Off the Rails
Trump on transgender policy in schools.
I bookmarked this from the other day and then I was reminded it off via a comment in today’s open forum.
This an utter lie and also off the rails insane.
I will admit, it is hard to even know what to do with this. It is clearly nonsensical. It suggests that children could be sent away and show up days later having had surgery that that the school mandated. Moreover, that it has been happening for at least 15 years.
The fact that he says stuff like this and the press glides over it just underscores that the press corps in the US does not know how to deal with him, even 9 years into his entry into mainstream politics.
“you”
“childs”
“say”
Is English this guy’s native tongue?
Trump made these crazy comments in front of an adoring conference for Moms for Liberty, a far-right group advocating against school curricula that mention LGBT rights, and CRT. The press won’t make anything of this alliance either.
Nicely done though, Steven, to provide (in your other post this morning) an apt response to Trump and MFL in this regard.
From Doctor Who no less:
Would it kill them to write just one sentence, soberly and stoically, “This is, of course, entirely untrue”, and move on. Just that … same thing when Trump told us that “70% of Americans live below the poverty line”. Crickets from “journalists” with a glazed look in their eyes.
They do worse than glide over it, they rework it to clean it up, shielding the raw stuff from scrutiny.
I’ll let Beth or someone else who’s had bottom surgery supply the details, if they’re so inclined. But it’s not a minor kind of operation that can be done on a whim or in an outpatient basis. It requires some days of hospitalization, and some follow up care.
It also doesn’t take 15 years for the patient to notice its effects.
So let me get this straight. Your son is in fifth grade, he goes to school one day, they send him to the school nurse(?), she does a few quick cuts, and voila, your daughter comes home later that day. Maybe this should be in a campaign ad, just play the tape and say “should this person be elected to any office”?
Why does he think kids spend several days at school before coming home?
And who does the surgery at the school? Is it the school nurse? Is this the new AP Biology lab?
@Gustopher:
“Why does he think kids spend several days at school before coming home?”
And wouldn’t the parents notice if their kids did not come home from school for a few days?
@charontwo:
No, his native tongue is Trumpish. It’s part of the decepto-gibberish family of tongues, which includes Ekcsish, and Executish.
It’s a peculiar language family, as it tends towards excessive verbosity, and tends not to communicate much even then. On the plus side, it is taken up rather well by individuals with a smaller than normal or partially damaged Broca’s area, or even the whole frontal cortex.
@charontwo: Queen’s English. (the geographic)
@Lucysfootball:
He is pandering to the Moms for Liberty who are a bunch of freaky bigot’s with weird ideas about trans isues. It’s one of the current analogs of “Satanic panic.” Details of his speech in the NMMNB link below.
“NMMNB”
So the Mom’s are pannicy over the schools letting the kids express their gender at school without telling the parents, and TFG is pandering to that. But TFG is so fucking ignorant and cognitively impaired he doesn’t grasp the distinction between changing your hairstyle and losing your deadname versus surgical transitioning and he is too fucking demented/out of it to realize how ridiculous secret surgical transitioning by minor children is.
@charontwo:
In theory, the F in TERF means feminist.
It’s just another example of how Trump always manages to bring the crazy to the next level. Republicans and TERFs have been making these sorts of claims for years, but most of them are careful to couch their language in vague buzzwords like “experimental treatments” (then in the next breath advocating ivermectin for Covid), or by referring to puberty blockers as “chemical castration.” Trump doesn’t have the discipline to stick to those more old-fashioned, Frank Luntz-style propaganda techniques; he always feels he has to go straight for the most obviously outlandish claims.
@Kathy: The RF means “radical feminist.” But by this point the acronym has about as much connection to its constituent letters as “UFO.”
@Lounsbury: Ha! Did you borough that joke from somewhere?
@Gustopher: He thinks people spend several days at school because his only experience as an adult with “school” is sending his kids away to boarding school so that they didn’t bother him.
@Gustopher:
I think you may be under the mistaken assumption that he knows ANYTHING about kids.
If it’s not fungible, it matters not to him. (unless it’s his trading cards, of course)
What we hear is a profound misunderstanding of a complex issue, and we feel some mix of offense, confusion, or amusement.
What his supporters hear is that the libs will turn your kids into [insert slur here], so they feel righteous anger and confusion that not everything is black and white. In other words, they’ll get that emotional connection with him. His lack of language skills is simply not impeding his communication with the true believers.
@charontwo:
The MAGAs always claim to understand him perfectly.
@Liberal Capitalist: Of course, his trading cards are fungible for him. And, he gets people to pay for them is some sort of worthless, hairball cryptocurrency, so he’s probably making coin on two transactions.
Schools actually do this: it’s a quota thing. The Deep State has dictated that gender ratios must be precisely equal in all subjects. What do you do if boys are outperforming at math? You turn ’em into girls, and since they’re still good at math, you meet your quota and still keep your grade average up. Which you have to do because good schools inflate housing costs, and you know all that goes right back into the pockets of the Deep State through taxes.
It’s all connected, man. Or is it man? I can’t be sure anymore, dude. Or is it dude? It’s all gone koyaanisqatsi, bro. Or maybe babe? But not if you’re a dude, because that’d be gay.
While the conventional media has plenty to answer for in its refusal to call Trump what he plainly is, the thousands of activists working in the vast MAGA propaganda network need to be singled out for special condemnation. You can bet nearly everyone who interviews him knows he’s spewing lies and nonsense, but they smile and nod their heads and act like he’s making terrific arguments. The leaders of his party, his donors, the stooges who stand behind him at campaign events nodding solemnly and laughing on cue – they must all know he’s off his head. But they pretend otherwise. And hardly anyone in the conventional media holds them to account, either.
I cannot stress enough how invidious this all is.
1. The general public thinks the trans population is HUGE. It is tiny.
2. The public perception, for reasons I don’t understand, believes that transitioning is easy and we do it on a whim. It is exceptionally hard.
@Kathy:
This will only be from a trans femme perspective.
For me, an adult in a major city in a blue state, accessing HRT was relatively easy. In as much as I could access a free clinic get informed consent and get meds and a blood test. After that, for many people, it’s an uphill climb. Drug storages and drs who think they are god are the major problem. Another problem is as a society we only do basic science on men’s bodies, women’s bodies are an educated guess based on the theory that women are useless childlike men. Trans bodies may as well as be space aliens. There are zero serious HRT guidelines for women, cis or trans.
The reason I tell you this is because no surgeon I have ever heard of will perform any affirming surgery unless you’ve been stable on HRT for at least a year. Part of the reason is bullshit gatekeeping “these idiot trannys might change their minds so we better make sure sure.” Part of the reason is because there are a lot of physical changes that happen and if you guess wrong you can screw someone up. Better off to wait a year.
Ok, so you’ve been on HRT for a year and are happy and want bottom surgery. Great. Here in chicago at at least two of the hospitals it’s a year wait for a consult. Wait one whole year for a 15 minute discussion with a Dr. Some in demand surgeons have wait lists of 2-3 years.
Either at the consult or while you’re waiting you’ll need to get electrolysis on you penis, scrotum, and surrounding area. Every single hair in that area will have a probe inserted into the follicle and electrocuted and burned. For me, I was lucky, it took roughly 25 hours of this. I paid about 5k for the electrolysis and close to another 5k for lidocaine injections. I broke down sobbing on the way home on the Eisenhower after my last session.
The reason for this is because they will use most of that material to construct your new vulva and vagina. After you’ve had your consult, you will have another 1-2 year wait to actually get surgery. You can go to a butcher and get it done faster maybe but the one I’m thinking of should have her fingers torn off, shoved up her ass, and then sewen in. There are other new drs and hospitals coming online, but not fast enough. For the record, I got incredibly lucky and got everything done in a year. I was blessed and had Private Equity company insurance. That fixed a lot of problems.
When it’s time for bottom surgery what happens, basically, is that the Dr. fillets your penis and scrotum. They take out all the erectile material and throw it away. Testicles get sent out for biopsy. Then your urethra is rejiggered. Turns out I had 2 of those. Fun fact. Then they scoop out an area inside of you for the vaginal canal. I don’t get that part, but it be scooped. Then the filleted penis and scrotum skin is turned into a tube, turned inside out and shoved in the scooped out hole.
A little pause. You will sometimes hear right wingers say that kids shouldn’t get HRT because their penis won’t develop enough if they want bottom surgery later. Both not enough material and a claimed lack of function. This is bullshit. Because, as it turns out, some adults will experience degradation if the penis. It basically shrinks when exposed to Estrogen. For me, from about 6 months after starting HRT until bottom surgery erections ALL felt like I was sticking my penis in an electric socket. It made me cry and dissociate every time. I had severe degradation. To solve that problem skin grafts, about 1 inch wide and six inches long were taken from my hips. I have two scars that I intend to coverup with morning glory tattoos. Cause morning glories are beautiful and fucking unkillable.
Ok, so once they have the tube in they fill a condom with gauze, lube it up and stick it in the hole. It’ll be there at least a week. The Dr then turns your glans into a clitoris, installed the urethra in its new spot (hands free mode is wild), builds your labia and starts sewing you up. Takes about 8 hours.
Then you’re in the hospital for a week on your back doped outta yer mind. Once you’re ready to be released the Dr has to take the gauze out. I looked mine in the eye and told her to “pull the ripcord”. The English language doesn’t have words to convey how it feels to have foot upon foot of lubed gauze pulled out of you. I was crying, laughing, and screaming at the same time. It was intense. I had to make her stop so I could catch my breath.
When the Dr showed me my new vagina for the first time I cried with happiness. I finally felt peace in my body. I felt whole. I felt correct. Guys, imagine for a second what it would feel like to no longer have a penis. What would it feel like in your body? What would it feel like going pee and not seeing it or holding it in your hand. Would you be scared? Angry? Confusion? Every day since that surgery I have felt blinding radiant happiness. A cursed awful thing has been transformed into something of peace and beauty.
After your week in the hospital you’re going home to sit on your ass for at least 2 months. You’re not moving from the couch except to dilate. That’s right! You get to spend the first year shoving a hard plastic/silicone dildo “dilator” into you for 20 minutes x 3 times per day. Every day. It is exhausting and painful and awful. Totally worth it. If you don’t dilate your vagina can seal itself closed. Sometimes you also just lose depth which sucks. Some people have to dilate everyday for the rest of their lives. I have to roughly every two weeks if I’m not having regular penetration sex.
It took me an hour and a half to type this from memory. Took Trump 2 seconds to vomit out his garbage. And all sorts of people gobble it up. How do we fight this? I tell strangers on the internet about one of the most intimate days of my life.
Also, for the record. While I’m not happy with the aesthetics, almost all of that is internalized transphobia and the fact I wish I was Cis. I very recently had a beautiful 22 year old lesbian tell me I have a “beautiful fat pussy” and start crying. The looks of burning jealousy from the young hot trans women in the room was everything.
They also don’t know I got the “king-fu” grip package installed. She works so, so, good.
When you’re like “why the hell is she saying this”. I need you to understand how perfectly happy I am. Trump, TERFs and Nazi’s want us to suffer and die. But they can never take away that I have a vagina.
The other thing. Cost. I can’t find the bills but the estimates are in my chart. According to the estimates my bottom surgery cost $256,000 of which we paid roughly a bag of Bobby pins and some creepy Barbies.
I had to have a revision done a couple months after. Totally normal part of the process. I had an issue with my urethra (who knew you could have 2!”) and that cause a problem that needed to be fixed. We also decided to clean up the graft scars. Total estimate was $193,000 of which we paid $1600. Late in the year vs early in the year.
I’m sure these estimates are about right. Northwestern is not a cheap hospital.
If you think random kids are getting half a million dollars worth of surgery please let me know where you get your drugs. I want them. They are potent.
@Beth: Beth, thanks for giving that detailed history of the treatments you undertook. It’s not easy, it’s not quick, and it’s not cheap.
…and people think that trans people transition due to a whim…
@Beth:
Thank you.
I knew the process was effed up, but not how much. I don’t even want to imagine what it’s like in states with hostile governments.
@Beth:
Thank you for your candor, your willingness to share this very intimate history.
Through all the pain and trials, I’m so glad that you have found your joy.
Bob
@Beth:
Jesus.
Remember to text kid the following: Hey, babe, you know when we said we’d pay for everything. . .
@Michael Reynolds:
Can you really put a price on joy?
@Beth: That was both beautiful and terrifying.
I have, from some pretty good sources, the notion that some people bail on the whole trans thing during HRT, not because of impatience, but because they decide, “well, maybe I’m not trans after all.” Would you agree or disagree with that?
Also, I have learned not to obsess on exactly what surgeries have taken place. Transition, in an adult particularly, can a whole lot of work in retraining habits. As far as I know, there isn’t one story of transition, but multitudes.
@Beth: in the words of the philosopher H. Simpson when posited the same question but about family safety: “Who would have thought? Yet, here we are”
Beelzebub can’t stop talking.