It's Really Simple. If You're Born With A Vagina And You Naturally Have Elevated Testosterone Levels,

It's really simple. If you're born with a vagina and you naturally have elevated testosterone levels, you're a man. If you have a vagina and you take testosterone, you're a woman. But also if you have a vagina, you'll never be a man. But also if you have higher testosterone then you were never a woman. Woman never yes man a vagina testosterone no was an elevated. Vagina man.

from shon faye, author of the transgender issue

There is a pro-transgender Labour revolt against health secretary Wes Streeting. You can sign the letter.

Labour health secretary Wes Streeting has continued the transphobic policies of the previous Conservative government. Now Labour members have published and open letter anyone can sign.

Wes Streeting has said:

“This ban [on puberty blockers] brings the private sector in line with the NHS. We are committed to providing young people with the evidence-led care that they deserve”.

Evidence shows that blockers are of great help to young trans people, as it gives them some breathing space before puberty changes their bodies in traumatic ways.

Streeting is either lying about what medical research on trans people says or he has not done his homework. As a gay man he should know how oppression and erasure work.

The letter states:

International evidence shows that puberty suppressing hormones are a safe and effective way to temporarily pause a young person’s puberty, giving them time to consider their options for transition. Much of the concern around their use stems from the idea that those who take puberty blockers go on to use cross sex hormones as part of their transition. We do not think that trans young people growing up to be happy and healthy trans adults is a bad outcome while rates of de/retransition are exceptionally low. Rather than honouring Labour’s manifesto commitment to “remove indignities for trans people who deserve recognition & acceptance,” you have decided to strip trans young people of their bodily autonomy, undermining important medical principles, such as Gillick Competence, in favour of upholding the Conservative approach of politicising the lives of trans people. Even the widely discredited Cass Review does not go so far as to recommend the criminalisation of puberty blockers for trans young people.

You can read and sign the letter here.

See also:

Wes Streetings Tweet: An Analysis #BWOT Wes Streeting sparks fury after defending ban on puberty blockers for trans kids The World Professional Association for Transgender Health with severe critique of the UK Cass review on transgender youth

By Jack Molay.

I've seen discussions sometimes about how fanfiction-based fandom culture is heavily influenced and dominated by people who are not cis men.

One thing I haven't seen discussed as much though is how much of fandom in general is shaped by neurodivergent people.

I mean, you have autistic and ADHD people with special interests or hyperfixations collecting information and writing detailed meta, connecting very strongly with characters and fandoms. I would not be surprised if the percentage of autistics in fandom communities was significantly higher than in the general public.

And that's not even getting into other types of neurodivergencies and how they influence fandom culture.

I sometimes see people try to divorce fandom culture from the idea of being a "geek", and I understand that this is sometimes because of the association with the sexist geek stereotype, but I also know that there is a connection between the two concepts, and it's probably us neurodivergent people.

People keep searching for ways to argue that JK Rowling has always been a horrible person deep down as a way of explaining her recent behaviour.

But here’s the thing: that’s probably not true at all.

Pretending it is discounts the harsher, scarier truth: that even decent, well-meaning people can be radicalised by dangerous, hateful, predatory groups, and given enough time they can become truly hideous versions of their former selves.

It can happen to me. It can happen to you. It can happen to any of us, given the right mix of circumstances. And over the past few years, we’ve seen it happen to one of the most famous children’s authors of our age.

Nobody is immune.

Once my boyfriend told me: "You're not a burden. A burden is something you're forced to carry against your will. I freely choose to be a part of your life and that means you aren't a burden to me." I'm passing it on in case some of you need to be reminded of that.