Editorials on gender insanity

2013-08-08-NYT-private-mannings-transition

Private Manning’s Transition
By THE EDITORIAL BOARD
New York Times, 2013-08-08

[Emphasis added.]

[1]
When Chelsea Manning, formerly known as Pfc. Bradley Manning,
declared that she wanted to live as a woman,
the Army’s response was callous and out of step with
medical protocol,
stated policies for transgender people in civilian federal prisons
and existing court rulings.

[2]
Private Manning, who has been sentenced by a military court
to a 35-year prison term for leaking government files,
issued a statement last week that she had felt female from childhood
and wanted “to begin hormone therapy as soon as possible.”
She did not say whether she planned to pursue gender reassignment surgery.

[3]
An Army spokesman said the Army did not provide hormone therapy or sex-reassignment therapy.
A spokesman at the military prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kan.,
where Private Manning will be incarcerated,
was uncertain whether she would be permitted to undergo hormone therapy,
even if she paid for the treatment herself.

[4]
Prisoners have a constitutional right to care for their serious medical needs.
In the case of individuals with gender dysphoria,
treatment often includes hormone therapy,
[I find it hard to stomach that catering to the demands of these clearly insane people
can be described as "treatment."]
and failure to provide it can raise the risk of
serious depression, self-mutilation attempts or even suicide.

[Insane people often threaten suicide.
Indeed, suicidal thoughts are normally considered as a sign of mental illness.
Why not apply the same logic here?
What makes anyone think that "gender dysphoria" is anything other than insanity?
Oh, yeah, right, because the American Psychological Association says it isn't.
Not the first time psychologists have attempted to justify purely political opinions
as having some sort of rational basis.]

[5]
Several federal courts of appeal have said that
a state’s deliberate failure to provide individualized assessments
of whether a transgender prisoner needs access to specialized medical treatment,
like hormone therapy or surgery,
violates the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment.
[How about appealing those decisions to the Supreme Court?
Oh wait, they've been taken over by the homo lobby too.
Argh!
The legal community goes homo.]
As part of a lawsuit settlement in 2011,
the federal Bureau of Prisons began making medically necessary hormone therapy
available to all transgender inmates,
including those who had not received a diagnosis and begun the therapy before incarceration.
Although transgender people continue to be barred from service in the military,
the Department of Veterans Affairs offers a range of services for transgender veterans, including hormone therapy.

[6]
Of course, the Manning case presents other issues as well,
starting with whether the all-male prison at Fort Leavenworth
is the right institution for Private Manning.
Transgender inmates are especially vulnerable to sexual assaults,
and special care must be taken to ensure their safety with accommodations
like private showering.
The nature of Private Manning’s offense could make for added safety worries.
Prodded by lawsuits and strong Justice Department regulations issued last year
to implement the Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003,
civilian jails and prisons around the country
are developing ways to address the particular needs of transgender inmates.

[Note how the demands of the homo lobby always seem to drive up America's costs.
E.g.,
AIDS treatment (which certainly disproportionately is needed by male homosexuals),
sex-change operations and horomone therapy.
There can be no doubt whatsoever, just considering those two items,
that homosexuals have successfully demanded far more for their "needs"
than heterosexuals.
You want to talk civil rights?
What about the right of heterosexuals not to be ripped off to pay for the homosexual life style?]

[7]
Private Manning’s lawyer, David Coombs, said last week that
he hoped military prison officials would voluntarily provide hormone treatment, without a lawsuit.
It should not take a court order to get officials — including Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel —
to do the right thing.
They should give Private Manning appropriate medical care and safe but not unduly isolated housing,
which should be available for all transgender prisoners.

2013-09-01-WP-bradley-mannings-case-broadens-awareness-of-transgender-people

Bradley Manning’s case broadens awareness of transgender people
By Editorial Board
Washington Post, 2013-09-01

[1]
IN JULY, Army Pfc. Bradley Manning,
who had passed along classified information to WikiLeaks,
was convicted of violating the Espionage Act.
When sentenced in mid-August to 35 years in prison,
the private issued a public statement that had nothing to do with the sentence or the crime
but that nevertheless caught the attention of the country.
[Well, at least some in the country.
Is there a better example of the narrow, bigoted view of the Post's Editorial Board?
One might almost think that it had homosexuals writing its editorials on homosexuality.]

[2]
“As I transition into this next phase of my life,
I want everyone to know the real me,” that statement read.
“I am Chelsea Manning. I am female.”

[One may well wonder just how much the desire for attention
contributes to gender insanity.
Exhibit A: Bruce Jenner.]

[3]
With four words —“I am Chelsea Manning” —]
Pfc. Manning positioned the national spotlight onto the nation’s transgender community,
the oft-forgotten “T” in “LGBT” (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender)
and what remains one of America’s most marginalized and neglected minority groups,
even as the country makes significant strides in recognizing the rights of gay and lesbian citizens.

[4]
According to the Williams Institute,
there are approximately 700,000 transgender individuals in the United States,
but this statistic is unlikely to capture the full number of people
who have expressed or self-diagnosed an incongruity between
the gender they feel and the gender they were born.
Even as gays and lesbians have won the right to marry in 13 states and the District
and, this summer,
to have the federal government treat those marriages as equal to heterosexual ones,
transgender people are still ostracized and stigmatized.
They can be refused crucial medical treatments without sufficient justification,
and they (like gays) are not protected by federal law from discrimination in the workplace.

[5]
The situation for transgender people in the military is especially fraught.
While the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell”
has allowed gays and lesbians to serve openly in uniform,
that is not the case for transgender individuals,
who are typically discharged if they express their identities.
The military also relies on an antiquated understanding of what it means to be transgender
and, at least at Fort Leavenworth, where Pfc. Manning is likely to be incarcerated,
will not provide the hormone therapy doctors may recommend for individuals with gender dysphoria.

[6]
As public understanding evolves on this issue,
logistical questions and complications will arise,
especially as more transgender people come out of the shadows.
Shifts in tolerance invariably take time.
But the bottom line isn’t complicated:
All Americans are entitled to live in dignity.

[Dignity, yes.
Having their whims catered to, at the expense of the general public, no.]