LGBT+ News and Discussions

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Time_Traveller
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UK Government branded ‘increasingly draconian’ for blocking Holyrood gender Bill
2 hours ago

Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has branded the move a “full-frontal attack on our democratically-elected Scottish Parliament and its ability to make its own decisions on devolved matters”.

But Mr Jack claimed the reforms – which simplify the process for trans people to obtain a gender recognition certificate (GRC) – could have “chilling effects on single-sex spaces” for women.

He also warned of “significant complications” from having different processes for obtaining a GRC in different parts of the UK.

Shona Robison, the Social Justice Secretary at Holyrood, insisted that Scottish ministers are “very, very confident in our position of this legislation being competent”.

Mr Jack, who will make a statement in the House of Commons on Tuesday, has claimed the Bill as passed would have an “adverse impact on the operation of Great Britain-wide equalities legislation”.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/a ... 63565.html
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weatheriscool
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The Uk government seems to be fascist and controlling of peoples lives.
weatheriscool
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Church of England refuses to back same-sex marriage
Source: AP

By SYLVIA HUI 2 hours ago
LONDON (AP) — The Church of England said Wednesday it will allow blessings for same-sex, civil marriages for the first time but same-sex couples still will not be allowed to marry in its churches.

The decision followed five years of debate and consultation on the church’s position on sexuality. It is expected to be outlined in a report to the church’s national assembly, the General Synod, which meets in London next month.

Under the proposals, the Church of England’s stance that the sacrament of matrimony is restricted to unions between one man and one woman will not change.

However, same-sex couples would be able to have a church service with prayers of dedication, thanksgiving or for God’s blessing after they have a civil wedding or register a civil partnership.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/anglicanism- ... osition_08
weatheriscool
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DeSantis targets trans health care in Florida universities

The request asks for a breakdown of how many people were prescribed puberty blockers, hormones or hormone antagonists, or underwent a medical procedure.



TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The DeSantis administration is requesting a trove of information on individuals who receive gender-affirming treatments at Florida universities, furthering its practice of questioning or scaling back treatment for transgender people.

In a blanket request to 12 state universities, top officials with Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis are seeking data on the number of individuals who have been diagnosed with gender dysphoria or received treatment in campus clinics across Florida. It’s unclear what exactly DeSantis intends to do with the information, but his administration says it involves “governing institutional resources and protecting the public interest.”


“Our office has learned that several state universities provide services to persons suffering from gender dysphoria. On behalf of the Governor, I hereby request that you respond to the enclosed inquiries related to such services,” wrote Chris Spencer, director of the Office of Policy and Budget for DeSantis, in a Jan. 11 memo to schools that was released Wednesday.


The request from DeSantis poses a list of questions for universities, such as asking them to provide the number of students or individuals who received gender-affirming treatment, including surgical procedures, spanning the last five years and where the treatment was sought. It also asks how many of those cases were “first-time” visits for treatment or were referred to other facilities.

The DeSantis administration also wants to know how many students were diagnosed with gender identity disorders under a medical classification. Additionally, the request asks for a breakdown of how many people were prescribed puberty blockers, hormones or hormone antagonists, or underwent a medical procedure.
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/01/1 ... s-00078435
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caltrek
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Study Concludes: Gender-affirming Hormones Improve Mental Health in Transgender and Nonbinary Youth
January 18, 2023

Introduction:
(EurekAlert) Transgender and nonbinary youth experienced significant improvement in appearance congruence (or the degree to which physical characteristics align with gender) and sustained improvements in depression and anxiety over two years after starting treatment with gender-affirming hormones, according to a multicenter U.S. study funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

“Our results provide robust scientific evidence that improved appearance congruence secondary to hormone treatment is strongly linked to better mental health outcomes in transgender and nonbinary youth,” said lead author Diane Chen, PhD, pediatric psychologist with the Gender and Sex Development Program at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago and Associate Professor at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. “This is critical, given that transgender youth experience more depression and anxiety, and are at a higher risk for suicidality than cisgender youth.”

Many transgender or non-binary teens experience gender dysphoria, or the persistent distress caused by the discrepancy between their gender identity and physical appearance. Gender-affirming hormones (testosterone or estradiol) are used as treatment to foster gender-congruent secondary sex characteristics, such as breast development or facial hair.

"The critical results we report demonstrate the positive psychological impact of gender-affirming hormones for treatment of youth with gender dysphoria,” said senior author Johanna Olson-Kennedy, MD, Medical Director of the Center for Transyouth Health and Development at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. “Amidst a landscape of misinformation, we hope these findings support the use of timely and appropriate medical interventions for this vulnerable group of adolescents."
Read more here: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/976601
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weatheriscool
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Because transgender people have the brainwiring of the opposite sex and their mental problems are caused by having the wrong hormone. Adding the right one = better mental health. It is a biological reality!

It is a damn shame that 99% of the population doesn't realize that the actual science says this and that it isn't a choice. Yep, lets just force these people into the closet and force them to deal with it. :roll:

People who study genes think that about 25% to 50% of being transgender comes from genes (Theisen 2019). We do not know for sure why some people are transgender. Many people think one or more genes of parents may play a part in making their child transgender. People who study genes have found things that support this.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-53500-y

https://www.transgendermap.com/politics/genetics/
weatheriscool
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The classifier performed at 90.2% accuracy (AUC = 0.97) when assessed in the training sample and at 88.3% accuracy (AUC = 0.97) when assessed in our 48 cisgender brains. These measures indicate a suitable classification performance and a reliable distinction between the sexes based on brain anatomy. The estimated Brain Sex index was significantly different between the three groups (F(2,69) = 40.07, p < 0.001), with a mean of 1.00 ± 0.41 in cisgender men and of 0.00 ± 0.41 in cisgender women. The Brain Sex of transgender women was estimated as 0.75 ± 0.39, thus hovering between cisgender men and cisgender women, albeit closer to cisgender men (see also Figure 1). The follow-up post hoc tests revealed that transgender women were significantly more female than cisgender men (Cohen’s d = 0.64, t(46) = 2.20, p = 0.016), but significantly less female than cisgender women (Cohen’s d = 1.87, t(46) = 6.48, p < 0.001).

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8955456/

Transgender people report discomfort with their birth sex and a strong identification with the opposite sex. The current study was designed to shed further light on the question of whether the brains of transgender people resemble their birth sex or their gender identity. For this purpose, we analyzed a sample of 24 cisgender men, 24 cisgender women, and 24 transgender women before gender-affirming hormone therapy. We employed a recently developed multivariate classifier that yields a continuous probabilistic (rather than a binary) estimate for brains to be male or female. The brains of transgender women ranged between cisgender men and cisgender women (albeit still closer to cisgender men), and the differences to both cisgender men and to cisgender women were significant (p = 0.016 and p < 0.001, respectively). These findings add support to the notion that the underlying brain anatomy in transgender people is shifted away from their biological sex towards their gender identity.

The observed shift away from a male-typical brain anatomy towards a female-typical one in people who identify as transgender women suggests a possible underlying neuroanatomical correlate for a female gender identity. That is, all transgender women included in this study were confirmed to be genetic males who had not undergone any gender-affirming hormone therapy. Thus, these transgender women have been subject to the influence of androgens and grown up (at least up until a certain age) in an environment that presumably treated them as males. The combination of male genes, androgens, and (to some degree) male upbringing should ordinarily be expected to result in a male-typical brain [39,40,41,42,43,44,45], making a female-typical brain anatomy extremely unlikely. Yet, the brain anatomy in the current sample of transgender women is shifted towards their gender identity—an observation that is at least partly in agreement with previous reports, as discussed in the following.



=====
More recently, Foreman et al. [116] conducted a study on a large sample of transwomen and control males, evaluating several candidate genes. The authors found a significant association between gender dysphoria and oestrogen receptor alpha (ERα), SRD5A2 and STS alleles, as well as ERα and SULT2A1 genotypes. These genetic variants could be functional, influencing oestrogen signalling. In fact, in SULT2A1, the genotype associated with gender dysphoria leads to elevated levels of sex hormone binding globulin, inducing a decreased effect of circulating hormones during intrauterine period. In the same way, the SRD5A2 allele evaluated in this study may lead to a reduction of DHT levels, thus determining a reduction of this potent androgen among transwomen. The authors identified several allele combinations overrepresented in transwomen, mostly involving AR, which may lead to long CAG repeats of the AR.

In conclusion, the evidence from these studies support the idea that brain sexual differentiation and the development of gender identity have a polygenic basis, involving interactions among multiple genes and polymorphism. However, results are in most cases conflicting and the number of genetic studies remains limited.
The aforementioned studies, although very heterogeneous, provide data supporting the biological bases of the psychosexual development. In particular, post-mortem and in vivo neuroimaging studies strongly suggest the existence of a sexual dimorphic brain, i.e., slight differences in brain anatomy and functioning between the two sexes. It is less clear how such brain structures become the substrate of sex differences in cognition and behaviour. This matter has been mainly investigated through the examination of specific populations, such as subjects with gender incongruence and intersex individuals: gender identity is one of the most sex-specific human trait, and many studies show how brain sexually dimorphic structures are often in line with gender identity rather than with sex assigned at birth. Research on this field has reported a possible organizational-activational role of sex hormones: in fact, studies on people with intersexual conditions highlight the role of prenatal and pubertal sex hormones in the determination of gender identity and other sex-specific cognitive traits. This evidence is also supported by the data from studies on hormonal treatment of transgender persons: indeed, a little but promising group of longitudinal studies also demonstrated the brain plasticity in response to cross-sex hormonal treatment in adult life. Anyway, to provide reliable conclusions, more data are needed. In fact, it is important to note that the size of the brain sex differences is really small, and that life experiences could have a deep impact on brain development. Additionally, little is known about the specific biological activity of sex hormones on brain structures: in particular, further studies should examine the role of androgens and oestrogens brain receptors.

Besides sex hormones, genetic factors are supposed to be the main determinants of brain sexual differentiation: again, the study on allele variations in transsexual individuals allowed to identify several candidate genes, mostly involving sex hormones receptors or steroidogenic enzymes, as possible determinants of sexual differentiation. The results were contrasting, but they may suggest the hypothesis of a polygenic basis of gender identity; in any case, the complex interaction between these genetic factors is far from understood, and that should be the matter of further studies.
Go to:
3. Conclusions

Prenatal and pubertal sex hormones seem to permanently affect human behaviour and, in addition, heritability studies have demonstrated a role of genetic components. However, a convincing candidate gene has not been identified. Future studies (i.e., genome wide studies) are needed to better clarify the complex interaction between genes, anatomy and hormonal influences on psychosexual development.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7139786/
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Is There Something Unique about the Transgender Brain?


By Francine Russo on January 1, 2016

Some children insist, from the moment they can speak, that they are not the gender indicated by their biological sex. So where does this knowledge reside? And is it possible to discern a genetic or anatomical basis for transgender identity? Exploration of these questions is relatively new, but there is a bit of evidence for a genetic basis. Identical twins are somewhat more likely than fraternal twins to both be trans.

Male and female brains are, on average, slightly different in structure, although there is tremendous individual variability. Several studies have looked for signs that transgender people have brains more similar to their experienced gender. Spanish investigators—led by psychobiologist Antonio Guillamon of the National Distance Education University in Madrid and neuropsychologist Carme Junqué Plaja of the University of Barcelona—used MRI to examine the brains of 24 female-to-males and 18 male-to-females—both before and after treatment with cross-sex hormones. Their results, published in 2013, showed that even before treatment the brain structures of the trans people were more similar in some respects to the brains of their experienced gender than those of their natal gender. For example, the female-to-male subjects had relatively thin subcortical areas (these areas tend to be thinner in men than in women). Male-to-female subjects tended to have thinner cortical regions in the right hemisphere, which is characteristic of a female brain. (Such differences became more pronounced after treatment.)

“Trans people have brains that are different from males and females, a unique kind of brain,” Guillamon says. “It is simplistic to say that a female-to-male transgender person is a female trapped in a male body. It's not because they have a male brain but a transsexual brain.” Of course, behavior and experience shape brain anatomy, so it is impossible to say if these subtle differences are inborn.

Other investigators have looked at sex differences through brain functioning. In a study published in 2014, psychologist Sarah M. Burke of VU University Medical Center in Amsterdam and biologist Julie Bakker of the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience used functional MRI to examine how 39 prepubertal and 41 adolescent boys and girls with gender dysphoria responded to androstadienone, an odorous steroid with pheromonelike properties that is known to cause a different response in the hypothalamus of men versus women. They found that the adolescent boys and girls with gender dysphoria responded much like peers of their experienced gender. The results were less clear with the prepubertal children.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/arti ... der-brain/

I think there's more evidence for a biological link to transgenderism then homosexuality.
weatheriscool
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Church of England apologizes for treatment of LGBTQ people
Source: AP

By DANICA KIRKA an hour ago

LONDON (AP) — The Church of England formally apologized Friday for its treatment of LGBTQ people, even as it said that same-sex couples still won’t be allowed to marry in its churches.

The apology from the church’s bishops came in a report following five years of debate on the church’s position on sexuality. The report will be delivered to the church’s national assembly, the General Synod, which is meeting in London next month.

“We want to apologize for the ways in which the Church of England has treated LGBTQI+ people – both those who worship in our churches and those who do not,” the bishops said in a statement. “For the times we have rejected or excluded you, and those you love, we are deeply sorry. The occasions on which you have received a hostile and homophobic response in our churches are shameful, and for this we repent.’’

Nonetheless, the Church of England’s stance that matrimony is restricted to unions between one man and one woman will remain in place. It has instead proposed offering same-sex couples the chance to have a church service with prayers of dedication, thanksgiving or for God’s blessing after they have a civil wedding or register a civil partnership.
Read more: https://apnews.com/article/london-engla ... osition_08
weatheriscool
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weatheriscool
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Judge curbs Fla. probe into U.S. medicine's trans treatment standards
Source: Washington Post
A legal battle over Florida’s ban on Medicaid spending for gender-affirming medical care spilled into Washington on Thursday as a federal judge partially granted an urgent request by 18 American medical and mental health groups to quash subpoenas sent to them by the state after they opposed the prohibition.

The professional associations accused Florida of targeting members such as the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Psychological Association and the Endocrine Society after they expressed the widely accepted medical view that care such as puberty blockers, hormones and gender transition surgery can be appropriate treatment for transgender youth and adults.

The groups spoke out last fall in support of a lawsuit filed by four transgender patients and their parents to overturn the ban in federal court in Tallahassee. But the organizations said state officials responded with a “highly inappropriate and invasive” fishing expedition for internal documents and communications about their policy positions. They accused the state of hunting for “supposed internal dissent” and bias in the service of an attack on the guidelines and credibility of the groups “from the inside-out.”.....

The court fight and Thursday’s ruling underscored how aggressively Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) and his administration are pressing a state attack on transgender medical treatment, a wedge-issue selected by conservative politicians in the nation’s culture wars, with not just transgender patients and their families in the crosshairs, but also increasingly doctors and the medical establishment.

The lawsuit was filed in Florida after the state’s Medicaid agency ended funding for gender transition care in August, joining Texas and Alabama, and saying “only treatments that are found to be safe, effective, and that meet medical necessity criteria may be covered.” The state’s politically appointed Board of Medicine has since become the first to try to ban health-care professionals that it licenses from providing such treatment to minors, threatening violators with penalties, including loss of their medical license.


Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va ... ium=social
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