California Attorney General Rob Bonta has joined a coalition of 18 attorneys general urging a federal court to dismiss the Trump administration’s lawsuit against the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), warning that the case threatens both transgender healthcare and medical freedom more broadly.

Attorney General Bonta (photo) and the coalition argue that:

1. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) seeks to undermine states’ right under the Tenth Amendment of the Constitution to maximize the health and well-being of their residents by enacting laws and policies surrounding the practice of medicine.

2. The FTC’s efforts could damage the development of healthcare guidelines and policies beyond transgender healthcare and across multiple medical fields.

WPATH defends trans people

WPATH is an international professional organization whose Standards of Care provide evidence-based recommendations for healthcare for transgender and gender-diverse people. Its current Standards of Care 8 were published in 2022 and have become an important reference for clinicians, health systems and policymakers.

WPATH represents the views of practically all serious scientists and medical experts in the field of gender variance and transgender identities.

WPATH argues that transgender and gender-diverse identities are part of normal human diversity, rather than mental disorders in themselves.

The fact that they are fully accepting transgender identities (i.e. not seeing gender diversity as a mental illness) and are supporting the needs of trans people seeking medical health, undermines the Republican “gender ideology” narrative, where being trans is seen as some kind of deceit.

Ironically the transphobes argues that the views of the scientists on gender variance are unscientific, as it collides with the false and unscientific dogma of a strict binary “biological sex”. They need to give the impression that science is on their side, and since it isn’t, they have to silence the real experts.

Note also (as WPATH points out) that the U.S. Federal Trade Commission is not a medical provider and “has no place interfering with the process of individualized medical decision-making.”

The Republican attack on free and fact-based research

The conflict began in January, when the Federal Trade Commission demanded extensive internal WPATH documents concerning the development of its guidelines.

WPATH challenged the investigation, and a federal court then blocked enforcement of the demand. After this the FTC joined Republican-led Alaska, Iowa, Nebraska and Texas in filing a new lawsuit on June 17, alleging that WPATH made misleading or insufficiently supported claims about gender-affirming healthcare for young people. This is nonsense.

This attack on free and fact based science is just one of many by the MAGA regime, all of them aimed at stopping universities, research institutions and medical service providers from (1) helping trans people with guidance and - if needed - medicines, surgery and other treatments, and (2) doing research that tells the true story about gender variance, gender incongruence and trans lives.

(A truly grotesque example of this is the way Texas has forced the Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston to pay US$10 million to the state and create a “detransition clinic.” The crime? Providing science based health care for trans people.)

The Trump-regime wants to stop researchers from presenting the facts regarding gender variance, and in this way making it much harder to discuss this topic and defend trans people in public. The Trump-regime does not care about facts. These people only care about ideology and power.

It is good to see that these attorneys general understand the problem and are doing something about it.

J. Molay

Amicus Brief

Press release: Attorney General Bonta Opposes Trump Administration’s Attempt to Suppress Healthcare Recommendations from Major Medical Organization

WPATH Statement on the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, States’s Announcement of New Complaint

USPATH & WPATH Condemn Decision in U.S. v Skrmetti Allowing States to Ban Access to Healthcare for Transgender Youth

This article was originally published over at Transgender World.

OTHER TRANSGENDER NEWS

Study Undermines Anti-Trans Claims About Puberty Blockers and Bone Health

UK transphobes lost. Police will not do strip searches based on “biological sex”.

New Canadian Study Confirms That Less Than 1% of Trans Youth Detransition

Trans actor Hunter Schafer leads Amazon Prime’s new Blade Runner 2099 series

Dutch Health Council Reaffirms Gender-Affirming Care for Trans Youth, Dismissing Transphobic Lies

Spain Adds New Criminal Penalties to Conversion Therapy Ban

🏳️‍⚧️See also our selection of positive transgender news headlines!

In an essay published over at Crossdreamers I argue that transphobic trolls online should not be treated as sincere participants in a debate. Their aim is not to find the truth - it is to dominate, exhaust and silence trans people and their allies.

Trolling is part of broader patterns of bullying, where aggression is used to enforce status, police gender norms and win approval from like-minded people.

Understanding the fears, shame or internal conflicts that motivate bullies is not the same as excusing them, but such an understanding does help when it come to handling them.

I recommend that you support the person being targeted, avoid direct debate, provide factual information only for the benefit of undecided observers, and block or ban persistent abusers early.

Above all, protect your mental health and refuse trolls the recognition they crave.

Read “On how to handle transphobic trolls online”

Trolling is about power

For most of the bullies the “discussion” is not about finding the truth. It is about power, about having their world view confirmed, about making sure that anyone who threatens their understanding of life is invalidated and forced to shut up.

Moreover, if they can undermine your credibility in the eyes of others, they hope to bring more people down on their side, especially those who have never taken the time to study transgender issues and who are therefore more likely to believe so called “common sense” arguments (i.e. prejudices presented as folk wisdom).

Still, the power of the troll does not lie in their power of persuasion. The main reason trolling works, is that it wears the victims down. There may come a point where the target can take no more verbal abuse and social invalidation, and they withdraw from public spaces.

This is how the system wins: by enticing the sick and frustrated into waging its war against the ones who threaten the current power structures and the myths that uphold them.

And yes, the bullying has the added bonus that it scares cis people from fighting the good fight.

Image from the Norwegian movie The Troll Hunter.

By the way, take a look at my friend Joanna Santos’ blog Starting Again and her short reflections on culture, politics, trans issues and life in general.

In a new video Vlad Vexler and Rupert Read suggest that climate movements may alienate potential supporters by linking climate politics too closely to causes such as trans rights, anti-racism and Global South justice.

They seem to think that trans people and racial minorities as expendable in the pursuit of climate-policy success. A nonexistent problem becomes trans erasure.

In a new article over at Crossdreamers I reject the claim that trans activists demand that people believe that trans women are “indistinguishable” from “biological women” (whatever that is). What trans people really ask for is equal human rights, safety and liberty.

Since trans people are a small, heavily targeted minority, pro-democracy humanists have a special responsibility to defend them. Abandoning trans people will not make climate denialists support green policy; it will only validate the “woke radical left” narrative of the fascists and the “gender critical” TERFs.

The current hate campaigns against trans people and people of color function as scare tactics aimed at distracting people from the real threats, like war, economic exploitation and - these days - climate disaster. By turning those who defend trans people and black people into the problem, Vlad and Rupert play right into the hands of the haters. That is bad tactics and bad ethics.

Vlad says he is pro-trans. He has yet to prove it.

Read the article here: No, Vlad, defending trans people does not weaken pro-climate policies

More from our network

Kezia Dugdale, the new chair of Stonewall, defends JK Rowling and transphobic activists

Circles and squares: Understanding the “trans panic”

Trans Support Group in Norway Overwhelmed by Demand as Students Seek Community

From our archives

The Kama Sutra on Transgender People

Yes, Ernest Hemingway was Transgender

Were There Transgender Vikings? The Laxdæla Saga Says So.

Kezia Dugdale, the former leader of Scottish Labour, says she is now “quite scared” as a lesbian in Britain. She has reason to be afraid, because the current anti-transgender activism is very likely only the start of the long war against diversity, lesbian and gay people included.

But she demonstrates a complete lack of understanding of the mechanisms of evil bigotry in her defense of JK Rowling and TERFs (trans exclusionary radical feminists).

Sympathy for Rowling

The Guardian reports that when asked if she understood why many trans people feel that Rowling’s approach has become cruel and dehumanizing (which it is), and contributes to them feeling unwelcome and unaccepted (which it does), Dugdale answers:

“I understand that and I’ve also heard JK Rowling and other people who hold a different position on these issues to me describe with a similar rawness how they’ve experienced being opposed for their views. And I just think, the days of these culture wars, about sitting in polar extremes from each other, should be behind us now.”

No, the ethical choice is not always in the middle

She goes into the trap of centrist moderation, where the truth is always seen as lying somewhere between what is seen as the extremes.

But trans people who defend their right to live their lives as themselves, do not represents one extreme in opposition to another extreme. The right wing transphobes and the “gender critical” TERFs are the oppressors here, trans people are the victims.

Dugdale’s approach would be like to try to find a sensible compromise between the Nazis and the Jews back in the 1930’s. A representative of an LGBTQ organization must never, ever, give in to evil in this way.

Respect for Rowling

Apparently Dugdale wants to try and find common ground with the transphobic bullies as this is “the only path through this and it’s one that I’m committed to.”

What she says to the Guardian is mind-boggling:

“I have a huge respect for JK Rowling. I’ve had the pleasure of meeting her before and I think her story and how she came to be this prolific, incredible children’s writer in this city as a single mum writing in a cafe is phenomenal and an inspiration to so many women across the world.

“I think she’s been a really powerful political advocate [for] improving the lot of single mums, making a case for tackling poverty and inequality in all its forms, and there is absolutely a place for her in public life to share her experiences and tell her story and make a difference.”

If a single mum like JK Rowling uses her huge fortune to force trans people out of public life, that is what any representative of any LGBTQ organization has to focus on. Rowling having written some books people might have found helpful in the past does not change this.

Dugdale cannot continue as chair of Stonewall after this.

Even if the video from Elvie (embedded below) does not address transgender issues directly, it provides some very useful social and political context for understanding anti-trans activism. I will explain why.

Evie points out that as social, economic, and gender norms shift, some men see changes as humiliation and loss of status, making masculinity a defensive political identity. Online ecosystems reframe feminism, equality, and diversity as threats, turning insecurity and angst into ideology.

The worldview elevates strength, hierarchy, and control. Flexibility is seen a weakness. Masculinity is used as a tool to organize frustration, define enemies, justify authority, and and influence elections. True citizenship is only for those who live up to these ideals. Inclusion is replaced by protection.

I would add that in this context it actually becomes easier to understand right wing anti-trans activism. Since being assigned male should naturally lead to specific privileges, like power and respect, trans women become an existential threat. They neither seek hypermasculinity nor the status of being a “real man”.

From this transphobic point of view trans women become the extreme version of “the feminine man”, the kind of man that gives in to feminism, gender ideology and DEI policies. In other words: a traitor.

This toxic way of thinking is a threat to anyone who do not fit into the ideals of white right wing masculinity, which - of course - represents a majority of the population. It also brutalizes men, effectively ruining any hope they could have for real human growth, true love and safety.

As the brutalization of Russian and American politics has shown, this way of thinking has now become a threat to the whole globe. They have to be stopped.

Jack Molay

More recent stories from our sites:

Major Study Finds Better Mental Health After Gender-Affirming Hormone Therapy

The American Medical Association Confirms its Support of Gender-affirming Care for Trans People

What Pakistan’s LGBTQ community can teach us about destructive trans separatism

Are you a man or a woman?

From “Ideology” to “Mutilization”: Trump’s War on Trans People

Trauma and self realization among older transgender people

Illustration: Getty

“We are all focused on the wrong 1%,” he recently told MS NOW. “Trans people aren’t taking away our healthcare. Undocumented people aren’t defunding our schools… It’s the billionaires and their puppet politicians. And so we need not only the media, but all of us, to focus on the real problem at hand.”

So what has this to do with the gender of God? Well, Talarico has been very good at making viral videos, and the Republicans are now digging up old videos they think will harm him. In one of these videos he says - in defense of nonbinary and trans people - that God is nonbinary.

The political connotations of the term “nonbinary” aside, I know of no serious religious scholars or theologians - being those Christian, Muslim or Jewish - who would argue that God is male only. To the extent the creator of the universe has a gender aspect, that would include all genders, for sure.

(The exception from this rule is found among the Mormons or Latter Day Saints, who argue that “the Father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man’s,” but I neither have the time nor the patience to go into that here.)

I should add that in Hinduism, with all its gods, there is also the belief that all of them are aspects of one superior being, meaning again, that this being encompasses all genders.

In other words: The general consensus that God is as much a mother as a father. But this does not stop right wing fundamentalists from weaponizing this statement. They are not using theological arguments against him, however, just the regular culture war “woke is bad” kind of rhetoric.

What makes Talarico so refreshing is that i does not allow them to take the religious moral high ground, arguing that real Christians cannot and will not embrace any of the MAGA hate, and if they do, they have been misled.

I have great respect for biblical YouTube scholar Dan McClellan, who is able to present religious studies in a way that makes sense even to those who do not have a degree in theology.

Admittedly, his arrogance sometimes go to far - no, you do no need to read Hebrew to say anything meaningful about scripture - but I cannot but love his take-downs of fundamentalist extremists and bigoted dogmatics.

So when he made a video in defense of Talarico, I just had to write a post about it over at Transgender World. You will find that post here: Is God Nonbinary? Kinda!

Let me add here that this debate shows clearly how so many are trapped in the limitations of human language. Far too many takes metaphors literally if this serves to uphold their belief systems and mental maps. They cling to banal dogma, because it makes them feel safe.

The strict gender binary gives, for instance, too many the sense of belonging, stability, safety and affirmation they so desperately seek. Anyone who threatens this system is therefore the enemy, an enemy you have the right to hate and destroy. Which is strange, because Jesus, for one, preached that you should love your enemies and embrace the outcasts.

Go to: Is God Nonbinary? Kinda!

Christ Giving a Blessing

PS: The painting “Christ Giving a Blessing” by Leonardo’s student Bernardino Luini above depicts an androgynous Christ.

The androgyny is most likely intentional as an aesthetic of holiness and “whole-ness”, but not necessarily intended as a claim about Christ’s gender identity in any modern sense. The point is the Incarnation and salvation transcend ordinary categories.

This post was first published over at Crossdreamers.

Recent posts from Transgender World

NHS Review Deliberately Excludes Studies That Prove That Hormone Treatments for Trans Youth Work

Nonbinary actor Emma Corrin to play lead in new Netflix version of Pride and Prejudice

Go to Transgender Report for the latest transgender news headlines!

The reason for this is intense anti-trans propaganda from the Republicans and the failure of pro-democracy politicians to protect and defend trans people.

Shifting support

According to a US survey presented and analyzed by Lakshya Jain in The Argument, measures once widely opposed, such as bills requiring transgender people to use bathrooms corresponding to their sex assigned at birth, now has the support of a majority of voters, with about 52 % backing such legislation and only 33 % opposing it.

Similar trends are found in sports, where over 60% of voters favor restricting trans athletes to teams based on sex assigned at birth.

The polling also finds strong opposition to gender‑affirming care for minors, including puberty blockers, hormones, and surgeries, even when supported by doctors and parents.

The effect of anti-trans propaganda

Even if many of the anti-trans bills presented by Republicans in various states fail or are stopped in the courts, the extreme propaganda targeting transgender people has had an effect.

A majority of Americans do not known that much about transgender people, gender variance or gender dysphoria. The support trans people had up till 2024 might partly have been caused by a sympathy for marginalized people in general and LGBTQ people in particular.

Remember that 2014 was seen as the “tipping point” for transgender rights. Until recently the transgender community seemed to be winning.

The backlash has been severe. The anti-trans activists has managed to establish a narrative that causes what many see as “reasonable doubt”, in spite of the fact that all serious research show that transgender identities are real, that gender dysphoria is not caused by a mental illness, and that trans women are not attacking cis women in women’s bathrooms.

The anti-trans activists present themselves as defenders of women and children, even if the whole MAGA movement is anchored in patriarchal misogyny and - as we have seen recently - the Epstein cabal of sex abusers and pedophiles.

The failure of pro-democracy politicians

It clearly has not helped that Democratic politicians, including Kamala Harris during the presidential campaign, deliberately stayed away from the topic out of fear of losing voters. This was most likely taken as proof of there being something wrong with the trans community by some voters. If the Democrats do not want to talk about trans people, there must be something wrong, right?

Some Democratic politicians mistakenly believed that debating Republicans on transgender issues would give bad policies more attention. Others let cynicism trump decency, chasing transphobic voters.

But LGBTQ+ issues are actually not driving voter behavior. Democrats lead the generic ballot. The Republicans have not succeeded in using trans issues from distracting voters from Trump’s failures on other fronts, the economy, foreign policy and immigration included.

On the other hand: Trump’s overall unpopularity has not translated into more tolerant views on gender identity either. If the Democrats had associated the transgender cause with MAGA fascism in general, that might have turned out differently.

Because the MAGA anti-trans policies are taken straight out of the fascist playbook: Find a marginalized group and make people believe they cause everything bad in the world. Hitler blamed the Jews, Trump blame trans people. The anti-trans crusade is proof of this being part of a fascist takeover, but instead of making that clear to Americans, most pro-democracy politicians and influencers take cover.

There are, fortunately, signs of some pro-democracy politicians understanding what is at stake.

First hand experience

Trump has also failed to turn the increasing skepticism towards trans people into hatred of all LGBTQ people. Support for same‑sex marriage remains strong and stable. But this is partly because Americans are more likely to know gay and bisexual people personally. They know from first hand experience that gay people are just people like themselves. They are not equally familiar with trans people.

However, the way so many Americans have turned against trans people in so short a time, tells me that this may also happen to other queer people. There is good reason to think that the next stage of the culture war will be against the rest of the LGBTQ community.

The ultimate goal for the right wing extremists and religious fundamentalists is a society governed through traditional gender roles and the old fashioned American cishet middle class family, and in order for that to happen, heterosexuality has to be the only option.

The Humanist Report

Mike Figueredo from the Humanist Report discusses Jain’s article over at YouTube. Even if he shares many of Jain’s observations he argues strongly against reading these numbers as proof of trans activist overreach:

He argues that the reason why support for trans people has slipped is “because Americans have been bombarded with non-stop anti-trans propaganda for nearly four years.”

He is right. And ultimately this is not only about trans people, either. It is about allowing a group of clearly evil bigots to destroy the decency and compassion needed to uphold a thriving democracy.

Top illustration: Getty

Originally published over at Crossdreamers.

Follow the recent transgender news over at Transgender Report!

In a new guest article Joanna Santos, a transgender woman and activist, and me look at how certain therapists and influencers within the transphobic gender‑critical movement present conversion‑therapy‑style practices as compassionate “exploratory therapy,” masking an underlying agenda to prevent gender‑variant people from transitioning.

Santos focuses on the work of Sasha Ayad, host of The Metaphor of Gender YouTube channel, arguing that Ayad’s approach is framed as gentle questioning but is rooted in the Blanchardian two‑type taxonomy. Ray Blanchard pathologizes gender variance as sexual dysfunction rather than an authentic identity.

Gender‑variant people seek support because they face shame, rejection, and dysphoria, and not because their identities are pathological.

Read the article here: Gender variance and camouflaging conversion therapy as care

Jack Molay

Illustration: Getty

The latest from Transgender World

LGBTQ+ Identification Holds at 9% in U.S. 1.1% say they are transgender.

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JK Rowling and Epstein, a Revealing Tale of Betrayal

Transgender Report, a daily transgender news update

Every day we share curated transgender news headlines in various social media channels. These are also published over at Transgender Report.

In a new article I argue that gender dysphoria has a biological basis, even though gender identity is also influenced by cultural, social, and personal factors.

Most experts agree that biology plays a significant role, an important point because it counters claims that transgender identities are merely ideologically or socially manufactured.

Both gender and biological sex are more complex than anti‑trans activists suggest. Intersex variations demonstrate that chromosomes, hormones, gonads, and genitalia do not always align, and transgender people experience a persistent internal sense of gender that does not match their assigned sex (and have done so for millennia).

I present scientific evidence showing sex‑atypical brain structures and functions in transgender people, often aligning more closely with their experienced gender.

Genetic research, including twin studies, suggests a polygenic component to gender dysphoria.

There is also a prenatal endocrine environment factor. Atypical androgen exposure is associated with higher rates of gender dysphoria, which implies that hormone‑driven brain development influences gender identity.

But this is not all. The article also includes a long list of relevant science papers, just to stop ransphobes from playing the “science says there is only biological sex” card.

Read “Does gender dysphoria have a biological basis?” here!

Articles from Transgender World

White-Coated Culture Warriors: Concerns About Anti-Trans Narratives in Norwegian Healthcare

The anti-trans academics who were friends with Epstein

Study Finds Transgender and Cisgender Women Have Comparable Physical Fitness

The Council of Europe has voted to ban so-called “conversion therapy” despite anti-trans lobbying

Another study documents significant reductions in suicidality among trans youth getting hormones

“Now It’s My Turn”: 79‑Year‑Old Norwegian Ex‑Mayor Comes Out as Transgender

Some of The Most Positive Transgender News Stories of 2025

But we have more!

We publish a new batch of curated transgender news headlines over at Transgender Report every day.

And every week we publish more POSITIVE transgender news over at CDL! 🩵🤍🩷

In a new article over at Crossdreamers I explore the psychological roots of transphobia, arguing that it stems from deep-seated fears among individuals seeking safety in rigid social norms.

These "fearful" people retreat into a constructed idea of “normalcy,” viewing gender diversity as a threat to their identity and societal order.

Transphobia is not just political; it’s psychological, rooted in the human tendency to project repressed fears onto others. This repression is not rational. It is highly emotional, which is why it is so hard to defeat transphobia with facts and rational arguments.

What is happening right now in the US and the UK is very similar to what took place in fascist regimes such as Nazi Germany, where non-conforming individuals were persecuted in order to ensure that traditional gender roles were upheld.

Fascists, TERFs and religious fanatics want to make sure that cultural mores, science and language make it impossible to defend and include LGBTQ people.

But there are ways of getting around these toxic emotional and cultural feedback loops.

Read the article What Really Drives Transphobia: The Fears of the Fearful here!

Selected headlines from the Transgender World site

Trans and queer Americans are less religious than those who are not LGBTQ

New science: Transgender youth are as stable in their gender identity as their cisgender peers

2.8 million Americans identify as transgender, new research shows

Thailand: Transgender people get free publicly funded hormone therapy

Follow our transgender news curation over at Transgender Report

As many of you will know we publish links to selected news stories and articles every day on our social media accounts. These headlines are also shared on our Transgender Report site.

You can follow our transgender news streams here:

• Bluesky

• Mastodon

• LinkedIn

• Flipboard

Over at Crossdreamers we examine the struggles faced by transgender youth in Norway, particularly regarding access to gender-affirming medical treatment.

The Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten has presented “Stina”, a 13-year-old who was denied puberty blockers by Rikshospitalet, the national medical institution for gender treatment.

After years of evaluations and meetings, her family relocated to Oslo to seek treatment at Health Station for Gender and Sexuality (Helsestasjon for kjønn og seksualitet, HKS), which adopts a much more affirmative approach.

Rikshospitalet has grown increasingly cautious with providing puberty blockers and gender-affirming hormones to minors, citing concerns over long-term effects. They classify such treatments as “experimental,” which has led to delays and restrictions for young trans individuals.

But here’s the thing: Withholding treatment can cause greater harm than potential side effects, increasing mental distress and suicide risks among trans youth.

Read our article over at Crossdreamers.

Photo by Charlotte Skomsøy from Aftenposten.

Recent transgender headlines from Transgender World

Human Rights Watch Issues Scathing Report on Anti-Trans Healthcare Bans in the US

New transgender BBC drama: What It Feels Like for a Girl

Kate Nash releases pro-transgender song attacking TERFs like JK Rowling

The Transgender Saints of Medieval Christianity

Clownfish are all male until one of them isn’t

Sir Ian McKellen will open Shakespeare play with trans and nonbinary cast

Trans people in Thailand see great progress

LGBTQ refugees in the Gorom camp in South Sudan are threatened by forced eviction

For Americans trying to get to grips with the Norwegian party landscape the Norwegian right wing may be more than a little confusing.

At the moment there are no less than four parties that might be designated as "conservative": The Conservative Party (Høyre, 20% in polls), the Christian People's Party (KrF, 3.3%) and The Progress Party (Fremskrittspartiet, 20%) are all considered right wing. There is also the Center Party (Senterpartiet, 6.7%), which pretends to be centrist, but is in fact a right wing, rural, populist party.

Supporters of the centrist Conservative Party would normally fit well within the Democratic Party in the US. The Progress Party is a populist anti-immigrant party, but unlike the MAGA movement it is in support of public social welfare (i.e. a strong state).

As far as LGBTQ issues go, they have all claimed that they are pro-LGBTQ, to the point of leaders taking part in Pride parades.

The Christian People's Party moves to the right

The Christian People's Party have, however, for the last few years been gradually moving from the center to the more extreme right and has now adapted what can only be seen as an explicit anti-LGBTQ standpoint.

The party is now in support of banning the use of the Pride flag in public schools. Note that nearly all Norwegian schools are publicly owned.

David Hansen, KrF's first candidate for parliament in Østfold, protested, calling this a "Viktor Orban"-policy. He is right. KrF is clearly trying to gain support by appealing to traditionalist conformity and fear of those outside the cis/het norm, just like Orban.

Dag-Inge Ulstein is moving the Christian People's Party to the right. (Photo: Frilansering CC)

In the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten KrF's leader, Dag-Inge Ulstein, make use of an old right wing populist trick, presenting the Norwegian flag as a symbol uniting all the people of Norway. In other words: There is no need for a Pride flag, which only causes confusion and uncertainty.

He tries to connect the Pride flag to the main Norwegian LGBTQ-organization Fri, which is supporting "surrogacy, liberalization of gender reassignment and abolition of the sex purchase law." Since Fri is political, the flag becomes political, as Ulstein sees it.

In other words: The Norwegian flag is not political, because it apparently represents values KrF, a political party, can stand behind, while the Pride flag should be banned in schools, because it is political.

Politics are political, and fighting for social inclusion of marginalized groups has been the explicit goal of all Norwegian governments for decades.

The last time a party tried to appeal to some kind of national unity "outside politics" in Norway, was Vidkun Quisling's National Unity Party (Nasjonal samling) in the 1930s. Quisling is not a good role model for any democratic party.

Politicians support the use of the rainbow flag

As far as we can see, representatives for most of the other Norwegian parties have criticized KrF for this move.

Alexander Papas of the Socialist Left Party says:

"Removing the pride flag from schoolyards is not creating peace. It is giving in to the forces that want to make queer people invisible – and who would rather see them as non-existent."

Julianne Ferskaug of the Liberals says:

"In many countries we are now seeing how human rights are being undermined, and queer people are being used as scapegoats in a larger political game. Making the safety of queer youth a political issue is harmful and protects no one."

Frøya Skjold of the Green Party (Miljøpartiet De Grønne) also supports the use of the flag in schools.

Anti-LGBTQ tendencies

We have not found a response to the proposal from the populist Progress Party yet, but last year local representatives united with the Marxist Red Party (Rødt) in order to ban the use of the Pride flag in Oslo. The Progress Party has supported a ban of the public use of the Pride flag in several municipalities.

The Center Party's MP Jenny Klinge, a Norwegian TERF, has promoted policies similar to the one of KrF. However, the party officially supports "initiatives and plans aimed at increasing acceptance of LGBT+ people in all communities and strengthening efforts against hate crime."

Conservative support of the Pride flag

For Americans it might be interesting to see how Tina Bru, deputy leader of the Conservative Party, addresses the KrF proposal.

Tina Bru (Photo: Hans Kristian Thorbjørnsen CC)

Bru argues that children do not need protection from love and tolerance but rather from intolerance, hatred, and rhetoric that fuels discriminatory attitudes.

She brings up the 2022 homophobic and transphobic terrorist attack in Oslo, as well as other incidents of hate crimes against LGBTQ+ individuals, including attacks, bullying, and exclusion faced by queer children and teenagers in Norway.

She emphasizes the importance of schools being safe spaces for all students, especially those who may already feel marginalized.

Bru argues that banning the Pride flag sends a harmful message to children who have same-sex parents or are struggling with their identity.

She refutes claims that exposure to LGBTQ+ themes would influence children’s sexual orientation, stressing that inclusion fosters respect rather than changes identity:

"No one becomes queer because they see a rainbow flag waving. No one becomes queer from learning that we should treat everyone with respect. No one becomes queer from including queer love in the community."

She expresses frustration that the same debate surfaces every year, with opponents spreading conspiracy theories about the Pride movement. She maintains that the flag represents freedom, safety, and the right to love without fear:

"It is not an option for my children to grow up in a society where we were unable to stand against the forces that want to hide all colors."

Americans conservatives could learn a lot from the real conservatives of Norway.

One of the clear signs of bigotry is how its proponents do not understand the unintended consequences of their own irrational hatred. They need their "solutions" to their imaginary problems to be neat and easy to handle.

J. K. Rowling and the TERFs (trans-exclusionary radical feminists) celebrated their UK Supreme Court victory this week as a victory for women (i.e. cis women).

They clearly believe that this means that trans women will be excluded from women's spaces, including bathrooms, in the future.

What they have not considered is the fact that they have now opened the doors of women's bathrooms to men.

Indeed, if the British government follows up on this Supreme Court madness (gender reduced to "biological sex" at birth), trans men will be forced to either use the women's room or break the law.

A trans man in the restroom

Imagine this scenario: A trans man (indistinguishable from a cis man) walks into a woman's restroom to do their thing. Imagine one of the women in there alerting a male friend or the staff about this male incursion into female spaces. This may quickly escalate into something ugly.

Click here to read the rest of this article!

Photo: Michael Hughes, a trans man, posted pictures of himself next to women entering cubicles and doing their makeup, documenting the absurdity of American bathroom laws.

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Over at Crossdreamers Kai McKenzie explores the challenges faced by transgender individuals in America, emphasizing the oppressive attitudes and policies that marginalize them.

Kai McKenzie highlights the stark contrasts between different American regions, from the liberal environment of Berkeley, California, to the conservative setting of 29 Palms and the academic halls of Nashville, Tennessee. Still, America as a whole is now under the thrall of Trump.

McKenzie writes:

‘David Guterson, in his 1993 essay “Enclosed. Encyclopedic. Endured. The Mall of America,” likened American society to the inside of this monstrous mall, where people move like “sentient corpses” in a landscape that confuses and distorts reality like an “M. C. Escher Drawing,” “outside of time and space . . . a potent dreamscape” with addictive and hallucinatory properties (166, 165, 172).

This well describes Trump’s America, where American propensities of the past, toward pretence and imaginative self-righteousness, are now blatant, unrepentant, and undisguised.’

Read the article here!

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We have been looking at the possibility for transgender Americans to find refuge in Europe. Given that there are transphobic governments even in the democratic parts of Europe, this is not an uncomplicated issue, but we think it is necessary to explore new options, now that Donald Trump is turning the US into a fascist hate camp.

We asked James to share his story over at Transgender World. He sheds light on the stark reality faced by transgender individuals in America.

James recounts his experiences in Kodiak, Alaska, where he worked as a special education aide. Despite his efforts to contribute positively to his community, he faced persistent resistance and hostility due to his transgender identity. His participation in a health curriculum review committee was marred by local religious opposition, culminating in a petition from a church that deemed the inclusion of transgender topics as “indoctrination.” The tension and fear intensified as the church’s rhetoric grew increasingly violent and exclusionary.

In search of a more accepting environment, James relocated to San Francisco, California. However, his hopes for safety were dashed by the Trump administration’s aggressive anti-transgender policies. The Mandate For Leadership document and subsequent executive orders equated transgender identities with pornography and child exploitation, posing a direct threat to James and others like him. The policies aimed to erase recognition of transgender identities, further marginalizing an already vulnerable community.

Faced with the possibility of criminalization simply for existing as a transgender person, James made the difficult decision to seek refuge in Europe. He eventually found a way to the Netherlands, although not without significant challenges and uncertainties. The journey was fraught with anxiety, but upon arrival, James found a supportive network of fellow transgender and queer individuals.

James’s story underscores the broader issues of transphobia and the urgent need for safe havens for transgender people. His resilience highlights the importance of international solidarity and the role of supportive communities in providing refuge from persecution.

Read James’ story over at Transgender World.

The saga details instances of crossdressing and the associated social stigma, illustrating that gender nonconformity existed over a millennium ago. It presents two key female characters, Gudrun and Aud.

Gudrun, described as the most beautiful and wisest woman in Iceland, uses her cunning to manipulate her circumstances. She orchestrates her divorce by accusing her husband, Thorvald, of wearing a low-cut shirt, a garment associated with women, thereby stigmatizing him.

The saga also addresses the concept of transgender masculinity through Aud, who is accused of wearing trousers, a garment designated for men. This accusation leads to her husband, Thord, divorcing her. Aud later retaliates by attacking Thord, demonstrating her resilience and challenging traditional gender norms. The author of the saga seems to imply that she is, indeed, wearing trousers.

The Laxdæla Saga's portrayal of gender variance is not isolated. Archaeological evidence, such as the Birka warrior burial in Sweden, supports the existence of transgender individuals in Viking society. The grave, initially assumed to belong to a male warrior due to the presence of weapons and armor, was later found through DNA testing to be that of a biological female. There are also graves where “biologically male” Vikings are buried in female clothing and jewelry.

These historical accounts, combined with the saga's narrative, underscore the presence and acceptance of gender variance in Viking culture.

Over at Crossdreamers we have published a more detailed analysis of the saga, associated history and archeology, and the way the possibly female author seems to sympathize with the transmasculine Aud.

Click here to read it: “Were There Transgender Vikings? The Laxdæla Saga Says So.”

You can read my translation of the relevant part of the saga here: “The Laxdæla Saga on Gender Variance”

Photo: Gettys

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President Donald Trump signed a toxic executive order Wednesday, barring federally funded schools from recognizing transgender students’ names and pronouns that align with their gender identity, Advocate reports.

The measure specifically targets social transitioning, which includes using chosen names, dressing in accordance with gender identity, and adopting preferred pronouns.

The order also mandates that schools notify parents if a student requests to use a different name or pronoun, a policy critics warn could forcibly out transgender youth, possibly leading to invalidation and violence at home.

The sweeping directive also prohibits transgender students from using bathrooms and locker rooms that match their gender and prevents them from participating on sports teams consistent with their identity.

This is a fascist text

What is missing from much on the reporting on this case (including Advocate's) is the fascist nature of the text.

In the article The 5 Themes of Fascist Education Jason Stanley, referring to Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany, writes that there are five major themes of fascist education:

1. National greatness

2. National purity

3. National innocence

4. Strict gender roles

5. Vilification of the left

Stanley points out that:

These themes are essentially different ways that fascist movements stoke grievances among the dominant group they serve in order to further their aims. In the process, they are careful to eliminate any contradiction of their narrative. This would include, for example, any scholarly research revealing flaws in national myths, any form of education that clearly reveals national guilt, any suggestion that diversity and plurality might be beneficial to society, or that more equitable gender relations might be beneficial, or that the political left is significantly less of a threat than they imagine.

The themes are all found in Trumps executive orders.

The Trump administration is no longer hiding that the goal is to create an education system that instills "a patriotic admiration for our incredible Nation and the values for which we stand."

“Patriotic education” means "an accurate, honest, unifying, inspiring, and ennobling characterization of America’s founding and foundational principles."

We doubt that the extermination of Native Americans, the practice of slavery and the persecution of LGBTQ people can be seen as "ennobling".

The goal is clearly meant to stop any teaching that make students question the racist past of the US and the current terror against transgender kids. The administration is turning the American education system into a propaganda machine for a cishet white supremacy. Real education is to be replaced with nationalistic propaganda.

The language used in the order is extremely toxic, using slurs and defamation to stigmatize those that support an open, just and democratic society. Any disagreement is seen as "indoctrination", "anti-American, "subversive", "harmful" and "false".

All of these words could rightfully be used to describe the Trump-administration's policy, but that is what fascists do: They project their own crimes upon those who go up against them.

Do not discuss real racism

The message given is that any substantial discussion of racism is bad.

The order will stop federal funding of any K-12 school that teaches what they call “discriminatory equity ideology”, which means "an ideology that treats individuals as members of preferred or disfavored groups, rather than as individuals, and minimizes agency, merit, and capability in favor of immoral generalizations."

Concepts like “White Privilege” or “unconscious bias” (which are real, observable, social phenomena) are to be banned in schools receiving federal funding.

Any policy aimed at helping people of color in a white society is seen as some kind of reverse racism targeting white Americans.

A war against transgender people

There is broad agreement among researchers and medical experts (and their organizations) that gender incongruence and gender dysphoria are real phenomena, that they do not represent mental illnesses and that trans kids benefit greatly from the help the health system can provide them.

In spite of this the document is filled with insulting lies about trans people.

Gender affirming health care is presented as "surgical and chemical mutilation" . Trans women are presented as men.

This fits the rhetoric found in the previous Executive Order on "Protecting children from chemical and surgical mutilation," which states that the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) lacks "scientific integrity". (Who cares about real science, right?) Kids are apparently undergoing "female genital mutilation". They are not. The use of puberty blockers does not include surgery.

So this is all about creating a false narrative that makes the social exclusion of all transgender people possible. They will definitely come for adult trans people next.

Protests

Advocacy groups swiftly denounced the order, arguing it effectively erases the existence of transgender people in schools and puts LGBTQ+ youth at greater risk of harm.

Nicholas Hite, an attorney with LGBTQ+ rights group Lambda Legal, condemned the move as “patently unconstitutional nonsense” designed to marginalize transgender students. He warned the order endangers youth by exposing them to increased bullying and discrimination.

The Human Rights Campaign also criticized the order, with its president, Kelley Robinson, saying that “All students deserve to feel safe and welcome in school. But this new administration is making it clear they want to dictate to children, their parents, and educators what they can read, what they can learn, what they can say, and who they can be.”

Trump may lack the authority to do what he’s promising, Jonathan Zimmerman, a University of Pennsylvania professor tells the Washington Post. He argues that the Every Student Succeeds Act, passed in 2015, forbids the federal government from mandating or incentivizing states to adopt or use any particular set of academic standards.

The order directs the education secretary to provide a plan to end “indoctrination” in schools within 90 days. Lambda Legal and others are considering legal action to challenge the directive.

But the legal approach must not be the only one. Pro-democracy activists and politicians have to stop beating around the bush and start telling the public that what we see here is fascism, plain and simple.

The photo is of an American school with kids saluting the American flag using the so-called Bellamy salute. For some bizarre reason many Americans did not find the similarity to the Nazi salute disturbing, not even during the Second World War.

Originally published over at Transgender World.

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The increasing polarization of American politics have seriously damages some of the most valuable parts of the internet: commons for debate and information sharing. Twitter was, for a time, such a place,  used by millions of people across the political spectrum for debate and research.

Not anymore. Twitter was weakened even before Elon Musk took over, but since he became the owner and leader of what is now X, it has devolved  a cesspool of hatred and trolling. He intentionally dismissed most of the moderators.

Toxic environment

I gave up debating transgender issues on twitter/X years ago, as it became increasingly clear that nearly all threads regarding gender variance might be taken over by  trolls whose goal was not to learn but to win. If you debated on their terms, you soon found yourself lost in a toxic sea of "fake news" and lack of logic. 

People have been leaving X-twitter for a long time now. I noticed that serious journalists stopped using twitter in their research. Activists who do not belong to the MAGA-tribe are also much less likely to use twitter for hashtag campaigns intended to raise awareness. Most trans people have stopped using twitter as a place of identity exploration or for finding friends.

Elon Musk has effectively destroyed Twitter, and I’m convinced it was intentional, as his extremist politics do not flourish in open and tolerant arenas for learning.

Note that Musk is a transphobe who has actively been harassing his transgender daughter on twitter,  He is that bad.

Read the rest of this article over at Crossdreamers.

Photo: Borchee

Warning: The content of this article may be traumatizing for trans people living in the US.

Now that Trump as won the US presidential election as well as the Senate, LGBTQ people around the country need to prepare for a long and painful battle.

During the campaign Trump made it perfectly clear what he wants to as far as transgender protections and health services are concerned.

The following summary is based on a presentation made by the Trump Vance campaign. We have rewritten the most offensive language.

The new Trump administration will:

1. Revoke current policies that support gender-affirming treatments for minors, including puberty blockers and surgeries.

2. Issue an executive order to end federal agency support for programs that promote the concept of sex and gender transition at any age.

3. Prohibit the use of federal funds to promote or cover the cost of gender-affirming procedures.

4. Introduce legislation to ban gender affirming procedures on children nationwide.

5. Penalize healthcare providers involved in these procedures by removing them from Medicaid and Medicare compliance.

6. Support legal avenues for individuals to sue medical professionals who have performed gender-affirming procedures on minors.

7. Mandate investigations into pharmaceutical companies and hospital networks for potentially concealing negative side effects and marketing unapproved drugs.

8. Direct the Department of Education to ensure school personnel do not encourage discussions about gender identity without repercussions, and punish those that do.

9. Promote education that emphasizes traditional gender roles and the nuclear family.

10. Request a law to formally recognize only male and female genders assigned at birth.

11. Ban transgender women from taking part in women's sport.

12. Uphold parental rights concerning their children's gender identity decisions.

Will they do all of this?

There is no reason to believe that Trump will not follow up on this. To what extent the new administration will be able to implement these policies, will depend on several factors, including:

1. The outcome of legal processes in courts.

2. Public outrage.

3. Whether the Republicans take the House of Representatives.

To change federal legislation in this area, the Republicans need to control both houses of Congress.

A war on transgender people

This list proves that the Republican Party has now declared war on transgender people. This is a policy aimed at erasing trans people from society.

It is true that some of the proposals are aimed at children only, but we will not be surprised if that approach is extended to adults as well later on. In any case the message that gender incongruence in children is "not real" carries the message that this applies to adult identities too.

Note that the Republicans want to scare and numb people and institutions from supporting trans people. Out of fear of legal action individuals, companies and institutions may avoid giving trans people any support, even if it is legal on paper.

The public policy of the Trump administration will also encourage transphobes to attack trans people both in public and in private spaces.

Trans people and their allies inside and outside the US will have to plan for the worst. We have to do everything we can to unmask the cruelty of Trump and his Fascists. We need to make sure that the Republicans are not able to normalize this kind of cruelty.

See our article "Trump and the transphobes won in the US. But there are still ways trans people can win" for more on what we can do.

More on the effects of the election on American policies for transgender people.

Free hotlines for gender & sexual identity, LGBTQ+ in the United States.

Photo: Boogich

Originally published over at Transgender World.

Let us not beat about the bush:  the election of Donald Trump is a disaster, for LGBTQ people, for America, and for those who want to make our societies more open to diversity and inclusion. This is going to be hard. But this "culture war" is not over. There are so many good people fighting for a better world out there, and if we act appropriately, tolerance and compassion may still prevail in the end.

Read the rest of the article here.

Illustration photo: Valeria Blanc.

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