“The modern trans movement does not appear to be a natural outgrowth of the feminist or even gay, lesbian, and bisexual acceptance movement. It is my strong belief that something else altogether is going on here.”
— Toby Rogers
————————————
“Pride” messaging began as a movement centered on creating equal rights for adult lesbians, gays and bisexuals — the L, G and B in the evolving acronym LGBTQ+.
As a long-time advocate for social justice, being supportive of Gay Pride, as it was initially called, was a given. Of course caring, rational people wish to see equal rights, non-discrimination, and inclusivity for all.
With the addition of the letter T — transgender — that movement has changed radically. “The trans wars,” says Toby Rogers, “are everywhere right now.”
Rogers spent a decade fighting for LGB equality as the communications director for the Presbyterian Church USA. He helped bring about a shift in the church’s position on gays nationwide, then got a masters degree in public policy. He taught gender studies. In Trans messaging is too sophisticated to be the work of a small sexual minority dealing with severe health issues, he says:
“By 2012-2013 we had won across the board. Equal rights to marriage, employment, housing, and hospital visitation rights were becoming the law of the land in the U.S. and throughout the world. We had achieved bipartisan consensus even on the fiercely divided U.S. Supreme Court. We had science, logic, and reason on our side. It was settled law and settled science.”
And then, says Rogers, “somewhere around 2015, the movement went completely off the rails.”
A very different ideology took over the Pride messaging — denying the validity of biology entirely and centering on the social construct of perceived gender. Suddenly gender dysphoria was rampant and growing. Port Townsend today is ground zero for that shift.
John Daniel Davidson writes about our town in The Federalist. In his August 19th article, The Transgender Movement Is Not Just Intolerant. It’s Barbaric And Violent, And It’s Coming For Your Children, Davidson says:
“Hardly a day goes by now that we don’t see another appalling example of transgender ideology’s aggressive intolerance in the public square. Recently, the target of that intolerance was an 80-year-old woman in the small town of Port Townsend, Washington, who was permanently banned from her local YMCA pool after she objected to a “trans woman” — a man — in the women’s locker room.”
That “aggressive intolerance” has been documented in multiple Free Press articles. (1, 2, 3, 4) This was the face of trans activism in Port Townsend on the evening of August 15th:
Most, if not all of the violence, say readers, came from within the community, not from outsiders. We now understand that it was local trans activists who showed up to spew hate and assault peaceful supporters of a women’s rights rally on August 15th at Pope Marine Park.
As previously reported, the assaults aligned with the hate campaign initiated by Port Townsend Mayor David Faber and City Councilor Libby Wennstrom. Campaigning on her Facebook page Wennstrom put out a call to drive “TERFS OUT OF PORT TOWNSEND.”
The violent mob that screamed and knocked down elderly women was a far cry from the message delivered an hour later by Mayor Faber just across the street. As Davidson summarized, “Faber praised the mob that went after Jaman and her supporters, calling it an ‘incredible night’ that was ‘beautiful’ and falsely claiming that ‘Trans and cis-allies alike spoke love & support’.”
David Faber returns to his mayor’s seat after presenting the Trans Rights Proclamation to Beau Ohlgren.
Faber’s high praise was delivered in conjunction with an orchestrated reading at City Hall of a Trans Rights Proclamation. The mayor read and ceremoniously presented the proclamation to Beau Ohlgren, representing the Transgender Support network in Jefferson County. That network is fronted by Olympic Pride, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit established in 2018. The image at the top of this article is the banner for the Youth page on Olympic Pride’s website.
Jim Scarantino of the Free Press wrote to Ohlgren and Olympic Pride asking for a statement regarding the attacks on women from the trans community that night. They did not respond. Scarantino writes:
“Olympic Pride and Beau Ohlgren of the local Transgender Support won’t denounce hate speech against women. We asked them if they denounced the hate speech directed at women from Mayor David Faber and City Councilor Libby Wennstrom, the latter calling for “All TERFS out of Port Townsend.” They have chosen “no comment”… To what extent these groups share responsibility for the conduct of the mob remains an open question, especially if they continue to refuse to condemn hatred and hate speech against women.”
It’s All Cartoons and Rainbows
On their website Olympic Pride says they are “Working towards making a permanent place for LGBTQ+ youth and allies.” They present a much different image online than the trans activists the community witnessed on August 15th across from City Hall.
The collage that originally appeared below contained images that were taken from Olympic Pride’s public website and Facebook pages. They showcased the kind of marketing the organization is directing at kids — a rainbow promotion for the Rainshadow Youth Collective: “Come say hi at the PT Farmers Market”; rainbow flags and other attractions for children at their Market booth; a cartoon unicorn on a rainbow. There was a photo of people swathed in large rainbow banners with flags, another of children playing with rainbow bubbles at a table at Pope Marine Park, and a smiling cartoon sun behind a rainbow with the caption “Pride Line 2021 is going to be HOT! HOT! HOT!”
On September 13, that collage and other images were removed, as explained in this placeholder:
Not only did we remove their publicly displayed marketing materials, nearly all of the photos and illustrations we shared have been scrubbed from their own website and Facebook page. If this complaint was really about alleged ownership, why did Olympic Pride remove them from their own sites?
The collage below gives the reader an idea of the imagery in the original version of this article. The images have similar content and flavor, but none of them come from Olympic Pride media.
This is the focus of Olympic Pride. It’s nearly all geared towards attracting kids into their Rainshadow Youth Collective. Brightly-colored unicorns dancing on rainbows. Rainbow banners and flags. Rainbow games. Rainbow cartoon characters. What could be more appealing to a child?
It’s all about the kids. Especially trans kids. When — and why — did Pride suddenly transform from a movement to secure equal rights for adults with differing sexual preferences to a marketing program enticing kids to question their gender, glorifying gender dysphoria?
Make no mistake about it, this IS a marketing campaign.
It’s colorful. It’s welcoming. It’s fun!
The next collage we removed included photographs of an Olympic Pride booth set up with games for children at Pope Marine Park, a young girl getting her face painted at the booth while other children look on, and an Olympic Pride table wrapped with local businesses’ and organization’s logos, giving away rainbow flags.
From drag queen Katrina Duall’s Instagram page.
We’ve been forbidden to show you those photos, too, so for the Olympic Pride promotional table we’re substituting another of their marketing draws — the use of drag queens to entertain kids at family events. For their “Sound of Pride 2022” at Pope Marine Park, Olympic Pride imported drag queen Katrina Duall to emcee the festivities. Most images of Duall’s performance have been removed from their website, but you can see dozens of photos on a public Instagram page.
The images below get the point across:
Wave a rainbow flag to show your Pride. Get your face painted at the Olympic Pride table at Pope Marine Park and then watch a drag queen perform. Join the Rainshadow Youth Collective and be celebrated as one of the special kids rejecting your biology and changing your gender.
How did we get here?
Beau Ohlgren, the recipient of the mayor’s Proclamation the night the trans activists attacked Jaman and her supporters, is Director of Family Ministry at the popular Quimper Universalist Unitarian Fellowship (QUUF) in Port Townsend. From the church’s website:
Beau Ohlgren at a Jefferson County Transgender Support event and pictured on the QUUF website (inset). These images were among those Faber Feinson PLLC demanded be removed as the “intellectual property” of his Olympic Pride clients. They are not. The photo from the transgender event was posted on an unrelated Facebook page by the person he is pictured with and the inset photo can still be seen at the churches’ link here.
Why is Olympic Pride claiming ownership of and trying to hide these images?
“Beau has been working with QUUF families at since [sic] 2015 and is passionate about working with each family’s particular interests, challenges, and talents to build resilient, loving, and spirited community. He lives in Port Townsend, is a licensed foster parent, and spends his free time with his family (including his godson), walking, reading, baking, and cooking. He is a member of the UUA-affiliated associations TRUUsT (Transgender Religious professional Unitarian Universalists Together) and LREDA (Liberal Religious Educators Association).”
Ohlgren’s enthusiasm for promoting the transgender community has led not only to support from the Unitarian church and a proclamation from the city, but a large coalition of “Partners” among local businesses and organizations. As was seen on the Olympic Pride table wrap [now removed], familiar logos abound. Even our hospital and Jefferson County Public Health have jumped on the rainbow bandwagon.
Who could say no to flying the colorful flag of inclusion, tolerance and diversity? How can anyone criticize rainbows and hearts?
A sampling of the local businesses and organizations that have “partnered” with Olympic Pride was below. The full list can still be seen on their website at the Pride Partners tab. If that also gets removed, they can be found at the end of Free Press writer Jim Scarantino’s follow-up article, “Olympic Pride Doesn’t Want You To See What They’re Promoting to Children.”
What is this partnership actually supporting?
Behind the hearts and rainbows, it’s not a pretty picture. The city pool run by the YMCA is a good example.
Before the Y took over managing the Mountain View public pool in 2021, there was a large contingency of seniors who were regular swimmers, with popular group activities. Many of those regulars, especially the older women, no longer use the pool.
A local physical therapist reports that a lot of her senior clients have stopped going to the pool because they no longer feel comfortable in that environment. They claim that the pool has gone significantly downhill since the Y took over. For many older folks with mobility and weight issues, exercising in the water is their only safe option. They’re being denied access to a healthier lifestyle. Through that lens, loss of this critical modality of exercise is a form of elder abuse.
As 80-year-old Julie Jaman’s recent expulsion demonstrated, the culture at the pool has changed radically under the Y’s auspices.
A Free Press reader from Portland, visiting the city’s pool for the first time with his family, wrote:
“What struck both of us was the amount of pride flags at the Y facility… They seemed to be on every door and most walls and we commented on it… it seemed there were more identifiable pride flags than Y logos.”
From the moment you approach the outside door, the rainbow Pride signage and messaging is in your face.
The messaging is so ubiquitous that Olympic Peninsula YMCA CEO Wendy Bart pointed to all the Pride branding as the rationale for why Julie Jaman should have known there were no longer gender boundaries in the changing rooms, toilets and showers. Despite the lack of explicit signage warning that men identifying as women had access to these intimate spaces, the celebratory rainbow “welcome” was fair warning, she said.
The Pride branding throughout the facility is mirrored by the kids hanging out at the pool. A friend who went to the pool after the incident with Jaman was shocked by the facility’s transformation. “The inside of the Pool/Y complex had been redecorated into a Pride temple, with Pride stickers and banners everywhere, and all three employees wearing rainbow masks and Pride T-Shirts.”
Some are calling this a cult. At the least, it’s the branding of a Pride club, reminiscent of the hippie-flower-child allure my generation experienced in the 60’s. We had our beads and feathers and neon tie-dyes. All we are saying is give peace a chance, we sang.
But the colorful Pride signage and costuming reflects a much different ethos. Under the guise of non-discrimination, gender dysphoria is being glamorized and marketed to our children.
When a small group of elderly woman went to the pool to challenge the Y’s treatment of Julie Jaman, they encountered some of the Pride-branded youth, above. There was polite conversation until a long-time Unitarian church member arrived with some other adults. We now know that the Y had consulted with Ohlgren for advice in the aftermath of the incident with Jaman and that the QUUF had put out a call for its members to counter her supporters — now dubbed transphobes and trans-haters — at the pool.
It wasn’t until that new group arrived that the scene grew ugly. They started name calling and drowning out any possibility for civil discussion. The irony of claiming to stand for respect, kindness and inclusion was not lost as QUUF members yelled absurd accusations like “Nazi” and “pedophile” at the peaceful elderly women, eventually inciting the teens to join in the attack.
Parents Weigh In
As more parents speak out about the trans movement’s hijacking — and even mutilation — of their kids, an extensive network of players comes into view.
“Transgender ideology has infiltrated public schools, hospitals, and higher ed,” says Davidson. “Its adherents are not going to leave you alone.”
In “Why did my daughter become trans?” Jo Brown describes the social and institutional influences that convinced her troubled daughter who had never shown signs of gender dysphoria to announce that she was a boy:
“It seems that a trans identity is offered to kids these days as a way out of their confusion and misery. All of us, or at least everyone that I have been close to, can remember our adolescence as difficult years. Feeling unacceptable, substandard, not cool enough. We struggled, were unhappy, but eventually found our way through. In my case it was through academic success, for my sister, sport. A close friend turned to music. What we did not have were people whispering to us in our bedrooms that our gender identity was the problem and changing it the solution.”
“What is particularly baffling,” writes Brown, “is why a mental difficulty that suddenly arises in adolescence is treated as a newly revealed truth, rather than a problem to be worked through and overcome. Many of these girls are struggling mentally, and indeed some are diagnosed with autism.”
In “Parents of Kids Who Think They Are Trans Speak Out,” five more moms write anonymously of their children’s heartbreaking stories. So powerful is the institutionalized “gender-affirming” network that they request anonymity “out of fear of being reported to Child Protective Services and losing custody of their children.”
“When a child says he is transgender, we are expected nowadays to accept and celebrate this announcement… But there are many parents who are not celebrating. They are suffering in silence. They know their children were not born in the wrong bodies and that hormones and surgeries are not the answers to their discomfort and confusion.”
A few excerpts from distraught mothers:
“My once beautiful daughter is now nineteen years old, homeless, bearded, in extreme poverty, sterilized, not receiving mental health services, extremely mentally ill, and planning a radial forearm phalloplasty (a surgical procedure that removes part of her arm to construct a fake penis)… The level of heartbreak and rage I am experiencing, as a mother, is indescribable. Why does Oregon law allow children to make life-altering medical decisions? As a society, we are rightly outraged about ‘female circumcision’. Why are doctors, who took an oath to first do no harm, allowed to sterilize and surgically mutilate mentally ill, delusional children?”
—————————-
“In August of 2017, our seventh grade daughter came home from sleepaway camp believing she was a boy. She had a new vocabulary and a strong desire to change her name and pronouns… We suspect that our daughter assumed that since my wife and I are lesbians, and liberal in our politics, we would support this new identity. We may be lesbians, but we are not confused about biology. She tried to convince us with a very scripted explanation that she had always ‘felt’ like a boy. But we had never once seen or heard from her any evidence of this ‘feeling’… we are facing this ever-growing storm of a social contagion without any help from the mainstream media or the negligent FDA, not to mention the pathetic capitulation of our physicians and mental health professionals.”
—————————-
“At the age of seventeen, after immersion on Tumblr and after two of her oldest and closest friends in high school declared themselves transgender, our daughter told us that she is ‘really a guy.’ Her therapist diagnosed her as high-functioning on the autism spectrum… My daughter is now twenty, has been on testosterone for a year, and has made an appointment for a consult about a double mastectomy—all this, even though she can’t legally buy an alcoholic drink. I can’t get any answers from doctors in response to my questions and concerns about the risks of these ‘treatments’. I get no answers from mental health professionals about what makes this treatment appropriate . . . or what makes my daughter different from those young women who are ‘no longer trans’ and have de-transitioned, sometimes after being on hormones for years.”
—————————-
“The media glamorize and celebrate trans-identified children while ignoring stories like mine. I have written to well over 100 journalists, begging them to write about what is happening to kids. I wrote to my representative and senators, but have been ignored by their staff. My online posts about my daughter’s story have been deleted and I have been permanently banned in an online forum. As a lifelong Democrat, I am outraged by my former party and find it ironic that only conservative news outlets have reported my story without bias or censorship.”
As the transgender industry lures kids into “transitioning” to the opposite sex with irreversible surgeries and often damaging life-long hormonal regimens, stories of those struggling to de-transition are also coming out. As with the upset parents, many choose to hide their identities because of vicious attacks by the trans community once they begin to voice their regrets openly and describe how they were manipulated and seduced onto the gender-transition conveyor belt.
Chloe Cole, an 18-year-old now de-transitioning from a “nightmare” journey that led to removing her healthy breasts at 15, is one young woman who is publicly speaking out. She recently testified against California Senate Bill 107, that would shelter parents who consent to the use of puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and gender transition surgery on their children from prosecution in other states that view such actions as child abuse.
In Ex-transgender Teen Recounts ‘Horrifying’ Experience of Transition, Surgery, Brad Jones of The Epoch Times says “her ‘brutal’ transition from female to male was anything but the romanticized ‘gender journey’ that transgender activists and medical professionals had portrayed.”
“There is really a high comorbidity rate between gender dysphoria and autism,” says Chloe Cole. “Pretty much every transgender person I’ve ever met, especially around my age either has really bad family issues, or they’ve been sexually abused or assaulted at a very young age, and it’s really concerning that nobody really talks about that association.”
Cole blames the medical community for encouraging her transition. “They effectively guilted my parents into allowing them to do this. They gave them the whole, ‘Either you’ll have a dead daughter or a live son,’ thing. They cited suicide rates.”
She now has deformed ribs from the breast binder she wore before her surgery and “worries the puberty blockers might have affected her brain development.” After the double mastectomy—called “top surgery”— “sold” to her by what Cole now views as propaganda, she was “actually disabled for awhile.” Because it requires severing the duct that supplies breastmilk to the nipple, even if she undergoes reconstructive surgery, she will never be able to nurse a baby.
“I was 15. You can’t exactly expect an adolescent to be making adult decisions,” she said. “So, because of a decision I made when I was a kid, I can’t breastfeed my children in the future. It’s just a little concerning that this is being recommended to kids at the age I was, and now even younger. They’re starting to operate on preteens now.”
Is Jefferson Healthcare’s and our Public Health Department’s partnership with Olympic Pride telling us they support the surgical removal of adolescent girls’ healthy breasts? The castration and feminization of confused teenage boys?
What is behind the Pride marketing?
Transgender surgeries and the multi-billion-dollar industry that has grown around gender “reassignment” is big business. Under the euphemism “gender affirmation”, full surgery packages can cost upwards of $300,000. Ongoing hormonal treatments run up to $2400 a year.
In Who Are the Rich, White Men Institutionalizing Transgender Ideology?, journalist Jennifer Bilek exposes a handful of billionaires who fund transgender lobbies and organizations. She notes the “explosion in transgender medical infrastructure across the United States and world to ‘treat’ transgender people.” She identifies the pharma and tech giants pushing for transgender bathrooms and funding the larger transgender project:
“The massive medical and technological infrastructure expansion for a tiny (but growing) fraction of the population with gender dysphoria, along with the money being funneled to this project by those heavily invested in the medical and technology industries, seems to make sense only in the context of expanding markets for changing the human body.”
Davidson points to the industry’s targeting of children at younger and younger ages:
“That effort isn’t being led by black-shirted Antifa thugs, it’s being led by medical professionals at some of the most prestigious hospitals in the country. In recent weeks, [people] have been posting publicly available promotional videos and other information from Boston Children’s Hospital touting so-called ‘gender-affirming care’, which includes chemical castration, mastectomies, hysterectomies, and genital mutilation performed on minors.
Kaiser Permanente in Oakland, California, has amputated the breasts of a 12-year-old girl and castrated a 16-year-old boy in the name of ‘gender-affirming care’. Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh promotes puberty blockers for children. The pediatric gender program director at Yale has admitted on camera she believes children as young as 2 or 3 can be eligible for medical intervention and treatment on their ‘gender journey’.”
Closer to home, KOMO News reports that the gender clinic at Seattle Children’s Hospital provides “gender-affirming medical care” to children as young as 9 years old. Gender surgeries for teenagers include double mastectomies (with or without free nipple grafting), breast augmentation, thyroid cartilage surgery and facial gender-affirming surgery.
In “partnering” with Olympic Pride, is our county hospital signaling its participation in these medical interventions on kids? Here, too, Faber Feinson PLLC demanded their client’s graphic be removed.
On a rainbow field with their “Pride Partner” logo is a stethoscope and “Thank you Jefferson Healthcare for supporting Olympic Pride.” Why would it be necessary to hide our hospital’s partnership with Olympic Pride?
Not original graphic
Deconstructing the Rainbow Pride Flag
The architects behind this movement add new colored stripes to the Pride banners and flags every time they are able to label and co-opt a new “gender identity.” The trans industry beefs up its supposed coalition with an ever-expanding alphabet soup of ways you can be other than heterosexual (now called “cis” for some inexplicable reason). LGB is now LGBTQIA+.
But this coalition is far from cohesive, with many of the acronym’s groups — especially those who built the Gay Pride movement — pushing back against the trans activists. They say the trans agenda is destroying, not strengthening, hard-won gains.
In late August police removed a group of lesbians from a parade billed as Gay Pride when they clashed with trans groups. The British Daily Mail reports that lesbian group Get The L Out UK which carried banners reading “Transactivism Erases Lesbians“ was told to leave for their own safety. One woman replied, “I want to make sure that I understand that you’re removing lesbians from an LGBT march.”
Many lesbians are rejecting the trans takeover of the Pride movement. So are gay men. In his Newsweek opinion piece The New Homophobia, Ben Appel writes:
“There is a frightening new version of homophobia pervading the U.S., disguised as, of all things, ‘LGBTQ’ activism. For adult gay people like me, it’s clear that this activism does not advance our equality, but in fact compromises our ability to live peacefully in society. In fact, it is threatening our very existence.”
Appel asserts that given time, most of the kids who get convinced they are transgender realize they are not. He notes that in 10 major studies on youth gender dysphoria, “the vast majority (as much as 85 percent) end up desisting during or after puberty — that is, they become comfortable with their biological sex and no longer wish to identify as the opposite sex.”
He worries that trans ideology is not only an attack on heterosexuals, but an attack on gays as well. “If radical activists can convince enough people that biological sex is a farce, that ‘trans women are women’ and ‘trans men are men,’ then the path to the full erasure of gender-role-nonconforming gay people will be fully paved.”
The fast-growing group Gays Against Groomers has recently launched a campaign against the trans movement’s agenda for kids. “We are a coalition of gays against the sexualization and indoctrination of children”:
Our community that once preached love and acceptance of others has been hijacked by radical activists who are now pushing extreme concepts onto society, specifically targeting children in recent years.
The overwhelming majority of gay people are against what the community has transformed into, and we do not accept the political movement pushing their agenda in our name.
Gays Against Groomers directly opposes the sexualization and indoctrination of children. This includes drag queen story hours, drag shows involving children, the transitioning and medicalization of minors, and gender theory being taught in the classroom.
The activists, backed by school boards, government, woke media, and corporations, have been speaking on our behalf for too long. When fighting for equality, our goal was to successfully integrate ourselves into society, but now these radicals aim to restructure it entirely in order to accommodate a fringe minority, as well as seek to indoctrinate children into their ideology.
“Mobs like the one in Port Townsend on Monday,” says John Davidson, “are merely the blunt instrument, the Brown Shirts of a much larger effort on the part of the left to sever the relationship between parent and child and reshape society in a way that allows adults, especially adult men, to fulfill their every desire — often at the expense of children.”
“The people and institutions behind this [trans] movement are not fringe, they are not the pink-haired youths and black-clad Antifa thugs screaming at old ladies in the streets. They occupy the elite heights of American society. They have real power and influence.
And they are not just angling to get between parents and their children, they are angling to get healthy girls and boys onto the operating table. They are angling to get grown men into women’s locker rooms, bathrooms, shelters, and dormitories. They are angling to get Child Protective Services to remove children from parents who refuse to go along with transgenderism.”
The fringe minority of people identifying as transgender in Washington state is 0.42%, less than one half of one percent, according to World Population Review. Washington Secretary of State city voter registration demographics shows Port Townsend’s registered voters are 54% female, 45% male, 1% identifying as other. (2022 stats) If those 1% “other” are trans, then perhaps PT’s trans population is double the state average.
If Beau Ohlgren, Mayor Faber and the rest of our electeds at City Hall, Wendy Bart and the YMCA, the Quimper Unitarian Fellowship and Olympic Pride simply want to make Port Townsend a kind, welcoming place for the possibly 1% of transgender dysphorics, why all the marketing to kids?
Why turn the community pool into a Pride headquarters?
Why all the branding with area businesses and institutions?
Why the aggressive, seductive outreach?
—————————————————
Page 1 of a 9/13/22 two-page “Complaint” letter from Faber Feinson PLLC
9/15/22 Update: In response to a two-page letter from Faber Feinson PLLC, images were removed from this article on September 13, 2022. The article was updated with further information and graphics on September 15.
See “Olympic Pride Doesn’t Want You To See What They’re Promoting to Children” for additional perspective on Olympic Pride’s efforts through Mayor David Faber’s law firm to hide images and messaging they’ve been using to lure kids.
Arriving in Port Townsend in 1975 in Sherpa, her Ford van, Ana Wolpin has watched a sweetly funky, diverse and tolerant community increasingly gentrify, polarize and lose its soul. After almost half a century engaged in local business, city politics, county organizations and community projects, she joined with fellow editors to revive the Free Press and bear witness to extraordinary times. For a short sketch of Ana's history in Jefferson County, see “About the Free Press."
Absolutely correct, Ana, thank you so much for your excellent, in depth and insightful reporting. Everyone should be reading the Port Townsend Free Press. Absolutely there IS a hidden agenda. This has nothing to do with compassion and help for human beings suffering with real gender dsyphoria. That group is less than 1% of the population. We could say the public “trans movement” is a highly sophisticated psychological warfare program designed to create division, hatred and to confuse and destroy children. A teen girl having her breasts cut off after being told by adults it will make her into a “boy”? Horror..horror…horror…beyond what can be expressed in words. It’s a “mass formation psychosis” like the Salem Witch hunts. The same people who brought us the mass destruction of covid, the fake “vaccine”, engineered racial hatred, have now targeted the world’s most innocent and helpless: children. With their almost unstoppable machine of media mind control, they are bulldozing over the once protected innocence of childhood and turning it into a psychotic nightmare.
What will end this nightmare? A mass uprising against the insane academics, weaponized media and corrupted institutions of government would end it. But the mind control machine has an iron grip on the psyche of half the population and the other half have been terrorized, censored and shut down.
Historically, spiritually, we KNOW… eventually evil destroys itself. It goes farther and farther against Reality and Truth, like a drunk on a long binge.
Their evil even now is creating a mighty back lash, that like a Tsunami, cannot be seen easily out on the depths of the Ocean. BUT once it reaches the shore, it will finally rise up so high, blotting out the sun, then will crash down on the criminals and madmen behind this darkness, who will be helplessly swept away, back to the depths of hell.
We can work, hope and pray that day comes soon.
For those who have not yet seen “What is A Woman?” documentary, please watch it for free here: https://www.area-documental.com/player.php?titulo=What+Is+a+Woman to get a better sense of the disconnect
Fantastic writing as always Ana.
A fair question for people like Faber, Ohlgren, Wennstrom, Bart, and Inslee: “If gender dysphoria is a source of affliction, then wouldn’t the best outcome for kids be to have complete comfort and peace with the bodies they are born in? Do you want dysphoria to be alleviated or to deepen? Why would a lifetime of synthetic hormones and dangerous medications along with life altering surgeries be a better outcome than overcoming dysphoria?”
Some folks talk about trans the way wizards were talked about in Harry Potter, or the way mutants were talked about in Xmen, as though they are an inchoate tribe of people arisen as an outgroup within the wider population, emerging at random– the rest of us are muggles or merely human.
There’s a trend now in Reddit and elsewhere to call exploratory therapy to alleviate dysphoria as “Trans genocide.” Obviously, if someone’s best course of therapy due to gender dysphoria is to transition, that’s no one’s business but theirs, but the trend is to treat all gender nonconforming people as though they are a separate species from the rest of us. Well, that’s just unhealthy isn’t it? That’s alienation and surely a reaction to seeing anyone who’s downtrodden as morally virtuous.
Children going to school don’t have a voice in what and how they are to be taught. That has been the responsibility of the local school board with input from the PTA. What we have been looking at over the last few years are decisions on what our children are to be taught now falling under the auspices of a politically pressured school board. Health and social mandates, like the trans-movement, have become political decisions not parental decisions.
What is the motivation and end goal for this assault on the minds of our children? Who is protecting the authority of the parent to guide, structure and mentor how their children are to be formed into responsible adults?
The main focus of our schooling has shifted over the years not to help a child to think for themselves but to be formed into cogs in the wheel of our permeable capitalistic society. That is now shifting to guiding our children to enter the meta world of a society where they will be watched and controlled through the internet of things. The first step in the control of our children is to erode the influence of the nuclear family structure so that government becomes an integral part of each family system. Government will then be a virtual surrogate parent.
The Trans Movement is but one more calculated intrusion into the parent/child relationship. It is forcing children to question their sexuality and their gender affiliation at the cost of losing a carefree, open minded childhood.
Good article!
All churches have their schisms, but about 35 years ago, I dropped my membership and left mine over the transagenda issue. My concerns were not respected, my wisdom as a woman was not valued, and my experience with child sexual abuse was disregarded.
I still attend church frequently, it is just that those wounds run deep and I have absolutely no desire to ever be a member of one again.
Ironically I also withdrew from feminism and separated politically from many of those who traditionally worked with sexual abuse survivors and rape victims. I actually used to work for the Domestic Violence/Sexual Assault Program of Jeffco before it became Dove House. Same issue, my concerns were not respected, my wisdom as a woman was not valued, and my experience with child sexual abuse was disregarded.
I don’t hate anyone, it is just that there is no greater, more horrific form of sexual abuse than grooming and brainwashing children into believing they are so vile and disgusting, the only cure is to surgically remove their genitals and take hormonal medication for the rest of their life.
Excellent article, Ana. You mentioned autism. As the parent of a young autistic child, the rates of autism among transgender youth and the issue of public pool access intersect in a very personal way.
Autistic individuals are grossly overrepresented among transgendered individuals. A 2020 study in the journal Nature Communications found that transgender individuals were between three and six times more likely to indicate that they were diagnosed as autistic compared to cisgender individuals. Other studies have found that around 25% of people who presented at gender clinics were autistic.
There are many factors that put autistic children at higher risk of falling victim to transgender ideology. Autistic children struggle to make & keep friends. They often don’t conform to gender stereotypes. Lacking “theory of mind”, they are extremely vulnerable to peer pressure, social manipulation and exploitation. Autistic children are the perfect “marks” for this predatory ideology. Transgenderism provides a “one size fits all” answer to the social woes of autism.
How does this intersect with the YMCA issue? Autistic children are 160 times more likely to die from drowning than neurotypical children. Drowning accounts for 91% of deaths among autistic children ages 14 and under. Thus, it’s long been known that teaching autistic children to swim is absolutely crucial.
As the parent of an autistic child in a county with only the YMCA public pool, I am forced to choose between teaching my child a critical, life saving skill or exposing them to an environment where transgenderism is propagandized and normalized. The medicalization of this ideology is a one-way-ticket to hormone blockers, cross sex hormones, permanent sterility, underdeveloped sex organs, anorgasmia, and surgical mutilation, and autistic children are especially vulnerable.
This may be the study commenter Bigmouth is referring to:
“Elevated rates of autism, other neurodevelopmental and psychiatric diagnoses, and autistic traits in transgender and gender-diverse individuals”
8-7-20
Nature Communications volume 11, Article number: 3959 (2020)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-17794-1
As ever, I am so impressed and gratified by the quality of comments and insights readers bring to the conversation in this forum. Thank you all.
This perspective, Bigmouth, is especially important. I had read many references to the relationship between autism and gender dysphoria, but did not have any idea how important the pool was for our autistic children. I just spoke yesterday to a former pool employee who worked there for years before the Y took over and I learned that more than half of the people who swam there—mostly in group classes like water aerobics—were seniors. There were often 100 seniors a day using the pool, dozens in a class, with multiple classes a day! It was not just a place for exercise, but a social network for many of our elders. Family swim times, open times, and school swim teams made up the other half of the pool’s use. I wonder what the demographics and numbers are now?
Even trusted media is on this bandwagon, attributing opposition to the far right without digging deeper into the medical excesses in children’s hospitals. On August 31, 2022 PBS Newshour’s Judy Woodruff reported:
“In recent weeks, several children’s hospitals have become targets of far right attacks and harassment over gender-affirming medical care for transgender youth.”
This website has the full dialogue:
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/childrens-hospitals-become-targets-of-anti-transgender-attacks-and-harassment
Very well done, Ana, This is prize worthy journalism if there remains a journalism prize worth having.
I’ll suggest that this whole issue makes more sense if you look one step higher than the billionaires who are funding this propaganda to the WEF’s Global Depopulation Agenda. All those castrations and hysterectomies will NEVER have children of their own and a great many of the chemically damaged won’t as well. Et viola! Depopulation.
World population milestones in billions (Worldometers estimates) from Wikipedia
Population 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Year 1804 1927 1960 1974 1987 1999 2011 2023 2037 2057
Years elapsed — 123 33 14 13 12 12 12 14 20
Enough, all ready!
Thanks again Ana & PTFP for another excellent example of real journalism. A free press is both trove & treasure.
With enough material here to grieve a thousand years — given the ongoing human condition, and further escalations of brutalizing trauma & chaos. Why is it that THE most vulnerable, especially the children — end up on the front-lines?
What happened? Why does it keep happening? In these dark times, we are impelled to suss out rightful questions, some damn good answers, and then finally attempt significant changes. To do otherwise hastens our demise, not only as a species, but as a planet. To wait for someone else to fix it — a politician perhaps? — just digs the hole deeper, doubles the distance we need to travel.
Humans have become profoundly more atomized over millennia — pushed ever-further into one grouping or another… then sub-groups, classes & sub-classifications.
And in recent years towards what can only be described as “sub-human” — alongside fast strides to the A.I. mind-meld, the ultimate trans-human. Much of the marketing for this final subspecies stage has been subtle & subconscious, although stunningly monolithic.
We all apparently began this journey as human, as individual spirits. Then institutionalism arrived with its myriad forms of division, propagandas, & control. Sovereign individuals were production-stamped into increasingly narrow & separate designations: nations, religions, ideologies, typologies, societal segmentations (even corporate branding)… often by accident of birth…. and often at war, for one BS reason after another.
The PTB were always intent on eradicating first peoples & lands, not just for what could be stolen & enslaved, but to destroy any last bastions & examples of living freedom. That is key to understanding our current predicament, “modern” & “civilized” & savvy as we think we are.
At this point most everyone now identifies by a brand or belief: take your pick of ideologies & costumes, even sports teams; a job description or income bracket; what we have, what we don’t have.
All these separating & competing human divisions & subdivisions have become one vast cul de sac. We could also call it a global version of ‘the circular firing squad’ — so ubiquitous is the scapegoating and the avoidance of responsibility.
People — we have been gamed & herded; distracted, divided & conquered to the Nth.
What’s the cure? Taking personal responsibility for the recovery & restoration of sovereign mind & spirit.
Yikes, I think this is a mental problem. 😳 If you go along with it, you are just as guilty….a friend of mine said my 5 year old thinks he’s spiderman, they are going after our young impressionable minds…Wake up before its too late!
When Tyranny collapses,, which it always does,, the people administrating it pay a very high price,, all of them,,, even the ones at the very bottom,, maybe they pay the most…
Look,,, I am not into any of this LGBTQ stuff,,, I can tolerate individual people and whatever PROBLEMS they have,, I can accept people,, crazy people are humans too…
I do not care what you do… I am into “Free Will”… “God issues each human a rope,,, you can choose to hang yourself with it,, or you can use it to pull yourself and others to salvation”…
What I do not appreciate,, what I cannot tolerate are pedophiles… These are terrible human beings who abuse and destroy children for the purpose of sexual gratification and also that or expanding their own numbers… If you did not know Pedophilia spreads via the act,, it is contagious… I do not care what you think about that because its the truth and you can shove it if you do not agree… I know it to be true, I have studied this for a long time and know the truth…
These people trying to force feed this crap are going to pay a very high price when push come to shove and there will be no law enforcement entity which can stop it… Anyone aligning themselves to this agenda or protecting it is a [moderator edit],, government especially,, teachers,, cops, city, county, state and federal government,, all [moderator edit]… At some point it will not be safe for these people to walk down the street…
We have suffered greatly due to systemic fraud and corruption,, election fraud,, COVID humanitarian abuse,, constitutional abuse,,,, this LGBTQ crap is an extension of that,, a tactic of conflict and or war… Its meant to continue destruction of the family model,, because the family,, you know a Husband [man], a Wife [woman], the kids [biological boys and girls] is what makes humanity and this country strong,,,
}
Alby,,, I enjoy the telegraphing or your knowledge in these matters and agree/align with nearly everything…
We are in a global conflict,, which has been happening for a very long time,, only in recent years has it made its way into the open…
“The Truth Is A Force Of Nature” The truth is the most powerful weapon ever known to humanity,, its stealth yet in the open,, precision guided and effective at destroying the enemy every single time its deployed,, the truth is smart as it only uses the exact amount of force necessary…
We are in a War,, a spiritual war between good and evil… We are being tested individually,, each human being is here going through this crucible, this tribulation for the same purpose… God wants to know if you will be honest,, if you will protect the children,, the innocent from harm… That is what this war is about,, its about the torture and destruction of our own line,, our own children,, its about the harvest of the child’s innocence for the purpose of self gratification and self enrichment… It is truly that simple,, this Trans movement and agenda is a manifestation of evil showing you what it desires and telling you its going to take your children from you by force… This evil is telling you that if you do not give up your children to this evil that you will be punished,, money will be taken from you,,, status will be taken from you,, property will be taken from you,,, that you will be cast out from this world and all of its immorality and greed…
To win,, to beat this evil and its agenda,, all that must be done is to expose the lies,,, make it so that there are no shadows for the liars and immoral to hide in… Make it known that you will not be silenced, and that you will never back down,, that these lairs have no control or power over you…
You are watching a fake government,, illegal occupation,, belligerent occupation fail in front of your eyes,, its in death rolls right now…
https://dod.defense.gov/Portals/1/Documents/pubs/Law-of-War-Manual-june-2015.pdf
start reading at 11.0 at least through 11.7 and you will understand what is happening…
Rich I agree with what you have stated and I’m glad that it was accepted by this forum. That said, let me add an experience I’ve had. I play the sweepstakes on the net and when it comes down to answering questions on the quizzes, one thing keeps showing up. The question of how children should be punished. You have several options, but one stands out to me. Should children be spanked as punishment. The one I always take is “Yes” because that’s how I was raised and it didn’t seem to hurt my development at all. He did tell my Mother not to slap me as it was degrading. When I was very young, we had a clawfoot bathtub and my folks would sit beside the tub to make sure I didn’t go under the water. In later years my Mother told me that my Father had told her at one time that she couldn’t be there and he would do it alone. She said he told her that I was a man now and she couldn’t see me nude anymore and to my knowledge she never did. My Father was a Marine twice and he started raising me as a Marine. He was killed when I was twelve. I answered the door to the Policeman who brought us the news. It was a hard night. I know that had he not been killed I would be expected to enlist in the Marine Corps and I would have been expected to volunteer to go to Viet Nam. I would be a teenager and feel indestructable and probably be killed. He also told me if I had to cry, that I should do it alone, where no one would see. I honored that when I had to by his casket and never cried. He would have been happy. I honor that to this day. He expected a lot from me in my younger years and would protect me from harm. But, it was a different time and I think a better time.
This is an excellent and comprehensive article. Thank you. The trans movement is basically eugenicism with a few extra collateral goals thrown in.
Dr. Berry is hooked up with these people. Look up the Facebook page on sisterland farms and there are pictures of her. This is an activist farm here in Clallam. The owner is a Transexual. Look the site over carefully and see what she/her/they stand for really. BLM for one.
What in the hell is really in those boosters that were mandated to the kids?
Thank you for a very well-researched and very disturbing article. I feel helpless and outraged at the onslaught of this evil in our town, our country, and the world at large. In the name of anti-discrimination and inclusivity (which I support), these “partners” of Olympic Pride are probably (hopefully!) unaware of the wider evil at work here. What I can do, and have spent several hours doing today, is notifying in writing every partner on the list shown in this article that I will no longer patronize their businesses and I will encourage those over whom I have influence to do the same.
I wondered the same — how many of these businesses are aware of what they are supporting? Your action to contact them is heartening. It prompted me to update the graphic in the article with a better collage of images from their website. There are some redundancies and some logos are cut off, but I think it is more current. The full list can be seen at their Pride Partners tab.
https://olympicpride.org/pride-partners
Update on 9/16: As explained in the article above, the graphic showing Olympic Pride business and organization “partners” was removed because they now don’t want you to see who is supporting their agenda. Perhaps some of the backlash from readers here sparked that. Jim Scarantino has listed them all at the end of his follow-up article.
I suspect that most are supporting the right of gays, lesbians transgender etc. to be free from harassment and free from discrimination in service, employment, housing, etc. That is a good thing. The matter being discussed here is whether we should be required to treat transwomen as if they were the same as women and transmen as if they are the same as men, in language and spaces that are historically related to/ used by biologically single sex.
Joan, of course they perceive their support of Pride as anti-discrimination, showing compassion, human rights. But the matter being discussed here is not, as you suggest, how trans people are treated and the problem of conflating perceived gender with sex. That’s important, but the main concern here is the agenda to lure and indoctrinate children in trans ideology and convince them that their emotional problems can be solved by declaring a new gender, which can then be “affirmed” by undergoing often-horrendous mutilation.
One has to wonder about the teenage boy at the pool that precipitated this whole flap. Was it the influence of Ohlgren and Olympic Pride that convinced Clementine Adams just months after announcing he was a woman to raise money for castration on a GoFundMe page?… it’s a goal that Faber and at least two other council members have contributed to.
Supporters claim that trans persons are “born this way”. Therefore, there is no luring or recruiting into the trans lifestyle – only revealing tendencies that already exist. This claim was legally verified when trans persons became a protected group under civil rights law. As long as this legal protection is in place, the atrocities against children will continue and taxpayers will be required to fund hormone treatments and genital mutilation.
MJ Heins, taxpayers also fund this indoctrination of children in public schools. 56% of our property tax dollars go to funding public schools in Jefferson County. Public schools teach gender ideology starting in Kindergarten per WA state standards for Social Emotional Learning and Comprehensive Sex Education (mandated to be taught K-12 starting with the 2022/23 school year). Teachers are also prohibited from informing parents if their child changes their pronouns or gender while at school, applicable from Kindergarten through grade 12.
The Washington state laws that permit the major body modifications described in Ana’s article were passed in 2021 named, collectively, “The Gender Affirming Treatment Act.” Senate 2SSBill 5313, was championed and passed by the Democrats. Republican state senator Fortunato tried to modify the bill by moving to insert: “Gender affirming treatment shall not be provided to any individual under 18 years old,” but it was not adopted. The bill was heard under the Senate Committee on Health and Long Term Care, while recognizing that the Insurance Commissioner and the Human Rights Commission shared concurrent jurisdiction to address violations of the act. I imagine assigning it to insurance instead of human rights made it less noticeable.
The history of this law is found at https://app.leg.wa.gov/billsummary?BillNumber=5313&Year=2021&Initiative=False . It is codified as RCW 48.43.0128, RCW 49.60.178, and RCW 74.09.675. WAC 182-501-0050, WAC 182-531-0100, and WAC 182-531-1675. The law was amended in the 2022 session as described in RCW 41.05.017 concerning minor, non-substantive matters.
Most of the major body modifications are done to children and young adults, most of whom are likely covered by the state Apple [Medicaid] insurance. The details of this coverage is found here: https://apps.leg.wa.gov/wac/default.aspx?cite=182-531-1675
It really matters who you vote for. As can be seen above it was the Democrats that passed the genital mutilation bill and refused a commonsense amendment from the Republicans. Keep this in mind on November 8.
“A very different ideology took over the Pride messaging — denying the validity of biology entirely and centering on the social construct of perceived gender.”
This very important statement summarizes the problem with any laws, edicts or ideologies that conflate biological sex with gender expression. According to 2006 Washington State amendments* to the law against discrimination (RCW 49.60.010) – “Sex” means gender. Although this statement also appeared in a 1995 version of revisions to the legislation, the 2006 version appears to be the beginning of replacing biological sex with gender identity.
Sex and gender were not widely considered equivalent in Washington State in 2006. “Sex” means gender was at best a debatable statement at that time. Between 2008 and 2010, I was working on a health related database project for the State of Washington. A no-nonsense public health scientist clearly explained that sex and gender were considered separate and different entities – especially when dealing with medical and health data.
This 2016 document from the Washington State Human Rights Commission about gender segregated facilities clearly prioritizes male gender claims over biological women’s privacy and safety.
hum.wa.gov/sites/default/files/public/rule-making/Questions%20and%20Answers%20Regarding%20WAC%20162.pdf
Writing laws, redefining words, voting, and gathering mobs in the street cannot easily change centuries of biological and social systems that evolved to support human reproduction and protect the young from predators. The rulers can use force to compel their subjects to pretend that female impersonators are the same as biological women. They can use their police, army, lawyers, and young thug “rainbow guards” to destroy anyone who disagrees with them. Eventually, these tyrants will fail and take their place in history alongside the witch hunters.
https://lawfilesext.leg.wa.gov/biennium/2005-06/Pdf/Bills/Session%20Laws/House/2661-S.SL.pdf?cite=2006%20c%204%20%C2%A7%205
Ana, this is an excellent article. Kudos to you. I was not aware of the very strong connection to the UUC.
Businesses that support Olympic Pride are probably doing so because it is “in-group signaling,” which is attractive to the majority of their patronage. Few actually look deeper before jumping on the bandwagon. Same with the BLM signs. And the ubiquitous “science is real” signs. (They should carry a footnote *until it disagrees with my ideology…). I think that letting business people know WHAT they are supporting is the first step. Encouraging them to think. Consistently and persistently saying, “I disagree, and here’s why.” It gives people options. Confrontation often leads people to become further entrenched in their positions because they get defensive.
My next step is to write to all of my state reps to get some very needed changes to the WAC https://app.leg.wa.gov/wac/default.aspx?cite=162-32-060
For more encouraging news that there are others out there who are not brainwashed:
debbiehayton.com
realityslaststand.com
lgballiance.org.uk
Port Townsend did not get to this point in a vacuum. The majority of the voters supported the movement that got them to this point. The real question is “Will they make substantive changes going forward?” I guess we will find out in the City Council races in 2023.
The majority of voters? You know as well as I that we do not have fair or legal elections in this county… 2700 more registered voters than possible,, your parties audits even know the houses these extra illegal votes came from… 900 thousand illegal votes in Washington State… If you do not have fair elections you are a captured state/country,, the entire government and process is bogus and illegal… You can not fix this via elections,, impossible… The entire system is compromised…
Editors Note: We’re ending the election debate here.
Editors, I fully understand your decision. I also think it would be helpful to just share this link so people can do their due diligence in finding out what the commenters meant;
https://www.porttownsendfreepress.com/2020/11/16/confirmed-jefferson-county-has-more-registered-than-eligible-voters/
Thank you!
Very clear summation of what is going on. Sadly, I think realpolitik wise nothing will change on this specific incident unless a groundswell, or enough people to make a dent cancel their Y memberships. But even then, I could see the Y being kept open even if not financially relevant as a PR point for the crusade. Having the Y close, or lose management of the pool, though, would send a very clear message that biological women’s preferences are not to be trifled with. (I would say “rights” but WA law seems to lean towards, the little I have read of it, the new ideology.)
But the more I see the back and forth on this and the rising tide the more I’m convinced this is new religious movement (NRM) that even many of its biggest proponents aren’t aware they are taking part in. It has it’s own equivalents of the virgin birth, being saved, baptism, transmutation of flesh, faith overcoming the physical plane, etc. that it’s proponents quote the “science” on it while leaning on big pharmas hormones and big medicals surgical care while showing no doubt only confirms it is a faith based movement desperately seeking to make it’s words, flesh.
I don’t think you can really rationalize with people who think by putting on a dress they are now a woman or genital mutilation for children is the way to greater acceptance and harmony. Thinking your “real identity” (soul?) is accidentally in the wrong vessel and just by claiming that, can transform your body into the other sex…well that really is a supernatural belief that you aren’t going to talk anybody out of. That it is grown men pushing around elderly women and claiming they are the real oppressed real women…well if we make a religion out of victimhood, we will get a religion of victimhood, and individuals will innovate to maximize their standing. That mostly men have captured the flag (literally) for marginalized voices shows that there needs to be more women who are willing to be JK Rowlings on this issue. But that is a very lonely and hard row to hoe, even if you are a bestselling author.
Just as a point of clarity, as I have revisited this issue and learned more about what has gone on within the movement since last I was paying attention, they actually aren’t going down this particular road mentioned above anymore because they have realized that they cannot argue from a position of changing sex. They have realized that science does not support that argument in any way shape or form and that you simply cannot change a persons sex. Every single cell of our bodies reflects that we are male or female when it gets down to science. So instead they have renamed their movement to reflect the new transubstantiation to trans gender instead of trans sex. So, they aren’t even trying to say they have changed to another sex; they have admitted in their own maleficent way that they were egregiously wrong and that there is no way to scientifically argue for transsexualism.
That is why they quietly, viciously changed laws to reflect gender and not sex as the social division between humans. At the same time they argue that gender is simply a social construct which is fluid, malleable, and ever-changing. They are leading us into total absurdity and absolute destruction.
At one point in my own life as a member of the gay community I went through a time of questioning if my homosexuality was actually an indicator that I was a “transsexual”. I spent several years doing a whole lot of reading and searching my own mind and realized that the notion of transgender is a coward’s way of dealing with what is wrong with the social constructs in the first place as they are assigned to sex. Rather than working hard to redefine and expand gender definitions for the sexes, the coward’s way is instead to build a house of cards around gender and force everyone else to live in it, knowing all the while that the thing is unstable, unsafe and unfit for human habitation.
The point at which I became an activist against this movement is when they started marketing and advertising all of this to children and when they got that huge medical industry wheel rolling which will now chew up and spit out generations of human beings. It must. be. stopped.
These issues are being played out at the federal level. At the end of the Obama presidency [May 2016] the Departments of Justice and Education put out a joint statement addressing transgender student rights, an 8 page discussion which came down on the side of transgenders can participate in all matters based on their gender identity:
https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/letters/colleague-201605-title-ix-transgender.pdf
The next year [February 2017] the Trump administration withdrew this directive.
https://www.justice.gov/opa/press-release/file/941551/download
In June 2021 the Biden administration issued a statement that reinstates transgender participation based on gender identity:
https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/ocr-factsheet-tix-202106.pdf
In July 2022 a federal judge in Tennessee blocked the implementation of the guidance posted in June 2021. Part of the basis for argument is a case [Bostock] that decided that transgender persons are protected under the anti sex discrimination laws. That case was related to discrimination in employment and did not mention bathrooms or sports. Bostock was decided by the Supreme Court that included Ginsberg. I suspect the current Supreme Court will be much more conservative. I do think that it will get to the Supreme Court. The US Department of Education is taking comments on its proposed rule through September. Commenting on this rule NOW is the best way to narrow the transgender anti-discrimination law to include employment, harassment, housing, +++ everything except matters that conflict with the rights of biological women and men. I.e. bathrooms, lockers, sports participation and whenever bio men and women are separated based on their sex.
https://www.politico.com/news/2022/07/16/education-departments-title-ix-guidance-transgender-students-00046209
SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES
BOSTOCK v. CLAYTON COUNTY, GEORGIA
CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR
THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT
No. 17–1618. Argued October 8, 2019—Decided June 15, 2020*
https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/19pdf/17-1618_hfci.pdf
Link to submit public comment:
https://www.regulations.gov/document/ED-2021-OCR-0166-0001
Public comment open until September 12, 2022. That’s only 6 days left!
Thank you for bringing this to our awareness!
Thank you so much for this link!!!!!
https://www.regulations.gov/document/ED-2021-OCR-0166-0001
It is repugnant that Port Townsend citizen Julie Jaman is being denied access to a pool she has used for 35 years because she is not willing to set aside her belief that gender is biological and instead embrace a new idea that gender can be changed at will.
Her conviction, for which City of Port Townsend and the YMCA is discriminating against her, is the culmination of her age and being a natural woman.
The City of Port Townsend has an initiative to engage all citizens and the YMCA talks about being diverse and inclusive, yet neither have sincerely addressed Ms. Jaman’s concerns.
One solution would be to enforce strict rules that everyone must be clothed in swimsuits or street clothes when in areas where they may encounter others, reducing the chance of adults and children being exposed to the sexual genitalia of the opposite sex. Further, replace all shared dressing and bathrooms with individual ones.
These changes would begin to reconcile the diverse values of all Port Townsend citizens instead of virtue signalling for a few.
Why should I as a woman, as a biological female, be forced to be in any locker room, restroom, showering area, etc., around a biological male regardless of what he is wearing? Why is making me do that, some sort of “unity” that’s acceptable to you?
They call themselves “progress”-ives, but literally
year after year it’s the same old virtue-signalling
nanny-state BS.
The tide is turning. I keep hearing lifetime Dems
saying they’re voting for Kelbon, and will not vote for any of the current council or commissioners ever again. Now THAT is truly progress!
Time To Remember PT In September…
A Year Ago:
https://www.porttownsendfreepress.com/2021/09/30/the-august-20th-vax-mandate-protest-just-exactly-why-should-i-off/
Two Years Ago:
https://www.porttownsendfreepress.com/2020/09/17/port-townsends-hatred-and-intolerance-problem/
2018:
https://www.porttownsendfreepress.com/2018/09/19/greg-brothertons-sea-change-cannabis-our-complaint-to-the-liquor-and-cannabis-board/
Excerpts from Christopher Rufo’s new E-book,
A Parent’s Guide to Radical Gender Theory —
Winning the Language War
Radical gender theory uses a series of sophisticated linguistic tools to manipulate the discourse and influence children in public schools. To successfully fight against it, we must adopt language that is trenchant, persuasive, and resonates with the public.
Here are some powerful words and phrases to include in your communications:
“Radical gender theory”
“Gender ideology”
“Sexual ideology”
“Academic queer theory”
“Synthetic sexual identities”
“Sexual engineering”
“Left-wing sexual politics”
“Sexualizing children”
“Destroying childhood innocence”
“They want to inject radical gender theory into K-12 schools and keep it a secret from parents”
“Children aren’t ‘pansexual,’ ‘genderqueer,’ or ‘two-spirit’—and schools should never be pushing sexual identities onto innocent kids”
“Radical gender theory wants to eliminate the words ‘man,’ ‘woman,’ ‘mom,’ and ‘dad’”
“Radical gender theory wants to replace parents with a state-backed sexual ideology”
“Schools should not be in the business of promoting puberty blockers, double-mastectomies, and irreversible medical experiments on children”
“Teachers should not be sharing their sexuality with children”
“Drag Queen Story Hour is another way of saying ‘adult male transvestites who want to share their sexuality with kids’”
How to Get Organized
Parents are mobilizing against radical gender theory in school districts across the country. Here is how to get started:
Show up in your community. Attend your local school board meetings. Ask questions, provide comments, and connect with people. Invite your friends, family, and neighbors to join you at the meetings. Use this as an opportunity to connect with parents who share your values.
Get to know your school board. Connect with school board members personally. It is much easier to persuade someone with whom you have a relationship. Find out how long they’ve served on the school board. Ask why they ran in the first place? You can tailor your arguments to their needs, motivations, and concerns.
Identify a specific goal. Channel the energy from fellow parents toward a specific goal. What exactly do you want? Think of this as your mission statement. It should be short, specific, and easy to understand. For example, you might want to force the resignation of an uncooperative superintendent, persuade the school board to ban radical gender theory, or lobby for a curriculum transparency resolution.
Build a leadership team. It takes a team of dedicated parents to achieve your goals. Identify your most committed allies, and assign them roles. If your teammates have personal or professional experience in organizing, project management, or team-building, they will be great assets to your cause.
Join the grassroots network of parent groups. Parents Defending Education, Moms for Liberty, Center for Renewing America, No Left Turn in Education, and Save Our Schools are national organizations that provide resources and coordination for local parent groups. Contact them to see if there are chapters in your area; if not, start one. There is strength in numbers, and these organizations can help guide your local group.
Gather evidence, and build your case. First, talk to your kids about what they’re learning in school. Second, submit a public records request to get curricular, budget, and training materials from your local school or district.
….continued here
The following website tells about a WA organization that is focusing a lot on men claiming to be trans women who get into prison and then do great harm to women. They are advocating for single sex prisons. They have done a lot of investigating and advocating. https://sovereignwomenspeak.com/
This excellent post by Judith Caruso on one of the other stories, really needs to be seen by everyone who is fighting this monstrous ideology:
[begin copied material]
Washington State Legislature passed a law that prohibits discrimination based on an individual’s sexual orientation or gender identity. The Human Rights Commission (HRC) administers and enforces laws against discrimination (WLAD). HRC enforced this law with equal access for transgender persons to gender-segregated facilities to which they identified.
2012: To explain its interpretation and enforcement of this law, HRC initiated a rule making process. The five unelected HRC members are selected by the governor with advice and consent of the senate. Elected in 2012, Jay Inslee is still Washington’s governor.
5/2015: HRC proposed rules related to sexual orientation and gender identity with a public hearing and comment period the following month.
4/2015: YMCA of Pierce and Kitsap counties (PKY) implemented a policy of permitting transgender individuals to choose a locker room based on personal comfort. No questions asked, no announcement to employees or members.
10/5/15: Over 1,000 complaints later, PKY made a “narrow revision” of this policy in family facilities in consideration of children. https://tinyurl.com/yeyknc8d
12/15/15: PKY reversed its “narrow revision,” allowing unlimited facilities access to transgender individuals in conjunction with facilities renovation. https://tinyurl.com/2zdt4uh5
12/26/15: HRC adopted the final version of rules covering a variety of issues concerning sexual orientation and gender non-discrimination. https://tinyurl.com/2p8r32wx
12/31/15: Rules summaries included a “Washington Times” article entitled: “Transgenders in Washington State to use restrooms based on identity, not anatomy: rule.” https://tinyurl.com/2p9ctw4a
1/8/16: Governor Inslee’s response to public concerns regarding a statewide open bathroom/locker room mandate referred to the 2006 law that made sexual orientation including gender identity protected WLAD classes. https://tinyurl.com/52xvvu2v
1/15/16: HRC released a paper explaining access to gender-segregated facilities. https://tinyurl.com/89b737tn
Quotation: “Only females can go into women’s bathrooms or locker rooms in a gender segregated situation. This includes transgender females who identify as female.”
Quotation: “The definition in the law does not limit protections to persons who have certain anatomical characteristics, who have had gender reassignment surgery, or who have undergone any other medical treatment.” Definition 26, https://tinyurl.com/35zwptze
Quotation: “If you are uncomfortable because of privacy concerns…you will have to make your own decision about what to do…while allowing the business to comply with the law.”
1/20-2/10/16: Senate efforts to repeal or modify the HRC rules. https://tinyurl.com/424zbvhk
2/10/16: SB 6443, which would have repealed WAC 162-32-060, failed by one vote. https://tinyurl.com/4px2mwd8
2/10/16: Senator Jim Hargrove, who represented our 24th district, voted in favor of repealing the “open bathroom” rule. He was succeeded in 2017 by Senator Kevin Van De Wege whose term ends in January 2025. https://tinyurl.com/hz6fhjzd
2/5/16: The House Judiciary Committee declined to give a hearing to HR 2589 which focused on restricting access of persons whose anatomy did not match the gender for which a facility was segregated. https://tinyurl.com/yeyk8pk5
Three of the five commissioners during this time were known for or openly supportive of LGBT protected class status. https://tinyurl.com/pdjddj7k
Ask Senator Van De Wege to reintroduce SB 6443. Ask candidates Sue Forde/Mike Chapman (position 1), Steve Tharinger/Brian Pruiett (position 2) about rationales, fairness and equality for anatomical females.
[end copy]
As per Rufo’s advice for activists:
The league of women voters is holding a question and answer session with Marcia Kelbon and Greg Brotherton. Citizens are allowed and encouraged to submit questions for the candidates to answer.
One question I would really encourage everyone to ask Greg Brotherton is where that $800,000 went that’s still missing from the county coffers. And then I would ask the league of women voters if when they say “women”, do they mean “feminine ‘gender’ performances by men”, or do they mean actual biological adult human females?
Annnnnd GO!!!
Thank you, Ana, for being brave and addressing this issue. While initially the issue was first communicated here because an anatomical male was in the female dressing area of our local YMCA, you have shone a light on a more in-depth picture of what we are facing.
I have many questions and concerns regarding this issue. However, based on the bullying and assault at the August 15th event that I experienced, I’m not supposed to. I’m just supposed to follow group thought……. just because. Jonestown in Guyana comes to mind.
The arrogant ignorance by so many is disturbing. Since when has it EVER been appropriate and/or justified, to force others to unquestionably accept something that has the potential to cause such harm to one group while benefiting another group?
I’m not asserting that a trans person is any more likely to cause harm than anyone else. I’m saying that one of my many concerns is the opening of Pandora’s Box that is unleashed by creating an atmosphere that invites nefarious individuals into female’s safe spaces.
It is incumbent upon the trans community to figure this out, WITHOUT comprising female’s safe spaces. It should not be forced down our throats.
The following article communicates succinctly how I and many others feel about women’s safety. “Women should be able to exist without fearing for our lives” “what scares me most is how unsafe women are while simply just existing—or at least trying to”. No trans person would truly understand the multi-generational abuse women have had to endure, particularly women of color.
https://www.mother.ly/news/eliza-fletcher-essay/
Another one of my concerns are the health ramifications of all these surgeries and other medical interventions.
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fendo.2021.718200/full
The health consideration is a huge one. These people argue that gender is a social construct yet they are trying to force that social construct over a biological fact. Nature will not be gaslit.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2211124720307762
The comparison to a fanatical religious movement is spot on, A Tourist. John McWhorter, in his book Woke Racism (highly recommend), similarly compares the anti-racism “movement” to a religion. Methodically. In his book, McWhorter explains why the anti-racist movement is actually harmful to Blacks in this country. Religious ideology is not debatable–neither is gender ideology. If you don’t believe, you are a heretic. To question is to blaspheme. For this reason, it becomes very difficult to argue on the basis of statistics or biology.
Lee, I would agree that there is a disturbing degree of dogma woven into the current political discourse that makes it almost impossible to have a genuine conversation unless you agree on every detail and definition. As a natural born heretic, I seem to find myself on the wrong side of all of the cults.
By the way, Mr. McWhorter is also brilliant on linguistics, his main subject of expertise.
Re: ‘genuine conversations’ – two excellent resources for understanding the struggles of those caught up in this agenda:
The Detransition subreddit
https://www.reddit.com/r/detrans/
Parents with Inconvenient Truths about Trans
https://pitt.substack.com/
As explained in the article above, the graphic showing Olympic Pride business and organization “partners” was removed because they now don’t want you to see who is supporting their agenda. Perhaps some of the backlash from readers here sparked that. Jim Scarantino has listed all the “Pride Partners” at the end of his follow-up article: Olympic Pride Doesn’t Want You To See What They’re Promoting to Children.
Quimper Unitarian Universalist Fellowship (QUUF) in Port Townsend offers sexuality education for 1st grade, 5th and 6th grade, and 8th and 9th grade. Classes are held on an annual or biennial basis.
Since 1999, these classes have been based on Our Whole Lives (OWL), a secular comprehensive sexuality education curricula for people of all ages: a collaboration of the Unitarian Universalist Association and the United Church of Christ.
Beau Ohlgren, Director of Family Ministry, is the contact for those interested in volunteering to teach sexuality education and regarding class participation by children who are not active in QUUF’s religious education classes. https://www.quuf.org/introduction-children-youth/owl/
OWL for K-1 — 5 and 6 year olds — is currently in revision with the second edition due out by early 2023. First edition updates are considered needed because “Much has changed since its publication regarding language around gender, orientation, sexual science, and culture.”
Until the second edition is released, a guide is being recommended to incorporate changes to the early edition of the curriculum. https://tinyurl.com/mrbty5t8
In this guide, two of the “universal changes throughout the curriculum” are:
“Gender identity: change binary words like “girls,” “boys,” “he and she,” “mother and father” etc to more gender-neutral terms such as “children,” “they,” and “parents.”
“Anatomy: Change “girls’ bodies” and “boys’ bodies” to “bodies” and “your bodies.” Make language gender neutral when possible and refer to people who have a vulva or penis instead of “boys” and “girls.””
Also, “Remember that conception in human reproduction is a separate process from creating a family. Conception still requires an egg, a sperm, and a uterus. Families come together in many ways.”
For the 5th and 6th grade, a ten-session OWL program has been developed for grades 4 to 6, ages 9 through 12. Key topics introduced “include values, body image, gender and sexual identity,” — updated and deeper exploration of gender identity and roles — “peer pressure, and healthy relationships with sensitivity and inclusiveness, yet without specifically religious doctrine or reference. The underlying values of the program reflect the justice-oriented traditions of its publishers, the Unitarian Universalist Association and the United Church of Christ, while remaining suitable for use in secular contexts.” https://tinyurl.com/3sb3amx5
For the 8th and 9th grade, a seven-unit OWL young teen program for grades 7 to 9 is described as “Unlike many other sexuality curricula currently available, this program is comprehensive and progressive. In an inclusive and developmentally appropriate manner, it addresses sensitive topics that are typically excluded.” Worthy of thorough review, its 25 workshop topics are presented in the table of contents tab for the curriculum: https://tinyurl.com/nwteyd3t
Definitions and suggestions for Unitarian Universalist congregations are outlined at “Transgender 101: Identity, Inclusion, and Resources.” https://tinyurl.com/phut2wz6
Quotation from Transgender 101: “Our culture tends to limit its understanding of gender to only two options: man and woman. Unitarian Universalism recognizes that there are more than two genders, and an infinite variety of gendered experience in the world.”
Blogger el gato malo explains clearly why Olympic Pride needs to hide its own behavior…
“if having your own words and images shared seems like an attack upon you, precisely what are we to conclude about the nature of your activity?
the desperation of a tribe to prevent its own core messages and practices from becoming known and attacking and seeking to cancel those who simply bring them to prominence smacks of manipulation and mendacity because so much of what they are selling is rancid.”
https://boriquagato.substack.com/p/blurring-the-lines-of-the-woke-joke