Trans

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/3088303

Hey folks, a handful of people seemed interested in a public group chat, so now you have one!

I will be appointing mods asap. Please message me in this thread if any of you are interested in spearheading this project. Same basic rules for being a mod apply, just be a socialist and not cis.

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/2987978

DISCLAIMER: This is not medical advice, engage in DIY HRT at your own risk; the intent of this post is harm reduction. This information is not intended for minors; by reading further you agree you are over the age of 21.

DISCLAIMER 2: This is not rigorous scientific research. I conducted this experiment over the course of a work day, carrying out my actual work while trying to not arouse suspicion. I did not have time to create a calibration curve to conduct quantitative analysis. Further, isolating samples and using IR and NMR to identify impurities would increase my chance of being found out by coworkers. I also forgot to collect a data point and made another mistake that I explained in the “results” section that I did not have time to correct. That being said, these results are roughly accurate and I am using them to inform my own DIY HRT.

This is somewhat of a follow-up of this post on DragonOrdnance estradiol enanthate, and I plan on posting every year with stability data for prepared solutions when properly stored (cool, dark, dry). Since I have 10 vials with 7 mL each, I have enough to provide over a decade of stability data. I also have leftover powder which I also plan on testing yearly.

Abstract:

To improve the safety of the DIY transfem community, it is necessary to demonstrate the thermal stability of estradiol esters to ensure DIYers properly sterilize injection vials. Without an autoclave, a higher temperature is necessary to destroy all bacterial endospores that may be present. Estradiol enanthate (EEn) has considerable thermal stability and can be sterilized at home without the fear of decomposing the EEn. At the suggested home-sterlization conditions of 130degC for 30 minutes, no decomposition was detected. Even at 180degC for 1 hour, less than 5% of the EEn decomposed into an unidentified compound. Light exposure also has minimal effect, with no decomposition detected after six months of continuous exposure to artificial light and indirect sunlight. Home sterilization is recommended to avoid infection. However, it is recommended to store both EEn powder and EEn solutions in a cool, dry, dark area to minimize the decomposition of EEn over longer periods of time (EEn powder is shelf-stable for five years and likely much longer). A follow-up study will focus on long-term stability of properly stored EEn powder and EEn injection solutions.

Introduction:

Last week, I saw a post about a comrade who started HRT and mentioned their sterilization method (130degC for 30 minutes). A discussion in the comments included users suggesting that estradiol enanthate (EEn) would start to decompose at 130degC. This surprised me, as I remember seeing somewhere that estradiol ester injection solutions can be sterilized at higher temperatures than an autoclave (121degC) without significant decomposition. This is important because autoclaves are effective not only for the high temperature, but for the elevated pressure as well (~30 psi, or ~2 atm). Therefore, slightly higher temperatures are required to effectively sterilize injection vials. DIYers likely don’t have access to an autoclave or any kind of pressure vessel, so to improve the safety of transfem DIYers, I aim to alleviate concerns regarding the thermal stability of EEn.

I have a considerable stash of EEn powder that I purchased 1.5 years ago (likely over 2 years past its manufacture date) and I have an injection solution I prepared in bulk, originally intending to prepare vials as needed. This bulk solution has not been subjected to heat but has been on my desk at home where it’s been subjected to artificial light and indirect sunlight (light, like heat, accelerates decomposition of EEn). In this experiment, I determined the stability of EEn under various conditions: as a powder and a solution, and after exposure of the solution to light and/or heat.

Methods:

All injection solutions were prepared as 50 mg/mL EEn in MCT oil with 2% (v/v) benzyl alcohol.

The EEn powder, MCT oil, and benzyl alcohol were kept at room temperature in opaque, resealable plastic bags since receiving them 1.5 years ago. The light-exposed injection solution was kept at room temperature in a clear, resealable plastic bag where it was continuously exposed to artificial light and indirect sunlight for 6 months. Two more injection solutions were prepared the same day as this experiment to represent injection solutions that have not been exposed to significant light.

The “light-exposed solution” was analyzed by GC-MS. Then, the solution was sealed in injection vials and the vials were placed in a GC oven at 130degC for 30 minutes. This “light-and-heat-exposed solution” was analyzed by GC-MS.

One of the freshly-prepared solutions was sealed in injection vials and placed in a GC oven at 130degC for 30 minutes. This is the “heat-exposed solution”. The other freshly-prepared solution was transferred to an open test tube and subjected to a 180degC oil bath for 1 hour. This is the “high-heat-exposed solution” and represents the worst-case scenario of a DIYer sterilizing at a temperature far beyond what is necessary.

Results/Analysis:

The chromatogram of the EEn powder suggests this is a high purity sample, as the only peaks are EEn (at 26.4-26.9 minutes) and the MCT oil from previous analyses (Image 1) This EEn powder was analyzed following the analysis of several EEn solutions, and the needle wash was empty, so there were three other peaks that were confirmed to be triglycerides from the MCT oil residue on the needle. There is also a solvent peak (acetonitrile) at ~1-2 minutes. The mass spectrum is consistent with that of EEn (Image 2).

Image 1. GC Chromatogram of EEn powder

Image 2. Mass spectrum of EEn powder

Image 3 demonstrates a newly prepared EEn solution that was exposed to light and atmosphere while being heated at 180degC for 1 hour. Samples were diluted by adding 1 gram acetonitrile for every 10 mg of sample. As the samples were at the same concentration, the peak area of the EEn peak is a reasonable (though rough) measure of the remaining EEn. Before heating (t= 0), the peak area was 186.0 M counts. At t= 15 min, peak area was 184.9 M counts. At t= 30 min, peak area was 178.7 M counts. At t= 1 hr, peak area was 195.4 M counts. The peak area at 1 hr had the highest z-score at z= 1.5324, giving a p-value of .1254. This indicates it is very likely that the variations in these measurements are due to chance. The chromatogram at t= 1 hr demonstrates the production of a decomposition product, but the peak area of this decomposition product is <5% of the area of the EEn peak (Image 4).

Image 3. High-heat solution chromatograms

Image 4. High-heat solution chromatogram at t= 1hr, zoomed-in to visualize decomposition product peak

The following three chromatograms represent the light-exposed solution that was not heated (Image 5), the light-exposed solution that was heated at 130degC for 30 minutes (Image 6), and the newly-prepared solution that was heated at 130degC for 30 minutes (Image 7).

Image 5. Chromatogram of EEn solution exposed to light for six months

Image 6. Chromatogram of EEn solution exposed to light for six months and 130degC for 30 min

Image 7. Chromatogram of EEn solution exposed to 130degC for 30 min, but no light exposure

In absence of rigorous quantitative analysis, the proportion of peak area of EEn to benzyl alcohol was used to compare the decomposition of EEn. The concentration of benzyl alcohol in these solutions was constant, so it is another reasonable yet rough estimation of remaining EEn to determine if decomposition occured. For the light-exposed/no-heat solution, the EEn peak was 68.99% the area of the benzyl alcohol peak. For the light-exposed/heat-exposed solution, the EEn peak was 68.41% the area of the benzyl alcohol peak. For the no-light/heat-exposed solution, the EEn peak was 68.20% the area of the benzyl alcohol peak. These values are not significantly different, indicating that decomposition did not occur in any of these samples. (I forgot to measure the peak areas of a no-light/no-heat solution, I’m sowwy :(, but you can look at the 180degC data to see that no significant decomposition occurred at 30 minutes at such a high heat).

Conclusion:

According to GC-MS data, no significant decomposition at normal sterilization conditions (130degC for 30 minutes). Even at 180degC, EEn is fairly stable, remaining 95% intact after one hour at this extreme temperature. Light exposure is also a minimal risk, as no significant decomposition occurred after six months of moderate light exposure.

down with cis

I've finally finished an essay I've been working on for a long time, and this one was a project that taken a while to complete. I've seen a lot of people who live on TERF Island but not necessarily talk about how transphobic the UK can be, even compared to the United States.

This essay serves as a baseline for the contradictions within the UK that will intensify when trans people are now the primary scapegoat within society. This essay covers a lot of aspects of transphobia within the UK, which is almost nationwide (in regards to England).

The link to the essay can be found below, or by clicking that box thing. I hope people can be more aware of transphobia.

Essay link

:3

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/2208792

I don't think I did so last time.

Here you go:

Left: Gage Skidmore. Donald Trump [photograph], Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0 DEED, Right: Mark Burns on the Stew Peters Show.

On Monday, former President Donald Trump announced his endorsement of Pastor Mark Burns for South Carolina's 3rd Congressional District. The pastor has previously exhibited extremist rhetoric towards LGBTQ+ and transgender individuals, calling for the arrest and execution of those he accuses of LGBTQ+ and transgender "indoctrination." Trump's endorsement threatens to swing a crowded Republican primary in Burns' direction. Given the heavily Republican lean of the district, Burns would emerge as the clear favorite to win the congressional seat should he win his primary.

Pastor Mark Burns made headlines in 2022 for calling for the return of the House Un-American Activities Committee to arrest and execute LGBTQ+ and transgender allies and individuals whom he accuses of "grooming." In a video released after his appearance on The Stew Peters Show, Burns stated, "The LGBT, transgender grooming of our children's minds is a national security threat because it is ultimately designed to destabilize the republic we call the United States of America. That's why, whenever I'm elected, I want to start holding people accountable for treason to the Constitution. I'm going to push to reenact HUAC... We need to hold people accountable for treason, start having some public hearings, and begin executing those who are found guilty of treasonous acts against the Constitution of the United States of America..."

You can watch clips of his statements from that 2022 interview here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39RHsfm-RH8

Burns has run for Congress twice before, in 2018 and 2022. Although he campaigned as a Trump-inspired candidate in those years, he failed to secure an endorsement from the former president. This year, however, it appears he has finally received that endorsement. Donald Trump posted, "There are many great conservatives exploring a run for that seat, but Mark Burns has been with me from the very beginning of our movement to Make America Great Again," adding, "Pastor Mark Burns is an America First fighter and has my complete and total endorsement." That endorsement is significant in a crowded field of nine Republican candidates. Furthermore, the previous election did not even feature a Democrat on the ballot—the winner of the Republican primary will be the prohibitive favorite to win the congressional seat.

You can see the endorsement here:

It does not appear that Burns has changed his views towards LGBTQ+ and transgender individuals. The day before receiving the endorsement, he took to Twitter to call Transgender Day of Visibility "blasphemous" and "an insult to the millions of Christians who celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ," reacting to Transgender Day of Visibility coinciding with Easter Sunday in 2024. Notably, Transgender Day of Visibility has always fallen on March 31, while Easter's date varies. Just after receiving the endorsement, Burns appeared on the far-right Freeman Report, where he claimed that Democrats are "attacking real women in America" with transgender-inclusive policies.

Trump’s endorsement is the latest sign that the candidate is embracing extremist anti-LGBTQ+ and anti-transgender stances for the 2024 election. On March 30th, Trump decried a proclamation by Biden recognizing Transgender Day of Visibility, calling it “blasphemous” and demanding that he “issue an apology to the millions of Catholics and Christians across America who believe tomorrow is for one celebration only—the resurrection of Jesus Christ.” Trump has previously advocated for targeting gender transition support “at any age” and investigating hospitals and manufacturers of hormone therapy and puberty blockers. He has also previously called for national bans on trans youth care as well as a national trans sports ban.

When asked about the endorsement on the Freeman Report, Burns stated that Trump had called him and declared him "the congressman," indicating that both Trump and Burns feel confident about the impact of the endorsement. The Republican primary election for the seat is scheduled for June 11, 2024. Should he win over 50% of the vote, Burns will represent the Republican Party in the race for a seat that has been held by a Republican since 1995.

Please subscribe.

Given today's controversy in the United States regarding Biden accidentally acknowledging trans people on easter Sunday, I have been in thought and reading most of the morning. I stumbled across this article this morning and it floored me. Except for ages, timelines, and the lack of physical violence and conversion therapy, this story could have been written by my parents about me. It is disgusting.

Throughout the entire article the author misgenders their child consistently, but that's not even close to the end of it. This passage is deeply disturbing, but I believe it's very important to call attention to the sick thinking patterns that go on inside these peoples' heads.

During one conversation, when we said we couldn’t use his preferred name and pronouns, he said to us, “Then I can’t guarantee I won’t kill myself.” He eventually went to his room, wailing and weeping profusely. My wife and I were also crying, feeling helpless. Certainly, it’d be easier to simply call him by his preferred name and pronouns. Certainly, it’d be easier to celebrate the things he celebrates.

The parent, recognizing the emotional abuse they are inflicting upon their child and its effects even acknowledges that it would be easier to affirm their child's gender and not be an abusive asshole. But instead, the author doubles down and adopts a victim complex, "taking up his cross" so to speak of continuing to abuse his transgender child.

When my son thought we hated him, he didn’t realize our love for Jesus (and for him) is greater than he could imagine.

This sentence is deeply revealing and it is the experience of being on the other end of this resonates with me to my core. My parent's didn't love me. They love an abstract idea of a straight white christian man that they wanted to create which never existed and never will. When they say "our love for Jesus is greater", the author is showing the exact same thing my parents did. His own hatred and rejection of his child's, not only gender identity, but entire self, is way less important than their well being, and is upheld by his professed "spiritual convictions".

I should note, there really isn't a coherent anti-trans argument from the Christian Bible. I've read and studied the book several times in my life, and it's hardly concerned with the ideas of gender identity, it's more about lineages and not eating shrimp, no, you cannot blame what you are on "Jesus".

At the end of the day, the white american evangelical is an abusive, destructive person who seeks justification for their internal prejudices by manipulating a religion, but it has little to actually to with the religion. It's the people. The religion doesn't make them hate, hateful people adopt it as an excuse.

I hope for the child of this author, that they have found a safe and healthy life away from their abusive family with people who love and support them. I know I have. It has taken me years, but I am a happy, successful, woman with a very full social circle and a great life. Sadly, not everybody makes it out of this so lucky.

And for every one or two like me who survives through all of the abuse, the beatings, the torture, and the pain of white christian bigotry, I fear many more don't get through it.

Sorry for the long post, I will never stop thinking on this topic. As I grow older, I work with younger transgender people in my community with similar trauma, and I try my best to never forget where I came from, and all of those who are still there.

Happy trans day of visibility everybody. If you're able to, help somebody else, and if you are struggling, please never give up. :3

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/2164247

You can access the link here.

^ PDF version from MEGA.

:3

Check out the article above.

Here's also a good response to JK Rowling's ill-informed Tweets.

Take care, everyone. Maybe subscribe to Erin in the Morning's Substack or Restack her article (and give it a like as well).

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/1750473

Here is the archived link:

https://archive.is/MiCtL

Great article! I wonder if I'm queer myself or perhaps non-binary. Regardless, I highly recommend reading this, especially if you love classical music or are queer yourself (but, of course, officially for now I am a cishet male so I maybe I'm wrong about the article's quality or genuineness). But yes, do give it a read if you want to sometime. Also, let's of performers to read from here and lots of groups to follow.

Take care!

Crosspost from: https://lemmygrad.ml/post/2749636

The other law that was used, again, in particular against trans women was paragraph 175. If you’ve […] come to other lectures or read about this, you maybe already know about paragraph 175. It was Germany’s […] national law against… what was called ‘sodomy’ or what we would call consensual adult male–male sex—was illegal. Um… lots of countries had laws against male–male sex, […] also a number of countries had gender neutral laws against same‐sex sex. So Austria, for example.

[…]

And paragraph 175 predates [1933], but the [Fascists] rewrote it and made it harsher, and often trans women, when they got into trouble with the police, they would be accused of 175. Although they were women, the [Fascist] police refused to sex them as women, and if they were having relationships with [cis] men, then those would be construed as gay relationships and they could be charged.

[…]

Let me talk through just a number of cases that I’ve found, to kind of show you the level of violence, but also the kind of twists and turns that could happen. The first is a case of a woman, […] her name was H. Bode, she lived in Hamburg, she had had a transvestite certificate under Weimar. When the [Fascist] state came in they no longer respected that certificate, and she had a number of arrests and convictions for… um, or in charges for crossdressing and also for having sexual relationships with [cis] men.

The arrest that lead to her murder took place when one night she went out to a bar with her aunt. Bode was dressed [in women’s clothes] and passed as a woman at the bar. They got chatting with some soldiers who had just come back from the war in Poland—this is […] in [1939]—and they were all having drinks together at a table, and then suddenly one of the soldiers jumped up and said, ‘Oh wait, you’re not a woman, you’re a man dressed a woman’s clothing!’, and the soldiers grabbed her and brought her to a police officer who was walking ab[ou]t, and she was arrested.

And she was eventually charged under paragraph 175, and they also brought a crossdressing charge against her. She had several convictions already, so the police decided to escalate her case, they called in a medical examiner, the medical examiner wrote […] this horrible report where he finds that she’s a ‘transvestite’ and a ‘homosexual and a ‘psychopath’ and all kinds of bad things. And they start using this kind of language in her file, which is always a really bad sign for people.

So […] at one point they wrote in her file, quote—this is the police writing about her—‘It cannot be denied that a man going about in women’s clothing is not in keeping with prevailing concepts of discipline and morality. Under the current state, a state of manly outlook, it is not permissible that a man counterfeit the other sex by wearing women’s clothing.’

So, to me as a historian, this was really interesting because they’re referring directly to the fascist state here, the state of ‘manly outlook’. In fascism, […] male dominance and masculinity were really important, so what they’re saying is like, look, we have fascism, we can’t have this kind of stuff—behavior going on, we can’t have a trans woman, it’s in direct violation of what fascism is, so we have to do something about her.

And indeed they…decided to send her to a concentration camp. They sent her to Buchenwald, where she was murdered in 1943.

See also: Transgender Experiences in Weimar and Nazi Germany and Trans Liminality and the Nazi State.

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/735905

Glad that the party has improved on this. It wasn't always so. During the 60s, 70s, and 80s, it either said little of LGBTQ struggle or allowed homophobic opinions; this was due to a misunderstanding that communist parties had about Marxism and gay and trans folks. Also, during the tail end of the 1980s, just things started to go away but it was too late...

Sadly, some communist parties are lax on this question (I won't name names though).

Hello! This may be very off topic, so feel free to remove! I wanna find more queer friends or even partners... and i dont really know where to look lol

Meeting queer people irl is not really possible for me rn and what would prolly be the go-to places to look for peeps online - reddit and discord, are borderline spyware

I suppose by its nature, this post already kinda acts as an advert, so hi my very real name is CocaineShark and I'm a (learning) ML and a linux n' art nerd, 19 they/she

I'm brewing up ideas for a manga that incorporates trans stuff.

I want to add them at some point without resorting to stereotypes so I need some discussion regarding this here.

In bills specifically made for children, and framed as solely a woman’s issue, if an athlete’s biological sex is called into question they can be subject to genital inspection. If fondling a child isn’t enough “confirmation,” they will also undergo a DNA test to make sure there is no Y chromosome lurking, and if that’s not enough to satisfy the accusers, the child’s testosterone levels will be analyzed, just like Semenya’s.

The governors of Utah and Indiana actually vetoed the anti-transgender sports acts, resulting in a “rare split in culture wars” between Republicans. (Reuters, March 25, 2022)

Mind you, the British Columbia case is in an elementary school, where hormone levels are indistinguishable between sexes, as is average physical ability. A little girl had a random man request to see her genitals purely because of her short hair and what he described as “floppy boy shorts.”

And if asked in Florida instead of British Columbia, that request becomes infinitely more likely to be carried out. This kind of increasingly accepted reaction teaches little girls their appearance matters more than their physical prowess. They are to appear feminine at all times or risk state-sanctioned molestation.

The New York Times, which has become notorious for its bad coverage of trans issues, has at least twice (6/9/23, 11/14/22) uncritically presented the speculative claim that puberty blockers “lock in” kids on a pathway toward subsequent treatment with cross-sex hormones. Both articles cited a portion of a report by Dr. Hillary Cass, commissioned by the English National Health Service to review its gender-identity services:

“The most difficult question is whether puberty blockers do indeed provide valuable time for children and young people to consider their options, or whether they effectively ‘lock in’ children and young people to a treatment pathway,” Dr. Hilary Cass, the pediatrician overseeing the independent review of the NHS gender service, wrote last year.

The Cass review provided no studies indicating that blockers “lock in” children toward a treatment pathway. Instead, it cited two small studies showing that nearly all participants who start blockers (96.5% and 98%) proceed to cross-sex hormones.

Hinkle’s ruling points out two problems with this claim that the Times doesn’t. First, this is correlation, not causation. Second, there’s a more plausible explanation, backed by research, that most kids proceed to cross-sex hormones because they had persistent transgender identities before starting blockers:

The defendants note that 98% or more of adolescents treated with GnRH agonists progress to cross-sex hormones. That is hardly an indictment of the treatment; it is instead consistent with the view that in 98% or more of the cases, the patient’s gender identity did not align with natal sex, this was accurately determined, and the patient was appropriately treated first with GnRH agonists and later with cross-sex hormones.

(Emphasis original.)