75 Comments

Well, that will upset a lot of trans-advocates I guess. Good. Sense at last.

Just 49 more states to go....

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They'll fall like dominoes once the law suits start landing.

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may it be so! Soon.

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Florida has more than its share of lawyers, too

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Yes, at last, it is good news 🙂 As for the other states, it has to start somewhere and I hope gain the kind of momentum that will bring an end to dangerous experiments on children and adolescents.

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If it translates to votes in forthcoming elections then we really will see the dominoes fall.

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Florida has the third largest population of school-age children in the 50 states as well as one of the largest economies. This decision would have less impact if it was happening somewhere thinly-populated like Alaska or Wyoming. A good point of reference is Texas -- one in ten American school kids lives there, which means the state pretty much decides what textbooks will be used in schools across the country.

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Interesting, thanks for that info!

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Y'all need an American around here to interpret these results sometimes LOL

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We do, and you are most welcome!

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Yes, as moley said, thank you for the info. It's good to have your knowledge and perspective.

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Removing the sex organs of minors runs "an unacceptably high risk of doing harm". Well, duh. This is actually something that someone had to write AGAINST the grain of current medical practice in current day clown world. My love to the Sheroes like Abigail Shrier who have been saying 'duh' loudly and emphatically long before the State of Florida.

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yes... Abigail is incredible... a champion for girls and women's rights and safety.

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This will give cover to a lot of other US states that have been looking for a way out of this mess. Florida is leading the way!

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“Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.”

Winston Churchill, The Lord Mayor’s Luncheon, Mansion House, November 10, 1942

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sadly so.... however one cannot push the river as much as we may want to. It will take as long as it takes. Doesn't make me want to let up though. Still a long way to go.

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I'll say it's meaningful when I see this happening here in California. Florida and its politics have been considered a national joke and disgrace for years, and I tend to agree with that assessment, even if I agree with this announcement.

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Yes. Red America is certainly peaking. Not blue America by a long shot.

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It's pretty sad; the very BEST response I've seen among my (almost entirely lefty) friends has been a neutral "Why is this such a big deal to you?" One or two people I know on Facebook are sliding slowly into the GC world, but among my core friends, I'm the only one I know of. :-(

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It’s extraordinary that in such a short space of time so many people became convinced that children should be able to damage their bodies for life.

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It's an example of what Jung called a 'psychic epidemic'.

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or in simplistic terms - there are more gullible bleating idiots out there than anyone would ever have hazarded a guess.

Idiots and apathetics, dictators have relied on them as their base forever.

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Unfortunately intelligence isn't a barrier against being suggestible, influenceable in the direction of belief in a socially contagious mass delusion. Intelligent people can unfortunately imagine themselves to be above falling for delusional beliefs. It's part of why things have got to where they have with belief in gender identity.

There are as many potentially suggestible people out there as there are humans, it seems to me. A lucky few have better critical thinking skills than others, yes, but none of us are immune to the power of suggestion.

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I have lefty friends I hardly see now. The nonsense they have come to accept staggers me.

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The few I've discussed this issue with and whom I know hold different views - well, we just don't discuss it anymore, as it will just cause an argument. :-/

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It is staggering Ellen, and I have lost more than friends over this.

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I don’t think Graham or people in the UK understand our politics at all. There will be a firehouse of misinformation from the right that will make it harder and harder for people like you and me in our blue states to reach our lefty friends. My conservative neighbors are pretty peaked. My liberal neighbors have no idea. The war in The USA is just ramping up. Not to be a downer, but I don’t see things getting better in our media anytime soon.

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The WAPo and NYT have both published articles recently that suggest they are listening to the GC side. The tide may be turning...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/04/11/i-was-too-young-to-decide-about-transgender-surgery-at-nineteen/

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/13/opinion/transgender-culture-war.html

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I hope so! There are definitely cracks in the main stream media such as the articles you mention. There was an important article in the LA Times recently too.

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Yeah, I agree; the politics of the US is very segmented, based on states, regions, cities, educational background, etc. I would think Graham would understand this, though maybe it's not as clear to him and some others in other countries, since they are focused on thier own countries' battles. I think they get it in theory, but maybe not with the same depth that we - as Americans - have to understand it.

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Totally. It’s hard to understand unless you actually live here! And there is enough of a battle in every country with their own dynamics.

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Is Florida a red state or blue? Just interested because some commentators say Biden is due to lose big time in the mid term elections. Any thoughts?

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Florida is a "battleground state," one of the most important states to determine who wins the presidency. Battleground states swing back and forth. Florida went for Donald Trump, the Republican, in 2020. It's more red than blue. It has a Republican governor who may have presidential aspirations. He has implemented some disastrous health policies in this state in the past around Covid. As Timby says, Florida politics are seen by many as a disgrace and a joke, so that is why we have a more measured "yay!" than some, although we completely agree with this new health directive! Yep, most pundits predict that the Democrats are likely to "lose big time" in the mid-term elections coming up in the fall, meaning that the House of Representatives and the Senate (Congress) would be in Republican control, which will completely hamstring any of President Biden's agenda. For some of us on this thread who have been more on the political left, that is a mixed deal because we don't agree with much of the Republican agenda and their frightening authoritarian tactics, including a big lie that Joe Biden did not win in 2020. In terms of our fight against gender ideology though, the Republicans winning will entirely kill a bill called the Equality Act (same name, totally different than the UK Equality Act!) that would in effect replace sex with gender identity in our laws. The US President also has enormous powers of his own though, so Congress cannot change an executive order he made on Day One of his presidency that in essence requires all federal agencies to replace sex with gender identity in their policies. It's not quite that simple, but that is the effect.

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Thanks for this Elizabeth. Very informative. It's a problem isn't it though? I am on the left and in favour of Scottish Independence, however completely opposed to GRA self ID. All the major parties except the Tory Party are pro Self ID.

The SNP and Scottish Green Party are forcing the agenda in Scotland and get votes on the Independence question, despite not actually pursuing that agenda.

I can't actually vote for any of them except the new Alba party.

I have had to be very pragmatic and accept 'allies' where I can find them. Single issue politics for me until the women's rights (that I grew up with) have been secured.

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FAN-FECKING-TASTIC.

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That is clear and to the point. Excellent.

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The cold douche of sanity returns.

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😆👍

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Thank you for posting!

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Behold the beginning (she writes with a slight sense of trepidation)

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I was hijacked in class by 3 highly intelligent female students who wanted to discuss trans rights knowing full well my stance. Their capture was very disturbing to see. My A* students declaring emphatically that a woman can have a penis and Lia Thomas is not doing harm to womens sports. When they said lesbians are bigots for not dating fully intact transwomen I could have cried. We are so far from undoing the damage of the ideological capture of the internet generation.

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Hurrah!!!!!!!!!

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Amazing!

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Wow! That is fabulous news!

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This is incredibly heartening to see. I hope I live to see the day that similar guidance is sent out in Melbourne, Australia where our woke sick government and health department collected gender identity not sex information for our COVID vaccines.

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Good. A big step forward Hopefully this will set the ball rolling in all the other states ...

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