Free Republic

But while the state’s coffers suffer, Pritzker will be doing just fine. He is a scion of a billionaire family, whose members include former secretary of commerce Penny Pritzker, who was an Obama campaign donor. Another Pritzker sibling, meanwhile, exemplifies how the family has used its vast wealth to promote liberal causes: specifically, the cultural normalization of transgenderism. Earlier this month, Jennifer Bilek explained this in great detail for Tablet. (Bilek prefers to use the term “synthetic sex identities,” or SSI, because she thinks the word “transgenderism” lacks “clear boundaries” and is thus “useless for communication.”): A sample: Ever since,...

A large study of parents of children who identify as transgender has uncovered worryingly large numbers who complain of 'pressure' to transition their children, even though they felt it was not in the child's best interests. The survey of 1,655 parents, published in the Archives of Sexual Behavior, found that more than half of the parents who were referred to gender therapists said they felt directed to put their kids on medical treatments or change their wardrobe. The paper, by Northwestern University psychology professor Michael Bailey, comes amid concerns over rising numbers of young people identifying as trans and non-binary,...

As I learned through my painful experience, ‘gender affirming treatment’ is medical fraud and malpractice.This April marks 40 years since my therapist told me a “sex change” was the only answer to my persistent mental difficulties. Unfortunately, I followed his advice, obtained cross-sex hormones, and underwent surgery. As I learned through my painful experience, “gender-affirming treatment” (GAT), also known as “gender-affirming care,” is medical fraud and malpractice.A person’s sex cannot be changed. I know. I lived and identified as a woman for eight years. Hormones and surgery didn’t change my sex. I was a man before surgery, and I remained...

De-transitioned teen sues over double mastectomy at age 13. (Credit: Fox News) This is a horrendous account, which I doubt will be the last of its kind. An 18-year-old de-transitioned victim has filed a lawsuit accusing a hospital and medical group of “intentional fraud and concealment” for a double mastectomy she underwent at just 13 after she first identified as transgender at age 11.As reported by Fox News, Layla Jane is suing Permanente Medical Group and subsidiary Kaiser Foundation Hospitals (headquartered in super-woke California), the medical providers who performed the double mastectomy. Moreover, Jane alleged in an interview that...

The fanatical gender extremism of Team Biden never ends. The latest outburst: Assistant Secretary of Health Rachel Levine’s announcement at a Connecticut children’s hospital that practices “gender affirming” pediatric care — i.e. cross-sex hormones and even surgeries — that these procedures have “support at the highest levels of the federal government.“ “President Biden supports you. I as the Assistant Secretary for Health will support you,” said Levine (who is herself transgender). Parents, science and possible regrets be damned: Get these kids on drugs and the operating table! Remember, Levine’s remarks come amid a global trend of growing, justified skepticism about...

A transgender protester injected herself to gasps during a meeting where she and others opposed plans to ban so-called gender affirming care for children. The unnamed woman, who had blue hair and horn-rimmed glasses, declared: 'I was once a trans youth, and now I'm a happy 22-year-old trans adult... this is my healthcare, don't tread on it.' She proudly produced the syringe, then stuck the needle into her arm and pushed the plunger, to an audible gasp from an unseen eyewitness at the hearing in Tallahassee earlier this week. It's unclear what was in the syringe, although many transgender people...

'We were wrong’: Transgender clinic founder regrets her role in the mutilation of children The puberty blockers are 'not as reversible as we always thought, and they have longer term effects on kids’ growth and development, including making them sterile and quite a number of things affecting their bone growth.' (LifeSiteNews) — A gender clinic founder and former professor at the University of Toronto recently said that she regrets helping kids “transition,” and acknowledges that most gender-confused kids will grow out of their dysphoria by adulthood. Dr. Susan Bradley “came out against the popular model of affirming children’s transgender identities...

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) on Tuesday responded after President Biden criticized Florida for making efforts to protect children from transgender surgeries and so-called “gender-affirming” treatments. “It is not ‘sinful’ to prohibit the mutilation of minors,” DeSantis said in response to Biden, who lamented the state of affairs in Florida during an interview on The Daily Show. “What’s going on in Florida is, as my mother would say, close to sinful. It’s just terrible what they’re doing,” Biden told Kal Penn. “It’s not like a kid wakes up one morning and says, ‘You know, I decided I wanted to become...

Experts are urging caution in the use of life-changing medical treatment for children and adolescents In 2013, the number of children treated annually at the Doernbecher Children’s Hospital gender clinic at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland was 16. In 2021, the number was 724 – a rise of about 4500 percent. This is far from unusual. Across the United States and Europe, the number of children and adolescents with gender dysphoria is exploding. No one really knows why. But many specialised gender clinics are offering them life-changing medical treatment – puberty blockers, sex change hormones, and even “gender...