Blithely tossing aside biological reality for ideological ends, Andrew DeMillo, John Hanna, and Nadia Lathan of Associated Press wrote from Topeka: “Republican-led states emboldened to continue rolling back trans rights as Democrats struggle with response.”
AP absolutely mangled the political controversy over “transgender rights,” and assumed with no scientific evidence that a high number of children are “trans” (how is that diagnosis made?). AP used all the LGBTQIA-approved lingo: the Orwellian term "gender-affirming" appeared nine times.
PBS News posted the story to its website Wednesday and posted a link on its Facebook page.
[Kansas Democrats] also know that ads from Trump and others targeting transgender rights resonated with voters. So while Kansas Republicans say property tax cuts are their top priority, they also are pushing to ban gender-affirming care for young people, including puberty blockers, hormones and, even though they are rare for minors, surgeries. They say that, too, resonates strongly with voters….As lawmakers have gone into session in many states, Republicans are broadly emboldened by GOP electoral successes to continue pushing state-level bills to curtail transgender rights.
The supposedly objective AP repeatedly bowed to the teenage transitioning cult by parroting the jargon of activists, pretending there’s an officially accepted definition of “transgender girls” besides what a troubled boy might be going through at a particular time of their life.
As was the case in 2023 and 2024, dozens of bills are pending in mostly red-state legislatures aimed at issues such as which bathroom transgender people can use in public buildings, whether transgender people can use their gender identity on their driver’s licenses and whether transgender girls can play on girls sports teams….
Democrats are reckoning with voter backlash while not abandoning what they see as a civil rights issue.
….
Republicans in the state think they’ll be able to ban gender-affirming care for young people this year after previously failing because the added Republican members will allow them to override a veto from Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly.
It’s amazing that recognizing two sexes is now controversial in the press. Men not being allowed in women’s prisons, an obvious matter of personal safety for female prisoners, is also concerning to AP.
Trump, who made anti-transgender themes central to his campaign, signed executive orders on his first day in office Monday declaring that the federal government would recognize only two sexes: male and female.
Federal prisons and shelters for migrants and rape survivors will be segregated by sex as defined by the order, and federal taxpayer money will not be able to be used to fund “transition services,” which would appear to cover people incarcerated in federal prisons.
AP threw up these slanted stats.
In the U.S., about 300,000 youths ages 13 to 17, or 1.4%, are transgender, according to estimates by the Williams Institute, an LGBTQ+ research center at the UCLA School of Law. Among adults, the figure is 0.5%, for 1.3 million transgender Americans who are 18 or older.
So why are three times as many teens per capita “trans” than adults? Social media contagion? Favorable press coverage like this? The AP betrays no inconvenient intellectual curiosity on the matter.
Every major U.S. medical group, including the American Medical Association, has opposed the bans and said gender-affirming treatments can be medically necessary and are supported by evidence. Doctors, parents and young people have said such care reduces depression and suicidal thoughts in transgender youths.
Conservatives nonetheless often describe the care as potentially harmful. Kansas House Speaker Dan Hawkins said lawmakers are trying to protect young people.
While AP used "gender-affirming" nine times, "parents" only appeared once....and only to support "gender-affirming treatments" for kids. The idea that parental rights and "trans rights" are in conflict never emerges. Parental rights aren't even on their mental map.
The article concluded approvingly: “‘Civil rights are in the DNA of Democrats,’ said Joan Wagnon, a former Kansas Democratic Party chair, state lawmaker and Topeka mayor.”
