If you like apple pie and your mother, you'll love this post!

Some inside-baseball content to cheer about

So I was on vacation in Chicago last week, where I had the best Fourth of July in all my memory. That day, I had the pleasure of watching the Cubs beat the Phillies at Wrigley Field —the neighborhood ballpark aptly nicknamed The Friendly Confines— together with my whole family plus two favorite in-laws. The temperature was mild, the beer was cold, and the happy crowd shared this electrifying moment right after the national anthem:

You heard right — “U.S.A! U.S.A.!” Can you believe it? Just a week after the most demoralizing Presidential debate imaginable (with Saturday Night Live on hiatus, no less); amidst the most depressing, insulting campaign season in our lifetimes, forty thousand Americans spontaneously located their bruised and battered patriotism, applied the jaws of life, then lifted their voices like a circle of hand-holding Whos down in Whoville whose presents and roast beast may be gone but the true meaning of Christmas? Present and accounted for!! You betcha, I had chills.

The day got even better when a friend texted me a podcast episode in which 11-day White House Press Sec Anthony Scaramucci — remember The Mooch? — predicted on what sounded like good authority that our beleaguered Uncle Joe was about to do the honorable, patriotic thing and resign! Not just from the campaign but from the Presidency!

Reader, I would have bought myself a flag pin if I knew where to find one. I did start planning an essay about my renewed hope, faith and yes, love! for this crazy, kooky joint we call America.

Only, nevermind. And thanks for nothing, Mooch.

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But here at TransMuted, we know how to turn on a dime and redirect. As it happened, I had arranged to interview the lawyer/writer I admire most on Substack next to Gerald Posner, Kara Dansky and HippiEsq: you may know her as Unyielding Bicyclist, or just UB, author of the truly brilliant Bad Facts Substack.

It would be imprecise to say I have a crush on UB, since she’s a young lesbian and I’m neither. More accurate to say TransMuted has a serious thing for Bad Facts. If this were a Blockbuster Video store and both blogs were cassettes on the shelf, there’d be a sign that reads, “If you LIKE TransMuted, you’ll LOVE Bad Facts!” So I was eager to re-read all UB’s posts and start preparing for the interview, which we’re recording later today (Friday).

That led to this DM from me to her: UB, I've been immersed in your Substack for a day and a half, and there is so much meat in every piece that I'm repeatedly struck by something I didn't know before. You'll ask, 'like what for example?' and I'll answer that, but what I'm thinking about is putting it in a written post that I'll publish before the podcast. So, part teaser and part preparatory reading. Maybe this Friday, before we record.

Not that you have to do any preparatory reading, but I’ll share some Bad Facts nuggets I think you’ll appreciate, just because:

UB on trans-activists’ using the DSD (Disorders of Sexual Development) ‘canard’ to argue that sex isn’t binary:

Q: How many wheels does a bike have?

A: Some have two wheels; others have one, for example if they’re in the shop waiting for the wheel to be replaced. It’s impossible to say generally how many wheels a bicycle has.

Bikes don’t become ineffable if somewhere in the world there’s a broken bike. And the word “man” doesn’t become impossible to define because Caster Semenya’s testicles are in the wrong place. 

On the other name for synthetic testosterone, which turns out to be “anabolic steroids:”

“…journalists didn’t acknowledge that [they] were the same thing, and they didn’t follow up on evidence that teenage girls were using the substance, under both its names… Steroids were treated as a grave public health threat affecting competitive athletes and bodybuilders. Testosterone was treated like a wonder drug for cheeky lesbians out to cadge male privilege. (Unlike in later years, journalists did not suggest that these women needed ‘T’ to ward off suicidal ideation.)”

“Anabolic steroids are addictive. A person addicted to anabolic steroids will want to keep using them despite experiencing unpleasant physical side effects.”

On male convicts in women’s prisons:

About half of MTF [‘male to female’] prisoners are sex criminals, which is four times the rate of the general prison population. Some may be misguided gay men raised in homophobic environs. Others appear to be psychotically violent.[…] Many are probably fetishists, as that’s a major MTF contingent. And if surgery and even hormones are optional, any number of them could be regular guys working the system.

UB plucks out passages in legal opinions like the one below in which a Florida judge veers close enough to the truth to seize and bottle it, then does an abrupt 180 as he appears to grasp the full weight of that truth:

From Judge Hinkle’s opinion: “It sometimes happens that opponents of bigotry deem opposing viewpoints bigoted even when they are not. And it sometimes happens that those with opposing viewpoints are slow to speak up, lest they be accused of bigotry. These dynamics could affect a medical association’s consideration of transgender treatment. The record suggests these dynamics have affected the tone and quality of debate within WPATH. It is entirely possible that the same dynamics could have affected the tone and quality of debate within other associations. Even so, it is fanciful to believe that all the many medical associations who have endorsed gender-affirming care, or who have spoken out or joined an amicus brief supporting the plaintiffs in this litigation, have so readily sold their patients down the river. The great weight of medical authority supports these treatments.”

UB adds, “This decision is, to me, a reminder of the importance of humility. Judge Hinkle believes he’s a Disney prince who just rescued the young transgenders of Florida from growing pubic hair. He doesn’t know that gender identity was made up by discredited sexologists and muscled into law by autogynephiles.”

Editor’s note (that’s me): or maybe he doesn’t want to know.

UB highlights legal arguments that are nothing but empty calories served on wet paper plates of evidence, and shows how they are swallowed whole by undernourished judges:

The ED [Education Dept.] claims its “findings are consistent with the guidelines published by well-established medical organizations, which say being able to live consistent with one’s gender identity is critical to the health and well-being of transgender youth.”

Citations: WPATH SOC 8 (the one with the eunuch chapter), Jason Rafferty’s extremely debunked AAP policy statement, and a chintzy article on the AMA website authored by a freelancer. That’s it.

On pediatric endocrinology’s sudden star turn in gender courtroom dramas:

“The modern American endo trades salary and glamour for work-life balance. Pediatric endos are especially low-paid relative to other specialists. The modern endos I’ve encountered in gender-world…come off like grasping egomaniacs, not wholesome work-life balancers. I can’t picture Adkins dishing realtalk to her patients about diet and exercise; rather, she promises that synthetic hormones are a cure-all. And her north star definitely isn’t objective lab results – it’s subjective gender identity.… [T]oday's gender endos are props: MDs who class up the whole activist circus by flashing their credentials and testifying to whatever the ACLU wants.”

That’s a mere dim sum appetizer tray of Bad Facts. Get the whole feast (it’s all free) here, and be sure to tune in to Episode 10 of UnMuted, coming soon to this Substack, Spotify, and all the other platforms as soon as I figure out which keys to press. (Feel free to reach out if you know.)

Cheers! —Jenny