Standing Together

“Wanna plan a protest?” It all started with a small group text on July 29th, 2022. Ten weeks later, after countless hours of phone calls, research, outreach, writing, fact checking, editing, planning, eating, breathing and sleeping the details, we gathered wearing our purple shirts—a color chosen to symbolize Democrats mixed with Republicans—at the Orangewood Ballroom for announcements. We grabbed our beautifully designed banners and signs, and headed out to the streets in front of the Anaheim Convention Center to educate the 10,000 medical providers that were in town for the American Academy of Pediatrics convention. 

The AAP membership was our target audience, since that society, with a membership of 67,000, is ignoring its stated mission to “champion optimal physical, mental and social health and well-being of all infants, children, adolescents and young adults.” Instead the AAP is leading the charge with the false narrative that “gender affirming care” is lifesaving, turning a blind eye to the science— or, rather, the lack thereof.

Our mission was to educate the AAP members in attendance and to urge them to pressure the AAP’s leadership to pass Resolution 27 and to perform a systematic review of the evidence that supports gender affirming care—because we know that, if they do this review, they will inevitably conclude, just as the Cass Review in the UK, and Finland, Sweden did, that there is a paucity of scientific evidence supporting the affirmation model.

To encourage this much needed review, we did the leg work for them. We wrote fact sheets that addressed the suicide myth; detransition; WPATH and its lack of credibility; side effects of puberty blockers; side effects of cross sex hormones; summaries of findings of other countries and why trans isn’t the new gay. We created an alternative resource brochure for the pediatricians to hand to the parents of children with gender ideation as an alternative to sending the kids to a gender clinic—the high speed train to medicalization and body mutilation. All of these materials were peer reviewed and fact checked, with sources cited. 

We assembled 3,000 bags of these materials and walked around the convention center in groups to hand them to doctors. Unfortunately for all involved, the AAP did not want their doctors educated. They told their membership to stay away from the rally participants and to hide their badges. One must ask why?  Why don’t they want their membership at least considering the parents’ perspectives? We know that answer?  Money—gender clinics are cash cows.  

The response by the medical attendees was varied. Some doctors took our materials. Some refused them. Some acidly said, “No, thank you”, as though we were handing them a bag of Kryptonite. A few expressed concern and several thanked us for being there. We were struck by the lack of curiosity in this population. They should have been interested in a group of peaceful protesters. “Who are these purple t-shirt people that think they know more than the AAP does about gender affirming care?” 

In addition to handing out materials, we also stood silently for four hours, flanking Convention Way, holding large signs that conveyed our messages: STOP TRANSING KIDS/DEMOCRATS AGAINST PUBERTY BLOCKERS/NATURAL BODIES ARE PERFECT BODIES/DON’T TRANS THE GAY AWAY/NO ONE IN BORN IN THE WRONG BODY/PARENTS AGAINST AFFIRMATIVE CARE/REPUBLICANS AGAINST TRANS “MEDICINE”/HOW MANY DETRANSITIONERS ARE THERE?/MENTAL HEALTH NOT HORMONES/MENTAL HEALTH NOT SURGERIES.  We let our signs communicate our messages. 

We were quiet and respectful, unlike the few counter protesters who called us “Karens” including, notably, a trans-identified person with a Twitter handle showing AK47s, who relentlessly yelled profanities in earshot of the little kids heading to Disneyland. The juxtaposition of the First Do No Harm attendees and the unhinged trans activists, who mooned children and blocked traffic trying to stop the Gays Against Groomers truck from driving, made clear who the “hate groups” are. Despite our well-behaved rally, we were called “cruel protesters” by Dr. Scott Hadland, a promoter of removing children’s functioning body parts, in his tweet. The irony is not lost on us.

When we started with our scheduled speakers, the counter protesters became vicious. Our truthful voices must be muzzled. Our first speaker Abigail Martinez, a mother whose daughter “was murdered by gender ideology”, was mocked and derided as she talked about her daughter’s post-transition suicide. They cruelly told her to sob harder. They pushed their way into our peaceful space with abandon. Abigail’s daughter stood as a barrier to protect her mother. 

Erin, my co-lead, a 5 '4 mom, stood as a barrier to stop more counter protesters from coming in. I joined. I ended up face-to-face with a disruptive woman hiding her face who was trying to block the livestream camera with her poster.  She was six inches away from me; I could hear her breathing. She looked at me and said “what’s up?” I was seething. I recalled Erin telling us before we all went out to the rally: Have compassion. These are lost, sad people. I looked at her small hands fiercely holding her homemade sign. Her fingers were covered with self made tattoos. She was just a kid. Her friend was nearby, shoeless and disheveled—she looked like she hadn’t eaten in awhile. My anger melted away, replaced with sympathy and sorrow. She could be one of the kids of any of our parents. A kid that got caught in the cult’s web. 

Knowing that the counter protesters were going to continue to disrupt and were looking for a fight, we called for Plan B and headed to the conference room. We were not retreating, we were going to finish what we started. Giving voice to our invited guests was the priority and our audience was not the counter protesters. We were not there to change their hearts but to educate the doctors, but the AAP had preemptively blocked any doctors from listening to our speakers, the unflappable and courageous Abigail Martinez, Cat Cattison, Chloe Cole, Abel Garcia, Scott Newgent and one of the only pediatricians who has the backbone to stand for children, Julia Mason, MD. Here are their stories.

Looking around the room, we realized that we had pulled it off. The room was filled with disparate groups with one singular goal: to stop medicalizing gender non conforming youth.  Gays Against Groomers and Traditional Values for Next Generations stood together. Muslims, Christians, Catholics, Jews, Atheists and Agnostics stood together. Democrats, Republicans, Independents, Green Party members and Libertarians stood together. Doctors, nurses, psychologists, lawyers, activists, teachers, entertainment executives, parents and grandparents, homosexuals and straight people stood together. We can only defeat this monster as a coalition. 

Attempts to sabotage our event were unsuccessful. The hotel received endless phone calls about us in the days leading up to the event. Our agenda was leaked by someone in our private group. The attempts to infiltrate our conference room were thwarted by the security team we hired at the last minute. As anticipated, no one was hurt or arrested. Those who needed to stay anonymous had their identities protected. 

We received a respectable amount of press coverage from Wesley Yang,  Postmillennial, The Daily Wire, NTD TV and The Epoch Times. No mainstream media covered us, despite 1,500 press releases. The media blackout continues. We met some amazing people who flew in from all over the country and the feedback we got was generally positive.  To all of the groups that participated, donated books/brochures and helped compile materials: Partners for Ethical Care,  Genspect,  Tre Voices , Dykes on the Right, Advocates Protecting Children, MOM Army Lesbians United, Gays Against Groomers, Moms 4 Liberty, Traditional Values for Next Generations, California Family Council, the AV team that amplified all of their voices. THANK YOU. 

I still can’t believe we pulled off the unimaginable during one of the most polarized times in our history: a UNITY rally. Go figure. 

Help us continue to have these rallies by donating to Our Duty. Please write “Anaheim” in the comments. 

We need to continue pressuring the AAP to stop harming children. You can help in a cost free manner in less than 30 minutes.  Please submit a letter to the AAP asking them to perform an independent systematic review of the science underlying the gender affirmative care model. CC Charliejacobs@protonmail.com so that we can announce the number of Americans demanding accounting.  If you have had a child that was harmed as a minor as a result of the AAP policies, please email Charlie as law firms are gearing up to file lawsuits against medical societies that are promoting unscientific, experimental procedures on children.