zoebrain

zoebrain

61p

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9 years ago @ Wonkette - Study Finds Kids Of Ga... · 0 replies · +1 points

But seriously folks - this is a convenience sample, and compares kids whose parents are in stable relationships with a mix of those whose parents are and are not. It is corrected for socioeconomic factors though, poverty being the biggest correlate with poor outcomes.

Unlike the Regnerus study, it's not cherrypicked, but you can't say kids of gay parents do better, just that they do about the same as others in similar circumstances with straight parents. Slightly better in a few areas, sightly worse in a few others, the latter being correlated with the homophobia in their area.

Homophobia is bad for the kids of gay parents. Poverty is worse. Unstable relationships worse still.

9 years ago @ MercatorNet - MercatorNet: What is t... · 0 replies · +3 points

The problem is that when you're dealing with an organisation with a well-documented history of serial cover-up and concealment of wrongdoing... then there will be no benefit of the doubt given. Nor, perhaps, should there be.

But more facts would be good.

10 years ago @ The New Civil Rights M... - Tennessee Passes Bill ... · 0 replies · +2 points

VISHNU PURANA says that sun is 800,000 miles and moon is 2,200,000 miles away from the earth respectively.

How many Hindus believe that, I don't know. But that's what their scripture says, just as Genesis says the Earth is covered by a transparent firmament keeping the waters above from flooding it.

10 years ago @ The New Civil Rights M... - Tennessee Passes Bill ... · 2 replies · +24 points

Why do you despise Santa Claus and any influence of the sex goddess Aphrodite on our culture?

Having read the bill, it really depends on how its interpreted and implemented. Historically, the record strongly suggests that only the majority religion in any school will get a look-in.

Furthermore, how would a teacher know how to mark the simple question:
"Is the Sun closer to the Earth than the Moon, Y/N?" without knowing if the student is Hindu or not.

Or how about:
"The shape of the Earth is a) An oblate spheroid b) a flat disc c) a circle d) a square"?
Any of those answers could be correct, depending on the religion of the student.

Or
"What is the distance of the Earth to the Sun?" - according to 3 Baruch, the Firmament is at an altitude of 463 cubits - about half the height of the Empire State building.

The conservative christian Pacific Justice Institute has already filed a complaint, now working its way through the Kansas courts, that teaching science (which assumes no supernatural intervention in experiments) provides a "hostile environment to those of faith" so should be prohibited.

That's the environment this bill is embedded in. With goodwill and reason, there'd be no problem. But as Martin Luther said, quite correctly, ""Reason is the greatest enemy that faith has; it never comes to the aid of spiritual things, but -- more frequently than not -- struggles against the divine Word, treating with contempt all that emanates from God." - reason itself is prohibited by this bill.
"

10 years ago @ Canon City Daily Record - Joseph Pennock: Lunacy... · 0 replies · +1 points

The reason that legislation tends to refer to "Gender Identity" rather than "Transgender" is because everyone has a Gender Identity - though that may not be unambiguously male or female, especially in the case of Intersex people - those born with *bodies* neither unambiguously male or female.

1 in 300 men don't have 46,XY (male) chromosomes for example. Some women do. Rarely, so do the daughters they give birth to, as described in J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2008 January; 93(1): 182–189.

" A 46,XY mother who developed as a normal woman underwent spontaneous puberty, reached menarche, menstruated regularly, experienced two unassisted pregnancies, and gave birth to a 46,XY daughter with complete gonadal dysgenesis."

This gets especially complex in some cases - 5ARD, 17BHSD, 3BHSD etc syndromes, where someone can be born looking like one sex (so have documentation for that sex), but who change to look like the other (unless they get medical treatment to prevent the natural change).

See : Gender change in 46,XY persons with 5alpha-reductase-2 deficiency and 17beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase-3 deficiency. Cohen-Kettenis PT. Arch Sex Behav. 2005 Aug;34(4):399-410.

5ARD and 17BHSD only cause Female to Male changes. These changes can thus either cause, or cure, transsexuality, depending on the Gender Identity. Girls who it happens to desperately seek treatment to prevent it. Boys who it happens to rejoice that they no longer look like the wrong sex. 3BHSD can cause a change in either direction. 45,X/46,XY MGD causes Male to Female only. There are other syndromes too.

There are so many different situations that it's just plain simpler to go by Gender Identity in segregating the sexes. Kinder too. Being forced to live as the wrong sex causes "Gender Dysphoria", a dangerous,serious medical condition that can lead to suicide or death from stress-related illness.

I hope that explains things? The point is, there are far more kids in such situations than most realise. In the past it could always be kept quiet and private, if a child changed sex they'd just move to another school. I suspect most readers had no idea that this could possibly happen.

These days, with databases, documentary trails, and inflexible regulations, hiding like that is not possible.

I have 3BHSD. It's a source of some quiet amusement to both my OB/GYN and myself that my birth certificate says "boy", as that's what I most looked like before the change.

We exist. We walk among you. We try not to make waves. Sometimes though, in order to inform others, we have to stick our heads up over the parapets and make ourselves vulnerable. Or things will never get better for Transsexual, Intersex, or Transgender kids.

10 years ago @ Canon City Daily Record - Joseph Pennock: Lunacy... · 0 replies · +1 points

Here's a bit more:

Sexual Hormones and the Brain: An Essential Alliance for Sexual Identity and Sexual Orientation Garcia-Falgueras A, Swaab DF Endocr Dev. 2010;17:22-35

" The fetal brain develops during the intrauterine period in the male direction through a direct action of testosterone on the developing nerve cells, or in the female direction through the absence of this hormone surge. In this way, our gender identity (the conviction of belonging to the male or female gender) and sexual orientation are programmed or organized into our brain structures when we are still in the womb. However, since sexual differentiation of the genitals takes place in the first two months of pregnancy and sexual differentiation of the brain starts in the second half of pregnancy, these two processes can be influenced independently, which may result in extreme cases in trans-sexuality. This also means that in the event of ambiguous sex at birth, the degree of masculinization of the genitals may not reflect the degree of masculinization of the brain. There is no indication that social environment after birth has an effect on gender identity or sexual orientation."

10 years ago @ Canon City Daily Record - Joseph Pennock: Lunacy... · 0 replies · +1 points

" Rarer still, if not nonexistent, are children whose parents have subjected them to gender reassignment surgery. "

Nonexistent in the USA. The patient has to be at least 18.

There are an awful lot of misconceptions about transsexuality, intersex, and transgender. Unfortunately the reporting in the Daily Record hasn't just not helped, it's made things worse.

Maybe this will help dispel the "whatever sex they want to be" myth? Gender Identity is the knowledge of which sex you are. It can crystallize as early as 2, usually around age 5, nearly always by age 10. How it forms is described in

Biased-Interaction Theory of Psychosexual Development: “How Does One Know if One is Male or Female?” M.Diamond Sex Roles (2006) 55:589–600

It's based on congenital brain anatomy. In transsexuals, the brain is cross-sexed in certain areas, so a Gender Identity forms which differs from appearance. See

Male–to–female transsexuals have female neuron numbers in a limbic nucleus. Kruiver et al J Clin Endocrinol Metab (2000) 85:2034–2041

That picture is overly simplistic (there are intermediate situations for example) but captures the essence.

10 years ago @ Canon City Daily Record - Parents voice concern ... · 0 replies · +1 points

Oh yes - the "victims"- according to Clemonson

"“The [other] girls are the victims because, they’re the one’s who are being victimized, they cannot ridicule him [sic] and they have to show him [sic] respect.”

10 years ago @ Canon City Daily Record - Parents voice concern ... · 1 reply · +1 points

Turns out that "parents" isn't quite true. Of the three "parents" quoted, only one has a child at that school - the others are out-of-town political activists.

Perhaps the reporter should have reported some of the other things said:

"“They aught to castrate the sucker. That’s what I told the School Board Monday night. ‘Ya aught to castrate the sucker before you let him [sic] into any girl’s restroom.’ That way, I know that he [sic] can’t rape anybody, but he [sic] could.” -
http://www.transadvocate.com/fact-checking-anti-t...

To continue:
"There’s so much that the gay rights have gotten, so much, that a lot of people are thinking that way so that they can get into a lot of different things and get a lot of free stuff, and be able to have the gay marriages, the insurance – because it’s cheaper for two people than for one – and, there’s just so many things that… I’ll be honest with you. I don’t know except that it’s just sick and it’s against the constitution, it’s against the bible!

Obama is destroying America. Completely. We have no respect. Countries were afraid of us because we stood up for what we believed in. And so many people – just like Israel, they took god out of Israel and look what happened. It got blown up. Alright, they’re rebuilt Israel, we can rebuild the United States if we get enough people together.

There’s not enought people that have the guts to stand up and say ‘No!’ and fight for what they want because too many people have gotten too much stuff – FREE – from Obama, they say, ‘Why would we fight it when we just don’t have to do nothing and we get all this stuff. We get food stamps, we get cars, we get this, we get that.’ I mean, there’s too many people who’s got a free handout.

I won’t accept the free handout. I don’t take the stimulus money. It’s been offered to me, but I ain’t gonna take it because it’s money that doesn’t belong to me and this is what people’s done. ‘You’re gonna give me $1000? Or sure, fine! I’ll take it!’ They don’t ask, but the strings are attached to it."

Maybe the "reporter" here missed that lot out, because it makes the "parents" seem like they're motivated by something other than child safety.

“I don’t support transgenders.” Clemonson elaborated, “It’s not right at all, because I do not support it. I think it’s wrong and, it’s just wrong… If they’re going against god’s will, they are dangerous and you need to watch out for them because they will destroy you.”

One might even call them paranoid nutters.

Some questions for the Canon City News:

Clemenson clearly states that she said – at the School Board meeting – that the School Board should castrate trans children and yet none of that made it into Canon City Daily Record.

Why did Charlotte Burrous, reporter for the Canon City Daily Record paper edit out Clemenson’s true feelings?

Why did Burrous claim that Clemenson was the parent of school children that went to school in that district if it wasn’t true?

Burrous claimed that a second speaker, Jerry Hoel, was also parent of a school child in the School Board’s district but he lives in Clemenson’s town as well.

Why did the reporter fail to mention that the town supports Jane Doe?

Over to you, Canon City News. Or should that be Canon City "News"?

10 years ago @ Canon City Daily Record - Parents voice concern ... · 0 replies · +1 points

So... exactly how are girls being victimised?

"According to the article, the transgender student allegedly had been harassing girls in the bathroom, which prompted the parents of other female students to complain"

The harassment consisted of her going to school, if you read the details. That's all they claim. They saw a trans girl leaving a stall and washing her hands - that's it. That they claim is "harassment".

" Penezik asked. "You're teaching my child to go against my wishes."

She said the students were told they had to go against what their parents had taught them.

"I want to know why that it was justified," Penezik said."

OK, it's simple. Because you're an irrational bigot. You're perfectly allowed to hold whatever odious opinions you want to, to say that Jews shouldn't be permitted in schools, or Trans kids, or whoever. But you're not allowed to make up stuff like bogus claims of "harassment", nor impose your foetid beliefs on others.

Next question?