Category Archives: LGBQT

Media Gins up Anemic School Walkouts

Posted on September 28, 2022 by | 10 comments

by Kerry Dougherty

You could almost hear the local media panting Tuesday morning. There were rumors that some Virginia high school students were going to walk out of school to protest the new parental rights policies of the Youngkin administration.

You know, the Department of Education regulations announced earlier this month that support the principle that parents are the ultimate authority over their own kids.

I wrote about this reversal of Ralph Northam’s policies on parental authority last week.

The mainstream media, desperate to weaken an increasingly popular Youngkin, portrays the policy as limiting transgendered rights.

That’s nonsense and if members of the media took the time to actually READ the language of the regulations, as I did, they would know it. Continue reading →

10 Comments

Posted in Culture wars, Education (K-12), LGBQT

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Use of Cross-Gender Hormones for Gender Transitions in Minors

Posted on September 27, 2022 by | 39 comments

by James C. Sherlock

In the sometimes murky world of diagnosis and treatment of gender dysphoria in children and adolescents, the following steps generally but not always occur in order, with each potentially serving as an off-ramp:

  1. Diagnosis;
  2. Mental heath support;
  3. Social transition;
  4. Puberty blockers;
  5. Cross-gender hormones; and,
  6. Surgery; often but not always waiting for surgery until a child reaches the age of majority.

That list gets dangerous when it gets to step 4.

What UVa Children’s Hospital requires is the diagnosis before it can proceed. It cites a list of “gender affirming” medical professionals to whom it will refer patients for that diagnosis. Many of them are on staff  I hope they are not as forward-leaning on this diagnosis as their advertising suggests.

The home page of the clinic lists the following services in order:

  1. Puberty blockers that delay sex-related physical changes;
  2. Cross-sex hormones, like testosterone and estrogen;
  3. Referrals for gender-affirming surgeries and voice therapy;
  4. Education about sex and contraception;
  5. Referrals for therapy to help manage anxiety, depression, and ongoing emotional issues;
  6. Help finding resources in the community.

I think those are presented in the wrong order. Therapy should be first. More on that later. Yesterday we discussed puberty blockers.

Today we will focus on cross-gender hormones. Continue reading →

39 Comments

Posted in Health Care, LGBQT

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Slick Selling of Child Gender Transitions at UVa Children’s Hospital

Posted on September 24, 2022 by | 108 comments

by James C. Sherlock

The University of Virginia Children’s Hospital offers a Madison Avenue-quality sales pitch for child gender transition.

As written and smoothly delivered, it deflects any reservation parents may have in supporting such transitions by telling them they have been misled or are being selfish or both.

It helps parents decide by blaming their reservations on myths.

I offer below both a video and a transcript of that sales presentation.

The presenter uses a variation on the closing technique called the “question close.” In this one she both asks the questions — identified as myths — and answers them. The presentation carefully avoids mention of the word sterilization.

I expect that, given the sensitivity of the subject, it is very likely the best technique for closing the sale. Brilliant even.

If that is your goal.

The reputation of UVa hospital likely will be damaged by this exposure of how it sells this particular product. They have earned it. Continue reading →

108 Comments

Posted in Health Care, LGBQT, Parental Rights, Psychology

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Parents’ Rights Are On The Virginia Ballot. Again.

Posted on September 22, 2022 by | 40 comments

by Kerry Dougherty

Good news. Virginia’s Democrats have taken the bait.

So far at least four liberal school districts in the commonwealth have declared that they will defy Virginia’s Department of Education model policies on parental rights that were unveiled late last week.

You know, policies that contain “radical” ideas such as these:

“Parents have the right to make decisions with respect to their children”

“Schools shall respect parental values and beliefs.”

Oh, and here’s the new definition of “transgendered”:

The phrase “transgender student” shall mean a public school student whose parent has requested in writing, due to their child’s persistent and sincere belief that his or her gender differs with his or her sex, that their child be so identified while at school.

This means that students who present themselves as a gender other than the sex they were given at birth without their parents’ permission will not be allowed to change their identities in school. Continue reading →

40 Comments

Posted in Children and families, Education (K-12), LGBQT

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Parental Rights, My Ass

Posted on September 21, 2022 by | 101 comments

Attack the most vulnerable and say it’s for everybody. What could go wrong?

by Joe Fitzgerald

The so-called “parental rights” policies designed to force questioning teens to out themselves to their families would affect perhaps 4,000 students in Virginia, according to the Post.

Bringing it a little closer to home, that would work out statistically to about 25 students in Harrisonburg and 40 in Rockingham County.

But would it affect them all? If half the teens questioning their gender are able to talk to their families about what they’re feeling, then we’re left with a policy targeting fewer than three dozen families, county and city, affected by the coercive policy.

Trumpeting this as parental rights ignores that it is only creating those rights for a miniscule minority of parents, and that those are quite possibly, perhaps probably, the parents whose children may have the most to fear from them.
It’s hardly something the wielders of this latest wedge issue are doing for all parents. Rather it is something they are doing to a tiny and isolated group of teens who may already be feeling friendless. Continue reading →

101 Comments

Posted in LGBQT

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Youngkin on Fire

Posted on September 19, 2022 by | 17 comments

by Kerry Dougherty

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin is a quick study.

In eight short months he learned that there is no pleasing leftists. No matter how cordial you are, no matter how many times you extend your hand, the far left will slap you away if there’s an R after your name.

Despite the amiable governor’s good-natured attempt to win friends with a charm offensive — remember his face-to-face meeting with nasty Delegate Don Scott, D-Portsmouth, who questioned his religious faith on the floor of the General Assembly? Remember his friendly visit to vitriolic State Senator Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth, to present her with one of his fleece vests after she mocked his attire?

To no avail. Lefties don’t want to play nice. Youngkin gets that now.

Finally, Youngkin is playing serious offense. He’s being true to himself and the people who voted for him. He seems to have grown impervious to the relentless attacks from nuts on the left.

A strong sign that Youngkin’s now playing hardball came over the weekend with the release of new policies by his Department of Education. The new regs simply reinforce parental rights and strip schools of their power to come between a parent and child. These rules will go into effect in all of Virginia’s school districts in 30 days. Continue reading →

17 Comments

Posted in LGBQT

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Youngkin Unveils New Trans Policy for Schools

Posted on September 16, 2022 by | 51 comments

by James A. Bacon

The Youngkin administration has issued a new set of model policies designed to uphold the “privacy, dignity and respect” of all students and parents in Virginia public schools, replacing a policy put into effect by the Northam administration in 2021.

The new policies strike me as eminently reasonable. The guidelines make it clear that “all students have the right to attend school in an environment free from discrimination, harassment, or bullying.” As a practical matter, it looks like single-user bathrooms are the future for Virginia schools. But the guidelines also fulfill Youngkin’s promise to represent the interests of parents over educational activists and bureaucrats.

The Northam policies, states the “2022 Model Policies,” “promoted a specific viewpoint aimed at achieving cultural and social transformation in schools.” They disregarded the rights of parents and ignored legal and constitutional principles that impacted how schools educated students, including transgender students.

“The Department … fully acknowledges the rights of parents to exercise their fundamental rights granted by the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution to direct the care, upbringing, and education of their children,” states the model policy. “The Code of Virginia reaffirms the rights of parents to determine how their children will be raised and educated. Empowering parents is not only a fundamental right, but it is essential to improving outcomes for all children in Virginia.” Continue reading →

51 Comments

Posted in Education (K-12), LGBQT

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VCU Police Department Signals Its Wokeness

Posted on September 14, 2022 by | 23 comments

VCU Police Chief John Venuti

by James A. Bacon

A new “resource” will be available to the LGBTQIA+ community in Richmond. Virginia Commonwealth University — yes, the same institution that recently lost $470,000 in a cyber scam — has assigned two campus patrol officers as “campus LGBTQIA+ liaisons.”

A recent university announcement noted that VCU Police Chief John Venuti has designated the two liaisons as part of the department’s “culture of inclusive community outreach for officers and staff.”

It is not clear, either in the VCU announcement or a WRIC story, what the two officers actually will be doing… aside from liaising and collaborating. Nor is there indication why such liaising and collaborating is necessary.

VCU News said only this: “While the department mandates Safe Zone training for all staff, Officers Hakilah Hudson and Briana Jackson will actively collaborate with offices and groups for outreach and events on both campuses and will be the points of contact for groups on and off campus.”

The VCU page on LGBTQIA+ Liaisons adds this: Continue reading →

23 Comments

Posted in Education (higher ed), LGBQT, Police reform

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Taking Food From Needy Children to Advance the Trans Agenda

Posted on August 26, 2022 by | 9 comments

by Kerry Dougherty

This ought to be the number one campaign issue in the U.S. right now: the Biden administration’s radical plan to starve the National School Lunch program unless states adopt far-left gender identity rules for schools that include allowing biological boys to compete in girls’ sports.

This outrageous federal blackmail leaves states struggling to choose between protecting girls and keeping needy children from going hungry.

And it’s just another case of a federal agency — this time the USDA — exceeding its authority. How many times will Biden’s out-of-control bureaucrats have to be smacked down by the U.S. Supreme Court before they stop illegally exercising powers not delegated to them by Congress?

Twenty-two Republican attorneys general sued Tuesday to block the Agriculture Department’s newly announced guidance making student-lunch funds contingent on enforcing the Biden administration’s gender-identity agenda. Continue reading →

9 Comments

Posted in Education (K-12), Federal, LGBQT

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Virginia Must Ensure Transgender Medical Treatment Is Safe

Posted on August 22, 2022 by | 7 comments

by James C. Sherlock

Attorney Hans Bader and I in parallel articles have pointed out the serious questions posed by national and international experts about current medical practices in gender transitions for minors.

Those questions include both the ethics of the diagnosis and treatment processes in use and the safety of the puberty blockers and cross-gender hormones used in those treatments. Hormone treatments are administered to hundreds of minors annually in Virginia in the face of both new FDA warnings and other major open questions about their safety and long-term outcomes.

Virginia taxpayers pay for a lot of these treatments in state hospitals and clinics with state-funded private insurance plans and now Medicaid.

I will recommend the Virginia Secretary of Health and Human Resources organize and oversee practice and research networks in Virginia that mirror the recommendations of the Cass Review in the U.K. to make it safe.

Virginia has the assets necessary to carry out those recommendations and the state has the authority. It must demonstrate the will.

No new law appears necessary. Continue reading →

7 Comments

Posted in Health Care, LGBQT

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“After all, we are not in Wonderland”

Posted on August 22, 2022 by | 19 comments

by Kerry Dougherty

Here’s a quaint idea: If you’re a trans person going through hormone treatment, don’t get involved with drug dealers. Definitely don’t help them in their illegal business.

If you do, you might get caught, convicted and sentenced to jail. And authorities might toss you in a facility housing others that match your biological sex.

Then again, you might get lucky.

Your case may be heard by a three-judge panel of woke federal judges who decide that the American’s With Disabilities Act suddenly covers people with “gender dysphoria.”

Never mind that when the ADA was passed in 1990 it explicitly said that “gender identity disorders not resulting from physical impairments” were not covered.

I’m talking, in case you missed it, about the case of Kesha Williams, a biological male from Fairfax County who’s lived as a woman for many years. Williams has not had surgery to remove his male organs, but takes female hormones. Continue reading →

19 Comments

Posted in LGBQT

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Schools Will Contribute to Suicides Under Current Virginia Transgender Student Guidelines

Posted on August 20, 2022 by | 15 comments

Virginia Department of Health

by James C. Sherlock

Teen suicide is a major problem in America and Virginia.

The Virginia Department of Health reported in 2021 that suicide is the second leading cause of death among Virginia’s youth.

I have talked around but not about teen suicide in previous articles about transgender adolescents.  

A study published by the National Institutes of Heath indicates that 82% of transgender individuals have considered killing themselves and 40% have attempted suicide, with suicidal tendencies highest among transgender youth.

As directed by law, the Virginia Board of Education published in 2020 Suicide Prevention Guidelines in Virginia Schools (Suicide Prevention Guidelines).  I find it exemplary, and hope every school board has adopted it.

On the other hand, I find it dangerous that the same parental involvement strategies were not adopted in Model Policies for the Treatment of Transgender Students in Virginia’s Public Schools (Model Policies) published in 2021.

The writers of Model Policies had a different agenda and less support from medical professionals than the writers of Suicide Prevention Guidelines. As a result, students certainly will harm themselves and commit suicide at higher rates if schools follow Model Policies than if schools were to adhere to the notification procedures in the Suicide Prevention Guidelines. Continue reading →

15 Comments

Posted in LGBQT, Uncategorized

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Governor Youngkin Can Restore Parental Rights in the Treatment of Transgender Children in Schools with the Stroke of a Pen

Posted on August 11, 2022 by | 96 comments

by James C. Sherlock

“Gov. Youngkin criticized after calling on teachers with LGBTQ students to tell parents” is a headline in The Virginian-Pilot.

Apparently, “Gov. Youngkin calls on teachers with LGBTQ students to tell parents” did not make the cut.

Narrative shaping 101.

Now consider these statements of government opinion:

  • “If she has to tell her parents, they might beat or disown her.”
  • “If his parents find out, he might kill himself.”

These are judgments that not only can be made by public school personnel under current Virginia policy, but are actually encouraged by that policy.

Model Policies for the Treatment of Transgender Students in Virginia’s Public Schools (Model Policies) was written pursuant to the 2020 law § 22.1-23.3. Treatment of transgender students; policies. That law was written for action by the Superintendent of Public Instruction, who works for the governor. Read it.

Nothing in that law required the DOE to go nearly as far as it did in Model Policies. But it was drafted by a panel dominated by progressive activists who shared their pronouns.

You will note there is not a single word in that law about parents.

All the Governor needs to do is tell his superintendent to revoke that destructive policy document and re-rewrite it requiring parental involvement. (And new rules for bathrooms. You are welcome, Hanover County School Board.)

Elections matter. Continue reading →

96 Comments

Posted in Education (K-12), LGBQT

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A Pedophile By Any Other Name

Posted on August 11, 2022 by | 21 comments

by Kerry Dougherty

Remember Allyn Walker, the ODU assistant professor who was indignant last fall because pedophiles get such a bad rap?

We wrote several posts about Walker, who prefers we use the much more pleasant euphemism “minor-attracted person” to describe perverts who are sexually attracted to children.

If you thought Walker was alone in this sort of twisted thinking, you were wrong.

Get a load of Miranda Galbreath, a licensed professional counselor who works with prisoners for the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections.

Continue reading →

21 Comments

Posted in Culture wars, LGBQT

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VCU Seeking Prof to Teach Black Queer Antiracist Anticolonial Feminism

Posted on July 19, 2022 by | 77 comments

VCU Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies graduates

by James A. Bacon

Virginia Commonwealth University is hiring an assistant professor to teach “Race in Arts/Media, queer of color critique and Black feminist media studies.”

That’s quite the academic specialty. I can’t imagine there are many such scholars around. Once upon a time, I would have questioned whether there was any demand for graduates of such a program, but the national obsession with sexual/gender identity means someone is actually hiring people like that. According to CareerExplorer.com, the average salary for people with a B.A. degree in gender studies is only $27,300 yearly one year out, but it increases to almost $60,000 annually ten years out.

I shudder to think what employers are getting for their money. Consider the criteria VCU is looking for in a Black/queer/feminist professor, and then ask yourself if he/she/insert-your-preferred-pronoun will be more likely to help students gain independent, critical reasoning skills or turn out preprogrammed social-justice robots. Continue reading →

77 Comments

Posted in Culture wars, Education (higher ed), LGBQT

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