‘Leigh 🏳️‍⚧️

Oh nooooooes, a disaster!!!

🙄🙄🙄

not supplying them to Ukraine gives russia an advantage, thus being against the US supplying them to Ukraine is de-facto a pro-russian stance.

I strongly disagree with you here. I’m not against providing any weapons to Ukraine, I just believe there are better options than cluster munitions — options which won’t still be killing civilians in the decades to come. I don’t believe that cluster munitions are in any way essential to Ukraine’s defence.

Ukraine and its allies can’t do anything (short of surrendering, which I certainly don’t advocate) to stop Russia’s use of them, and there will be long-term consequences. But that doesn’t make it a good — or even neutral — idea to add on additional long-term consequences. The more unexploded ordinance, the more danger to residents in the future.

I read this more as a condemnation of the US (as opposed to Ukraine) for enabling further use of an indiscriminate weapon that will have civilian consequences for decades to come. But alas, it’s what I expect from those warmongers to our south. 😔

Don’t worry, Google is bluffing. They don’t want other countries to do anything similar so they have to make a big show of fighting it, but their massive power to fight it is exactly why C-18 is necessary. Google backed down in Australia, and sooner or later, they’ll back down here — there’s still a lot of money for them to rake in even after paying to use the news outlets’ work.

I looked up the past comment you mentioned. And just… Wow. 😐

Even if you do specifically have gender dysphoria, jumping to gender affirming care is radical. It’s not how we treat any other kind of disordered thinking

Gender Dysphoria is not disordered thinking. That’s exactly why the name was changed in DSM-5 (formerly Gender Identity Disorder in DSM-IV). Or if you prefer, it’s exactly why ICD-11 renamed it to Gender Incongruence and moved it out of the “Mental, Behavioural, and Neurodevelopmental Disorders” section. Shouldn’t a former therapist commenting on the issue know that?

Does Gender Dysphoria present alongside disordered thinking? Quite often! But that doesn’t invalidate one’s gender identity. Transition didn’t make my F33.2 Major Depressive Disorder, Recurrent Severe magically go away, but it sure is easier to cope with and treat these days. (Well, I guess it’s 6A71.3 now that ICD-11 is out.)

I think people who can only find relief for their dysphoria by transitioning should be allowed to

And there we have it: the core of the argument you’re making is that people should only be allowed to transition if a gatekeeper is satisfied it’s the only way they can get relief. And the only way to “show” that is to suffer more and more — unnecessarily! — until someone like you finally believes them, which might never happen. Do you believe trans people genuinely have the gender we say we do? If so, withholding treatment is simply cruel. Or do you not believe us and just think it’s okay for us to “pretend” if nothing else works? That’s not real acceptance.

There is no medical reason not to try more traditional forms of therapy and medications before pursuing the less understood and riskier treatments.

Scientists still don’t fully understand how antidepressant medications work. They come with a black-boxed warning (the strongest kind) in the US, and similarly strong warnings in the Canadian product monographs. Benzodiazepines commonly used for anxiety disorders can be extremely risky. Puberty blockers and hormone treatments are better understood and carry less risk in many cases.

I very much wish the LGBT community could try to understand where moderates like myself are coming from.

Oh, believe me, we understand exactly where you’re coming from… quite possibly better than you do. You’re only fooling yourself with that “moderate” label.

And that’s why I wrote this reply out for the bystanders — it’s not actually for you.

For the record, I’ve been an LGBT supporter all of my life.

No, I’m afraid you haven’t been. For example, there was that time you wrote:

LGBT values are an invasive culture change that is being pushed on kids without the interests of the parents in mind.

Some of those kids are gay, some are bi, some are trans, some are ace, some are intersex, the list goes on. Every one of them deserves acceptance and support, whether their parents agree or not. A queer child’s safety and well-being shouldn’t depend on winning the supportive-parent(s) lottery. And even with a supportive parent, a hostile school environment can lead to suicidal ideation. Any guess as to how I know that?

I’ve only recently had to start pushing back because I believe certain parts of the LGBT culture are not suitable for children.

Sure, but which parts do you mean? Because lately, the rhetoric has mostly been about “drag queen story hour” which is really just reading books while playing fancy dress-up. There’s nothing inherently harmful or even sexualized about it.

Such a bubble seems workable to me, with the caveat of “during classes” or the like. If teachers are on strike, then there aren’t classes in session and thus it would be okay. And for BLM, a student-led rally could take place after classes, and a community-led rally during school hours would probably be much more effective if held elsewhere.

But the reason we’re talking about this is because anti-trans protestors want children to feel it’s dangerous and bad to be queer. It’s specifically an attack on queer kids and anyone who helps them feel safe at school. And kids, whether queer or not, shouldn’t be forcefully exposed to that hate in a place they are required by law to be.