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zackford.bsky.social
Zack Ford
@zackford.bsky.social
3.2K followers 410 following 2.3K posts
Press/Editorial: AFJustice Formerly: ThinkProgress (RIP). Queer/cis, atheist, SJW, pianist, gaymer, IC alumni, union member. https://linktr.ee/zackford Opinions my own. (He/Him) 🏳️‍🌈🖖
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zackford.bsky.social
Zack Ford @zackford.bsky.social · Dec 10
If you see stories about trans people being targeted for discrimination and psychological torture and your response is to shrug because you still have "questions" about trans identities and aren't motivated to advocate for their lives because you think it's a political loser, well gosh, you suck.
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Reposted by Zack Ford
mrsbettybowers.bsky.social
Mrs. Betty Bowers @mrsbettybowers.bsky.social · 17h
Thanks, New Yorker
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zackford.bsky.social
Zack Ford @zackford.bsky.social · 11h
Hey trans-affirming BlueSky community. Here are two transphobic accounts crying out for some block lists.

bsky.app/profile/houf...

bsky.app/profile/drop...
bsky.app
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zackford.bsky.social
Zack Ford @zackford.bsky.social · 11h
I don't see you railing against plastic surgeries for teens. I don't see you railing against "corrective" surgeries for intersex infants. Sounds like you just reject the legitimacy of trans people and want to make kids suffer unnecessarily. What ugly cruelty with no basis but bigotry.
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zackford.bsky.social
Zack Ford @zackford.bsky.social · 11h
He said the already pretty loud part even louder.
gingerkap23.bsky.social
Blanche Devereaux @gingerkap23.bsky.social · 15h
Miller oopsie doodled and said the quiet part out loud, talking about DT aka himself having “plenary authority”:

A plenary power or plenary authority is a complete and absolute power to take action on a particular issue, with no limitations
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zackford.bsky.social
Zack Ford @zackford.bsky.social · 12h
In the very rare case that anything surgical happens on a minor, it's a mastectomy, but that's not for a tomboy. It's for a trans boy who has been insistent, consistent, and persistent in his identity and who shows signs of profound distress from gender dysphoria. Trans kids exist.
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zackford.bsky.social
Zack Ford @zackford.bsky.social · 13h
That's not a thing.
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zackford.bsky.social
Zack Ford @zackford.bsky.social · 18h
The junior senator from Missouri is right. Political violence is not a both sides thing. Only people like him and on his side call for things like "cleansings."
atrupar.com
Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 18h
Schmitt: "Let's just call it out. We need a cleansing here. Let's just be truthful about what's happening. This left-wing political violence is not a both sides thing. It's not."
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Reposted by Zack Ford
emptywheel.bsky.social
emptywheel @emptywheel.bsky.social · 18h
Meanwhile right wingers are squealing bc their toll records were obtained 2 years into an investigation.
zackwhittaker.com
Zack Whittaker @zackwhittaker.com · 18h
Scoop, by @lorenzofb.bsky.social: A federal contract shows ICE spent $825,000 on vans equipped with fake cellphone towers known as cell-site simulators, which can be used to spy on nearby phones.
ICE bought vehicles equipped with fake cell towers to spy on phones  | TechCrunch
The federal contract shows ICE spent $825,000 on vans equipped with “cell-site simulators” which allow the real-world location tracking of nearby phones and their owners.
techcrunch.com
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zackford.bsky.social
Zack Ford @zackford.bsky.social · 18h
They're really specific about it just being talk therapy, so I'm not sure how much it would help beyond that (certainly not for any prescribed drug treatment like puberty blockers or HRT).
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Reposted by Zack Ford
thedanahoward.bsky.social
Dana Howard @thedanahoward.bsky.social · 19h
clears throat:
Black and white image of parachutes with caption: "Parachutes reduce the risk of injury after gravitational challenge, but their effectiveness has not been proved with randomised controlled trials."
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zackford.bsky.social
Zack Ford @zackford.bsky.social · 19h
Here's my live thread on this morning's oral arguments in the anti-LGBTQ conversion therapy case, which just wrapped. Colorado made clear and strong arguments defending the ban, but it sounds pretty likely that the conservative justices' bigotry is unfazed and we will lose. 🧵:
zackford.bsky.social
Zack Ford @zackford.bsky.social · 21h
These Supreme Court oral arguments on conversion therapy are going to be painful. No matter what is said, know that trying to force someone to be what they're not is psychological torture with measurable negative consequences, and anyone trying to defend such efforts is a bigoted monster.
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zackford.bsky.social
Zack Ford @zackford.bsky.social · 19h
Oral arguments are over. I did not hear five justices willing to protect children from psychological abuse. But the fight to protect against conversion therapy will not end with this case.

Thanks to everyone who followed the thread on this depressing day at the Supreme Court.
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zackford.bsky.social
Zack Ford @zackford.bsky.social · 19h
ADF once again attacks the studies as having biased sampling. There isn't a single study affirming LGBTQ people's experiences that the right wouldn't attack, because they KNOW the "perfect randomized study" they demand that tests *obviously* harmful effects could never ethically be conducted.
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zackford.bsky.social
Zack Ford @zackford.bsky.social · 19h
Colorado's lawyer lays out how ludicrous it would be to try to do some kind of randomized study ON CHILDREN to prove conversion therapy is harmful. We already know enough to know that there's no way such research could be performed ethically, and we know plenty enough without it.
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zackford.bsky.social
Zack Ford @zackford.bsky.social · 20h
Barrett still sounds skeptical the research shows conversion therapy is harmful, but Colorado's lawyer takes the opportunity to spell out just how robust the research is and correcting the other side's claims that it doesn't speak to "voluntary" speech therapy. (Shoutout to @turban.bsky.social!)
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zackford.bsky.social
Zack Ford @zackford.bsky.social · 20h
It's really telling the hypocrisy of the conservative justices in today's case vs. Skrmetti. They were eager to enable Tennessee to "protect children" from being trans, but they are very skeptical of Colorado trying to protect children from harm. The only consistency is anti-LGBTQ bigotry.
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zackford.bsky.social
Zack Ford @zackford.bsky.social · 20h
Justice Thomas has questions about whether there's even a history of regulating therapy and counselors. There, of course, is. It sounds like he really wants mental health to be a total free-for-all. That would be so devastatingly harmful.
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zackford.bsky.social
Zack Ford @zackford.bsky.social · 20h
A lot of the hypotheticals the conservative justices are tossing around stem from the fact that the plaintiff wasn't ever found in violation with the law. ADF, as it likes to do, filed a pre-enforcement challenge to try to allow anti-LGBQT behavior before the law has even been applied.
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zackford.bsky.social
Zack Ford @zackford.bsky.social · 20h
Alito wants to know why speech to affirm a minor's same-sex attractions is allowed and speech to reject them isn't "viewpoint discrimination." It's a total strawman. Colorado is insisting the harms come from trying to change orientation, and that's why the law protects against a specific TREATMENT.
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zackford.bsky.social
Zack Ford @zackford.bsky.social · 20h
Alito is desperately trying to protect the CHILDREN who want to "cope" with their same-sex orientation without changing or reducing it. It's a hypothetical that doesn't make any sense, and it's clear he's trying to justify self-hate in a way to circumvent the ban and thus justify overturning it.
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zackford.bsky.social
Zack Ford @zackford.bsky.social · 20h
Kavanaugh and Barrett are obsessed with a hypothetical about a dispute in the medical community. There will ALWAYS be a vocal minority that dissents (like hate group ACPeds), but that's not a justification for undermining the mainstream medical consensus on the standard of care.
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zackford.bsky.social
Zack Ford @zackford.bsky.social · 20h
Justice Kavanaugh wonders if a state could ban AFFIRMING therapy if the standard of care changed. But it's not going to. It's very clear that affirming sexual orientation and gender identity is good for mental health and rejecting them is bad. He's letting his bigotry daydream for him.
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zackford.bsky.social
Zack Ford @zackford.bsky.social · 20h
Justice Thomas wants to know why religious counselors or life coaches can provide conversion therapy and a licensed therapist can't. The question is an indictment on all professional therapists, and indeed, ADF's defense of this client is an attack on the mental health profession.
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zackford.bsky.social
Zack Ford @zackford.bsky.social · 20h
Colorado is coming right out the gate noting the importance of the state to regulate medical treatment, and this is a case about a licensed therapist selling a health care service with known harms. Just because the treatment involves words doesn't mean it's not "treatment" — or not harmful.
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zackford.bsky.social
Zack Ford @zackford.bsky.social · 20h
Even if this ruling is bad, there are still other ways to challenge and protect against conversion therapy. Ex-gay survivors successfully challenged the Jewish conversion therapy org JONAH under consumer protection laws. You can't sell impossible results! archive.thinkprogress.org/quick-verdic...
Quick Verdict In The Case Against Ex-Gay Therapy
archive.thinkprogress.org
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