Monthly Newsletter
01Apr 2026 edition
Distributed the 1st of each month.
Read the latest news about the struggle to preserve parental rights at all levels of government. Learn what the Santa Clara Moms for Liberty group has been up to, what upcoming events and functions we're having, and how you can help.
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One detransitioned woman’s experience with electrolysis by Elizabeth Edens
Facial hair is one of the lingering effects of transition. Electrolysis has been an effective method of facial hair removal for me, and has become a normalized part of my weekly routine.1
I hydrate intensely the day before my appointment, as it helps with the effectiveness of the electrolysis process. I apply my lidocaine cream in the car before I drive the 20 minutes to my appointment. I have to be careful not to put too much on, because this medication can affect blood pressure. I highly recommend getting lidocaine/ prilocaine cream from a doctor. In the USA, this requires a prescription.
I have found it is most effective to focus on a one-inch to two-inch area of my face at a time.
This works because it ensures you hit the same follicles a second or third time, which can eliminate these follicles faster over time. |
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I shave the rest of my face as usual, the day of, leaving my little two-inch square furry. This allows me to cover that area with a bandage if I need to meet with someone that day or go somewhere before my appointment.
During the procedure, my technician inserts a needle probe into the hair follicle and applies electrical current to the root, thereby destroying the papilla. She then removes the hair with tweezers. If you feel a sensation similar to how it feels when you pluck your eyebrows, it is not working. If the electrolysis has been successful, you should not feel anything when the hair is pulled out. I wasted a year of my life and lots of money going to an electrologist who was not doing it correctly!
I typically pick a good audiobook or podcast for distraction while she works.
Sometimes this process brings up emotions for me. I find it’s best not to dwell on why I am there and what brought me |
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there, as this makes the whole experience more painful. I find it less painful to think about something that makes me smile. When I feel those emotions coming up, I redirect them; now is not the time! I include this, not to deter you from treatment, but to share that this may be a normal experience for us and not to worry.
I usually go for 45 minutes to an hour, depending on my pain tolerance that day.
Types of Electrolysis Galvanic Electrolysis
This is the oldest technique currently in use. It is a chemical method that utilizes a direct electrical current to convert normal body salt and water in the hair follicle into a compound capable of destroying the dermal papilla. The chemical is produced only in the follicle and does not affect any other area.
Thermolysis
This method uses a high-frequency current to generate heat in the area influenced by the current. This heat cauterizes and destroys the dermal papilla.
Blend
This method combines the two currents in the same probe. Thermolysis enhances the effectiveness of the galvanic method, resulting in a faster process.
I now see an electrologist who uses a blended technique.
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What to Expect after the Appointment When I get home, I apply an ice pack to the treated area. I have noticed that taking Tylenol also aids in both the pain during the appointment and recovery after.
My pain tolerance is lower than most. It is also hugely affected by where I am in my cycle. I find I cannot stomach a full hour of electrolysis during the week leading up to my period. I also noticed that electrolysis was significantly more painful during my pregnancy. I did not experience any negative effects from continuing electrolysis during my pregnancy, but you decide if it is comfortable for you.
Electrolysis became more effective for me after my hormones had some time to regulate. My hormones fluctuate with my weight gain and loss, as well as time of the month and pregnancy (more on that in another article coming soon!) |
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 | When I first detransitioned, I needed to shave twice a day. After undergoing electrolysis on and off for about five years, this is no longer the case. |
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When I first detransitioned, I needed to shave twice a day. After undergoing electrolysis on and off for about five years, this is no longer the case. The time required to notice a difference varies for everyone. I know one woman who removed all her facial hair in six months, going to her electrologist twice a week for 90-minute sessions.
Last ThoughtsIt would be hugely beneficial for detransitioners if the cost of hair removal could be subsidized in some way. Ironically, many institutions offer micro-grants for hair removal to so-called “trans women”. I encourage detrans women to apply for these; we are WOMEN who have transitioned. No need to clarify anything further to the grant givers!
Another helpful development has been the sisterhood with women with Hirsutism in Facebook groups. Women with Hirsutism experience similar hair growth on account of androgens in their systems, usually brought about by Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS). I encourage detransitioners to embrace the similarities in their experiences rather than focusing on differences, and to use spaces and resources for women affected by the issues we struggle with. There are other women who struggle with facial hair growth for reasons unrelated to detransition. Here’s an opportunity to connect to the broader world again, without focusing on our unique situation. |
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A mother holds the line for five years as her son moves through a transgender identity and eventually returns to himself. |
When people talk about desistance they sometimes imagine a short episode, a phase that passes within months. In reality, for many families the process unfolds over years. Parents must live through long stretches of uncertainty, holding their ground while their child experiments with identities that may or may not last.
Part three of The Desistance Series tells the story of Susan, a mother whose son Brendan identified as transgender throughout most of his teenage years. During that time he grew his hair long, wore make-up, adopted a female name at school, and even lived for a year in a girls’ dormitory at college. All the while, Susan and her husband held to one central boundary - there would be no medical intervention.
Their experience illustrates a pattern many parents recognise. Adolescence brings experimentation, confusion, and sometimes intense identification with new social narratives. What parents often fear most is that these shifting identities will quickly become medicalised and concretised before a young person has time to mature and reflect.
When Brendan was fourteen he told his parents he was gay. It was 2017. Susan and her husband were not surprised and did not treat it as a crisis. They had suspected it might be the case and simply carried on with life as normal.
Brendan was lonely at the time and had recently fallen in with a new group of friends. He spent long hours online. Four months after coming out as gay he sent his parents a message telling them he was transgender and needed estrogen.
There had been earlier signs that something was shifting. He had brought home a book about gender, started painting his fingernails, and spoke more often about identity. Still, the speed of the change startled his parents.
What they did not know at the time was that Brendan had been meeting secretly with the school counsellor at his public school. The meetings were happening several times a day. The counsellor was strongly affirming and encouraged the transgender interpretation of his feelings. Susan and her husband only discovered this later when they looked through their son’s emails.
They immediately told the school counsellor to stop seeing him. Instead they found their own therapist outside the school system. Susan had begun searching online for information and came across 4thWaveNow, Parents of ROGD Kids and the work of Sasha Ayad. Sasha was just beginning her practice and had openings and Brendan began seeing her.
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In ninth grade Brendan transferred to a private school. Once again the school counsellor began meeting with him without his parents’ permission. Susan had to intervene again and insist that the meetings stop.
The situation stretched on for years.
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| Again and again they [Brendan's parents] asked him [Brendan] to wait. Again and again he did. |
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For a long time Brendan’s presentation remained relatively restrained. He grew his hair long and painted his fingernails, but he did not dress as a girl until three or four years into the process. Around the same time he began using a different name at school, something his parents only discovered later.
During his senior year he began wearing make-up and more overtly feminine clothes. Throughout this time Susan and her husband remained clear about one boundary. There would be no medical intervention.
Brendan himself was a compliant type and not confrontational. He trusted his parents and their decisions, though he returned periodically to the idea of hormones and puberty blockers whenever he was distressed.
Susan eventually noticed a pattern – the requests for hormones often appeared when he was anxious or overwhelmed.
The five years were extremely tense. Susan and her husband were open about their views and told Brendan they did not believe in transgender theory. They told him he would always be male.
In senior year in high school, Brendan started to dress like a girl and wear make-up. The following year, when he attended the local college, he used a female name and lived in a girls’ dormitory at a local college.
Conversations at home became very difficult. Susan’s sister was supportive of the parents and did not accept the transgender explanation, but other members of the extended family were less sympathetic.
Susan describes herself as politically liberal and her husband as conservative with socially liberal values. Their acceptance of Brendan’s homosexuality had never been in doubt. What they struggled with was the idea that he needed medical transition.
The parents never issued a direct ultimatum about paying for college if he pursued hormones, but the message was implied. Again and again they asked him to wait. Again and again he did.
Living in the girls’ dormitory eventually produced its own reality check. Brendan struggled to find his place among the female students. After a year he returned home for the summer and a few days later he told his parents he was no longer transgender.
The change happened quickly. Within weeks he cut his hair and began buying new clothes. He downplayed the years of struggle and asked his parents not to make a big deal about it.
For Susan and her husband, the relief was enormous. Brendan now says he believes he needed to go through the experience. From fourteen to nineteen he felt compelled to explore his identity fully. He does not see those years as negative and believes his parents worried more than they needed to.
Susan sees it differently. She believes several things helped him come through it. The family kept ordinary life going as much as possible. They allowed him to express himself through clothes and appearance. Above all, they held to one principle - wait.
Brendan attended counselling with Sasha Ayad for four years. The heavy lift, as always, fell on the parents, who had to hold steady while their son struggled.
Brendan still lives with his parents and their relationship is close. During those years Susan became a lead for Parents of ROGD Kids, and she says the volunteering helped her endure what was often an exhausting and lonely experience.
Today Brendan is twenty-three. He desisted four years ago. He graduated from college, is open about being a gay man, and has had a boyfriend. For Susan, the outcome confirmed something she held onto throughout those difficult years - that hope, patience, persistence, and a steady refusal to rush a young person into irreversible decisions can make all the difference.
You can watch Susan’s story here: |
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Detransition Awareness Day 2026
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Genspect hosted Life Beyond Transition on Thursday March 12th in Washington DC. This was the largest gathering of detransitioners ever assembled, with over 70 people joining in for the gathering.
Having more detransitioners in the room than ever before marks a turning point in how the trans phenomenon is understood.
For the first time detransitioners were not being viewed as isolated individuals, online testimonies, or marginal voices, but came together in significant numbers in person, in the political capital of the United States |
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The event marked a turning point, not only because of its scale, but because of what that scale makes possible. Individual stories can no longer be dismissed as rare, anecdotal, or irrelevant. The gathering signals a move from silence and fragmentation toward recognition and the beginnings of a coherent response to life after medical transition.
The theme of this year's gathering, Life Beyond Transition, demands far more consideration than it has received to date. Public, medical, and media attention has focused heavily on pathways into medical transition. Far less attention has been paid to what happens afterwards, especially for those who stop, reverse course, or live with regret, ambivalence, or unresolved harm. |
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[M]edia attention has focused heavily on pathways into medical transition. Far less attention has been paid to what happens afterwards, especially for those who stop, reverse course, or live with regret, ambivalence, or unresolved harm. |
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 | Medical Panel Discussion on Detransition Medical Care
Left to right:: Drs. Lisa Anllo, Kurt Miceli, Quentin Van Meter, and Kary Hurd |
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One of the few long-term outcome studies available illustrates why this gap matters. Dhejne et al. (2011) conducted the longest follow-up study to date on the outcomes of “sex reassignment surgery”, tracking 324 individuals in Sweden over a 30-year period from 1973 to 2003. Compared with matched controls by birth year and sex, those who had undergone surgery showed significantly worse outcomes, including nearly 3 times higher psychiatric hospitalization rates, nearly 5 times more suicide attempts, and a suicide rate over 19 times higher than matched controls. Life beyond transition can be extremely difficult for some, yet this reality is often minimized, leaving those affected without adequate support.
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Some of the detransitioners who attended Detrans Awareness Day 2026 |
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Detransitioners, regretters, and those who feel ambivalent often find themselves isolated, unsupported, and politically inconvenient. This event is about holding a spotlight on these experiences so that the public can begin to properly understand what medical transition involves, not only at the point of entry, but across the lifespan.
Since 2022, Genspect has highlighted these issues through Detrans Awareness Day. In our first year, during the COVID-19 lockdowns, we hosted a large online webinar featuring nearly a dozen detransitioners speaking openly about their experiences. Following that event, many felt able to speak publicly for the first time. A second global webinar followed in 2023. In 2024, we ran a day-long programme where participants could share their stories in whatever format resonated with them: articles, artwork, poetry, songs, animation, and long-form interviews. Last year, the day culminated in a formal briefing on Capitol Hill, bringing the issue directly into the policy sphere.
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Resources for Those Dealing With Gender Confusion
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The Gender Framework Pitchstone Publishing
A comprehensive, evidence-based guide for professionals and families. The Gender Framework offers a non-medicalized understanding of gender-related distress in its social and developmental context.
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Gender at your fingertips The sources for the statistics we use are selected for their reliability. We mostly use peer-reviewed
papers; however, we occasionally refer to government-commissioned studies, authoritative bodies' submissions to governmental commissions, published books, or doctoral theses. In a few cases, we provide references for the purpose of debunking unreliable data.
As this is an emerging field of research, the information on this page may develop over time. Statistics for the transgender population are often difficult to quantify as different definitions are used to describe the term "transgender". Our focus is to underpin the statements we provide with sound research. We know that these statements cannot comprehensively cover every topic; however, this initiative is intended to bring some much-needed clarity to this area of study.
Stats For Gender is powered by Genspect, an organization that advocates for a non-medicalised approach to gender dysphoria. |
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How Christian Teachers Can Opt-Out of California's LGBTQ PRISM Training |
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LGBTQ+ cultural competency training is required for all teachers and other certificated employees serving pupils in grades seven through twelve. More specifically, beginning with the 2025–26 school year, and continuing through the 2029–30 school year, a local educational agency (LEA) serving pupils in any of grades seven through twelve must provide and require at least one hour of LGBTQ+ cultural competency training annually. |
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Christian teachers in California are reminded that they are NOT required to set their moral beliefs aside in order to be there for their students. Read on... |
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United States Supreme Court Church of the Holy Trinity v. United States 1892 |
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California teachers and administrators for whom the PRISM LGBTQ training runs counter to their religious and moral values are asked to contact The National Center for Law and Policy, who can provide guidance with filing an appropriate religious exemption. |
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Dean Broyles |
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Dean Broyles is the President of the National Center for Law and Policy (formerly Western Center for Law & Policy). He earned a Juris Doctor degree from Regent University School of Law, in Virginia Beach, Virginia and a Bachelor of Arts degree in sociology from Westmont College in Santa Barbara, California. After college, while serving as a church youth director, Dean was called to law school specifically to be trained to fight for religious liberties. He was mentored in law school in constitutional litigation by Jay Sekulow of the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), one of our nation’s preeminent constitutional attorneys. Dean also clerked for several years at the National Legal Foundation, a religious liberty non-profit organization.
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Following law school graduation, while starting his civil litigation practice, he was invited to become an affiliate attorney of the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), from which Dean has received extensive training in pro-family, pro-life and pro-religious liberty matters at ADF’s outstanding National Litigation Academies (NLA). Because of Dean’s pro-bono work, he was invited to receive special training at ADF’s advanced NLA. Dean is proud to be an ADF affiliate attorney and member of ADF’s honor guard. |
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Prior to founding the NCLP, Dean maintained a successful law practice for more than a decade, where he focused on civil litigation and business matters. Dean cares deeply about his profession, is hard working, and is willing to fight to preserve our precious civil liberties. Dean lives with his wife Shona and three adopted children Ryan, Jasmine and Bryant in Escondido, California. He is a Christian who serves his local church as a volunteer leader. In his free time, Dean enjoys skiing, mountain biking, and working out at the gym.
Dean can be reached either via email (dbroyles@nclplaw.org) or phone (760) 747-4529.
Thank you, Dean, for supporting California's teachers. Soli Deo Gloria! |
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"California teachers who have sincerely held religious objections to the mandatory PRISM training should contact attorney Dean Broyles at The National Center for Law and Policy for assistance in drafting a legally effective written request for reasonable religious accommodation."
- Dean Broyles |
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Hopefully We Have Gathered Enough Signatures to Get The CEO Act on the November Ballot
The Children's Education Opportunity Act | The Children's Education Opportunity Act is the latest attempt at providing California parents maximum flexibility when it comes to the education of their children. |
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Kevin McNamee |  | Joelle Mancuso |
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Lance Christensen |  | Mike Netter |
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It is well past time for California parents to be provided maximum flexibility in terms of choosing how their children are educated. | |
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The Children’s Educational Opportunity Act (aka the CEO Act) is a California statewide initiative set for the November 2026 ballot. It ensures that every TK to 12th grade student receives equal funding for all educational pathways, including public, charter, private, faith-based schools, and homeschooling. By addressing educational disparities, the act expands opportunities for all students, regardless of race, family income, or zip code.
| | Sign the Petition |
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Six Key Features of the CEO Act
1. Parents establish an Education Savings Account for their child
Parents can set up a state-controlled Education Savings Account (ESA) for their child from TK through 12th grade. This ESA is funded annually using the student's portion of voter-approved Proposition 98 funds. Initially set at $17,000, the amount adjusts yearly based on California's economic growth. These funds do not increase taxes and are tax-exempt.
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2. Parents choose the best education option for their child
Parents select an eligible school that suits their child best.Options range from public and charter schools to private, faith-based institutions, and homeschooling. The chosen school coordinates with the ESA Trust board to allocate funds for educational expenses. Parents do not handle the money directly; transactions occur between the state-controlled ESA and the selected school.
3. Covered education expenses under the Education Savings Account The ESA covers various educational expenses, including |
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• tuition • curriculum • books
• online courses |
| • school supplies and equipment, tutoring • testing fees • special needs services
• religious and academic materials |
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| • transportation to and from school and school-related activities
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4. Unused ESA funds roll over annually and accrue interest Any unused funds within the student's ESA carry over each year, accruing interest to support future educational expenses throughout the student's life. This is not a voucher program where you lose the funding if you do not use it that year. |
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5. ESA funds are usable throughout the student's lifetime Beyond 12th grade, any remaining ESA funds can be applied to educational expenses for |
• trade school • community college • university • postgraduate studies
| This will go a long way towards reducing or eliminating student loan debt.
6. ESA funds can be transferred to another ESA or donated to an eligible school To ensure all ESA funds are utilized effectively, any unused portions can be transferred or gifted to another family member's ESA or donated to an eligible school. |
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Malpractice of Gender Surgery: A Candidate Weighs In |
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| | They Called it "Care", A Jury Called it Malpractice: The Gender Surgery Reckoning Begins
An article by Carol Pefley running for California State Assembly District 28
From 2019 through 2024, the United States witnessed an unprecedented surge in youth gender dysphoria diagnoses and medical interventions. What had once been a rare clinical presentation suddenly became a cultural phenomenon, with diagnoses doubling nationwide between 2019 and 2021 alone.
According to national medical data, 42,167 children and teens were diagnosed with gender dysphoria in 2021, up from 21,375 in 2019 a dramatic spike that reshaped pediatric medicine and ignited fierce public debate. |
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 | Candidate Carol Pefley |
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During this same period, medical interventions on minors expanded rapidly. A watchdog database reports that 13,994 minors received gender‑transition treatments between 2019 and 2023, including 5,747 surgeries and 8,579 hormone or puberty‑blocker interventions.
Even narrower insurance claims analyses confirm that hundreds of minors underwent breast removal surgeries during these years.
These numbers are no longer abstract. They now form the backdrop of the first successful de-transitioner malpractice lawsuit in American history, a verdict that marks a major turning point from the narrative that has been pushed on us from the medical community.
No Mainstream News Outlet Covered This Case!
On Friday [January 30th], a Westchester, New York jury awarded $2 million to Fox Varian, a young woman who had her healthy breasts removed at age 16 under what was presented to her as “gender‑affirming care.” Her psychologist and surgeon were found liable after a three‑week trial attended by independent reporters, and not a single mainstream media organization.
The total absence of mainstream media coverage is striking.
For three weeks, testimony unfolded about the speed, certainty, and lack of safeguards with which a confused teenager was ushered toward irreversible surgery. And for three weeks, the nation’s largest newsrooms looked away.
When the verdict was read, Varian reportedly wept and embraced her mother, a moment of relief after years of physical and emotional fallout.
Independent journalist Benjamin Ryan, who sat through the entire trial, called the case “just the beginning,” noting that he has tracked numerous similar lawsuits preparing to move forward. He added that legal experts believe tort law may ultimately reshape or even dismantle the current model of pediatric gender medicine. |
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It's about time that someone was held responsible for the irreversible harm inflicted on our children. For years, California’s public schools pushed gender‑identity policies causing young children to question whether they were born in the "right" body, requiring staff to use a child’s chosen pronouns while keeping parents in the dark.
The medical community saw this surge in gender dysphoria as a financial boon. Major hospital systems openly advertised gender services as “growth opportunities” in internal documents that later became public through lawsuits and investigative reporting. |
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Here is a list of costs associated with "gender affirming care" |
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Puberty blockers: $4,000–$25,000 per year Cross-sex hormones: $300–$1,500 per year
Required lab monitoring: $1,000+ per year Double mastectomy: $9,000-$15,000
Facial feminization: $20,000 - $50,000 Vaginoplasty: $25,000 - $50,000 |
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And this is just the beginning. More money will be made from: |
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Fertility treatments Chronic pain management |
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And you have a patient for life that needs to have monthly checkups indefinitely with hormones for life, lab work for life and mental health care for life.
Thousands of irreversible procedures were performed on developing children, many of whom are now adults grappling with regret, infertility, chronic pain, or loss of sexual function. The damage done is irreversible. President Trump cut off the federal funding to these medical facilities forcing the closure of Los Angeles Children's Hospital, the largest children's gender surgery center in 2025.
The Varian verdict signals that juries may be willing to hold clinicians accountable for rushing minors into life‑altering decisions.
As more de-transitioners come forward, more lawsuits are filed, and more medical records are scrutinized, the country will be forced to confront what happened between 2019 and 2024, a period future historians may view as a moral stain on the academic and medical community where they coerced vulnerable children into irreversible medicalization.
Healthy body parts were removed. Lifelong medical dependency was created. Teenagers in distress were fast‑tracked into surgeries that even adult patients often approach with caution. History will not look kindly on this moment.
And now, for the first time, a jury has said: This was wrong.
The Varian verdict is not the end of the story; it is the beginning. More cases are coming. More evidence will surface. More young adults will speak out, and the flood gates have opened.
Carol Pefley Candidate for Ca State Assembly
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| A Very Important Win for Parental Rights |
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| | Supreme Court Upholds Parental Rights Against California Gender Secrecy Policy
An article by Tyler O'Neil posted to The Woketopus on March 3 2026 |
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The Supreme Court Monday vindicated parental rights, upholding an injunction against California’s gender secrecy policy, which mandated that school staff hide a student’s claimed transgender identity from parents unless the student expressly consented to reveal it.
“This is a watershed moment for parental rights in America,” Paul Jonna, special counsel at the Thomas More Society, said in a statement responding to the decision Monday. “The Supreme Court has told California and every state in the nation in no uncertain terms: you cannot secretly transition a child behind a parent’s back.” |
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Gavin Newsom, who along with Anthony Weiner is responsible for attacks on children. |
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“The court’s landmark reaffirmation of substantive due process, its vindication of religious liberty, and its approval of class-wide relief together set a historic precedent that will dismantle secret gender transition policies across the country,” Jonna added.
Challenging the Gender Secrecy Policies
The Thomas More Society sued on behalf of teachers in the state who feared punishment if they refused to lie about a student’s gender identity. Parents and other teachers joined the lawsuit, challenging the Escondido Union School District’s policy of hiding students’ gender identities from parents unless students consented to reveal them.
The teachers also sued the California Department of Education, which has a similar policy.
While a district court judge issued a permanent injunction blocking the schools from enforcing gender secrecy policies, a three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit granted the school district and the state a stay of the injunction.
The Supreme Court’s Parental Rights RulingThe Supreme Court issued an unsigned opinion vacating the 9th Circuit’s stay when it comes to the parents. Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito would have ruled in favor of the parents and the teachers, while Justice Sonia Sotomayor would not have taken up the case.
Justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote a concurring opinion, which Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh joined. Justice Elena Kagan wrote a dissent, which Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson joined. |
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The court’s unsigned opinion recounted the story of two parents who didn’t know their eighth grade daughter publicly identified as a boy until after she attempted to commit suicide and was hospitalized. Months after her daughter left the hospital, she returned to the hospital after further risk of self-harm. Their daughter attended a different school for ninth grade and once again identified as a boy; that school also hid her gender transition, expressly rejecting the parents’ wishes. The daughter is now receiving psychiatric care.
The court concluded that “the parents who seek religious exemptions are likely to succeed on the merits of their Free Exercise Clause claim.”
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“The court’s landmark reaffirmation of substantive due process, its vindication of religious liberty, and its approval of class-wide relief together set a historic precedent that will dismantle secret gender transition policies across the country,”
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California’s policies “substantially interfere with the ‘right of parents to guide the religious development of their children,’” the court ruled, citing Mahmoud v. Taylor, a case in which the court ruled that parents have the right to opt their children out of receiving LGBTQ+ instruction.
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“The parents who assert a free exercise claim have sincere religious beliefs about sex and gender, and they feel a religious obligation to raise their children in accordance with those beliefs,” the court ruled.
“California’s policies violate those beliefs” and impose an “unacceptable” burden on them, the opinion stated. “Indeed, the intrusion on parents’ free exercise rights here—unconsented facilitation of a child’s gender transition—is greater than the introduction of LGBTQ storybooks we considered sufficient to trigger strict scrutiny in Mahmoud.”
California claims that its policies advance a compelling interest in student safety and privacy, but the court ruled that “those policies cut out the primary protectors of children’s best interests: their parents.”
The court also found that the parents would likely succeed in claiming the state violated their due process rights.
“Under long-established precedent, parents—not the state—have primary authority with respect to ‘the upbringing and education of children.’ The right protected by these precedents includes the right not to be shut out of participation in decisions regarding their children’s mental health,” the opinion stated.
The court found that “the denial of plaintiffs’ constitutional rights during the potentially protracted appellate process constitutes irreparable harm.”
The court also noted that the district court’s injunction permits California “to shield children from unfit parents by enforcing child-abuse laws and removing children from parental custody in appropriate cases,” thus allowing for the key interest of protecting children while protecting parental rights.
Justice Kagan faulted the court for issuing an emergency ruling after receiving “scant and, frankly, inadequate briefing about the legal issues in dispute,” and without holding an oral argument or debating in conference. |
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The court did not uphold the right of teachers to refuse to lie to parents—the key issue at the beginning of the case—but the ruling here only applies to the injunction; it does not resolve the overall case.
That said, lower courts will follow the Supreme Court’s lead and uphold the fundamental rights of parents against gender secrecy policies, making the case a pivotal victory for parental rights.
This article originally appeared at The Daily Signal. |
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FERPA, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, gives parents the right to access their child's education records. | |
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| The Exciting Announcement Made By Sonja Shaw |
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| Parents have a fundamental right to be informed about significant developments in their children’s lives. That includes when schools push to confuse those children about their gender identities.
The case stems from a 2023 lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California, where Judge Roger T. Benitez ruled in December 2025 that California’s Parental Exclusion Policies were unconstitutional. The 9th Circuit stayed that ruling in January 2026, citing concerns over its scope and clarity.
The Supreme Court’s 6:3 intervention reverses that stay.
The case is part of a broader national debate over parental rights, student privacy, and religious freedom in public education. It has drawn amicus briefs from a number of organizations, including the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty and the National Legal Foundation.
In addition, AGs from Montana, Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia and the Arizona Legislature filed an amicus brief.in support of parental rights. The brief states that “The right of parents to direct the care and custody of their children is perhaps the oldest of the
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| A true warrior: Sonja Shaw |
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fundamental liberty interests recognized by the Supreme Court. But the right preexists the constitution itself and is an intrinsic human right.” | "Keep linking arms. Keep praying for California. California is worth fighting for."
- Sojna Shaw |
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| What must California do to comply with FERPA?
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Per the Supreme Court, California must to the following three things:
Notify all superintendents that "gender support plans" or other student documentation are considered education records. Publicize that there is no "unofficial records" exception to FERPA and violations risk loss of federal dollars.
Provide in writing that law enforcement will enforce FERPA regarding gender identity. |
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The response by Tony Thurmond, State Superintendent of Public Instruction:
"AB 1955 does not prohibit LEA* staff from sharing any information with parents. Based on the plain language of both laws, there is no conflict between AB 1955 and FERPA." |
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* LEA stands for "Local Educational Agency". In California, LEA refers to any public board of education or other public authority legally constituted within the state that has administrative control or direction over public elementary or secondary schools. This includes school districts, county offices of education, direct-funded charter schools, and special education local plan areas (SELPA). |
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Mike Davis at Article III Project Weighs In Posted March 5, 2026
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This week, the Supreme Court protected California parents and their children from one of the worst ideas in the increasingly bizarre world of public education.
There was a policy in effect in California preventing schools from notifying parents if a child began transitioning to a new gender identity.
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 | Mike Davis, founder.
Article III Project |
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Schools couldn’t tell parents that Johnny called himself Jenny or that Nancy called herself Nicholas. The schools could only accommodate the students, use the pronouns they wanted, and feed obvious emotional illness.. |
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Heroic teachers who hate the possibility of lying to parents and fear retaliation if they refuse to lie bravely sued their school district over the policy. Parents and other teachers who believe in parental rights and the welfare of children who suffer from gender confusion joined the suit.
U.S. District Judge Roger J. Benitez—a George W. Bush appointee and the kind of sane judge we love at Article III Project—rightfully concluded that withholding such vital information from parents is wrong. So, a few months ago, he issued a permanent injunction halting the practice of keeping parents in the dark. But since no sound judicial decision is safe from the left, the state appealed and found sympathy on the distressingly leftward Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which lifted the injunction. |
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U.S. District Judge Roger J. Benitez |
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The stalwart plaintiffs, however, didn’t let the battle end there. They saw their case through to the Supreme Court, where this week, six of nine justices stood up for the obvious and natural rights of parents.
You get just one guess at who the three dissenters were. |
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We can’t believe the courts had to address such nonsense. But welcome to Governor Gavin Newsom’s California. If that guy gets his wish and becomes president, you can expect such lunacy to be unleashed nationwide.
Our courts need more solid judges like Roger Benitez. They are the thin, black-robed line between us and maniacs who would use litigation to impose grim realities no person in their right mind will vote for. |
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 | California Governor Gavin Newsom |
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Updated Opt-Out Letter Taking into consideration recent decisions by the Supreme Court. |
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America First Legal has released an updated parental opt-out template letter following SCOTUS’s decision in Mirabelli v. Bonta, reaffirming parents’ constitutional right to direct their children’s upbringing and education.
The template letter is available through AFL’s Parent and Student Action Center, which provides families with toolkits, sample letters, and resources to help defend parental rights and safeguard their children’s education. | [Insert Date]
[School Principal's Name] [School Name] [School Street Address]
[School City, State and Zip Code]
Re: Compliance with Federal Law/Opt-Out for [Student Name] |
Dear [School Official]:
My name is [your name], and I am the [parent/legal guardian] of [child's full name], a student in the [grade level] grade at [name of school[.
On June 27, 2025, the Supreme Court of the United States reaffirmed that parents have a constitutional right to direct the religious upbringing of their children. See Mahmoud v. Taylor, 606 U.S. ___,___ (2025), slip op. at 19. The Court emphasized that this right is violated whenever government policies "substantially interfer[e] with the religious development of children." Id. In that particular case, the Court held that the Montgomery County Board of Education's decision to introduce LGBTQ-inclusive storybooks into the curriculum--combined with its decision to withhold notice to parents and to forbid opt-outs--substantially interferes with the religious development of children and imposes an unconstitutional burden on religious exercise. Id. at 21-22.
On March 2, 2026, the Supreme Court cited Mahmoud in the Court's latest ruling on the rights of parents to parent their children in Mirabelli v. Bonta, 607 U.S. ___,___ (2026). In Mirabelli, the Court found that the "unconsented facilitation of a child's gender transition is greater than the indoctrination of LGBTQ story books" it had addressed in Mahmoud. The Court in Mirabelli also found that the school district's violated the free exercise clause of the First Amendment and the longstanding and well-established right of parents "to direct the upbringing and education of their children." The Court went on to hold that "parents who object to the challenged policies or seek religious exemptions" have standing to sue "because they are objects of the challenged policy."
Mahmoud and Mirabelli should be instructive for federally funded schools when it comed to parents' rights, just as failing to comply with the Protection of Pupil Rights Mendment (PPRA) puts schools at risk of losing federal funds. The PPRA entitles parents to inspect "[a]ll instructional materials, including teacher's manuals, films, tapes, or other supplementary material which will be used in connection with any survey,analysis, or evaluation" at school. See 20 U.S.C. § 1232h(a). Related regulations require prior written consent from a parent or legal guardian before a child may be subjected to questions about political affiliations, mental health, psychological challenges, sexual behavior, sexual attitudes, and other topics. See 34 C.F.R. § 98.4.
In light of Mahmoud, Mirabelli, and preexisting federal law, I am writing to request reasonable prior notice of, the right to be informed about and to inspect, and a meaningful opportunity to consent or opt out my child out of any formal or informal instruction that involves exposure to or discussion of gender identity, transgenderism, gender-affirming care, pronouns inconsistent with biological sex, sexual activity, sexual orientation, sexual preferences, LBGTQ-related matters, policies regarding students use of locker rooms, bathrooms, or similar facilities, or any other related topics.
I am also providing formal notice that I object to [child’s full name]’s use of any opposite-sex bathrooms, locker rooms, name change, or change in pronoun as these activities conflict with my family’s sincerely held religious beliefs. If [child’s full name] engages or requests to engage in any of these activities, I require prompt written notice, as these requests also conflict with my family’s sincerely held religious beliefs. To that end, I also require prompt notification in the event any other student - whose identity I do not seek - at [name of school] uses or is permitted to use an opposite-sex bathroom or locker room to which my child would also have access. Moreover, I also object to any physical, psychiatric, or psychological examination, testing, or treatment described in 34 C.F.R. § 98.4(c). I will understand your failure to honor any of these requests as a denial of my right to direct the religious upbringing of my child.
I look forward to your prompt confirmation of receipt of my notice. I also look forward to learning how [school district] will comply with Mahmoud v. Taylor, Mirabelli v. Bonta, and the PPRA to ensure that all parents receive prior notice and an opportunity to opt out of any formal or informal instruction of their children that might conflict with the family’s sincerely held religious beliefs or otherwise interfere with the parental right to direct religious upbringing.
You can reach me via email at [email] or by phone at [phone].
Sincerely,
[your name] |
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Christian Teachers Must Remain Strong!
Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior... Psalm 25:5 |
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Per a post on the California Family Council site dated November 11th 2025:
When Governor Gavin Newsom signed AB 5 into law, few Californians realized just how coercive its requirements would become for faithful Christian teachers. As of this school year, every certificated public school employee working with students in grades 7–12 must complete an hour-long “LGBTQ Cultural Competency” course annually. But make no mistake, this state-mandated training |
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is no mere professional development. It is an ideological loyalty test demanding that educators affirm beliefs about gender and sexuality that directly contradict biblical truth.
Yet there is good news: Christian teachers do not have to surrender their faith to keep their jobs. Under both the First Amendment and federal and state civil rights laws, they have the right to request a religious exemption from trainings that violate their sincerely held beliefs.
That’s why the National Center for Law and Policy, led by constitutional attorney Dean Broyles, is stepping forward to defend teachers of faith who refuse to compromise their convictions. “Teachers’ civil rights do not evaporate when they enter our public schools,” Broyles said. “California’s coercive mandatory PRISM LGBTQ identity cultural competency training directly conflicts with and seeks to actively undermine the deeply held religious beliefs of millions of California families, students, and public-school teachers.”
What the Law Demands — and Why It Is Unconstitutional
Under AB 5, public school teachers in grades 7-12 must complete the PRISM Training, or a closely aligned alternative, which instructs participants to affirm concepts like gender fluidity and to use students’ self-selected pronouns, even when doing so violates their conscience. The program also directs teachers to withhold information from parents about a child’s gender identity if the child has not given permission, falsely claiming that minors have a “right to privacy” from their own parents.
The training explicitly labels traditional Christian beliefs as harmful “heteronormativity,” “homophobic,” and “transphobic,” and equates adherence to biblical truth with discrimination. In essence, teachers are told they must deny their faith or face discipline. |
| View the PRISM training being forced on teachers |
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But the Constitution says otherwise. Under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA), employers must provide reasonable accommodations for sincerely held religious beliefs unless doing so would cause an undue hardship. Furthermore, the First Amendment protects the free exercise of religion and prohibits the government from compelling speech or belief. |
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Christian teachers do not have to surrender their faith to keep their jobs. |
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A recent federal court ruling in Mirabelli v. Olson reaffirmed that public school districts cannot compel teachers to lie to parents or affirm gender ideology in violation of their faith. The court condemned such policies as a “trifecta of harm” to teachers, students, and parents. That decision opened the door for teachers statewide to challenge similar unconstitutional policies.
One Teacher’s Example of Courage
One Southern California teacher, represented by Broyles, has formally requested a religious accommodation from his district. In Broyles’s letter to school officials, he explains that the teacher’s faith requires him to speak truthfully, honor parents’ rights, and affirm that God created humanity male and female (Genesis 1:27; Matthew 19:4). Participating in PRISM training would force him to endorse falsehoods about human sexuality and violate his conscience before God.
“The government has no legitimate place marginalizing, shaming, and demonizing the sincere religious beliefs of its good citizens,” Broyles wrote. “State and local LGBTQ+ laws or policies do not supersede well-established federal constitutional rights or a teacher’s right to be free from religious discrimination.”
Broyles also warned that districts cannot retaliate against teachers who request religious accommodation, and that his office will be monitoring any cases of harassment or discrimination. |
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A Call for Courage Many Christian teachers are afraid. They worry that refusing the training might cost them their jobs or reputations. Others are tempted to simply “click through” the training and answer as the state demands, just to keep the peace. But as followers of Christ, we are called to “obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29) and to stand firm in truth even when pressured to conform. |
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State and local LGBTQ+ laws or policies do not supersede well-established federal constitutional rights or a teacher’s right to be free from religious discrimination. |
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Scripture is full of examples of courageous believers who refused to bow to the idols of their age. Daniel would not stop praying even when it meant the lion’s den. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego would not worship the golden image and faced the fiery furnace. Esther risked her life to speak truth to power. Likewise today, Christian teachers in California are being asked to bow to the idol of gender ideology. Now is the time to stand firm.
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Broyles put it succinctly:
“Teachers should be granted the right to opt out of this bigoted, anti-religious indoctrination, which is PRISM training. … What Orwellian, ideologically driven legislators and school administrators clearly need is religious cultural competency training, a.k.a., constitutional sensitivity training. We are ready, willing, and able to deliver it.” |
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Christian teachers should not quietly comply with a state mandate that calls evil good and good evil. |
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CFC’s Call to Action
California Family Council Vice President Greg Burt is urging both teachers and school board members to take a public stand for truth.
“Christian teachers should not quietly comply with a state mandate that calls evil good and good evil,” said Greg Burt, Vice President of California Family Council. “By standing up for their own rights, teachers are also defending the civil rights of parents and students, protecting every family’s freedom to live and speak according to biblical truth. We need courageous believers in every classroom and on every school board willing to draw a line and say, ‘We will not bow.’ Our children need to see adults who are unashamed to stand for God’s truth about life, family, and gender, no matter the cost.”
Take Action
If you are a Christian teacher being forced to take this training, you have legal options. Contact the National Center for Law and Policy for assistance in drafting a religious accommodation request. You can also reach out to California Family Council for resources and support.
Now is not the time for silent compliance. The next generation of students is watching. When faithful teachers stand firm, they bear witness to the truth that God, not the government, defines human identity, morality, and truth.
Just as Daniel, Esther, and the three Hebrew men stood unashamed before kings and rulers, California’s Christian teachers must now stand before their school boards and declare:
“We will not bow.” |
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| Biden CIA Warned About ‘Traditional Motherhood’ and ‘Homemaking’ as White Extremist Tactics
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When the Biden administration turned its attention to concerned parents in the fall of 2021, the Central Intelligence Agency drafted a memo warning about white racial extremists recruiting women for “traditional motherhood” and “homemaking.” |
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The CIA produced an intelligence assessment focused on “women advancing white racially and ethnically motivated violent extremist radicalization and recruitment” on Oct. 6, 2021.
The Trump administration released a redacted version of the document in February.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe noted that the document falls “short of the high standards of impartiality that CIA must uphold.” |
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Motherhood was suspect. Homemaking was suspect. Everyday Americans were suspect. Under the Biden administration, mainstream American life was turned into
a threat profile.
- Gene Hamilton President, America First Legal |
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“There is absolutely no room for bias in our work and when we identify instances where analytic rigor has been compromised, we have a responsibility to correct the record,” Ratcliffe added. He stated that actions such as releasing the document “underscore our commitment to transparency, accountability, and objective intelligence analysis.
America First Legal drew attention to the document on X. |
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President Joe Biden in Philadelphia on Sept. 1, 2022. (Nathan Posner/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images) |
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“We assess that female members have been emerging as key players of the transnational white racially and ethnically motivated violent extremist (REMVE) movement, taking on diverse roles to advance white REMVE goals—including the white REMVE view of traditional motherhood—and successfully participating in newer roles in propaganda and recruitment,” the assessment states. |
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The CIA warned about the “great replacement” theory, which it framed as extremist.
“White REMVEs and their sympathizers have claimed in online posts that it is essential for white families to have as many biological children as possible to counter the rising birthrates among non-white populations, white REMVEs allege that this rise is a conspiracy, which they have termed the ‘great replacement,’” the assessment states.
The CIA discussed a specific organization—the identity of which has been redacted—and noted that this group “has lauded motherhood and homemaking as women’s most important responsibility.”
“This is what happens when woke ideology replaces actual threat-based intelligence collection and analysis,” Gene Hamilton, president of America First Legal, told The Daily Signal in a statement Thursday.
“The Biden administration was obsessed with deconstructing our country,” Hamilton added. “Motherhood was suspect. Homemaking was suspect. Everyday Americans were suspect. Under the Biden administration, mainstream American life was turned into a threat profile. We should never forget how deep the rot went.”
This memo came as a growing movement of parents protested at school board meetings, demanding that schools reopen amid the COVID-19 pandemic, that schools relax requirements for children to wear face masks, and that schools cease promoting transgender ideology and racially divisive policies. |
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On Sept. 29, the National School Boards Association sent a letter to then-President Joe Biden, comparing these concerned parents to domestic terrorists. Then-Attorney General Merrick Garland responded with an Oct. 4 memo to the FBI, U.S. attorneys, and the Justice Department’s criminal division to craft “strategies for addressing threats against school administrators, board members, teachers, and staff.” The NSBA later rescinded the letter and apologized amid pushback.
The Biden Justice Department worked closely with the Southern Poverty Law Center, a left-wing public interest law firm that leverages its history of suing the Ku Klux Klan into bankruptcy to place mainstream conservative and Christian groups on a “hate map” with Klan chapters. In 2023, the SPLC added Moms for Liberty and other concerned parents’ groups to the “hate map.”
The FBI’s Richmond office would go on to cite the SPLC in drafting a memo on “radical-traditional Catholics.” While the FBI later rescinded the memo, the SPLC has kept the “radical-traditional Catholic hate groups” on the “hate map.”
The FBI officially cut all ties with the SPLC last year.
The CIA did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but this story will be updated with any response. |
| An Inconvenient Truth |
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Parents with Inconvenient Truths about Trans (PITT)
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This story was originally published on PITT on May 4, 2022. They re-publishing it in light of the recent mention of it during the State of the Union address delivered on Tuesday February 24th.
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This is the story of a 15 year old girl named Sage Lily. The author, her adopted mother (who happens to also be her grandmother), wants the world to know what is happening to vulnerable |
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trans identified children like her daughter. When PITT received her story they immediately got her in touch with people in their network who would be in a position to help her and to get her story visibility with a broader audience. All of that is currently in motion. Please take the time to read this heartbreaking story for yourself.
I am the grandmother of a 15 year old girl, Sage Lily.
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| I adopted Sage when she was just shy of 2 years old. Sage and I live in Virginia with my husband.
Sage started going through gender confusion in 8th grade. To that point she was a straight A student who enjoyed playing piano and writing poetry. At her small school, as Sage informed me, all the girls were either bi, trans, or lesbian. At some point social influence overcame her. She advised her friends and teachers that she wanted to be trans and that Sage would no longer be her name—she requested to be called “Draco” and referred to as a boy. The school obliged since Virginia, by law, requires that students be affirmed by the school staff. Unfortunately, the school did not tell me, her legal mother, about any of this—I was left in the dark. I wish I had known. If I had known, this would have been a much different story.
Last August (2021), Sage started 9th grade at the local high school with her trans id in place, unbeknownst to me. She was bullied and became extremely vulnerable. Soon she was exploited online—a fact I did not know about until later.
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On August 25th, she ran away from home. I immediately notified the local sheriff. Her case quickly escalated and the FBI and US Marshall became involved. Sage had been sex trafficked from Virginia into Washington DC and then transported to Maryland. The FBI and Marshals found her in a locked room at the home of the abuser at 10pm on September 2nd. They called me to let me know, and to inform me that I could pick her up the next morning to bring her home to Virginia. I was told she needed to stay the night at a detention center, as she was being treated at the hospital, and needed a rape kit completed. I was frantic, as you might imagine, and distraught that I was not allowed to see her right away.
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I arrived at the detention center bright and early the next morning. However, once there I received surprising and devastating news—Sage was now being represented by a juvenile attorney and would not be allowed to return to Virginia with us, and I would not be allowed to see her until a court hearing could take place. And, on top of that, my husband and I were going to be investigated for "abuse" because we called her “Sage” and not “Draco”, and used female pronouns in reference to her, rather than he/him.
Abuse charges were filed against my husband and myself and Sage was put in the BOYS’ UNIT of the Children’s Home—where she was AGAIN abused. Following this she was placed in a private room. Again, I was not advised that Sage (with a female body), was placed in a boys’ unit. So now my traumatized child had been kidnapped, sex trafficked, and then sexually abused again while in the care of the state, rather than returning to her loving home to rebuild. Instead of the trauma care that Sage desperately needed when she was rescued, she was manipulated and our family was treated unfairly. Instead of getting the help she desperately needed and deserved, she was fated to experience even more pain and suffering.
After an investigation by both Maryland and Virginia DSS, the abuse charges were determined to be unfounded. Yet Sage still was not allowed to come home. Instead, she was put on center stage to push a political and gender agenda for a Maryland public defender with clearly no knowledge of trauma caused by sexual exploitation of a child.
A typical 14 year old is emotionally immature and struggles with many issues. Sage had additional issues on top of these normal concerns, as she had experienced severe trauma before the age of two. Now with this new trauma of being sex trafficked, she was even more vulnerable. Despite therapeutic residential programs in Virginia that were willing and able to accept her, the Maryland public defender attorney said Sage could not go because of the trans identification. And the Maryland juvenile court judge agreed!
On November 8th, 2021, the Maryland judge finally released Sage to a facility in Virginia. This was immediately appealed the next day (going against the interstate law for custody) and Maryland continued to retain custody of my child, hoping to place Sage in a foster home in Maryland. Why? Because I called her Sage, her legal name, and not Draco. In this case, it was simply because my husband and I forgot—because certainly, desperate to get our child back, we would have done anything, including using the name Draco. Now our abused child, the victim of a federal sex trafficking crime, was being sent to a foster home because of gender ideology. There is no way to interpret that this was in my child’s best interest.
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To make matters worse, one day, on November 12th, Sage did not return to The Children’s Home after school. She had run away again. Law enforcement, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) and the FBI were all notified.
At that point I could only hope and pray that Sage was not back in the hands of the predators. I prayed she was still alive. Everyone should have been looking for her. Instead, the Maryland appeal remained active and the attorneys were focused on using her to establish case law for transgender individuals (this attorney went so far as to advise my child she intended to file an appeal and if that failed, would go to the Supreme Court!). This was the Maryland attorney’s main intention—and it was to be accomplished at the risk of my child’s mental health and now her life. |
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Sage started going through gender confusion in 8th grade. To that point she was a straight A student who enjoyed playing piano and writing poetry. At her small school, as Sage informed me, all the girls were either bi, trans, or lesbian. |
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To my horror, the Maryland Marshal found that Sage had been sent from Maryland to Dallas, Texas. On January 24, 2022, the Texas Marshal, through the grace of God, found her in a locked room where, once again, she had been abused by a predator. He had used her for pornography, sold her body for money, starved her, beat her, and drugged her. It was a true miracle she was found. So many children are never found. But, her exploitation would never have happened in the first place if not for the intervention of the state of Maryland.
Now Sage is in a residential therapeutic facility for the next 1-2 years depending on how well she responds to the program. She will struggle with these consequences for the rest of her life. She is only 15 years old. She spent her 15th birthday, October 20th, in Maryland—and I was not even allowed to visit her. I cried all day that day.
I want to share her story with anyone and everyone who will listen. I am just one small voice for thousands of these children that our society is endangering by passing laws that give them more rights than the parents who are there to safeguard and protect them. These new laws are putting vulnerable kids like mine in danger. These kids are not capable of the decisions they are empowered with, and adults are stepping in to exploit them, while their parents have been relegated to the sidelines. These kids’ brains aren’t even fully developed until the age of 25! We’re allowing these children, schools and medical facilities to legally keep secrets from the parents. This is very real and very scary. I should know.
We need to become one loud voice and warn people that their children’s lives are at stake—literally. There are sick predators out there watching and waiting for these confused kids. Our society is leading them astray by allowing these laws to be passed. It’s a very real issue that deserves much more attention. Think this can’t happen to you? It can. Please help by sharing Sage’s story.
Find these accounts helpful? PITT wants to hear your story. Send submissions to PITT@genspect.org |
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Wave of California Teacher Strikes ‘Is No Coincidence’ |
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The California Teachers Association organized to trigger a wave of negotiations and potential strikes to garner public attention and flex political muscle.
An article by Carolyn Jones posted to Cal Matters on Feb 27 2026 |
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If your child’s teacher hasn’t threatened to go on strike recently, they probably will soon.
Thousands of California K-12 teachers have walked off their jobs or voted to strike in the past few months, as part of a strategic, statewide effort by the California Teachers Association to boost salaries and benefits — and get the public’s attention.
“All these districts going out on strike — it’s not a coincidence at all,” said David Goldberg, president of the California Teachers Association, the state’s largest teachers union. “Everywhere in the state there are people with unmet needs. The conditions have been ripe for a long time.”
San Francisco teachers went on strike for four days this month. West Contra Costa teachers went on strike in December. San Diego, Woodland, Apple Valley, Duarte and Madera teachers planned to strike in the past few months but reached a settlement at the last minute. Teachers in Los Angeles, Oakland, Dublin, West Sacramento, Twin Rivers and Natomas have voted overwhelmingly to strike. In Berkeley, Soquel and other districts, teachers are holding rallies and appear headed for strike votes.
Ten local teachers unions under the umbrella of the California Teachers Association worked for years to align their contracts so they’d expire at the same time: June 30, 2025. The idea, Goldberg said, was to trigger a wave of negotiations and potential strikes to garner public attention and flex political muscle. Teachers unions from at least a dozen other districts have also joined the effort, even though they weren’t part of the original cohort. |
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Ten local teachers unions under the umbrella of the California Teachers Association worked for years to align their contracts so they’d expire at the same time: June 30, 2025. The idea, Goldberg said, was to trigger a wave of negotiations and potential strikes to garner public attention and flex political muscle. Teachers unions from at least a dozen other districts have also joined the effort, even though they weren’t part of the original cohort.
“We’re a strong union with a lot of resources, and we’re taking advantage of that,” Goldberg
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 | Teachers, students and supporters picket outside of Mission High School in San Francisco, on Feb. 9, 2026. Photo by Jeff Chiu, AP Photo |
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said, whose union represents about 310,000 teachers. “Teachers are learning from each other, and getting some clarity on how to win resources for public schools.”
Public and political priorities
Teacher contracts vary by district, but the demands are similar: higher salaries, better benefits and amenities that affect student well-being, such as sanctuary protection for immigrants.
Considering the ever-escalating cost of living in California, the demands are not a surprise, said Julia Koppich, an education consultant who specializes in labor-management relations.
Teachers in expensive cities like San Francisco often can’t afford to live near their jobs, she said, noting that starting teachers in San Francisco Unified earn about $80,000. San Francisco’s starting police officers, by comparison, make about $120,000.
It’s been a frustration for the teaching profession for decades, she said. But districts don’t have much control over their revenues and substantial increases in spending would have to come from the state, she said.
“To be sure, the issue of marshaling sufficient resources is a district conversation about teacher worth,” Koppich said. “But, ultimately, it’s a state discussion about public and political priorities.”
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District financial hardships
At the same time that teachers are demanding more money, school districts are facing financial hardships. Declining enrollment, especially in urban districts, has meant half-empty classrooms and less money from the state, which funds schools based on how many students show up every day. Closing schools is the obvious answer, but that’s proven to be deeply unpopular and few school boards appear willing to take that step.
Another financial challenge has been the end of pandemic relief money. California schools received more than $23.4 billion in one-time grants intended to help students recover from pandemic-related learning loss. State and federal authorities advised schools to spend the money on temporary tutors, after-school and summer programs and other short-term expenses. But some districts, including Los
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| Ten local teachers unions under the umbrella of the California Teachers Association worked for years to align their contracts so they’d expire at the same time: June 30, 2025. The idea, Goldberg said, was to trigger a wave of negotiations and potential strikes to garner public attention and flex political muscle. |
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Angeles Unified, San Diego Unified and San Francisco Unified, used some of their funds to increase teacher pay or hire permanent staff, which they’re now struggling to pay for after the grant money ended.
So even though the state has increased K-12 school funding the past few years, some districts are financially strapped. It’s unclear whether they can afford teachers’ demands for higher salaries or more generous benefits, said Marguerite Roza, director of the Edunomics Lab at Georgetown University.
Los Angeles Unified, for example, gave its teachers 5% raises plus a $2,000 one-time stipend and a $500 bonus. The district’s nurses, who are also represented by the union, got $5,000 stipends.
“The unions are saying, ‘We know you have an ATM back there. If you were nice, you’d push the buttons,’” Roza said. But districts’ money is tight, she said, “so we’re at a stand off.”
If districts agree to teachers’ demands, cuts will have to come from somewhere — most likely from programs considered non-essential, such as sports, electives, advanced placement classes and other offerings, she said.
It could also mean staff layoffs. Tutors, classroom aides and newer teachers would be the most vulnerable.
Those cuts would harm low-income students the most, Roza said, because they’re more likely to rely on special school programs and attend schools with newer teachers. Low-income students are also more likely to be affected by a strike, she said, because families typically have fewer options for child care and those students are more likely to suffer from academic disruptions.
School boards need to stand up for those students, she said, and do a better job negotiating with teachers unions. That entails more transparency about finances and a willingness to close under-used schools.
“It’s so irresponsible to erode services for vulnerable students because you don’t have a spine,” Roza said.
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| | The California Teachers Association initially coordinated with 10 district unions to align their contracts to expire on the same date:
San Diego Unified Anaheim Union High School District Los Angeles Unified San Francisco Unified Oakland Unified Berkeley Unified West Contra Costa Unified Sacramento City Unified Twin Rivers Unified Natomas Unified |
| ‘Kids as leverage’
Lance Christensen, vice president of education policy at the California Policy Center, said California should get rid of teachers unions altogether. Teachers deserve higher salaries, he said, but the teachers union does not always act in the interests of students.
The union devotes too much time to defending incompetent teachers, he said, and strikes are harmful to students and families. He also said the California Teachers Association has a political stranglehold on Sacramento that “overshadows every conversation in the Legislature, even if it’s not about education.” |
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He noted that charter schools and private schools are rarely unionized, and sometimes have better outcomes than traditional public schools. A handful of other states don’t allow teachers to collectively bargain, and at least 35 don’t allow teachers unions to strike.
“The union uses kids as leverage,” said Christensen, who ran for state superintendent of public instruction in 2022. “Right now, CTA is the biggest evil in California education.”
Next steps in San Francisco
In San Francisco, parent Meredith Dodson said she’s relieved the strike is over. Although most parents support teachers and believe they deserve better compensation, the strike was stressful for families and disrupted learning for thousands of students.
The $183 million settlement includes raises and improved benefits for teachers, which the district plans to pay for by draining its reserve funds.
Parents now are bracing for the inevitable cuts. The district’s finances remain shaky, and aren’t likely to improve any time soon.
“What comes next? Layoffs? Increased class sizes? State intervention?” said Dodson, who is executive director of the San Francisco Parents Coalition, a parent advocacy group. “There’s going to be some hard questions for the board, and they’re going to have to ask themselves, what’s best for kids?” |
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Support School Board Trustees Who Protect Children and Promote Liberty |
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| Continue to support Santa Clara County schoolboard trustees who support parental rights and preserve Christian values. They are:
Oak Grove School District: Otila Torres San Jose Unified School District:
Nicole Gribstad Franklin-McKinley School District: Marc Cooper Morgan Hill School District:
Pam Gardiner Alum Rock Union School District: Linda Chavez Cupertino Union School District:
Long Jiao
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Franklin-McKinley school board trustee Marc Cooper has announced that he will run once again for the board in 2026. Please support his candidacy however you can. |
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| Moms for Liberty will always stand on the side of truth and the protection of parental rights to see to the proper nurturing of their children. If you don't understand why we do, you may be a part of the problem.
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California Chapters of Moms for Liberty Endorse Sonja Shaw for California State Superintendent of Public Instruction |
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Sonja Shaw, a devoted mom and tigress when it comes to defending the welfare of her two young daughters, decided to take on a broken public school system that has strayed from its central mission of providing a solid education to California's children.
Sonja was elected to the Board of Education in November 2022. Born and raised in Chino California, Sonja was educated in Chino Valley schools and graduated from Ayala High School. She lives in Chino with her husband Chris and their two children Jaxx and Kooper, both of whom attend Chino Valley schools.
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Ms. Sonja Shaw |
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Before serving on the school board, Sonja owned and operated two small businesses: one involving training women about fitness and health and the other a professional photography studio. She has also previously held a California Real Estate License. Today, Sonja continues to lead a small community-based Bible study. She was motivated to run for school board to give parents a seat at the education table.
Sonja has served as President of the Board of Education since 2023. She represents her District as City of Chino Liaison and as a representative of the Baldy View Regional Occupational Program Commission. |
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Read Sonja's encouraging article below entitled Gavin Newsom cut parents out of trans kids’ lives — until one brave judge said no
The California chapters of Moms for Liberty are proud to support Sonja Shaw in her run for California State Superintendent of Public Instruction. Godspeed Sonja! |
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The Science Is In: Girls Can't Be Boys & Boys Can't Be Girls |
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Pro-Transgender Democrats Are the Real ‘Science Deniers’
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Has anyone noticed that climate change alarmist Democrats no longer refer to those who don’t buy into their baseless warnings of impending eco-apocalypse as “science deniers”?
That isn’t only because their six decades of predictions of environmental doom consistently have failed to come to pass. It’s also because they themselves have become the actual science deniers.
That epithet can now be turned against Democrats because of their adamant denial of the biological science of chromosomes—XX (female) and XY (male)—in the battle over so-called transgender rights. Dismissing chromosome science as “sex assigned at birth” doesn’t change that. |
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 | If only we could detect the differences. |
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The latest example of Democrats’ science denial appeared Feb. 18, when the Kansas House of Representatives voted 87-37 in favor of SB 244, which defines “gender” as biological sex, bans men and boys from using women’s and girls’ restrooms and locker rooms, and mandates accurate sex-based identification on licenses and birth certificates in the state.
Science—and common sense—notwithstanding, every Democrat in the Kansas House voted against SB 244, and the Feb. 13 veto by Gov. Laura Kelly, a liberal Democrat, was easily and rightly overridden. (Nearly three years earlier, in April 2023, state lawmakers overrode Ms. Kelly’s veto of a state law banning faux females from competing in girls’ and women’s athletics.) |
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[M]ost Democrats—including, inexplicably, Democratic women—now prioritize the “rights” of the estimated 0.003% (three one-thousandths of 1%) of the population who “identify” as transgender ahead of those of the 51% of the population who identify as (real) girls and women. |
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“This poorly drafted bill will have numerous and significant consequences far beyond the intent to limit the right for trans people to use the appropriate bathroom,” the governor said in her latest laughable veto message. (To the contrary, the new state law will compel gender-confused people to use the appropriate bathroom—the one based on biology.)
According to Kelly, those other supposedly “significant consequences” of SB 244 include:
“If your grandfather is in a nursing home in a shared room, as a granddaughter, you would not be able to visit him.
“If your wife is in a shared hospital room, as a husband, you would not be able to visit her.
“If your sister is living in a dorm at [Kansas State University], as a brother, you would not be able to visit her in her room.”
Nursing home and hospital rooms have one-at-a-time restrooms, and college dormitories have visitor bathrooms, so those are all risible red herrings.
“I believe the Legislature should stay out of the business of telling Kansans how to go to the bathroom,” Kelly concluded, “and instead stay focused on how to make life more affordable for Kansans.”
In the governor’s telling, Kansas lawmakers can’t walk and chew gum at the same time. The two issues are neither mutually exclusive nor a zero-sum game, so that too is patent nonsense.
“This bill protects girls and women, the ones feminists used to claim to stand for,” said state Rep. Carolyn Caiharr, a Republican. |
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“Used to” is the operative term there, insofar as most Democrats—including, inexplicably, Democratic women—now prioritize the “rights” of the estimated 0.003% (three one-thousandths of 1%) of the population who “identify” as transgender ahead of those of the 51% of the population who identify as (real) girls and women.
“Maybe this is a culture war bill,” state Sen. Cindy Holscher, a Democrat, complained. There’s no “maybe” about it, and Holscher and her fellow Democrats are all on the wrong side in that war, as is made clear by numerous polls, which consistently find this to be an 80% to 20% issue, and in some polls even more lopsided than that. |
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Aware of the fact that they are on the losing side of those polling numbers, Democrats and their allies on the LGBTQ+ left are now conferring on how best to parry anticipated Republican attacks on the transgender issue as the November congressional midterms approach.
That belies Kelly’s spurious assertion that it’s “a manufactured problem.” |
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In an article headlined “On trans rights, Dems prepare for 2026,” The Washington Post reported Feb. 19 that the pro-LGBTQ+ Human Rights Campaign confessed to having been caught flat-footed by Donald Trump’s 2024 anti-transgender “they/them” pronouns presidential campaign attack ads against Kamala Harris.
“We’ve got to be prepared for it, address it head-on, then be prepared to pivot,” HRC President Kelley Robinson said of the expectation that Republicans will reprise the attacks this fall.
“Address it head-on”? Democrats have their work cut out for them on that front. How do you make a persuasive case for allowing gender-confused males to invade females’ private spaces? |
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[L]ike chromosome science, something else is undeniable: Democrats continue to push the transgender agenda at their own political peril. |
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How do you defend allowing males to compete in girls’ and women’s sports when, according to SheWon.org’s meticulously documented tally, faux females have cheated 3,257 girls and women out of 4,627 records, medals, trophies, and scholarships across 53 sports worldwide since 2001?
As for “pivot”? Translation: Change the subject ASAP.
“The Democrat Party is addicted to taking the wrong side of overwhelmingly popular issues just to satisfy their radical base, and it proves just how out of touch they are with the |
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general electorate,” National Republican Congressional Committee spokesman Mike Marinella told The Post. “Republicans will continue to draw that stark contrast and remind voters exactly who’s on their side and who isn’t.”
They are already doing that in hotly contested Senate races in North Carolina and Georgia, even as Rep. Pramila Jayapal, Washington Democrat, and Sen. Edward J. Markey, Massachusetts Democrat, introduced a federal “Transgender Bill of Rights” on Feb. 11.
So, like chromosome science, something else is undeniable: Democrats continue to push the transgender agenda at their own political peril.
Originally published by The Washington Times |
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| Roger Sherman: The Founder Who Signed All 4 Documents |
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Roger Sherman was a pivotal Founding Father of the United States, renowned for being the only person to sign all four of the nation’s most important founding documents: the Continental Association (1774), the Declaration of Independence (1776), the Articles of Confederation (1777), and the U.S. Constitution (1787).
Born on April 19, 1721, in Newton, Massachusetts, Sherman was largely self-educated, rising from a background as a shoemaker and farmer to become a respected lawyer, judge, and statesman. After moving to New Milford, Connecticut, he built a successful career in law, surveying, and public service, eventually serving in the Connecticut House of Representatives and the Superior Court.
Sherman played a crucial role at the 1787 Constitutional Convention, where he proposed the Connecticut Compromise—a pivotal agreement that established a bicameral Congress: the House of Representatives (based on population) and the Senate (equal representation for each state). This compromise was essential in securing ratification of the Constitution.
He served as a U.S. Representative from Connecticut (1789–1791) and then as a U.S. Senator (1791–1793) until his death on July 23, 1793. He was also the first mayor of New Haven, Connecticut, and a dedicated supporter of education, including serving as treasurer of Yale College.
Despite his immense contributions, Sherman remains one of the most overlooked Founding Fathers, often overshadowed by more prominent figures, yet his legacy endures through the structure of American government. |
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| | | Online Pharmacies Hawk Trans Drugs to Vulnerable Kids Without Requiring Prescription, Watchdog Warns |
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A medical watchdog is calling on the Food and Drug Administration to investigate companies that allow Americans to purchase sex-rejecting drugs without a prescription, in pursuit of transgender identity.
Do No Harm released a report titled “The Lack of Barriers to Minors Ordering Cross-Sex Hormones Online” Tuesday. It highlights certain websites that may enable minors to obtain estrogen and testosterone from |
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on Feb. 6, 2025. (Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images) |
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online pharmacies and other sources that do not appear to require prescriptions or age verification.
Dr. Kurt Miceli, a psychiatrist and chief medical officer at Do No Harm, blamed the transgender movement—specifically the Human Rights Campaign and the World Professional Association for Transgender Health—for creating the conditions behind this phenomenon.
“The unfortunate reality is that these online vendors have gained a market due to the normalization of dangerous hormonal interventions as ‘gender-affirming care’ and the resulting growth of the child transgender industry more broadly,” he told The Daily Signal.
“Activist organizations like the Human Rights Campaign and ideologically motivated groups like WPATH have succeeded in selling experimental, irreversible procedures as medically necessary treatments for children,” Miceli noted. “Is it any wonder that minors believe this to be true, and may be turning to alternative sources that don’t require prescriptions?”
“Our report reveals how online pharmacies may enable minors to obtain cross-sex hormones with alarming ease,” Miceli said in a separate statement on the report. “From websites listing online vendors across the globe to marketplaces for ‘homebrewed’ hormones, we found a multitude of troubling pathways that appear to bypass basic safeguards and regulatory oversight.”
“Gender-confused kids should not be able to purchase potent, experimental medications with just a few simple clicks,” he added. “These hormones carry significant risks, including effects that can be irreversible. We urge the FDA and other federal agencies to investigate any potential unlawful sellers and, where appropriate, for states to do the same when their laws are being violated.” |
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| Transgender ‘Medicine’ Under Fire
While activists claim that teens who suffer from gender dysphoria—the painful and persistent condition of identifying with the gender opposite one’s sex—need experimental medical interventions to prevent suicide, the Department of Health and Human Services concluded there is little evidence for positive impacts from such “treatments” for minors.
Studies have shown concrete harms from these drugs, however. One study found that males who identify as transgender and take estrogen in order to appear female face higher risks of infertility, diabetes, testicular and breast cancer, and early death. An FDA study found that suicidal thoughts actually increase among kids who take so-called puberty blockers.
A jury concluded that medical professionals had engaged in malpractice when cutting off the breasts of a young woman who later rejected her transgender identity. The jury ordered them to pay her $2 million. The American Society of Plastic Surgeons released a statement recommending against transgender surgery for minors under 19, leading other medical associations to follow suit.
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Many states passed laws protecting minors from sex-rejecting procedures, and that helps explain why companies may offer minors a way to obtain these drugs without a prescription.
‘Homebrewed’ Transgender Drugs
The Do No Harm report reveals major hubs from which users can obtain drugs for “hormone replacement therapy” or HRT.
“A cursory internet search for information related to pediatric medical transition reveals a host of resources directing users to online pharmacies, distribution networks for ‘homebrewed’ hormones, and guides on self-administering cross-sex hormones,” the report states.
The website Transgender Map, for example, says it aims to inform readers about “how to make a gender transition,” and lists several online pharmacies located on multiple continents. The website includes this disclaimer: “getting hormones without a prescription is against the law.”
HRT.Coffee and HRT Cafe provide information on pharmacies and hormone vendors, including accepted payment methods, country of origin, and product details. HRT Cafe includes a list of “unregulated” online pharmacies where users can purchase hormones online, and the website states that the pharmacies do not require prescriptions. As of Tuesday morning, HRT Cafe appears to be offline. |
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Do No Harm visited several of the listed pharmacies’ websites, and says many of them “do not appear to require a prescription or verification of a customer’s age at any point before prompting the customer to submit payment information.”
The Mexican pharmacy MedsMex ships to the U.S. and explicitly states on the website that it requires “No prescription to purchase any medicines in our pharmacy.
”Inhouse Pharmacy, based in the Pacific island nation of Vanuatu, states that it is “permitted to process your order without a prescription.”
The Daily Signal reached out to Andrea James (who runs Transgender Map), HRT.Coffee, HRT Cafe, MedsMex, and Inhouse Pharmacy for comment, and none responded by publication time. Neither the Human Rights Campaign nor WPATH responded to requests for comment.
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“Gender-confused kids should not be able to purchase potent, experimental medications with just a few simple clicks. These hormones carry significant risks, including effects that can be irreversible. We urge the FDA and other federal agencies to investigate any potential unlawful sellers and, where appropriate, for states to do the same when their laws are being violated."
- Dr. Kurt Miceli |
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The Food and Drug Administration also did not respond by publication time. |
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| Moms for Liberty Santa Clara Works with 917 Society
Getting Constitutions into the hands of every 8th grader |
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September 17, 1787 marks a pivital event that changed the world. It is the day the United States Constitution was signed by the delegates of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Moms for Liberty Santa Clara is now working with the 917 Society to get copies of our founding documents -- the Constitution and Declaration of Independence -- into the hands of 8th graders throughout the county. We believe it very important that our young people understand what makes this nation exceptional.
Within Santa Clara county we have over a hundred schools instructing 8th graders. The question now before us: how many of these schools are interested in teaching about the Constitution?
Preview the handout provided by clicking the image (at right). |
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A primary object should be the education of our youth in the science of government. In a republic, what species of knowledge can be equally important? And what duty more pressing than communicating it to those who are to be the future guardians of the liberties of the country?
- George Washington |
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| Midterms are Fast Approaching. Your Vote Is Vitally Important |
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Teach the Children Well |
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America Celebrates Its 250th Birthday 1776-2026 |
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| Rooting Out Pornographic Books In School Libraries |
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Karen England's organization Take Back the Classroom continues to work hard towards seeing to it that age inappropriate materials are removed from school libraries. |
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Parents just scored a big win!
SB 1250, an Oklahoma bill supported by Take Back the Classroom to remove sexually explicit materials from public school libraries, has passed the Oklahoma Senate and is now headed to the House of Representatives.
This wasn’t a close call. 39-8. The vote fell along party lines, with Republicans backing the measure to stop taxpayer-funded schools from making explicit material available to minors. |
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If it becomes law, SB 1250 would be one of the strongest bills in the country addressing explicit content in school libraries.
But the most revealing part? The debate.
The arguments used to oppose protecting kids in Oklahoma are the exact same arguments parents hear in school boards and legislatures across the country. The progressives try and |
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Check your own public-school libraries.
This issue isn’t just happening in one state.
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It’s happening everywhere.
And parents are starting to push back. |
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"Parents are the first and strongest advocates for their children. When we stand up and speak out, we can take back the classroom, reclaim our rights, and protect our kids from state-sponsored grooming."
- Karen England Founder, Take Back The Classroom
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Karen England, a warrior fighting to keep pornography out of the hands of children. |
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Follow the Money The organizations working to block parents and push and defend having sexually explicit materials in schools are powered by massive donor funding: - ACLU Foundation — $169.1M (FY2024)
- ACLU (c)(4) — $141.3M (FY2024)
- American Library Association (ALA) — $25.3M (2024)
- PEN America — $21.2M (2023)
That’s over $356 million in donations driving pressure campaigns, legal intimidation, and public messaging designed to make parents back down. Please do not back down!
Ongoing Education and Updates:
A regularly updated blog is maintained featuring the latest developments related to sexually explicit materials in schools. In addition, we offer training webinars to educate, empower, and connect individuals engaged in this important work.
At every level focus remains the same, namely to provide clear, practical tools that lead to meaningful results and protect the hearts and minds of our children. |
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Detransition: A Love Story |
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Inspecting Gender
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The classic coming-of-age story is always one of metamorphosis in which the hero changes from a dependent child into a competent young adult ready to begin the most creative phase of life. It is a difficult journey at the best of times, and much harder for those whose childhoods have been marked by instability or family breakup. And yet, even with these challenges, generations of people successfully navigated the way to adulthood, due, in no small part, to the familiar terrain. |
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For Zoe and her partner, Ian, the story was different. Coming of age at a time when everything—including their sex—was framed as a choice, their journeys were far harder. Like many of their peers, Zoe and Ian channeled their inchoate longing to grow up and find their place in the world into a narrow quest for identity. Not identity in the classic sense of an ever-evolving by-product of how we live our lives and our relationships with others, but as an internal essence to be revealed and a persona to be adopted. When they began to question their gender, they found an army of professionals only too happy to help them |
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change their bodies and to reassure them both that they were truly trans. Fortunately, they also found each other.
For Zoe and her partner, Ian, the story was different. Coming of age at a time when everything—including their sex—was framed as a choice, their journeys were far harder. Like many of their peers, Zoe and Ian channeled their inchoate longing to grow up and find their place in the world into a narrow quest for identity. Not identity in the classic sense of an ever-evolving by-product of how we live our lives and our relationships with others, but as an internal essence to be revealed and a persona to be adopted. When they began to question their gender, they found an army of professionals only too happy to help them change their bodies and to reassure them both that they were truly trans. Fortunately, they also found each other.
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Zoe “If I was to go back and tell my younger self something, it would be that identity is not as simple as a change of name. It has much more to do with the relationship you forge with others and your role in society. You cannot escape reality.” - Zoe
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| Ian
“Too often these narratives end on a foreboding note. That the world is cruel and that the victim is damaged beyond repair, and as a call for action against injustice. I cannot fully refute this. I knew the path back was never going to be easy. The same doctors who eagerly endorsed my mistake stood steadfast against any course correction. They offered me therapy eight years too late. In their words, it would soon show I was making the right decision.”
- Ian
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Beware: Schools Continue To Push Trans Ideology |
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Trans ideology in a middle school health class
In an email fom Nicole Neily, President & Founder of Defending Education sent on March 16 2026 |
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Parents send their kids to school to learn reading, writing, math… not sexual orientations and gender identities.
But that’s exactly what’s happening in classrooms across the country.
Recently, a New York middle school teacher taught an eighth-grade health lesson using a pro-transgender article that discussed things like chest binding and taking testosterone.
Yes — to middle schoolers.
When confronted, the teacher didn’t deny it. In fact, they confirmed the lesson was taught and explained that the goal was to “raise awareness about different sexual orientations and gender identities.”
Schools are increasingly using classroom time to introduce children to controversial gender ideology, often without informing parents and without any regard for whether the material is age-appropriate.
Middle school health classes should not be a venue for promoting medicalized gender activism to 13- and 14-year-olds.
And yet it keeps happening!
That’s because teachers’ unions, activist groups, and bureaucrats are working overtime to normalize these ideas in schools.
Our team works every day to uncover what’s happening in classrooms, bring it to light, and empower parents to demand accountability from school districts.
Parents deserve transparency about what their children are learning in school.
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| Childhood In Need Of Restoration |
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A Parent Coach Explains — And Offers a Path Forward | More parents are reporting that their children blame their mothers for childhood “traumas” and other negative experiences from their childhood or present day. Children of all ages bring up seemingly insignificant issues, call it trauma, then blame mom for their inability to cope with it. |
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I’ve been an Affirming Reality parent coach with Gabrielle Clark for more than 18 months. We coach non-affirming parents of children who reject their sex. In recent months, more of our clients have young adult children than tweens and young teens. This has given us a broader perspective on the impact sex rejection has on families.
Still, there is a common theme that we’ve noticed in both age groups.
More parents are reporting that their children blame their mothers for childhood “traumas” and other negative experiences from their |
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childhood or present day. Children of all ages bring up seemingly insignificant issues, call it a trauma, then blame mom for their inability to cope with it.
It could be as simple as discipline for not doing a chore.
I’m not talking about discipline in the form of physical or verbal abuse. These children are reporting that any discipline is being called trauma-inducing. One mother shared that her daughter recalled a “traumatic” memory when mom took her privileges away for not putting away her laundry.
Another mother reported that her adult son became disrespectful and cut off communication with her after she asked him to take on more responsibility around the house.
Our clients’ children also fault their mothers for negative childhood experiences, unrelated to discipline. One mother said her child told her that their therapist helped them realize that it was burdensome and traumatizing to help with household chores, miss out on fun activities, and support their mother while she was seriously ill. Another child told her mother that she was traumatized by having a fire alarm go off in preschool, but mom telling her that she would be okay wasn’t supportive enough. The mother didn’t even remember the event or realize that it was so traumatic for her daughter.
These mothers are simply doing what most good parents do.
They require their children to take responsibility, then dish out a consequence when the child doesn’t follow through. Others ask their children to help or cope with life events. They believe they were appropriately supportive. Even if they didn’t handle it perfectly, they weren’t neglectful or abusive.
Still, their children blame mothers for their inability to cope, and seemingly carry that grief with them for years. |
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In all of these cases, the child has a strained relationship with their mother. The younger children butt heads with their mother and throw tantrums. The older children throw tantrums, too. They may not answer text messages or phone calls in a timely manner, or they just ghost their mothers altogether, while maintaining relationships with |
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The trans movement exhibits all the features of a cult. Cults intentionally cut their members off from loving family members and friends, especially those who aren’t “believers.” It’s easy to break up families when a child disconnects from the most nurturing person in their life. Their mom. |
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their fathers. Strangely, it happens even if the child comes out to their mother but not their father.
But why is this happening?
Our working belief is that this resentment for mothers is influenced by the trans cult. The trans movement exhibits all the features of a cult. Cults intentionally cut their members off from loving family members and friends, especially those who aren’t “believers.” It’s easy to break up families when a child disconnects from the most nurturing person in their life. Their mom. We suspect that people who reject their sex are being coached to break connections with their mother.
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We notice this pattern of behavior when the trans-identifying child has been to a trans-affirming therapist, then brings up the issue with their mother after a therapy session. Could affirming therapists be intentionally encouraging their patients to attribute their psychological and emotional problems to experiences with their mothers? We don’t have concrete evidence, but it is common for therapists to ask their clients to recall early-life events and developmental history to help identify the roots of current problems. If trans-affirming therapists are encouraging their patients to attribute their problems to their relationship with their non-affirming mother, it would fall in line with cult behavior. |
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Could affirming therapists be intentionally encouraging their patients to attribute their psychological and emotional problems to experiences with their mothers? |
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Still, kids who aren’t in therapy are exhibiting these behaviors as well. We know that device and social media addiction are key reasons for sex rejection. Social media has an endless supply of affirming information that discourages maintaining family connections, especially when parents are “transphobes.”
When I posted about this on X, I received many comments from parents who could relate. |
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Of course, it is difficult for mothers to endure.
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Understandably, mothers who stayed home and also homeschooled their kids take this hardest. Can you imagine dedicating your entire life to raising a child only to have them grow up and resent you? Not only are these children rejecting their sex and the name you gave them, but they are also rewriting the past and rejecting you. |
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Can you imagine dedicating your entire life to raising a child only to have them grow up and resent you? Not only are these children rejecting their sex and the name you gave them, but they are also rewriting the past and rejecting you. |
As mothers ourselves, it is painful to witness, but it is our job to help parents guide their children to reality. Mothers caught in this emotional train wreck of having a trans-identifying child can’t see past the hurt to be effective guides. Focusing 100% of your energy on desisting and de-transing your kid is extremely
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stressful, and it is unproductive if you aren’t psychologically healthy.
So, if you are a mother experiencing this, how do you navigate it?
Your first order of business is to listen and help them see another perspective, all while never letting them see you sweat.
Don’t show anger or defensiveness when they tell you their discovery. Acknowledge their emotions and ask them clarifying questions to find out exactly what they mean.
Actively listen and show empathy. Just allow them time to express their feelings and explain their perspective.
Then, let them know that you never thought about it that way. You do not need to agree with them or allow them to rewrite history. Instead, use the opportunity to show their resilience and growth from the experience.
This gives them a positive perspective to consider.
Next, Mama, get a life. First, get out of parent groups that talk about this issue. The successful parents are not in these groups. The parents who are there aren’t successful with desistance. They ruminate on the negative behaviors and the pain. That is anxiety-provoking and depressing.
Second, find some activities that have nothing to do with helping your kids. Do something exhilarating and just plain fun.
Also, take care of your health and appearance. Focus on your health and nutrition. Exercise.
Get your hair and nails done. Do whatever you once did to make you feel good about yourself. Volunteer, reconnect with your spouse, enjoy time with family and friends, and love on the other children.
They need you too. If moms are not successful doing this on their own, our third recommendation is therapy. We often have to direct mothers to a therapist so they can benefit from our coaching. Desistance coaching is more effective when parents can fully engage and participate.
But the most important part of having mom rejuvenated and healthy is that the kids notice the difference. Why is this important? For one, they learn that mom’s life doesn’t revolve around them. That is a reality check they need to face. Also, they witness you demonstrating resilience and healthy coping. Youth who reject their sex use it as a maladaptive coping strategy. Observing parents who cope well provides a model for them.
In conclusion, the emotional journey that mothers of trans-identifying children face is undeniably complex and painful. The observed patterns of blame and resentment highlight the significant impact of external influences, including affirming therapists and social media, on family dynamics. As parents, it is crucial to foster open communication and understanding while gently challenging the narratives being pushed by these external forces. |
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By focusing on healthy relationships and reality-based guidance, mothers can navigate this difficult landscape with resilience. It is essential to remember that they are not alone in their struggles and that nurturing a supportive environment is key to healing and reconnection within the family. |
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Youth who reject their sex use it as a maladaptive coping strategy. Observing parents who cope well provides a model for them. |
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Introducing James Lindsay to the Restore Childhood Community
Six years ago today, we were told to “stay home, stay safe,” and “flatten the curve.”
Most of us had never heard the phrase “out of an abundance of caution” and then suddenly, we heard nothing else. That moment marked something beyond a public health response.
It was the day many of us began to understand, in real time, what a coordinated propaganda campaign actually looks and feels like.
I have spent the years since trying to decode it. And no one has been more essential to that education than Dr. James Lindsay.
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James Lindsay is a mathematician, bestselling author, internationally recognized speaker, and the founder of New Discourses. He is best known for his relentless criticism of woke ideology, the now-famous Grievance Studies Affair — in which he and colleagues successfully submitted fabricated papers to peer-reviewed academic journals to expose ideological capture in academia — and his bestselling books Cynical Theories and Race Marxism, with Cynical Theories translated into over a dozen languages. A mathematician with a Ph.D., he has written six books spanning religion, the
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Dr James Lindsay, New Discourses |
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philosophy of science, and postmodern theory. He has appeared on The Joe Rogan Experience, Fox News, Glenn Beck, and NPR, and his work has been praised by scholars across the political spectrum for its rigor and clarity.
What makes James Lindsay indispensable — and why I keep coming back to his work — is that he doesn’t just name the problem. He teaches you how it works. He has spent years mapping the architecture of ideological capture: how movements are manufactured, how language is weaponized, how institutions are hollowed out, and how ordinary people become unwitting participants in campaigns designed by others. He gave us the tools to see Social Justice for what it was. Now he’s applying those same tools to what’s happening on the right.
On this sixth anniversary of the pandemic shutdowns and school closures, when our society shut down to reorder itself, I thought there was no better moment to introduce James to the Restore Childhood community. I asked James if I could share this piece — which appeared originally on X — with our audience, and he graciously said yes.
If you’re new to his work, consider this your crash course. And if you’ve been following him for years, you already know: he’s usually about eighteen months ahead of everyone else. - Natalya |
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| Addressing Zoomerslop. A real Gen Z quote:
“Of all my friends, Israel is the very first thing that they want to learn about and understand, because it does go back to America First. I, in fact, have not talked to one Gen Z conservative that has been pro-Israel. Everybody I’ve talked to is questioning Israel.” |
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Listen, kids. Doesn’t that seem really f--king weird to you? The main thing your whole cohort cares about is another country, one that is allied with us and kicking ass in the most Top Gun way you can imagine? Doesn’t it seem weird that everyone in your generation is focused on another country that isn’t even attacking us? It should seem weird because it is weird.
The reason it’s happening is not because Israel is relevant to all of your lives. |
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The reason it is happening is because you’re being propagandized. Let me repeat the quote in words that hit your big brothers and sisters right in the ******* ten years ago:
“Of all my friends, privilege is the very first thing that they want to learn about and understand, because it does go back to Social Justice. I, in fact, have not talked to one Millennial liberal that doesn’t question our privilege. Everybody I’ve talked to is questioning privilege: white privilege, male privilege, straight privilege.” |
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New Discourses |
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Do you think that was normal?
No, it wasn’t normal either. Every Gen X or older person can tell you that the young people in their generations had many, varied, and diverse interests. There was no top of mind for everyone in a generation. But the Millennials got it with privilege and Social Justice, and you’re getting it with Israel and “America First.”
Kids, listen to me.
This is not normal.
This is not natural.
This is the result of dedicated propaganda campaigns.
You are being propagandized.
The method of propaganda being used is primarily something called “reflexivity,” which is a method developed by George Soros to create mass movements of belief around deliberate lies that he called “fertile fallacies.”
He called them “fertile fallacies” because they are lies (fallacies, errors, differences between what’s believed and what’s really true) that can take off (fertile) in a population. They’re “lies with legs,” it has been said. |
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The reason everyone in your generation is suddenly talking about Israel is because propagandists in your midst have made Israel your “current thing.” It is a reflexive campaign, and you aren’t just a victim but are playing your part. |
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The method of “reflexivity” is to get everyone believing the same erroneous stuff in an increasing way at the same time. This is accomplished through local media saturation: everyone is talking about the same thing in the same way at the same time, and eventually so are your friends. Then the ideas “reflect” all around you creating a sense of social consensus and widespread belief. Reflexive campaigns are everywhere now.
On the Left, we call them the “Current Thing.” We have rafts of memes of the NPCs all changing their tune or saying the same thing or being reprogrammed or being hypnotized into the newest Current Thing, which changes when the media does.
That’s you! Now! You’re being Sorosed!
The reason everyone in your generation is suddenly talking about Israel is because propagandists in your midst have made Israel your “current thing.” It is a reflexive campaign, and you aren’t just a victim but are playing your part.
The framing for that reflexive campaign is “America First.”
The propagandists are exploiting your love of country and frustration with bad actors in our governments and their “global partners,” which are increasingly being exposed, to get you attached to a bunch of fertile fallacies about Israel, all of which play upon your fears, anxieties, frustrations, and love for your beautiful country.
Here are some:
“Israel is not really our greatest ally. It isn’t even an ally.” “We can’t afford things at home because Israel gets aid money.”
“This is Israel’s War, and I’m not dying in Israel’s War.” “Israel attacked the USS Liberty and isn’t our friend.”
“Jeffrey Epstein was working with Israel.” “Israel is too weak to exist on its own so it manipulates America into supporting it.”
“Israel is a settler-colonialist project that is doing a genocide of the indigenous Palestinians.” (OOPS MY BAD THAT’S THE ONE THEY’RE TELLING YOUR FRIENDS ON THE LEFT)
“Israel is a warmongering vassal state under with US protectorate status that is seeking to become a regional power by starting random wars that it drags the US into and doing genocide.” (AHH THAT’S YOUR VERSION OF THE SAME LIE!) None of these (or dozens more) is accurate.
They are all fallacies (lies) designed to take off in the social and emotional environments you find yourselves in, driven by media and political propagandists who have their own agendas but need your help (just like the NPCs on the Left).
The reason you are so obsessed (and, yes, that’s obsession) with Israel is because you are being targeted by reflexive propaganda campaigns designed to make you all fixate on this object that can be alleged to cause most of your problems. In fact, it causes few, if any, of your problems and is actively solving many problems you are blessed enough not to even know that you have.
Friends, you are being propagandized.
You are being led to focus and fixate on these things because it serves dark interests that are not your own.
The same Soros techniques that work on the Left are being used on you, and you’re helping them work.
How do you stop them?
Stop listening to propagandists. This is actually really important. Seek out the opposite side of what you’re being told and try to understand the truth.
Use critical thinking. Ask yourself if you’re being asked to think about issues or asked to feel about issues.
Be skeptical of something that appears suddenly in the news or on platforms that everyone is repeating all the time all at once. That’s how Soros’s reflexivity works. Understand, just like how it was true with CNN and other trusted news sources, that trusted sources can be bought, at which point they are not trustworthy anymore and are using your trust to manipulate you.
The biggest anti-America operation that’s happening right now is the sudden skeptical-to-hostile fixation on Israel. Notice that it’s only been a thing since October 7, 2023, exactly the same time the parallel propaganda wave began on the Left. What you’re participating in is the side of that same campaign tailored to your values, your anxieties, and your frustrations. No different.
This campaign is rapidly turning people against not just Israel and often Jews (against your values, I’m sure), but against MAGA, Trump, the United States and its role in the world, and the Republican Party.
Who benefits from that? Not you. Not us.
Isn’t it weird to you that so many people suddenly believe exactly the opposite of what they believed in 2022? Isn’t it weird to you that everyone considers this such a big issue?
It should be weird because it is.
That’s the signature of a propaganda campaign, and you are its primary targets.
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| A guest post by
New Discourses
Pursuing the light of objective truth in subjective darkness. |
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Supporting people who regret medical gender transition procedures, especially minors, is a top priority for the Trump administration, Assistant Health and Human Services Secretary for Health Brian Christine said.
Christine spoke with the Washington Examiner ahead of his appearance at a Detransitioner Awareness Day conference on Wednesday. The event was intended to raise |
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 | Dr Brian Christine (2nd from left) and family |
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awareness of those who regret undergoing transgender procedures and “detransition” back to identify with their biological sex.
Regardless of whether a patient took puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones or uderwent invasive reconstructive surgery for so-called "gender-affirming care," Christine said detrnsitioners need not only clinical healthcare but also support from policymakers.
"They need mental health support, they need emotional support, they need love, and they need to understand that this government, this administration, this secretary of HHS, and this assistant secretary for health stand with them to protect them and get them through these things," Christine said. |
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(The Center Square) – As work continues on the state budget, education and finance officials told California legislators on Thursday that taxpayer funding for Proposition 98, which funds K-12 education and two years of community college, was making teachers and district officials nervous throughout the state.
Concerns were aired during a meeting held by the Senate Budget Subcommittee on Education on Thursday morning in Sacramento.
“The volatility of our revenues is on full display,” Sen. Sasha Renée Pérez, the chair of the Senate Budget Subcommittee on Education, said at the beginning of the meeting at the Capitol.
“We are seeing the Prop. 98 minimum guarantee at unprecedented levels and with a declining student population," said Pérez, D-Pasadena.
The state’s precarious budget situation was first detailed in a November 2025 budget outlook report compiled by the state’s Legislative Analyst’s Office. Gov. Gavin Newsom's budget, released in January, projected a $21.7 billion increase in Prop. 98 funding this year.
K-12 education takes up about 40% of California’s overall budget, Pérez said.
Proposition 98, which California voters passed at the ballot box in 1988, requires that the state spend a minimum amount of taxpayer dollars to adequately fund K-12 education and the first two years of community college, often referred to as K-14.
Prop. 98 is one of two measures the state is required to fund in this year’s budget. The other is Proposition 2, which passed in 2014 and authorizes bond measures to help pay for K-12 and community college facilities, according to the Legislative Analyst’s Office.
The governor’s budget proposed $115.9 billion in funding for the Prop. 98 “settle-up,” which essentially pays public education in California back for Prop. 98 funding K-14 schools should have gotten in the two previous school years. At the time, schools didn't get the entire amount. The previous “settle-up” allocation was $121.4 billion, according to the governor’s budget.
“I have to acknowledge there is heartburn in our districts as it relates to Prop. 98,” state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond testified during the committee meeting. “The $6 billion that is being held up as part of the settle-up has created angst for many of our districts.” |
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A California Faculty Association leader and lecturer at California State University Northridge sparked controversy Tuesday after comparing policies that separate restrooms by biological sex to the Jim Crow-era laws that enforced racial segregation in the American South.
Antonio Gallo, identified as a “member leader” within the California Faculty Association and a lecturer at CSUN, made the remarks during a public comment period at a Cal State Board of Trustees meeting. The Board of Trustees has been at the center of ongoing debate in recent weeks over policies affecting transgender students and staff across the 23-campus California State University system.
“I wasn’t around during Jim Crow laws, but it feels like Jim Crow laws right now,” Gallo told the board. “The fact that you’re separating individuals from restrooms and you’re |
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| The Cal State Board of Trustees has faced sustained pressure from both faculty advocacy groups and state officials as it navigates federal mandates and shifting state policy on gender identity in public higher education. |
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using safety as an issue — that was the same thing that was used during Jim Crow laws.”
The Cal State Board of Trustees has faced sustained pressure from both faculty advocacy groups and state officials as it navigates federal mandates and shifting state policy on gender identity in public higher education.
The California Faculty Association, which represents roughly 29,000 faculty across the CSU system, has been an active voice in opposing policies its members view as targeting LGBTQ+ students and employees. Gallo’s remarks reflect a broader tension playing out on campuses statewide as institutions grapple with the intersection of transgender rights, campus safety policy, and political pressure from Sacramento and Washington. |
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The Supreme Court has rejected California's claim that its practices balance parental rights with student welfare |
California required school districts to hide students' gender confusion from parents in written policies and, after it got sued, in teacher training materials it hid from a court.
The Supreme Court rejected the Golden State's claim that its practices balance parental rights with student welfare, granting an emergency application to reinstate a permanent injunction while the case proceeds at the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Maine's Great Salt Bay School Board is hoping for better luck before the high court in a challenge to allegedly unwritten policies that contradict its on-the-books parental involvement requirements for gender-confused students.
The district opposes plaintiff Amber Lavigne's SCOTUS petition to review a 1st Circuit ruling that dismissed her lawsuit due to "obvious alternative explanations" for the social transitioning of her 13-year-old daughter rather than an "unwritten de facto policy," arguing her allegations were too vague to be heard in court and especially not SCOTUS at this stage.
The mother alleged school staff secretly addressed the girl as a male, a social transition, but also that an in-school social worker gave her chest binders to flatten her breasts, a medical intervention that can cause physical damage, showing its official policy was a ruse.
Lavigne's lawyers at the Goldwater Institute recently filed their reply, accusing the district of evading the core issue: "the Board can be held liable if it follows an unconstitutional policy" regardless of whether it's written or not.
Nineteen states led by South Carolina, a conservative think tank and a medical freedom advocacy group are backing Lavigne's petition, which first went before SCOTUS Feb. 20 with no action. (Justices often review petitions over several meetings before acting on them.) |
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The 1st Circuit transformed "plausibility pleading" into a "probability requirement" in violation of the SCOTUS precedent Twombly, a recurring problem in lower courts that has produced an "entrenched circuit split," reads the Manhattan Institute's friend-of-the-court brief.
This forces plaintiffs across "a wide range of constitutional issues" – among them free speech, economic freedom, property rights and racial discrimination – to "negate lawful explanations" before legal discovery and "invites courts to weigh competing inferences at the pleading stage," effectively putting a thumb on the scale for defendants, the brief also states.
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The Supreme Court rejected the Golden State's claim that its practices balance parental rights with student welfare, granting an emergency application to reinstate a permanent injunction while the case proceeds at the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. |
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It will be difficult to review the "substantive question of constitutionally guaranteed parental rights" without first addressing the split on pleading standards, the institute argued.
"The question presented is exceptionally important to the States," with so-called gender secrecy policies covering over 12 million students in 38 states by Defending Education's estimate, the GOP attorneys general's brief says.
Yet the appeals court, which got its first GOP-nominated judge in November, "avoided answering the important constitutional question presented here," the AGs said.
Their states need "clarity on this question so that legislatures, state boards of education, and local school districts can conform policies to federal law," the brief says. "Persistent avoidance by lower courts leaves States without binding guidance while disputes proliferate." |
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America's Frontline Doctors, known for its early opposition to COVID-19 orthodoxy, said in a brief focused on the medical issues in the case: "Desistance statistics and the weight of research show that the parental opinions in this case are most likely correct, and the school’s approach is medically contraindicated. This is about saving lives."
It deemed euphemisms for medicalized gender transitions "intentional distractions" from the reality of a "permanent Frankenstein-esque mutilation of a minor child’s healthy body," going into gruesome detail about sexual dysfunction and maintenance of constructed genitals.
Such procedures can preemptively sterilize a minor, prevent breastfeeding and cause "permanent and irreversible damage to facial, body and vocal structures," the brief says. "The majority of both sexes have lifelong anorgasmia."
Required to 'disprove benign explanations' without access to hidden evidence
The district mocked Lavigne's theory of its municipal liability and denied there was even a circuit split on pleading standards in its Feb. 23 opposition brief, meaning SCOTUS can't even review the underlying issue upon which the 1st Circuit dismissed the case or preempt lower courts by reviewing the alleged "deprivation of a constitutional right."
Lavigne was "unequivocal before the District Court that she did not challenge the underlying conduct of the school officials as the source of her constitutional injury, nor did she challenge" the school board's written guidelines, just the supposedly unwritten policy of withholding information from parents, the opposition says.
It approvingly cited the 1st Circuit's dismissal of Lavigne's evidence for an unwritten policy: the board's denial that the secret transitioning violated any policy or law, the principal's statement about "misunderstanding" laws on confidentiality between students and social workers, and the board renewing the social worker's contract.
Referring to its brief at the 1st Circuit, the district said "just because an employee engages in conduct that does not violate a school policy, that does not mean that such conduct is the policy or practice of the District," which would require a "logical leap."
Lavigne waited until her SCOTUS petition to make the "distinct legal argument" that "reliance on obvious, alternative explanations requires implausibility of a plaintiff’s own alternative explanation," and to invoke other appeals courts' precedents beyond the 1st Circuit, so the issue is not "properly presented for review" to SCOTUS, it said.
The mother noted her good timing in her reply brief, with SCOTUS having reinstated the permanent injunction against California's policies just four days earlier and a week after the district's opposition.
Great Salt Bay's practice is little different than California's in writing, and its "argument ignores both Petitioner’s theory of the case and the plain facts," her brief says.
Statements and actions by the board and superintendent show "the logical and certainly plausible explanation" for the girl's secret transitioning is an unwritten policy of "noninvolvement" of parents when their children have gender confusion, since written guidelines require involvement but the district says Lavigne's noninvolvement didn't violate the policy.
Echoing the "Catch-22" complaint in another parental rights challenge to school secrecy, the brief says the district blames Lavigne for not asking for information the school allegedly withheld from her "but never explains" how she'd know to ask whether a social worker had given her daughter chest binders or if staff were using a male name and pronouns for her.
The 1st Circuit instead forced her to prove her "claim was more likely than other explanations for the facts," when Twombly requires only a plausible cause of action and warns judges not to dismiss a suit even if "actual proof of those facts" seems "improbable" at that stage.
A complaint must "only allege sufficient factual matter to permit a reasonable inference of liability" under Twombly, whose "settled rule [is] that plausible factual allegations must be viewed in the light most favorable to the plaintiff," the Manhattan Institute brief says. |
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| Yet many lower courts read it to authorize them to "choose between competing plausible accounts of the same conduct at the pleading stage," while others vet competing narratives through "discovery and … factfinders, not by judicial supposition."
The brief quotes from the recent SCOTUS First Amendment precedent Vullo, which exposed a New York regulator to liability for pressuring banks and insurance companies to eschew business with the National Rifle Association. Courts cannot credit "a government defendant’s claim that its actions were merely 'reasonable regulatory'" before legal discovery.
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If plaintiffs are required to "disprove benign explanations that they don’t have the information to disprove" because a "defendant’s internal processes" shroud the "evidence of intent, ratification, or institutional motive," it's hard to imagine how the former would show liability under the Monell precedent Lavigne is arguing, the institute says.
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The statute of limitations has emerged as a significant obstacle for lawsuits like Soren Aldaco’s.
The Texas Supreme Court is weighing whether a young woman can still sue a psychologist who approved her breast removal surgery.
Soren Aldaco, the woman at the center of the case, was only 19 when she had the surgery, and suggested to The Epoch Times that regret from such acts might not come for years.
“If you’re a 13-year-old on puberty blockers, you might not realize you’re infertile until you’re 26 and you just got married and you’re trying to have kids,” she told The Epoch Times on Feb. 26.
Aldaco’s story is like those of many others who spent years “transitioning” as a teenager, only to change their minds later in life. |
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The issue is garnering national attention due to the growing number of lawsuits filed against health care practitioners who have performed such procedures. Aldaco’s case came before the court only weeks after a jury in New York awarded $2 million to Fox Varian, a young woman who sued her former surgeon and psychologist under similar circumstances.
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"If you're like a 13-year-old on puberty blockers, you might not realize you're infertile until you're 26 and you just got married and you're trying to have kids." - Soren Aldaco, detransitioner |
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Following that verdict, two major medical groups said they would no longer endorse so-called gender surgeries for minors.
Jonathan Hullihan, general counsel at Remnant Law Firm in The Woodlands, Texas, told The Epoch Times that while the New York verdict was a “watershed moment,” the statute of limitations remained a significant obstacle. |
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The Arguments Aldaco has alleged that her therapist, Barbara Rose Wood, committed fraud and negligence when she signed off on a referral letter in February 2021 approving a double mastectomy, also known as “top surgery.” Like others in her situation, Aldaco ran up against a statute of limitations that could invalidate her lawsuit depending on how the court interprets state law.
The court’s upcoming decision depends on when the nine justices think the statute of limitations—which is two years in Texas—started running. State law holds that claims must be “filed within two years from the occurrence of” the alleged wrongdoing, or from when a medical treatment at issue is completed. |
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 | The Supreme Court building in Ausin, Texas, on April 4, 2021.
Cin8 Films/Shutterstock |
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During oral arguments on Feb. 11, Aldaco’s attorney, John Ramer, told the justices the countdown for that two years should begin from the date of the surgery in June 2021, or from her last therapy session with Wood, around May of the same year.
Wood’s attorney, William Newman, said the court should start from February, when the referral letter was given to Aldaco.
“I think the case law is clear, that the statute would run from the date of the negligent advice, not from the date of the subsequent surgery,” he told the court.
Justice J. Brett Busby seemed skeptical of that defense. |
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Aldaco's attorney argues that the statute of limitations should begin from the date of the surgery or from her last therapy session with Wood, while Wood's attorney said it should start from when the referral letter was given to Aldaco. |
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Prisha Mosley is a detransitioner who appealed the dismissal of her lawsuit following North Carolina’s decision to extend the statute of limitations to 10 years. Courtesy of Independent Women’s Forum
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[T]he “true rate of regret is not known and better data collection is needed.” |
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“Well, I can’t sue somebody just because they’ve lied to me,” he told Williams. “I can’t bring a medical malpractice claim against somebody who gave me bad advice that I never took, right?”
The court’s eventual decision, along with others, could offer hope for individuals like Aldaco, as lawmakers at the state and federal levels work to change the statute of limitations.
Another detransitioner, Prisha Mosley, announced on X that she had appealed the dismissal of her lawsuit following North Carolina’s decision to extend the statute of limitations to 10 years.
A similar measure was backed by Attorney General Pam Bondi, who said the department “heard from far too many families who have been devastated by mutilative medical procedures that fly in the face of basic biology.” Estimates of regret have varied, and the Department of Health and Human Services said in 2025 that the “true rate of regret is not known and better data collection is needed.” |
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Some have criticized attempts to penalize physicians through measures such as extending the statute of limitations.
“The targeting of physicians through these legal penalties impedes them from practicing evidence-based medicine and blocks patients from accessing standard of care treatments,” Madeline G. Chin, then a research fellow at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine, said in 2023.
Years-Long ProcessAldaco’s suit alleges that the letter contained multiple false statements about the “persistent” nature of her gender dysphoria. In reality, her feelings about gender “had been in a state of fluctuation” for some time.
“I got given surgeries and hormones, etc., where I really just needed a functional home life and some coping strategies,” she said. “On a personal level, I think that we’d be really surprised to find out how true that is for so many cases.”
Aldaco’s issues began at a young age, when she struggled with her identity and to fit in with peers.
Early puberty induced mental distress that caused her to reject her feminine body and wonder if she might be happier identifying as male. She settled on a fluctuating, nonbinary identity.
“Importantly, between 11 and 15, I very much saw it as a roleplay identity. ... There wasn’t a lot of cohesion to it,” she said.
As a teen, she would show up to school dressed in male clothes and wearing a chest binder; the next day, she would wear a flower crown and a dress.
Meanwhile, her psychological problems grew: At age 15, she had a manic episode and was hospitalized at the Mesa Springs psychiatric hospital in Fort Worth, Texas.
She told a psychiatrist there, Sreenath Nekkalapu, that she was uncomfortable discussing gender. But he “relentlessly pressed her on the topic by prompting her with trans-related questions and affirmations,” Aldaco’s lawsuit states. |
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She told The Epoch Times that the psychiatrist did not plant the transgender idea in her head, but he “fertilized it.” She said she explicitly asked him to keep their conversations private; she was having trouble with her family, and she still wasn’t sure she agreed with his diagnosis.
He told her parents anyway, Aldaco alleges in her suit. That led to pressure to conform to expectations of the therapist and her parents, all of whom believed she was transgender, even though she was still uncertain.
Hormones and Surgery
Next came cross-sex hormone treatment at age 17, prescribed by a nurse practitioner she met at a support group. The drugs caused a host of serious side effects, including heart palpitations, thyroid disease, and joint pain. But rather than |
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 | A young girl at the annual New York City Pride March in New York City on June 30, 2024. Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times |
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| changing the dosage, he referred her to other health care professionals to treat the symptoms.
One of those specialists suggested the hormones might be at fault, but Aldaco said she was so “gaslit” at the time that she “wrote off the doctor as being a bigot who was behind the times and merely pushing an agenda.”
“I was very dissociated from my body. ... I was smoking a bunch of weed and I just had all these mental health issues,” she said. “So I just really didn’t pick up on the way my body was falling apart, even though I was on like 10 different medications and wearing knee braces and riding around in a scooter.” |
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The next year, “still not feeling entirely comfortable with her gender identity, but still disliking the way her breasts looked on her body,” she began exploring the idea of breast-removal surgery. She contacted a clinic in Austin and was told she needed a letter recommending the surgery.
After the surgery, she was hit with an “intuitive understanding that something was horribly wrong.”
Complications followed, including “pools of blood forming subcutaneously within her torso” and “her nipples literally peeling off of her chest.”
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 | Testosterone medication used for gender transitioning in Northern California on Aug. 26, 2022. John Fredricks/The Epoch Times |
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In an emergency follow up surgery, drains were stitched in to allow fluid to escape; Aldaco learned later that this is normally done during the initial procedure.
About six months after the surgery, she fully realized her “transition” was a mistake. She now says she’s a woman.
Attorneys for Nekkalapu, Perry, and Wood did not respond to requests for comment.
Darlene McCormick Sanchez contributed to this report.
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As the United States engages in kinetic operations against Iranian targets in the Middle East, there are legitimate worries about terrorist activity here at home. Coupled with the long-term impact of the open border policies of the Biden administration, American citizens have reason to be fearful.
According to a House Judiciary Committee report, from 2021 to 2024, Border Patrol encountered hundreds of “illegal aliens on the terror watchlist” and tens of thousands more from Asia and the Middle East. These numbers include over 500 Iranian nationals and tens of thousands of Chinese nationals.
In addition to these serious concerns, there are other safety and national security vulnerabilities that have gone woefully unaddressed, specifically as related to the education system. For years, K-12 schools have been naively jeopardizing the safety of their students, unnecessarily exposing them and their families to foreign adversaries. |
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For example, the recent explosion and popularity of student walkouts across the country have put scores of children at risk of physical harm. In too many cases, administrators have allowed students to leave school grounds to parade through communities unsupervised. Unfortunately, these events have already yielded several acts of violence perpetrated by students against law enforcement and fellow classmates.
More importantly, because students, teachers unions, and activist nonprofits regularly organize and broadcast these |
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 | Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle via Getty Images |
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walkouts, the chances of pre-planned attacks by radical actors will likely increase. Parents have been right to question how readily some school administrators permit student street activism during the school day.
While these protests and walkouts leave children highly susceptible to physical danger, various schools allow staff to take trips to maligned nations with no regard to how international tensions put the children at risk.
For instance, roughly one hundred Tamalpais High School (California) students and staff were slated to take a nine-day trip to Havana, Cuba, in February. Previous district-approved pilgrimages to the communist nation included a visit to the Museum of the Revolution and a “Tobacco Farm Experience.”
Tacoma Public Schools’ (Washington) Lincoln High is planning a “cultural trip” to China in the summer of 2026. The high school has had a long-standing relationship with a “sister school” in China that features regular trips to the communist country. In fact, in 2024, Chinese leader Xi Jinping himself invited students to travel to the Asian country during his visit to Lincoln High.
Student trips are not the only cause for concern. The presence of foreign nationals in our school system also warrants closer scrutiny.
For years, K-12 schools across the country have participated in the Confucius Classrooms program facilitated by the Chinese Ministry of Education through nonprofits. Part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, the program often includes financing, books and materials, and sending Chinese nationals to teach in American schools.
More troubling still is that over 30 of the school districts participating in the Confucius program were located near military bases. This not only puts those installations at risk of surveillance or possibly worse, but it also leaves military families and personnel exposed to bad actors.
These fears are not speculative. If China is willing to spy and harass its own people on American soil and on university campuses, what keeps it from doing the same to Americans?
In light of all of this, federal, state, and local leaders need to prioritize the safety and security of American K-12 students and schools. Protecting students begins with simple steps such as limiting unsupervised walkouts and ending trips to adversarial countries. Additionally, passage of the DETERRENT and TRACE acts by Congress could be a vital first step to increasing protections for educational institutions.
Complacency is no longer an option. Policymakers and school officials must closely examine the potential threats that foreign adversaries pose to American children and families through the school system. America’s future depends on it. | |
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Re the Mirabelli v Bonta decision:
The Supreme Court voted 6–3 in favor of a group of parents challenging a school district policy and California law that required school officials to keep a student’s gender identity information from parents.
In Mirabelli v Bonta, the Court restored a lower court ruling that blocked schools from “misleading parents about their child’s gender presentation” and required schools to follow parents’ instructions about the names and pronouns their children use. The case will return to the lower courts to decide the policy itself, and the policy is paused while that happens.
The majority said the parents are likely to ultimately win their case because California’s policies may violate two constitutional rights: their right to freely practice their religion and their right to direct the upbringing and education of their children.
The Court also pointed to its recent decision in Mahmoud v. Taylor. The justices said the burden on parents in this case is even greater because schools were actively facilitating a child’s gender transition without parental consent.
The decision applies only in California, though it may signal the Court’s willingness to consider similar cases in the future. Two such cases are already pending before the Court.
A group of teachers also challenged the policy, arguing it violated their First Amendment rights, but the Court declined to block the policy for teachers at this stage.
The Court’s three liberal justices dissented. Still, even Justice Elena Kagan acknowledged that California’s policy might cross a constitutional line by keeping parents from information that could affect their children’s health and well-being.
Even though the ruling only applies in California, it provides parents and teachers in other states with a legal framework they can use to challenge similar policies. In other words, while the decision does not automatically change school rules nationwide, it strengthens the argument that parents have a constitutional right to important information about their children at school. |
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A justice system that forgets victims is not justice at all.
| For more than 15 years, I have worked with groups such as the Golden State Bail Agents Association and Crime Victims United. Their mission is simple: make sure victims are not forgotten. In California today, that mission feels like an uphill fight.
Two recent cases should alarm every parent in this state.
The first is David Allen Funston.
Funston was not a minor offender who simply made a mistake. He was a calculated child predator. He drove through Sacramento neighborhoods in his van, carrying dolls, candy, and toys to attract young children. When the children came closer, he kidnapped, molested, and raped them.
Some of his victims were as young as three years old.
A judge sentenced Funston in 1999 to three life terms in prison. The court recognized exactly what he was: a predator who hunted children.
At sentencing, the judge called Funston exactly what he was: “the monster every parent fears.” |
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But under California’s so-called Elderly Parole Program, Funston became eligible for release after turning just 50 years old and serving 20 years. The Board of Parole Hearings granted him parole.
Let that sink in.
A man who kidnapped children using toys and candy as bait and sexually assaulted them was about to walk free.
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Photo: Proxima Studio/Shuttertock |
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The only reason that didn’t happen is because the Placer County District Attorney stepped in at the last moment. Prosecutors revived an unfiled 1996 child molestation case just as Funston was about to be released, keeping him behind bars.
Without that intervention, he would already be back on the streets.
Now, another case is bringing the same nightmare to light.
Roberto Detrinidad broke into a San Francisco apartment in the middle of the night and raped a woman while she was sleeping in her own bed. He admitted that he targeted her after seeing her through a window and believed he could get away with it. |
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Prosecutors warned the parole board that he had not completed meaningful treatment for sexual violence.
The Board of Parole Hearings released him anyway.
Unless Governor Gavin Newsom intervenes, Detrinidad will be released from San Quentin by May.
These are not isolated mistakes. They result directly from policies enacted in the California State Legislature over the past decade. |
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| A judge sentenced Funston in 1999 to three life terms in prison.
But under California’s so-called Elderly Parole Program, ... [t]he Board of Parole Hearings granted him parole. |
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Many Californians go through their days unaware that decisions made during legislative hearings and signed by the governor have real consequences. These decisions are now causing violent predators and sexual offenders to be pushed back into our communities.
The government has one fundamental duty: to protect its citizens.
In California today, the system too often protects criminals instead.
Victims already live with the trauma of what happened to them. When the state releases the person responsible, it makes those victims relive it all over again.
The recent cases involving Funston and Detrinidad should serve as a wake-up call. A justice system that forgets victims is not justice at all. |
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Moms for Liberty turns 5 years old!
Moms for Liberty was established just five short years ago, in January of 2021 in Florida. The group continues to be dedicated to fighting for the survival of America by unifying, educating and empowering parents to defend their parental rights at all levels of government. Happy birthday! |
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Become a Part of the Frontlines... |
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* Advocacy for the proper and effective education of America's youth.
* Understanding of precisely how we engage with the public to - Promote liberty - Spread awareness - Engage on key issues
- Hold leaders accountable - Oppose government overreach - Activate for patriots to public service |
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Want to See the Change? Be the Change... |  |
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If you share our concern over what has been taking place in our classrooms, please consider joining with us as we fight for families, for children, for education, for truth, and for common sense.
We continue to ask people whether they understand what is now taking place within our school systems. We continue to provide information and resources to help people, especially parents, gain some idea of what's being taught to kids (and why). And yes, we continue to ask people to get involved and help with the lifting.
We fight against children being taught to hate their country, to judge people based on the color of their skin, and to ignore the basic truths of biology. We fight against the sexualization in school of little ones and the destruction of the innocence of youth. Perhaps most importantly, we fight to ensure that the proper teaching of math, reading and writing remain at the forefront of a child's education.
The idea that it is parents who are responsible for raising, educating, and seeing to the well being of their kids, that is sacrosanct.
Join with us in preserving the attributes and ideals of this great nation. Associate Membership comes free of dues.
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Feel free to forward this newsletter to friends and family. Actually anyone who acknowledges the fundamental right of parents to raise, educate, and protect their children are invited to join with us. We are gathering a group of joyful warriors, folks who understands why (and for whom) we fight.
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| Organizations whose efforts we support... |
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 | “The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it's indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it's indifference.”
- Elie Wiesel |
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Moms for Liberty Santa Clara County operates as a 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization. The organization's primary mission is to organize, educate and empower parents to defend their parental rights at all levels of government.
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