Vote Jacqueline Kelly for Judge on August 6th

Usually in this blog, I’m focusing on reasons you should vote for me.    That is the point, after all!   But in next week’s primary, I’m unopposed— the place I really need your vote will be in the November election.   So this week, I thought I would focus this blog on a fellow candidate I endorse, who does face a contested primary:   Jaqueline Kelly.

As you can see at her website, https://www.kellyforjudge.org/, she has a great resume:  legal experience in civil cases, criminal cases, and as a city attorney, positions on the Kansas Real Estate Commission and Wichita Ethics Advisory Board, and numerous other volunteer positions— all while raising three children.   I was very impressed with her on the several occasions when we met.

One other important element of her background, which she told me about recently, may not be so obvious from her campaign flyers:   she is an adopted child of Zimbabwean birth.   Having studied the contrast between the systems of government in Zimbabwe and in the US, she especially appreciates being here!    This contrast has deeply informed her legal philosophy, and her sense of how special our system is.    

Zimbabwe is one of the many nations around the world that promised improved “fairness” and a "just society", if only the government could reduce the inconvenient barriers of personal freedom and give itself complete power— and ended up creating misery for the vast majority.   (You can see many more examples of those failures in my Stories of Communism podcast.)   It is very important that we have judges in place who understand our country’s fundamental and unique principles of individual freedom and limited government power.

Thus, on August 6th, I’ll be voting for Jacqueline Kelly for judge, and hope you will join me.

Protect Children From Misguided "Gender-Affirming" Care

As I knock on doors, I’ve received a lot of questions related to my concerns about “gender-affirming” care taking place on underage children.    After all, how can anyone oppose being “affirming”?   But what is actually taking place is an extreme course of medical treatment:   drugs, hormones, and surgeries to alter the physical anatomy of a child’s breasts and genitals, and drastically interfere with their normal reproductive development.   These treatments often begin at very young ages, and have permanent effects on a child’s life:   sterilization, sexual dysfunction, non-reproductive side effects like bone weakness, and permanent wounds that require (sometimes painful) daily care.  Children are being asked, and encouraged, to commit to this treatment at an age when they aren’t even allowed to decide on a tattoo.   There are a few key points to keep in mind about these treatments:

• There is no credible evidence that these treatments prevent suicide or have any other net benefits for children, which is why some European countries have backed off the “gender-affirming” care model.   The comprehensive Cass Review, commissioned by the UK’s National Health Service, argues persuasively that we simply don't have enough evidence for these drastic medical interventions.    For treatments with these kinds of permanent, irreversible effects, we need to demand a high standard of statistically significant, persuasive, positive evidence— a standard the medical community is nowhere near achieving.     And because widespread childhood gender transition is so new, it’s literally impossible to have reliable data on its long-term effects.

• Parents receive extreme pressure from activist medical professionals to transition their children to “prevent suicide”.   If a pro-trans psychiatrist or doctor is treating a child and thinks they might be transgender, they commonly tell the parents that supporting the transition is critical to preventing suicide.   The Cass Review showed clearly that there is no credible evidence to support this claim.   Yet therapists regularly use the line, famously documented in Chloe Cole’s detransition lawsuit,  “would you rather have a dead daughter or a live son?”    How many parents, previously uninformed on this issue, would dare to question the therapist’s advice after that?     This is why I’m not swayed by the common argument that legislation on this matter is somehow interfering in a decision that should just be left to families and their doctors:  the families are often given extremely biased advice to terrorize them into unconditionally supporting their child’s transition.

• Medical interventions for a child who is diagnosed as transgender can begin as early as age 8, and have many long-term health consequences .    How can a child understand their “gender” before experiencing puberty, which is when critical reproductive processes and instincts are developed?    Puberty blockers can be prescribed as early as age 8, according to a New York Times report, and are often prescribed around age 10-11.  According to the same report, these have been linked to severe long-term harm, most notably by suppressing a growth period when a child’s bones mature.   In addition, one of the nation’s leading transgender advocates, Dr. Marci Bowers, has been caught on video admitting that these treatments often cause permanent sexual dysfunction.    And the puberty blockers are just the beginning:  children under 18 are often subjected to surgical treatments as well, and Dr Bowers has also bragged of performing “vaginoplasties”, creation of a permanent wound where the genitals used to be, in boys as young as 16.  

• Once a child is started on a gender transition, it is very difficult to stop the process, even if they start to have doubts.   The “gender-affirming” care model demands that once a child states they are transgender, the physical and psychological caregivers must consistently “affirm” their new identity, without ever questioning it or seeking other underlying psychological issues.    (How many other situations are there where a therapist is required to unconditionally affirm a patient’s initial self-diagnosis???).  Typically a child will build their entire social life around the new transgender identity, as well as receiving constant pressure from their new trans-activist friend group and the pro-trans medical professionals who are currently treating them.   For a child who is already uncomfortable and socially awkward, this can make it psychologically impossible to turn back if they later have second thoughts.    As one doctor wrote in a NY Post article, “I saw children being fast-tracked onto medical solutions for psychological problems, and when kids get on the medical conveyor belt, they don’t get off.   But the politicization of the issue was shutting down proper clinical rigor. That meant quite vulnerable kids were in danger of being put on a medical path for treatment that they may well regret.”

Thus, for these reasons and many others, I think it’s imperative that the Kansas legislature take action to protect children in our state from this dangerous and unwarranted medical experiment.   If elected, I will make it a priority to re-introduce legislation, like the bill that the incumbent recently voted against, to ban these treatments in anyone under 18.   

How You Can Help

Many thanks to those of you who have offered to help out my campaign, or may be thinking about doing so!    There are a number of ways you can promote my candidacy:

• Tell your neighbors.   If you live in my district, this is the easiest thing to do— next time you are talking to your neighbors, mention me and this website (wichitaerik.com) .   If you think you’ll be talking to a lot of neighbors, email me and I can drop off some of my cards.

• Host a lawn sign.    I have plenty of lawn signs ready to go!   Just email me with your address, and I’ll come by to place a sign on your lawn.

• Arrange a meet & greet.   If you know a few people who would like to meet me or discuss my platform in more detail, I’d be happy to get together with them during an evening or weekend.   We could set up a time to meet at a local cafe, or I could drop by your house, whichever is most convenient.   

• Invite me to an event.   If there is a local neighborhood, community, or political event that would be appropriate for me to show up at & discuss politics, please let me know.   I try to watch for such things, but it’s easy for me to miss one.

• Donate.   If you have a few bucks to spare, I am going to raise funds to do some kind of promotion as the election approaches.   Just email me and I’ll stop by to pick up a check, or you can Zelle me at erik@wichitaerik.com .   (If you choose the latter option, also email me your address and occupation, so I can comply with campaign finance rules.)

If you want to do any of the above, or help in other ways I didn’t mention, please email me at erik@wichitaerik.com with a way to contact you, and I’ll be sure to get back to you.    Thanks for your support!