Another day, another publicity stunt from Sarah Huckabee Sanders that doesn’t help the people in her state.
On Thursday, the Arkansas governor signed a ridiculous executive order that bans gender-neutral terms from state documents such as “birth-giver” and “laboring person.”
When asked how many times the now-banned phrases had been reported, the political nepo baby said she was aware of one instance.
That’s right: ONE!
“We are all here to say, frankly, that we’ve had enough,” she blathered at a press conference. “Trying to erase women and girls, enough denying our biological differences from men, and enough of the craziness that is taking over our country.”
Do politicians spend their time on anything that matters?
— I Like Your Shill (@fuddedmentals) October 20, 2023
Why is she obsessed with leftists if their views don’t matter?
— EssenViews (@essenviews) October 20, 2023
It’s interesting that Sanders calls gender-neutral terms “crazy,” considering that’s how one could describe her fixation on this non-issue. Arkansas is dealing with many real crises, including the fact that 400,000 residents were just kicked off Medicaid.
Overall, Arkansas has the fifth-highest poverty rate and second-worst food insecurity in the country. A recent Scholaroo survey found the state ranks 49th in the nation for quality of life and 50th in the nation for quality of health.
And yet, Sanders is wielding her executive power to fight against gender-neutral terminology.
She continued her empty victory lap on Fox News Thursday night.
“The idea that we have this is just absolute insanity,” she told Sean Hannity. “We are now living in a world where everything is crazy versus what’s normal. And the left continues to push this woke agenda, basically trying to erase the differences of women versus men, ignoring all of science and biology, and completely ignoring the fact that women have a unique perspective.”
Absolutely nobody is trying to do that, but OK!
And some people say she doesn’t have her finger on the pulse of the most pressing issues facing her state…
— UnderDog (@NoFear_DogHere) October 20, 2023
Would love to see her enforce it
— Ryan Marino, MD (@RyanMarino) October 20, 2023
Meanwhile Arkansas rates damn near dead last in education, health and just overall life
— craftbeer_dad (@craftbeer_dad) October 20, 2023
Sanders has attacked LGBTQ+ people ever since she was inaugurated, championing her own “Don’t Say Gay” legislation and a trove of anti-trans bills. She even named Jacob Oliva, a key architect of Ron “Don’t Say Gay” DeSantis’ homophobic agenda, to run Arkansas’ Department of Education.
Trump’s ex-press sec is so obsessed with gender-neutral language, she signed a law banning “Latinx” from state docs during her first days in office.
The people’s work!
Interestingly, Sanders’ most recent salvo comes while she’s facing an avalanche of backlash over her nearly $20,000 podium. The jaw-dropping grift goes like this: For some reason, Arkansas bought a $19,029.25 lectern from a company called Beckett Events LLC, which happens to be run by one of Sanders’ closest advisors.
Adding to the coincidence, the podium was purchased right around the time Sanders took a taxpayer-funded European vacay that she branded as a “trade mission.” Social media posts show Beckett and her business partner, Hannah Stone, overlapped with Sanders in France last summer.
Though the podium was ordered in June, it actually wasn’t delivered until August. Records reveal the Arkansas GOP didn’t pay for the lectern until September, and the words “to be reimbursed” were only later added to the original invoice.
An attorney, Tom Mars, says he has a client willing to provide a confidential statement to lawmakers who possesses firsthand knowledge of Sanders’ office interfering with open records requests.
We know all of this, because Sanders called a special session to overhaul Arkansas’ public records laws, opening up her office to Freedom of Information Act requests.
Oh, and the podium, for those wondering, looks Basic AF.
At a press conference this week, Sanders said she doesn’t use the lectern because the media would “talk about nothing else” if she stood behind it.
“While we are focused on things that actually impact our state and impact Arkansas, the media wants to spend all of their time focused on things that frankly don’t,” she claimed.
In addition to discriminating against LGBTQ+ people, Sanders’ signature legislative accomplishment this year was signing a law that makes it easier to employ children.
Those hard working kids’ tax dollars, by the way, are going towards things like podiums and trips to Europe. Awesome!
Georgeiv2
SHS Has done more for the gay cause than most people realise All those 90% plus straight guys look at the lard mountain and opt to go for guys Thanks Sarah for all the support !
Baron Wiseman
What a vile comment. Who are the haters?
LeBlevsez
Baron Wiseman is easily rattled.
still_onthemark
Shame on you, you made the Baron drop his monocle!
GlobeTrotter
No one should be surprised that a large majority of Americans are beginning to push back against the ridiculous excesses of the trans movement. What started as a movement for recognition and equal rights has morphed into a gluttonous monster completely out of step with common sense and evidence-based science. I for one will not be shedding a tear.
dbmcvey
This isn’t a majority of Americans. It’s one political opportunist trying to distract from her criminality.
Stefano
@dbmcvey : Isn’t that what politicians usually do when they get caught? I wonder what Donald Trump will come up with?
WillParkinson
Please disappear. We won’t shed a tear either.
ShaverC
dbmcvey, It is a majority of the country who are finding the “trans movement” ridiculous. Most people don’t care if an adult is trans, but there is very little support for kids transitioning.
dbmcvey
@Stafano,
Exactly. She’s basically shouting “Look over there!”
dbmcvey
Hey Shaves, you can’t have it both ways if the vast majority don’t care why are you and your fellow conservatives claiming they’re rising up against it?
Why do you conservatives feel you need to poke your nose into how these parents choose to deal with their children? Children having gender dysphoria is rare but it needs to be handled and it’s none of your business.
ShaverC
dbmcvey, It’s only when this nonsense starts affecting reality that people react. There is no such thing as a “chest feeder” that sounds ridiculous. It’s breast feeding and women have breasts. If a “trans man” is pregnant he’s not going to a regular doctor, he’s going to a gynecologist because that doctor is the expert on female plumbing. The TQ+ mafia want to force people to believe in their delusions but there’s a line.
GlobeTrotter
@dbmcvey: “Children having gender dysphoria is rare but it needs to be handled and it’s none of your business.”
Children having gender dysphoria is indeed a genuine diagnosis, and the kids that suffer from it really do experience real and intense mental anguish, however what trans activists ALWAYS omit are the stats known to every mental health professional:
1. 80-85% of kids diagnosed with gender dysphoria will eventually outgrow it during puberty
2. Of the 15-20% of adults who did not outgrow gender dysphoria during puberty, about 90% will eventually become (effeminate) homosexuals. The vast majority of these individuals are men.
3. The remaining VERY SMALL percentage that neither outgrew gender dysphoria during puberty or became homosexuals as adults will remain transgender for the rest of their lives. Again this affects mostly men.
This is the reason why the standard care in psychology for children suffering from gender dysphoria is to DO NOTHING and WAIT to see if they outgrow it during puberty. Administering “social transitioning”, puberty blockers and gender reassignment surgery before puberty is NOT the standard treatment for children diagnosed with gender dysphoria!
Trans activists point to the high suicide rates of children denied social transitioning or puberty blockers to bolster their claim for the necessity of such treatment. What they ALWAYS omit however, is that in the UK, Sweden, Finland (and I believe New Zealand, but I can’t remember off the top of my head right now) the suicide rate of children given treatment was EXACTLY THE SAME for children that weren’t given any treatment whatsoever. In other words, puberty blockers, social transitioning and surgery made no difference whatsoever to the mental health of children. As a result of these statistics, these countries immediately BANNED these treatments for anyone under 18.
Another interesting stat always omitted by trans activists is the fact that this recent wave of gender dysphoria seems to disproportionately affect mostly teenage girls, which is very strange since the medical stats compiled over the last few decades indicates the gender dysphoria affects mostly YOUNG BOYS. This supports the suspicion of many mental health professionals that what we’re witnessing is a social contagion and not an explosive outbreak of gender dysphoria. This was later bolstered by a report from a rehab center for young people suffering from gender dysphoria run by a psychologist, whose name I can’t remember right now. As part of his treatment for gender dysphoria his patients must give up their cell phones for a period of 2 months. After about 4 weeks 80-90% of his patients are completely cured of their gender dysphoria and express no more desire to identify as the opposite sex…
daddytop
Let’s see your data. Don’t you think we can tell you made it up out of thin air?
Mack
DaddyTop, she didn’t get it off the top of her head, she pulled out of her ass. I agree show your data source Globetrotter or else it just more BS.
GlobeTrotter
These stats are known to every psychologist, psychiatrist and other mental health practitioner and are regularly published and cited in psychiatry/psychology journals. Some of the sources include, but are not limited to:
“Evidence from the 10 available prospective follow-up studies from childhood to adolescence indicates that for ~80% of children who meet the criteria for GDC, the GD recedes with puberty”
Ristori J, Steensma TD. Gender dysphoria in childhood. Int Rev Psychiatry. 2016;28(1):13–20
Lebovitz, P. S. (1972). Feminine behavior in boys: Aspects of its outcome. American Journal of Psychiatry, 128, 1283–1289.
Zuger, B. (1978). Effeminate behavior present in boys from childhood: Ten additional years of follow-up. Comprehensive Psychiatry, 19, 363–369.
Money, J., & Russo, A. J. (1979). Homosexual outcome of discordant gender identity/role: Longitudinal follow-up. Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 4, 29–41.
Zuger, B. (1984). Early effeminate behavior in boys: Outcome and significance for homosexuality. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 172, 90–97.
Davenport, C. W. (1986). A follow-up study of 10 feminine boys. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 15, 511–517.
Green, R. (1987). The “sissy boy syndrome” and the development of homosexuality. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Kosky, R. J. (1987). Gender-disordered children: Does inpatient treatment help? Medical Journal of Australia, 146, 565–569.
Wallien, M. S. C., & Cohen-Kettenis, P. T. (2008). Psychosexual outcome of gender-dysphoric children. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 47, 1413–1423.
Drummond, K. D., Bradley, S. J., Badali-Peterson, M., & Zucker, K. J. (2008). A follow-up study of girls with gender identity disorder. Developmental Psychology, 44, 34–45.
Singh, D. (2012). A follow-up study of boys with gender identity disorder. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Toronto.
Steensma, T. D., McGuire, J. K., Kreukels, B. P. C., Beekman, A. J., & Cohen-Kettenis, P. T. (2013). Factors associated with desistence and persistence of childhood gender dysphoria: A quantitative follow-up study. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 52, 582–590.
This phenomenon has actually been extensively researched and documented, which is precisely why the research is usually ignored and omitted by trans activists during their often vocal presentations. Furthermore what many laypeople actually mean by the popular use of the word “trans” is actually “gender nonconformity”, and not the proper psychological diagnosis of “gender dysphoria”, which are two VERY different things altogether. Gender nonconformity is as the term describes, a person who doesn’t conform to the expected norms of their gender at birth, e.g. effeminate boys who prefer to wear dresses, play with dolls, play with other girls, etc., and “tomboys”, i.e. masculine acting girls who prefer male typical activities, dressing like boys, etc. This is NOT THE SAME as gender dysphoria (!!), yet there are parents and trans activists encouraging such kids to “transition” to the opposite sex, often with profound psychological consequences for the affected individuals.
But you don’t have to take my word for it – thanks to the internet everyone nowadays has access to the same information available to mental health professionals. All it requires is a little curiosity…
inbama
@GlobeTrotter
Excellent.
Not that simpletons like Mack and daddytop are ever going to read actual studies. To insist that male transvestites are actually women takes a “special” kind of brain.
dbmcvey
1. And those children are not treated the same way as the other 20-15%. Unlike what right wing anti-trans extremists claim these children are not transitioned surgically. There are still actions that need to be taken to prevent bullying and the risk of suicide.
2. Same as above.
3. That it affects mostly men is irrelevant. And those children should still receive care.
The right wing latches on to these studies without really looking at the background. They ignore the lives of actual trans people and try to make some kind of blanket statement that covers everyone ignoring the VERY SMALL percentage who are actually affected by the treatments. The majority of trans people who had puberty blockers disagree with your statement. Gender reassignment surgery is not done to children so that it a strawman.
It’s not weird that gender dysphoria affects teenage girls. But again, gender dysphoria isn’t the same as being trans, it’s just the diagnosis many of them receive.
dbmcvey
And, GlobeTrotter, what these studies REALLY show is that these decisions shouldn’t be being made by politicians and religious zealots.
GlobeTrotter
dbmcvey: When you don’t know what you’re talking about and when you’re out of your depth on a given subject matter, then maybe it’s not the best idea to make bold pronouncements that betray your lack of knowledge to the entire world.
“And those children are not treated the same way as the other 20-15%. Unlike what right wing anti-trans extremists claim these children are not transitioned surgically. There are still actions that need to be taken to prevent bullying and the risk of suicide.”
The standard treatment for gender dysphoria in psychology/psychiatry is to do nothing, as psychologists/psychiatrists know that most children will eventually outgrow their gender dysphoria with puberty if left untreated. Since the past 10 to 15 years however, a very small minority of medical and mental health practitioners have started to pioneer “gender affirmative” treatments such as puberty blockers and social transitioning, some even going as far as to advocate gender reassignment surgery for minors under 18. These treatments COMPLETELY CONTRADICT evidence-based science and the psychological literature on gender dysphoria, but are surprisingly good for the financial bottom line. According to a PBS report, the cost of puberty blockers is approximately $1,200 per month or $4,500 to $18,000 for an implant. Children will require these drugs over the entire span of puberty, meaning up to 8 years which translates into at least $100,000 per child. Then they’re the additional costs for weekly social transitioning therapy.
As a result of the enormous financial gains to be made in the treatment of gender dysphoria, Reuters has reported that the number of gender clinics treating children in the United States has grown from zero to more than 100 in the past 15 years. According to the analysis of just one private health insurance company Komodo Health Inc, at least 121,882 children ages 6 to 17 were diagnosed with gender dysphoria from 2016 to 2021. In 2022 however, more than 42,000 were diagnosed, which represents a jump of 70% from 2020. The number of children receiving puberty blockers from 2016 to 2021 totaled 17,683, rising from 2,394 in 2017 to 5,063 in 2021. And these are the stats from just ONE insurance company! The reason why there were ZERO gender clinics before 15 years ago is because the standard treatment was simply to do nothing and wait to see if gender dysphoria desisted (stopped on its own) or persisted in an individual after puberty. As soon as corporate America realized however, that there was money to be made in “treating” gender dysphoria, gender centers started popping up all over the country, and unscrupulous psychologists started pumping out referrals.
“That it affects mostly men is irrelevant. And those children should still receive care.”
With all due respect, you have absolutely NO IDEA what you’re talking about. If a mental phenomenon affects mostly males, then this is VERY RELEVANT to psychologists! The fact that that same phenomenon now mostly affects females 10 years later is a BOMBSHELL! Regarding the treatment of children suffering from gender dysphoria, as I’ve taken great pains to emphasize, the standard treatment is to DO NOTHING and wait out its natural development. Most children will simply outgrow GD during puberty.
The rest of your comments are a jumble of nonsensical rants and therefore not worth commentary.
Diplomat
Excellent research Globe. I have watched many vids on YouTube with transitioners regretting their transitions.
Sweden got it right on stopping transitioning for under 18.
With all the loonball features of the trans NB community and there resistance to take a seat at the table to discuss such, i do believe they need to be ejected from the LGBTQ title we have tried so hard to keep clean. We’re going down the tubes with this unholy union most LGBs never wanted.
decrans
Thank you, Globetrotter. It’s always entertaining to see Dickvaney get his nonsensical a$$ handed to him.
dbmcvey
A few of the anti-trans trolls here kept bringing up Jazz Jennings, overlooking the fact that she says puberty blockers saved her life.
decrans
decrans
As of this weekend, a North Carolina lesbian and sexual abuse survivor is suing the leading trans health purveyor Michelle Foriner for misdiagnosing her dissociative identity disorder. My friend Prisha Mosley has another detrans lawsuit with vaginal atrophy and various urinary tract infections. What do you say to the people whose lives it didn’t save, Dickvaney? Tough sh-t, right? I’ve asked this question every day liberal halfwits. You want gender-affirming care? Fine. How does the medical industrial complex rectify cases like Mosley’s or the North Carolina lesbian’s? In America, piling-up lawsuits have consequences. I’ll say it again. You want utopia, buddy? Think through your ideas before presenting them to the rest of the class.
LumpyPillows
The majority of “trans” people in the news aren’t event trans. They are transvestites. The fact that people like db don’t call out the misidentifying by people like Dylan Mulvaney or Jeffrey Marsh (two men in dresses who love their penises) makes me wonder if they actually support trans people at all. Or is it all about their political goals? Or are they just plain stupid?
I did get pushback from some of my friends on my position on the pronoun nonsense and the nasty overreach of the trans mafia. They all have come around and now agree I was right all along. The only reason it isn’t blindingly obvious yet is because most people on the left haven’t really been doing their homework. The liberals who want to be caring while not really caring to spend the time to read the details…
dbmcvey
Pretty typical for Republicans. Get caught doing something sleazy, attack gay people.
Baron Wiseman
She’s not attacking gay people. She’s addressing issues with the “chest feeding” crowd which have nothing to do with gay people.
dbmcvey
Oh look. It’s Oxymoron back again with his stupid comments.
Once they deal with this they’ll come after marriage rights. They may claim they’re not but they said the same thing about abortion.
Diplomat
Oh look, it’s dumbass db back with his low IQ baseless comments bc he can’t accept he’s losing the war.
dbmcvey
Oh look, it’s diplo, the lying conservative.
Diplomat
It’s unfortunate you are going down in flames … just like Trump. You could have had so much more if trans trolls hadn’t acted like warring neanderthals on violence inducing drugs. Now you’re paying the price. And your one note troll monologe only proves your extremely limited intelligence. Face it. You’re over.
LumpyPillows
Republicans changing the topic to avoid a hard issue? Happens all the time. Just like db trying to change the focus from the fact that SHS is actually correct on this one. I don’t like SHS, but even she is right sometimes. Why do I say this? Because I can think for myself and am not a blind follower of anyone.
Fname Optional Lname
Her internalized homophobia created this obsession with the LGBTQ community.Fatal Attraction level now so it won’t be long before she either self combusts or she shows up at a Lesbian bar looking to dive into her authentic self. She has no idea we laugh at her
Baron Wiseman
Speak for yourself. Thank you.
dbmcvey
You too Oxy. Speak for yourself because you’re not speaking for anyone else except all the other trolls, although even some of those don’t like you.
Fahd
Are “firefighter” , “police officer” and “flight attendant” acceptable to the Governess? So many gender neutral terms came into common usage through the women’s liberation movement. Is there an actual list of newly banned terms? If she only could cite one example, it must be pretty limited and therefore targeted. Stop the Hate!
Baron Wiseman
@Fahd
Eliminating the word “chest feed” is not “hate.”
dmarcus
@Baron
I counter “chest feeder” is not a hateful term then. Since conservatives are so sensitive to any words that reference gender or sex under the LGBTQ umbrella, they have to create laws against us thinking their lives are at stakes. I take it that you are fine with conservatives making Don’t Say Gay laws because gays are harmful or indoctrinating children?
BEPVA
Along these lines of eliminating confusing gender-neutral terms – SHS should not be referred to as “Governor, but instead as “Governess”
You’re welcome.
dbmcvey
The Oxymoron seems really obsessed with chest feed. It’s pretty creepy.
Baron Wiseman
@dmarcus
Do you think gays should be indoctrinating children?
inbama
@Baron Wiseman
You can’t “indoctrinate” a child into a sexual orientation.
However, teaching the queer theory/gender studies mashup with infinite genders and infinite pronouns to children is causing a mental health crisis – especially for gay, lesbian and autistic kids. This identity nonsense is simply too much for young children to handle, and the sudden increase in the number of teens feeling so “uncomfortable” with their sexed bodies that they threaten suicide should disturb everyone. Children need certainty.
inbama
@Fahd
Here’s her executive order. Feminists of the ‘RadFem” stripe will be delighted. (I suspect almost women will agree, but won’t say it because they’ll be called “transphobic.”)
********
WHEREAS: Government should reject language that ignores, undermines, and erases women;
WHEREAS: Government should celebrate gender distinctions between men and women—not erase them; and
WHEREAS: It is the policy of this administration to prohibit the use of woke, anti-women words for official state government business.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS, acting under the authority vested in me as the Governor of the State of Arkansas, do hereby order:
(1) All state offices, departments, boards, and commissions are prohibited from using exclusionary, sexist language in official state government business, effective immediately.
(2) In official government documents, the following exclusionary and sexist terms shall be replaced with accurate, female-affirming alternatives:
a. Rather than “pregnant people” or “pregnant person,” use “pregnant women” or “pregnant mom.”
b. Rather than “chestfeeding,” use “breastfeeding.”
c. Rather than “body fed” or “person fed,” use “breast fed.”
d. Rather than “human milk,” use “breast milk.”
e. Rather than “birthing person,” use “birth mom.”
f. Rather than “laboring person,” use “birth mom.”
g. Rather than “menstruating person” or “menstruating people,” use “woman” or “women.”
h. Rather than “birth-giver,” use “woman.”
i. Rather than “womxn” or “womyn,” use “woman
Baron Wiseman
@inbama
Sounds good to me.
dbmcvey
Unsurprising that inbama is also obsessed with this.
Creepy.
Fahd
@inbama In reaction to the declaration or whatever it is:
A dogwhistle clearly motivated by an animus against people who are not gender conforming. I think it’s unconstitutional. This short list of terms probably can’t be found in Arkansas government documents now. How many changes will have to be made? I’m betting close to zero if not zero.
What an empty, cynical attempt to distract the electorate and throw some red meat to the rightwing AM radio listening “poorly educated” whom the tangerine Palpatine loves so much. At one time, the Governess would have been rooting out communists and homosexuals and their vocabularies…… somebody has to be demonized to keep their voters’ prejudices inflamed; getting out the vote.
A government of the people should be of all the people including those who don’t conform to gender norms. And we still see your low-level corruption Sarah. Stop this cheap Hate!
Diplomat
db,
Hey Mr crosswise. The only thing creepy here is you.
dbmcvey
Diplo, I’m not interested in you. Your relentless pursuit of me is creepy.
Diplomat
I’m just getting started.
LumpyPillows
Fahd didn’t read the article, it seems.
Just.my.opinion
Please stop giving this one-term (too many) governor any publicity at all. She doesn’t deserve it. She will be erased from our consciousness with the next election, anyway.
dmarcus
So she’s wasting money on vacations while BANNING gender neutral terms aka restricting the right to freedom of speech?? First no one is forcing anyone to use the terms chest feeders, birth giver, or LatinX. If you choose to use those terms then fine, if not then okay. They are there for people (trans, non binary, or gender inclusive ppl) who feel comfortable with those words. They are not eliminating women or men or what it is to be fem or masc. She’s only doing this because she hates trans people and non binary people and don’t want to acknowledge them. I don’t see her banning the word f*gg*t or n*gr* which many victims hear before a hate crime. Since when did the US government let Twitter- oops it’s new daddy (Elon Musk who named his kid a bunch of numbers & threaten WB if they fired his abusive ex girlfriend Amber Heard & let hate speech run amuck) renamed the app to sound like a porn app, X. When did the US gov let X be in charge of law making? Conservatives are taking queues from angry ppl on X who hates practically everything and turn them into laws. Focus on the economy, minimum wage increase, healthcare, and rent. Battle over words lol, this is some elementary playground bs.
inbama
The “battle over words” was initiated by trans activists. It’s “compelled speech.”
I use gendered pronouns for transitioners, but as for “they, them, ze” and other made up pronouns for made up identities, I would go to jail first rather do the bidding of the nonbinary narcissists.
Diplomat
It might be easier to cast a spell that freezes their vocal chords. Bippity boppity boop.
RoyM
Old Lard Bucket is exactly who the people of Arkansas are – ignorant, inbred, trashy hillbillies who offer nothing of value to humanity.
scotty
she is an ugly person, inside and out. just like her father.
LumpyPillows
Yeah, you didn’t read the article.
Brian
“Person” is used not only because it’s gender-neutral, but also because it’s inclusive of all *ages.*
Contrast this with the speeches by Republicans in the US Congress and state legislatures who have referred to girls under the age of 12 as “women.” As in, a child rape victim whose pregnancy “shows that she is now a woman.”
LumpyPillows
You didn’t read the article. No one is complaining about using person as an all-inclusive term.
Oh, wait, the people who identify as cats might get pissed. Just wait.
Diplomat
Legislate the women molesting loons out of existence. They are a global embarrassment. Get them off our flag at the bare minimum.