Putting this here, but if anyone wants it moved, I will.
Pompeo is close to the Family Research Council. Could he change the passport rules to fuck over people who havenāt been able to correct their passports?
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Can neuroplasticity explain this?
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What the fuck is wrong with people? What a shitstain of a human being.
I think people confuse cruelty with righteousness.
I donāt know why. I assume it has to do with their parents, schools, and churches. I think it might also have to do with the idea of cosmic justice-- that good things happen to good people, and bad things happen to bad people, so if bad things happen to someone, they must have done something to deserve it, and if you inflict bad things on someone, they must have done something to deserve itā¦
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That is what hijacked libertarianism almost before it started. Also bolshevism, psychology, computing and most new social science fields of study. Cruelty never lacks for motivation to find new justification for cruelty. Because the old justifications never work very well for too long.
The event starts at 5:00AM BST on Monday.
This is awesome <3
My friend who is going for her PhD in gender studies and is trans has a really interesting conversation going on about this on her Facebook page. And itās interesting how much most of the people in the thread do not like this approach.
Itās not surprisingā¦ I think itās the same reason that some people in general feel uncomfortable or outright hostile to Trans people, because it challenges their notions about gender just being something ānaturalā that just happens as opposed to something constructed between people. There are few ideas that really upset people, and this is one of them. People just have a knee jerk reaction to stuff that challenges their gender identities, I think. Which is sad, because itās such an important idea to think about. But even a cursory study of the history of gender will show that what is considered masculine and feminine has never been static, but has changed over time.
I work part-time at Stanford University digitizing things (I primarily work on maps but our department handles practically anything besides audiovisual and born-digital stuff, which are separate departments). The digitization lab is in the main library, so while I work in the library, I donāt do the kinds of things one might normally think of when someone says they work in a library, hence this belabored explanation, which Iām providing because I found it interesting that at least a couple of people in this thread mentioned being librarians or working in libraries. Not in the least surprising to me in this crowd 
I brought it up at all though because one set of bathrooms near one of the two entrances recently, as in a couple of months ago, became single-occupancy gender-neutral bathrooms. They had previously been single-stall bathrooms anyway (the menās room had a urinal and a stall, and two sinks - not actually sure if any changes were made inside to the relabeled bathrooms) - should have been obvious a long time ago to make them gender-neutral, but itās nice that it happened, anyway. Of course, itās common now in the progressive Bay Area, but far from ubiquitous.
Then, totally unconnected but coincidentally shortly after that change, there was another interesting thing that happened - work apparently needs to be done on the roof (loud work right above our top-floor lab), and an area outside the entrance with a large bench and so on has been fenced off in case anything falls from the roof. Every few feet on the fence theyād put up printed signs saying, very oddly, āMEN (in huge letters) working above (in smaller letters and not capitalized)ā. It caused a passive-aggressive uproar - the signs all received handwritten rebukes from lots of different people (saying things like āImagine that!ā) - then eventually were covered up with a less ridiculous, un-gendered message.
If everyone at school is supposed to publicly refer to the student using the new name and pronoun, wouldnāt that just end up getting back to the parents anyway?
That said, needing parental permission to be referred to by your preferred pronoun is absurd.
Once upon a time, a baby named X was born. This baby was named X so that nobody could tell whether it was a boy or a girl. Its parents could tell, of course, but they couldnāt tell anybody else. They couldnāt even tell Baby X at first.
You see, it was all part of a very important Secret Scientific Xperiment, known officially as Project Baby X. The smartest scientists had set up this Xperiment at a cost of Xactly 23 billion dollars and 72 cents, which might seem like a lot for just one baby, even a very important Xperimental baby. But when you remember the prices of things like strained carrots and stuffed bunnies, and popcorn for the movies and booster shots for camp, let alone 28 shiny quarters from the tooth fairy, you begin to see how it adds up.
ā¦
Opening of X: A Fabulous Childās Story by Lois Gould, a fun, short read if you havenāt seen it before.
Can neuroplasticity explain this?
Possibly, thereās the argument that taxi cab drivers seem to have changes in the part of the brain related to navigation, so itās always possible that at least some physical brain changes are related to different behaviors, social conditions, etc. Although the researchers seem to say at one point they believe these differences were gestational? Iām afraid the details here are over my head.
IMO, trans brain studies are weirdly over-emphasized compared to research studies that would make a bigger difference in the lives of trans people:
- What electrolysis methods reduce the total time involved? Which reduce the risk of scarring?
- Is there any hope of tracking surgical results per surgeon, along with percentage of patients requiring modifications, satisfaction after n years, so people donāt have to go into surgery blindly based on anecdotes and the surgeonās sales pitch?
What hormone regimes and application methods most fully and safely replicate cis-equivalent puberty and adulthood? Many aspects here, and it's mostly frustrating due to the poverty of information available.
- Does E1/E2 ratio really matter? Is it true itās better to emphasize E1 early on, and E2 later? Is it true spironolactone & its deleterious side-effects can be decreased once T levels have been sufficiently suppressed for long enough? Should growth factor be prescribed/encouraged to improve results of HRT? Should hormone target levels change over the course of HRT to better reflect cis hormonal levels in different Tanner stages?
- What effect, if any, does exogenous progesterone have? It anecdotally effects emotions and breast growth, but any time I mention that to an endocrinologist, they say, āthere is no evidence,ā because no real studies have been done, apparently. How important is cycling P & E dominant regimes to mimic cis periods? No cis people just have high, constant levels of estrogen, so why do so many endos see that as a reasonable goal? Is it just to minimize the frequency and cost of blood tests?
- How much does hormone delivery method effect risk factors like DVT, etc? It seems like injection should be safer, but most endocrinologists seem to feel more comfortable prescribing oral medication instead, also not informing patients about methods like sub-lingual and anal administration.
Etc. Instead we seem to see these brain studies, which are unlikely to change anyoneās minds, and at worst could become an extra gatekeeping step one day.