This week, news happened in:

• the international arena, as always;
• Australia;
• Canada (Alberta);
• Greece;
• India (Telangana);
• Nepal;
• the United Kingdom (national, England and Wales, Scotland);
• the United States (federal, Colorado, Georgia, Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, Montana, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, Wyoming).

There was also a Several Problems Special this week. When I publish the article version on this website I’ll replace this paragraph with a link to the special.

International

Gomez-Lumbreras & Villa-Zapata on HRT

On 12 February, the Annals of Pharmacotherapy published a research article, “Exploring safety in gender-affirming hormonal treatments,” by Ainhoa Gomez-Lumbreras and Lorenzo Villa-Zapata (2024). It received an immediate follow-up in the Daily Mail, emphasising the scary risks of HRT (Morrison, 2024). Editorially, I suspect this is a “vaccine injury”-style scare study — it has a very small sample size and does not give an indication of the prevalence of hormone adverse events in cis people who take HRT.

Babbs et al. on trans emergency department use

Also on 12 February, JAMA Internal Medicine published a research letter, “Emergency department use disparities among transgender and cisgender Medicare beneficiaries, 2011–2020,” by Gray Babbs et al. (2024). While the paper to which the research letter is related is currently embargoed, the JAMA Network (2024) press release said the study results “suggested that transgender and gender-diverse Medicare beneficiaries use significantly more emergency department services than cisgender beneficiaries, particularly for psychological care, and those visits were more likely to be followed by an admission”.

Kalavacherla et al. on prostate cancer

On 14 February, JAMA Network Open published an original investigation in urology, “Prostate cancer screening update in transgender women,” by Sandhya Kalavacherla et al. (2024). The study group concluded that “disparities in [prostate-specific antigen] screening among transgender women may be associated with clinician patterns of care [i.e., whether their doctors tell them to] rather than differences in sociodemographic characteristics or access to care”.

SportAccord World Sport & Business Summit 2024

From 7 to 11 April, in Birmingham, England, United Kingdom, the SportAccord World Sport & Business Summit will take place. SportAccord is the umbrella organisation for all sporting International Federations (IFs) and organisations which work closely with them.

Based on the Summit’s media release (Lingeswaran, 2024; Sweaney, 2024) it seems particularly concerned with the regulation and restriction of trans athletes. Individuals featured on the programme (SportAccord, 2024) include World Aquatics executive director Brent Nowicki, who previously defended that IF’s ban on transfem athletes (Melnick & Carpenter, 2022), and Prof Yannis Pitsiladis, a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Medical and Scientific Commission who is at least perceived by anti-trans activists such as Jon Pike (2023) as an advocate of trans inclusion.

Australia

Federal

AMA 2023 LGBTQIASB+ Health Position Statement

On 6 February, the Australian Medical Association (AMA) published its 2023 LGBTQIASB+ Health Position Statement (Australian Medical Association, 2023).¹ The Position Statement calls on the Australian Government to:

• “urgently enhance access to beneficial gender-affirming treatment … including through appropriate avenues under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme and Medicare Benefits Schedule” (clause 2.4);
• “add sensitive, evidence-based, and community-guided questions on gender, sexual orientation, and intersex variation to the Australian Census, in order to better understand the distribution of people who are LGBTQIASB+ and thus provide appropriate services where needed” (clause 2.8);
• “improve school-based sexual education curricula to be more inclusive of the sexual and reproductive health needs of people who are LGBTQIASB+” (clause 2.9),

and notes that “measures [of the size of LGBTQIASB+ populations in Australia]” through “the Census or other … research studies” are “widely acknowledged as underestimates due to the restrictive wording and criteria of questions,” and notes that “the lack of nationally representative data on LGBTQIASB+ populations makes it difficult for governments to plan and design appropriate health services for those communities” (clause 6.2).

On 12 February, ABC Radio National’s RN Breakfast broadcast an interview (Karvelas, 2024) with Professor Steve Robson, president of the AMA, following up the Position Statement.

Jones v Pesutto; Keen-Minshull v Australian Broadcasting Corporation; Keen-Minshull v Pesutto

Anti-trans organisers Angela “Angie” Jones and Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull (“Posie Parker”) have filed suit in the Federal and Family Court of Australia against John Pesutto MLA (LPA–Hawthorn), the Leader of the Liberal Party of Australia in the Parliament of Victoria. Both are represented by Alexander Rashidi Lawyers, Bridie Nolan, and Katherine “Kath” Deves.

Keen-Minshull has also issued a concerns notice against the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), accusing the ABC show 7.30 “of making 11 defamatory imputations against [her], implying that she either is a neo-Nazi or sympathises with people who are” (Baxendale, 2024).

Pamela Paul strikes again

On 14 February, The Australian Financial Review republished (Paul, 2024b) a 2 February hit piece by Pamela Paul from The New York Times (Paul, 2024a). As this brought the article to the attention of an Australian domestic audience, I felt I had to say something about it, so I wrote a Several Problems Special about it. This paragraph will be edited to include a link to the finalised article version of the SP Special when I’ve published it.

This March, Australia becomes 100% more divorced

In March, Graham Linehan will reputedly arrive in Australia on a book tour organised by the Free Speech Union of Australia (McKenzie, 2024; Napier-Raman, 2024), which is an offshoot of the London-based Free Speech Union, and which was co-founded and continues to be co-directed by Institute of Public Affairs (IPA) research fellow Dara Macdonald. The FSUA says Linehan will stop “in all capital cities of Australia, as well as some regional venues” (Quattrochi, 2024).

Canada

Alberta

Florence v the machine

On 15 February, a group of 36 law professors, legal researchers, and other staff from the University of Alberta and University of Calgary — including well-known trans law expert Florence Ashley — published an open letter, “Re: ‘Preserving choice for children and youth’ announcement”. In the letter, they “express[ed their] deep concerns with [Danielle Smith’s UCP] government of Alberta’s announcement of restrictions targeting transgender youth,” and urged the Alberta Government not to implement the proposed restrictions and not to invoke the notwithstanding clause (The Canadian Press, 2024).

Greece

Hellenic Parliament approves the Equality in Civil Marriage Bill

On 15 February, the Parliament of the Hellenes² approved the bill Άρση διακρίσεων λόγω φύλου στο Οικογενειακό Δίκαιο, κατοχύρωση δικαιώματος γάμου για όλα τα πρόσωπα και αναγκαίες προσαρμογές της νομοθεσίας Ársi diakríseon lógo fylou sto Oikogeneiakó Díkaio, katochyrosi dikaiómatos gámou gia óla ta prósopa kai anankaíes prosarmogés tis nomosthesías (Eliminating gender discrimination in Family Law, guaranteeing the right to marry for all persons and necessary adjustments to the legislation) — called by Australian media the Equality in Civil Marriage Bill (Plaskasovitis, 2024). The bill was supported by 176 of 300 MPs, including, among others (ibid.),

• Συνασπισμός Ριζοσπαστικής Αριστεράς – Προοδευτική Συμμαχία Synaspismós Rizospastikés Aristerás — Proodeftiké Simachía (SYRIZA; “Coalition of the Radical Left — Progressive Alliance”);
• Πλεύση Ελευθερίας Plefsi Eleftherías (“Course of Freedom”),

and was opposed by, among others (Paphitis, 2024),

• the Κομμουνιστικό Κόμμα Ελλάδας Kommounistikó Kómma Elládas (KKE; “Communist Party of Greece”);
• Σπαρτιάτες Spartiátes (“Spartans”), which is a de facto successor to the internationally better-known Golden Dawn (Fallon, 2023).

Outside Parliament, the bill was also opposed by the Church of Greece, the main Eastern Orthodox church in Greece (Paphitis, op. cit.).

While the Bill gives full parental rights to married same-gender partners who have children, it does not allow them to become parents through surrogacy. It also does not make any provision for trans people (Paphitis, op. cit.).

India

Telangana

Hate violence in Nizamabad and Kamareddy

In Nizamabad, a 50-year-old trans person was lynched by a group believed to have been motivated by rumours about the kidnapping of children in the area. In Kamareddy, 2 cis women conducting a survey were mistakenly clocked as trans and consequently barely avoided a similar attack (Basheer, 2024).

Nepal

HRW reports on Nepali gender recognition; assessment scathing

On 15 February 2024, Human Rights Watch published a report, “We have to beg so many people”: Human rights violations in Nepal’s legal gender recognition practices (Knight, 2024). According to the accompanying press release (Human Rights Watch, 2024), major issues with the gender recognition process in Nepal include:

• that the Government of Nepal has been delinquent in implementing the 2008 order of the Supreme Court of Nepal pursuant to Pant v Nepal (2007), which required the Government to legally recognise a third gender category based on self-ID;
• that Nepali authorities commonly deny correct documentation to trans people, or deceive or mislead them about the requirements to be eligible for it;
• that Nepali trans women are commonly forced to undergo “an invasive and humiliating physical exam in a medical setting” in order to be legally recognised as female.

United Kingdom

National

Lords debate Conversion Therapy Prohibition Bill

On 9 February, in the House of Lords, the Conversion Therapy Prohibition (Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity) Bill 2023 reached the second reading stage. It was subsequently referred to the Committee of the Whole House, which is normal in the House of Lords.

England and Wales

Transphobic knife attack in Wealdstone

On Saturday 10 February at 7pm, at a birthday party at the Harrow Leasure Centre in Wealdstone, London (Padgett, 2024), a 19-year-old cis woman (whose name I am not providing) attacked an 18-year-old trans woman who has not been identified, stabbing her 14 times. The victim was hospitalised and survived (Kirk, 2024), and had been discharged as of 13 February (Shields, 2024). The Metropolitan Police (2024) have confirmed they are treating the attack as a transphobic hate crime.

Scotland

Simon Fanshawe elected Rector at Edinburgh

On Tuesday 13 February, the University of Edinburgh (2024) announced that Simon Fanshawe OBE had been elected unopposed as the University’s Rector, having filed the only valid nomination for the post.

As the University’s announcement notes, Fanshawe is one of the six co-founders of Stonewall. As the University’s announcement does not note, Fanshawe is an outspoken anti-trans activist. in 2019, he joined an open letter to The Sunday Times with a number of other anti-trans activists, including Julie Bindel, Stephanie Davies-Arai (Transgender Trend), Kate Harris and Bev Jackson (both LGB Alliance), Jane Clare Jones, Kathleen Stock, and Miranda Yardley, which accused Stonewall of undermining “women’s sex-based rights and protections” (Best et al., 2019). In 2022, Fanshawe penned an anti-Stonewall hit piece for the Daily Mail, in which he accused Stonewall of “preach[ing] extreme and divisive gender ideology … fast eroding women’s rights and their protection … [and] posing a potential risk to children” (Fanshawe, 2022).

United States

Federal

Donald Trump rails against “transgender insanity”

On 11 February, former US President Donald Trump, who is currently considered the frontrunner for the Republican nomination (Reid et al., 2024), held a campaign rally in Conway, South Carolina. During the rally, he told the crowd that if elected, he would sign an executive order to cut federal funding “for any school pushing critical race theory, transgender insanity, and inappropriate racial, sexual, or political content onto the lives of our children” (Tomazin, 2024).

HRC/UConn 2024 Black LGBTQ+ Youth Report published

On 14 February, the Human Rights Campaign Foundation in partnership with the University of Connecticut published the 2024 Black LGBTQ+ Youth Report (Fiohr et al., 2024). The report polled 1,200 Black LGBTQ+ kids aged 13 to 17 inclusive from across the United States (Keller, 2024). I strongly recommend taking the time to read it.

M.C. v. Indiana Department of Child Services

On 15 February, in the Supreme Court of the United States, attorneys for Mary and Jeremy Cox filed a reply brief seeking to appeal the Indiana Supreme Court’s ruling in M.C. v. Indiana Department of Child Services. Plaintiffs Cox and Cox are Catholics who lost custody of their trans daughter partly because they persistently deadnamed and misgendered her (“Parents turn to Supreme Court,” 2024).

Medical Licensing Board v. K.C.

On 16 February, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit heard oral arguments in Medical Licensing Board v. K.C., appealed from the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana, Indianapolis Division. The District Court previously issued an injunction blocking Senate Enrolled Act (SEA) 480, Indiana’s ban on gender-affirming care for people under 18, from going into effect. The Board is asking the Seventh Circuit to overturn that injunction and allow SEA 480 to take effect.

Colorado

Kent v. Children’s Hospital Colorado

On 14 February, in the Colorado District Court in Denver, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Colorado filed suit against Children’s Hospital Colorado (CHCO), on behalf of Caden Kent (a pseudonym). Plaintiff Kent alleges that on or about 13 July 2023, CHCO abruptly and “without warning, notice, or plans for ensuring continuity of care” (American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado, 2024) adopted a policy of refusing to provide medically necessary gender-affirming surgery to trans patients, and cancelled all pending surgeries, including Kent’s. He further alleges that CHCO continues to provide these interventions to cis patients. He contends that CHCO’s conduct “unlawfully discriminates on the basis of sex, gender identity, gender expression, and disability in violation of the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act”. Kent is seeking:

• declaratory relief — “an order finding that CHCO discriminated against Plaintiff on the basis of his sex, gender identity, gender expression, and disability”;
• injunctive relief — “an injunction and order requiring CHCO’s compliance with [the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act]”;
• damages;
• costs.

Georgia

SB 88

On 14 February, the Education and Youth Committee of the Georgia Senate approved Senate Bill (SB) 88. If passed by the Georgia General Assembly, SB 88 will require private schools to obtain written permission from “each parent of each child who will participate” before instruction “addressing issues of gender identity, queer theory, gender ideology, or gender transition” (lines 77–78).

Iowa

HF 2389

On 13 February, the Education Committee of the Iowa House of Representatives amended House File (HF) 2389. As noted in SP Weekly #2, HSB 649, Governor Kim Reynolds’ initial proposal for HF 2389, would have allowed trans people to change their gender markers on their drivers’ licenses only to include both their assigned sex and their (binary) gender, i.e., “M–F” for transfeminine people or “F–M” for transmasculine people. The House Education Committee amended it to remove that requirement (Opsahl, 2024a).

In addition, Iowa Capital Dispatch reportage on HF 2389 quoted advice from attorney Breanna Young, who said that the definition of “female” used in the bill would exclude cis women who have medical conditions that prevent them from producing ova. This includes women with, for example, polycystic ovary syndrome (Opsahl, 2024b).

Kansas

HB 2791, HB 2792, HB 2793

On 14 February, the Committee on Appropriations of the Kansas House of Representatives referred two bills back to the House Committee on Health and Human Services (“House HHS Committee”):

• House Bill (HB) 2791, which would ban any organisation that receives state funds from recommending gender-affirming care for trans people under the age of 18;
• HB 2792, which would prohibit all gender-affirming surgical intervention for people under the age of 18, and would institute the outdated 2017 Endocrine Society Clinical Practice Guideline (Hembree et al., 2017) as the legally binding standard for all other gender-affirming care (Mipro, 2024).

The House HHS Committee, for its part, also held hearings on HB 2793, which prohibits the provision of healthcare services to minors without the consent of their parents — any healthcare services, including in emergency or crisis situations such as mental health crises or physical or sexual abuse (Mipro, op. cit.).

Maryland

SB 119

On 15 February, the Finance Committee of the Maryland Senate held a hearing on SB 119, which

would make Maryland a sanctuary state for transgender individuals and providers fleeing other states. The bill would add gender-affirming care to a law passed last year that shields abortion patients and providers from out-of-state prosecution and investigations”.

Reed (2024)

Montana

Montana v. Van Garderen

On 9 February, in the Montana Supreme Court, the State of Montana filed its opening brief in Montana v. Van Garderen. Last year, the state District Court issued an injunction blocking SB 99 of 2023, Montana’s ban on gender-affirming care for people under 18, from going into effect. The State, appellant, is asking the state Supreme Court to overturn the injunction and allow SB 99 to take effect (Miller, 2024).

New Mexico

Transgender Resource Center of New Mexico launches Casa Lola

In Albuquerque, the Transgender Resource Center of New Mexico is opening Casa Lola, a transitional housing program that will allow 6 people to live in a home, rent free, for up to 18 months (Sosa, 2024).

North Carolina

Mark Robinson back at it again (“it” is fascism)

On 3 February, at a campaign stop in Cary, Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson (R), who is considered the frontrunner in the Republican gubernatorial primary in early March, advocated for violence against trans women. Specifically, media quoted him as saying:

If you’re a man on Friday night, and all the sudden on Saturday you feel like a woman, and you want to go in the women’s bathroom in the mall, you will be arrested — or whatever we got to do to you. We got to protect our women.

Leslie (2024), for WRAL

— and separately:

If you are confused [about which bathroom to use], find a corner outside somewhere. I’m sorry, we’re not tearing down society because of this.

Robertson (2024), for The Hill

This is not new behaviour for Robinson, who has previously:

• said that people “who support this mass delusion called transgenderism” are trying “to turn God’s creation backwards, and make it into a sickening image of rebellion to glorify Satan”;
• promoted the fascist conspiracy theory that former First Lady Michelle Obama is a trans woman (Campbell, 2020);
• in June 2021, told a Baptist Church in Seagrove that “there’s no reason anybody anywhere in America should be telling any child about transgenderism, homosexuality — any of that filth” (Yurcaba, 2021).

He also says cultural acceptance of queer people is “part of a slide toward pedophilia and ‘the end of civilisation as we know it’,” (Fain, 2020), denies anthropogenic climate change, and denies the Holocaust (Campbell, op. cit.).

Oklahoma

HB 3219

On 14 February, the General Government Committee of the Oklahoma House of Representatives referred HB 3219 to the house with a “do pass” recommendation. If passed, HB 3219 would prohibit the amendment of sex on Oklahoma birth certificates (Ferguson, 2024).

Pennsylvania

Perkiomen Valley School Board rescinds Policy 720

In Montgomery County, the Perkiomen Valley School Board voted to rescind Policy 720, enacted by a Republican-majority board in October 2023. Policy 720 stipulated that students, staff, and visitors at any of the district’s buildings were only allowed to use bathrooms corresponding to their assigned sex at birth (Assunção, 2024).

Texas

Lakewood Church mass shooting

In Houston, a shooting took place at Joel Osteen’s Lakewood Church, injuring a middle-aged man (Williams et al., 2024). The shooter herself was killed by responding police officers, who also shot her 7-year-old son in the head, apparently non-fatally (Faguy, 2024).

Right-wing misinformation networks instantly started promoting the intentionally false narrative that the shooter was trans, despite the near-immediate and clear dismissal of that claim by investigators (Stanton, 2024). The pretext was the previous use of a masculine name in the context of forgery by the shooter, who was a cis woman (Drennen, 2024).

Participants in the disinformation effort included:

• The Daily Signal‘s Mary Elise Cosgray and Tyler O’Neil (2024), Mairead Elordi (2024), and Zach Jewell (2024);
• Marjorie Taylor Greene (2024), Republican U.S. Representative for GA-14;
• Blaze Media’s Sara Gonzales (2024);
• Josh Hawley (2024), Republican U.S. Senator for Missouri;
• Law Officer magazine, with no byline (“Houston church shooting suspect,” 2024);
• One America News‘ Elizabeth Volberding (2024).
• The Post Millennial‘s Libby Emmons (2024);
• Chaya Raichik (2024), a/k/a Libs of TikTok;
• Robby Starbuck (2024).

Utah

Cline transvestigates a cis kid, pays the price

Continuing a story reported in SP Weekly #2, the Utah State Board of Education (USBE) has officially censured Board Member Natalie Cline (R–District 11), who made the mistake of transvestigating a cis girl where people could see her. While the USBE cannot currently expel Cline, Axios Salt Lake City reports that the State of Utah is investigating potentially impeaching Cline in the Legislature, or empowering the USBE to impeach her (Bojórquez, 2024).

In the meantime, however, the Board has requested that Cline resign from the Board by 19 February, and announced that, pursuant to Board policy and bylaws, “she will be removed from all committee assignments, not be allowed to place items on upcoming Board agendas, and prohibited from attending any Board advisory committee meetings” (Utah State Board of Education, 2024). Cline (2024), for her part, has claimed that the disciplinary measures “constitute election interference” and that the Board is denying her “appropriate due process … that must be afforded me”.

Virginia

Shenandoah County School Board adopts 2023 Model Policies

The Shenandoah County School Board has voted to adopt the Youngkin administration’s Model policies on ensuring privacy, dignity, and respect for all students and parents in Virginia’s public schools (2023 Model Policies). As a result, Shenandoah County public school students will be required to use restrooms and join sports teams that correspond with the gender they were assigned at birth. School staff must also refer to students by the names and pronouns on their official records (13News Now, 2024).

Doe v. VDOE; Loe v. VDOE

On 15 February, in the Virginia 9th and 15th Circuit Courts, the ACLU of Virginia filed suit separately on behalf of two different plaintiffs, respectively Jane Doe and Lily Loe (both pseudonyms), against the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE). Both allege harm arising from the 2023 Model Policies.

Doe is a high school student in York County who experienced persistent deadnaming by at least one teacher. Her school claimed that, under the 2023 Model Policies, it had to allow that behaviour, and gave Doe no options to escape other than rearranging her entire class schedule.

Loe is a middle school student in Hanover County who was prevented from participating in a girls’ sports team for which she was, at the time, unambiguously eligible, by a board which cited the 2023 Model Policies as pretext and then immediately changed the eligibility policy to definitively exclude her (American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia, 2023).

Plaintiffs contend that the 2023 Model Policies go beyond the limits of the VDOE’s Va. Code § 22.1–23.3 statutory authority for the issue of Model Policies of that kind. They are asking the Court to:

• set aside the 2023 Model Policies, which it has the authority under Va. Code § 2.2–4029 to do;
• issue a declaratory judgement that the VDOE exceeded the scope of its statutory authority in issuing the 2023 Model Policies, that the policies are contrary to law, that local school divisions are not required to adopt them, and that the Northam administration’s 2021 Model Policies remain in effect;
• award them costs.

West Virginia

HB 5243

On Wednesday 14 February, the West Virginia House of Delegates passed HB 5243, “the West Virginia Women’s Bill of Rights”. According to Disney’s ABC News,

The legislation says “equal” does not mean “same” or “identical” with respect to equality of the sexes. It would define in statues [sic] and official public policies that a person’s sex is determined at birth and that gender equity terms may not be substituted. It would also establish that limiting certain environments, such as athletics, locker rooms, and bathrooms, to the use of people of one assigned sex only, is not discriminatory.

Ra (2024)

Wyoming

HB 156

On 12 February 2024, in the Wyoming House of Representatives, Rep. Rachel Rodriguez-Williams (R–HD50) introduced HB 156. If passed, HB 156 would require courts and other child protection entities to assume that it is not in a child’s best interest to receive gender-affirming medical care (McFarland, 2024).

HB 50

On 15 February 2024, HB 50 failed introduction in the Wyoming House. HB 50 would have defined “gender” as “sex assigned at birth” for all purposes of statutory interpretation, and would have banned trans people from using correctly gendered public accommodations of any sort.

The vote was 37–24 in favour. It failed anyway because the Wyoming State Legislature is in budget session until 8 March. During a budget session, introduction of a bill requires a two-thirds majority. Notably, the Wyoming House is 57–5 Republican; the bill failed because 19 Republicans joined the 5 Democrats in voting to kill it, earning them the ire of Wyoming’s far-right Freedom Caucus (Wolfson, 2024).

If you found this bulletin useful in any way, please consider supporting me via Patreon, Ko-fi, or PayPal.

Footnotes

1 — Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual, sistergirl, brotherboy, and others. Sistergirl and brotherboy are trans identities specific to Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

2 — i.e., the Greek parliament. “Greece” is an exonym derived from the Latin name of a Greek tribe who settled in Roman Italy; the Greek-language short name for Greece is Ελλάδα Elláda or Ελλάς Ellás, the people are Έλληνες Éllenes, the country is the Ελληνική Δημοκρατία Elleniké Demokratía (“Hellenic Republic”), and its institutions are named accordingly.

References

13News Now [@WVECTelevisionInc] (2024, February 13). Debate over a new policy for transgender students in Chesapeake public schools ended tonight [YouTube video]. WVEC (Tegna, Inc.); YouTube (Alphabet, Inc.). Retrieved 13 February 2024.

American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado (2024, February 14). ACLU sues Children’s Hospital Colorado over stoppage of gender-affirming surgery for patients over 18 [Press release]. Retrieved 15 February 2024.

American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia (2024, February 15). ACLU of Virginia files suit against Virginia Department of Education on behalf of two transgender students [Press release]. Retrieved 16 February 2024.

Amy, J. (2024, February 14). Teaching of gender in Georgia private schools would be regulated under revived Senate bill. AP News (Associated Press). Retrieved 15 February 2024.

An act concerning legally protected health care — gender-affirming treatment, SB 119, 2024 Regular Session, Maryland General Assembly (2024).

An act … enacting the forbidding abusive child transitions act, HB 2791, 2023–2024 Biennial, Kansas Legislature (2024).

An act … prohibiting gender transition surgery on minors (etc.), HB 2792, 2023–2024 Biennial, Kansas Legislature (2024).

An act … prohibiting healthcare providers from performing healthcare services on minors without parental consent, HB 2793, 2023–2024 Biennial Session, Kansas Legislature (2024).

An Act relating to public health and safety (etc.), HB 3219, 59th Oklahoma Legislature (2024).

An act relating to the term sex and related terms for purposes of statutory construction (etc.), HF 2389, 90th Iowa General Assembly (2024).

An act to amend Article 1 of Chapter 7 of Title 9 of the Official Code of Georgia Annnotated (etc.), SB 88, 2023–2024 Biennium, Georgia General Assembly (2024).

Άρση διακρίσεων λόγω φύλου στο Οικογενειακό Δίκαιο, κατοχύρωση δικαιώματος γάμου για όλα τα πρόσωπα και αναγκαίες προσαρμογές της νομοθεσίας Ársi diakríseon lógo fylou sto Oikogeneiakó Díkaio, katochyrosi dikaiómatos gámou gia óla ta prósopa kai anankaíes prosarmogés tis nomosthesías (Eliminating gender discrimination in Family Law, guaranteeing the right to marry for all persons and necessary adjustments to the legislation), Parliament of the Hellenes (2024).

Assunção, M. (2024, February 13). School district near Philadelphia reverses anti-trans bathroom policy. Daily News (Daily News Enterprises). Retrieved 14 February 2024.

Australian Medical Association (2024, February 6). LGBTQIASB+ position statement — 2023 [Position statement]. Retrieved 13 February 2024.

Babbs, G., Hughto, J.M.W., Shireman, T.I., & Meyers, D.J. (2024, February 12). Emergency department use disparities among transgender and cisgender Medicare beneficiaries, 2011-2020 [Research letter]. JAMA Internal Medicine. doi: 10.1001/jama.internmed.2023.8209. Retrieved 13 February 2024.

Basheer, A. (2024, February 14). Telangana transgender beaten to death over suspicion of kidnapping children. India Today (Living India Media Ltd). Retrieved 14 February 2024.

Baxendale, R. (2024, February 12). UK activist Kellie-Jay Keen accuses ABC, Pesutto of defamation over Moira Deeming matter. The Australian (News Corp Australia); Archive Today. Retrieved 13 February 2024.

Best, J., Bindel, J., Butler, G., Campbell, B., Chadwick, M., … & Yardley, M. (2019, September 22). Letters to the editor: Labour tax plan corrodes rule of law. The Sunday Times (News Corp); Archive Today. Retrieved 16 February 2024.

Best interests of a child—gender affirming treatments, HB 156, 2024 Budget Session, Wyoming State Legislature (2024).

Bojórquez, K. (2024, February 13). Impeachment a possibility for Utah Board of Education member. Axios Salt Lake City (Cox Enterprises, Inc.). Retrieved 13 February 2024.

Byrnes, D. (2024, February 16). Indiana asks Seventh Circuit to reinstate ban on gender-affirming care for minors. Courthouse News Service. Retrieved 17 February 2024.

The Canadian Press (2024, February 15). Legal experts raise concerns about Alberta’s plans for transgender youth. CBC News (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation). Retrieved 16 February 2024.

Campbell, C. (2020, October 10). Muslim ‘invaders’ and transgender ‘delusion’: Lt. gov. candidate’s posts draw criticism. The News & Observer (Chatham Asset Management). Retrieved 14 February 2024.

Cline, N. [natalie.cline.22] (2024, February 15). [Constitutionally protected speech] The @utboardofed must answer the following: 1 How is this hearing today not election interference? Board Leadership’s … [Post]. Facebook (Meta Platforms, Inc.); Archive Today.

Conversion Therapy Prohibition (Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity) Bill 2023 (UK, HL).

Doe v. Virginia Department of Education (Va 9th Cir., Case No. CL24-3989, commenced 15 February 2024).

Drennen, A. (2024, February 13). Media spread false reports church shooter was a trans woman, furthering moral panic. Media Matters for America. Retrieved 14 February 2024.

Elordi, M. (2024, February 13). Houston church shooter previously went by male name. The Daily Wire (Bentkey Ventures, LLC); Archive Today. Retrieved 13 February 2024.

Emmons, L. (2024, February 12). Breaking: Joel Osteen church shooter identified as Genesse Moreno, also went by Jeffrey: local media. The Post Millennial (Human Events Media Group); Archive Today. Retrieved 13 February 2024.

Faguy, A. (2024, February 12). What we know about the Lakewood Church shooter. Forbes (Integrated Whale Media Investments). Retrieved 19 February 2024.

Fain, T. (2020, September 26). On Facebook, NC’s Republican candidate for lieutenant governor lashes out, insults. WRAL (Capitol Broadcasting Company, Inc.). Retrieved 14 February 2024.

Fallon, K. (2023, June 30). ‘Very worrying’: Three far-right parties enter Greek parliament. Aljazeera (Al Jazeera Media Network). Retrieved 19 February 2024.

Fanshawe, S. (2022, December 22). I helped found Stonewall. But today I plead with every business and public body signed up to its Diversity Champions scheme to reconsider, writes Simon Fanshawe. Daily Mail (Daily Mail and General Trust); Archive Today. Retrieved 16 February 2024.

Ferguson, T. (2024, February 14). ‘Disturbing attack’: Committee advances bill prohibiting birth certificate sex amendments. KOKH (Sinclair, Inc.). Retrieved 15 February 2024.

Fiohr, C.J., Goldberg, S.J., Jones, R., & Lewis, T. (2024, February). 2024 Black LGBTQ+ youth report. Human Rights Campaign Foundation; University of Connecticut. Retrieved 15 February 2024.

Gomez-Lumbreras, A., & Villa-Zapata, L. (2024, February 12). Exploring safety in gender-affirming hormonal treatments: An observational study on adverse drug events using the Food and Drug Administration Adverse Event Database. Annals of Pharmacotherapy (Sage Journals), online ahead of print. doi:10.1177/10600280241231612. Retrieved 15 February 2024.

Gonzales, S. [@SaraGonzalesTX] (2024, February 13). BREAKING: Lakewood Church shooter identified as a transgender, legal name Genesse Moreno but went by the name “Jeffrey.” [Tweet]. Twitter (X Corp.); Archive Today. Retrieved 13 February 2024.

Greene, M.T. [@RepMTG] (2024, February 13). Not only was the shooter a trans from El Salvador, she also had a gun engraved with “Free Palestine” but … [Tweet]. Twitter (X Corp.); Archive Today. Retrieved 14 February 2024.

Hawley, J.D. [@HawleyMO] (2024, February 13). So the Lakewood church shooter was a transgender, pro-Palestine radical. We need a full hate crimes investigation, including the influences … [Tweet]. Twitter (X Corp.); Archive Today. Retrieved 14 February 2024.

Hembree, W.C., Cohen-Kettenis, P.T., Gooren, L., Hannema, S., Meyer, W.J., … & T’Sjoen, G.G. (2017, November 1). Endocrine treatment of gender-dysphoric/gender-incongruent persons: An Endocrine Society clinical practice guideline. The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, 102(11), 3869–3903. doi: 10.1210/jc.2017-01658. Retrieved 14 February 2024.

Houston church shooting suspect known as trans-identifying Genesse Ivonne Moreno (2024, February 12). Law Officer (Endeavor Business Media). Retrieved 13 February 2024.

Human Rights Watch (2024, February 15). Nepal: Barriers to transgender legal recognition [News release]. Retrieved 16 February 2024.

JAMA Network (2024, February 13). Transgender, cisgender Medicare beneficiaries show ED use disparity. Mirage News. Retrieved 13 February 2024.

Jewell, Z. (2024, February 13). Child critically wounded in church shooting is son of shooter, ‘anti-Semitic writing’ recovered: police. The Daily Wire (Bentkey Ventures, LLC). Retrieved 13 February 2024.

Kalavacherla, S., Riviere, P., Kalavacherla, S., Anger, J.T., Murphy, J.D., & Rose, B.S. (2024, February 14). Prostate cancer screening uptake in transgender women. JAMA Network Open, 7(2), e2365088. doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.56088. Retrieved 16 February 2024.

Karvelas, P. (Host). (2024, February 12). Doctors push for gender-affirming care to be urgently enhanced [Radio show episode]. In RN Breakfast. ABC Radio National (Australian Broadcasting Corporation). Retrieved 13 February 2024.

Keller, J. (2024, February 14). Human Rights Campaign report releases new data on experiences of Black queer youth [Press release]. Human Rights Campaign. Retrieved 15 February 2024.

Kent v. Children’s Hospital Colorado (Colo. Dist. Ct., Case No/ 2024CV30455, commenced 14 February 2024).

Kirk, T. (2024, February 13). Teenager charged with attempted murder after transgender girl stabbed 14 times at party. The Standard (Evening Standard Ltd). Retrieved 14 February 2024.

Knight, K. (2024, February 15). “We have to beg so many people”: Human rights violations in Nepal’s legal gender recognition practices. Human Rights Watch. Retrieved 16 February 2024.

Leslie, L. (2024, February 13). Robinson campaigning on transgender restroom usage as he seeks GOP nomination. WRAL (Capitol Broadcasting Company, Inc.). Retrieved 13 February 2024.

Lingeswaran, S. (2024, February 15). Leading legal minds tackle athlete representation and rules for transgender athletes at LawAccord. Sportcal (Verdict Media Ltd). Retrieved 16 February 2024.

Loe v. Virginia Department of Education (Va. 15th Cir., Case No. unknown, commenced 15 February 2024).

McFarland, C. (2024, February 14). Bill introduced to discourage child custody for people who allow gender-change treatments. Cowboy State Daily (B. Wayne Hughes, Jr.). Retrieved 14 February 2024.

McKenzie, P. (2024, February 13). The right-wing ‘union’ bringing anti-trans activists to Australia. The New Daily (The New Daily Pty Ltd). Retrieved 14 February 2024.

M.C. v. Indiana Department of Child Services (U.S., Case No. 23-450, commenced 15 February 2024).

Medical Licensing Board v. K.C. (7th Cir., Case No. 23-2366, commenced 18 October 2023).

Melnick, K., & Carpenter, L. (2022, June 19). FINA vote restricts transgender athletes in women’s competitions. The Washington Post (Nash Holdings, LLC). Retrieved 19 February 2024.

Metropolitan Police Service (2024, February 13). Appeal for witnesses following stabbing in Harrow. Retrieved 15 February 2024.

Miller, B. (2024, February 13). State files Supreme Court brief in appeal of injunction blocking gender-affirming care ban. Daily Montanan (States Newsroom). Retrieved 14 February 2024.

Mipro, R. (2024, February 16). Transgender children’s treatment once again up for discussion at Statehouse. Kansas Reflector (States Newsroom). Retrieved 17 February 2024.

Montana v. Van Garderen (Mont. Sup. Ct., Case No. DA 23-0572, commenced 9 February 2024).

Morrison, C. (2024, February 15). Majority of side effects suffered by trans people taking hormone drugs are ‘serious’ and potentially life threatening, according to ‘striking’ analysis of official data. Daily Mail (Daily Mail and General Trust). Retrieved 15 February 2024.

Napier-Raman, K. (2024, February 11). News Corp board heads down under but Rupert Murdoch stays home. WAtoday (Nine Entertainment Company Ltd). Retrieved 13 February 2024.

Norman, G., Wehner, G., & La Jeunesse, W. (2024, February 12). Lakewood Church shooter identified as Genesse Ivonne Moreno; ‘Palestine’ written on gun. Fox News Digital (Fox Corporation); Archive Today. Retrieved 13 February 2024.

O’Neil, T., & Cosgray, M.E. (2024, February 12). Was the Joel Osteen church shooter trans? Police fail to clarify. The Daily Signal (The Heritage Foundation); Archive Today. Retrieved 13 February 2024.

Opsahl, R. (2024a, February 6). GOP lawmakers advance governor’s bill defining ‘sex,’ requiring transgender ID markers. Iowa Capital Dispatch (States Newsroom). Retrieved 13 February 2024.

Opsahl, R. (2024b, February 12). Activists protest Reynolds’ bill excluding transgender people from certain facilities. Iowa Capital Dispatch (States Newsroom). Retrieved 13 February 2024.

Pant v Nepal, Supreme Court of Nepal, 2064 (2007), Writ No. 917.

Padgett, D. (2024, February 14). Transgender teen girl stabbed 14 times at roller rink birthday party. Advocate (Pride Media). Retrieved 14 February 2024.

Paphitis, N. (2024, February 16). Greece the first Orthodox Christian country to legalise same-sex marriage. Associated Press; WAtoday (Nine Entertainment Company Ltd). Retrieved 17 February 2024.

Parents turn to Supreme Court for justice after child is removed by state [Press release] (2024, February 15). Becket (Becket Fund for Religious Liberty); Archive Today. Retrieved 17 February 2024.

Paul, P. (2024a, February 2). As kids, they thought they were trans. They no longer do. The New York Times (The New York Times Company); Archive Today. Retrieved 18 February 2024.

Paul, P. (2024b, February 14). As kids, they thought they were trans. They no longer do. The New York Times (The New York Times Company); The Australian Financial Review (Nine Entertainment Company); Archive Today. Retrieved 18 February 2024.

Perkiomen Valley School District, Use of restroom and locker room facilities (Policy 720, 2 October 2023).

Pierson, B. (2024, February 16). Virginia sued over guidance on transgender public school students (D. Wallis, Ed.). Reuters (Thomson Reuters Corporation). Retrieved 16 February 2024.

Pike, J. (2023, March 22). How world sport got into a mess over trans athletes — and how it can get out of it. The Conversation (The Conversation Media Group Ltd). Retrieved 19 February 2024.

Plaskasovitis, N. (2024, February 16). Greece: Yes vote to marriage equality. SBS Greek (Special Broadcasting Service). Retrieved 17 February 2024.

Quattrochi, J. (2024, February 12). ‘Graham’s tour offers us the chance to examine the issue of censorship in today’s society’. Herald Sun (News Corp Australia); Archive Today. Retrieved 13 February 2024.

Ra, J. (2024, February 15). West Virginia bill defining gender is transphobic and ‘political rubbish,’ Democrats say. ABC News (The Walt Disney Company). Retrieved 15 February 2024.

Raichik, C. [@libsoftiktok] (2024, February 13). BREAKING: The Lakewood Church shooter was transgender. He went by the name “Genesse” and previously “Jeffrey”. Another act of trans … [Tweet]. Twitter (X Corp.); Archive Today. Retrieved 14 February 2024.

Reed, E. (2024, February 16). Maryland could become next state to pass transgender sanctuary law. Erin In The Morning (Substack, Inc.). Retrieved 17 February 2024.

Reid, T., Layne, N., & Borter, G. (2024, January 16). Iowa caucus 2024: Trump cements frontrunner status to face Biden. Reuters (Thomson Reuters Corporation). Retrieved 19 February 2024.

Robertson, N. (2024, February 12). Trans women should be arrested over bathroom use: NC Gov candidate Mark Robinson. The Hill (Nexstar Media Group, Inc.). Retrieved 13 February 2024.

Self, M. (2024, February 13). Sex change surgery for Kansas minors could be banned with new bill. KSNT (Nexstar Media Group, Inc.). Retrieved 13 February 2024.

Shields, A. (2024, February 13). Transgender girl stabbed 14 times in violent birthday party attack. Metro (Daily Mail and General Trust). Retrieved 14 February 2024.

Sosa, K. (2024, February 12). Transgender Resource Center of New Mexico opens transitional housing program. NewsNation (Nexstar Media, Inc.). Retrieved 13 February 2024.

SportAccord (2024). Official schedule. Archive Today. Retrieved 19 February 2024.

Stanton, A. (2024, February 12). Was Joel Osteen megachurch shooter Genesse Moreno transgender? What we know. Newsweek. Retrieved 13 February 2024.

Starbuck, R. [@robbystarbuck] (2024, February 13). The Lakewood Church shooter was a trans migrant from El Salvador and her gun had “Free Palestine” on it. For … [Tweet]. Twitter (X Corp.); Archive Today. Retrieved 14 February 2024.

Sweaney, K. (2024, February 16). Athlete representation and rules for transgender athletes tackled at LawAccord. Australasian Leisure Management (Leisure Media Ltd). Retrieved 17 February 2024.

Tomazin, F. (2024, February 12). ‘I would encourage them’: Trump says he would allow Russia to attack US allies. The Sydney Morning Herald (Nine Entertainment Company Ltd). Retrieved 13 February 2024.

University of Edinburgh (2024, February 13). New Rector confirmed [News release]. Retrieved 16 February 2024.

Utah State Board of Education (2024, February 14). Board takes action to address Board Member conduct [Media release]. Retrieved 16 February 2024.

Va. Code Ann. §§ 2.2-4029, 22.1-23.3.

Virginia Department of Education, Model policies on ensuring privacy, dignity, and respect for all students and parents in Virginia’s public schools (“2023 Model Policies“; 18 July 2023).

Virginia Department of Education, Model policies for the treatment of transgender students in public elementary and secondary schools (“2021 Model Policies“; 2021).

Volberding, E. (2024, February 12). Police identify shooter who opened fire at Joel Osteen’s megachurch in Houston. One America News (Herring Networks, Inc.); Archive Today. Retrieved 13 February 2024.

West Virginia women’s bill of rights, HB 5243, 86th West Virginia Legislature (2024).

What is a woman act, HB 50, Wyoming State Legislature (2024).

Wiggins, C. (2024, February 12). Fox News and GOP politicians falsely claim Lakewood Church shooter was transgender. Advocate (Pride Media). Retrieved 14 February 2024.

Williams, C. (2024, February 13). Activist Simon Fanshawe named as University of Edinburgh rector. BBC News (British Broadcasting Corporation; BBC Scotland). Retrieved 16 February 2024.

Williams, A.R., Bonner, J., & Razek, R. (2024, February 18). Joel Osteen’s Lakewood Church resumes Sunday service one week after shooting that left 7-year-old boy injured. CNN US (Warner Bros. Discovery). Retrieved 19 February 2024.

Wolfson, L. (2024, February 16). Freedom Caucus blasts 19 Republicans for killing bill to define genders. Cowboy State Daily (B. Wayne Hughes, Jr.). Retrieved 19 February 2024.

Yurcaba, J. (2021, October 9). N.C. lieutenant governor faces calls to resign for calling LGBTQ people ‘filth’. NBC News (Comcast Corporation). Retrieved 14 February 2024.

This entry covers Sunday 4 — Saturday 10 February. Apologies for the delay in posting it; I lost access to my ADHD medication and therefore had to cram this all in on Sunday and Monday.

This week there were outbreaks of news in:

• the international arena;
• Australia (New South Wales, South Australia, Victoria);
• Canada (Alberta, the Northwest Territories);
• India (Delhi, Maharashtra);
• Pakistan (federal, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa);
• the United Kingdom (national, England);
• the United States (federal, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Ohio, South Dakota, Utah, Virginia).

This week I am adding headings so hopefully it is a bit easier to find your way around if you need to come back and skim read at some point in the future.

International

parkrun no longer publishing performance data

parkrun is no longer publishing certain data about participants’ performance, including most first-place finishes and speed records by age grade and gender category. parkrun has been an explicitly noncompetitive fun run since it was established, and the organisation says the records have been removed to counter the growing perception that the event is in some way a competition (“parkrun removes speed records,” 2024). According to the organisation, the decision has been in the works since before the COVID-19 pandemic (“parkrun removes speed records,” op. cit.), and GB News reports that parkrun chief executive officer Russ Jeffereys has denied the timing of the decisions is influenced by an ongoing campaign by anti-trans groups (Trapnell, 2024).

Dave Chappelle wins Grammy Award

On 4 February, the 66th annual Grammy Awards ceremony was held at the Staples Center (footnote: “Staples Center”) in Los Angeles, California. The Grammy for Best Comedy Album was awarded to Dave Chappelle for What’s In a Name? (Hughes, 2022). This is relevant because the entire album is a byproduct of Chappelle’s decision to go all in on transphobia. The title is a reference to the controversy that ensued when Chappelle’s high school, the Duke Ellington School of the Arts, tried to rename its theatre after him (Stein & Andrade-Rhodes, 2022). The controversy occurred because of the anti-trans remarks that Chappelle had already made in his previous special (Horowitz, 2024), The Closer (Lathan, 2021). Anecdotally, the primary content of the album is Gervais-esque jerking off about the “importance” of “comedians” as “social commentators”.

Joe Rogan attacks trans kids’ healthcare

On 7 February, The Joe Rogan Experience published episode 2099 (Rogan, 2024), featuring US National Football League (NFL) quarterback Aaron Rodgers, whose far-right political views are a matter of public record (Rosenberg, 2021; Salvador, 2022; Simonetti, 2024). During the episode, Rogan expressed his opposition to allowing trans kids to access gender-affirming care on the grounds that “children are … manipulated by this emerging market” (Rogan, 2024; Hookstead, 2024).

Irish dancing says trans rights

On 8 February, Ain Coimisiún Le Rincí Gaelacha (CLRG; “The Irish Dancing Commission”), the de facto world governing body, adopted a binding motion that trans Irish dancers can compete in the correct categories for their genders. Motions to force trans dancers to misgender themselves, or to establish a separate-but-equal “open” category, were defeated at the meeting by majority vote. CLRG is now drafting a new diversity, equality, and inclusion policy which will reflect its position on trans dancers, to be voted on at its annual meeting in May (Coyne, 2024).

Australia

New South Wales

Midcoast Christian College copping it from Binary

Starting 5 February, Midcoast Christian College in Taree, New South Wales, became the subject of targeted harassment by Binary Australia for “allowing [a trans girl student] to lie about being a girl and making the staff and students go along with it” (Smith, 2024a).

South Australia

Proposed select committee on trans kids

On 7 February, the South Australian Legislative Council considered a motion by Frank Pangallo MLC (Ind–A/L), carried over from November 2023, to establish a select committee to inquire into and report on gender-affirming care for trans kids in South Australia. Remarks by Pangallo and other advocates of the proposal, as well as the language of the proposal, use standard language which made it evident that the intention of the committee was similar to other inquiries into gender-affirming paediatrics proposed or secured by conservative politicians in other Western states — namely to engage in politically motivated “investigation” of the care in question in order to use the fact that it was being investigated as a basis to deny it. For instance, Pangallo said that his rationale was

a pretty clear-cut issue of child protection … We need to make sure these kids aren’t making a decision that is ill-informed, or that they’re being pressured or rushed into it, or that they aren’t perhaps suffering from some other kind of mental health issue that can be resolved from other treatment.

Pangallo, in Penberthy (2024)

Prior to debate on the motion there was some speculation in right-wing media (see, e.g., Penberthy, op. cit.) that it might pass if Premier Peter Malinauskas (ALP–Croydon) were to permit a conscience vote to MPs of the Labor Party’s Right faction. It may have been considered plausible that Malinauskas would do this because he is affiliated (Dayman, 2022) with the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees’ Association (SDA), the union “representing” Australian retail and service workers, whose affiliates in federal and state parliament represent the far-right wing of the Labor Party (Seccombe, 2014; Schneiders & Millar, 2016; Australian Associated Press, 2019). However, in the event, Malinauskas did not permit a conscience vote and the motion did not pass (Baxendale, 2024).

Victoria

Geelong Grammar and the Child Safe Standards

Right-wing media appear to have become aware of the Victorian Department of Education’s Ministerial Order No. 1359, which took effect 1 July 2022, and which implements the Victorian Child Safe Standards. Standard 5.3 requires schools to:

[pay] particular attention to the needs of children and young people with disability, children and young people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, those who are unable to live at home, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex children and young people.

Victorian Commission for Children and Young People (n.d.)

The media actors in question are, naturally, misrepresenting this as schools being required to pay attention to the needs of trans students specifically, to the detriment of other students if necessary, as opposed to paying attention to children’s safety needs in general (O’Brien, 2024).

The catalyst for this sudden upsurge in interest appears to have been that one parent has removed his child from Geelong Grammar School, an elite private school previously attended by King Charles III, among others. The student is not Geelong Grammar’s first trans student by a long shot — although right-wing media are admitting this reluctantly, e.g. in the second last paragraph of O’Brien & Borg (2024), or not at all, e.g. in Hannaford (2024) — and the school has noted that its handling of the student is consistent with its Inclusivity Policy, first issued 2015. The matter has, of course, attracted the interest of local political bottom-feeders including Binary Australia (Smith, 2024b).

Moira Deeming and the 2017 study

On 7 February, in the Victorian Legislative Council, Moira Deeming MLC (Independent LPA—Western Metropolitan Region) raised a previous question on notice, #1264, to the Minister for Mental Health, “regarding the progress or fate of a very well-funded and much-needed long-term study established in 2017 into the health outcomes of children and adolescents with gender dysphoria attending the Royal Children’s Hospital”. I am unsure of the context here, but given Deeming’s well-established views on trans people (not positive!), I am very curious to know.

Canada

Alberta

More fallout from Smith anti-trans policy package

On 4 February, the Alberta Medical Association’s Section of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry issued a statement of concern about Premier Danielle Smith’s new anti-trans policy package, mentioned in SPW #1 (Alberta Medical Association, 2024).

On 5 February, Randy Boissonnault MP (LPC–Edmonton Centre, AB), federal Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Official Languages, indicated the Liberal federal government of Canada would not seek to challenge the Smith UCP Government of Alberta’s anti-trans policy package through the courts, according to CBC News (Tasker, 2024).

Northwest Territories

Possible knock-on effects from Alberta

CBC News this week reported that the anti-trans policy measures taken by the Smith UCP Government of Alberta might adversely affect care in the Northwest Territories (NWT). While the NWT is not part of Alberta, due to its much smaller population and therefore much smaller base of medical expertise, the NWT Health and Social Services Authority is often forced to refer patients to specialists in Alberta (Krymalowski, 2024).

India

Delhi

Free bus travel for trans people

On 5 February, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal MLA (AAP–New Delhi) announced that his government would provide free travel for members of the transgender community on buses operated by or under contract to the Delhi Transport Corporation, Delhi’s government-owned mass transit operator. The measure comes in the context of several years of lobbying followed by public interest litigation in the High Court of Delhi; it is similar to pre-existing initiatives for women and senior citizens (Rao, 2024).

Local LGBTQ+ groups have welcomed the scheme, albeit conditionally. For instance, Rupika Dhillon, director of the Society for People’s Awareness, Care and Empowerment (SPACE), a non-governmental organisation (NGO) which works with the trans community, has noted that trans women already qualify for free travel under the women’s free travel scheme, while trans men may have difficulty accessing the trans free travel scheme (Gupta, 2024).

Rudrani Chhetri, managing director of Mitr Trust, a trans health and human rights NGO, says it is important that the Delhi Government should clarify whether trans people who aren’t Delhi residents can use the free service, and how the scheme can be accessed without correctly-gendered legal identification, as access to correctly gendered ID for trans people is very slow (Gupta, op. cit.).

Dhillon also noted, more broadly, that the free transport initiative is not sufficient in and of itself, and indicated that if the Government was really interested in improving the plight of trans people — per Kejriwal’s remarks when introducing the scheme — then it should also draw up a policy to tackle the employment inequality faced by trans people (Gupta, op. cit.).

Maharashtra

Mumbai’s first Pride march in four years

On 3 February, the first Pride march in Mumbai in four years took place. According to organisers before the event, expected attendance was about 1,000 (Ferlita, 2024a).

Pakistan

Federal

On 8 February, elections were held for the National Assembly of Pakistan. Nayyab Ali (Ind), a trans woman who is a well-established trans community advocate, contested the NA-46 and NA-47 districts, in the Islamabad area (Ali, 2024).

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

Elections for the provincial assemblies of all four provinces of Pakistan were also held on 8 February. In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sobia Khan (Ind), a trans civil rights and judicial activist, contested Provincial Assembly district KP-84, in the Peshawar area (Arshad, 2023).

United Kingdom

National

Parliamentary question: Posthumous gender recognition

On 19 January, Charlotte Nichols MP (Labour–Warrington North, England) filed a written parliamentary question with the Women and Equalities portfolio, “to ask the Minister for Women and Equalities if she will reform the Gender Recognition Act 2004 to allow transgender people who are deceased to be legally remembered by the gender they lived by”.

On 29 January, the question was answered by Stuart Andrew MP (CUP–Pudsey, England), the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Women and Equalities, who said:

We recognise the sensitivity of these situations, particularly when family and friends are dealing with the loss of a loved one. The Gender Recognition Act (GRA) 2004 provides for people to change their legal gender. Those who have undergone this process and acquired a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC) before the time of their death will, of course, be recognised in their new gender.

Without undergoing the process of legal gender recognition and acquiring a GRC under the provisions laid out in the GRA 2004, a person has not legally changed gender. Therefore they would not be recognised in their new gender upon the unfortunate event of their death. That said, where a person was using their new gender with an organisation prior to their death, and that was on their personal records, then we anticipate that the organisation would engage with their family members using the new gender. These organisations could include the NHS, their place of work or community groups.

We recognise that everyone who decides to undergo a change in how their legal sex is recorded deserves our respect, support and compassion throughout the process. The process does not currently allow for third-party applications, such as posthumous applications on behalf of a deceased friend or relative, as any application will be a deeply personal undertaking and choice.

Following the GRA consultation and the subsequent changes we made to the application process, we have no plans to further amend the Act.

(emphases mine)

Esther Ghey, mindfulness, and the internet

On 6 February, Esther Ghey appeared on BBC Breakfast. Ghey is the mother of Brianna Ghey, 16, who was murdered partly because she was trans. One of Brianna’s killers, then known as Girl X, told the Crown Court she “enjoyed watching videos of murder and torture on the dark web” (Pidd, 2024). Presumably in reaction to this, Ms Ghey is campaigning for “under-16s to be blocked from accessing social media on smartphones and stronger parental controls to flag potentially harmful searches to parents”. She voiced her approval of the Online Safety Act 2023, which commenced in part on 10 January this year, but said “we do need something a little bit more drastic for children” (Landi, 2024). She is also raising money to “deliver mindfulness training” in schools (Standley, 2024).

As Trans Safety Network’s Mallory Moore notes in social media commentary (Moore, 2024a & 2024b), Ms Ghey’s goals are unfortunately likely to do more harm than good. Any expansion of the Online Safety Act is more likely to be targeted at restricting trans interest content than it is at restricting the content in which Brianna Ghey’s killers were interested; s 121 of the Act introduces a monitoring regime described by The Register as “encryption busting” (Clark, 2023), and described by Stonewall as “endanger[ing] LGBTQ+ people on a global scale” because LGBTQ+ people facing repression have to use end-to-end encrypted services of the kind being “busted” to communicate with caseworkers in — or to communicate within — the UK (de Santos, 2023). Moreover, the kind of school counselling for which Ms Ghey is advocating has been shown not to work (“Mindfulness in schools,” 2023).

Rishi Sunak does the impossible

On 7 February, in the House of Commons, an exchange took place between Prime Minister Rishi Sunak MP and Opposition Leader Sir Keir Starmer MP (Labour—Holborn and St Pancras, England) that attracted significant media interest in the United Kingdom and abroad. Hansard gives the exchange as follows:

KEIR STARMER: He says he stands by his commitments. He once insisted that if he missed his promises,

“I’m the Prime Minister…it’s on me personally”.

Today we learn from his own officials that he is the blocker to any deal to end the doctors’ strikes. Every time he is asked, he blames everyone else. What exactly did he mean when he said “it’s on me personally” if he does not meet his promise?

THE PRIME MINISTER: We are bringing down waiting lists for the longest waiters and making progress. It is a bit rich to hear about promises from someone who has broken every single promise he was elected on. I have counted almost 30 in the last year: pensions, planning, peerages, public sector pay, tuition fees, childcare, second referendums, defining a woman — although, in fairness, that was only 99% of a U-turn. The list goes on, but the theme is the same: empty words, broken promises and absolutely no plan.

KEIR STARMER: Of all the weeks to say that, when Brianna’s mother is in this chamber—shame! […]

The reason generally given for the media interest is that, as Starmer noted, Brianna Ghey’s mother Esther (mentioned separately above) was in the chamber at the time. Sunak’s remarks have been condemned by, among others,

• Dehenna Davison MP (CUP—Bishop Auckland, England), who said it was “disappointing to hear jokes being made at the trans community’s expense”;
• Penny Mordaunt MP (CUP—Portsmouth North, England), Leader of the House of Commons, who said the PM should “reflect” on his remarks.
• Jess Phillips MP (Labour—Birmingham Yardley, England), who called Sunak “an absolute disgrace”.

as well as Ghey’s father Peter Spooner, who has demanded an apology, which Sunak has staunchly refused to provide (A. Mitchell, 2024). In short, Rishi Sunak has stumbled unenviably into doing the impossible: telling a transphobic joke that the British political media and class didn’t laugh at.

Informally, while the offence given to Brianna Ghey’s parents is the reason now being cited for why the story has had so much traction, I am not sure I believe it is the actual reason. While Sunak’s remarks are bigoted and fascist without context, and horrific with context, the British press is transparently a highly coordinated right-wing propaganda machine with a small number of points of centralised direction. Had it wished to, it could simply have chosen not to notice that anything occurred.

I am inclined to speculate that the actual reason that this is sticking, to the extent that it has done so, is that Sunak, the fifth prime minister of the Conservative Government initially installed under David Cameron’s leadership, appears himself to be the subject of yet another coup plot. Members of the plot may include Kemi Badenoch MP (CUP—Saffron Walden, England), the Minister for Women and Equalities (Crerar & Courea, 2024). If the media is foregrounding Sunak’s wrongdoing here in order to elevate Badenoch, that would be grimly hilarious given that Badenoch has been a leading exponent and architect of the specific transphobic Conservative Party policy agenda which motivated Sunak to say what he did (see, e.g., Bancroft, 2021; Ramsay & Bychawski, 2022; Adu, 2023).

I would like to believe, as some of my international correspondents do, that this might instead represent the high-water mark for transphobia in the British political and media class, and be the start of a turning of the tide. I do not believe it, but I would be very grateful to be proven wrong.

England

’52 Monologues for Young Transsexuals’

Playbill advises that from 4 to 16 March this year, Laurie Ward and Charli Cowgill’s 52 Monologues for Young Transsexuals, which was a hit at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, will play at the Soho Theatre in London. The production, which is for adults only, “dives into the reality of life as a trans woman,” and “was inspired by verbatim interviews with a wide variety of trans women about romance, sex, and the relationship between the mind and the body” (Hall, 2024).

United States

Federal or interstate

Saying the quiet part out loud

On 27 January, Republicans and anti-trans activists held a Twitter Space. Prominent attendees included:

• Ohio State Rep. Gary Click (R–HD88, OH), who has a history of anti-trans activism (Riedel, 2022);
• Michigan State Rep. Tom Kunse (R–HD100, MI);
• Michigan State Rep. Brad Paquette (R–HD37, MI);
• Michigan State Rep. Josh Schriver (R–HD66, MI);
• Sen. Jonathan Lindsey (R–SD17, MI);
• Sen. Lana Theis (R–SD22, MI), who has a history of comparing her LGBTQ+ and allied opponents to child molesters (King, 2022/2023);
• Prisha Mosley, an ideologically motivated detransitioned activist (Urquhart, 2023).

In-depth reporting of the Space is available from Erin Reed (2024a). Notable remarks during the Space include (ibid.):

• Rep. Click: “… Planned Parenthoods; they pass out hormones like candy, [Ohio Governor Mike DeWine]’s put a stop to that. That’s one of the places a lot of adults go. There’s also Euphoria and Plume …”
• Rep. Schriver: “… why are we allowing these practices [i.e., gender-affirming care] for anyone? … we have to be … using that to move the window to say that this isn’t just wrong zero to eighteen, it’s wrong for everyone and we shouldn’t be allowing that to happen.”
• Mosley: “I did want to say that … you cannot consent to a lie. Most of thse doctors are straight up lying about the effects and saying … that you can magically change sex.”

Vitsaxaki v. Skaneateles Central School District

On 31 January, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York, Syracuse Division, the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a right-wing anti-trans pressure group whose activity has been reported on in detail elsewhere, filed suit against Skaneateles Central School District in Onondaga County. In the complaint, plaintiff Jennifer Vitsaxaki alleges Skaneateles CSD allowed her child to use a chosen name and pronouns and provided the child with resources for medical transition. Vitsaxaki alleges infringement of her right to religious freedom, as well as infringement of her parental rights and consequent deprivation of liberty. She is seeking declaratory relief, damages, and attorneys’ fees.

House Bill 7187 & Senate Bill 3729

On 1 February, in the U.S. House of Representatives, Rep. Greg Steube (R–FL-17) filed House Bill (HR) 7187, which would prohibit governing bodies recognised by the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) from allowing trans women to participate in women’s athletic events. In the Senate, Senator Tommy Tuberville (R–AL) introduced a companion bill, Senate Bill (S.) 3729 (Migdon, 2024).

New ACPeds position statement, same conga line of suckholes

On 1 February, the American College of Pediatricians (ACPeds), a United States-based anti-trans pressure group, published a position statement “Mental health in adolescents with incongruence of gender identity and biological sex” (Anderson et al., 2024). While ACPeds is transparently a pressure group with no scientific credibility, right-wing media have, naturally, picked up the story and treated it as if it had scientific validity (Bukuras, 2024a & 2024b; Foley, 2024a; Rosiak, 2024; Rudy, 2024).

NY Times platforming Pamela Paul again

On 2 February, The New York Times published an opinion article, “As kids, they thought they were trans. They no longer do,” by Pamela Paul (2024). As Erin Reed (2024b) notes in the Advocate, the article:

• treats “rapid onset gender dysphoria” (ROGD) as real — ROGD is a thoroughly debunked junk science concept with no empirical backing (Bauer et al., 2021) which has been explicitly and repeatedly disendorsed and rejected by all major diagnostic authorities (WPATH Global Board of Directors, 2018; Coalition for the Advancement and Application of Psychological Science, 2021).
• misrepresents the credentials and professional record of therapist Stephanie Winn to present her as credible. In reality, Winn is a conversion therapist and relatively eccentric even given that context; she has advocated the use of acupuncture to “help spark desistance” and has suggested trans men should be forced onto estrogen.
• revives the old canard that trans people are just gay and transition is a form of conversion therapy. If this allegation were true it would be extremely ineffective conversion therapy, as the percentage of trans people who self-identify as gay, bisexual, queer, etc., is astronomically higher than the corresponding fraction among cis people (Reisner et al., 2023).
• revives the baseless claim that 80% of self-identified trans kids “desist” — stop being trans — by the time they reach adulthood. This canard dates back to the 1980s and was manufactured for exactly this rhetorical purpose. It was manufactured by falsely classifying gay kids who never considered themselves trans as having “gender identity disorder,” the diagnostic construct used to represent transness in “scientific” study at the time; by noting that those gay kids still did not consider themselves trans at the end of the study period; and therefore immediately claiming that those kids had “desisted” (Brooks, 2018; Reed, 2023).

On 10 February, The Times published letters following up the piece (Yale et al., 2024). I could not verify the provenance of several of the letters published. One letter is noted as being from a Women’s Declaration International (WDI) organiser, but The Times does not bother to clarify that WDI is a single-purpose anti-trans pressure group (Allday, 2023; McLamore et al., 2023), allowing readers who are not deep in the weeds to make their own assumptions.

The War on Children

On 2 February, Robby Starbuck’s fascist propaganda film The War on Children premiered on Twitter. The film is best known for having been caught by Eli Erlick (2023) attempting to deceive LGBTQ+ people and allies into participating under false pretences (McCann Ramirez, 2023). At that time, the film’s external communications claimed that it aimed

to delve deeper [into] exposing how these recent drag bans and gender-affirming care bans have been made, look at how it has affected the mental health of trans people and look forward into what future progress will look and sound like.

Starbuck, in McCann Ramirez (2024)

In practice, the film was unable to secure significant usable participation from LGBTQ+ people, and instead heavily features right-wing and fascist figures including

• Riley Gaines, a professional anti-trans activist
• Rand Paul, the Republican Senator for Kentucky
• Chaya Raichik, the influencer behind Libs of TikTok;
• representatives of The Heritage Foundation, a broad pressure group with a significant record of anti-trans advocacy;
• representatives of White Rose Resistance, an anti-abortion pressure group.

The film directly accuses several notable trans activists and medical practitioners of “grooming” children and being “pro-child mutilation” (McCann Ramirez, 2024).

Trump shills(?) for Bud Light

On 7 February, former US President Donald J. Trump, the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, published a Truth Social post advocating for right-wingers to stop the boycott of Budweiser brewers Anheuser-Busch (Trump, 2024), which was launched over an Instagram promotion for Bud Light featuring TikTok influencer Dylan Mulvaney, who is a trans woman (Foley, 2024b). The Christian Post, normally very sympathetic to Trump but more sympathetic to transphobia, speculated that the post might have been precipitated by financial links between Trump’s campaign and Anheuser-Busch (Foley, 2024b).

Arizona

House Bill 2183

On 5 February, the Arizona House of Representatives passed House Bill (HB) 2183, which the Human Rights Campaign describes as “a forced outing bill that would require healthcare entities to provide access to minors’ medical records, including for services that do not require parental approval, such as emergency mental health treatment” (Wolf, 2024).

Senate Concurrent Resolution 1013

On 7 February, the Education Committee of the Arizona Senate voted 4–3 to recommend “do pass” for Senate Concurrent Resolution (SCR) 1013. SCR 1013 proposes to require teachers to obtain written parental permission before using a student’s preferred pronouns or name, and mandate that schools separate their toilet facilities, locker rooms, and sleeping accommodations by assigned sex at birth, providing separate-but-equal single-occupancy alternatives for trans students (Gomez, 2024). In effect, it combines two Senate bills which failed to pass in the previous Legislature — SB 1001, which targeted correct pronoun use, and SB 1040, a bathroom bill.

If SCR 1013 is adopted by both chambers of the Arizona Legislature, the proposed measures will be placed on this November’s general election ballot as a ballot initiative, which will then need to be adopted by Arizona voters in order to become law.

Senate Bill 1066

On 7 February, the Education Accountability and Reform Committee of the Arizona Senate voted 4–3 with no abstentions to recommend “do pass” on SB 1166, which would require a public school to notify a student’s parent within 5 days of the first time their child requests the use of a name that doesn’t match the given name they were enrolled under, or pronouns that are not conventionally associated with their assigned sex at birth (Gomez, 2024).

Colorado

On 16 January, the Chuck Colson Center for Christian Worldview, a Colorado-based Christian dominionist pressure group established by Richard Nixon’s hatchet man Chuck Colson, “presented a discussion on how to think about and engage gender ideology”. Guests included Miriam Grossman, who is an anti-trans activist clinician (James, 2023), and Stephen Grcevich, with whom I am unfamiliar (Plasterer, 2024).

Florida

Florida Congressional Democrats seeking federal intervention

On 2 February, the Democratic members of Florida’s delegation to the U.S. Congress sent a joint letter to Alejandro Mayorkas, U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security, urging him to issue new rules on the federal Real ID Act to counter Florida’s new policy of not allowing trans people to list their correct genders on their driving licenses (Frost, 2024).

House Bill 1639

On 5 February, the Insurance & Banking Committee of the Florida House of Representatives referred HB 1639 to the House Infrastructure Strategies Committee. The ACLU of Florida says the bill “requires health plans to cover the widely discredited practice of conversion therapy and creates additional obstacles for health plans to cover gender-affirming care” (American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, 2024); the Human Rights Campaign characterises it as an “anti-transgender healthcare ban” (Wolf, op. cit.).

Prism die-in against the Kynoch memo

On 9 February, trans community advocates staged a die-in protest at driver’s license offices around Florida. Groups organising the protest included PRISM, which was the primary coordinator, as well as Equality Florida, GLSEN Central Florida, Hope CommUnity Center, SPEKTRUM Health, and the Youth Action Fund (H. Mitchell, 2024). The catalyst for the protest was the 26 January memo issued by Robert Kynoch, deputy executive director of Florida Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, stipulating that trans people could no longer change the gender indicator on their driver’s licenses (Kynoch, 2024; H. Mitchell, op. cit.).

Iowa

House Study Bill 649/House File 2389

On 1 February, in the Iowa Legislature, Governor Kim Reynolds introduced House Study Bill (HSB) 649. On 8 February, the House Education Committee approved the bill, whereupon it was renumbered House File (HF) 2389. HSB 649/HF 2389 provides that:

• in all Iowa code, the term “sex” refers to a person’s assigned sex at birth — this would functionally terminate all legal recognition of trans people by the State of Iowa;
• gender marker changes on state documentation such as driver’s licenses and birth certificates are only allowed for those who have a letter from a “doctor and surgeon” showing that the “sex designation has changed”;
• only a single type of gender marker change is allowed, namely listing both assigned sex and actual gender on the license (if that gender is binary); e.g., a trans woman’s driver license might read “M–F”.

Reynolds has issued the following statement on HF 2389:

Women and men are not identical; they possess unique biological differences. That’s not controversial, it’s common sense. Just like we did with girls’ sports, this bill protects women’s spaces and rights afforded to us by Iowa law and the Constitution. It’s unfortunate that defining a woman in code has become necessary to protect spaces where women’s health, safety, and privacy are being threatened like domestic violence shelters and rape crisis centers. The bill allows the law to recognise biological differences while forbidding unfair discrimination.

Reynolds, in Searles (2024)

The bill represents a broader push to impose “separate-but-equal” facilities on trans people across the United States, a fact which it more or less admits, explicitly asserting that “separate accommodations are not inherently unequal” (Russell, 2024).

Erin Reed (2024c) notes that this bill is significantly more dangerous than previous anti-trans bills introduced in Iowa, because, as its HSB status indicates, it was introduced by the Governor, “indicating that it may have stronger backing and is considered a policy priority”.

Kansas

Kobach’s bum rush

On 8 February, the office of Kris Kobach, Attorney General of Kansas, issued a media release, “School districts ‘socially transitioning’ students without parental consent, despite AG warning” (Attorney General of the State of Kansas, 2024). The release accused six unified school districts of allowing trans students to use their correct names and pronouns without notifying their parents:

• USD 233 — Olathe, Johnson County
• USD 266 — Maize, Sedgwick County
• USD 357 — Belle Plaine, Sumner County
• USD 500 — Kansas City (“KCK”), Wyandotte County
• USD 501 — Topeka, Shawnee County
• USD 512 — Shawnee Mission, Johnson County

It also accused the Kansas Association of School Boards (KASB) of helping to formulate policy which would facilitate the USDs’ alleged conduct (Attorney General of the State of Kansas, op. cit.)

As the Associated Press has noted (Hanna & Mulvihill, 2024), the actions of which Kobach is accusing the Unified School Districts are perfectly legal under Kansas law; he is acting without a legal basis. This is on brand for Kobach, who in 2023 managed to secure the termination of a consent order which compelled Kansas state officials to let trans Kansans update their birth certificates to reflect their gender identity (Condon, 2023).

Michigan

Four pro-LGBTQ+ bills: HB 5300, 5301, 5302, and 5303

On 7 February, the Judiciary Committee of the Michigan House of Representatives held hearings on four pro-LGBTQ+ bills:

• HB 5300, which “would allow family court to change names for individuals, including minors, upon request” (Wolf, op. cit.);
• HB 5301, 5302, and 5303, which collectively “would allow individuals to indicate a sex designation of ‘M’, ‘F’, or ‘X’ on their applications for driver’s licenses, state identification cards and birth certificates” (Wolf, op. cit.).

Kingsley v. Wojciechowski

On 7 February, in Pontiac, Oakland County, the Michigan 50th District Court dismissed Kingsley v. Wojciechowski and countersuit. Original plaintiff Brianna Kingsley, who is trans, filed in small claims in August 2023 over original respondent William Wojciechowski’s failure to return her testicles, which had been removed during her sex reassignment surgery (SRS), plus US$6,500 in damages. Wojciechowski countersued for emotional harm over the “humiliation” inflicted on him by world media coverage of the case, seeking $6,500 in damages (Hunter, 2024).

Ohio

Revised Department of Health draft rules

On 7 February, the Ohio Department of Health published a revised draft of proposed rule #3701-3-17, “Reporting gender-related condition diagnoses and gender transition care” (Ohio Department of Health, 2024).

The new draft omits language from the original draft that restricted gender-affirming care for adults. However, despite overwhelming opposition from Ohioans, the new rules still ban all medical interventions, including puberty-delaying medication, for trans people under 18 (Riedel, 2024).

South Dakota

Settlement with The Transformation Project

On 30 January, the State of South Dakota issued a letter of apology and paid a cash settlement of US$300,000 to The Transformation Project, a trans advocacy group. The settlement stems from South Dakota’s abrupt cancellation of a contract with The Transformation Project in December 2022 (Hult, 2024).

Utah

Salt Lake County misgendering incident

On 6 February, Utah State Board of Education member Natalie Cline (R–District 11) made a public Facebook post containing a flyer for the girls’ basketball team of a Salt Lake County high school, with the caption “Girls’ basketball…”, implying in context that a particular player was a trans girl (Tanner, 2024).

The 16-year-old in question is not transfem (Curtis, 2024), and now needs police protection due to threats (Tanner, op. cit.). Cline has been condemned by the student’s parents (“Parents of female student-athlete,” 2024), by Governor Spencer Cox and Lieutenant Governor Deirdre Henderson, both Republicans (Cox, 2024), and by the Utah Democratic Party (Utah House Democrats, 2024). The Board of Education has also condemned Cline (Utah State Board of Education, 2024), who has been the subject of previous internal proceedings for anti-trans hatred (Cortez, 2021; Houck, 2023); however, regardless of the outcome of any additional proceedings, the Board does not have the power to expel her (Utah State Board of Education, op. cit.). Cline, for her part, shared an “apology” (Cline, 2024) but continued to discuss the 16-year-old student’s body and did not allow comments on the post.

Utah State Rep. Kera Birkeland, the architect of HB 11 of 2022, which upon passage de facto banned trans girls from participation in high school sports, also commented on the original post — demanding that Cline take it down, oddly enough. In the process of doing so, she quoted an apparent figure for how many trans kids have sought clearance to play in Utah. Disclosing such a figure is a criminal offence per Utah Code § 63G-2-801(1)(a) (Tanner, op. cit.; Tanner & Stern, 2024). Whether Birkeland will face charges is, of course, unclear.

Virginia

ETSI health clinic opens in Portsmouth

In the week of 4 February, the ETSI (Ending Transmission of Sexual Infections) Health Clinic opened in downtown Portsmouth. The clinic, which is funded by the Virginia Department of Health and pharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences, Inc., will offer, at no cost:

• hormone therapy;
• human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and sexually transmitted infection (STI) testing as well as treatment;
• mental health services, through referrals and an on-site psychologist;
• substance abuse services and referrals (Payne, 2024).

If you would like me to correct an error, you have additional information, or you think there’s a story I should keep an eye on, please feel free to contact me. If you found this informative or useful in any way, please consider supporting my work via Patreon, Ko-fi, or PayPal.

Note, 12 February 2024: Updated to reflect that Penny Mordaunt MP is the leader of the British House of Commons. Thanks Emma (@hasrock36)!

References

A Bill to modify eligibility requirements for amateur sports governing organizations, HR 7187, 118th United States Congress (2024). No text available at date.

A Bill to modify eligibility requirements for amateur sports governing organizations, S 3729, 118th United States Congress (2024). No text available at date.

A bill for an act relating to the term sex and related terms for purposes of statutory construction (etc.), Iowa HF 2389, 90th Iowa General Assembly (2024).

A bill for an act relating to the term sex and related terms for purposes of statutory construction (etc.), Iowa HSB 649, 90th Iowa General Assembly (2024).

A bill to amend 1939 PA 288, entitled “Probate code of 1939” (etc.), Michigan HB 5300, 102nd Michigan Legislature (2024).

A bill to amend 1949 PA 300, entitled “Michigan vehicle code” (etc.), Michigan HB 5301, 102nd Michigan Legislature (2024).

A bill to amend 1972 PA 222 (etc.), Michigan HB 5302, 102nd Michigan Legislature (2024).

A bill to amend 1978 PA 368, entitled “Public health code” (etc.), Michigan HB 5303, 102nd Michigan Legislature (2024).

Adu, A. (2023, December 7). Gender-affirming care for children ‘form of conversion therapy’, says Badenoch. The Guardian (The Scott Trust). Retrieved 12 February 2024.

Alberta Medical Association [@albertadoctors] (2024, February 6). Statement from AMA Section of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry regarding gender-affirming care in youth. Twitter (X Corp.); Archive Today. Retrieved 11 February 2024.

Ali, K. (2024, January 21). Capital’s lone trans candidate aims to make her mark. Dawn (Pakistan Herald Publication Pvt Ltd). Retrieved 6 February 2024.

American Civil Liberties Union of Florida (2024, February 1). ACLU of Florida opposes House committee passage of trans erasure bill [Media release]. Retrieved 12 February 2024.

An act amending Title 15, Chapter 5, Article 1, Arizona Revised Statutes, by adding Section 15-509; relating to school employees, Arizona SB 1001, First Regular Session, 56th Arizona Legislature (2023).

An act amending Title 15, Chapter 1, Article 1, Arizona Revised Statutes, by adding Section 15-120.04; relating to public schools, Arizona SB 1040, First Regular Session, 56th Arizona Legislature (2023).

An act amending Title 15, Chapter 1, Article 1, Arizona Revised Statutes by adding Section 15-120.05; relating to public schools, Arizona SB 1166, Second Regular Session, 56th Arizona Legislature (2024).

An Act amending Section 1-602, Arizona Revised Statutes; relating to parents’ rights, Arizona HB 2183, Second Regular Session, 56th Arizona Legislature (2024).

An act relating to gender and biological sex (etc.), Florida HB 1639, 2024 Regular Session, Florida Legislature (2024).

Anderson, J.E., Field, S., & June, P.L. (2024, February 1). Mental health in adolescents with incongruence of gender identity and biological sex [Position statement]. American College of Pediatricians. Retrieved 11 February 2024.

Arshad, M. (2023, December 30). Meet Sobia Khan, transperson, contesting Feb 8 polls from Peshawar. Geo.tv (Independent Media Corporation). Retrieved 12 February 2024.

Australian Associated Press (2019, February 14). Labor ‘Shoppies’ still powerful: senator. SBS News (Special Broadcasting Service). Retrieved 12 February 2024.

Bancroft, H. (2021, September 17). Tory equalities minister Kemi Badenoch criticised for calling trans women ‘men’ in leaked tapes. The Independent (Independent Digital News & Media Ltd). Retrieved 12 February 2024.

Bauer, G.R., Lawson, M.L., & Metzger, D.L. (2021, November 15). Do clinical data from transgender adolescents support the phenomenon of “rapid-onset gender dysphoria”?. The Journal of Pediatrics, 243, 224–227.E2. doi: 10.1016/j.jpeds.2021.11.020. Retrieved 12 February 2024.

Baxendale, R. (2024, February 7). Moira Deeming ‘disgusted’ by Peter Malinauskas call on gender inquiry. The Australian (News Corp Australia); Archive Today. Retrieved 11 February 2024.

Brooks, J. (2018, May 23). The controversial research on ‘desistance’ in transgender youth. KQED (KQED, Inc.; National Public Radio). Retrieved 12 February 2024.

Bukuras, J. (2024a, February 7). Pediatric pushback on ‘trans kids’ treatments. Catholic News Agency (Eternal Word Television Network, Inc.). Retrieved 11 February 2024.

Bukuras, J. (2024b, February 7). Pediatric pushback on ‘trans kids’ treatments. National Catholic Register (Eternal Word Television Network, Inc.); Catholic News Agency (Eternal Word Television Network, Inc.). Retrieved 11 February 2024.

Clark, L. (2023, September 20). UK Online Safety Bill to become law — and encryption busting clause is still there. The Register (Situation Publishing Ltd). Retrieved 12 February 2024.

Cline, N. [natalie.cline.22] (2024, February 8). [Constitutionally protected speech] I previously shared a public advertisement for a school basketball game that was sent to me by … [Post]. Facebook (Meta Platforms, Inc.); Archive Today. Retrieved 11 February 2024.

Coalition for the Advancement & Application of Psychological Science (2021). CAAPS position statement on rapid onset gender dysphoria (ROGD). Retrieved 12 February 2024.

Condon, A. (2023, September 1). Kansas judge rules trans people’s birth certificates don’t have to be altered. PinkNews (PinkNews Media Group Ltd). Retrieved 11 February 2024.

Cortez, M. (2021, September 3). Natalie Cline reprimanded by state school board over social media posts that ‘incited hate speech’. KSL (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints). Retrieved 11 February 2024.

Cox, S.J. [@GovCox] (2024, February 8). Gov. Spencer Cox, Lt. Gov. Deirdre Henderson denounce behaviour of Utah School Board member Natalie Cline. Read the full statement … [Tweet]. Twitter (X Corp.); Archive Today. Retrieved 11 February 2024.

Coyne, E. (2024, February 8). Transgender Irish dancers allowed to compete in categories matching their gender identity. Irish Independent (Mediahuis NV). Retrieved 11 February 2024.

Crerar, P., & Courea, E. (2024, January 30). Kemi Badenoch is member of ‘Evil Plotters’ Tory WhatsApp group. The Guardian (The Scott Trust). Retrieved 12 February 2024.

Curtis, L.D. (2024, February 7). Cox, Henderson denounce behavior of school board member Natalie Cline. NBC TV 5 KSL (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints). Retrieved 11 February 2024.

Dayman, I. (2022, March 19). Labor leader Peter Malinauskas has been voted in as South Australia’s new premier. What kind of leader will he be?. ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation). Retrieved 12 February 2024.

de Santos, R. (2023, September 6). The Online Safety Bill will endanger LGBTQ+ people on a global scale. Open Access Government (Adjacent Digital Politics Ltd). Retrieved 12 February 2024.

Erlick, E. [elierlick] (2023, May 27). 🚨 Fake trans documentary: [Post]. Tumblr (Automattic, Inc.). Retrieved 11 February 2024.

Ferlita, G. (2024a, February 4). Pride march returns to Mumbai after 4-year hiatus. PinkNews (PinkNews Media Group Ltd). Retrieved 11 February 2024.

Foley, R. (2024a, February 9). Pediatricians group say evidence lacks to support gender sugeries [sic], hormones for trans youth. The Christian Post (The Christian Post, Inc.). Retrieved 11 February 2024.

Foley, R. (2024b, February 9). Trump requests conservatives retreat from Bud Light boycott, faces pushback. The Christian Post (The Christian Post, Inc.). Retrieved 11 February 2024.

Frost, M.A. [@RepMaxwellFrost] (2024, February 2). Alongside my Democratic colleagues in FL, I just sent a letter calling on the federal government to step in and … [Tweet]. Twitter (X Corp.); Archive Today. Retrieved 12 February 2024.

Geelong Grammar School, Inclusivity policy (14 November 2023).

Gender Recognition Act 2004 (UK), 2004 c 7.

Gill, C. (2024, February 3). Dead people should be able to change their gender, says Labour MP. The Telegraph (Press Holdings); Archive Today. Retrieved 5 February 2024.

Gomez, G.R. (2022, December 28). New GOP-proposed bill targets preferred pronoun use in schools. Arizona Mirror (States Newsroom). Retrieved 11 February 2024.

Gomez, G.R. (2023, February 1). Arizona considers a doomed GOP bathroom bill, advocates warn of harm from continued anti-trans rhetoric. Arizona Mirror (States Newsroom). Retrieved 11 February 2024.

Gomez, G.R. (2024, February 8). GOP anti-trans school measures are back, and this time they may avoid Hobbs’ veto pen. Arizona Mirror (States Newsroom). Retrieved 11 February 2024.

Gupta, R. (2024, February 6). Delhi govt announces free bus rides for transgender community. The Times of India (Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd.). Retrieved 11 February 2024.

Hall, M. (2024, February 9). Edinburgh Fringe hit 52 Monologues for Young Transsexuals to play London’s Soho Theatre. Playbill (Playbill, Inc.). Retrieved 11 February 2024.

Hanna, J., & Mulvihill, G. (2024, February 10). Kansas’ AG is telling schools they must out trans kids to parents, even with no specific law. AP News (Associated Press). Retrieved 11 February 2024.

Hannaford, P. (2024, February 8). Father goes to extreme lengths to pull daughter out of Geelong Grammar after discovering she was boarding alongside a trans student. SkyNews.com.au (News Corp Australia). Retrieved 11 February 2024.

Hookstead, D. (2024, February 8). Joe Rogan torches sex surgeries for children. OutKick (Fox Corporation). Retrieved 11 February 2024.

Horowitz, S.J. (2024, February 5). Dave Chappelle wins his fifth Grammy Award in Best Comedy Album category. Variety (Penske Media Corporation); Yahoo! Lifestyle (Yahoo! Inc.). Retrieved 6 February 2024.

Houck, M. (2023, August 8). Utah State Board of Education concludes Natalie Cline investigation with no reprimands. KSL TV 5 NBC (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints). Retrieved 11 February 2024.

Hughes, R. (Director). (2022). What’s in a name? [Film]. Netflix Worldwide Entertainment.

Hult, J. (2024, February 2). South Dakota apologizes, pays transgender advocacy group $300,000 for discrimination. Nebraska Examiner (States Newsroom). Retrieved 6 February 2024.

Hunter, G. (2024, February 7). Judge rules ‘it’s a wash’ in Pontiac court battle over transgender woman’s testicles. The Detroit News (Gannett Co., Inc.). Retrieved 11 February 2024.

James, A. (2023, September 2). Miriam Grossman vs. transgender people. Transgender Map (Deep Stealth Productions, Inc.). Retrieved 12 February 2024.

Jones, C.T. (2023, November 13). Right-wing orgs are using a social media loophole to skirt hate-speech rules. Rolling Stone (Penske Media Corporation). Retrieved 11 February 2024.

Attorney General of the State of Kansas (2024, February 8). School districts “socially transitioning” students without parental consent, despite AG warning [Media release]. Mailchimp. Retrieved 11 February 2024.

King, J. (2023, July 14). What are we to make of Lana Theis and her low-blow molestation accusations?. Pride Source (Pride Source Media Group). Retrieved 12 February 2024. (Original article published 21 April 2022).

Kingsley v. Wojciechowski (Mich Dist Ct, Case ID 2023-2087SC-SC, 7 February 2024).

Krymalowski, S. (2024, February 5). N.W.T. parents of transgender kids fear Alberta health care changes will make it hard to access care. CBC News (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation). Retrieved 6 February 2024.

Kynoch, R. (2024, January 26). Driver License Operation Manual — Issuance requirements — IR08 — Gender requirements (Recission) [Memorandum]. Florida Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles; Google Drive. Retrieved 4 February 2024.

Landi, M. (2024, February 6). Brianna Ghey’s mother says child safety online laws should be ‘more drastic’. The Independent (Independent Digital News & Media Ltd). Retrieved 11 February 2024.

Lathan, S. (Director). (2021). The closer [Film]. Netflix Worldwide Entertainment.

McCann Ramirez, N. (2023, June 16). A new documentary is courting trans voices. It has a big right-wing secret. Rolling Stone (Penske Media Corporation). Retrieved 11 February 2024.

McCann Ramirez, N. (2024, February 10). Emails reveal how anti-trans doc tried to dupe LGBTQ allies into participating. Rolling Stone (Penske Media Corporation). Retrieved 11 February 2024.

McLamore, Q., Leveille, L., Hodges, E., Wunderlich, S., & Bates, L. (2023, December 10). Group dynamics and division of labor within the anti-LGBTQ+ pseudoscience network. In R. Cravens (Ed.), Combating anti-LGBTQ+ pseudoscience. Southern Poverty Law Center. Retrieved 12 February 2024.

Migdon, B. (2024, August 2). Steube, Tuberville file bill to ban transgender women from U.S. Olympic teams. The Hill (Nexstar Media Group, Inc.). Retrieved 11 February 2024.

Mindfulness in schools doesn’t improve mental health. Here’s why that’s a positive (2023, July 28). Wellcome Trust. Retrieved 12 February 2024.

Minister for Education (Vic), Ministerial order No. 1359: Implementing the Child Safe Standards — Managing the risk of child abuse in schools and school boarding premises (1 July 2022).

Mitchell, A. (2024, February 9). Rishi Sunak refuses to apologise to Brianna Ghey’s family and says it is ‘sad and wrong’ to criticise his trans joke. The Independent (Independent Digital News & Media Ltd). Retrieved 11 February 2024.

Mitchell, H. (2024, February 10). Hundreds of transgender people stage dramatic ‘die-in’ protests at DMVs across Florida. PinkNews (PinkNews Media Group Ltd). Retrieved 11 February 2024.

Moore, M. [@Chican3ry] (2024a, February 8). Esther Ghey is obviously extremely distressed over the murder of her daughter but cutting young people off is not going … [Tweet]. Twitter (X Corp.). Retrieved 12 February 2024.

Moore, M. [@Chican3ry] (2024b, February 8). For what it’s worth, I sympathise deeply with Esther Ghey’s terrible experiences but her fundraiser is going to fund a … [Tweet]. Twitter (X Corp.). Retrieved 12 February 2024.

O’Brien, S. (2024, February 11). Elite Vic school ordered to ‘pay particular attention’ to trans students’ needs. Herald Sun (News Corp Australia); Archive Today. Retrieved 11 February 2024.

O’Brien, S., & Borg, R. (2024, February 7). Dad pulls daughter from elite school over trans student. Herald Sun (News Corp Australia); Archive Today. Retrieved 11 February 2024.

Ohio Department of Health (2024, February 7). Response to public comment to gender-related rules [Memo]. Retrieved 11 February 2024.

Online Safety Act 2023 (UK), 2023 c 50.

Oovvuu (2024a, February 8). Minister: Sunak ‘held Starmer to account’ through trans jibe. Townsville Bulletin (News Corp Australia). Retrieved 11 February 2024.

Oovvuu (2024b, February 8). Sunak defends ‘legitimate’ trans remark. The Chronicle (News Corp Australia). Retrieved 11 February 2024.

Oovvuu (2024c, February 8). Sunak defends ‘legitimate’ trans remark. Townsville Bulletin (News Corp Australia). Retrieved 11 February 2024.

Parents of female student-athlete at the center of controversy call on school board member to resign (2024, February 7). NBC TV 5 KSL (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints). Retrieved 11 February 2024.

Parkrun removes speed records from site to reduce ‘off-putting’ nature amid criticism (2024, February 8). Sky Sports (Comcast Corporation). Retrieved 11 February 2024.

Paul, P. (2024, February 2). As kids, they thought they were trans. They no longer do. The New York Times (The New York Times Company); Archive Today. Retrieved 5 February 2024.

Payne, R. (2024, February 4). First health clinic in U.S. owned by Black transgender woman opens in Portsmouth. 10 WAVY (Nexstar Media Group, Inc.). Retrieved 5 February 2024.

Penberthy, D. (2024, February 5). Broad support for historic South Australia transgender inquiry. The Australian (News Corp Australia); Archive Today. Retrieved 6 February 2024.

Pidd, H. (2024, February 3). ‘Thought it would be fun’: why did two teenagers kill Brianna Ghey?. The Guardian (The Scott Trust). Retrieved 12 February 2024.

Plasterer, R. (2024, February 5). Communicating the truth about gender ideology — Part 1. Juicy Ecumenism (Institute on Religion and Democracy); Archive Today. Retrieved 5 February 2024.

Ramsay, A., & Bychawski, A. (2022, April 1). Minister met lobbyists ahead of conversion therapy U-turn, documents reveal. openDemocracy (openDemocracy Foundation for the Advancement of Global Education). Retrieved 12 February 2024.

Rao, L.N. (2024, February 5). Arvind Kejriwal announces free bus travel in Delhi for transgender community. Hindustan Times (HT Media Ltd). Retrieved 6 February 2024.

Reisner, S.L., Choi, S.K., Herman, J.L., Bockting, W., Krueger, E.A., & Meyer, I.H. (2023, September 15). Sexual orientation in transgender adults in the United States. BMC Public Health, 23, 1799. doi: 10.1186/s12889-023-16654-z. Retrieved 12 February 2024.

Riedel, S. (2022, July 14). A GOP congressman wrote an anti-trans bill based off YouTube videos about trans people. Them (Condé Nast). Retrieved 12 February 2024.

Riedel, S. (2024, February 8). Ohio is backing off from proposed rules restricting trans adults’ access to care. Them (Condé Nast). Retrieved 11 February 2024.

Reed, E. (2023, March 18). Debunked: No, 80% of trans youth do not detransition. Erin In The Morning (Erin Reed; Substack). Retrieved 12 February 2024.

Reed, E. (2024a, January 28). Ohio, Michigan Republicans in released audio: “Endgame” is to ban trans care “for everyone”. Erin In The Morning (Erin Reed; Substack). Retrieved 6 February 2024.

Reed, E. (2024b, February 3). Debunked: This misleading NYT anti-trans column relies on pseudoscience. Advocate (Equal Entertainment, LLC). Retrieved 5 February 2024.

Reed, E. (2024c, February 5). Iowa bill would end all legal recognition of transgender people. Watermark (Watermark Publishing Group); Los Angeles Blade (Brown, Naff, Pitts Omnimedia, Inc.). Retrieved 6 February 2024.

Rogan, J.J. (Host) (2024, February 7). Aaron Rodgers (No. 2,099) [Audio podcast episode]. In The Joe Rogan experience. Spotify. Retrieved 11 February 2024.

Rosenberg, M. (2021, November 5). The problem is Aaron Rodgers thinks he has all the answers. Sports Illustrated (The Arena Group; Authentic Brands Group, LLC). Retrieved 12 February 2024.

Rosiak, L. (2024, February 9). Pediatricians group says research doesn’t support ‘gender affirming’ treatments. The Daily Wire (Bentkey Ventures, LLC); Archive Today. Retrieved 11 February 2024.

Rudy, M. (2024, February 8). ‘Gender-affirming’ treatments don’t benefit youth, says pediatricians group: ‘Irreversible consequences’. Fox News Digital (Fox Corporation). Retrieved 11 February 2024.

Russell, J. (2024, February 9). GOP lawmakers push “separate but equal” for transgender people. LGBTQ Nation (Q.Digital, Inc.). Retrieved 11 February 2024.

Salvador, J. (2022, November 29). Former Packers QB says Aaron Rodgers once asked him whether he believes in 9/11. Sports Illustrated (The Arena Group; Authentic Brands Group, LLC). Retrieved 12 February 2024.

Schneiders, R., & Millar, R. (2016). Shopped out. The Sydney Morning Herald (Nine Entertainment Company). Retrieved 12 February 2024.

Searles, D. (2024, February 4). Iowa family with trans child shares concerns with proposed LGBTIQ+ bills. WOI-DT We Are Iowa (Tegna, Inc.). Retrieved 5 February 2024.

Seccombe, M. (2014, March 8). Shoppies boss Joe de Bruyn bows out. The Saturday Paper (Schwartz Publishing); Archive Today. Retrieved 12 February 2024.

Simonetti, I. (2024, January 9). Aaron Rodgers says his comments about Jimmy Kimmel didn’t imply connection to Jeffrey Epstein. The Wall Street Journal (News Corporation). Retrieved 12 February 2024.

Smith, K. (2024a, February 5). Back to school transgender trend [Media release]. Binary Australia (Gender Awareness Australia Ltd). Retrieved 6 February 2024.

Smith, K. (2024b, February 9). Geelong Grammar School protects trans identified student at the expense of female students [Media release]. Binary Australia (Gender Awareness Australia Ltd). Retrieved 11 February 2024.

South Australia, Parliamentary debates, Legislative Council, 7 February 2024, 4692 (Frank Pangallo).

Standley, N. (2024, February 8). Esther Ghey focused on ‘lasting legacy for Brianna’. BBC News (British Broadcasting Corporation). Retrieved 12 February 2024.

Stein, P., & Andrade-Rhoades, A. (2022, June 20). Dave Chappelle declines having Duke Ellington School theater named for him. The Washington Post (Nash Holdings). Retrieved 12 February 2024.

Stone, G. (2023, December 15). Kemi Badenoch likened trans people to a disease in Parliament. Trans Writes (Lee Hurley; Gemma Stone). Retrieved 12 February 2024.

Student eligibility in interscholastic activities, Utah HB 11, 2022 General Session, Utah State Legislature (2022).

Sweeney, M. (2024, February 5). Maryland ‘fairness in girls’ sports’ bill dies in committee. The Gazette (The Anschutz Corporation); The Center Square (Donors Trust); Washington Examiner (The Anschutz Corporation). Retrieved 6 February 2024.

Tanner, C. (2024, February 8). Utah school board member Natalie Cline questions high school athlete’s gender, causing social media uproar. The Salt Lake Tribune (The Salt Lake Tribune, Inc.). Retrieved 11 February 2024.

Tanner, C., & Stern, E.A. (2024, February 9). Utah lawmaker could face charges for violating law she herself crafted. The Salt Lake Tribune (The Salt Lake Tribune, Inc.). Retrieved 11 February 2024.

Tasker, J.P. (2024, February 5). Danielle Smith, Liberals trade shots over transgender policies during her trip to Ottawa. CBC News (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation). Retrieved 6 February 2024.

Timotija, F. (2024, March 2). Final Title IX ruling sent to White House for approval after delay. The Hill (Nexstar Media Group, Inc.). Retrieved 5 February 2024.

Trapnell, O. (2024, February 10). Parkrun director quits over ‘inclusive policy’ amid trans record scrapping row. GB News (Legatum Ltd). Retrieved 11 February 2024.

Trump, D.J. [@realDonaldTrump] (2024, February 7). The Bud Light ad was a mistake of epic proportions, and for that a very big price was paid, but … [Post]. Truth Social (Trump Media & Technology Group); Archive Today. Retrieved 11 February 2024.

United Kingdom, Parliamentary debates, House of Commons, 7 February 2024, vol 745, col 241 (Rishi Sunak, Prime Minister).

United Kingdom, Written questions, answers and statements: Daily report, House of Commons, 29 January 2024, UIN 10680 (Stuart Andrew, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Equalities).

Urquhart, E. (2023, December 6). Extreme views of detransitioner Prisha Mosley profiled in Washington Post. Assigned Media. Retrieved 12 February 2024.

Utah Code § 63G-2-801(1)(a) (2019).

Utah House Democrats [@utahhousedems] (2024, February 9). Following recent actions by Utah School Board Member Natalie Cline, the Utah House Democratic Caucus issues the following statement. [Tweet]. Twitter (X Corp.); Archive Today. Retrieved 11 February 2024.

Utah State Board of Education (2024, February 8). Board leadership statement on Board member’s social media [Media release]. Retrieved 11 February 2024.

Victoria, Parliamentary debates, Legislative Council, 7 February 2024, 42 (Moira Deeming).

Victorian Commission for Children and Young People (n.d.). Standard 5: Equity is upheld and diverse needs respected in policy and practice. Victorian State Government. Retrieved 12 February 2024.

Vitsaxaki v. Skaneateles Central School District (ND NY, case number unknown, commenced 31 January 2024).

Wolf, B. (2024, February 5). HRC’s weekly state fights report: State equality index underscores dire national state of emergency [Press release]. Human Rights Campaign. Retrieved 6 February 2024.

WPATH Global Board of Directors (2018, September 4). WPATH position on “rapid-onset gender dysphoria (ROGD)” [Position statement]. World Professional Association for Transgender Health. Retrieved 12 February 2024.

Yale, C., Doak, M., Murphy, T., W., A., Rubick, K., … & Chesak, E. (2024, February 11). Letters: The debate over transgender care and detransitioning. The New York Times (The New York Times Company). Retrieved 11 February 2024.