Howie Hawkins and the Lavender Caucus of the Green Party

At least Howie didn't call for the National GP to ignore decentralization and expel the Georgia Greens over their not kowtowing to trans activists, in answering the Lavender Caucus questionnaire.

The rest of his answers? Not so good.

And, the questions? Also not always so good.

Per the Lavender Caucus making a snide riff on the generally silly Trolley Problem (which I tweeted to Howie) this is who we deal with.

Question No. 4 is the worst of the lot.

It is like a false flag, because the quoted statement was about reassignment surgery for kids and the LC twisted it to be about such surgery period. Minors IN GENERAL do not have autonomous medical decision making rights.

Howie not only supports the Lavender Caucus' twisting of this, he doubles down on this by referencing his own support of reassignment surgery for minors back in February.

Question 3? I would not support adding more sex categories to the Census.

Question 16? How do you know this, Howie? Besides, what if you're wrong about trying to pack the party? (Of course, this has happened in other state Green Parties on other issues.)

The biggie, though, is Hawkins claiming his stance is science supported.

No, it's not.

Even were you limiting yourself to puberty blocking drugs, it wouldn't be science supported.

Let's start with the Mayo Clinic, which notes that puberty blocking medications should only be used for children who:

• Show a long-lasting and intense pattern of gender nonconformity or gender dysphoria.
• Have gender dysphoria that began or worsened at the start of puberty.

Note that the first stipulation has an AND, not an OR. The dysphoria must be BOTH long-lasting and intense. Note also the second stipulation. Gender dysphoria that starts after puberty should NOT be treated with these medications. And these bullet points, plus two others, including one that says a child who is a candidate for such medications should at the same time be addressing any "psychological, medical or social problems" that could interfere with such treatment.

Second, these medications aren't as safe as trans activists claim. PBS's Frontline has more about possible long-term effects. Any major multiyear hormonal changes on a pre-adult, a child, are almost guaranteed to have some brain effects. Frontline also notes (as of the time of the piece) that use of puberty blockers for gender-dysphoric children is an off-label use.

More here.

“The bottom line is we don’t really know how sex hormones impact any adolescent’s brain development,” Dr. Lisa Simons, a pediatrician at Lurie Children’s, told FRONTLINE. “We know that there’s a lot of brain development between childhood and adulthood, but it’s not clear what’s behind that.” What’s lacking, she said, are specific studies that look at the neurocognitive effects of puberty blockers. The story also notes that there’s health risks behind transitioning hormones, and that these risks may vary based on the age at which they’re started.

Here's another piece about long-term effects for women who received Lupron for other reasons. (Leupron is the main trade name for leuproleptin, the only puberty blocker on the market.) Besides thinning bones, similar problems such as thinning tooth enamal and joint issues are listed.

Meanwhile, the BBC reported last fall that the newest British research study both found some possible mental health side effects and had ethical problems in the study itself. But, many Radically Active Transgenderism Supporters continue to claim that there's basically no problems.

Anyway, it’s a lie to claim there are no risks. 

Beyond that, it's really not necessary.

Without "prods" from reading too much social media or other things, 60-90 percent of gender dysphoric adolescents stay with their birth sex — and come out as gay or lesbian.

The author, Debra Soh says:

Previous research has shown that homosexuality is associated with gender-variant behaviour in childhood. All 11 studies following gender dysphoric children over time show the same finding – if they don't transition, 60 to 90 per cent desist upon reaching puberty and grow up to be gay.

There we go.

Now, is Howie doing this for political issues, since Dario Hunter was at the Georgia GP state meeting and, per the Georgia Green Party's response to Hunter's issuing a call for dialogue between the party and the caucus, it also notes that Hunter was at the Georgia GP state convention and sat silent while the amendment up top was adopted?

A Dialogue Not Expulsion Group has been founded in response to some of these issues. A member of the LC was invited to the Dialogue Not Expulsion Group. He left, and dropped this turd-bomb blog post, even AFTER the LC attacked DNC as a hate group, and didn't call it out for that. So long, Allan; with that, I don't think you'll be that missed by a significant chunk of DNE. 

As for the LC? The laughability quotient that "dark money" would be behind any resistance to it is high; so is the self-importance level.

More laughable? The GPUS has named Mike Gamms, who was essentially "unendorsed" by Erie County Greens and the NYGP, to its national Dispute Resolution Committee, representing the Lavender Caucus.

Unfortunately, the DNE itself shows splits on how it should react to this, to Allen, and to other things. 

That said, I think that's symptomatic of the GP as a whole. I will have more about these issues later.