Let's Go Home

A 14-year-old transgender boy has the capacity to consent to his own medical treatments and should be allowed to proceed with hormone injections to help transition from a female to a male body without delay, a B.C. Supreme Court judge has ruled.

The teenager, who can be identified only as “A.B.,” has been at the centre of a complicated legal fight that raised questions about parental rights and child autonomy. His parents are separated and have joint custody.

While the boy and his mother were prepared to begin testosterone injections last summer, his father objected, citing the need for more time to examine the implications of such a move.

But in a written decision released Wednesday, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Gregory Bowden said he was satisfied A.B. understood the benefits and risks of treatment and that postponing treatment further could result in A.B. — who had previously attempted suicide — trying to harm himself again.

“The totality of the evidence regarding A.B.’s medical needs … leads me to conclude that his hormone treatment should not be delayed further,” the judge wrote.

“While A.B.’s father does not consent to the treatment, I am satisfied that A.B.’s consent is sufficient for the treatment to proceed.”

“The judge went on to make the following declarations: that A.B. be referred to as male and identified by his chosen name in all legal proceedings, that he be allowed to change his legal name without the need for consent from his parents, that he is “exclusively entitled” to consent to medical treatment for his dysphoria, and that any attempt to persuade A.B. to abandon treatment or references to A.B. as a girl or using female pronouns “shall be considered to be family violence” under the Family Law Act.”

You’ve got to have an alternative. People need to eat and live and meet thier needs and the needs of the people they are responsible for. People have to come together and get each other taken care of and fed. Otherwise the only people who show up are the ones who can afford to. And since the group of people who both have resources-time, emotional, financial, transportation, etc and want to show up and change the system–is fairly small, and not growing fast…. That’s not enough people for a revolution.

Ella Baker

Very relevant wiki - Community Organizing 

“Community organizing is a process where people who live in proximity to each other[1] come together into an organization that acts in their shared self-interest.[citation needed]

Unlike those who promote more-consensual community building, community organizers generally assume that social change necessarily involves conflict and social struggle in order to generate collective power for the powerless. Community organizing has as a core goal the generation of durable power for an organization representing the community, allowing it to influence key decision-makers on a range of issues over time. In the ideal, for example, this can get community-organizing groups a place at the table before important decisions are made.[2] Community organizers work with and develop new local leaders, facilitating coalitions and assisting in the development of campaigns.”

Very relevant wiki - Community Building

“Community building is a field of practices directed toward the creation or enhancement of community among individuals within a regional area (such as a neighborhood) or with a common interest. It is sometimes encompassed under the field of community development.

A wide variety of practices can be utilized for community building, ranging from simple events like potlucks and small book clubs, to larger–scale efforts such as mass festivals and building construction projects that involve local participants rather than outside contractors.

Activists engaged in community building efforts in industrialized nations see the apparent loss of community in these societies as a key cause of social disintegration and the emergence of many harmful behaviors. They may see building community as a means to increase social justice, individual well-being and reduce negative impacts of otherwise disconnected individuals.”

Community-building and the Environment

“Community building efforts organize around toxic waste, environmental health, and environmental justice. Prior emphases on conservation, preservation, endangered species, rainforest destruction, ozone depletion, and other national global concerns often had no salience for local communities, and such emphases kept the environmental movement a largely middle class and upper middle class movement. (Brown) Groups may be as influential as the United Nations [10] or as small and local as neighborhoods. The Natural Resources Defense Council lists many publicly organized community-building groups created to decrease the ecological footprint and reduce the environmental impact that humans have.[11]”