Notices by Evan Urquhart 🏳️‍⚧️ (e_urq@journa.host), page 3

The problem with talking about birth-sex socialization is that people (mostly cis but some self-hating trans ppl too) want to explain trans people's behavior, particularly bad behavior, by referencing their birth-sex.

Everything about the discussion is fucked up bc it comes from a fucked up place.

Trans people are often happy to talk about the nuances and complexities of our individual experiences, but all birth-sex socialization talk does is flatten those complexities into a caricature.

In order to fight a ban on their continued participation in school sports, two young girls in Utah will be forced to share their medical records, including therapy records, with hostile state attorneys.

https://www.sltrib.com/news/education/2023/09/12/private-medical-records/

One of the most blatant lies about gender-affirming care for youth also one of the most ubiquitous statements made about it, so I want to be clear:

Affirming a young person's gender identity does not involve sterilizing them. Often, it doesn't involve medical interventions at all. When it does involve medical treatment, most of those treatments do not impact fertility. #trans #transgender #news #journalism

https://www.assignedmedia.org/breaking-news/chloe-cole-knows-shes-lying-about-sterilization

Parents of trans youth spent hours pouring their hearts out to an NYT reporter. They thought she empathized with them, and trusted her with their stories. But as publication approached, one mom began to grow suspicious of the reporter's closeness to the very anti-trans activist she'd proven to Ghoraysh had lied in a sworn affidavit.

The story of an aggressive NYT reporter who played hardball with a vulnerable family, and won. #trans #news #journalism #transgender

https://www.assignedmedia.org/breaking-news/you-betrayed-us-azeen-parents-of-trans-youth-reeling-after-speaking-to-the-nyt

Neat science and a demonstration of how complicated the biology of biological sex really is: An XY intersex woman gave birth recently in India, according to Sky News.

https://news.sky.com/story/genetically-male-woman-gives-birth-to-twins-10372114

Mastodon, I'm bringing this one to you first.

Earlier this week the New York Times claimed to have partially corroborated some of Jamie Reed's allegations against a clinic for transgender youth in St. Louis.

Their story did not back up the assertion that they corroborated Reed's claims. I know that because I looked at every single one of the 69 claims. #trans #transgender #news #journalism #Newstodon #bias

https://www.assignedmedia.org/breaking-news/jamie-reeds-allegations-are-not-even-partially-confirmed

If you believe in deep investigative dives into major media cock-ups, please support me by subscribing to my newsletter or donating to Assigned Media.

https://www.assignedmedia.org/newsletter

EXCITING ANNOUNCEMENT!

For months I have been working on an upcoming project, and today's the day I'm finally announcing it to the world.

With the help of an amazing team of transgender writers and a trans dev, Assigned Media is creating the Trans Data Library, a repository of information (a bit like a wiki) on anti-trans activists, "expert" witnesses, and organizations. #trans #journalism

Here's a link with more info, including how you can lend your support:

https://fnd.us/82DFHf?ref=sh_7CYPb4

Did you see this piece in the Guardian? Senior managers at Vice apparently blocked a story about how the Saudi government helps families harass and threaten transgender Saudis living overseas. Vice now gets a lot of Saudi money, and it seems like the editorial independence of their news team was part of the deal.

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2023/aug/15/vice-blocked-news-stories-that-could-offend-saudi-arabia-insiders-say

Ray Blanchard's autogynephilia research continues to be relied on by keyboard warriors and the right wing press as the transphobes' favorite explanation for why trans women exist.

It's antiquated, it's dumb, it's been undermined by multiple subsequent findings that contradict its key claims, but is it REQUIRING RETRACTION level bad?

One woman says it is. #trans #science #journalism

https://www.assignedmedia.org/breaking-news/ray-blanchard-retraction-proposed

Did you know that the scale Blanchard used to categorize his respondents' sexuality scored them as less heterosexual if they were under 25?

I did not!

What I find really compelling about Christa Peterson's work is that sh'es not just asking if there are better explanations for Blanchard's data than his theory of autogynephilia, but whether he was even measuring the things he claimed to be measuring in the first place?

Ironically, this firm is the same one that represented a Catholic foster care agency and successfully argued that they were constitutionally entitled to discriminate against prospective foster parents who are LGBTQ+.

Under this SCOTUS, it certainly seems plausible that we could end up with no right for LGBTQ+ people to be foster parents, but a right for Catholics who say they'd impose their beliefs on LGBTQ+ youth in their home to be approved.

A lawfirm with a track record of pushing the Supreme Court towards more and more extreme positions under the guise of protecting religious liberty is bringing a suit in MA on behalf of a Catholic couple who weren't licensed as foster parents because they stated they would not affirm an LGBTQ youth.

I think this one is going to be big. #LGBTQ #news #SupremeCourt #law

https://www.assignedmedia.org/breaking-news/couple-sues-ma-asserts-religious-right-to-reject-lgbtq-foster-youth

Good morning, Mastodon!

I just read an unsettling story about the continuing knock-on effects of the right's all out war on trans people.

In the Beechmont neighborhood of Louisville, KY, an open-air market has lost its manager and perhaps its future existence after a Baptist pastor objected to how the marketer, a transfemme, was dressed. #trans #news #journalism #religion

https://www.lpm.org/news/2023-08-07/in-beechmont-a-pastors-complaints-led-to-a-transgender-market-managers-resignation

AP Psychology is officially banned in Florida because it includes instruction on gender and sexuality.

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/2023/08/03/florida-bans-ap-psychology-over-gender-identity-sexual-orientation-lessons/

A trans girl who was suspended multiple times for using the girls restroom at school finally broke down and used the boys restroom, and was threatened with rape by the boys.

Trans people don't use the bathrooms we use to feel affirmed, it's a decision based on pragmatism and, often, physical safety as well.

https://www.kctv5.com/2023/08/03/lawsuit-trans-student-was-denied-use-girls-restroom-platte-county-high-subject-verbal-harassment/

As always, I do caution against putting too much blame on the young person in these stories.

Abbigail Wheeler is 16. There are tons of bratty, attention seeking kids out there, arguably most are at that age. It's the adults who are responsible for turning this shitty teen behavior into national news to fuel a moral panic targeting innocent trans folks.

For the third time this year a story about a cis girl seeing a trans woman naked in a YMCA locker room has fallen apart as more details became known.

Abbigail Wheeler saw two trans women sitting on a bench talking in their bathing suits, but never saw them change. She posted hateful signs targeting them and her family canceled their YMCA membership and pulled her from the swim team rather than allow her to face consequences for her behavior. #trans #news #journalism

https://www.assignedmedia.org/breaking-news/illinois-ymca-wheeler-protest-transgender

New guidelines targeting trans youth in Virginia schools have proven, once again, that it is impossible to craft an anti-trans policy without hurting many more cis people.

In this case, the rule prohibiting nicknames that aren't "closely associated" with a child's legal name will inevitably impact cis children with different cultural or ethnic backgrounds more than white Americans. #trans #news #journalism

https://www.assignedmedia.org/breaking-news/va-youngkins-anti-trans-school-rules-prohibit-uncommon-nicknames

@UncivilServant I almost mentioned people who go by middle names or a nickname of a middle name, but I wasn't sure- it might be fine according to this if the middle name is listed as part of their full name with the school.