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I feel like my post yesterday on the Florida GOP’s crusade against trans kids didn’t fully capture the insidiousness of the legislation known as HB1421, which was passed out of the state house’s Healthcare Regulation subcommittee yesterday on a party-line vote.
The bill not only targets trans youth, banning gender-affirming care for minors and “allow[ing] parents who oppose transition to take custody of their children from affirming parents in violation of judges orders,” as activist and writer Erin Reed notes in her Substack newsletter. It also takes aim at adults. It’s worded so broadly, as I pointed out yesterday that it could ban treatment for breast and prostate cancer.
And importantly, as Reed writes, the bill also
outright bans even private insurances from covering gender affirming care for any transgender person: …Even if a company wanted to support their transgender employees medical care, they would be forbidden by the state of Florida from doing so. This would effectively price out many transgender people from obtaining many forms of gender affirming care.
This sort of care can cost tens of thousands of dollars, not the kind of financial burden that most individuals can bear.
As Reed explains, this provision makes clear
that attacks on transgender people are not about “protecting children,” but rather about “eradicating transgenderism” as Michael Knowles put it in his recent infamous CPAC speech.
And this is not the only legislation out there targeting trans adults. As Vice documents in a piece on the new front in the GOP’s war on trans people, bills across the country restrict trans adults in various nefarious ways.
Tennessee is also trying to block insurance providers from covering gender-affirming care, while other states are explicitly trying to ban care for some adults altogether. Earlier this year Oklahoma became the first state to propose a gender-affirming care ban for people under 26, and Kansas is proposing a trans healthcare ban for people under 21. South Carolina is also attempting to ban people under 21 from accessing gender-affirming care, and would prohibit the use of public funds to cover treatment.
Earlier this month, Texas introduced its own bill that could criminalize doctors who provide gender-affirming care for people under 26. The same bill prohibits insurance companies from covering gender-affirming care for the same age group.
The writing is on the fucking wall. As Vice reports, there have been nearly 500 anti-trans bills introduced already across the country, and ten states have passed bans on gender-affirming care for trans youth. We can expect a lot more bills explicitly targeting adults to come. It’s never been about “the children.” It’s always been about eliminating trans people from public life, which some have called cultural genocide.
That, unfortunately, is not hyperbole.
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Much Free Market, such deregulation.
You know, their outrage about “woke” companies already made it abundantly obvious, but this shows again that they are not actually believers in Capitalism as an economic system. They want those they consider their lessers to suffer. And where private business dares to make any steps (no matter how cynical) towards these lessers, they readily turn on it.
It’s not just “cultural genocide”. It IS genocide
Let me help with that minor typo:
Ta-da, fixed!
And also in violation of the Constitution, specifically, the separation of powers. Hopefully that will lead to its rapid disposal into a suitable receptacle.
“Cultural genocide” is redundant. That being said, the emphasis needs to be made sometimes because a lot of people define “genocide” as “mass murder” – understandable, since the most prominent genocides in world history included mass murder. It’s just like with “informed consent”.
@snowberry They’re still working their way up mass murder but they’ve been pretty clear that’s where this is going. Can’t “eliminate transgenderism” while trans people are still alive.
Watching these developments is like watching a real life horror show. It’s sickening and heartbreaking. I’m sure it’s no consolation to be proven right, for those commentators and activists who’ve been trying to warn everyone for ages now.
I think this wider backdrop is part of why the massive opposition to Posie Parker’s attempted TERF tour down here has been so heartening. Even some sections of the mainstream media in Aust and NZ seem to be shifting their coverage.
Seeing the overall “fuck you” delivered to Parker/KJK in every city across the Antipodes, to the point where she didn’t even try to speak in NZ, is just beautiful. Having actual full-on nazis turn out in force to support her Melbourne event did a lot of damage, and hopefully sticks in people’s minds for a long time.
She apparently thought the backwards colonies would be an easy audience for her message. The fact that we weren’t is a small ray of hope in the current hellscape.
Oceans of love and support to all trans folk <3
Well, it was nice while it lasted.
Whatever it is I’ve got that is masquerading as a ridiculously aggressive form of allergic rhinitis has just evolved resistance to Flonase, much as it had earlier evolved resistance to Allegra. As of about 9 am, the Flonase seemed to wear off prematurely, and today’s dose has done jack shit. It’s like someone flipped a switch somewhere, which was also the case when Allegra stopped being effective.
I have serious doubts that life will be worth living if I’ll be spending the rest of it with permanent and unrelievable symptoms like those of a neverending head cold.
I’m willing to entertain any other suggestions, as long as they don’t require anything I lack right now (so, that would include “a doctor” and therefore also “a prescription”, inter-city travel, or any significant sum of money). In the meantime I suppose I could try a non-Allegra antihistamine, though my suspicion is that when it became resistant to Allegra it probably became resistant to antihistamines in general.
Also: has anyone ever heard of anything like this condition? Like allergies it responded, initially, to antihistamines. Unlike allergies it has no triggers and is just always-on, and also unlike allergies and instead like something caused by an infectious microorganism it evolves resistance eventually to anything used to medicate it. Unlike the obvious microorganism suspects (e.g., cold viruses and the flu) it doesn’t resolve on its own after a few days and is instead apparently permanent. I’ve had it since sometime in the early twenty-teens.
I’ve seen a number of polls in recent years about what Americans think of trans people and trans rights. Said polls ask different questions, and frame the most essential ones in different ways, so it’s hard to make direct comparisons. However, it appears that it’s more or less as follows:
(DISCLAIMER – PERSONAL IMPRESSION, MAY NOT BE ACCURATE)
• Roughly 50% are mostly or entirely on board with trans rights, and see it as an issue of equality, social justice, and health care, though how important of an issue they see it as varies. “Mostly on board” because some small portion of this group would be okay with “reasonable” compromises like banning trans people from professional sports for the time being; I suspect these are also the ones who rank the issue of lower importance.
• Roughly 10% are mostly on board, but on an entirely superficial level. Generally they seem strong on body autonomy but weak on respecting personal identity; they’re fine with “men becoming women” or vice-versa, but see that as purely cosmetic rather than medical care. Based more on conversations I’ve had than the polls, some (but not all) of the people in this group think that it’s very important that a person’s birth certificate and ID reflect their AGAB, but also that the M or F marker shouldn’t ever matter for anything other than government and medical records, even to the point of eliminating gender-based divisions in athletics… but I haven’t been able to get any of them to clarify why it’s so vital that the markers remain unchanged. Regardless, most rank this of low importance compared to other issues.
• Roughly 10% reject the worst of the transphobia, but have deep concerns. [/mild sarcasm] I get the impression most of them would be okay-ish with trans people so long as they’re largely invisible and conform to gender norms; something like, staying closeted until the person’s ready for “the surgery” and then just rapidly assimilating into their new stereotypical gender role. Also someone can’t be allowed transition if they’re closely related to members of this group, that’s just not kosher. [/sarc again] Regardless, it seems they’re very ignorant of trans people and trans issues and how transitioning works et cetera, and would prefer to remain ignorant.
• The remaining roughly 30% are virulently transphobic. It’s not clear whether most of them are outright genocidal or if it’s just a relatively small number of loud people – none of the polls I read asked the type of questions which would allow a reasonable inference to be made either way. Regardless, it’s not likely to matter much if it comes to that; if the genocidal ones lead, the others will follow.
TL;DR – The US is more pro-trans than anti-trans, but to a degree that is far from ideal.
@surplus re allergy symptoms – several things come to mind-
You may no longer be being exposed to whatever initially caused your symptoms which were then alleviated by the antihistamines. So the AH worked, and would still work if the trigger was the same. You are experiencing the same symptoms as before, but they may now have a different cause which the AH don’t help.
You may have developed an a allergic response to the AH if you take them frequently; people with migraine who take frequent pain relief can develop headaches from the irritant nature of pain relief medication on blood vessels. Reasonably enough, migraine sufferers fear their headache augurs a developing migraine, and don’t suspect they have become dependant on their pain relief which is also doing them harm.
You may have changed something in your environment which now bothers your sinuses- think about changes in shampoo, soap, anything you put on your skin and hair; think about anything your skin touches like your pillow, a blanket or cushion, any sun block or moisturiser, washing up liquid, detergent. Remember that manufacturers can make changes to their products, so stuff you have used in the past without issue may now be irritating.
Look suspiciously at air fresheners, candles, cleaning products in general.
Is your home very dusty, are there buildings being built or demolished nearby that put more dust in the air?
Are your pillows or quilts/blankets getting very old and breaking down – it took me a while to realise my old feather quilt was the cause of me getting a blocked nose overnight.
Good luck with your detective work to see if any of the above is affecting you. Wear a mask when doing any. housework, avoid dust. When you go out, look for new trees or shrubs planted nearby that could be affecting you.
And then there’s non-allergic rhinitis to consider. And whether your diet has changed, yada yada – you know the drill – research and lots of it. Best wishes!
@surplus – and, tissues! That is definitely a product that is dusty and may be perfumed also that you are probably continuously using and which may be a problem for you.
@ surplus re: allergies
Nasal sprays are known to stop working on symptoms if you use them for a longish time (but I don’t know how long: I imagine it varies depending on the spray and the person). I’m not sure which nasal sprays you are using, cause I’ve never used them for this reason.
This effect of nasal spray doesn’t seem to be widely known, in the same way that people mostly don’t know about “rebound headaches” that you can get if you take NSAIDS (paracetemol, or other over the counter pills) every day for a stretch: when you stop taking them, the headaches come back, sometimes worse.
Related to Lizzie’s suggestions, I thought of perhaps washing your bedding more often. At least once per week for sheets and pillow cases. If it’s something in your environment or dust is aggravating the symptoms, washing it out of the sheets might help if it collects there.
I think your impression of the numbers matches mine, Snowberry. Unfortunately, here in the South, the first group is a bit smaller, and the latter 3 groups are a bit larger. So transphbes of varying degrees seem to have the majority, if you get the libertarian body autonomy guys to not object.
Going after insurance providers is just another level of awful. Even if they did that here, where there’s basic national health coverage, a lot of things might still be left out. I can’t imagine what it’d be like in the States.
Also, the age thing. I suppose Oklahoma lawmakers’ “reasoning” is that the brain only fully develops in the mid-twenties. But it’s not like they’re going to raise the age of, say, joining the army? Anyway, there’s probably some bullshit about young people not knowing their own minds, as if the real motives aren’t apparent.
@Snowberry –
Good point. People were discussing a few weeks ago, and more eloquently than me, but that was basically Canada’s post-confederation policy towards Indigenous groups, sometimes explicit. Not necessarily trying to kill everyone, but trying to destroy cultures and languages.
I hate that this is happening, and that it is happening in so many US states, with similar moves against the wider community in parts of Africa, often inspired by USAian evangeicals.
@ Surplus to Requirements
Do you use decongestant nasal sprays? If you do that may be your problem, prolonged use causes the symptoms one uses a nasal spray to relieve! I have a couple of friends that this has happened to, and the only solution is to taper off your use and then just put up with the symptoms until they clear up. If this is your problem search for it as I understand there are good descriptions of what to do out there. Also if it is your problem you may find that the apparent resistance to Allegra and Flonase will also disappear, although I say again the generics are a lot cheaper and just as effective 😉
@epitome: Indeed. The stated goal of the Indian Act was to get to a point where no one self-identified as indigenous. While officially policies aimed for erasure of identity rather than people they were okay with the latter. Residential Schools had a higher mortality rate for children attending than WW2 did for Canadian soldiers.
@SpecialFFrog
Here in the States, the policy was literally described as “kill the Indian and save the man.”
Im curious – what is even the actual deal with transgender children receiving transition-related care? You hear all this transphobic garbage going around about six year old getting surgery and hormones if we don’t pass these laws, which is obviously transphobic garbage, but how *do* they do it in sane states where laws don’t interfere with medical care? Is there a minimum age for surgery/hormones, or is it case by case, or what? I try to look it up but I can’t find a reliable source.
@ lisa
I’m no expert; so I can only quote the NHS here:
But basically for kids up to 16 gender affirming care is pretty much “psychological rather than medical.”
The NHS will, in some cases, prescribe puberty blockers; but only reversible ones.
From 16, kids can be prescibed hormones even if the treatment is irreversible; but there’s a lot of hoops for the kid to go through before that happens.
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/gender-dysphoria/treatment/
@surplus I am guessing you have chronic rhinitis, like me. I get a lot of relief from a steroid nasal spray, Avamys. It is prescribed, but it may be that pharmacist can prescribe it now: you’d have to check.
Before medication, I got some relief from nasal rinses. When things get worse I use Reactin. I also take Clonidine, but that’s prescription.
Best wishes dealing with a nasty chronic illness.
Mish of the Catlady Ascendancy
Hahahahaha. Apparently neither she nor her agent bothered to find, let alone read, an events calendar for the autumn season in the antipodes.
Adelaide runs the 2nd largest arts festival in the world during march. You want to see-hear-observer-participate in anything unusual in clothing, grooming, performing? Get yourself and your interstate or overseas friends to The Garden of Unearthly Delights and go for it. (You’ll have to make your own outfits though. Everything’s already sold or hired)
@Pink haired old lady
I heard of someone dying because of a contaminated nasal rinse, so I’ll pass on that, thanks.
Prescriptions are unavailable to me because, as of 2019, it’s apparently de facto policy in Ontario that you must live somewhere with $2K+/mo rents before you’ll be permitted to exercise your full theoretical rights to healthcare as a citizen of the province. So, unless you’re in the upper 10% of the income distribution, with one of the dwindling white-collar full-time jobs, no doctor for you.
So, we now unofficially have a two-tier system. Yay.
@Lizzie:
No recent new containers of soap, etc. opened here, so I doubt that’s it. Ditto dietary changes.
Blankets and pillows breaking down … I dunno. My current pillows are fairly newish. On the other hand, I don’t tend to do much cleaning of them. I move a lot in my sleep, it seems, so back when I bothered with things like pillowcases, fitted sheets, and duvet covers, I’d wake up on a bare mattress and a bare pillow, clutching another bare pillow, with the sheets and pillowcases all rumpled up at the foot of the bed, freezing my ass off because the duvet had ended up in a wad at the far end of the duvet cover and the part of the duvet cover still in contact with my body was empty. (You’d think they’d make those fasten to the corners or something. Same with the sheets and the bed’s corners, and the open end of a pillowcase.)
At some point I just gave up on all of that nonsense, as it wasn’t protecting the bare pillows or bare mattress from getting sweated on or whatever anyway, and its only other function would be to doll the bed up all pretty for all zero of the visitors I ever have. It was an unproductive labor sink, and even a money sink when all that stuff went into the laundry.
Bare pillows do get icky or just plain break down, at which point I replace them. I don’t know if washing them would extend their lives, but washing them would also take up a whole laundry load all by themselves, thus costing me $5 every wash. $20 every few months to replace them outright seems more economical.
The mattress is a bigger problem as it is getting lumpy and stuff and there is simply no possible way I can ever replace it. I couldn’t get something that bulky home even with a taxi, and using something like a U-Haul is out of the question for both cost and I-don’t-have-a-driver’s-license reasons. On top of which there’s no way I could manhandle the damn thing up stairs and around tight corners singlehandedly. So, unless Cupid has a major oopsie aiming his bow, I don’t foresee any possibility of doing anything about that. On top of which, the cost of the replacement mattress itself is likely prohibitive.
As for dust, I have an air purifier that should limit issues due to dust. And yes, I change the filter from time to time.
Surplus
One thought. Soaps etc.
You might be fed up enough to do a radical no-artificial approach.
Bed linens. Presuming your sheets and pillowcases are mixed fibres rather than pure cotton/linen, you could soak them (not all at once) overnight in the washing machine. Drain and spin. Then find your largest stockpot or saucepan, fill it with clean cold water, bring it to the boil, then lower the temperature.
Shampoo and soap or body wash. There are many dermatology and allergy specialists who would tell you (and anyone else who’d listen) to throw the whole contents of their bathroom cupboards into the fire. Never to be seen again. I think it would be worth a six to eight weeks trial of using cheap!!!!! pure unadulterated sorbolene to wash hair and skin.
Pure means pure. No matter how healthy or desirable olive oil or vitC or Manuka honey or herbal aromas might be, for this purpose they’re all contaminants. It’s a bit difficult to get all the sorbolene out of your hair, but once you’ve done it, it’s okay.
Not so radical. Wash/boil your pillowcases/cushion covers every day. Same for shirts and pullovers for every use.
@lisa
The AAP guide on the care of trans children doesn’t give hard “this is too young” ages, but there’s an emphasis on “developmentally appropriate care” because that’s in general how good medicine should be practiced.
Basically, the younger the child is, the more the emphasis will be on social transition, and the more intensive treatments (such as hormones) would be started later, when children are more able to participate in the care discussion. The one exception might be the puberty blockers, which do need to be started fairly early during puberty to be as effective as they could be. However, a child could be started on puberty blockers, and then wait a few years until they are better able to engage in discussion of hormone treatments. The fact is, there are SO few gender affirming surgeries performed on minors that it is really a non issue. There are orders of magnitude more breast augmentations done on minors than mastectomies, for example (a couple thousand vs a couple hundred).
@Surplus to Requirements:
There was a recent change in the law in Ontario (within the last few months) to allow pharmacists to prescribe certain things for ‘minor illnesses’, as part of a general ‘avoid making doctors the bottleneck for too much’ push. ‘Nasal Allergies’ is one of the things on the list.
https://www.rexall.ca/prescribing