Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro is quietly trying to erase women and mothers from his state&#8217;s health code. 
The Democrat&#8217;s administration has removed female terminology and replaced it with transgender-inclusive language in a proposed overhaul to Pennsylvania&#8217;s health code. The terms “pregnant woman&#8221; and &#8220;mother of a newborn&#8221; have been replaced with “pregnant or postpartum individual&#8221; throughout the 502-page proposal, which was announced on August 8. Women who have given birth to a stillborn baby are no longer called a &#8220;mother&#8221; but are instead referred to as a &#8220;postpartum individual&#8221; in the proposed <a href="https://www.irrc.state.pa.us/docs/3490/AGENCY/3490PRO.pdf">regulation</a> changes.
Shapiro is pushing to give Pennsylvania’s Department of Health centralized police powers under the guise of “disease control measures” through expansive proposed regulatory changes to the health code, as The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/josh-shapiro-arms-himself-with-draconian-police-powers-amid-re-election-fight">previously reported</a>. These expanded powers include the ability to enter homes and schools without a warrant, access confidential medical records, and impose statewide school mask mandates for disease prevention. The Department of Health reports to the governor’s office, meaning this change would give Shapiro — and his successors — the ability to single-handedly implement draconian policies across the state. 
&#8220;Somehow, in the midst of hundreds of pages of new government mandates, the department also found it necessary to erase words like &#8216;pregnant woman&#8217; and &#8216;mother&#8217; in the regulations and replace them with terms like &#8216;pregnant individual,'&#8221; Pennsylvania lawmaker Michele Brooks told The Daily Wire.
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<div id="attachment_1166545" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1166545" class="wp-image-1166545 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/Screenshot-2026-08-27-at-9.16.33-AM-1024x568.png" alt="" width="1024" height="568" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/Screenshot-2026-08-27-at-9.16.33-AM-1024x568.png 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/Screenshot-2026-08-27-at-9.16.33-AM-300x166.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/Screenshot-2026-08-27-at-9.16.33-AM-768x426.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/Screenshot-2026-08-27-at-9.16.33-AM.png 1360w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />Screenshot of proposed changes to the Pennsylvania health code that remove the term &#8220;woman.&#8221;</div>
Transgender activists believe men can <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breastfeeding-group-promotes-trans-lactation-with-horrifying-photo">give birth</a> and that obstetricians and gynecologists should use transgender inclusive language when delivering female healthcare. The American College of Obstetricians &amp; Gynecologists (ACOG) told doctors to “make their offices inclusive and inviting to all individuals who need obstetric or gynecologic health care” and to “educate themselves and their medical teams about appropriate language and the health care needs of transgender patients,” in an online statement.
“Some postpartum transgender individuals may not identify as ‘mothers;’ thus, obstetrician–gynecologists and other health care professionals should be mindful of the language they use. It may be appropriate to use a more neutral term, such as ‘parent,’&#8221; wrote ACOG in a March 2021 committee opinion titled &#8220;<a href="https://www.acog.org/clinical/clinical-guidance/committee-opinion/articles/2021/03/health-care-for-transgender-and-gender-diverse-individuals">Health Care for Transgender and Gender Diverse Individuals</a>.&#8221;
Randall Wenger, chief counsel of the Independence Law Center, told The Daily Wire that Shapiro’s language changes reveal a “triumph of ideology over biology.&#8221;
“The changing of language in the [Department of Health] regulations represents the triumph of ideology over biology,” Wenger told The Daily Wire. “This change of language doesn’t reflect reality; it obscures it. It erases female identity as a stable category in favor of a fluid concept of gender. The Shapiro administration is so concerned with affirming transgender identity that it can no longer recognize the realities of biological sex. The department cannot pretend to fight dangerous diseases with its delusions about gender.&#8221;
Shapiro ardently supports transgenderism and allowing children access to harmful sex-change interventions. 
&#8220;I want to say, especially to our trans children, I see you and I love you,&#8221; Shapiro said at a <a href="https://www.wgal.com/article/governor-josh-shapiro-pride-festival-harrisburg-trans-children/61716119">July 2024</a> pride event in Harrisburg. &#8220;I&#8217;ve gone to court to protect our trans kids and I&#8217;ll continue to stand in the town squares and town halls in every community across Pennsylvania — rural, urban, and suburban — and proclaim loudly and clearly that we love all God&#8217;s children, including our trans children.&#8221;
Shapiro joined a group of state attorneys general in his capacity as Pennsylvania&#8217;s Governor and <a href="https://ag.ny.gov/sites/default/files/court-filings/commonwealth-of-massachusetts-et-al-v-donald-j-trump-et-al-complaint-2025.pdf">sued</a> the Trump administration for banning pediatric transgender medical procedures such as puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and sex-change surgeries, in August 2025. 
Shapiro created the Governor’s Advisory Commission on LGBTQ Affairs in <a href="https://www.pa.gov/content/dam/copapwp-pagov/en/governor/documents/20230606_Governors-Advisory-Commission-on-LGBTQ-Affairs_Final-Executed.pdf">June 2023 </a>that engages in LGBTQ activism throughout Pennsylvania and provides the administration with legislative and policy recommendations. Ashleigh Strange, who<a href="https://www.pa.gov/governor/administration/advisory-commissions#accordion-3c14ae505f-item-4419d2d9db"> identifies</a> as “they/them,” is the executive director of the Advisory Commission on LGBTQ Affairs and is paid an annual salary of $106,289, according to a government transparency <a href="https://pennwatch.pa.gov/Employees/Salaries?handler=ExecuteSearch">website</a>. 
&#8220;We are an advisory commission, so there are 30 people all across the Commonwealth who are dedicated to getting the information from the LGBTQ community to the governor&#8217;s office. And everyone in the governor&#8217;s office and all of the agencies under his purview are dedicated to making sure that the LGBTQ community is safe, seen, and heard,&#8221; Strange said in a July 2026 <a href="http://facebook.com/reel/1566902568198581/?fs=e&amp;s=TIeQ9V&amp;mibextid=wwXIfr&amp;rdid=9PB0QxX7tuo86quH&amp;share_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fshare%2Fr%2F1GdDVHRU52%2F%3Fmibextid%3DwwXIfr#">social media post</a>. &#8220;We know that our communities are under attack. The governor knows this.&#8221;
Governor Shapiro and the Pennsylvania Department of Health did not respond to The Daily Wire&#8217;s requests for comment.

Pennsylvania Democrat Governor Josh Shapiro speaks at the

Democrat Governor Wants To Remove ‘Mothers’ And ‘Pregnant Woman’ From State Health Code 

COVID

diversity equity inclusion

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Josh Shapiro

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Pennsylvania

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Women's Rights

Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro is pushing to radically rewrite his state&#8217;s health code to give his administration authoritarian police powers as he seeks re-election.
The Democrat&#8217;s <a href="https://www.irrc.state.pa.us/regulations/RegSrchRslts.cfm?ID=3505&amp;fbclid=IwY2xjawTrAr9wZG9mBWV4dG4DYWVtAjEwAGJyaWQRMDF2THVSdFBiTGw4RkthVTBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEeDjPUZ4ah2MvvtDVP4AQJOK7zJlqjAesOEbVTI3TjEyE9KLNGNjgg96xqbIg_aem_qta635xD7C0PTWC51tz6Nw" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.irrc.state.pa.us/regulations/RegSrchRslts.cfm?ID%3D3505%26fbclid%3DIwY2xjawTrAr9wZG9mBWV4dG4DYWVtAjEwAGJyaWQRMDF2THVSdFBiTGw4RkthVTBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEeDjPUZ4ah2MvvtDVP4AQJOK7zJlqjAesOEbVTI3TjEyE9KLNGNjgg96xqbIg_aem_qta635xD7C0PTWC51tz6Nw&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1787243287958000&amp;usg=AOvVaw17LPVJE_hCEQrpQiVVBRmR">proposed change</a> would give Pennsylvania&#8217;s Department of Health centralized police powers under the guise of &#8220;disease control measures,&#8221; including the ability to enter homes and schools without a warrant, access confidential medical records, and impose statewide school mask mandates for disease prevention. The Department of Health reports to the governor&#8217;s office, meaning this change would give Shapiro — and his successors — the ability to single-handedly implement draconian policies across the state.
&#8220;The administration’s proposed new regulations on mask mandates and communicable diseases are deeply concerning,&#8221; Pennsylvania lawmaker Michele Brooks told The Daily Wire. &#8220;These include catch-all authority to impose masking, distancing, and virtually any other disease-control measure it wants, a statewide vaccine database with mandatory reporting, authority to restrict attendance at funerals, and extraordinarily broad powers to monitor private health information and enter private property.&#8221;
Pennsylvanians voted to limit the unilateral emergency powers of the governor&#8217;s office through a constitutional amendment in <a href="https://www.spotlightpa.org/news/2021/06/pa-coronavirus-disaster-declaration-terminated-legislature/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.spotlightpa.org/news/2021/06/pa-coronavirus-disaster-declaration-terminated-legislature/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1787243287958000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2bsMez51ySc22WRgspjV5Q">May 2021</a>. Shapiro, who touts himself as a moderate and centrist, is said to be on Democrats&#8217; short list of possible 2028 presidential nominees. His office did not respond to The Daily Wire&#8217;s requests for comment.
The Pennsylvania Department of Health can currently only impose disease control measures when attempting to provide “surveillance” of infectious disease outbreaks. Added clauses in the massive 502-page regulation proposal unveiled on August 8 would allow the department to implement disease control measures not only for surveillance, but also for the “prevention, containment, or mitigation” of a disease, infection, or “condition.” Disease “prevention” could include measures such as coerced vaccination and mask mandates, without the active spread of infectious disease. The term “condition,” another new addition to the health code, is nebulously defined as a “noninfectious medical ailment or other health-related event.”
The Daily Wire asked the Department of Health if, under the new regulation, it could proactively impose a statewide school-mask mandate before flu season to prevent flu outbreaks and if the term &#8220;conditions&#8221; included mental health problems. The department did not respond to The Daily Wire&#8217;s requests for comment.
The regulatory changes hand Shapiro&#8217;s team unfettered power to enter apartments, schools, or any “other location” determined by the Department of Health when conducting a disease investigation, without a warrant.  
“The department or local health authority may enter an apartment, building, health care facility, school, college or university, or other location as necessary to conduct its investigation under this chapter if the representative presents documentation to establish that they are an authorized representative of the department or the local health authority,” states the regulation proposal.
The new regulation explicitly states that no person can “interfere” with a DOH investigation and further specifies that health bureaucrats have the power “to meet and speak with a student or other person in private” at schools. It explicitly states that school employees “may not obstruct” an investigation of a student. 
Randall Wenger, chief counsel of the Independence Law Center, told The Daily Wire he is troubled by how these regulatory changes could interfere with parental rights.
“Parents have a fundamental right to direct the upbringing of their children. And these regulations that allow a bureaucrat to go into a school to meet with a child without parents&#8217; knowledge and telling the school officials that they can&#8217;t even interfere with this,” Wenger said. “That ends up then interfering with the parents&#8217; fundamental right to direct the care and upbringing of their children. That&#8217;s unconscionable. I don&#8217;t want any government agent coming in and talking one-on-one with my child about immensely personal subjects like sexually transmitted diseases.”
Other expansions of the Department of Health&#8217;s authority include gaining the ability to confidentially access citizen health records and the power to exclude K-12 and college students from receiving an in-person education if they are deemed “susceptible” to a disease. It also allows the Pennsylvania Department of Health to create a mandatory statewide Birth Defect Registry for newborns and requires healthcare providers to input every delivered vaccination into a statewide database, unless the patient proactively declines in writing.
Shapiro is already hinting at how this data could be publicly shared. Five days before announcing the regulation changes, the governor published an online <a href="https://www.pa.gov/content/dam/copapwp-pagov/en/health/documents/topics/healthstatistics/school-immunizations/current/school-immunization-rates.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.pa.gov/content/dam/copapwp-pagov/en/health/documents/topics/healthstatistics/school-immunizations/current/school-immunization-rates.html&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1787243287958000&amp;usg=AOvVaw1-dVmCaaaGH27N9YFExZwI">database</a> with detailed information about the vaccination rates of kindergarten, 7th grade, and 12th grade students in private and public schools throughout Pennsylvania. The database includes the rates of religious, philosophical, and medical exemptions at each school. Secretary of Health Dr. Debra L. Bogen said sharing this personal data was an important “tool” to help families and community leaders to &#8220;work together to reduce the risk of vaccine-preventable diseases&#8221; in a social media <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pennsylvaniadepartmentofhealth/videos/pennsylvania-parents-should-have-easytounderstand-information-about-their-kids-s/2235925534021412/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.facebook.com/pennsylvaniadepartmentofhealth/videos/pennsylvania-parents-should-have-easytounderstand-information-about-their-kids-s/2235925534021412/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1787243287958000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0-mdDzfIxbOUT3YAlErfpJ">post</a>.
Wenger told The Daily Wire the database is an example of the Shapiro administration&#8217;s contempt for religious vaccine exemptions.
“The Shapiro administration again demonstrates its contempt for religious exemptions by publishing this vaccination database,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Its effect is to expose and target schools with high rates of students claiming statutory exemptions, generating public pressure and political justification for government intervention in the name of public health.&#8221;
Shapiro promised to protect vaccination in an October 2025 <a href="https://www.pa.gov/governor/newsroom/2025-press-releases/gov-shapiro-signs-eo-2025-02-safeguarding-pa-access-vaccines-pro" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.pa.gov/governor/newsroom/2025-press-releases/gov-shapiro-signs-eo-2025-02-safeguarding-pa-access-vaccines-pro&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1787243287958000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2QMbrKJznnFkki2D4-sF6d">Executive Order</a> that accuses Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the Trump administration of sowing “confusion and chaos around vaccines” and directs state agencies to follow vaccine advice from the American Academy of Pediatrics instead of recommendations from the “politically influenced” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Shapiro signed the order during a <a href="https://pacast.com/m?p=28416" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://pacast.com/m?p%3D28416&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1787243287958000&amp;usg=AOvVaw1YZDPY-_jGgwSc6_hZBeYT">press conference</a> hosted at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, which helped draft and develop the proposed health code regulations, according to the Department of Health. Shapiro said the Pennsylvania economy depended on “people having access to vaccines.”
“This isn&#8217;t just good public health guidance. This is also really good for our economy,” Shapiro said during the press conference. “More than half of all vaccines administered in the United States come from a facility here in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. This vaccine production is responsible for 4,700 jobs of our fellow Pennsylvanians and generates 4.74 billion dollars for our economy &#8230; It’s also big business for us here in this Commonwealth. Our health, our safety, and our economy all depend on people having access to vaccines. And sadly, RFK Jr. and the president want to try and take that away from us.”
The Children&#8217;s Hospital of Philadelphia did not respond to The Daily Wire&#8217;s requests for comment.
The Shapiro administration openly admits pushback against COVID-19 restrictions motivated the proposed regulation changes. It cites Corman v. Acting Secretary of Pennsylvania Department of Health, a case in which the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled the Pennsylvania Department of Health did not have the power to enforce a statewide school mandate, as the impetus for the drastic restructuring of Pennsylvania’s health code.
Former Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf used his unchecked emergency powers to impose some of the harshest COVID restrictions in the nation from March 2020 to June 2021. These policies were doggedly enforced by Shapiro, who at that time was Pennsylvania&#8217;s attorney general and became known as the muscle of Wolf’s COVID regime.
Shapiro defended Wolf’s order that closed Pennsylvania businesses for months, calling it “a lawful exercise of the Commonwealth’s police power” in a May 2020 <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/19/19A1032/142846/20200504095730241_Respondents%20Opposition%20to%20Appl%20to%20Stay.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/19/19A1032/142846/20200504095730241_Respondents%2520Opposition%2520to%2520Appl%2520to%2520Stay.pdf&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1787243287958000&amp;usg=AOvVaw1keh0lIoChA7yhSSLaMdR1">legal brief</a> submitted to the United States Supreme Court. When a federal judge <a href="https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/17139062/county-of-butler-v-thomas-w-wolf/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/17139062/county-of-butler-v-thomas-w-wolf/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1787243287958000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0RpndY-mitQi0XjNlzzGOH">struck down</a> Wolf’s ordinance that prohibited citizens from gathering in groups in September 2020, Shapiro filed a successful motion to have the ruling stayed, and the gathering restrictions were reinstated by October 2020.
Pennsylvanians responded to the authoritarian COVID mitigation measures by passing a constitutional amendment in May 2021 that limited the governor’s emergency powers to <a href="https://www.spotlightpa.org/news/2021/05/pa-primary-2021-ballot-question-disaster-declaration-results/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.spotlightpa.org/news/2021/05/pa-primary-2021-ballot-question-disaster-declaration-results/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1787243287958000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2ZLkLrGj-ejPh34EINmQcw">three weeks</a>, ending an almost yearlong mask mandate and other disease control restrictions.
During the summer of 2021, Wolf urged local school boards to impose their own mask mandates as a requirement to attend classes. Most school districts ignored his pleas and less than 15% planned to mandate masks by the end of July 2021, according to reporting from the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/health-education-coronavirus-pandemic-c8afbf409f8e16eaf34e3fe89e6d7a97" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://apnews.com/article/health-education-coronavirus-pandemic-c8afbf409f8e16eaf34e3fe89e6d7a97&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1787243287958000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0BHNo6DLFBEQtGR8AxfJvb">Associated Press</a>.
Wolf was stripped of his power but used the Department of Health to create a statewide school mask mandate that acting Health Secretary Alison Beam <a href="https://www.spotlightpa.org/news/2021/08/pa-school-mask-mandate-tom-wolf-covid-19-coronavirus/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.spotlightpa.org/news/2021/08/pa-school-mask-mandate-tom-wolf-covid-19-coronavirus/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1787243287958000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0dxUrn65gAQ9jy0kI3TMaM">announced</a> on August 31, 2021. A group of parents challenged the legality of the order and faced off with <a href="https://www.pacourts.us/Storage/media/pdfs/20210928/162804-sept.23,2021-respondent'sbrief.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.pacourts.us/Storage/media/pdfs/20210928/162804-sept.23,2021-respondent'sbrief.pdf&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1787243287958000&amp;usg=AOvVaw1PeBuA0wxuXP1sclR3A1d3">Shapiro</a> at the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, where he ruthlessly defended the order and called the parents &#8220;self-centered.&#8221; 
&#8220;Petitioners seem to believe they know best how to protect the health and safety of school-aged children in the midst of a global pandemic,&#8221; wrote Shapiro in a <a href="https://www.pacourts.us/Storage/media/pdfs/20210928/162804-sept.23,2021-respondent'sbrief.pdf">legal brief</a>. &#8220;To that end, they seek to place their hands on the proverbial scales of justice and, in doing so, bypass the Secretary of Health. But petitioner&#8217;s self-centered gambit — which fails to take the power of the executive into account — cannot carry the day.&#8221;  
Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court handed Shapiro a major loss in December 2021 when it <a href="https://www.pacourts.us/Storage/media/pdfs/20211223/175930-dec.23,2021-opinion.pdf">ruled</a> the Department of Health had acted outside of its regulatory authority, ending the statewide school mask mandate. But the court’s ruling noted the department could change to regulation and grant itself more power.
“We’ve already seen how this kind of authority can be abused, and we cannot allow the mistakes of the past to be repeated,&#8221; Brooks told The Daily Wire. &#8220;Pennsylvanians haven’t forgotten how these powers can be misused. They remember how our last governor and Department of Health imposed sweeping and arbitrary statewide lockdowns that devastated small businesses and disrupted the lives and education of millions.&#8221;
“It is shocking that the administration is now trying to work around those democratically enacted limits through regulation.&#8221;

Josh Shapiro, Governor of Pennsylvania speaks during a rally

Josh Shapiro Eyes New Powers That Make COVID Restrictions Look Like A Warning Shot

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A union of higher education professors broke more than 100 years of precedent to endorse a far-left Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed.
The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) has given its first political <a href="https://www.aaup.org/news/aaup-announces-first-ever-national-political-endorsement" target="_blank" rel="noopener">endorsement</a> in the organization&#8217;s 110-year history to El-Sayed, Democrats&#8217; nominee for Senate in Michigan. A significant portion of El-Sayed&#8217;s primary vote share came from Ann Arbor and East Lansing, Michigan, the homes of the University of Michigan and Michigan State University, respectively.
The organization&#8217;s president, Todd Wolfson, responded to backlash by pledging to get more political, not less.
Wolfson doubled down on X after being criticized for the decision, writing, “Apparently our first endorsement has upset some people. Good. Higher ed, academic freedom, research, collective bargaining, and the idea of college as a public good are under attack. AAUP isn&#8217;t going to respond by pretending politics isn&#8217;t happening.  We&#8217;re going to organize.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Apparently our first endorsement has upset some people. Good. Higher ed, academic freedom, research, collective bargaining, and the idea of college as a public good are under attack. AAUP isn&#8217;t going to respond by pretending politics isn&#8217;t happening. We&#8217;re going to organize.
— Todd Wolfson (@ProfTWolf) <a href="https://x.com/ProfTWolf/status/2083311236335513629?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 31, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.x.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Under Wolfson’s leadership, the AAUP has increased its commitment to political activism. AAUP Vice President Rotua Lumbantobing, who was elected to AAUP leadership alongside Wolfson as part of the &#8220;United Faculty for the Common Good&#8221; slate of candidates, described how the group&#8217;s current leadership was “building a stronger, more militant, AAUP” in a <a href="https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/amid-right-wing-attacks-on-education-the-american-association-of-university-professors-organizes-for-academic-freedom/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">March 2025</a> interview.
&#8220;Our mission is to transform the organization into a fighting force,&#8221; Lumbantobing told the interviewer.
During its June 2026 biennial meeting, the first since President Trump took office, one reporter <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty/labor-unionization/2026/06/15/aaup-readies-bigger-political-fight" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote</a> that it “felt like a political war room.”
“This is not a normal moment, and this could not be a normal convention,” the AAUP said on its website of the meeting. “Higher education is under coordinated political attack, our democracy is under siege, and the institutions our members have built their lives inside are being hollowed out from above and weaponized from outside.”
AAUP members voted for a number of <a href="https://www.aaup.org/news/aaup-higher-ed-summit-and-biennial-meeting-wrap" target="_blank" rel="noopener">socialist-aligned</a> resolutions at the biennial meeting and the group pledged to participate in political campaigns as a way to “build power” and “resist authoritarian policies.&#8221;
“The AAUP will support and participate in coordinated political and public campaigns, including legislative advocacy, mass mobilization, and public education efforts, to resist authoritarian policies at the local, state, and federal levels,” stated one resolution.
The union also committed itself to advancing a “broad agenda for democracy, racial justice, economic justice, and the public good,” writing in its resolutions that “recognizing that the future of higher education is inseparable from the struggle to build a more just and inclusive society.”
Mia McIver, executive director of the AAUP, said the group had partnered with a Democratic Socialists of America project to further the group&#8217;s &#8220;widespread organizing” in a March 2025 interview.
“We’re also going beyond this and are partnering with the Emergency Workers Organizing Committee, a joint project of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America and Democratic Socialists of America, to support widespread organizing for dignity, respect and workplace safety,” McIver told Ms. Magazine.
The AAUP was founded in 1915 as a professional society for professors focused on defending academic freedom and has since morphed into a politically charged union that champions far-left social causes. The group sued the Trump administration to protect diversity, equity, and inclusion mandates in higher education, has pledged to fight transphobia, and strives to be “part of the solution” needed to dismantle so-called systemic racism in higher education.
Wolfson is a professor at Rutgers University, a public university in New Jersey. He is also a vice president of the American Federation of Teachers, a far-left teachers union known for championing gender ideology, Black Lives Matter, and organizing ICE <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/teachers-unions-shut-down-minnesota-schools-for-activism?author=Rhyen+Staley&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Teachers+Unions+Shut+Down+Minnesota+Schools+For+Activism" target="_blank" rel="noopener">protests during school hours</a>.
In 2022, the AAUP joined forces with the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) to create the largest alliance of higher education professionals in the nation. The two unions announced a joint policy platform in April 2026 to wage war against the Trump administration&#8217;s “far right extremist attacks on American higher education.”
“The AAUP and AFT jointly launched a new comprehensive policy platform ahead of the 2026 midterms aimed to counter the Trump administration’s far right extremist attacks on American higher education and secure a strong future for public colleges and universities,” states the AAUP website.
The policy <a href="https://www.aaup.org/sites/default/files/2026-04/Higher_Ed_Vision_and_Policy_Platform.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">blueprint</a> calls higher education a “public good” that should be “free” to all and lays out a societal vision that includes implementing a progressive tax system, ensuring educators have collective bargaining rights, and ending “right to work” laws.
Wolfson has a long history of political activism and co-founded two grassroots activist groups in Philadelphia, PA, called the Media Mobilizing Project and the 215 People’s Alliance, according to his <a href="https://sci.rutgers.edu/sites/default/files/Wolfson-CV-2019.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">curriculum vitae</a> posted on the Rutgers University website.
The Media Mobilizing Project was an independent media project inspired by the tactics of the Zapatistas, a far-left political and guerrilla military movement in Mexico, with the goal of “building our own media in the hope of connecting mass social movements,” as stated on the Internet Archive <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20201028014519/https://movementalliance.org/about/#funders" target="_blank" rel="noopener">copy of its website</a>. The Media Mobilizing Project is now called the Movement Alliance Project (MAP) which “exists to help build a coordinated, cross-sector, multiracial, working class movement in Philadelphia that can transform our city and state to one that prioritizes people’s needs over capital,” according to its website. MAP received $300,000 of funding from <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20201028014519/https://movementalliance.org/about/#funders" target="_blank" rel="noopener">George Soros’</a> Foundation to Promote Open Society between 2019 and 2021, according to <a href="https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/display_990/263753801/02_2021_prefixes_25-26%2F263753801_201912_990PF_2021021917721825" target="_blank" rel="noopener">public</a> <a href="https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/263753801/202113519349100511/full" target="_blank" rel="noopener">financial</a> <a href="https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/263753801/202213209349101601/full" target="_blank" rel="noopener">documents</a>. Wolfson was the board president of MAP in 2019 and 2020, public documents show.
The 215 People’s Alliance is a “grassroots, movement-building organization dedicated to building multiracial, working-class power in Philadelphia,” according to its website.
The American Association of University Professors and Todd Wolfson did not respond to The Daily Wire&#8217;s request for comment.

Rep. Tlaib Holds A Capitol Hill Press Conference To Discuss Free Speech On College Campuses

America’s Professors Break Century-Long Precedent To Go Full Socialist

Abdul El-Sayed

higher education

Teachers Unions

Unions

university professors

American youth sports programs have gained a reputation for being toxic to kids and families, but one league in the South is bucking the trend.
The Swim Association Invitational League in Greenville County, South Carolina, is a recreational swim league where kids at every competitive level learn about discipline, hard work, and handling pressure through the joy of athletic competition. The league is a community bedrock that has brought swimmers and families together for over 60 years and become a quintessential part of summer for thousands.
Three years ago, my family and I left the suburbs of Philadelphia and relocated to Greenville County. Shortly before we moved, I discovered my daughter, who was 7, had an interest in swimming. This was a big deal because for months I’d unsuccessfully tried to find a sport she loved, and after signing her up for soccer, basketball, and softball, I&#8217;d only found that she hated running. But when she participated in a two-week swim program at our local high school and took to the water like a fish, I knew I&#8217;d finally found her sport.
I’m adamant about my kids participating in youth sports because I was an athlete and know sports can be an incredible environment for kids to learn about discipline, perseverance, and teamwork while developing healthy physical habits. Through the highs and lows of playing sports, I learned about handling pressure and overcoming adversity, which were valuable lessons I carried into adulthood. Science <a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12220085/#Sec17">backs up</a> the benefits of youth sports <a href="https://odphp.health.gov/sites/default/files/2020-09/YSS_Report_OnePager_2020-08-31_web.pdf">participation</a>, which increases physical health while buffering the impacts of stress and anxiety.
But American youth sports have undergone a major mindset shift since I was an athlete. Youth sports have become a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/09/business/youth-sports-private-equity.html?eafs_enabled=false" target="_blank" rel="noopener">$40 billion industry</a>, and the low-pressure recreational leagues of the past focused on development and fun have largely been replaced by early sport specialization and high-stakes travel teams. This so-called <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/29/business/youth-sports-stress.html?eafs_enabled=false" target="_blank" rel="noopener">“professionalization of youth sports”</a> is causing overuse injuries, athlete burnout, and financial strain for families, threatening to nullify many of the benefits kids gain by playing sports. It&#8217;s also pushing kids to opt out of participating altogether. The American Academy of Pediatrics <a href="https://www.aap.org/en/news-room/aap-voices/calling-timeout-an-extended-one/?srsltid=AfmBOop2bZH0CnZDN87Mj5-of-V4hrKu7k9pQCmQhCL5u-C_RaFmXHAU">estimates</a> that 70% of kids have quit sports altogether by age 13. Too many young athletes are stressed and overworked during a time they should be having fun while playing a sport they love.
The summer SAIL league in Greenville has managed to buck these negative trends and is proof you can still create a competitive, positive youth sport culture in 2026. The SAIL swim <a href="https://sail.swimtopia.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">league</a> includes over 30 neighborhood-based teams that collectively represent more than 4,500 swimmers, ages 6-18, from over 1,700 families. Many teams are coached by college students, who are often former SAIL swimmers, and practice is held twice a day for almost two months at the neighborhood&#8217;s pool. I first learned of the league from veteran swim team moms who told me joining a SAIL team would be a huge investment of time and energy but confidently assured  me, “It will all be worth it.” Our family took the plunge and joined a team at the start of our first summer living in Greenville.
&nbsp;
<div id="attachment_1146673" style="width: 856px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1146673" class="wp-image-1146673 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/IMG_4692-1-846x576.jpg" alt="" width="846" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/IMG_4692-1-846x576.jpg 846w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/IMG_4692-1-300x204.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/IMG_4692-1-768x523.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/IMG_4692-1-1536x1046.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/IMG_4692-1-2048x1395.jpg 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 846px) 100vw, 846px" />Final race of the night. Photo by Meg Brock.</div>
As a new swim team mom, I quickly discovered summer swim meets are four to six hours of beautiful and overwhelming chaos. Hundreds of kids are running around barefoot, almost indistinguishable in their matching bathing suits and swim caps, playing and laughing together while waiting to swim their races. Parents, who are required to volunteer at every meet, hover at the edge of the pool clutching stopwatches as they try to capture the precise second a swimmer touches the wall. A loud &#8220;take your mark&#8221; repeats over and over again as swimmers in a never-ending line jump off the starting blocks before a cheering crowd. It’s loud, energetic, and overstimulating, but somehow it all works.
Outside of the pool deck is a sprawling encampment of canopies, kids, and camping chairs that rivals any tailgate party you’d find on game day outside of a professional stadium (minus the alcohol). At my first swim meet, I made the rookie mistake of only bringing along two camping chairs. I&#8217;ve since adopted the mindset of bringing everything my family would need for an overnight camping trip, including food, water, foldable chairs, battery-powered fans, and a canopy for shelter.
The meets have 80 events, and each swimmer can sign up for three races and has the chance to make two relay teams, which altogether adds up to just two to six minutes per swimmer — not a lot of time for the amount of effort put in.
Summer swim allows kids at every level, whether they can barely make it across the pool or are elite all-year swimmers, to compete on the same team. New swimmers race against their own personal best while top swimmers race against each other to win and score points for their team. Everyone has something to aim for and the chance to leave the meet feeling like they accomplished something, even if they finished dead last. Every kid, not only the very athletic or single-sport specialized, has the opportunity to compete, grow, and learn valuable lessons. Swim team also gives structure and purpose to the unanchored days of summer and inoculates kids from developing a case of perpetual summer boredom.
In addition to practices and meets, the team brings kids and families together through social events such as movie outings, family meals, and a nostalgic Fourth of July celebration. It provided our entire family with a sense of community when we had just moved to a new place and really needed it. It&#8217;s the only youth sport league I’ve been a part of that brings families together instead of pushing everyone in different directions.
Sometimes at the end of a home meet, the entire team of swimmers, from teens to first graders, jumps into the pool at the same time to celebrate a win. It’s a kind of wholesome fun and feeling of community you usually only see in movies. I’m so thankful my kids have been able to experience it in real life. After three years of being a summer swim team mom, I understand why thousands of families have devoted two months of their summer to this beloved tradition for over 60 years.
Greenville isn’t the only place where this magic happens. There are amazing recreational summer swim leagues all across the country. If you are looking for ways to build up kids and community, I wholeheartedly recommend diving into summer swim. You’ll likely find a youth sports culture you didn’t think still existed and that the practices, the long meets, and all that sweating in the sun will be worth it. It might just become your favorite part of summer. It&#8217;s become mine.
***
This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/upstream" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upstream</a>, The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.

May 30 2025 (1 of 1)-2

The Youth Sports Tradition Defying America’s Broken System

Americana

Parenting

summer

Swimming

Upstream

youth sports

The World Professional Association of Transgender Health (WPATH) is the world’s preeminent transgender medical organization and a leading force in the push for minors to receive transgender medical interventions, including sex-change surgeries. The group&#8217;s medical guidance, called the Standards of Care Version 8, informs clinical practice, insurance policy, and government regulations throughout the United States.
Systematic reviews and legal investigation have shown the SOC-8 to be built on faulty methodology and politicized science. The Federal Trade Commission filed a lawsuit against WPATH in June 2026, stating the organization has “misled parents and children about the medical consensus and medical necessity, as well as the safety and effectiveness” of child sex-change interventions.
WPATH members receive access to a member-only<a href="https://wpath.org/membership/membership-information/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> forum</a> that discusses various topics related to transgender medicine and policy. Through a public records request The Daily Wire uncovered almost 250 pages of messages from WPATH&#8217;s member-only forum written between June 2024 and November 2024. The messages offer a glimpse into the organization&#8217;s cultural reach and challenge some of its public-facing recommendations. 
This is the third article in The Daily Wire&#8217;s investigative series on the uncovered WPATH messages. Read <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trans-surgeon-admits-some-patients-may-not-maintain-their-vagina-due-to-brutal-complications?author=Megan+Brock&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=3&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Inside+WPATH%3A+Trans+Surgeon+Admits+Patients+May+Experience+Painful+Complications">part one</a> and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/wpath-files-trans-org-admits-need-for-detransitioner-protocols-while-pushing-child-sex-changes?author=Megan+Brock&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=1&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=WPATH+FILES%3A+Trans+Org+Admits+Need+For+Detransitioner+Protocols+While+Pushing+Child+Sex-Changes">part two</a>.
***
World Professional Association of Transgender Health (WPATH) members discussed how to help female inmates overcome “internalized transphobia” and learn to affirm &#8220;transgender&#8221; men living in women&#8217;s prisons.
Michelle Webb, a gender affirming program administrator for the Washington State Department of Corrections, suggested female inmates have &#8220;open and frank&#8221; discussions with &#8220;trained staff&#8221; to better understand the needs of men wanting to “live their authentic lives&#8221; in women&#8217;s prisons, messages from the WPATH online member forum show.
“The cis female population should have open and frank discussions with trained staff, with community experts, to understand why the [transgender and gender diverse] females want to be in an affirmative environment,” wrote Webb in the online forum. &#8220;They [are] not trying to take resources; they are not getting ‘more than’ cis females, they are just looking to live their authentic lives and have equity.”
<div id="attachment_1142127" style="width: 672px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1142127" class="wp-image-1142127 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/WPATH7-662x576.jpg" alt="" width="662" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/WPATH7-662x576.jpg 662w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/WPATH7-300x261.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/WPATH7-768x668.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/WPATH7.jpg 1115w" sizes=" (max-width: 662px) 100vw, 662px" />Screenshot of messages from a WPATH member forum obtained through a public record request.</div>
Webb explained many men had a difficult time integrating into women&#8217;s prison and were &#8220;not accepted by the cis females.&#8221;
“[Transgender and gender diverse] females living in the cis female facilities have all mentioned something they call the ‘mask’ meaning the mask they wore in the male facilities, the mask that kept them safe, it allowed them to blend in and not draw attention to themselves,” wrote Webb. “When individuals were moved to the female facilities, they found it difficult to drop the mask and this made their integration into the female facilities extremely difficult, they were often not accepted by the cis females and on occasion were ostracized.”
WPATH&#8217;s medical guidance, the Standards of Care Version 8, has been cited in <a href="https://disabilityrightswa.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/DOC-Complaint-2023.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">multiple</a><a href="https://transgenderlawcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Class-Action-Trans-Women-Complaint.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> lawsuits</a> demanding prison systems implement policies that <a href="https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/69717615/1/kingdom-v-trump/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">affirm</a> gender ideology and provide &#8220;gender-affirming&#8221; healthcare.
Amie Ichikawa, an <a href="https://www.independentwomen.com/people/amie-ichikawa/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ambassador</a> at Independent Women and co-founder of the nonprofit <a href="https://www.womaniiwoman.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Woman II Woman</a>, told The Daily Wire transgender activists have treated female inmates as “support animals,” forcing them to cater “to the fleeting feelings of male inmates who identify as women.”
&#8220;Departments of Corrections across the country have let WPATH bully them into sacrificing female prisoners to be used like support animals,” Ichikawa said. “Never, at any point, should a woman need to be reprogrammed to accommodate a male inmate. This is just a peek into the female future if we do not stop this attack on their existence.”
Ichikawa says the effort to include men in women&#8217;s prison is making incarcerated women &#8220;invisible.&#8221;
“Prison is already a difficult place to be. The aggressive, forced acceptance of gender ideology as some kind of state-sanctioned religion has pushed incarcerated women completely out of the spectrum of concern,” Ichikawa told The Daily Wire. “They barely had any visibility or relevance before this started trending, so they are almost invisible now.&#8221;
<div id="attachment_1142131" style="width: 691px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1142131" class="wp-image-1142131 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/WPATH6-681x576.jpg" alt="" width="681" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/WPATH6-681x576.jpg 681w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/WPATH6-300x254.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/WPATH6-768x650.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/WPATH6.jpg 979w" sizes=" (max-width: 681px) 100vw, 681px" />Screenshot of messages from a WPATH member forum obtained through a public record request.</div>
The Daily Wire obtained the WPATH forum messages through a public record request to the Washington Department of Corrections, which has some of the most <a href="https://disabilityrightswa.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/17-1-Declaration-of-Danny-Waxwing-Exhibit-A.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">radical</a> transgender prison policies in the nation. Washington State is being <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-notifies-washington-investigation-whether-housing-biological-men-womens" target="_blank" rel="noopener">investigated</a> by the Department of Justice for forcing women to be housed with men, in possible violation of their <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/exclusive-doj-investigating-prison-system-that-forces-women-to-share-cells-with-violent-men?author=Megan+Brock&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=12&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=EXCLUSIVE%3A+DOJ+Investigating+Prison+System+That+Forces+Women+To+Share+Cells+With+Violent+Men" target="_blank" rel="noopener">constitutional right</a> to safe incarceration. The America First Policy Institute filed a <a href="https://www.americafirstpolicy.com/assets/uploads/files/AFPI_WDOC_Complaint_04.27.26.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">lawsuit</a> against the Washington Department of Corrections in April 2026 that alleges two women living in a Washington State Women&#8217;s prison were assaulted by a “six-foot-four, ‘biologically intact’ male” with a history of violence against women, housed in a women&#8217;s prison because he self-identifies as female.
Leigh Ann O&#8217;Neill, America First&#8217;s chief legal affairs officer, told The Daily Wire women should be able to rely on corrections staff to prioritize their physical safety over the feelings of men.
&#8220;While women incarcerated in state prisons should be able to rely on corrections officials to protect their physical safety and support their rehabilitation, these officials were instead coordinating with WPATH over ways to make male inmates feel more comfortable in women’s prisons,&#8221; O&#8217;Neill said.
&#8220;These emails raise serious questions about the influence WPATH has exerted over correctional policies affecting some of the most vulnerable women in government custody,&#8221; she added. &#8220;Female inmates should never be treated as collateral damage in the pursuit of an ideological agenda. Department of Corrections has a legal and moral duty to protect the women in their custody from foreseeable physical and sexual harm — not to prioritize the comfort of male inmates over the safety, dignity, and rights of women.&#8221;
Webb&#8217;s comments were in response to a post by a psychologist who asked WPATH members what skills “transgender” males needed to learn to adapt to life in women’s prisons and find “joy in their identities,&#8221; records show.
“I am still trying to identify all the things transgender women need to know about being in a female facility versus what they learned in a male facility,” wrote the psychologist. “I am open to ideas that folks have, things they have heard from women about what they learned about how to do time in a women’s facility.”
<div id="attachment_1143613" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1143613" class="wp-image-1143613 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/wpath-1024x474.png" alt="" width="1024" height="474" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/wpath-1024x474.png 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/wpath-300x139.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/wpath-768x355.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/wpath.png 1284w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />A screenshot of a message obtained through a public record request by The Daily Wire.</div>
The psychologist said they were designing a transgender integration unit to help men adapt to life in a women’s prison for the Colorado Department of Corrections, writing that &#8220;cultural forces&#8221; worked against men trying to integrate into women&#8217;s prison.
&#8220;There are structural and cultural forces acting against their individual success,&#8221; the psychologist wrote. &#8220;We can train staff all we want but the larger culture and social beliefs impact how custody staff behave. There are cultural issues that transgender women will have to face no matter how much we train the staff or other incarcerated people.&#8221;
The Colorado transgender integration unit was created as part of a <a href="https://www.ktvq.com/news/national-news/colorado-legal-settlement-would-raise-care-and-housing-standards-for-trans-women-inmates" target="_blank" rel="noopener">settlement</a> from a class action lawsuit filed by transgender inmates who claimed they faced <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/transgender-women-in-prison-colorado-lawsuit/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">discrimination</a> in Colorado prisons.
The Washington Department of Corrections did not respond to The Daily Wire&#8217;s request for comment.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trans-surgeon-admits-some-patients-may-not-maintain-their-vagina-due-to-brutal-complications?author=Megan+Brock&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=3&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Inside+WPATH%3A+Trans+Surgeon+Admits+Patients+May+Experience+Painful+Complications">INSIDE WPATH PART ONE: Trans Surgeon Admits Patients May Experience Painful Complications</a>
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/wpath-files-trans-org-admits-need-for-detransitioner-protocols-while-pushing-child-sex-changes?author=Megan+Brock&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=1&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=WPATH+FILES%3A+Trans+Org+Admits+Need+For+Detransitioner+Protocols+While+Pushing+Child+Sex-Changes">INSIDE WPATH PART TWO: Trans Org Admits Need For Detransitioner Protocols While Pushing Child Sex-Changes</a>

teen behind the cage or woman jailed, unhappy girl hand sad hopeless at fence prison in jail, no free and freedom struggle teen concept.

Inside WPATH: Trans Org Wants Female Inmates To Overcome ‘Transphobia’ And Share Prisons With Men

Child Welfare

FOIA

Gender Transition

Prison

WPATH

The World Professional Association of Transgender Health (WPATH) is the world’s preeminent transgender medical organization and a leading force in the push for minors to receive transgender medical interventions, including sex-change surgeries. The group&#8217;s medical guidance, called the Standards of Care Version 8, informs clinical practice, insurance policy, and government regulations throughout the United States.
Systematic reviews and legal investigation have shown the SOC-8 to be built on faulty methodology and politicized science. The Federal Trade Commission filed a lawsuit against WPATH in June 2026, stating the organization has “misled parents and children about the medical consensus and medical necessity, as well as the safety and effectiveness” of child sex-change interventions.
WPATH members receive access to a member-only<a href="https://wpath.org/membership/membership-information/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> forum</a> that discusses various topics related to transgender medicine and policy. Through a public records request The Daily Wire uncovered almost 250 pages of messages from WPATH&#8217;s member-only forum written between June 2024 and November 2024. The messages offer a glimpse into the organization&#8217;s cultural reach and challenge some of its public-facing recommendations. 
This is the second article in The Daily Wire&#8217;s investigative series on the uncovered WPATH messages. You can read part one <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trans-surgeon-admits-some-patients-may-not-maintain-their-vagina-due-to-brutal-complications?author=Megan+Brock&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=3&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Inside+WPATH%3A+Trans+Surgeon+Admits+Patients+May+Experience+Painful+Complications">here</a>.
***
Members of the world’s leading transgender medical organization admitted protocols were needed to help transgender patients “detransition” back to their real sex while publicly recommending children receive sex-change surgery.
In a private online forum, members of the World Professional Association of Transgender Health (WPATH) asked for advice on treating the complex medical needs of patients wanting to return or &#8220;detransition&#8221; to their real sex after undergoing sex-change surgeries such as vaginoplasty, breast augmentation, double mastectomy, hysterectomy, and oophorectomy. WPATH members acknowledged in the forum the brutalized bodies of detransitioners needed specialized care and these struggling patients were often forsaken by the medical community which gave them their scars.
“Curious if anyone or any institutions have protocols or policies related to ‘de-transition’ &#8211; either request to reverse any gender-affirming surgeries or put people back on prior hormonal state,” wrote Dr. Christopher Terndrup, the <a href="https://medicine.vumc.org/divisions/general-internal-medicine-public-health/education/lgbtq-healthcare-fellowship" target="_blank" rel="noopener">associate director</a> of the LGBTQ+ Healthcare Fellowship Program at Vanderbilt Health, in a message thread titled “De-transition Protocols/Policies.”
<div id="attachment_1143623" style="width: 677px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1143623" class="wp-image-1143623 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/WPATH4-1-667x576.jpg" alt="" width="667" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/WPATH4-1-667x576.jpg 667w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/WPATH4-1-300x259.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/WPATH4-1-768x664.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/WPATH4-1.jpg 875w" sizes=" (max-width: 667px) 100vw, 667px" />A screenshot of a message obtained through a public record request by The Daily Wire.</div>
Several WPATH members responded and expressed a need for formalized detransition protocols, writing that a lack of medical guidance left detransitioners feeling &#8220;ignored&#8221; as they try to reclaim their broken bodies.
“We really need the clinical pathways. People will ask how to go off testosterone or how to restart testosterone and I’ve asked various MDs and gotten different responses. Often, folks who are choosing to detransition feel like they have to do this all on their own,” wrote a psychologist. “When folks restart testosterone there can be mood shifts as well. When people alter their hormones, a lot of regret arises about choices they have made and it seems like it&#8217;s helpful to offer patients a non-regret focused frame — ie, that they are embracing who they are at this moment and taking positive steps to embody themselves, etc.”
Members suggested creating a specific group to develop medical guidance for detransitioners and noted transgender patients should receive psychological therapy for a period of time before undergoing any identity changes.
“I still think that we should be developing protocols to handle this regardless of how many detransitioners there are,” wrote a psychologist. “I think it&#8217;s important.”
Dr. Kurt Miceli, chief medical officer at Do No Harm, told The Daily Wire there is an &#8220;undeniable need&#8221; for detransitioner medical protocols.
&#8220;There is a critical and undeniable need for detransitioner protocols — a reality acknowledged even by WPATH’s own members. Yet this is the same organization that has ignored systematic review upon systematic review as it promotes harmful and irreversible sex-rejecting procedures for minors,&#8221; Miceli told The Daily Wire. &#8220;This contradiction cannot be brushed aside: it exposes a fundamental inconsistency in which life-altering interventions are championed for minors on the one hand while the reality of those who later seek to reverse them has unfortunately been minimized and gone unaddressed.&#8221;
<div id="attachment_1142883" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1142883" class="wp-image-1142883 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/WPATH11-1024x416.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="416" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/WPATH11-1024x416.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/WPATH11-300x122.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/WPATH11-768x312.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/WPATH11-1536x623.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/WPATH11-2048x831.jpg 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />A screenshot of a message obtained through a public record request by The Daily Wire.</div>
In the Standards of Care Version 8, WPATH recommends that children have access to irreversible sex-change surgeries without any <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trans-identifying-biden-official-allegedly-behind-push-to-ditch-age-guidelines-for-transgender-procedures-docs-show" target="_blank" rel="noopener">age minimums</a>. The group calls the choice to detransition &#8220;proportionally rare&#8221; but tells healthcare providers they &#8220;should be prepared to support adolescents who detransition&#8221; without providing formal protocols to accomplish this.
&#8220;We have limited ability to know in advance the ways in which a child’s gender identity and expressions may evolve over time and whether or why detransition,&#8221; the standards read.
In a separate post, a physician&#8217;s assistant asked for insight on managing the estrogen needs of a young woman who had her breasts, uterus, and ovaries removed while she self-identified as a &#8220;trans male.&#8221;
“The patient more recently has been experiencing an evolution/shift in gender identity as genderfluid/feminine learning, wanting to detransition,” wrote the physician&#8217;s assistant in the thread titled “DETRANSITION: Optimal estrogen therapy for patient detransitioning.”
&#8220;This is a complex case with much more to it and I will not be able to go in depth here, but I did want to ask the group specifically your thoughts/experience with detransition and optimal dosing of estrogen for such a patient.&#8221;
The young woman was in her 20s and wanted to detransition. But because she had no ovaries, her young body could not produce the needed estrogen and was in a surgically induced post-menopausal state.
Miceli told The Daily Wire that without external estrogen replacement therapy, the patient is at risk of developing osteoporosis, cardiovascular disease, and other health complications.
&#8220;Hormone therapy becomes a lifelong medical requirement following this irreversible procedure,&#8221; he said. &#8220;This reality makes the development of detransition protocols all the more essential, ensuring that hormone management is guided by clinically appropriate, evidence‑based standards rather than left to an ad hoc practice.&#8221;
The post brought out strong opinions on detransitioning on the forum thread. One member called on WPATH to “take a leadership role” in researching the “phenomenon of detransition.&#8221;
Marci Bowers, a highly influential transgender surgeon and former president of WPATH, called the patient’s situation “tragic” and wrote that one of WPATH’s great challenges was to “help patients sort through their gender diverse feelings&#8221; before receiving &#8220;irreversible treatment.&#8221;
“If ever there was a challenge to the WPATH professional community, it is to help patients sort through their gender diverse feelings prior to undergoing irreversible treatment. Though there can always be a silver lining, cases like this seem tragic,” wrote Bowers. “I don&#8217;t feel that greater caution or limits are what are required but rather, brakes, hypothetical questioning, I&#8217;m not entirely sure. How can we do better for our patients in avoiding these rare outcomes?”
One WPATH member disagreed that the situation was tragic, writing, “sometimes, like many things in life, people need to go ‘too far’ before they realize where they want to be.”
The physician assistant who asked for help later noted the young woman wanting to detransition had &#8220;severe dysphoria dating back to childhood&#8221; and was thoroughly evaluated before having surgery to remove her reproductive organs. She noted in the future it might be helpful to educate young transgender patients seeking sex-change surgery on the “potential benefit” of keeping their ovaries, “just in case.”
&#8220;They had ongoing support from a comprehensive mental health team and family. They were very much identifying as a trans man most of their life with severe dysphoria, depression, and suicidality,&#8221; wrote the physician&#8217;s assistant. “There is nothing I think anyone in our team could have done differently to prevent this or &#8216;do better.&#8217; I&#8217;m not sure if we have any data or idea of how gender identity might evolve or change over time, but that seems to be what is happening at least with this patient over time.&#8221;
<div id="attachment_1142893" style="width: 452px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1142893" class="wp-image-1142893 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/WPATH14-442x576.jpg" alt="" width="442" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/WPATH14-442x576.jpg 442w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/WPATH14-230x300.jpg 230w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/WPATH14-768x1001.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/WPATH14-1179x1536.jpg 1179w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/WPATH14.jpg 1432w" sizes=" (max-width: 442px) 100vw, 442px" />A screenshot of a message obtained through a public record request by The Daily Wire.</div>
Miceli said these messages reveal the &#8220;profound tragedy&#8221; detransitioners face after undergoing irreversible gender transition treatments.
&#8220;Dr. Bowers&#8217; comments within the WPATH Member Forum acknowledge a truth the organization does not confront publicly: the profound tragedy faced by individuals who seek to detransition after irreversible sex‑rejecting surgeries. In fact, WPATH has systematically downplayed and obscured this reality by minimizing detransition and framing regret as rare,&#8221; Miceli told The Daily Wire. &#8220;These interventions create lifelong anatomical changes and permanent dependence on exogenous hormones, effectively placing patients in chronic medical care.&#8221;
Bowers declined to provide a comment to The Daily Wire. WPATH and Vanderbilt Health did not respond to The Daily Wire&#8217;s request for comment.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trans-surgeon-admits-some-patients-may-not-maintain-their-vagina-due-to-brutal-complications?author=Megan+Brock&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=3&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Inside+WPATH%3A+Trans+Surgeon+Admits+Patients+May+Experience+Painful+Complications">INSIDE WPATH PART ONE: Trans Surgeon Admits Patients May Experience Painful Complications</a>

US-JUSTICE-GENDERS

Inside WPATH: Trans Org Admits Need For Detransitioner Protocols While Pushing Child Sex-Changes

detransitioner

gender ideology

marci bowers

transgender surgery

One Democrat senator admitted to being &#8220;blinded&#8221; by his own political assumptions during the COVID-19 pandemic as Dr. Anthony Fauci repeatedly pleaded the Fifth Amendment during a Senate Committee hearing on Wednesday.
Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman confessed he regrets allowing political partisanship to influence his rejection of the &#8220;Right-wing theory&#8221; that COVID came from the Wuhan lab in China during the early days of the pandemic. Fetterman said the so-called lab leak theory, which was branded as a conspiracy by the legacy media, had “seemed to make sense,” but added that it “became a very partisan thing.” 
“Early on, there was the theory that the virus could have emerged from the lab, and early on that became like a ‘Right-wing&#8217; kind of theory and I thought it seemed to make sense,” said Fetterman. “Now there was a really advanced lab that was close by, and then you have this unknown virus out. But that became a very partisan thing, and now it seems now it&#8217;s a more and more emerging theory that it would have come from the lab.” 
Fetterman, who was uncharacteristically dressed in a suit at the hearing, said he hopes the next time America faces a crisis, it is not “blinded by the partisan idea that maybe the truth might come from a side that&#8217;s different that you are,&#8221; as he “might have been” blinded.  
&#8220;Americans should be willing to pursue truth no matter where that may have emerged,” said Fetterman.   
Fetterman was the lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania throughout the COVID pandemic and worked alongside Democratic Governor Tom Wolf and trans-identifying Secretary of Health Rachel Levine to implement some of the most draconian mitigation policies in the nation, including extended school closures and forcing senior citizens to die alone in nursing homes. 
Fetterman adamantly supported Wolf and Levine’s policies, including a <a href="https://lvb.com/dr-rachel-levine-issues-expanded-mask-wearing-order/">universal masking mandate</a> that required children as young as 2 years old to be masked whenever leaving home. He also <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/pittsburgh/news/fetterman-on-rising-coronavirus-cases-in-pa/">begged</a> Pennsylvanians to “just wear a mask” in a November 2020 video. Wolf implemented a <a href="https://www.pennlive.com/news/2020/12/no-more-indoor-dining-casinos-and-theaters-will-close-and-new-limits-on-retailers-pa-gov-tom-wolf.html">second lockdown</a> in Pennsylvania in December 2020 that extended to January 2021 and further devastated local businesses during the holiday season.   
Fetterman noted during the hearing that members of his family had died from COVID and also said he grieves for people who lost their businesses due to pandemic decisions and will “never be the same.”  
&#8220;During the pandemic I was lieutenant governor so we were in the middle of all of that maelstrom, trying to find the right balance between protect life and protect the economics of all of it,&#8221; said Fetterman. “I&#8217;m not sure if we got it all right or wrong, but without a doubt I continue to question myself.” 
Fetterman is an outspoken supporter of transgenderism and supports the inclusion of men in women’s sports. In a March 2025 post on <a href="https://x.com/SenFettermanPA/status/1896728606812028954?s=46&amp;t=ZAoIkqhiKpZyQayFV_2XbQ">X,</a> Fetterman wrote, “The small handful of trans athletes in PA in a political maelstrom deserve an ally, and I am one.”

John Fetterman

Fetterman Admits He Was ‘Blinded’ By Partisanship During COVID

Anthony Fauci

COVID-19 Vaccine

Face Masks

Lockdowns

Rand Paul

Senate

The World Professional Association of Transgender Health (WPATH) is the world’s preeminent transgender medical organization and a leading force in the push for minors to receive transgender medical interventions, including sex-change surgeries. The group&#8217;s medical guidance, called the Standards of Care Version 8, informs clinical practice, insurance policy, and government regulations throughout the United States.
Systematic reviews and legal investigation have shown the SOC-8 to be built on faulty methodology and politicized science. The Federal Trade Commission filed a lawsuit against WPATH in June 2026, stating the organization has “misled parents and children about the medical consensus and medical necessity, as well as the safety and effectiveness” of child sex-change interventions.
WPATH members receive access to a member-only<a href="https://wpath.org/membership/membership-information/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> forum</a> that discusses various topics related to transgender medicine and policy. Through a public records request The Daily Wire uncovered almost 250 pages of messages from WPATH&#8217;s member-only forum written between June 2024 and November 2024. The messages offer a glimpse into the organization&#8217;s cultural reach and challenge some of its public-facing recommendations. 
This is the first article in The Daily Wire&#8217;s investigative series on the uncovered WPATH messages. 
***
A pioneering transgender surgeon acknowledged that genital surgeries leave patients with painful complications and a burdensome recovery process many cannot cope with.
Members of the World Professional Association of Transgender Health (WPATH) discussed the pain and complications of vaginoplasty, a genital sex-change surgery, in an online member forum in the summer of 2024. <a href="https://wpath.org/about/ec-bod/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Marci Bowers</a>, a transgender surgeon and Immediate <a href="https://wpath.org/about/ec-bod/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Past-President</a> of WPATH, wrote in a message that some patients don&#8217;t want to &#8220;maintain their vagina&#8221; due to &#8220;pain and discharge&#8221; after surgery.
&#8220;Just because someone does not wish to maintain their vagina because of pain and discharge, jumping to regret should not be our first response,” wrote Bowers.
<a href="https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/expert-qa/vaginoplasty-for-gender-affirmation" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Vaginoplasty</a> is a procedure that involves removing a penis, scrotum, and testicles, and using the genital tissue to surgically construct a vagina. If the patient doesn’t have enough genital tissue to complete the procedure, surgeons may borrow tissue from the <a href="https://www.stilleraesthetics.com/our-services/colovaginoplasty" target="_blank" rel="noopener">colon</a>. WPATH calls the final product a &#8220;<a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4058296/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">neovagina</a>,&#8221; which is a large wound that requires lifelong dilatation to prevent <a href="https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/vaginal-stenosis" target="_blank" rel="noopener">vaginal stenosis</a>, a condition where scar tissue in the vagina hardens and narrows.
&#8220;Vaginal Stenosis after vaginoplasty with symptoms and no desire to keep canal&#8221; was the subject of a WPATH forum message thread obtained by The Daily Wire through a public record request.
“I have been seeing quite a few patients recently who after vaginoplasty stop dilating and do not desire to keep the canal,” wrote a nurse practitioner to start the thread. “They have come to see me with symptoms of pelvic pain, accompanied by bleeding and discharge for a few weeks before symptoms resolve.”
A physical therapist replied to the message that pain and bleeding after vaginoplasty surgery are “very common.”
“Regarding the issue of pain, it is very common in many cases, especially during the first three months, due to the surgery itself and the muscle tension it generates, as well as bleeding and secretions,” wrote the WPATH member. “Bleeding can be due to the operation itself since they have internal wounds that will expel a bloody fluid or slight bleeding during dilations.”
<div id="attachment_1140619" style="width: 950px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1140619" class="wp-image-1140619 size-full" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/WPATH-3.jpg" alt="" width="940" height="482" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/WPATH-3.jpg 940w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/WPATH-3-300x154.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/WPATH-3-768x394.jpg 768w" sizes=" (max-width: 940px) 100vw, 940px" />Screenshot of a WPATH member forum message obtained by The Daily Wire through a FOIA request.</div>
Patients are typically recommended to dilate for <a href="https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/expert-qa/vaginoplasty-for-gender-affirmation" target="_blank" rel="noopener">30 to 60 minutes</a> at least 3-4 times a day during the initial post-operative period, a painful time commitment. Bowers suggested the pain and effort needed to keep the genital wound flexible might not be “worth the time” for some patients.
&#8220;Dilation is crucial but not for everyone,&#8221; wrote Bowers. &#8220;For some, it just isn&#8217;t worth the time expended or the pain experienced, if that is the case at all. Or sexual situations can change.&#8221;
A social worker asked if patients expressed “any desire to de-transition” when deciding to stop dilating after surgery. Bowers responded that the “first response” of members should not be to assume a patient has regretted their sex-change surgery if they no longer wish to &#8220;maintain their vagina.&#8221;
Patients who don’t follow dilation recommendations risk losing the ability to experience penetrative sex because the surgically created vaginal canal will lose flexibility without dilation. A psychologist, who described himself as a “post-op trans woman,” responded to Bowers with his personal experience of stopping dilation after genital surgery.
<div id="attachment_1142813" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1142813" class="wp-image-1142813 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/wpath8-1024x353.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="353" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/wpath8-1024x353.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/wpath8-300x104.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/wpath8-768x265.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/wpath8.jpg 1026w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />A screenshot of a message obtained through a public record request by The Daily Wire.</div>
“I’m speaking largely from experience, as a post-op trans woman who stopped dilating after a certain point and is completely fine with that. I have various friends and clients who have reached a similar point,” wrote the psychologist. “It has nothing to do with regret, I’m so happy to have my body as it is. It’s entirely about how I choose to use the body I have. It’s still good to have the (narrow) vaginal canal that I have, but because I don’t engage in penetrative sex I’ve felt no need to maintain dilation.”
WPATH does not recommend any minimum age minor patients should meet before receiving vaginoplasty surgery in its medical guidance, <a style="font-size: 16px;" href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/26895269.2022.2100644" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Standards of Care version 8</a>. The only time-connected guardrail WPATH provides in the guidelines is that minors should receive 12 months of cross-sex hormones before undergoing the permanent sex-change surgery, with some exceptions. The Federal Trade Commission <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2026/06/ftc-states-sue-world-professional-association-transgender-health-over-deceptive-claims-regarding-treatment-children" target="_blank" rel="noopener">alleged</a> WPATH had misled the public regarding the safety and necessity of pediatric transgender medical interventions, including vaginoplasty, in a June 2026 <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/ftc_gov/pdf/WPATH-Complaint-Redacted.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">lawsuit</a> it filed against WPATH.
“It is inherently harmful and unsafe to surgically remove a child’s healthy and functioning genitals,” states the lawsuit. “Nevertheless, WPATH deems it ‘medically necessary’ for treating dissatisfaction with or distress about sex traits.&#8221;
Bowers&#8217; name appears in the lawsuit 18 times, and Bowers is described as advocating for males to receive vaginoplasty surgery as minors because they have the parental support needed to endure the brutal post-operative dilation schedule.
“Some transition doctors, including Dr. Bowers, believe performing the surgery while the boy is a minor still living with his parents is preferable, rather than when the boy is living in a communal setting with limited privacy,” states the FTC lawsuit. “This is in part due to the brutality of the procedure. Recovery from vaginoplasty requires the patient to ‘dilate’ the new wound 3-4 times daily for months so that it does not heal.”
<div id="attachment_1140621" style="width: 968px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1140621" class="wp-image-1140621 size-full" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/WPATH.jpg" alt="" width="958" height="570" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/WPATH.jpg 958w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/WPATH-300x178.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/WPATH-768x457.jpg 768w" sizes=" (max-width: 958px) 100vw, 958px" />Screenshot of a WPATH member forum message obtained by The Daily Wire through a FOIA request.</div>
The FTC lawsuit alleges Bowers made more than a million dollars in 2023 “mostly from performing transition surgeries.”
In a separate WPATH forum thread, <a href="https://www.childrens.com/doctor-profile/laura-elizabeth-kuper" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Laura Kuper</a>, a psychologist at <a href="https://www.childrens.com/doctor-profile/laura-elizabeth-kuper" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Children’s Health</a> in Dallas and <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20220215063252/https:/www.wpath.org/media/cms/Documents/SOC%20v8/SOC8%20Full%20Contributor%20List%20-%20FINAL%20UPDATED%202222.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">co-author</a> of WPATH’s &#8220;nonbinary&#8221; chapter in the Standards of Care, asked peers to recommend “US-based surgeons” with expertise in performing vaginoplasty on patients who had early pubertal suppression in a September 2024 message. Giving young males puberty blockers stops the growth of male genital tissue and makes it more difficult to perform a vaginoplasty surgery.
One doctor said pubertal suppression prevents “the growth of the vagina,” during a private WPATH symposium in September 2022, according to<a href="https://dailycallernewsfoundation.org/2024/01/16/exclusive-top-pediatric-doctors-admit-in-unearthed-video-that-child-sex-changes-are-way-more-invasive-than-advertised/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> reporting</a> from The Daily Caller.
Bowers responded that the surgeries “are not easy” and require “experience and technical skill.”
“Laura — as you may be aware, limited skin is a severe limitation for those with early puberty blocked, both cosmetically and for attaining depth,” Bowers wrote. “These cases are not easy, and I would state that a critical combination of experience and technical skill is required, meaning the list of qualified surgeons is not large. We have performed approximately 100 of these procedures thus far with approximately 15 each summer. There are also several excellent surgeons in excellent institutions which may have similar numbers.”
Kuper was a pediatric psychologist at the now-shut-down Children&#8217;s Health GENder Education and Care, Interdisciplinary Support clinic. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a February 2026 <a href="https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/news/releases/attorney-general-ken-paxton-files-landmark-lawsuit-against-childrens-health-and-dallas-area-doctor" target="_blank" rel="noopener">lawsuit</a> against Children&#8217;s Health that alleges gender-affirming practitioners subverted Texas state law and continued <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/texas-attorney-general-says-radical-doctor-broke-the-law-to-give-minors-sex-rejection-interventions?author=Megan+Brock&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=37&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Texas+Attorney+General+Says+Radical+Doctor+Broke+The+Law+To+Give+Minors+Sex-Rejection+Interventions" target="_blank" rel="noopener">providing minors</a> with sex-change medical interventions after the state&#8217;s ban went into effect on September 1, 2023.
Other messages acknowledge that transgender voice surgeries, which seek to make an individual&#8217;s voice sound more like the opposite sex, are “not usually effective” and have uncertain outcomes.  
“Voice is one of the hardest things to achieve primarily because surgical options are not usually effective,” wrote a WPATH member in the forum. 
“If your patient chose to pursue surgery, they would need to accept the science and physics behind the intention of the procedures as well as the unknowns in terms of outcome,” wrote an ears, nose, and throat doctor.   
In the SOC-8, WPATH lists “voice therapy and/or surgery” as a “medically necessary gender-affirming” medical intervention. Transgender voice surgeries are explicitly covered by some <a href="https://www.hca.wa.gov/free-or-low-cost-health-care/i-need-medical-dental-or-vision-care/transhealth-program">state</a> <a href="https://www.oregon.gov/oha/hsd/ohp/pages/gender-affirming-care.aspx">insurance</a> plans. 
WPATH did not respond to The Daily Wire&#8217;s requests for comment. Dr. Bowers declined to provide a comment to The Daily Wire. The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and Children&#8217;s Health did not respond to The Daily Wire&#8217;s requests to obtain a comment from Laura Kuper.

(ga) — MARCIBOWERS–TRINIDAD, COLORADO, JUNE 6, 2007– Dr. Marci Bowers performs the transgender operation on Courtney Ridley in the Trinida’s Mount San Rafael Hospital to the tunes of Jimmy Buffet, Pink Floyd and others during the three-hour surgery. In

Inside WPATH: Trans Surgeon Admits Patients May Experience Painful Complications

vaginoplasty

Vikings landed on the shores of the United States in early June, and while their numbers are few, they’re dominating American pop culture this summer.
Team Norway and its biggest star, 6-foot-5 Erling Haaland, are having an outsize impact on American hearts — and World Cup soccer — as they dazzle fans with their on- and off-the-field antics. Haaland has been a breakout star of the World Cup as he led Norway to historic success.
The world has enjoyed watching Haaland and his Norway teammates gather on the field after a win and lead fans in their viral post-game celebration, the Viking row. The celebration has been such a sensation that Google created a <a href="https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/erling-haaland-celebrated-google-viking-155607179.html">celebratory animation</a> of rowing Vikings that pop up when you search “Erling Haaland.”
Norway’s men’s soccer team went viral before the World Cup began when they released a team photo titled “<a href="https://www.artsy.net/artwork/david-yarrow-the-vikings-are-coming-colour">The Vikings Are Coming</a>,” captured by renowned British Photographer David Yarrow, in early June. The team is dressed like Vikings in the photo and posed in front of a fjord filled with Viking longships, holding ancient weapons as if they were going into battle.
The image is serious but playful, and it foreshadowed things to come: Norway&#8217;s players were going to war on the soccer pitch, and they were going to have a great time doing it. Haaland <a href="https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/articles/cjdpd18xx5lo">reportedly</a> played a substantial role in making the team Viking photo happen. He also played a substantial role in securing Norway&#8217;s first World Cup appearance in <a href="https://www.fifa.com/en/tournaments/mens/worldcup/canadamexicousa2026/articles/norway-team-profile-history">28 years</a> and has already scored seven <a href="https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/put-every-bit-pressure-english-113000056.html">goals</a> since tournament play began.
Haaland, who has over <a href="https://www.instagram.com/erling/?hl=en">60 million</a> Instagram followers, is a worldwide soccer legend at age 25. In his first season with his club team, Manchester City, he helped win a prestigious <a href="https://www.mancity.com/news/mens/erling-haaland-manchester-city-and-career-stats-so-far-63916947">treble</a> of soccer titles, the Premier League, FA Cup, and Champions League, in a single season. He’s been awarded the Premier League Golden Boot, for scoring the most goals of any striker in the league, three times.
When Norway unexpectedly beat legendary soccer favorite Brazil to reach its first World Cup quarterfinal match in the nation&#8217;s history, Haaland seemed genuinely shocked by the win in a post-match vlog <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhXZ62GERi8">posted</a> on his YouTube channel. He told his fans, “This still doesn’t feel real because it&#8217;s just so far off. I could never think of this happening, which also make its so crazy in my head that we actually managed to beat Brazil and go through.”
While many professional athletes are known for their ego and arrogance, Haaland comes across as humble, grateful, and playful amid astonishing success. His happy-go-lucky attitude is a part of what makes Haaland such a likable player and person.
“We just played football and enjoyed it,” Haaland said about the Brazil match in the vlog. “I remember I said it right before the game started, &#8216;Guys, no matter what happens, just smile and enjoy it.&#8217;”
No one is enjoying the World Cup as much as Haaland, who has been documenting his experiences in America on his YouTube channel. A video titled “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xld5GNGVvyc">Haaland takes over America</a>!” shows him loving American culture as he tries out a southern accent, using the phrase “Y’all,” and has a blast attending a professional ice hockey game with his teammates.
“The national anthem was incredible. Amazing. I had goosebumps all over,” Haaland said in the video. “I never, ever expected this. Atmosphere is unreal.”
After scoring the winning goal against the Ivory Coast in Norway’s first knockout round game, Haaland headed to <a href="https://wildbillswestern.com/">Wild Bill&#8217;s Western Store</a> in Dallas to buy himself a cowboy hat and boots. He posted a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIwcSp99PoY">10-minute video</a> of the excursion, showing him and colleagues endearingly enjoying Texas hospitality and culture. Before leaving the Texas store, Haaland purchased a shirt that says “Y’all Can Kiss My Dallas” and posted a photo of himself wearing the shirt along with a cowboy hat and boots on Instagram, with the simple caption “Howdy!”
The picture went viral, and Americans loved seeing Haaland&#8217;s embrace of local culture. The image is now the front image on <a href="https://wildbillswestern.com/">Wild Bill&#8217;s Western Store</a>, which thanked Haaland for the visit in a social media post, writing, “As a family-owned business, moments like these mean the world to us. Thank you for stopping by and spending time with our team.”
My son, who is a huge soccer fan, has been watching every video Haaland posts. I think he’s a fantastic example for him of what it looks like to work hard and be successful while not taking yourself too seriously. In the online world that is often full of narcissism and despair, Haaland’s positivity and joy are refreshing to see. They remind us all that the pursuit of excellence doesn’t have to be devoid of joy.
A June social media post from Haaland showed he was largely unrecognized while walking around New York City. If Norway miraculously makes it back to the area for the World Cup final, that anonymity will be impossible to replicate. Soccer-shy Americans have embraced Haaland and his team of Vikings to the extent that fans are clamoring to <a href="https://nymag.com/strategist/article/erling-haaland-hair-ties.html">buy the</a> hair ties he uses.
Regardless of the outcome of their quarterfinal game against England, Norway players are already winners. They have one of the best and most likable soccer players on their side, have exceeded their own expectations, and have secured the Viking row as one of soccer&#8217;s GOAT celebrations.
They&#8217;ve shown the world that Vikings are still warriors today — and they&#8217;re also a lot of fun.
***
This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/introducing-upstream-a-lifestyle-and-culture-section-of-the-daily-wire" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upstream,</a> The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.

Cote D’Ivoire v Norway: Round Of 32 – FIFA World Cup 2026

How One Viking Turned America Into His Biggest Fan

erling haaland

Norway

vikings

LGBTQ activists in Seattle believe a sharp influx of transgender young adults is causing a civil emergency — and they want taxpayer help.
The <a href="https://www.seattle.gov/lgbtq" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Seattle LGBTQ Commission</a> asked Mayor Katie Wilson in a May 2026<a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DYfRlKWm3yM/?img_index=2&amp;igsh=MWRkd2toYWwwNjdnMQ%3D%3D" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> letter</a> to declare a civil emergency caused by a mass influx of “transgender and gender-nonconforming” individuals relocating to the city. The commission has asked the city officials to fund cash-strapped LGBTQ+ groups providing shelter and relocation services to transgender refugees.
&#8220;Due to the rapid influx of 2SLGBTQIA+ persons seeking refuge in Seattle for increased safety needs, civil rights protections, and access to essential services the Seattle LGBTQ Commission formally recommends that City leaders declare a civil emergency that ensures an effective and empathetic response to protecting these internally displaced persons (IDPs) at a time of urgent crisis for our community,&#8221; states the letter.
Transplants are coming to Seattle from red states such as Texas, Florida, Tennessee, Kansas, and Idaho &#8220;due to anti-trans legislation, threats to personal safety, and barriers to healthcare and legal recognition,&#8221; according to the letter, which lists several transgender-affirming groups  &#8220;already responding to this crisis.&#8221; The listed groups include Gender Justice League, Seattle&#8217;s LGBTQ+ Center, and Traction, a nonprofit that helps &#8220;red state refugees&#8221; relocate to the Pacific Northwest through its<a href="https://tractionpnw.org/open-arms/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> Project Open Arms</a> initiative.
&#8220;Hundreds of thousands of Two-Spirit, transgender, nonbinary, gender-diverse, and gender-nonconforming (trans+) people and their families are seeking to escape legislative persecution and violence,&#8221; states Traction&#8217;s<a href="https://tractionpnw.org/open-arms/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> website</a>. &#8220;Our goal then and now is to support U.S. &#8216;transplants&#8217; – trans+ people and their loved ones displaced by violence and persecution – seeking safer, more welcoming places to live.&#8221;
C. Michael Woodward, executive director of Traction, told The Daily Wire it&#8217;s had more than 1600 applicants for relocation services since President Trump&#8217;s election but has only been able to help around 130 individuals move, due to resource limitations.
&#8220;I&#8217;m 63 and transitioned nearly 30 years ago. I&#8217;ve been doing trans+ and LGBTQ+ advocacy for almost that long, too,&#8221; Woodward told The Daily Wire. &#8220;Even so, I never once imagined we&#8217;d be doing this kind of work for our community, but here we are.&#8221;
Woodward said the group does not work with unaccompanied minors and has not been &#8220;presented with the opportunity to work with any emancipated youth&#8221; but would &#8220;handle those on a case-by-case basis.&#8221;
Traction is working to build &#8220;a nationwide network of groups doing similar work in other states,&#8221; according to its <a href="https://tractionpnw.org/open-arms/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">website</a>.
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-1132095 size-full" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/megs-piece.jpeg" alt="" width="1010" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/megs-piece.jpeg 1010w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/megs-piece-300x171.jpeg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/megs-piece-768x438.jpeg 768w" sizes=" (max-width: 1010px) 100vw, 1010px" /></div>
Screenshot from June 25, 2026, Seattle City Council Select Committee on Federal Administration and Policy Changes meeting.
Many of Seattle’s transgender transplants are “young adults,” according to<a href="https://www.seattle.gov/lgbtq/who-we-are" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> Kody Allen</a>, co-chair of the Seattle LGBTQ Commission and a social worker at a youth homeless shelter, who spoke on a panel about 2SLGBTQIA+ Communities in Seattle at a June 25, 2026,<a href="https://www.seattlechannel.org/mayor-and-council/city-council/2026-2027-select-committee-on-federal-administration-and-policy-changes?videoid=x188271" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> city council meeting</a>.
&#8220;In my day job, I am a program manager for a homeless shelter. We have seen a massive increase in trans&#8211;specifically&#8211;and queer young adults who are coming here from other states,&#8221; said Allen. &#8220;We are turning away 10, at least 10 young adults a night, and we are the biggest shelter in the city. And many, many, many of our clients are trans refugees who have come here.&#8221;
The meeting focused on how changes in federal policy have impacted local funding. Members of the 2SLGBTQIA+ panel discussed how Seattle could build long-term infrastructure to provide social services, such as housing, to the city&#8217;s growing number of transgender refugees. Allen warned groups that provide &#8220;queer&#8221; and &#8220;trans specific healthcare&#8221; are facing a funding crisis and may not be able to stay open throughout the year.
&#8220;If these community-based organizations that are specifically for queer people close, the impact that would have, obviously on the people who use those services, but also every other community-based organization in the city who are also experiencing decreased funding because of the federal&#8211;this federal administration&#8211;would put a huge strain on the system,&#8221; Allen stated.
Dominque Stephens, who was <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DVsCsq_DAG_/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">appointed</a> by Mayor Wilson as Seattle&#8217;s special advisor on LGBTQ+ affairs, told city council the Mayor&#8217;s office was planning to create transgender homeless shelters.
&#8220;We want to make sure that we&#8217;re doing this in a very intentional way,&#8221; said Stephens. &#8220;We know that in our shelter expansion, there will be a trans specific site that will be stood up.&#8221;
Stephens explained the mayor formed a Trans and Queer Community Stabilization Interdepartmental Team to create long-term transgender infrastructure as the group figures out &#8220;what we do in terms of folks who are migrating here.&#8221;
Seattle City Councilwoman <a href="https://www.seattle.gov/council/members/alexis-mercedes-rinck" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Alexis Mercedes Rinck</a> said Seattle needed to &#8220;stand firm&#8221; in welcoming &#8220;queer and trans people.&#8221;
&#8220;Across the country we have seen intense attacks against queer and trans people, both with hostile legislation and physical violence,&#8221; said Rinck at the meeting. &#8220;So, I want to say loud and clear, while we know we have more work to do here in the city of Seattle we need to stand firm in being a welcoming city for queer and trans people.&#8221;
A total of<a href="https://familypolicyalliance.com/help-not-harm/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> 27 states</a> have passed legislation protecting minors from receiving harmful sex-rejecting medical procedures such as puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and sex-change surgeries.
Washington State took a major step towards becoming a transgender sanctuary for minors when former Governor Jay Inslee <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/washington-to-allow-shelters-to-keep-runaway-children-from-parents-if-child-seeking-transgender-surgery-abortion?row=0&amp;elementPosition=1&amp;rowType=Web+Search+Overlay" target="_blank" rel="noopener">signed SB 5599</a> into law in May 2023.  The law allows homeless shelters to shield runaway minors seeking transgender medical procedures without contacting their parents. International Partners for Ethical Care Inc. filed a lawsuit challenging SB 5599 in<a href="https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/67697823/international-partners-for-ethical-care-inc-v-inslee/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> August 2023</a>, arguing it violates the fundamental rights of parents. After being dismissed by a lower court, the Supreme Court announced in June 2026 that it would<a href="https://aflegal.org/press-release/u-s-supreme-court-agrees-to-hear-america-first-legals-landmark-case-defending-parents-right-to-challenge-laws-that-hide-their-childrens-gender-transitions/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> hear the case on appeal</a>.
&#8220;SB 5599 is directed toward families in Washington state, and sets up a terrifying scenario for parents whose kids have fallen prey to gender ideology,&#8221; a representative from International Partners for Ethical Care told The Daily Wire. &#8220;A child can run away from home in Washington to seek &#8216;gender affirming care&#8217; and the state authorities or shelters where the child may be found are not required by law to notify the parents of the child&#8217;s whereabouts with any urgency.&#8221;
Florida, Idaho, and 14 other red states filed an amicus brief to the Supreme Court in support of the plaintiffs. The coalition of states expressed concerns the law could impact parents across state lines, writing they &#8220;fear that their own residents whose runaway children cross state lines may be harmed by Washington’s law&#8221; in the<a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/25/25-840/396471/20260217151332802_Intl%20Partners%20v.%20Ferguson%20-%20Amicus%20Brief%20for%20Filing.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> brief</a>.
International Partners for Ethical Care agreed the law could impact parents nationwide, telling The Daily Wire, &#8220;Nothing in the law&#8217;s language that would prevent it from being applied to children who arrive in Washington from other states.&#8221;
The Daily Wire asked the Seattle LGBTQ Commission and Mayor Wilson&#8217;s office for information on how many of the transgender refugees were 18 and under but did not receive a comment. Mayor Wilson did not provide any additional information on the transgender shelter expansion project discussed at the city council meeting.

Scenes from the Seattle Pride Parade, Sunday, June 25, 2017. (AP Photo/seattlepi.com, Genna Martin)

Massive Influx Of Transgender Refugees Is Causing ‘Civil Emergency’ In Leftist City

LGBT

Parental Rights

Seattle

Washington State

This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/upstream" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upstream</a>, The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.
***
You&#8217;ve probably seen the viral slogan that pays homage to one of the finest displays of all-American spunk in our history.
The phrase &#8220;Americans: We&#8217;ll cross a frozen river to kill you in your sleep on Christmas. Not kidding. We&#8217;ve done it before&#8221; can be found on<a href="https://www.etsy.com/listing/1629178171/americans-well-cross-a-frozen-river-to?gpla=1&amp;gao=1&amp;utm_medium=cpc&amp;utm_custom2=21500569332&amp;utm_source=google&amp;utm_custom1=_k_CjwKCAjw0o3SBhBVEiwAh28-jZnPcliDgHl8lsUJQFL77m-64UirfGjHarQC7XsD1iWXBKLzu-ZFIRoCOEsQAvD_BwE_k_&amp;utm_content=go_21500569332_164907277083_707558291651_pla-1231918577499_c__1629178171_560099097&amp;utm_campaign=shopping_us_-home_and_living_d&amp;gad_source=4&amp;gad_campaignid=21500569332&amp;gbraid=0AAAAADtcfRL-ma_EFwdA9hs_yE2WJ3eEL&amp;gclid=CjwKCAjw0o3SBhBVEiwAh28-jZnPcliDgHl8lsUJQFL77m-64UirfGjHarQC7XsD1iWXBKLzu-ZFIRoCOEsQAvD_BwE&amp;dd_referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> mugs</a>, t-shirts, and memes. The humorous mantra describes when General George Washington led his struggling army across the Delaware River in the freezing cold to launch a surprise attack on Hessian troops stationed in Trenton, New Jersey, on Christmas night in 1776. It was a pivotal moment in the Revolutionary War, when the future of our fledgling nation was grim and unclear.
In the weeks leading up to that surprise attack, Washington and his men experienced a <a href="https://www.battlefields.org/learn/revolutionary-war/battles/fort-lee" target="_blank" rel="noopener">series of defeats</a> from the British in New York, forcing the Continental Army to retreat across New Jersey onto the shores of the Delaware River in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. The Continental Army was demoralized, greatly outnumbered by the British, and in desperate need of new enlistments.
In a letter to his brother written on<a href="https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-07-02-0299" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> December 18, 1776</a>, Washington described how the British “pushed us from place to place till we were obliged to cross the Delaware [into Pennsylvania] with less than 3,000 men fit for duty&#8221; and shared his fears of failure.
“If every nerve is not strained to recruit the New Army with all possible Expedition I think the game is pretty near up,” Washington wrote. “We are at present in a very disaffected part of the Provence, and between you and me I think our affairs are in a very bad way.”
The brutal cold of Pennsylvania&#8217;s winter was rolling in, and Washington’s men<a href="https://www.mountvernon.org/george-washington/so-hard-a-winter" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> lacked</a> food, shelter, and shoes. Washington and his army weren&#8217;t receiving needed support from “disaffected&#8221; locals who focused on their own lives and remained apathetic toward America’s campaign for independence.
“These people would yield to, but not rally to, whoever held power. They had no strong political attachments and preferred to go about their daily lives with as little disruption as possible,” describes Kimberly McCarty on the Washington Crossing Historic Park<a href="https://www.washingtoncrossingpark.org/how-did-bucks-county-feel/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> website</a>.
<div id="attachment_1124299" style="width: 873px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1124299" class="wp-image-1124299 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/DSC_9543-863x576.jpg" alt="" width="863" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/DSC_9543-863x576.jpg 863w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/DSC_9543-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/DSC_9543-768x513.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/DSC_9543-1536x1025.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/DSC_9543-2048x1367.jpg 2048w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/DSC_9543-1800x1200.jpg 1800w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/DSC_9543-1200x800.jpg 1200w" sizes=" (max-width: 863px) 100vw, 863px" />Photo by Meg Brock</div>
The effort for independence needed a sizable morale boost if the nation was to survive. To garner support for the war effort and encourage the Continental Army,<a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Thomas-Paine" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> Thomas Paine</a>, an English-American revolutionary writer, published the first pamphlet in a series called “<a href="https://americainclass.org/sources/makingrevolution/war/text2/painecrisis1776.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The American Crisis</a>” on December 19, 1776.
“These are the times that try men&#8217;s souls; the summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman,” Paine wrote. “Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: It is dearness only that gives everything its value.”
Washington was so moved by Paine’s words that he had “The American Crisis”<a href="https://www.amrevmuseum.org/read-the-revolution/the-american-crisis" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> read</a> to his troops in Bucks County on December 24, 1776, as they prepared for the surprise attack on Trenton.
The next day, while others celebrated the merriment of Christmas, Washington gathered his army and began crossing the Delaware River during a harsh winter storm. Unlike the “disaffected,” these men were willing to put aside their own comfort, safety, and livelihoods to secure American independence. It took hours to get all of the soldiers across the ice-filled river before marching nine miles to Trenton in the early morning for a surprise attack.
<div id="attachment_1124301" style="width: 873px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1124301" class="wp-image-1124301 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/PA-6-of-8-863x576.jpg" alt="" width="863" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/PA-6-of-8-863x576.jpg 863w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/PA-6-of-8-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/PA-6-of-8-768x513.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/PA-6-of-8-1536x1025.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/PA-6-of-8-2048x1367.jpg 2048w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/PA-6-of-8-1800x1200.jpg 1800w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/PA-6-of-8-1200x800.jpg 1200w" sizes=" (max-width: 863px) 100vw, 863px" />Photo by Meg Brock</div>
I grew up near Washington’s Crossing and have walked the<a href="https://www.wcpa-nj.com/continental" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> trails</a> on the Jersey side of the Delaware River that Washington and his men may have taken on their journey to Trenton. It&#8217;s hard to even imagine how uncomfortable, dangerous, and difficult that trek must have been during a winter storm without proper shoes or clothing.
Against all odds, Washington’s army had a miraculous victory in Trenton. It was a turning point in the war that changed the course of our nation.
​Washington’s Crossing became an iconic symbol of the American spirit when it was immortalized by the German-American painter<a href="https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search?artist=Emanuel+Leutze" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> Emanuel Leutze</a>. Leutze’s painting of Washington and his men heroically weaving through chunks of ice to cross the Delaware River has been a fixture in popular culture for 175 years. The painting is currently hung at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, but you don’t have to travel to New York City to see its likeness. It can be found on the back of a New Jersey State<a href="https://www.usmint.gov/learn/coins-and-medals/circulating-coins/quarter/50-state-quarters/new-jersey" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> Quarter</a>, is featured in TV shows, and was recently<a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DSdKO4dD69D/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> recreated</a> by legendary Philadelphia baseball mascot the Philly Phanatic.
The huge chunks of ice have long been a controversial element of the painting, as some believe their addition was historically<a href="https://stories.state.gov/washington-crossing-the-delaware/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> inaccurate</a>. However, chunks of ice have been seen floating along the Delaware River at least twice in the past decade. In 2018, I personally witnessed the<a href="https://newjersey.news12.com/chunks-of-ice-on-delaware-river-prompt-flood-warnings-37270364" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> boulders of ice</a> floating in the Delaware River when Southeastern Pennsylvania was caught up in a polar vortex. The ice returned to the<a href="https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/shipment-salt-philly-stuck-delaware-river-ice/4345622/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> Delaware River</a> in January 2026 during another deep freeze.
There are<a href="https://www.washingtoncrossingpark.org/winter-weather-challenge/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> firsthand accounts</a> that the Delaware River was filled with ice during Washington&#8217;s crossing, but we&#8217;ll never really know exactly what the Delaware River looked like that night. We do know that in the midst of harrowing circumstances, Washington and his men provided one of the greatest examples of grit and the American spirit our nation has seen.
Historians believe that no soldiers died the night of Washington’s crossing; all miraculously had safe passage across the Delaware River to New Jersey. But an unknown number of soldiers<a href="https://www.washingtoncrossingpark.org/park/soldiers-graves/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> died</a> during the Continental Army’s Bucks County encampment from disease and previous injuries. A cemetery dedicated to these fallen soldiers is located four miles from Washington Crossing Historical Park.
<div id="attachment_1124303" style="width: 873px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1124303" class="wp-image-1124303 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/PA-8-of-9-863x576.jpg" alt="" width="863" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/PA-8-of-9-863x576.jpg 863w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/PA-8-of-9-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/PA-8-of-9-768x513.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/PA-8-of-9-1536x1025.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/PA-8-of-9-2048x1367.jpg 2048w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/PA-8-of-9-1800x1200.jpg 1800w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/PA-8-of-9-1200x800.jpg 1200w" sizes=" (max-width: 863px) 100vw, 863px" />Photo by Meg Brock</div>
<div>
Their graves are a reminder that from our nation&#8217;s very beginning, our freedom has been secured through the extraordinary sacrifices of everyday people. We are forever in debt to those who put aside their own comforts and safety for the betterment of future generations.
If you’re ever in Philadelphia, take the 45-minute drive northeast to visit the site of Washington’s crossing. You no longer have to get into a boat to cross the Delaware; you can drive your car across on a metal bridge and view the old trees and grassy embankments that line the Delaware River. If you visit on Christmas Day, you can watch a group of local historians perform a reenactment of the crossing. It&#8217;s a peaceful, beautiful place, rich in history, that reminds us all that a few individuals with the courage of their convictions can change the course of history.
Benjamin Franklin famously warned America is “a Republic, if you can keep it.” Freedom is a fragile gift, and the apathy of the &#8220;disaffected&#8221; has always been its silent adversary.
As we celebrate America’s 250th birthday, may we follow the example of liberty-loving patriots who’ve gone before us. May we commit ourselves to employing the gift of our citizenship and seek out opportunities to serve our families, communities, and country as we safeguard the integrity of our constitutional republic.
Future generations are counting on us. We can&#8217;t let them down.
</div>

Washington Crossing The Delaware by Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze

George Washington’s Bravery Reminds Us America Is Worth Fighting For

America 250

Freedom

George Washington

A notorious California Democrat who is looking to fill Nancy Pelosi&#8217;s congressional seat is again supporting legislation that protects sexual predators who commit crimes against children.
If passed into law, California&#8217;s AB-2691 would prohibit individuals convicted of sexual assault or human trafficking from holding public office in California. But thanks to Sen. Scott Wiener, an amendment was added to carve out an exception for those who committed crimes against children.
The bill unanimously passed through the California Assembly and was referred to the <a href="https://selc.senate.ca.gov/members">Senate Elections and Constitutional Amendments Committee</a>, where it was amended to provide protections for convicted pedophiles. The committee, which is chaired by Wiener, <a href="https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB2691">amended the bill</a> to clarify that the term &#8220;sexual assault&#8221; does not include several violations of California&#8217;s <a href="https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displayText.xhtml?lawCode=PEN&amp;division=&amp;title=9.&amp;part=1.&amp;chapter=5.&amp;article=">penal code</a> involving the sexual assault of minors.
At a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAV_owqdREs">June 30</a> hearing on the bill, Greg Burt, vice president of the California Family Council, stated that the amendments were so shocking that he and his colleagues couldn&#8217;t believe they were real.
&#8220;When we read the June 24th amendment to AB 2691, our honest reaction was that it could not be real. We assumed we&#8217;d misread it. We sat in our office and tried to imagine how anyone could stand up and defend it. So I&#8217;m here today, generally hoping someone will tell us why crimes against children are being carved out of this bill,&#8221; Burt stated.
&#8220;Barring people convicted of felony sexual assault and human trafficking from holding public office is good policy. We want to support the bill, but the amendments — we were told this committee chair demanded — exempt convictions for felony sodomy, oral copulation, and sexual penetration against children.&#8221;
Wiener, who is <a href="https://www.scottwiener.com/meet-scott">running</a> for Nancy Pelosi&#8217;s congressional seat, has a history of pushing legislation that protects sex offenders. In 2019, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/newsom-signs-bill-that-could-alter-sex-offender-registration-for-gay-sex-with-minors">Wiener</a> introduced a bill, which is now <a href="https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200SB145">California law</a>, that shields young adults from mandatory registration onto the sex offender registry if the sexually victimized minor is at least 14 and within 10 years of their age. Wiener is known for his LGBTQ+ activism and has spearheaded multiple bills in the California Senate that push <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/meet-scott-wiener-nancy-pelosis-likely-replacement-probably-thinks-youre-a-bigot?author=Susannah+Luthi&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Meet+Scott+Wiener%3A+Nancy+Pelosi%E2%80%99s+Likely+Replacement+Probably+Thinks+You%E2%80%99re+A+Bigot">transgender policies</a> into state law.
<a href="https://senate.ca.gov/sd37">Senator Steven Choi</a>, the Republican Vice Chair of the <a href="https://selc.senate.ca.gov/members">Senate Elections and Constitutional Amendments Committee</a>, said at the hearing that he &#8220;could no longer in good conscience support&#8221; AB-2691 because the bill &#8220;excludes heinous crimes like sodomy of a minor or sexual penetration of a minor.&#8221;
&#8220;I supported this bill but I now believe that this bill must be opposed because of the absurd message that it sends — namely that it&#8217;s okay to have pedophiles and the child groomers in elected office. Until the highness of crimes involving minors are restored in the definition of a sexual assault under this bill, I will not be able to in good conscience support this bill,&#8221; stated Choi.
Wiener responded to Choi&#8217;s comments by defending the amended bill, claiming those who opposed the changes were doing so due to &#8220;pure politics and pure political cynicism.&#8221;
&#8220;I&#8217;ve been in politics a long time, and every time I think I&#8217;ve seen the height of cynicism in politics, there are some people who manage to set a new world record in political cynicism,&#8221; Wiener stated.
Wiener voted in support of AB-2691, which <a href="https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billVotesClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB2691">passed</a> the committee with the pedophile protections in place in a 4-1 vote.
At the same hearing, Wiener openly <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/dems-kill-bill-to-ban-sex-offenders-from-public-office?author=Jacob+Wheeler&amp;category=undefined&amp;elementPosition=2&amp;row=3&amp;rowHeadline=Latest+News&amp;rowType=Vertical+Carousel&amp;title=Dems+Kill+Bill+To+Ban+Sex+Offenders+From+Public+Office">opposed</a> AB-2753, a bill that would prohibit anyone on the sex offender registry from holding public office.
&#8220;I will be voting no on this bill and recommending that the committee vote no,&#8221; Wiener stated and explained that California&#8217;s sex offender registry was &#8220;extreme and broken&#8221; before he and other legislators started &#8220;fixing it.&#8221;
Wiener recommended changes be made to the bill in alignment with analysis provided by the Senate Committee on Elections and Constitutional Amendments, which states the bill creates concerns for members of the LGBTQ+ community and does not provide flexibility for changes in law over time in determining what constitutes a sexual offense.
&#8220;The bill does not make allowances for changes in law over time, so things that may have been sex offenses in the past, such as consensual sex between two men, would preclude a person from running for office under this bill,&#8221; states the <a href="///Users/meganbrock/Downloads/202520260AB2753_Senate%20Elections%20And%20Constitutional%20Amendments.pdf">analysis</a>.
Wiener did not respond to The Daily Wire&#8217;s request for comment.

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Megan Brock