, even if the person is no longer an employee.
— Alejandra Caraballo (@Esqueer_) February 20, 2023
This is a blatant attempt to eliminate ALL coverage of gender affirming care. pic.twitter.com/wqSdhkZJyQ
"You're overreacting by calling the organized legislative assault on transgender people a genocide"
— Erin Reed (@ErinInTheMorn) February 27, 2023
Daily Wire: "You have to ban transgenderism entirely."pic.twitter.com/ARKB2ocVb4
A funny thing about living through your own slow genocide is that it’s impolite to talk about it! Eventually I’ll just go to my early grave, and it will be “a shame.” But if I clearly + truthfully say how society is killing me, I’m “extreme” or “paranoid.”
— ToothBag (@BagTooth) April 12, 2023
these curricular bans are now expanding to 8th grade. why? because society allowed it for K-2. https://t.co/aFgPi01wjx
— Harper B. Keenan (@HarperKeenan) March 15, 2023
An estimated 111,000 transgender people live in Florida — about half a percent of the state population of 22 million. Republican lawmakers have filed at least 18 bills targeting them.
— Kathryn Varn (@kathrynvarn) March 15, 2023
“It’s not just about trans kids anymore,” one advocate said. My latest:https://t.co/c8MATplnlo
For LGBT+ History Month (every February):
Happy #LGBTplusHM! With pundits claiming trans people didn’t exist until recently, I wanted to re-share the story of Mark & David Ferrow, two trans teen brothers that medically transitioned in 1939. They certainly aren’t the first trans youth but they paved the way for many of us https://t.co/PZDkaFHCYU
— Eli Erlick (@EliErlick) February 2, 2023
It's very strange how many random people seem to think they should have a say in whether transitioning is available to others. The vast majority of people are happy with their decision to transition, but even if we were not, people do things that are bad for them all the time. https://t.co/usAKgRbJek
— Ari Drennen (@AriDrennen) March 23, 2023
The insidiousness and disingenuousness of the conversation over trans health care continues to escalate. There are a few critical points that I think we need to make about the care and about the conversation. A Twitter thread is not ideal but here is a start.
— Chase Strangio (@chasestrangio) September 1, 2022
"One problem with the Florida bill is that it overrides regulatory decisions made by the Food and Drug Administration. The drugs known as puberty blockers, which can be used in the treatment of gender-affirming care, have been around for 30 years and are safe and legal when prescribed by a physician. The Florida law is designed to make it impossible to administer those drugs to minors in the state." — Noah Feldman, "Florida can't take trans teens from their parents," (unpaywalled subscriber gift link) Bloomberg, via Washington Post, April 21, 2023
1/ New study reveals self-determination laws actually work.
— TGEU (@TGEUorg) June 19, 2023
The study looks at nine European countries using legal gender recognition based on self-determination.
๐ https://t.co/JhJvyaTHH7#transrights #selfdetermination #selfid #transrightsarehumanrights #genderequality pic.twitter.com/icvc3PJnsc
The wait list is really, really long.
They're discussing this on the NHS website:
Review of NHS adult gender dysphoria clinics, originally published 10 April 2024, updated 6 August
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