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Hormone therapy improves mental health for transgender youths, a new study finds

Transgender youths reported more life satisfaction and fewer symptoms of depression and anxiety after receiving gender-affirming hormone therapy for two years, according to a new study. 

The research, published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine, evaluated 315 transgender youths between 12 to 20 years old, with an average age of 16, over the course of two years while they were being treated with gender-affirming hormone therapy.

The researchers are a group of physicians and professors associated with universities and children’s hospitals in Chicago, Boston and Los Angeles. The study was supported by a grant from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. 

The researchers used scales that measured depression and anxiety, positive emotions and sense of life satisfaction, and appearance congruence — meaning how much a trans person feels their external appearance aligns with their gender identity. Participants rated each of these factors numerically. 

Researchers found that, on average, participants reported increases in positive emotions, life satisfaction and appearance congruence. Those increases were associated with decreases in depression and anxiety symptoms. 

The findings, researchers wrote, support the use of hormone therapy as an effective treatment for trans and nonbinary youths. 

The researchers said their findings also suggest appearance congruence is important for trans and nonbinary youths’ well-being. The mental and physical health differences between youth who had undergone substantial “gender-incongruent” puberty — which is the puberty associated with their assigned sex at birth — and those who had not also supported the importance of appearance congruence for well-being. 

Only a small subgroup (24 participants) in the study did not undergo extensive gender-incongruent puberty, either because they began puberty blockers at an early stage of puberty, or started gender-affirming hormones when their puberty began later. 

“Those who had not gone through substantial gender-incongruent puberty had higher scores for appearance congruence, positive affect, and life satisfaction and lower scores for depression and anxiety at baseline than youth who had undergone substantial endogenous puberty,” meaning the puberty associated with their assigned sex, the researchers wrote. 

They also noted that depression and anxiety symptoms decreased significantly and life satisfaction increased significantly among trans and nonbinary youth designated female at birth but not for those designated male at birth. This difference, they wrote, could be attributed to a few factors: First, some physical changes associated with estrogen, such as breast growth, can take between two to five years to reach their “maximum effect.”  

As a result, the researchers speculated that a longer follow-up period may be necessary for trans feminine youth to see an effect on mental health. 

Second, they wrote that physical changes that result from going through testosterone-driven puberty, such as a deeper voice, might be “more pronounced and observable” than those associated with an estrogen-driven puberty. 

Third, the researchers wrote that it’s possible the differences in anxiety and life satisfaction could be related to less social acceptance of transfeminine people, compared with transmasculine people. 

Research published in the Journal of Adolescent Health in 2021 suggested that transfeminine youth may experience more minority stress, which is stress faced by stigmatized minority groups like LGBTQ people, than transmasculine youth.

The authors of the new study wrote that understanding the effect of gender-affirming hormones on the mental health and well-being of transgender and nonbinary youth “would appear crucial, given the documented mental health disparities observed in this population, particularly in the context of increasing politicization of gender-affirming medical care.”

Over the last two years, state legislatures have considered dozens of bills that seek to restrict access to gender-affirming medical care, such as puberty blockers, hormone therapy and surgery for transgender minors. 

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Governors in four states — Arkansas, Alabama, Tennessee and Arizona — have signed restrictions on such care into law, but measures in Arkansas and Alabama have been blocked from taking effect by federal judges pending litigation. 

So far this year, lawmakers have introduced such legislation in at least 16 states. 

Supporters of this legislation argue that the care is experimental and that minors are too young to make decisions about medical care that could have irreversible impacts.

However, medical associations such as the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics, among others, oppose efforts to restrict gender-affirming care for minors. 

These groups point to the growing body of research that has found the care to have significant positive mental and physical health effects for transgender youth, who have disproportionately high rates of suicide. 

A national survey released last year by the Trevor Project, a national youth suicide prevention and crisis intervention organization, found that more than half of transgender and nonbinary youth (53%) seriously considered suicide in the past year. Nearly 1 in 5 (19%) reported that they had attempted suicide in the past year. 

In addition to the New England Journal of Medicine study, about half a dozen others have shown that access to puberty blockers and hormone therapy can improve mental health outcomes, including reducing suicidal ideation, among transgender youths. 

Three studies — two published in 2020 and another published in 2021 — found that earlier access to gender-affirming medical care is associated with better mental health.

And a 2021 study published in the Journal of Adolescent Health, which was based on data from the Trevor Project, found that gender-affirming hormone therapy is strongly linked to a lower risk of suicide and depression for transgender youths between the ages of 13 and 24. 

The researchers behind the New England Journal of Medicine Study noted that there were some limitations to their study. For example, they recruited participants from gender clinics at children’s hospitals in Chicago, Boston and Los Angeles.

As a result, they said the findings might not apply to youth who cannot access comprehensive gender-affirming care or youth who are self-medicating with gender-affirming hormones. 

They also noted that improvement in mental health varied widely, and that some participants continued to report high levels of depression and anxiety and lower levels of positive emotions and life satisfaction. 

Two participants died by suicide during the study and six withdrew, according to the researchers. The information gathered before they died or left the study was included in the analyses, they added.

The study did not examine other factors that are known to affect psychosocial functioning among trans youth, such as parental support. The study also lacked a comparison group, which the researchers said limits their ability to establish causality. They plan to study those other factors and will continue to follow the cohort to see whether the improvements are sustained over a longer period of time.

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Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Ivan Provorov boycotts Pride Night event

Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Ivan Provorov refused to participate in pregame warmups Tuesday, ahead of his team’s Pride Night celebration, citing religious objections.

The Flyers donned Pride-themed jerseys and used sticks wrapped in rainbow Pride tape as they warmed up for their game against the Anaheim Ducks.

Provorov said his Russian Orthodox faith precluded him from taking part in the LGBTQ event. 

“I respect everybody. I respect everybody’s choices. My choice is to stay true to myself and my religion. That’s all I’m going to say,” Provorov told reporters after the game.

The NHL pro then snapped at a reporter who asked if his refusal to warm up had any impact on the game.

“Did you not hear what I just said? Can you respect that?” Provorov testily responded.

While Flyers coach John Tortorella called the hockey team’s Pride Night event “a great night,” he also defended Provorov’s refusal to participate.

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“With Provy, he’s being true to himself and to his religion,”  Tortorella said, using Provorov’s nickname. “This has to do with his beliefs and his religion. It’s the one thing I respect about Provy. He’s true to himself.” 

There was no consideration to benching Provorov over the pregame boycott, Tortorella said. Provorov skated a team-high 22 minutes and 45 seconds in Tuesday night’s game. 

“The Philadelphia Flyers organization is committed to inclusivity and is proud to support the LGBTQ+ community,” the team said in a statement after the game. “Many of our players are active in their support of local LGBTQ+ organizations, and we were proud to host our annual Pride Night again this year. The Flyers will continue to be strong advocates for inclusivity and the LGBTQ+ community.”

Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, a longtime ally of of Russian President Vladimir Putin who backs the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine, said last year that Russia must resist liberal foreignerswho support “gay parades.”

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Occidental Center for the Arts Literary Series presents A Celebration of Elizabeth Herron, our new Sonoma County Poet Laureate Jan. 29

Sunday, January 29th at 2-4 pm Occidental Center for the Arts Literary Series presents A Celebration of Elizabeth Herron, our new Sonoma County Poet Laureate and book launch for her recently published In the Cities of Sleep. She will also discuss her Being Brave Poetry Project and website Poetry As It Happens. Free admission, all donations gratefully invited. Refreshments for sale. Selected readings, Q&A, book sales & signing. OCA: 3850 Doris Murphy Way, Occidental, CA. OCA’s facilities are accessible to people with disabilities. For more info: occidentalcenterforthearts.org or 707-874-9392.

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GOP doubles down on racism, homophobia with ‘Old Glory Only Act’

“Old Glory Only Act,” one of the Republican majority’s first legislative priorities in the U.S. House of Representatives would prohibit flags other than the American flag from being flown over U.S. diplomatic and consular posts. 

“Old Glory Only Act,” sponsored by Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.), is nothing but a tired reminder that the GOP has no real plan for improving American lives and instead is doubling down on exclusionary, racist, and homophobic rhetoric. 

The GOP claims the Old Glory Only Act remedies (what they call) the politicization of U.S. embassies during the Biden administration, which has allowed Pride and Black Lives Matter flags to be flown from U.S. embassies. 

“Our beautiful flag, Old Glory, should be the only flag flying and representing our country over our diplomatic and consular posts worldwide,” Duncan said in a press release. “The American flag is a beacon of liberty, and no other flag or symbol better portrays our shared values than the Stars and Stripes.”

“It is important to ensure that Old Glory only is flown at American embassies to represent our ideals abroad,” Duncan said. 

My question for Duncan and his colleagues that support this legislation is: Which ideals? Have we reached a level of openly embracing discrimination in the U.S. to the point that we are going to pretend that Americans, U.S. citizens and residents aren’t Black? Queer? SGL? 

At the heart of it, the bill seeks to permanently ground the Pride flag and Black Lives Matter flag for the very same reason that these two flags were first approved to be flown at U.S. embassies during the Obama administration — the U.S. flag is not automatically seen as inclusive of those communities. Old Glory’s “shared values” could represent all Americans at some point in the future, sure, but this is not the Old Glory we fly today. The flying of the Pride flag and Black Lives Matter flag sends a critical message when those communities of people aren’t represented by the American flag and should be.

The GOP is intentionally hailing a flag whose 50 stars and 13 stripes represent states that are actively waging violent, exclusionary campaigns to strip non-white and LGBTQ residents of their rights and safety. In some states, the question of representation has become regressive to the point that state legislatures have passed dress codes so restrictive that some state representatives can easily be prevented from performing their duties to constituents because of the representative’s gender identity and attire.

And the argument that any flag other than the American flag is politicization of American embassies clearly missed the history lesson on the establishment of this country, whose beginnings are rooted in genocide, enslavement, theft, and lies.

The GOP was the first to dehumanize Black and LGBTQ people by attempting to politicize their right to exist. And the Old Glory Only Act joins the same dehumanizing discourse as Republicans’ unsubstantiated claims about bathrooms and drag queen story hours as the GOP continues to shove Christian nationalism down the throats of all who refuse to swallow their poison.

For politicians like Duncan, the only liberty in this country is for those whose complexion, gender identity, and sexual orientation passes the GOP’s litmus test of humanity. 

How can LGBTQ people have the right to liberty in a country that threatens healthcare providers for providing trans affirming healthcare or the right for two same-gender people to marry? 

How can Black people have the right to liberty in a country where white murderers go free for unjustly taking Black lives and 33 out of 50 states still allow for Black people to lose their livelihoods for their hair texture and styles?

Let’s be clear: There is nothing glorious about Old Glory or its representation of the failed experiment that is America. 

Brandie Blade is a journalism student at the University of Maryland and a Blade Foundation fellow.

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Hammer-Wielding Man Attacks Gay-Owned Restaurant as Patrons Flee

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A gay-owned restaurant in Chicago had a window shattered by a hammer-wielding man in a suspected homophobic attack last night.

Witnesses and police say a man was shouting antigay slurs at a couple in the city’s Rogers Park neighborhood afternoon and followed them into the R Public House in the 1500 block of West Jarvis Avenue. The man allegedly turned violent when fellow patrons stood up to the man and told him to leave.

“He walked in, started calling them some like antigay slurs, and they were like, ‘Just leave, man, just get out of here,’” bar employee Corey Rolon told local ABC affiliate WLS-TV. “And then he took out a hammer and started bashing everything.

Queer couple Sandra Carter and Renee Labrana said they had just left the restaurant around 5:30 p.m. when the man followed the couple into the restaurant they’ve owned for a decade. They told the Chicago Sun-Times that some patrons went running for the exits when the glass exploded.

“They weren’t sure if it was gunshots,” Renee Labrana told the paper. “And knowing the horrific hate crimes that have happened in different bars, it was scary.”

Last November, five people were killed and 19 injured when a gunman opened fire in the Club Q in Colorado Springs, Colo. The suspect in that shooting has been charged with more than 300 counts ranging from murder to assault.

Carter and Labrana told the Sun-Times they created R Public House as a safe and affirming space open to all, and that the attack was a reminder not everyone shares their inclusive vision.

“It’s very frustrating and disconcerting because we live in this neighborhood because it’s so diverse, and we love that about the neighborhood,” Labrana said. “So you tend to forget that there’s people that hate you out there just for who you love. And it makes me really angry that we even have to think about it.”

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Testosterone shortage affecting trans men around the world

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Lingering supply chain issues related to the COVID pandemic are affecting stocks of testosterone available for trans men.

Around the world, sporadic shortages of the hormone are creating anxiety among the trans population over the potential physical and psychological effects of missed doses.

In Mexico, the shortage is having real-world consequences.

“One day, I wrote to all my friends that there aren’t any hormones left at the pharmacy downtown,” Chiapas resident Chiu Palomeque told Global Press Journal. “I told them I would go and check another one and I was like ‘Phew! They have it here. Yes! Come and get it here.’”

But soon after, supplies of the injectable drug ran out. After his first missed monthly dose, Palomeque’s period returned with a vengeance.

“It’s as if knives are stabbing into my stomach,” he said.

The shortage dates back to the beginning of the COVID pandemic when supply chain problems and COVID vaccine manufacturing upended the pharmaceutical industry.

The lack of one affordable option in particular, Primoteston Depot from Bayer AG, hit the uninsured in Mexico hard. A statement from the pharmaceutical giant in July said supply chain disruptions continue to reduce the manufacturer’s ability to produce and supply the drug in Latin America and around the world.

Trans men who have not undergone a hystero-oophorectomy, hysterectomy, or oophorectomy, which involve the removal of the uterus and/or ovaries, are particularly vulnerable to adverse effects. According to Dr. Daniela Muñoz Jiménez, a physician and the founder of the community health organization Trans Salud, the absence of testosterone replacement therapy “becomes catastrophic” for those individuals.

For those who have undergone the procedures, discontinuing hormone therapy increases the risk of decalcification, or the loss of bone calcium.

With or without those surgeries, drastic changes in cholesterol, triglycerides, blood pressure, and glucose can occur within days, while the psychological effects can be just as debilitating, reviving the gender dysphoria that hormone therapy addresses.

Trans men in Mexico who are uninsured rely on inexpensive versions of the drug like Bayer’s Primoteston. Alternatives, including Nebido from Grünenthal, can cost ten times as much.

According to Sony Rangel, a founder of trans support service Transmasculinidades MX, trans men and transmasculine individuals are more economically vulnerable than their transfeminine peers, because trans women often start their transition at an older age.

While shortages persist, organizations like Rangel’s and online communities are getting the word out on available supplies and alternatives.

In Canada, Ontario’s trans community on Reddit is sharing helpful information.

“Hi all!” read a post in December. “Just wanted to share that yesterday, I went to pick up my renewal for injectable testosterone at a Shopper’s Drug Mart in Ottawa and was informed that there was a shortage, that it was on back order, and that it wouldn’t be available for a while. They said they have other forms available (gels & capsules) and would fax my doctor to get a prescription for one of those, but heads up if you inject T!”

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U.K. government to veto Scotland’s gender self-recognition law

The British government said Monday it will block a new law that makes it easier for people in Scotland to legally change their gender, sparking conflict with transgender rights advocates and the nationalist Scottish administration in Edinburgh.

Secretary of State for Scotland Alister Jack said he would prevent the bill from getting royal assent — the final formality that makes it law — because of concern it conflicts with “Great Britain-wide equalities legislation.” That legislation, among other things, guarantees women and girls access to single-sex spaces such as changing rooms and shelters.

The Scottish government is likely to challenge the decision at the U.K. Supreme Court.

Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon called the decision by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Conservative government “a full-frontal attack” on the Scottish parliament, which approved the bill last month.

“The Scottish Government will defend the legislation and stand up for Scotland’s Parliament,” she said on Twitter. “If this Westminster veto succeeds, it will be first of many.”

U.K. using trans people as ‘political weapon,’ says Scotland’s first minister

JAN. 17, 202300:56

The Scottish bill allows people aged 16 or older in Scotland to change the gender designation on their identity documents by self-declaration, removing the need for a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria.

It also cuts the time trans people must live in a different expressed gender before the change is legally recognized, from two years to three months for adults and to six months for people aged 16 and 17.

The legislation sets Scotland apart from the rest of the United Kingdom, where a medical diagnosis is needed before individuals can transition for legal purposes.

The Scottish National Party-led government in Edinburgh says the legal change will improve the lives of transgender people by allowing them to get official documents that correspond with their gender identities.

Opponents claim it risks allowing predatory men to gain access to spaces intended for women, such as shelters for domestic abuse survivors. Others argue that the minimum age for transitioning should remain at 18.

Scotland is part of the United Kingdom but, like Wales and Northern Ireland, has its own semi-autonomous government with broad powers over areas including health care.

This is the first time a U.K. government has blocked a Scottish law since the Scottish government and parliament were established a quarter century ago. The move will provide fodder for nationalists who want Scotland to break away from the U.K. and become an independent country.

Jack, the U.K. minister responsible for Scotland, said he had “not taken this decision lightly.”

“Transgender people who are going through the process to change their legal sex deserve our respect, support and understanding,” he said in a letter to Sturgeon. “My decision today is about the legislation’s consequences for the operation of GB-wide equalities protections.”

Shami Chakrabarti, a Labour Party member of the House of Lords and former director of the rights group Liberty, said Sunak’s government might be trying to stir up “culture wars” by stepping in, but legally “they may have a point.”

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Iowa GOPers Propose ‘Don’t Say Gay,’ Anti-Trans Bills

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Republican legislators in Iowa have introduced their version of a “don’t say gay” bill, largely mimicking the one that became law in Florida last year, and a bill that would essentially out transgender and nonbinary students to their parents.

House File 8, introduced Wednesday, would prohibit instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through third grade. House File 9, introduced the same day, would bar schools from making accommodations for a student’s gender identity, if different from the one assigned at birth, without the written consent of a parent or guardian. It also says school staff must not encourage students to undergo gender-affirming care or pressure their parents into allowing them to receive it.

House File 9 is partly a reaction to policies like that in Iowa’s Linn-Mar Community School District, which allows students to set up a gender support plan without giving notice to their parents, the Iowa Capital Dispatch reports. Parents Defending Education, a right-wing group, has filed a lawsuit against the policy.

“We need to empower parents,” House Speaker Pat Grassley, a Republican who cosponsored both bills, told The Gazette. “In our opinion, that’s what the goal of these [bills] are, making sure conversations are happening with children and their parents, instead of happening in the school system. We feel confident standing in that position.”

Republican Rep. Skyler Wheeler, also a sponsor of both, made a similar comment. “Parents want to know what’s going on,” he told the Dispatch. “They need to know what is happening with their children. They need to be the first one to be helping their children through processes and things that they truly need help with.”

But it’s not as simple as that, LGBTQ+ advocates pointed out. “We absolutely encourage students to come out to their parents on their own time, on their own ground, their own rules, when they are most comfortable,” Damian Thompson, director of public policy for Iowa Safe Schools, told the Dispatch regarding House File 9. “Ultimately, unfortunately, there are parents that are just not affirming people. And that can really put a student in danger get if they are outed, not on their own terms.”

Of House File 8, Keenan Crow of One Iowa told the publication, “It’s taking all the tools that educators have to deal with bullying on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, and throwing them up out the window. If we’re saying that you can’t have any materials or announcements regarding gender identity or sexual orientation, that the very antibullying policies that school districts are required to publicize and to create training materials around for students are not going to be able to be shared with the students.”

But Wheeler said the bill wouldn’t have such a deleterious effect. “If a kid has, you know, same-sex parents, nothing prevents them in this bill from mentioning that in class,” he said to the Dispatch. “It just simply says to the teacher, ‘Hey, we’re going to stick to what we’ve been teaching.’”

Sen. Liz Bennett, who is bisexual and was the first queer woman elected to the Iowa legislature, called both bills harmful. “This sends the message to these kids that people think that there is something so wrong” with being part of the LGBTQ+ community, Bennett, a Democrat, told The Gazette. “That’s incredibly harmful.”

“I think it’s really sad that at a time when Iowans are struggling to afford groceries, trying to find jobs, struggling to go the doctor, etc., that we’re seeing more extreme culture war legislation,” she added. “That should not be the priority here in Iowa.”

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VA GOP Nominates Anti-Vax Anti-LGBTQ+ QAnon Nutbag For House

Media Matters reports:

Republicans have nominated right-wing commentator Leon Benjamin for Virginia’s special U.S. House election next month. Benjamin is an election denier who has frequently pushed fringe conspiracy theories, including claiming that the pandemic was actually a “cover-up” by elites to usher in a “new world order”; COVID-19 vaccines contain a “tracking system” and herald the “mark of the beast”; and COVID-19 tests secretly implement a “wiring system inside you that is controlled by 5G.”

Benjamin has been on a program on conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ Infowars network with host Owen Shroyer, who is a January 6 insurrectionist and Sandy Hook conspiracy theorist. Benjamin posed for a picture with Jones in 2021. He is running in the February 21 special election for Virginia’s 4th Congressional District, which was vacated due to the death of Democratic Rep. Donald McEachin. Benjamin unsuccessfully ran for the seat in 2020 and 2022.

The Associated Press reports:

Pastor Leon Benjamin, a Republican candidate for Congress in Virginia who denounced homosexuality and called gay marriages illegal in an August speech, said in an interview that Michael Flynn’s endorsement represents “that affirmation and that understanding that we’ve got to have the right candidates in, and it’s not always popular, not always goes along with the grain.”

There’s so much more crazy at the first link, including Benjamin’s claim that the 2020 presidential election was “stolen by China and many other communistic nations.”

Also, his 2020 US House loss by 23 points? Stolen.

Benjamin last appeared on JMG in September 2022 for the “binding demons, witches, and warlocks” bit of crazy seen below.

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