“And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”
—Jesus Christ (John 8:32 KJV)
“The Surgical Gender Affirmation Program treats teens and young adults. We work closely with patients and families to make decisions about surgery age and timing. Patients must be 18 or older by the time of surgery for gender-affirming genital procedures.”
“Gender-affirming medical care for patients under age 18 requires consent from any parent or guardian that has medical decision-making rights for that patient, unless the patient is an emancipated minor.”
“To qualify for gender affirmation at Boston Children's Hospital, you must be at least 18 years old for phalloplasty or metoidioplasty and for vaginoplasty.
You must also have the following:
• A letter from a medical doctor or nurse practitioner stating that you have "persistent, well documented, gender dysphoria" and specifying the length of hormone therapy.
• A letter from your regular therapist stating that you have "persistent, well documented, gender dysphoria," that any significant mental health concerns are well controlled and that you have been living full time in your identified gender for at least 12 months.
• A second letter, from a mental health professional familiar with the procedure you are seeking, stating you are ready for surgery. This should include your understanding of the surgery procedure and recovery needs, fertility implications of surgery, and risks of surgery. It should also state that you are able to consent for surgery and include an assessment of your support systems.
Patients who want to pursue chest surgery must be at least 15 years old and have the following:
• A letter from a medical doctor or nurse practitioner stating that you have "persistent, well documented, gender dysphoria" and specifying either the length of hormone therapy or why you are not taking hormone therapy.
• A letter from a mental health provider stating that you have the capacity to consent and that any significant mental health issues are being addressed.”
“The World Professional Association for Transgender Health has declared that the minimum age for gender transition treatment can now be lowered to 14, which is two years younger than previously advised. Along with that decrease in the age requirement for hormone treatments, the association has also moved to lower the minimum age for some gender reassignment surgeries to between 15 or 17.”
“While potential risks are present when administering hormone treatments and performing reassignment surgeries on patients within these age brackets, those risks were weighed against those that could come from withholding treatment from someone in need of it.”
“Transgender people can experience high rates of distress and suicidality. Almost half (43%) of transgender people have a history of attempting suicide. Suicide risk is highest when experiencing transphobia and when waiting to transition. Rates of suicidality can drop markedly once transition has been completed. Some transgender individuals choose hormone therapy or gender reassignment surgery. Currently, candidates for hormone therapy must demonstrate a consistent and persistent gender-variant identity that meets criteria for gender dysphoria as categorized by the DSM-5.5”
“…81 percent of transgender respondents reported having contemplated suicide during their lifetime compared with 30 percent of cisgender heterosexual adults…”
“A new study has shown incredibly high levels of satisfaction with gender-affirming surgery. The study, published in ‘Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery’, the Journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, says that 99.7% of trans people who had undergone such surgery experienced a degree of satisfaction with the outcome, an incredible figure in the context of any healthcare outcomes.”
“In total the Transgender Health Program examined 1989 trans patients. Only 6 patients (0.3%) requested reversal surgery or transitioned back to their sex assigned at birth. The study also concluded that an environment that normalises authentic gender expression, affirming each individual’s surgical goals without any judgement, are foundational to mitigating against regret.”
“The 0.3% regret rate of our newest study is much smaller compared to other, common yet serious surgeries. Interestingly, knee replacement surgery has a dissatisfactory rate of 6-30%. The rate is up to 100 times that of gender-affirming surgery. However, knee replacement surgery does not go through the same scrutiny as trans healthcare does.”
“The evidence is overwhelming in showing that fears around ‘transition regret’ are blown out of proportion. Conservatives cling onto this myth in order to justify their anti-trans bills banning gender-affirming healthcare. Instead we focus on the joy that gender-affirming healthcare brings, and the positivity of so many people being able to live freely as themselves, celebrating who they are.”
“Athletic performance differences can be caused by all manner of things across four broad categories: anatomical (physical features such as height), physiological (functional factors like the body’s ability to deliver oxygen to muscles), psychological, and socioeconomic (such as access to equipment and training knowledge). A number of myths and misconceptions exist within each of these categories that tend to ascribe overwhelming advantages to men.”
“I am here to dispel those myths and misconceptions.”
“THERE IS A pernicious and persistent sex-based hormone myth that says testosterone is exclusively male, estrogen exclusively female, and that testosterone is the secret ingredient for athletic success.”
“None of this is true.”
“First, women and men need both hormones in order to function properly. When women ovulate, testosterone plays a critical role, just as estradiol (a predominant form of estrogen) is crucial in men for sperm formation. Second, while it is true that women tend to have more estrogen and men more testosterone, there is a great deal of individual variation and an overlap in ranges—particularly among athletes. A study among close to 700 elite athletes found that about 5 percent of women had testosterone levels in the typical male range and about 2 percent of men had levels in the typical female range.”
“Testosterone, like all hormones, has multiple effects throughout the body. While it is true that testosterone can, in very large doses, lead to increased muscle mass, the link between natural levels of testosterone and muscle mass is not consistent across populations. Furthermore, evidence unequivocally linking natural testosterone levels to improved athletic performance remains elusive.”
“Estrogen, on the other hand, seems to play a critical role in endurance performance, potentially due to its role in glucose metabolism. One research study found that endurance-trained men had significantly more estrogen receptors on their muscles than moderately active men.”
“Despite all this, World Athletics regulations, which are followed by the International Olympic Committee, determine eligibility of certain athletes in the female classification of some athletic events based on testosterone levels. These protocols assume that testosterone always confers an advantage, and these organizations apply this rule only to a handful of sports, like middle-distance running, for which testosterone may not confer an advantage at all.”
“The result is often a travesty on many levels, with women being barred from competing (based on a questionable reading of the science) or having to undergo potentially detrimental medical treatment to lower their natural testosterone levels, which can have multiple negative effects.”
“…The idea that trans boys cannot compete with cis boys on the field is demonstrably false. Mosier making Team USA means that he is literally one of the best in his category of all the men in the country. And Bailar, who competed against men while swimming for Harvard University, was ranked 443 out of all 2,983 Division I male swimmers — meaning he beat 85% of the men he swam against.” “The narrative that we’re not capable of [being up there with cis men] at worst excludes trans boys from even stepping into sport,” he says. “And at best, makes them doubt themselves. No matter how you look at it, that narrative is toxic.”
When people ask Bailar how he plans to beat cis men, “It’s very simple,” he says. “The answer is, I did.”
“In Changing the Game, you can see the difference for wrestler Mack Beggs. When he wins the State Championships after beating a girl, he looks dejected. His head hangs while the official raises his arm in victory, the girl who spent a year training to defeat him in the fetal position next to him, screaming in emotional agony. By contrast, at the end of the film, when he comes in third place wrestling against other boys, he’s glowing. The difference, of course, is simply that he was able to step onto the mat as his authentic self. “All I ever wanted to do was wrestle men,” he says, breaking into a smile. “And now that I am? It’s freaking dope.”
“Government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem.”
—Former President Ronald Reagan
“…The legislation effectively deputizes cisgender individuals as bathroom enforcers, tasking them with identifying and reporting suspected transgender people for arrest and subsequent gender investigation.”
“[The] Nazis indeed targeted transgender individuals in early Germany. The Institute of Sexology, led by Magnus Hirschfeld, was the first institute to advance the study and medical care of transgender people in Berlin. The institute provided transgender individuals with employment and “transvestite passes” for a form of legal gender recognition in the city.”
“Magnus Hirschfeld was intensely targeted during the rise of Nazism in Germany. Hitler notoriously labeled Hirschfeld "the world’s most dangerous Jew." An early edition of Nazi publication Der Stürmer, focusing on Hirschfeld, accused him of grooming youth, echoing contemporary attacks on LGBTQ+ individuals today.”
“The most important [commandment] is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”
—Jesus Christ (Mark 12:29-31 NIV)
“You shall not lie with a male as with a woman. It is an abomination.”
“If a man lies with a male as he lies with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination. They shall surely be put to death. Their blood shall be upon them.”
“Nor shall you mate with any beast, to defile yourself with it. Nor shall any woman stand before a beast to mate with it. It is perversion.”
Leviticus 18:23
“If a man mates with a beast, he shall surely be put to death, and you shall kill the beast. If a woman approaches any beast and mates with it, you shall kill the woman and the beast. They shall surely be put to death. Their blood is upon them.”
Leviticus 20:15-16
“The prohibitions in Leviticus don’t apply to Christians. Leviticus condemns male same-sex intercourse, but the entire Old Testament law code has never applied to Christians in light of Christ’s death. Leviticus also condemns eating pork, rabbit, or shellfish, cutting hair at the sides of one’s head, and having sex during a woman’s menstrual period — none of which Christians continue to observe.”
—Matthew Vines, founder of the Reformation Project. (Source)
“Leviticus was written to be the laws governing a specific group of people at a specific time. Without understanding their culture, their environment, their diseases, and other factors, quotes are being used out-of-context. Deuteronomy 22:8 instructs the Israelites to build a fence around their house's roofs so that sleeping visitors don't roll off in their sleep [and] die. By your logic of ancient Israelite law's relevance to today, your family is probably sinning at this very moment! A better place to look would be the Pauline epistles, since much of what they say [applies to] the entire world (except when Paul says otherwise). Leviticus may apply to modern Jews, so it is worth asking them, but it does not apply to Christians, aside from an interesting historical document on how the ancient tribes of Israel lived their lives.”
—HullBreach (Source)
“Mosaic Law also contains prohibitions against wearing garments of linen and wool together; burning incense; eating pork, rabbit, and shellfish; charging interest on loans; and working on Saturdays. In fact, the Old Testament refers to each of these things as “abominations” and states that the latter two items should be punished by death. Other parts of the Old Testament say it’s okay to kill women who have pre-marital sex, to smear animal feces on the faces of lazy priests, and that it’s okay to own and beat slaves.”
Then the scribes and the Pharisees brought to Him a woman caught in adultery. And when they had set her in the midst, they said to him, “Teacher, this woman was caught in adultery, in the very act. Now Moses, in the law, commanded us that such should be stoned. But what do You say?” This they said, testing Him, that might have something of which to accuse Him. But Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground with His finger, as though He did not hear. So when they continued asking Him, He raised Himself up and said to them, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.” And again He stooped down and wrote on the ground. Then those who heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the oldest even to the last. And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst. When Jesus had raised Himself up and saw no one but the woman, He said to her, “Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said to her “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.”
John 8:3-11
“Hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy about you, saying: ‘These people draw near to Me with their mouth, and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. And in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ ”
Matthew 15:7-9
He said to the crowd: “When you see a cloud rising in the west, immediately you say, ‘It’s going to rain,’ and it does. And when the south wind blows, you say, ‘It’s going to be hot,’ and it is. Hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky. How is it that you don’t know how to interpret this present time? Why don’t you judge for yourselves what is right?”
Luke 12:54-57 NIV
But when I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter before them all “If you, being a Jew, live in the manner of Gentiles and not as the Jews, why do you compel Gentiles to lives as Jews? We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified.”
Galatians 2:14-16
Before the coming of this faith, we were held in custody under the law, locked up until the faith that was to come would be revealed. So the law was our guardian until Christ came that we might be justified by faith. Now that this faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian.
Galatians 3:23-25 NIV
You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace. For we through the Spirit eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.
Galatians 5:4-5
For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
Galatians 5:14
Let no one defraud you of your reward, taking delight in false humility and worship of angels, intruding into those things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, and not holding fast to the Head, from whom all the body, nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments, grows with the increase which is from God. Therefore, if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to regulations—“Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle,” which all concern things which perish with the using—according to the commandments and doctrines of men? These things have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false humility, and neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh.
Colossians 2:18-23
For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of division between us, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity.
Ephesians 2:14-16
The former regulation is set aside because it was weak and useless (for the law made nothing perfect), and a better hope is introduced, by which we draw near to God.
Hebrews 7:18-19 NIV
But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as He is also Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second. Because finding fault with them, He says: “Behold, the days are coming, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah—not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they did not continue in My covenant, and I disregarded them. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel: After those days, I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and lawless deeds I will remember no more.” In that He says, “A new covenant,” He has made the first one obsolete. Now what is obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.
Hebrews 8:6-13