new

Michael Biggs #transphobia #conspiracy 4thwavenow.com

The Open Society Foundations & the transgender movement

The transgender movement has transformed cultural norms and social institutions at breathtaking speed. Most of us, becoming acquainted with the trans issue for the first time, are astonished to discover the extent of the gender revolution. The movement has accomplished in a few years what the movements for women’s and for gay and lesbian rights took many decades to achieve.

Part of the explanation is the amount of money behind transgenderism. The Gender Industrial Complex, as we may call it, has many components. Lucrative sponsorship comes from pharmaceutical companies and medical providers. Charities originally established to fight for homosexual rights (like Human Rights Campaign in the United States and Stonewall in Britain) wield large budgets. Last but not least, three American billionaires have bankrolled the transgender movement on a global scale: Jennifer Pritzker, whose activities were detailed in another blogpost, Jon Stryker, and George Soros.

This blogpost focuses on the Open Society Foundations (OSF), funded by Soros. This is not easy to discuss because he is vilified by right-wingers, whose criticism sometimes degenerates into anti-semitism (Williamson 2018). Therefore those of us who are liberal or progressive tend to react instinctively by dismissing any scrutiny of Soros out of hand. This is unjustified, as I will show by providing some facts about how OSF has funded the transgender movement.

OSF fully supports the objectives of transgender activists. Self-identification is “an essential legal right for trans people” (OSF 2014a). In other words, biological sex must be superseded by subjective gender identity, to include options “outside the binary categories of male and female” (OSF 2014b). Identity should not be “governed by age restrictions” (OSF 2014b). Therefore OSF funds “trans-led or LGBT organizations that promote progressive, rights-based processes for legal gender recognition” (OSF 2014a). It also advocates access to “hormonal therapy, counseling, and gender-affirming surgeries” on demand (OSF 2014a). This includes puberty blockers for youth (OSF 2013).

How much has OSF spent to promote the transgender movement? In 2011–13, it spent $3.19 million, which made it the top funder, followed by Stryker’s Arcus Foundation and Pritzker’s Tawani Foundation (Funders for LBTQ Issues 2015). OSF’s current database includes grants worth $3.07 million for 2016–17 (searching for keywords “trans” and “transgender”). The largest recipients in this current tranche are the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association ($642,000), Global Action for Trans Equality ($500,000), and Transgender Europe ($500,000).

open society reception areaThree million dollars on trans issues is a tiny fraction of OSF’s total expenditure, merely 0.3% (OSF 2017). Crucially, however, this funding greatly exceeds the resources given to alternative voices. This website, for example, receives no funding. To illustrate the difference that money can make, consider the commemoration of the victims of violence.

As we saw, OSF gave $500,000 to Transgender Europe in the past two years. Transgender Europe also received $1,072,000 from the Arcus Foundation from 2010 to 2017 (Arcus Foundation 2018). The organization’s projects include the Transgender Day of Remembrance, which is underpinned by a comprehensive database of victims throughout the world, Trans Murder Monitoring. This database counted 325 trans victims of violence in year from October 2016 to September 2017 (TMM 2017). The great majority of these occurred in Central and South America. There were only three in Western Europe, and thankfully none in the United Kingdom. Surprisingly, perhaps, the Transgender Day of Remembrance was widely observed in Britain in November 2017. In many universities, for example, candles were lit for each of the victims, the transgender flag was raised, speakers were invited, and services held. Searching university websites (the domain .ac.uk), we find over 2,800 webpages containing the phrase “Transgender Day of Remembrance”.

While no transgender person was murdered in the United Kingdom in 2017, 138 women were killed by men, including murders where a man was the principal suspect (Smith 2018). These data were compiled by Karen Ingala Smith, who receives no funding for this work. She started recording such deaths in 2009, under the rubric of Counting Dead Women. This was developed into the Femicide Census—in partnership with Women’s Aid—with minimal funding and pro-bono support by two legal firms (Femicide Census 2016).

Despite the diligent research over many years, this has left barely a trace in British universities. The equivalent search on their websites yields fewer than a hundred webpages containing the phrases “Femicide Census” or “Counting Dead Women”.

To sum up, more than a hundred women are murdered each year in the United Kingdom at the hands of males, but no day has been set aside to commemorate their deaths. Transgender murders are exceedingly rare—eight in the past decade (Trans Crime UK 2017; Evening Standard 2018)—and yet they have an institutionalized day of remembrance. Even if we consider the homicide rate rather than the number of homicides, Nicola Williams demonstrates that transgender people are no more likely to become victims than are women (Fairplay for Women 2017).

The prominence of transgender victims, compared to the virtual invisibility of female victims, is partly explained by the amount of resources devoted to compiling evidence and promoting commemoration. Thus funding from large American charities like OSF—along with the Arcus and Tawani Foundations—shapes the political climate in Britain and around the world.

worriedmom #conspiracy 4thwavenow.com

There are certain beliefs or statements about reality that it seems we’ve all taken for granted for far too long. The particular set to which I’m referring deals with the relationships between parents and their children. Most of our laws and social policies rest on the assumptions that parents have their children’s best interests at heart, that parents have a better knowledge and understanding of their children than anyone else, that parents will sacrifice far more than strangers to protect and care for their own children, and the best environment for children is in the arms of a loving and devoted family.

Are there exceptions to all these things? Of course there are, otherwise we wouldn’t need a child welfare system. We understand that there is “such a thing” as abuse and that there are (hopefully very rare) circumstances in which staying with the natal family is NOT the healthiest thing for a child. But, just as the fact that we have a criminal justice system does not mean that most people are criminals, the fact that we have child protection statutes and personnel does not mean that most parents and families would benefit from this type of involvement.

What we see repeatedly from the trans-lobby is the rejection of these previously-established social norms around the family. Now, for the first time, we’re hearing that parents do not have their children’s best interests at heart. Concepts and notions that entirely contradict what parents know about their children, and the parents’ life experience and understanding, must be 100% taken on board by parents, or those parents are abusive. Worst of all, the activists intentionally alienate children from their parents, severing what are the most important relationships in those children’s lives, and taking away the sources of support, income, and care that parents are happy to expend on behalf of those children.

To the best of my knowledge, this is a new phenomenon in a Western society. We certainly saw nothing remotely like this in the push for gay and lesbian rights, for instance. The only parallel I can think of would be to instances under Chinese communism or North Korean dictatorship where children were encouraged to denounce and leave their parents behind in service of a greater ideology.

lorac #conspiracy 4thwavenow.com

Wow, Brie, you hit it out of the ballpark!

Of course, moms of kids would be concerned, but isn’t it just so shameful that it’s left to them, because the LGBT groups are NOT concerned, and as a matter of fact, seem to want to swell their transgender ranks no matter who they catch in their nets.

There is so much self-interest going on – therapists who don’t seem to want to risk the transgender activists’ wrath, drug companies licking their lips at the prospect of a whole slew of lifetime patients, not the average lesbian or gay, but those lesbian and gay activists who have gotten into bed with the transgender agenda (now they’re the cool kids??), governments and societal organizations that rubber stamp what the loud transgender activists demand – to shut them up? Or perhaps they’re getting donations to go along—?

Civilized countries generally take pride in protecting their youth. What has happened to us that so many are letting our kids be medicated, sterilized, and butchered???

worriedmom #sexist 4thwavenow.com

Thank you for this post. It is absolutely vital that parents know that there is another viewpoint and that they don’t have to quash ALL of their natural parental instincts and agree to permanent, serious medical procedures for their children. I very much agree with you that “trans-supportive” parents sincerely believe they are doing the right thing, but the truth is – they’ve been bullied and buffalo’ed into it by a society that presents only one alternative.

Would parents feel any differently if they understood that NONE of these medical procedures has been subjected to long-term testing and research, and that there is NO evidence that transition will lead to a better long-run outcome for their beloved children? This is also one of the first times I’ve ever heard that someone calmly and rationally expressing a different viewpoint merits a police call. Is it actually that threatening to hear there is another way?

I appreciate your bravery. As a life-long “good girl,” I’m not sure I would have had your courage. I hope that your actions, and this blog post, will at least begin to plant some seeds. Parents must learn that there is a different way here — a way that will involve going against the tide for a while, but will ultimately protect their children’s lives and futures much, much better than transition. Thank you!

FightingToGetHerBack #sexist 4thwavenow.com

First, thank you both SO much for writing this and validating us parents. It is nearly impossible to get proper therapy for children like mine who are suffering when the entire profession has been misguided by their professional associations and the endorsement of the “affirmation only” approach. Add to this the medicalization factor (gender therapist tried to scare me into putting my child on hormones) and this is no innocent passing fad. The indoctrination of entire school systems left me with no choice but to homeschool my daughter. I hope your blog can be submitted broadly to shed some much needed light on what is really going on.

I would love to ask you a specific question about treatment recommendations. My daughter is on the autism spectrum and highly gifted. She beginning identifying as transgender at the age of 13 after attending a school presentation where 5% of the students identify as trans. No signs of BPD or any significant mental health issues or trauma — and definitely heterosexual. I took her (ignorantly) to two gender therapists where all they did was affirm her identity and tried to scare me into putting her on hormones. I did (ignorantly) allow her to socially transition. After (finally) realizing the truth, I no longer support the name change and pronouns and threw away the binder. I withdrew her from school to homeschool.

It has been three long stressful years and she still thinks she is a boy. She sees a therapist who shares my belief, but we are both at a loss as to how to address the gender issue. Do you have any specific recommendations for therapists and parents of ASD teens? The rigid thinking makes this particularly difficult. Some parents I have talked to believe it is important to confront their kids with the truth and show them stories of detransitioners to help dissuade them. Others believe it is better to ignore the gender issue entirely and focus on strengthening the relationship. Any guidance you might recommend would be greatly appreciate.

Thank you again!

missingdaughter #sexist 4thwavenow.com

Thank you, Brie, for this beautifully-written account on how your daughter found herself attracted to this identity and how she wisely turned away.You were fortunate that she was young and that you were still influential.

One cannot over-estimate the power of the online world in forming this identity. It can be absolutely brain-warping, the sites that teens are on. Most parents haven’t a clue. These online sites can completely infiltrate and overwhelm a young person. Extreme hostility might be a parent’s first clue that something is terribly wrong.

And then there are the peers at school, they can be highly influential. Some of them are SJW allies. What do they get from the affirmation they provide your child? I do not know. Parents on this site have something in common, they are trying to keep their kids from falling over the trans cliff. Those of us with older teens or young adults will find the going difficult.

There are many different types of kids that get caught in the trans stream. Brie mentions that her daughter sits at the end of a bell-curve’s tail of female behavior. I think one aspect of this that does not get mentioned are the ideals and models we supply our children. I will confess to being the type of mom who didn’t have Barbie dolls in the house. We explored science and nature with our children and they adopted those interests. We also had typical girl toys in the house and my daughter loved her dolls, playing house, and having tea parties.

I guess what I am saying is that we have an innate temperament but much of our personality develops in response to environment. So, we had a daughter who was not gender-atypical, and she got caught up with this later in her teen years. Many of these kids have significant mental health problems. Did any of these mental health problems develop because of exposure to some mind-bending internet sites? A possibility? Some of these kids are exceptionally bright, highly-sensitive, some kids sucked in are on the autism spectrum. Perhaps they are just kids seeking a strong identity?

Sexuality? Many of the teen girls considering the trans world are first declaring lesbian, then genderqueer, then trans. This fluidity can all happen very quickly–downstream they go. Dysphoria. Some of us have the experience of seeing no gender dysphoria in our child. It is more like Sudden-Onset-New-Identity. Again, thank you to 4thWave and Brave Brie for sharing your story and being our spokesperson.

House Mouse Queen #sexist 4thwavenow.com

It seems to me, after reading comments about daughters who have swallowed the trans kool aid, that these daughters need to have social outlets that are gender critical, ie, a new set of social media sources. One mother explained that their daughters are focusing more on peers than parents and this leads me to think that these young daughters need to be pointed away from transactivist social media and onto radical feminist gender critical social media.

We radfems have been out on social media writing and making videos for years and this is exactly where these daughters have to be. This, in my view, is the prime purpose of the gender critical blogs, youtube channels, reddit, tumblr, etc. Point your daughters to our sites. Let them do the rest.

Oak and Ash #sexist 4thwavenow.com

The trans trend is just a division of what I’ve started to call the gender industrial complex. Reinforcing gender roles is profitable, not only in the form of trans medical “treatment” but in the marketing of so-called beauty products to women, the extreme gendering of children’s clothes and toys, etc.

Maybe it’s not a coincidence that the idea of being trans has taken off among a cohort who’ve grown up with more rigid ideas of what girls and boys are supposed to wear or do than the previous generation. I suspect the explosion of identities is a sign of reduced as opposed to greater latitude in gender roles.

WorriedForMyDaughter #sexist 4thwavenow.com

What a relief to hear some sanity in a world gone stark, raving mad. My 18-year-old emotionally-vulnerable daughter also decided two years ago she identified as male. Her school, her therapists, her doctor, and her extended family all fell over themselves to “affirm” her without ever questioning why.

I would not. Nor would any of her immediate family. Compared to her two brothers, she was so obviously a girl, in her size (5’2?, 93 lbs), her interests, her voice, her movement, her choice of friends, EVERYTHING. For this, we were accused of being “dangerous” and “abusive”. Our daughter moved in with my sister, who restricted our contact with her, and would not tell us anything about her.

And her mental health suffered enormously. Her anxiety and depression exploded. She became a recluse, obsessed with the Internet. She was admitted to the psych ward three times, once forcibly. She became a danger to herself and to others. She flunked out of school. She is addicted to cannabis to help her through the day. —And the “gender-specialists” insist we must “affirm” her?

Make no mistake, these self-appointed “thought leaders” DO NOT GAF ABOUT YOUR CHILD. They are self-serving, negligent quacks who are propped up by the trans-activist movement, and who would otherwise be nobodies in their field. Thank you, Brie, for speaking out!

worriedmom #fundie 4thwavenow.com

Certainly there is merit in your comment, Oopster, that “it would be better to speak to a trained counsellor who will listen to the person and ask the right questions, never guiding them in one direction or another.” If that is so, however, can you address for us why it is that trans-activists have mounted a (largely successful) drive to make sure that never happens?

Legislatures across the United States have uncritically accepted the notion of banning “conversion therapy” that at least arguably includes any effort to reconcile a minor with his/her birth sex – or to take anything other than the “gender affirmative” approach with clients. It’s a problem with the legislation; the bills are all modeled after one put forward by the National Center for “Lesbian” Rights, and the language is so unclear that no therapist can know exactly what is or what is not prohibited. It seems pretty clear from the face of it that at the least there’s a serious question as to whether anything besides gender affirmation is permitted. Certainly a cautious therapist could assume that discussions of a full and fair review of the decision, in light of all the facts, would be prohibited under the law.

So what about that? Why exactly is it that the trans-activist community is so threatened by the idea that people should explore all possible causes, and options, for reconciling gender dysphoria, in addition to those presented by medical transition? Certainly pretty much everyone can agree that medical transition will entail some fairly serious and potentially detrimental physical consequences. Why is it that those consequences are to be embraced and promoted to the exclusion of all other less intrusive means?