"Much deserved" is an extreme understatement

PBS News Weekend aired yet another story Sunday on suicides by “LGBTQ-plus” teenagers allegedly due to callous Republicans passing laws “targeting transgender people.” Openly gay anchor John Yang and other members of the PBS News crew regularly push the emotional blackmail claim that gender dysphoric kids are at higher risk of suicide, which is exactly the scary message the gender identity extremists want to spread. Yang left no doubt in the show introduction that the upcoming segment would be far from balanced and objective, as required by the Public Broadcasting Service’s mandate from Congress: John Yang: Then, how laws targeting transgender people affect the mental health of LGBTQ youths. Jaymes Black, Trevor Project CEO: Not only is it causing extreme mental health impact to these youth with stress and again, attempts of increase in suicide, it's also causing some youth and their families to have to move out of their state. And neither did his introduction to the segment itself: Yang: This past week, the Texas attorney general sued a pediatrician for violating the state's ban on gender-affirming care, the first time that law has been enforced. In all, more than half the states have laws that target transgender people one way or another, including bathroom bans and school sports bans. Now, as Ali Rogin reports, there's a new study that looks at how these laws affect young people's mental health. It's yet more propaganda issued by the Trevor Project, then filtered into the taxpayer-funded mainstream news cycle by PBS News Weekend, which is becoming a home for radical stories like this, as if children are killing themselves because they are referred to by the "wrong" pronoun. Reporter Ali Rogin: Suicide attempts increased between 7% and 72% for transgender and non-binary young people living in states that enacted anti-trans legislation. That's according to a new study by the Trevor Project, which works to end suicide among lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youth. The study relied on national survey data from 61,000 transgender and nonbinary youth, and the results were published in the peer-reviewed journal Nature of Human Behavior. Trevor Project's CEO, Jaymes Black, joins us now…. Black: ….the study is not only significant, it's groundbreaking, and it's because it is the first time, to our knowledge, that a causal relationship has been shown between this, the states that are enacting anti-trans legislation, and the rate of suicide attempts…. Ali: During the study's period from 2018 to 2022, there were 48 pieces of legislation against transgender young people enacted in 19 states. What types of laws were they? Black: They run the gamut. So laws like access to bathrooms, access to gender-affirming care, pronoun usage, discussing LGBTQ-plus issues at school. They run the gamut. Supposed journalist Ali instead played sympathetic personal advocate as she prodded Jaymes to tell her story of persecution in Red Texas. Ali: And I know that this affected you and your family personally. You moved states. Can you tell us a bit about your family's experience, if you could? Jaymes said she moved from Texas because “We didn't feel safe as an LGBTQ-plus family.” Ali: And also, kids in schools is one thing that's hard enough for young people. But then to include instruments of the state also taking legislative action in ways that influence their identity. I just can't imagine what that is like for these for these kids. Ali sounded like a knee-jerk activist all the way through, not even considering the argument against boys allowed access to girls' restrooms, locker rooms, and athletic spaces. Ali: This problem is not going anywhere. This year, hundreds more anti-LGBTQ-plus bills have been proposed. 44 so far have passed into law. According to the ACLU, they include bathroom bans, health care restrictions, ID laws, sports restrictions, curriculum censorship. Do you think the pace of the passage and the consideration of these laws is going to be affected one way or the other by whoever wins the presidential election next month? It's safe to say neither Black or Ali are rooting for Trump. This July 2024 press release from the Trevor Project gives a flavor of Black’s radicalism: Jaymes Black (they/she/he pronouns) makes history as the first Black and first nonbinary CEO of the nonprofit organization…. This pro-LGBTQ segment was brought to you in part by Consumer Cellular. A transcript is available, click “Expand.” PBS News Weekend 10/20/24 7:12:05 p.m. (ET) John Yang: This past week, the Texas Attorney General sued a pediatrician for violating the state's ban on gender affirming care. It's the first time that law has been enforced. In all, more than half the states have laws that target transgender people one way or another, including bathroom bans and school sports bans. Now, as Ali Rogin reports, there's a new study that looks at how these laws affect young people's mental health. Ali Rogin: Suicide attempts increased between seven and 72 percent for transgender and non-binary young people living in states that enacted anti-trans legislation. That's according to a new study by The Trevor Project, which works to end suicide among lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth. The study relied on national survey data from 61,000 transgender and non-binary youth, and the results were published in the peer reviewed journal nature, human behavior. Trevor Project, CEO, Jaymes Black joins us now. Jaymes, thank you so much for being here. Tell us about the study. How significant are the findings? Jaymes Black, The Trevor Project: Very significant. And the study is not only significant, it's groundbreaking, and is because it is the first time to our knowledge that a causal relationship has been shown between the states that are enacting anti-trans legislation and the rate of suicide attempts. So that causal relationship, which is the highest level of research, is really important because it shows strong evidence that the enactment of these laws are causing increase in suicide amongst non-binary and transgender youth in these states. Ali Rogin: During the studies period from 2018 to 2022 there were 48 pieces of legislation against transgender young people enacted in 19 states. What types of laws were they? Jaymes Black: They run the gamut. So laws like access to bathrooms, access to gender affirming care, pronoun usage, discussing LGBTQ, plus issues at school that right run the gamut. Ali Rogin: And how do these laws affect young people? And we know that there are direct and indirect impacts? Jaymes Black: Well, let's think about this. You remember how it felt when you were 13 years old, right? And when you were 13, you were going through probably an awkward time trying to figure your life out, socially, at school, et cetera. And then to think about on top of that, you now have your existence questioned. You now have to sometimes testify and justify who you are that is a direct hit on your mental health. So in the ways in which it's affecting our youth is not only is it causing extreme mental health impact to these youth with stress, and again, attempts of increase in suicide. It's also causing some youth and their families have to move out of their state, so to find a safe state, moving out of a state that's unfriendly, and to go find another home that is friendly to them. An entirely new place that they actually have to live and sometimes it even splits the family up. It's impacting our youth, but it's also impacting our families as well. Ali Rogin: And I know that this affected you and your family personally. You moved states. Can you tell us a bit about your family's experience? If you could? Jaymes Black: Yes. So I'm a native Texan, and in 2022 my wife and I decided to move our family from Texas to the DMV area for multitude of reasons, all connected to the way that the state was heading in terms of anti-LGBTQ, plus legislation, the threat of legislation, the words and the rhetoric that we were hearing from the politicians, and what my boys were hearing. We didn't feel safe as an LGBTQ plus family. As two women raising boys in Texas, we didn't feel safe anymore, and our boys were hearing things at school that's that just weren't right, that weren't okay. And as we continue to hear the rhetoric from politicians that trickles down to the community, and it trickles down into the schools, and you start to hear that type of rhetoric from kids' mouths, and that's passed on to kids like mine. So we decided to move. Ali Rogin: And also kids in schools, is one thing that's hard enough for young people, but then to include instruments of the state also taking legislative action in ways that influence their identity, I just can't imagine what that is like for these kids. Jaymes Black: Exactly and we need politicians understand that their jobs are to not use our children as political pawns. That's not a way to get political points. They are responsible for protecting and supporting and serving, being of service to all constituents, and that also means the trans and non-binary youth. That also means the LGBTQ plus families. That means everybody. You can't siphon off a section of your constituency because you don't understand them. Ali Rogin: There are lots of families who can't move to a different state, so what sort of things can people who want to support them do to make them feel more welcome, and what sort of resources are available to those people who are being directly impacted by these laws? Jaymes Black: First, in order to support our youth, we know that one supportive adult can significantly decrease the attempts of suicide. So we need adults to be supportive adults. We have research at Trevor and resources on how to be a great ally, so please go look that up on our website. We also know that you have to build community around our LGBTQ plus youth, so they need people who can understand them, support them, use the appropriate pronouns that significantly decreases the attempts of suicide. And we also know that gender neutral restrooms, they need access to the basics bathrooms, gender neutral bathrooms also significantly decrease the stress that they are actually going through right now. Ali Rogin: And this problem is not going anywhere this year past the studies term, hundreds more anti-LGBTQ plus bills have been proposed. 44 so far have passed into law, according to the ACLU. They include bathroom bans, healthcare restrictions, ID laws, sports restrictions, curriculum censorship. Do you think the pace of the passage and the considerations of these laws is going to be affected, one way or the other, by whoever wins the presidential election next month? Jaymes Black: I think that there's a chance that whoever wins the presidential election that we are going to continue to see an increase in the states, that we're going to continue to see, and maybe perhaps out on the federal level, but in the states, and that's because we have the same politicians who are continuing to be divisive, who are continuing to pass misinformation. So really, the way that we fix that there's an education gap, people do not understand or know who trans people are, what it means to be non-binary, they don't understand. So what we need to do is to reduce the stigma attached to it, and we need to educate people if we don't educate people, if we don't fill that knowledge gap where people don't know and so they're being fear mongered, is what I'll say. There's lots of fear amongst people when it comes to trans and non-binary people. So, regardless of who wins the election, I believe that we're still going to see that type of rhetoric, and the pace could increase even right. I believe that we have to fill that education gap and show people who people are. They are afraid of people like me. They're afraid of people who look like me, of youth who look like me. And the bottom line is we're all human.

The irony of Gloria Steinem’s latest push for voter engagement is hard to miss. Rallying cries such as, "If you don't vote [for Kamala Harris], you don't count!" ring a bit hollow, given her past. A past that many Americans know very little, if anything, about.I’m talking about Steinem's history with the CIA — a group infamous for undermining democracy. From 1958 to 1962, Steinem worked as director for the CIA-backed Independent Research Group, which actively helped manipulate youth movements to advance American geopolitical interests.The glaring disconnect between her public persona as a crusader for empowerment and her involvement with an organization notorious for crushing those very ideals is both hilarious and rather hypocritical.Then, there are the murky circumstances of the 1972 founding of Ms. Magazine, the editorship of which cemented Steinem's role as the face of the feminist movement. It was New York Magazine publisher Clay Felker who put up much of the money for Ms.; he had previously given Steinem her first writing jobs while an editor at Esquire.But Steinem and Felker went further back than that; they had both worked together at the Independent Research Center. It gets stranger when you consider some of the other sources of funding for Ms: one was the powerful Katharine Graham, publisher-owner of Newsweek and the Washington Post. Another was media conglomerate Warner Communications Inc., which invested $1 million in Ms. but only took 25% of the stock it was entitled to, making it a major investor but minority stockholder.In 1978, these same backers successfully prevented Random House from publishing information on Steinem's CIA history in "Feminist Revolution," an anthology by radical feminist collective Redstockings. The offending passages were censored. Clearly, Steinem's association with an agency that has meddled in foreign elections, propped up dictators, and sabotaged democratic processes worldwide is a sore point for the modern feminist movement.Down with the patriarchy, up with the covert opsThe irony deepens when considering Steinem's role as perhaps the most celebrated feminist of her era. The glaring disconnect between her public persona as a crusader for empowerment and her involvement with an organization notorious for crushing those very ideals is both hilarious and rather hypocritical. Oh, and let’s not forget Jane Fonda, another feminist icon and a close admirer of Steinem. She was also tied to the CIA.Do these stalwarts of human rights have any dignity themselves? Do they carry any regrets? Do any of the younger women who see them as icons realize they were both CIA spooks, aligning themselves with an agency that embodies the very antithesis of democracy, human dignity, and freedom?Founded in 1947, the CIA quickly evolved from its original mission of intelligence gathering into a tool for covert operations. While the agency has played a positive role in certain instances — such as its efforts during the Cold War to prevent nuclear escalation — its wicked ways are undeniable. Subverting democracy, supporting despotsFrom its very inception, the CIA prioritized regime changes around the world to protect U.S. corporate interests, rather than to promote democracy. Two notorious examples were Iran and Guatemala. In 1953, the CIA overthrew Iran's democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh, whose decision to nationalize the country's oil threatened Western corporate profits. The CIA’s Operation Ajax not only restored the shah's rule but also ignited decades of anti-American sentiment that would later explode in the 1979 Islamic Revolution. While the revolution was framed as a triumph for national sovereignty, it was anything but a victory for Iranian women. Before the revolution, women enjoyed relative freedoms, with the ability to dress however they pleased, work, and pursue education. But the Islamic regime imposed harsh restrictions, forcing women to cover themselves with the hijab and limit their movements, often requiring a male guardian for basic activities. Today, women in Iran have never been less free.As for Guatemala, the CIA's 1954 coup against President Jacobo Árbenz was another prime example of prioritizing U.S. corporate interests over a nation's democratic will. Árbenz had sought to redistribute unused land, much of it owned by the U.S.-based United Fruit Company, to impoverished farmers. Fearing the loss of its vast holdings, United Fruit lobbied the U.S. government, and the CIA acted swiftly to remove Árbenz. The result was decades of military dictatorship, civil war, and widespread human rights abuses (including brutal rapes). Thousands of Guatemalans, particularly indigenous populations, became the victims of violent repression. The intervention devastated the country, leaving scars that still endure today.Sniff, sniffThe agency’s involvement in the illegal drug trade further erodes any semblance of moral integrity. The Iran-Contra affair, in which the agency not only illegally supplied arms to Nicaraguan rebels but also facilitated the flow of drugs into the United States to fund these operations, comes to mind. This scheme resulted in devastating consequences for the less well-off (you know, the people who feminists care so much about), especially black Americans, who bore the brunt of the crack cocaine epidemic.Specifically, an epidemic fueled by the CIA's complicity.Additionally, the agency has infiltrated and manipulated global media through programs like Operation Mockingbird, which involved recruiting journalists to spread propaganda and suppress narratives unfavorable to U.S. interests. It doesn’t end there. With the CIA, it never does.The agency’s actions have often undermined global peace efforts. Its role in covert operations like Project MKUltra, a mind-control research program, shows a willingness to experiment on human subjects with no regard for their well-being. Participants were subjected to forced drug consumption, electroshock therapy, and psychological manipulation. The fact that this program ran for two decades, largely in secret, is a testament to the lack of moral oversight within the agency. All in the name of democracy, of course.From the assassination of democratically elected leaders like Patrice Lumumba in the Congo to backing murderous regimes in Latin America, the CIA has blood on its hands. These actions were never about supporting democracy but securing U.S. dominance, often at the cost of countless lives. And who suffered the most? Most likely women and girls — the very people Steinem and Fonda love so deeply. Feminism has never looked so shallow, so shambolic.Duplicity on wheelsIn Afghanistan, as more recent reports show, CIA-backed death squads orchestrated night raids on religious schools, targeting children. In a particularly horrific instance, 12 boys, as young as 9, were massacred during a raid on a madrassa in Wardak province. These actions were part of a broader campaign of terror that included executions, mutilations, and attacks on civilian structures, all carried out with U.S. support. I hope Steinem and Fonda, especially Steinem, see this. While she's busy pushing young Americans to vote for Kamala, here's my message: They need her advice like a fish needs a bicycle.

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