Transgender World

"Chappell Roan has just announced a fundraiser in aid of trans youth and LGBTQ+ communities through her non-profit The Midwest Princess Project.

"Aptly titled The Super Graphic Spectacular, the two-day event will take place in The Shrine in Los Angeles, California, on October 21 and 22."

More here!

Erin in the Morning's reports on how the Kansas “Compliance Crew” action exposes the contradiction at the heart of anti-trans bathroom laws. Men are forced to use women's bathrooms.

Supporters claim that forcing trans people to use restrooms assigned for their so-called "biological sex" (i.e. gender assigned at birth) keeps men out of women’s spaces. But Kansas SB244 directs many men - trans men - to use women's restrooms.

On August 8, three “bearded, burly” trans men used the women’s restroom and changing area at Long Branch Lagoon Water Park in Dodge City, as state law requires them to do. Police were called, and the men reportedly had to explain intimate details about their bodies to avoid arrest.

The point was not to frighten anyone. The men were making visible what lawmakers prefer to hide:

That the laws forces trans men to use women's restrooms,

That trans women and trans men are exposed to verbal and physical violence if they are forced to use the wrong restrooms.

That the law creates an atmosphere of suspicion, where even cis people may have to undergo invasive questioning and genital inspections.

Such laws stop many trans people from using any public bathrooms, forcing them to stay at home.

If trans men use men’s rooms, transphobes object; if they use women’s rooms, they are treated as threats. Trans people are not a danger in public bathrooms. Bathroom bans are. They invite surveillance, vigilantism and police involvement in ordinary acts of daily life.

Police Called on Trans Men Using Women's Restroom As Required By Kansas Law

Bearded Trans Men Entered Women’s Restrooms Across Kansas to Expose Its Bathroom Law

The Kansas KS SB244 Compliance Crew

J. Molay

Australia gets LGBTQ positive census

Australia’s 2026 Census marks an important step toward making LGBTQIA+ people visible in national statistics.

For the first time, Australians aged 16 and over are being asked optional questions about sexual orientation and gender, alongside a question on sex recorded at birth.

This matters because communities that are not counted are too easily ignored in health policy, housing, education, aged care and mental health services.

The change follows years of advocacy from LGBTQIA+ groups, researchers and community organizations who warned that data gaps make it harder to understand the needs of trans, gender diverse and queer Australians.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta has joined a coalition of 18 attorneys general urging a federal court to dismiss the Trump administration’s lawsuit against the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), warning that the case threatens both transgender healthcare and medical freedom more broadly.

Attorney General Bonta (photo) and the coalition argue that:

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) seeks to undermine states’ right under the Tenth Amendment of the Constitution to maximize the health and well-being of their residents by enacting laws and policies surrounding the practice of medicine.

The FTC’s efforts could damage the development of healthcare guidelines and policies beyond transgender healthcare and across multiple medical fields.

WPATH defends trans people

WPATH is an international professional organization whose Standards of Care provide evidence-based recommendations for healthcare for transgender and gender-diverse people. Its current Standards of Care 8 were published in 2022 and have become an important reference for clinicians, health systems and policymakers.

WPATH represents the views of practically all serious scientists and medical experts in the field of gender variance and transgender identities.

WPATH argues that transgender and gender-diverse identities are part of normal human diversity, rather than mental disorders in themselves.

The fact that they are fully accepting transgender identities (i.e. not seeing gender diversity as a mental illness) and are supporting the needs of trans people seeking medical health, undermines the Republican "gender ideology" narrative, where being trans is seen as some kind of deceit.

Ironically the transphobes argues that the views of the scientists on gender variance are unscientific, as it collides with the false and unscientific dogma of a strict binary "biological sex". They need to give the impression that science is on their side, and since it isn't, they have to silence the real experts.

Note also (as WPATH points out) that the U.S. Federal Trade Commission is not a medical provider and "has no place interfering with the process of individualized medical decision-making."

The Republican attack on free and fact-based research

The conflict began in January, when the Federal Trade Commission demanded extensive internal WPATH documents concerning the development of its guidelines.

WPATH challenged the investigation, and a federal court then blocked enforcement of the demand. After this the FTC joined Republican-led Alaska, Iowa, Nebraska and Texas in filing a new lawsuit on June 17, alleging that WPATH made misleading or insufficiently supported claims about gender-affirming healthcare for young people. This is nonsense.

This attack on free and fact based science is just one of many by the MAGA regime, all of them aimed at stopping universities, research institutions and medical service providers from (1) helping trans people with guidance and - if needed - medicines, surgery and other treatments, and (2) doing research that tells the true story about gender variance, gender incongruence and trans lives.

(A truly grotesque example of this is the way Texas has forced the Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston to pay US$10 million to the state and create a “detransition clinic.” The crime? Providing science based health care for trans people.)

The Trump-regime wants to stop researchers from presenting the facts regarding gender variance, and in this way making it much harder to discuss this topic and defend trans people in public. The Trump-regime does not care about facts. These people only care about ideology and power.

It is good to see that these attorneys general understand the problem and are doing something about it.

J. Molay

Amicus Brief

Press release: Attorney General Bonta Opposes Trump Administration’s Attempt to Suppress Healthcare Recommendations from Major Medical Organization

WPATH Statement on the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, States’s Announcement of New Complaint

A new JAMA Pediatrics systematic meta-analysis explains why alarmist claims about puberty blockers and bone health in transgender adolescents are wrong.

The researchers looked at 10 cohorts involving 751 young people, and found that bone-density declined somewhat during treatment with puberty blockers, but bone mineral density increased again after young people began gender-affirming hormone therapy.

Opponents of gender-affirming care often present bone density as a reason to deny trans youth medically supervised treatment altogether. The study instead supports a more responsible approach: monitor bone health, avoid unnecessarily prolonged blocker-only treatment, initiate gender-affirming hormones when clinically appropriate, and support young people with nutrition, vitamin D, calcium, and exercise.

As Mathew Rodriguez over at Them notes, the findings undermine the claim that puberty blockers “ruin” bone density forever. They show that trans health care is not reckless experimentation, but careful, evidence-informed medicine designed to reduce dysphoria while managing known risks. The answer is better care, not bans.

Transphobes Claim Puberty Blockers Ruin Bone Density Forever. A New Study Says Otherwise

Daniele Tienforti et al: Bone Accrual During Puberty Suppression and Gender-Affirming Therapy in Transgender Adolescents. A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

J Molay

Science paper conclusion:

"This systematic review and meta-analysis found that pubertal suppression followed by GAHT [gender-affirming hormone therapy] was associated with transient z-score reductions and subsequent BMD increases. At T2, z scores remained numerically below baseline but were not consistently statistically different, suggesting an uncertain rather than demonstrated persistent deficit. Timely GAHT initiation is recommended."

British anti-trans activists lost when the High Court rejected a challenge to the police guidance, the Good Law Project reports.

The High Court of Justice rejected the proposal that police strip searches of transgender detainees should depend exclusively on what TERF and other transphobes call "biological sex".

The hate organization Sex Matters brought the case against guidance issued by the National Police Chiefs’ Council and British Transport Police.

Under the new rules, a trans detainee may request an officer of their lived gender. A search can proceed only when the detainee, searching officer and authorizing officer all consent, and any participant may withdraw it.

The judgment rejects claims that recent legal decisions automatically require trans people to be treated according to “biological sex” throughout British law.

Note also that the court did not decide whether “sex” under policing legislation must mean biological sex, or how Gender Recognition Certificates apply.

Good Law Project: High Court rules strip searches don’t have to be based on ‘biological sex’

A new Canadian study finds that transgender adolescents’ gender identities are stable and that extremely few detransition.

The scientists examined records for 445 young people referred to four pediatric gender clinics between 2012 and 2017.

After a median follow-up of 2.4 years, 97.1 percent still identified with a gender that differed from the sex assigned to them at birth.

Thirteen participants, or 2.9 percent, returned to an identity aligned with their assigned sex. Some participants shifted between binary and nonbinary identities, illustrating that changes in how young people describe their gender should not automatically be classified as detransition.

Of the 445 adolescents, 353 began gender-affirming hormone therapy. Only four later stopped hormones, and just one stopped while also returning to an identity aligned with their assigned sex, less than one percent of those who received hormones. The other three discontinued for reasons unrelated to gender identity.

Assigned Media: A New Study from Canada Again Finds Less Than 1 Percent of Trans Youth Detransition

Daniel L. Metzger et al: Stability of Transgender Identity in Adolescents Seen in Multidisciplinary Specialized Gender Centers: A Multicenter Study in Canada

Conclusion from the paper

"This multicenter Canadian study found that the majority (97.1%) of adolescents referred to academic pediatric gender clinics, for gender-affirming care, continued to identify as transgender or non-binary over a median follow-up of 2.4 years. Only (2.9%) reidentified with gender aligned with their sex assigned at birth. Gender identity reported at first visit was more fluid in adolescents who initially identified as non-binary, although none reverted to a binary identity aligned with birth sex. Most (79.3%) adolescents initiated GAH, with GAH discontinuation rare (1.1%) and no adolescents discontinued GST or AT due to reidentification with gender identity aligned with sex assigned at birth. Of the 67.2% of adolescents who started GST or AT, 11.7% later stopped for a variety of reasons, including that they were starting (or had started) GAH. These findings support that within a clinical context involving comprehensive psychosocial assessment and support, gender identity among adolescents is highly stable, and rates of reidentification with birth assigned gender and cessation of GAH are low."

Transgender actor Hunter Schafer steps into one of science fiction’s most influential worlds as Cora, the co-lead of Amazon Prime Video’s Blade Runner 2099.

Cora is a human fugitive who has survived by repeatedly changing identities.

In a final attempt to stop running, she assumes the role of a Blade Runner and is forced to work with Olwen, Michelle Yeoh’s dying Replicant, to pursue a runaway carrying a secret that could destroy their city.

it is good to see a transgender actor the centre of a major action franchise!

Michael Green from Blade Runner 2049 helped develop the series. Blade Runner director Ridley Scott is executive producer, giving advice.

Blade Runner 2099 premieres on Amazon Prime in November.

Hunter Schafer fights for the future in Blade Runner 2099

Wikipedia: Blade Runner 2099

‘Blade Runner 2099’ Trailer: Michelle Yeoh and Hunter Schafer Bring Ridley Scott’s Sci-Fi World to TV

The Health Council of the Netherlands has reaffirmed the country’s gender-affirming healthcare for transgender adolescents, rejecting calls to dismantle or restrict it. This is a huge loss for local TERFs and other transphobes.

Following a two-year review commissioned by the Dutch health ministry, the independent advisory body concluded that puberty blockers and gender-affirming hormones achieve their intended physical effects and are associated with better mental health.

The council found no evidence requiring an overhaul of the current practice, which combines extensive assessment, psychological support, multidisciplinary oversight and informed decision-making with young people and their parents.

It stressed that withholding treatment is not a neutral choice: delays may worsen distress and allow unwanted, irreversible pubertal changes to develop.

The review was commissioned  after the publication of the British Cass Review. The Dutch health council found that report irrelevant.

Dutch studies reviewed by the council found that only 0 to 3.5 percent discontinued hormones begun during adolescence, with no recorded cases of regret, although researchers still need better long-term follow-up.

A Dutch cohort study found that 98 percent of those who began puberty suppression and later received gender-affirming hormones continued treatment into young adulthood.

Hormones for trans soldiers is bad and too costly, according to the Trump administration. Giving testosterone to cis men and women is good.

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth (photo) has announced that every service member aged 30 or older, women included, will be screened annually for low testosterone.

Troops diagnosed with testosterone deficiency may voluntarily receive testosterone replacement therapy, which Hegseth described as a way of improving health, physical resilience and military readiness.

The Trump administration has banned transgender people from military service while portraying their hormone treatment as expensive, medically burdensome and potentially unavailable during deployment. Hegseth now argues that providing testosterone to other troops is part of the military’s “sacred duty” to offer them the best possible healthcare.

In court, the administration cited approximately $52 million spent on care connected to gender dysphoria between 2015 and 2024 - an average of about $5.2 million annually across the entire active-duty force. A federal judge noted that this was negligible compared with overall military spending and considerably less than the Pentagon’s expenditure on medications such as Viagra.

Representative Pramila Jayapal has correctly pointed out that testosterone treatment for cisgender men is also a form of gender-affirming care. It is supposed to restore bodily characteristics associated with masculinity, including muscle mass, energy and sexual function. Testosterone prescribed to a transgender man is not inherently more expensive, dangerous or difficult to provide.

The real distinction is therefore not medical but political. Hormones are celebrated as life-enhancing and readiness-promoting when they affirm cisgender troops, yet treated as disqualifying when they affirm transgender people.

More here: The Pentagon said transgender hormone care costs too much. Now Pete Hegseth wants testosterone boosts Hegseth Plans to Screen All Troops, Including Women, for Low Testosterone. (Archived here)

US Trangender Risk Map July 2026. Avoid Idaho!

New update from Erin Reed here.

Two new articles argue that Reem Alsalem, the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, has used the prestige of her position to lend credibility to anti-transgender campaigns.

Although special rapporteurs act independently and do not speak for the United Nations, Alsalem’s reports and interventions are often presented as if they carry the UN’s official endorsement.

Erin in the Morning looks at how her claims have entered political and legal debate, including recent US Supreme Court cases concerning transgender athletes. Alsalem has repeated unreliable statistics about trans women winning sporting medals, cited anti-trans organisations and media outlets, and supported policies that would exclude transgender and intersex people from existing gender-equality protections.

British advocacy group TransLucent focuses on the consequences of similar rhetoric in the UK. It argues that portraying trans inclusion as a threat to women has contributed to worsening public hostility, stalled legal recognition, restricted healthcare and growing uncertainty over access to toilets, shelters and other public spaces.

Erin in the Morning: How One Woman Is Using the UN to Attack Trans Rights Worldwide

TransLucent: The Real-World Harm of Gender-Critical Ideology: A Response to Reem Alsalem

A major new science review has found that a small but significant number of trans men and other transmasculine people become pregnant and have children, but that medical knowledge about their experiences remains surprisingly limited.

(The photo is of Logan Brown from Glamour Magazine 2023. He is not associated with this study).

Researchers examined 44 studies from several countries and estimated that between 6% and 9% of transmasculine people have experienced pregnancy, while around 4% to 9% have given birth.

The review also found signals that miscarriage rates may be higher than those seen in the general population, with several studies reporting pregnancy loss rates of around 32% to 40%.

However, the authors caution that the existing studies are generally small and lack comparison groups, making it impossible to draw firm conclusions.

The researchers stress that testosterone should not be regarded as a reliable form of contraception. Although it appears to reduce fertility, pregnancies can and do occur while people are taking testosterone.

The researchers conclude:

A significant minority of transmasculine people become pregnant, including after transition. The miscarriage findings warrant further investigation. Reproductive and maternity services should adapt, although minimal information risks negative consequences for users and providers, potentially adding to the lack of trust. Better data collection and research are urgently required in order to provide effective services.

Catherine Meads, Chelsea Daniels, Shawn Walker, Susan Bewley: Transmasculine pregnancy—Occurrence, associations, and outcomes: A quantitative systematic review

When a transmedicalist uses anti-trans pseudo-science to invalidate other transgender people

Valiere has written a interesting, thorough and well documented rebuttal of a transmedicalist conspiracy theory.

Valerie argues that Dr. Laura Targownik’s recent writing on pediatric gender-affirming care presents itself as careful, evidence-based analysis while, it is actually advocacy for transmedicalist restriction and gatekeeping.

A transmedicalist is someone who believes that being transgender should be understood primarily, or exclusively, as a medical condition involving gender dysphoria, and that a person is “really” trans only if they experience such dysphoria at an early age and seek medical transition, such as hormones or surgery.

Transmedicalists most often exclude nonbinary people, trans people who do not want or cannot access medical transition, and people who understand their gender in non-medical terms.

Valerie focuses especially on Targownik’s discussion of youth care in Canada and Oregon, claiming that she selectively cites studies, omits key context, and reframes evidence about access as evidence of overuse.

A central example is detransition research. The article says Targownik relies on figures ultimately drawn from weak or compromised sources. Valerie also criticizes Targownik’s use of claims resembling “rapid-onset gender dysphoria” narratives, arguing that these are either uncited, derived from discredited parent-survey research, or contradicted by Canadian clinic data.

The Oregon study is presented as another case of misrepresentation. According to Valerie, the study shows that gender-affirming care remains rare and that supportive policies improve access, whereas Targownik frames the same data as evidence that permissive policy may drive unnecessary medicalization.

The article also challenges Targownik’s call for psychotherapy-first approaches, arguing that this amounts to delay rather than support, especially when used before access to hormones.

Valerie concludes that Targownik uses the language of caution, expertise, and nuance to build “soft restriction”. Gatekeeping can look respectable when dressed as clinical "common sense".

Read the article here, and bookmark it for all its references to recent research on gender dysphoria and transitioning.

Spain aims at penalizing so-called “conversion therapy” - practices that attempt to change a person’s sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression.

The reform, passed by Congress on 25 June 2026, would amend the Penal Code to punish these abuses with prison sentences of six months to two years, as well as fines.

This applies even when supposed “consent” has been given, recognizing that pressure from families, institutions or religious groups can make such consent meaningless.

The measure is an important victory for LGBTQ rights campaigners and survivors, who have long argued that conversion practices are not therapy, but psychological violence. International human rights experts, including within the UN system, have described such practices as deeply harmful and potentially amounting to torture.

Spain already banned conversion therapy under its 2023 trans and LGBTQ equality law, but campaigners said administrative sanctions were not enough. Criminal penalties send a clearer message: LGBTQ identities are not illnesses, and no one should be shamed, coerced or “treated” for being who they are. The reform still has to pass through the Senate, where changes may be proposed.

El Congreso aprueba la reforma del Código Penal para penalizar con cárcel las 'terapias de conversión' para personas LGTBIQ+

Las mal llamadas terapias de conversión se castigarán con hasta dos años de prisión

New York City Announces New Support for Trans Healthcare

Gay City News reports that New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has announced three initiatives aimed at protecting and expanding access to gender-affirming care for transgender New Yorkers.

His administration will direct $15 million toward a care access fund for providers of youth gender-affirming care, create a call and text line to guide residents to services and information, and fund research to improve care access and health outcomes.

More here.

An ethics committee at the Oslo University Hospital has found three five researchers connected to Norway’s national gender incongruence treatment service guilty of serious breaches of research ethics in studies involving transgender patients.

Although Norway is known for relatively openminded attitudes towards trans people, both as far as policy making and public opinion are concerned, the global backlash has also had an effect here.

So it does not help that the public health support services for trans people remains locked into the quasi-monopoly of the National Treatment Service for Gender Incongruence (NBTK) at the Oslo University Hospital ("Riksen" or OUS).

Among Norwegian trans people the doctors there are known for their conservative gate-keeping.

They seem to think they are qualified to decide who are "real" trans people and who are not, based on rather old fashioned ideas about gender expression and "normal" sexuality.

And yes, the waiting lines for hormone treatments and surgery are long.

Unethical use of patient-data in research

Their arrogance is also reflected in their disregard for basic research ethics when it comes to using the data they gather through their handling of transgender clients.

They have been using data from medical records without getting the consent of the people involved.

An ethics committee at Oslo University Hospital has now found three five researchers guilty of serious breaches of research ethics in studies involving transgender people and young people with gender incongruence. The case concerns the use of patient records and registry data in four published articles.

[Update: The LGBTQ magazine Blikk reports that five researchers have been criticized.]

The researchers named are Anne Wæhre, Trond H. Diseth og Cecilie Bjertness Nyquist.

The Report

Redelighetsutvalget (i.e. The Committee on Research Integrity) is a joint body for the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Oslo (UiO), Oslo University Hospital Trust (OUS), and Akershus University Hospital Trust (Ahus).

According to their 164-page report (as obtained by the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten), the committee has concluded that the researchers has acted with gross negligence.

In two of the articles, the breaches were so serious that they amounted to scientific misconduct, and they should be retracted. In the two remaining articles, the committee has found that the conduct is blameworthy, though not scientific misconduct of the most serious kind.

The breaches includes lack of patient consent, missing approval from the Regional Committees for Medical and Health Research Ethics, no exemption from confidentiality rules, insufficient anonymisation, and unclear legal and ethical justification for the use of registry data.

The committee also points to systemic failures at Oslo University Hospital, including weak institutional oversight and confusion over the boundary between research and quality assurance.

The whistleblowers are the Patient Organisation for Gender Incongruence (PKI) and an expert in statistics.

The researchers may appeal the ruling.

Oslo University Hospital seems to a violated transgender rights again

Oslo University Hospital Censured for Unlawful Research on Transgender Minors

What Transphobic Norwegian Doctors can Teach Us about the Diversity of Transgender People

Norwegian doctors/gatekeepers stop transgender kids from getting the treatment they need

Aftenposten: Tre forskere felt for vitenskapelig uredelighet i forskning på transpersoner (paywall)

Jack Molay