The Stream

The Brew: American Society of Plastic Surgeons Becomes First Major U.S. Medical Association to Frown on Sex Changes for Children

By Al Perrotta Published on August 14, 2024 •

Al Perrotta

Happy Wednesday!

Today’s Brew opens with a couple of victories.

Sanity: Major Plastic Surgeons Association Rejects Sex-Change Surgeries for Minors

Bucking a host of woke American medical associations, the American Society of Plastic Surgeons is refusing to board the trans ideology train. ASPS announced in July it “has not endorsed any organization’s practice recommendations for the treatment of adolescents with gender dysphoria.”

Unlike its medical peers, who have been so eager to lop off heathy body parts and chemically castrate the young, regardless of the consequences, the ASPS cites “considerable uncertainty as to the long-term efficacy for the use of chest and genital surgical interventions.” This makes ASPS the first major American medical association to fight back against sex-change treatments for minors.

It also notes the “existing evidence base is viewed as low quality/low certainty.”

Translation: Those pushing gender surgeries and treatments on minors are doing so on a flimsy foundation.

Life Victory: Planned Parenthood Shutting Four Abortion Mills in New York State

Planned Parenthood of Greater New York has announced it is shutting four of its abortion facilities in New York state, citing “compounding financial and political challenges.” This is happening in deep blue New York. The facilities to be closed are in Goshen, Amsterdam, Cobleskill, and Staten Island.

What’s more, the Manhattan Health Center is pausing (temporarily, at least) abortions after 20 weeks, ending the “deep sedation pain management services” required for later term abortions.

With Friends Like Karine Jean-Pierre and Joe Biden, Who Needs Opponents?

Team Kamala and the media have been working overtime to distance Harris from the problems of the Biden-Harris administration, selling her as a moderate with different, more conservative, ideas on the border, inflation, and taxes than her boss. And what did the White House press secretary do Monday?

She insisted there is “no daylight” between Harris and Joe Biden on matters of policy.

“What I can speak to is the last three and a half years,” said White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre. “We have less than six months now of this administration and how much the vice president was a critical partner in getting the big pieces, historic pieces, done. The heavy lifting.”

“She’s going to lay out her vision. But again, they’ve been aligned. You know? They’ve been aligned for the past three and a half years. There’s not been any daylight.”

Please Support The Stream: Equipping Christians to Think Clearly About the Political, Economic, and Moral Issues of Our Day.

Trump’s team immediately pounced. “Thank you @PressSec for confirming: there is ‘no daylight’ between Kamala and Joe!” tweeted Trump campaign press secretary Karoline Leavitt.

Then on Tuesday, Biden echoed Jean-Pierre’s talking points, telling reporters, ““The issues that we’ve worked on together have made great progress economically.”

Walz and the Police: Two Contrasts

The closer one looks at Tim Walz’s record as governor, the more trouble one sees. Let’s take something as simple as policing. It’s well known that Walz let Minneapolis burn for three days before being pressured into calling in the National Guard to stop rioters after George Floyd’s death. One of the defining moments of the rioting there, and symbol of government inaction against the mob, was the abandoning of the Third Precinct police station, which was then completely torched.

Walz was the one who gave the order.

While showing little interest in police fighting criminals who were ravaging his biggest city, he had no problem having police go after COVID mandate violators.

Take Minnesota grandma and former business owner Lisa Hanson, who was sentenced to 90 days in prison for violating Walz’s COVID dictates. She told Fox News that Walz “shut down and destroyed” her wine and coffee bistro with his draconian mandates. At first she obeyed the orders to close, but as the months dragged on and Walz allowed liquor stores and strip clubs to reopen, but not “nonessential” businesses such as hers, she decided to reopen on her own. In December 2021, Hanson was convicted for her defiance and given the maximum sentence of 90 days. She served 60 of them.

“This is the story that America needs to hear, that Tim Walz is not some cuddly, joyful coach, like all the things that the MSMs are calling him,” Hanson said. “That is not who this man is. This man would like to take your rights away. He will take your rights away. Because what happened to me could have happened to anybody. What happened to me will happen to you.”

Said the former business owner, “You don’t want tyranny at this level.”

Sportsmanship: Romania Wants to Share the Bronze Medal Taken from Jordan Chiles

American gymnast Jordan Chiles got robbed at the Olympics after finishing third recently, and Romania is pushing to make it right.

Chiles earned the bronze medal in the floor exercises after Team USA protested the judges used the wrong difficulty score for her routine. She was given an extra tenth of a point, which moved her into third place. However, that decision was reversed when the Center for Arbitration for Sport (CAS) decided the protest wasn’t lodged in time; it came in four seconds too late. The U.S. Olympic Committee appealed, providing video evidence proving their protest was, indeed, lodged on time. However, CAS turned back the appeal, saying, in the words of the USOC, that their “rules do not allow for an arbitral award to be reconsidered even when conclusive new evidence is presented.”

Although the U.S is promising to keep fighting the decision, even up to the Swiss Federal Tribunal, the IOC is ordering Chiles to give her medal back, with the bronze going to Romanian Ana-Maria Barbosu.

However, the Romanians on Monday issued a formal statement, again calling for Chiles, Barbosu, and fellow Romanian team member Sabrina Maneca-Voines to all be awarded bronzes after the IOC rejected their initial suggestion to do so. (The Romanian Gymnastics Foundation — or FRG — believes fourth-place gymnast Maneca-Voines was wrongly penalized during her routine.)

“FRG never agreed on taking away a medal” from Chiles, they said. Their pitch, first championed by legendary gymnast Nadia Comenici: “Three athletes, three medals.”

A big tip of the cup to Romania for showing Olympic-sized sportsmanship. And boo to CAS and IOC for their disinterest thus far in making things right.

Who Says Late-Night Network Comedians Can’t Be Funny? Colbert Gets Big Laugh … Unintentionally

Are you one of those who says late-night talk show hosts aren’t funny anymore? Well, we’re about to prove you wrong. For one moment, CBS’s late-night guy, Stephen Colbert, was actually hysterical.

The bad news? He wasn’t trying to be funny. Colbert was gabbing with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, and said that CNN is “objective.” The audience — a New York audience — burst out laughing.

Along The Stream

If you missed it, yesterday’s Al’s Afternoon Tea covered Elon Musk’s interview with Donald Trump.

Jason Jones is back with an important one: “300 U.S. Christian Leaders denounce India’s ‘Extreme’ Persecution of Christians.”

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Like the article? Share it with your friends! And use our social media pages to join or start the conversation! Find us on Facebook, X, Instagram, MeWe and Gab.

Inspiration
The Good Life
Katherine Wolf
More from The Stream
Recommended
More

Equipping Christians to Engage Culture

Connect with Us