The Medical University of South Carolina initially said it wouldn’t be affected by a law banning use of state funds for treatment “furthering the gender transition” of children under 16. Months later, it cut off that care to all trans minors.

One Saturday morning in September 2022, Terrence Steyer, the dean of the College of Medicine at the Medical University of South Carolina, placed an urgent call to a student. Just a year prior, the medical student, Thomas Agostini, had won first place at a university-sponsored event for his graduate research on transgender pediatric patients. He also had been featured in a video on MUSC’s website highlighting resources that support the LGBTQ+ community.

Now, Agostini and his once-lauded study had set off a political firestorm. Conservative activists seized on one line in particular in the study’s summary — a parenthetical noting the youngest transgender patient to visit MUSC’s pediatric endocrinology clinic was 4 years old — and inaccurately claimed that children that young were prescribed hormones as part of a gender transition. Elon Musk amplified the false claim, tweeting, “Is it really true that four-year-olds are receiving hormone treatment?” That led federal and state lawmakers to frantically ask top MUSC leaders whether the public hospital was in fact helping young children medically transition. The hospital was not; its pediatric transgender patients did not receive hormone therapy before puberty, nor does it offer surgical options to minors.

  • prole@sh.itjust.works
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    11 months ago

    but if you honestly think cutting your dick up makes it cleaner, then I’m going to assume you just don’t get near it with soap and water

    Yeah I’m sorry this just makes no sense.

    First of all, the overwhelming number of circumcisions occur long before a person is capable of consenting to such a procedure. So I don’t think people are walking around thinking, “hey, if I cut up my dick, I won’t have to clean it anymore!”

    This shit happened when I was born, I had zero choice in it. It’s absurd to make assumptions like that as if it’s a personal choice.

    Second, the assumption doesn’t even make sense. Nobody has ever said or implied that circumcision is an alternative to washing your dick. That’s insane. What are your even fucking talking about??

    Sounds like maybe you had one or two bad experiences with some gross, unhygienic losers, and are assuming everyone is the same. You’re dead wrong.