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Children’s Hospital Drops Gender Markers From Patient Wristbands

Children’s Hospital Colorado has removed gender markers from patients’ wristbands as part of an effort to support their “unique gender identity.”

The hospital said its staff understands that it’s “not easy growing up with an expansive gender identity or expression,” and “believe[s] gender-diverse children need a stable support system as they navigate their transition.”

The idea was implemented on Sept. 20 after the hospital started a gender diversity task force, KUSA reported last week. The identifying markers were removed from wristbands in its Aurora hospital. . .

One patient, a teenager named Ben, said the change is “huge” for him, as he’s been going to the hospital for roughly two years and identifies as a female to male transgender person. . .

Ben is part of a group of around 800 patients at the hospital’s TRUE Center for Gender Diversity, which stands for trust, understand, respect and emerge. The hospital described the group as a “safe space.” (Read more from “Children’s Hospital Drops Gender Markers From Patient Wristbands” HERE)

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Judge: Federal Law Bars Denying Insurance Coverage for Transgender Medicine

Denying insurance coverage for transgender health care is unlawful under the Affordable Care Act and federal laws prohibiting sex discrimination, a federal judge in St. Paul ruled Thursday in a case that is being closely watched nationally.

The opinion came in the case of a Minnesota woman who sued her employer, Essentia Health, for denying coverage for her son’s gender transition, including surgery and medications. HealthPartners, as the plan administrator, was also named as a defendant.

While it does not decide the underlying lawsuit, Judge Donovan Frank’s ruling settled a key legal question that could have implications for future transgender health litigation, attorneys said Friday. That would be true especially if the Trump administration follows through on its stated intention to roll back Obama-era regulations that required health insurers to cover transgender health care.

“By denying health care coverage for treatment that was not only warranted but prescribed by a doctor, ­Essentia and HealthPartners clearly discriminated against my son and violated the law,” said Brittany Tovar, a nurse practitioner from Ada, Minn., who used to work for Essentia, a Duluth-based health care system.

“It is a huge victory where there are not many precedents,” said Omar Gonzalez-Pagan, a senior attorney and health care strategist with Lambda Legal, an LGBTQ legal rights group that has no connection with the case. “This is one of three rulings [nationally], all of them in our favor.” (Read more from “Judge: Federal Law Bars Denying Insurance Coverage for Transgender Medicine” HERE)

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Brown University Silences Research on Transgenderism From One of Their Own Faculty Members

A controversial study on transgenderism is now being suppressed by Brown University.

The results of the recently released study, a culmination of research performed by assistant professor of behavioral and social sciences Lisa Littman, indicates that the pubescent onset of gender dysphoria may be due more to peer pressure and/or internet influence than to biological factors.

Littman’s research on “rapid onset gender dysphoria” was published last month in the highly regarded, peer-reviewed scientific journal PLOS ONE. Parental observations served as the primary basis for the study, which explored situations where “one, multiple, or even all of the friends [in a friend group] have become gender dysphoric and transgender-identified during the same timeframe.” . . .

The study focused on adolescents and young people, primarily girls, who had not previously expressed discomfort with their bodies prior to announcing to their parents that they were transgender.

Littman’s research explores the connection between these children, and whether or not watching YouTube sex-change videos, hanging out in online venues such as Reddit or Tumblr, and spending time with other transgender young people contributed to a sudden decision to adopt an alternate sexual identity. The results seem to indicate that this is, indeed, the case–over 60% of parents surveyed reported that YouTube and Tumblr influenced their kids to be transgender, and upwards of 40% of parents believe that friends both in real life and online also played a role. (Read more from “Brown University Silences Research on Transgenderism From One of Their Own Faculty Members” HERE)

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TRANS TRAINS? ‘Thomas the Tank Engine’ Goes ‘Gender-Balanced,’ ‘Multicultural’

The classic children’s series, “Thomas the Tank Engine,” is relaunching next week with an updated set of characters and a commitment to being more “inclusive, gender-balanced,” and “multicultural.” . . .

According to The Independent, Thomas’s “Stem Team” — the core group of anthropomorphic railroad cars that make up the show’s cast — will now be “gender balanced,” with three “male” trains and three “female” trains taking center stage, rather than the male-heavy team that held down Sir Toppem Hat’s rail yard in the original series. . .

“The new female characters include Isla, an Australian flying doctor; Hong-mei, a number 1 blue tank engine from China; and Churubala, a female railway controller from India,” The Independent reports. “The Steam Team is now gender-balanced, with three male and three female characters: Percy, James, Gordon, Emily and new members Nia and Rebecca, as well as Thomas.”

The team behind “Thomas” hopes that’ll boost the show among female viewers, and satisfy viewers across the world.

“The show has undergone an evolution to remain relevant for the next generation of parents and children by opening up the world of Thomas & Friends so children can discover the world around them while being entertained,” the show’s senior producer, Ian McCue, said in a statement. (Read more from “TRANS TRAINS? ‘Thomas the Tank Engine’ Goes ‘Gender-Balanced,’ ‘Multicultural'” HERE)

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University Caves, Removes Research Suggesting Being Transgender Is a Result of Peer Pressure

Brown University retracted research suggesting that young peoples’ decisions to transition from one gender to another is influenced by their peers and social media after angering the transgender community.

The university published behavioral and social sciences professor Lisa Littman’s research, “Rapid-onset gender dysphoria in adolescents and young adults,” revealing that students and young people considering transitioning may be affected by their peers.

Littman conducted her study by posting a 90-question survey on three websites where parents had reported rapid onsets of gender dysphoria. The responses were recorded anonymously and 256 parent-completed surveys met the study’s standards.

In nearly 40 percent of the friendship groups described, the majority of the members became “transgender-identified.”

Over 60 percent of the transgender adolescents had been diagnosed with at least one mental health disorder or neurodevelopmental disability prior to the onset of their gender dysphoria, according to the study’s results. (Read more from “University Caves, Removes Research Suggesting Being Transgender Is a Result of Peer Pressure” HERE)

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Watch: Trans Activist Slanders ‘Conservative A**Hole’ Ben Shapiro for ‘Catcalling’ Ocasio-Cortez, Gets Everything Wrong

In a fallacy-filled YouTube video posted last week, intersectional feminist and transgender activist Riley J. Dennis gushes over Congressional candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and goes off on Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief Ben Shapiro for allegedly believing he’s “entitled” to a debate with the democratic socialist.

For those who aren’t up to speed, Shapiro, in response to Ocasio-Cortez saying Republicans are “scared” of her, offered $10,000 to the open socialist’s campaign or to charity if she were to discuss her views with him on his Sunday Special show, or debate the issues. Bizarrely, Ocasio-Cortez responded by accusing Shapiro — a nerdy (sorry, boss) Orthodox Jew who literally wrote the book condemning our oversexed culture — of “catcalling” her. . .

Echoing the same absurd talking points of the Left, Riley spewed lie after lie about Shapiro, whom he referred to as a “conservative a**hole,” before the heated shpiel turned into a rant about how he doesn’t like conservatives asking him to debate his beliefs.

“Today we’re talking about debates, and whether or not you have the right to other people’s time,” Riley starts the video. “The reason we’re talking about this is because recently some conservative a**hole on the Internet demanded that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez debate him,” he said. . .

Of course, this is a lie. Shapiro merely called out Ocasio-Cortez for calling him sexist and claiming he had bad intensions without any evidence; he didn’t continuously harass her as Riley suggests. “Discussion and debate are not ‘bad intentions.’ Slandering someone as a sexist catcaller without reason or evidence does demonstrate cowardice and bad intent, however,” replied Shapiro, adding, “But sure, go with ‘the Orthodox Jew who has never catcalled a woman in his life is ACKSHUALLY a sexist catcaller for asking for a discussion or debate.’ I’m sure your media sycophants will eat it up.” [Narrator: They did.]

(For more from the author of “Watch: Trans Activist Slanders ‘Conservative A**Hole’ Ben Shapiro for ‘Catcalling’ Ocasio-Cortez, Gets Everything Wrong” please click HERE)

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Medical Website Indulges Trans Community With New Term for Female Genitalia

A health information site titled Healthline, which serves a reputed 85 million people a month, is offering an “LGBTQIA Safe Sex Guide” that stipulates the word “vagina” is no longer appropriate for that part of the female genitalia. Instead, the proper term for that orifice is . . . “front hole.”

But why, you may ask? Why is a term that has been used for ages suddenly jettisoned in favor of the term “front hole?” The LGBTQIA Safe Sex Guide writes:

For the purposes of this guide, we’ll refer to the vagina as the “front hole” instead of solely using the medical term “vagina.” This is gender-inclusive language that’s considerate of the fact that some trans people don’t identify with the labels the medical community attaches to their genitals.

The term “front hole” has been bandied about for a while; last January Bustle quoted “sex educator” Kenna Cook pontificating, “Language for sex that is coded in anatomy is meant to reinforce a heteronormative, reproductive-based idea of sex … The terms people use for their sexual body parts are a large contributor to them feeling comfortable engaging in certain sex acts. Some trans men don’t refer to their genitals with female-coded language, opting for ‘boy hole’ or ‘front hole.’” (Read more from “Medical Website Indulges Trans Community With New Term for Female Genitalia” HERE)

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Faith-Based Women’s Shelter in Legal Battle Over Turning Away Man Who Identifies as a Woman

Nearly a year ago, the Anchorage Equal Rights Commission filed suit against a Christian women’s shelter for not allowing a man to sleep there overnight. . .

Drunk, visibly wounded, and wearing a woman’s nightgown, [Timothy] Coyle–a biological male who identifies as a woman and goes by the name Samantha–told the female Hope employee at the door that he’d just been kicked out of the nearby Brother Francis Shelter, for fighting.

Sherrie Laurie, Hope’s director, ultimately told Coyle that he couldn’t stay at the Christian shelter. (Hope houses battered women, in addition to victims of sex-trafficking.) Instead, she gave him money for a cab and sent him to the emergency room for treatment, recommending that he eventually make his way to the Abused Women’s Aid in Crisis (AWAIC.) . . .

Four days later, Timothy Coyle filed a complaint with the Anchorage Equal Rights Commission, claiming he was discriminated against on the basis of his sexual identity. A municipal ordinance in Anchorage includes an anti-discrimination statute that, since 2015, names gender identity as a protected class. . .

The Anchorage Equal Rights Commission has additionally filed a discrimination complaint against Hope’s attorney, claiming he has “been identified as the source of statements and information, published in various printed media sources, which implied or stated that transgender individuals would not be allowed to be “sheltered” at the Downtown Soup Kitchen Hope Center.” (Read more from “Faith-Based Women’s Shelter in Legal Battle Over Turning Away Man Who Identifies as a Woman” HERE)

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Transgender Man Elected as Governor in Vermont

Primary season continued its steady march toward November Tuesday night as voters in Connecticut, Minnesota, Vermont and Wisconsin took to the polls to choose candidates for a number of competitive general election contests. . .

Christine Hallquist, the former chief executive of the Vermont Electric Cooperative, won the Democratic gubernatorial primary Tuesday evening, The Associated Press projected. The AP also has projected that incumbent Gov. Phil Scott will win the Republican gubernatorial primary to face Hallquist in November.

Scott faced a primary challenge from first-time candidate Keith Stern, who mounted a serious challenge to the incumbent by running to Scott’s right. The Republican Governor’s Association invested more than $1 million in a PAC supporting Scott’s re-election, according to FiveThirtyEight. Scott infuriated pro-gun factions of his base by supporting gun-control measures, the AP reported.

The AP also projects that Wisconsin Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Evers will win the Democratic nomination for governor in Wisconsin’s primary election. Evers was one of eight Democrats competing to challenge Scott Walker. A recent NBC News/Marist poll showed Walker trailing Evers by 13 points in the general election.

Facing Wisconsin Sen. Tammy Baldwin in November is Leah Vukmir, who the AP projects to win the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate. (Read more from “Transgender Man Elected as Governor in Vermont” HERE)

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CrossFit to Allow Transgender Athletes to Compete in Annual Event

Beginning in 2019, transgender CrossFit athletes will be permitted to choose whether they compete as men or as women in the annual CrossFit Games.

This shift represents a significant change in CrossFit’s policies. Since the competition’s inception in 2007, athletes have been required to register as either male or female, depending upon their actual biological sex. But CrossFit’s recent decision will change all of that.

According to the LGBTQ website them, CrossFit CEO and co-founder Greg Glassman announced the policy change last Friday. He was speaking at an LGBTQ-themed event titled “Big Gay Happy Hour,” designed to kick off the Reebok 2018 CrossFit Games being held in Madison, Wisconsin.

“In the 2019 CrossFit competitive season, starting with the Open, transgender athletes are welcome to participate in the division with which they identify,” Glassman said. “This is the right thing to do. CrossFit believes in the potential, capacity, and dignity of every athlete. We are proud of our LGBT community, including our transgender athletes, and we want you here with us.” . . .

BuzzFeed News reports that in 2014, personal trainer Chloie Jönsson sued CrossFit for $2.5 million in damages, for preventing him from competing as a woman. Jönsson is biologically male, but has allegedly identified as a woman since his teen years. CrossFit’s position at the time (as stated in a letter from the company’s lawyer to Jönsson’s attorney) was that, “The fundamental, ineluctable fact is that a male competitor who has a sex reassignment procedure still has a genetic makeup that confers a physical and physiological advantage over women.” (Read more from “CrossFit to Allow Transgender Athletes to Compete in Annual Event” HERE)

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