We begin with an investigation into the forces working to shape our information landscape when it comes to transgender policies. When an issue goes from zero to 60 practically overnight, grabbing headlines, political real estate, and funding priorities — you can bet there’s an invisible hand in play. Today, some of the surprising interests we found behind the well-funded transgender lobby.
In December of 2021, Harry Potter author J. K. Rowling made news with a tweet. She criticized replacing the word “women” with the trans-friendly phrase, “people who menstruate.” Rowling suffered a backlash, was called “transphobic” and even threatened with violence, she says. Hers is hardly a fringe view. A recent survey shows a majority of Americans, 71%, believe there are only two genders: male and female. But expressing that has become increasingly forbidden.
Sharyl: How such a small slice of America, or what was a very small slice of America, could take front and center stage in education and media and politics over a pretty short period of time is an interesting question.
Gregory Angelo: Yeah, it’s curious.
Gregory Angelo, a gay man, is president of the New Tolerance Campaign, a group fighting what he calls intolerance double-standards.
Angelo: People who think that this is a grassroots movement that is giving rise to the transgender culture in the United States — this transgender moment that people say that we’re having — do not understand that this is more of a top-down dynamic that is at play, where you have really just a handful of organizations and LGBT advocacy organizations that are driving the agenda. But because they have such sway and such money, they’re influencing everything from schools to politicians to corporate America.
Pedro Gonzalez: The very least that you can say is it’s not organic. This is not something that’s happening on its own. It’s not just the winds of change blowing in. This is orchestrated.
Pedro Gonzalez is an independent journalist. He conducted an investigation to get to the bottom of the sudden explosion in trans-ideology.
Gonzalez: The name of the report that I wrote about this for the American Principles Project is called “The Transgender Leviathan.” I chose that name on purpose. The Leviathan is a biblical monster that’s just enormous. You can only ever catch glimpses of the full size of it, right?
Sharyl: So, tell me what you’ve learned about the big forces behind the funding.
Gonzalez: Yeah, so I think you can broadly name three, which is pharmaceutical companies, liberal billionaires, and ultimately, I think, to a growing extent, the taxpayer.
When it comes to taxpayers, Gonzalez points to studies the government funds like one promoting breast removal or mastectomies for young girls as part of a process to “transition.”
Gonzalez: But I think the far larger and more pernicious problem is the problem of the pharmaceutical companies who are behind this stuff. And there’s so much.
One example is Lupron, the drug most commonly used for suppressing puberty. It’s a first step under one model of treating children who wish to be the opposite sex.
Gonzalez: It’s not FDA-approved for use in transition therapy, right? It’s used to castrate the, basically, the most dangerous kinds of sex offenders who just can’t help themselves and are more likely to re-offend. So they give them Lupron to basically chemically castrate them. And now we’re giving it to kids to suppress the process of them going into puberty.
With two injections reportedly costing as much as $73,000, Lupron drew $2 billion-worth of business last year for drugmaker AbbVie.
Gonzalez: The Biden administration cited a study produced by a group called The Trevor Project. The Trevor Project is an LGBT advocacy nonprofit. And basically, the Biden administration said this study from this nonpartisan nonprofit says that it’s important for children to be able to have access to gender-affirming care. Right? But when you look at the funding of The Trevor Project, what you’ll see is that they actually received $50,000 from AbbVie Foundation, the company that manufactures Lupron.
We found an even bigger medical money interest surrounding the trans movement. It involves a little-publicized but sad reality — the transgender HIV epidemic. In seven major U.S. cities, more than 40% of transgenders are infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. The rate is even higher among transgender blacks. Most of them — 62% — are HIV-positive, according to the CDC survey.
That adds up to a lucrative market for businesses like Gilead Sciences, a pharmaceutical company that’s developed 11 HIV medications now on the market earning over $1.5 billion a month. And Gilead happens to be the single biggest-known funder of the trans agenda — more than $6 million in 2017 and 2018. Gilead says its goal is to “support communities that are disproportionally impacted by diseases aligned with our therapeutic areas of focus.”
The number two funder of trans causes, at $4.8 million over two years, is Arcus Foundation. Arcus is a nonprofit associated with billionaire Jon Stryker, heir to the Stryker Corporation medical technology company fortune and a driver of “gender identity ideology and transgenderism across the globe.”
Third, $4.6 million, is Tawani Foundation, associated with the billionaire Pritzker family and James, now Jennifer, Pritzker of the Hyatt Hotels fortune. Tawani has large medical investments and funds causes that normalize transgenderism and a broad spectrum of identities.
And number four among top donors to trans interests is Gill Foundation at $3.1 million, associated with American software magnate and gay activist Tim Gill. He’s the single largest-known donor to gay causes at a half billion dollars total.
The money from a handful of sources seeds thousands of groups, reaching into policies and practices in government and education, and at corporations, universities, doctors’ associations, hospitals, insurance companies, media outlets, journalism groups, and more.
Top recipients of the trans-targeted money include the University of Minnesota, home to “Gender and Sexuality Center for Queer and Trans Life.”
Gender and Sexuality Center for Queer and Trans life video: There is a huge amount of diversity in the experience of trans people, in terms of identities, in terms of gender journeys, and we’re going to do our best in this course to try to make as much room as possible for all of those various identities.
Another top beneficiary is Annenberg Center for Health Sciences at Eisenhower. It sponsors programs like this one for health care professionals.
Annenberg video: Hello and welcome to the elevate webinar series on creating a gender-affirming health care environment for optimal HIV care.
Funding for transgender causes continues to hit new highs each year. By one analysis, the top 10 foundations that give the most made up 55% of the funding. In the end, the explosion in transgender influence on society and politics can largely be traced to a handful of powerful interests.
Gonzalez: It’s far from a movement that’s just comprised of a bunch of scrappy underdogs. It is a really well-financed and immensely powerful movement that is just totally disproportionate for the population that it represents.
Sharyl (on-camera): This past week, advocates filed suit on behalf of two girls, including a ten-year-old, who were getting treatment to block puberty or suppress their female traits. They’re suing University of Missouri Health Care, which stopped treating children after the state banned certain medical procedures for minors.
Watch cover story here.
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It’s ironic that those who advocated for gay causes are funding these medical interventions, as when young people who identified as the opposite sex were not medicalized or socially transitioned in the past…they mostly grew out of it (and were disproportionately gay–healthy and gay rather than medicalized for life, which is what these treatments require, lifelong hormones).
For follow-up about the medical background and understanding of these treatments, one can read the recent article by Jennifer Block in the Boston Globe, “Youth gender medicine has become a hall of mirrors” for more references and the Reuters Investigative Series “Youth in Transition.”
Thanks!
It’s ironic that those who advocated for gay causes are funding these medical interventions, as when young people who identified as the opposite sex were not medicalized or socially transitioned in the past…they mostly grew out of it (and were disproportionately gay–healthy and gay rather than medicalized for life, which is what these treatments require, lifelong hormones).
For follow-up about the medical background and understanding of these treatments, one can read the recent article by Jennifer Block in the Boston Globe, “Youth gender medicine has become a hall of mirrors” for more references and the Reuters Investigative Series “Youth in Transition.”
Thanks!
“Sharyl: How such a small slice of America, or what was a very small slice of America, could take front and center stage in education and media and politics over a pretty short period of time is an interesting question.”
It also might be helpful to consider, as an historical parallel, how small the NAZI party was in Germany prior to the Great Depression, and how that worldwide depression helped give birth to the NAZI party (which had previously been an insignificant fringe group) in just a few short years as a powerful party in Germany, simply by offering answers that appealed to the suffering public while the powers that be had no answers to provide:
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/hitler-comes-to-power
There are parallels between what happened in Germany then and some of what’s happening in the US and elsewhere now as we sit poised on the brink of another worldwide economic “downturn” (by whatever label is applied). Fringe groups HOPE for such economic downturns, and I don’t think it’s a coincidence that some of these fringe groups are flexing their muscles today.
“Sharyl: How such a small slice of America, or what was a very small slice of America, could take front and center stage in education and media and politics over a pretty short period of time is an interesting question.”
It also might be helpful to consider, as an historical parallel, how small the NAZI party was in Germany prior to the Great Depression, and how that worldwide depression helped give birth to the NAZI party (which had previously been an insignificant fringe group) in just a few short years as a powerful party in Germany, simply by offering answers that appealed to the suffering public while the powers that be had no answers to provide:
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/hitler-comes-to-power
There are parallels between what happened in Germany then and some of what’s happening in the US and elsewhere now as we sit poised on the brink of another worldwide economic “downturn” (by whatever label is applied). Fringe groups HOPE for such economic downturns, and I don’t think it’s a coincidence that some of these fringe groups are flexing their muscles today.
Thank you for covering this and exposing its origins. The media is complicit in promoting this thru coverage that fails to inform the public about the truth behind a small and wealthy group with a financial and social agenda. The more people are informed about the way they are being manipulated the more they will rise up.
Thank you for covering this and exposing its origins. The media is complicit in promoting this thru coverage that fails to inform the public about the truth behind a small and wealthy group with a financial and social agenda. The more people are informed about the way they are being manipulated the more they will rise up.
And to think that you used to be a journalist.
The ignorance and blatant prejudice displayed both by this post and the “research” it quotes are off the charts. Is this kind of foolishness why you got bounced at CBS News?
The well funded part of the so-called debate is the right wing, where Koch/Cato/Federalist/ADF and other regressives have teamed up to attack individuals for living the way they want to.
And you’re piling on. Congrats.
A former CBS News colleague,
Would your LIBERTINE-like concern include,
say, raping babies ?—regarding this attack
against Sharyl’s journalistic approach, arguing
she’s opposing certain individuals’ FREEDOM :
“. . . to attack individuals for living the way they want to . . .”
What would be you upper limit of TOLERANCE,
above which limit you’d draw a M O R A L de-
marcation line ?
Does history rhyme or repeat ? :
https://www.theburningplatform.com/2020/07/06/dystopian-societies-derive-from-displaced-ethics-and-values/
Griffin’s Warning from the Sixties :
https://biblescienceforum.com/2021/05/26/the-communist-takeover-of-america-by-g-edward-griffin/
-Rick
P.S.
To be more accurate,
PEDOPHILES are
individuals so mentally
WRECKED. they’re con-
vinced of their RIGHT
to be protected from
at-large society’s moral
restriction..
Are you such a one ?
P.P.S.
To SGT Todd Wiseman,
who had posted here,
but had been nixed
thereafter :
Truth – as you’ve articulated it above –
is terrifying for folks gradually
waking up—yet, far too late to save
this once-MERITOCRATIC/-demo-
cratic/-Christian/-Caucasian
republic.
P.P.S.
To SGT Todd Wiseman,
who had posted here,
but had been nixed
thereafter :
Truth – as you’ve articulated it above –
is terrifying for folks gradually
waking up—yet, far too late to save
this once-MERITOCRATIC/-demo-
cratic/-Christian/-Caucasian
republic.
P.S.
To be more accurate,
PEDOPHILES are
individuals so mentally
WRECKED. they’re con-
vinced of their RIGHT
to be protected from
at-large society’s moral
restriction..
Are you such a one ?
A former CBS News colleague,
Would your LIBERTINE-like concern include,
say, raping babies ?—regarding this attack
against Sharyl’s journalistic approach, arguing
she’s opposing certain individuals’ FREEDOM :
“. . . to attack individuals for living the way they want to . . .”
What would be you upper limit of TOLERANCE,
above which limit you’d draw a M O R A L de-
marcation line ?
Does history rhyme or repeat ? :
https://www.theburningplatform.com/2020/07/06/dystopian-societies-derive-from-displaced-ethics-and-values/
Griffin’s Warning from the Sixties :
https://biblescienceforum.com/2021/05/26/the-communist-takeover-of-america-by-g-edward-griffin/
-Rick
And to think that you used to be a journalist.
The ignorance and blatant prejudice displayed both by this post and the “research” it quotes are off the charts. Is this kind of foolishness why you got bounced at CBS News?
The well funded part of the so-called debate is the right wing, where Koch/Cato/Federalist/ADF and other regressives have teamed up to attack individuals for living the way they want to.
And you’re piling on. Congrats.
BOT COTT ANY THING THEY MAKE ONE DOLLAR ON= THERE GREED WILL BACK THEM OFF
BOT COTT ANY THING THEY MAKE ONE DOLLAR ON= THERE GREED WILL BACK THEM OFF
Sharyl, I try to watch your show every week. Thanks for being the reporter that you are. I think you are one of the few that actually try to report the truth.
Sharyl, I try to watch your show every week. Thanks for being the reporter that you are. I think you are one of the few that actually try to report the truth.
Please read Kara Dansky’s “The Abolition of Sex” for a frank analysis of the societal changes being brought about under the banner of gender identity. Gender and sex are not different, but even if they were, we are supposed to celebrate the “gender,” while still allowing the biological male sex to walk into a women’s change room and get undressed. They are trying to have it both ways, and in many cases, the person giving up ground is a woman or girl.
Dansky discusses things that hadn’t occurred to me, such as the muddying of research for women, of medicine for women, of demographic information regarding women, of harms to women in women-only spaces, such as bathrooms, sports, prisons, spas, gyms, change rooms. Men are assuming titles, scholarships, awards, and positions that would have gone to women. Girls and women who bring up concerns are being threatened, slandered, libeled, attacked socially and financially, and denigrated. Feminists watch as Title IX is destroyed. Lesbians watch as their preferences are swept away under the ideology of “this man identifies as a woman and so you must accept ‘her’ as such.” Girls are being hurt by incursions of boys in their sports. Women are being raped by men in their prisons. Teenage girls are being forced to accept boys in their change rooms and bathrooms. When anyone complains, they are silenced. Schools are teaching girls (and boys) that perhaps they’re the opposite sex, and they can change their body’s chemistry and appearance through harmful (and permanent) chemicals or surgery. These girls (and boys) are too young to understand what is being done to them. Girls will lose any ability to have babies. Many will lose the ability to have sexual pleasure. Girls will suffer early menopause and sterility. Their voice will be changed forever. They will lose their hair early. Once done, these things cannot be undone. Proponents SAY it’s temporary, but they are not telling the truth. Obviously, at its core, gender ideology is anti-female (and anti-boy, for that matter). You come to realize this ideology is only about politics, money, and power.
Having read Kara Dansky’s book, and Abigail Shrier’s book “Irreversible Damage,” I now understand something very clearly. This movement is not about rights or tolerance, or even gender. It isn’t about helping people be who they are. This is a political movement. It has created a class of people, and is very busy trying to shove more people into that class, including vulnerable girls, boys, and women, as a matter of politics. Yes, people are making money hand over fist with poisonous pharmaceuticals and destructive surgeries.
When you see what is happening to girls (and boys) under this ideology, when you really see it, in all of its gory details and don’t just depend on the whitewashed political narrative, you can’t help but be horrified, disgusted and appalled. This political movement is willing to harm children and squeeze out women in order to have what it wants. No political ideology or movement can have the higher moral ground under those circumstances.
No one can abolish or alter gender (sex). No one can change the xx or xy chromosomes. All proponents are doing is pretense, for political reasons, and forcing us to live with the pretense, and the terrible things that come with it. Gender abolition is a lie. The long-term consequences will be dire for girls and women for generations to come. Every feminist who has ever fought for women will lose all ground – and then some – under this viciously destructive ideology.
Please read Kara Dansky’s “The Abolition of Sex” for a frank analysis of the societal changes being brought about under the banner of gender identity. Gender and sex are not different, but even if they were, we are supposed to celebrate the “gender,” while still allowing the biological male sex to walk into a women’s change room and get undressed. They are trying to have it both ways, and in many cases, the person giving up ground is a woman or girl.
Dansky discusses things that hadn’t occurred to me, such as the muddying of research for women, of medicine for women, of demographic information regarding women, of harms to women in women-only spaces, such as bathrooms, sports, prisons, spas, gyms, change rooms. Men are assuming titles, scholarships, awards, and positions that would have gone to women. Girls and women who bring up concerns are being threatened, slandered, libeled, attacked socially and financially, and denigrated. Feminists watch as Title IX is destroyed. Lesbians watch as their preferences are swept away under the ideology of “this man identifies as a woman and so you must accept ‘her’ as such.” Girls are being hurt by incursions of boys in their sports. Women are being raped by men in their prisons. Teenage girls are being forced to accept boys in their change rooms and bathrooms. When anyone complains, they are silenced. Schools are teaching girls (and boys) that perhaps they’re the opposite sex, and they can change their body’s chemistry and appearance through harmful (and permanent) chemicals or surgery. These girls (and boys) are too young to understand what is being done to them. Girls will lose any ability to have babies. Many will lose the ability to have sexual pleasure. Girls will suffer early menopause and sterility. Their voice will be changed forever. They will lose their hair early. Once done, these things cannot be undone. Proponents SAY it’s temporary, but they are not telling the truth. Obviously, at its core, gender ideology is anti-female (and anti-boy, for that matter). You come to realize this ideology is only about politics, money, and power.
Having read Kara Dansky’s book, and Abigail Shrier’s book “Irreversible Damage,” I now understand something very clearly. This movement is not about rights or tolerance, or even gender. It isn’t about helping people be who they are. This is a political movement. It has created a class of people, and is very busy trying to shove more people into that class, including vulnerable girls, boys, and women, as a matter of politics. Yes, people are making money hand over fist with poisonous pharmaceuticals and destructive surgeries.
When you see what is happening to girls (and boys) under this ideology, when you really see it, in all of its gory details and don’t just depend on the whitewashed political narrative, you can’t help but be horrified, disgusted and appalled. This political movement is willing to harm children and squeeze out women in order to have what it wants. No political ideology or movement can have the higher moral ground under those circumstances.
No one can abolish or alter gender (sex). No one can change the xx or xy chromosomes. All proponents are doing is pretense, for political reasons, and forcing us to live with the pretense, and the terrible things that come with it. Gender abolition is a lie. The long-term consequences will be dire for girls and women for generations to come. Every feminist who has ever fought for women will lose all ground – and then some – under this viciously destructive ideology.