Richard Helppie's Common Bridge
The problems we have in the country are solvable, but not solvable the way we’re approaching them today, because of partisan politics. Richard Helppie, a successful entrepreneur and philanthropist seeks to find a place in the middle where common sense discussions can bridge the current great divide.
Richard Helppie's Common Bridge
Episode 242- Navigating the Complexities of Gender Dysphoria and Transition: Ethical Dilemmas and Societal Impact. Conclusion with Beth Bourne
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
In the conclusion of this two-part conversation with Beth Bourne, Rich and Beth talk about the harrowing decisions and ethical crossroads faced by individuals navigating gender dysphoria. Prepare to have your preconceptions challenged as we dissect the medical community's delicate dance between preventing harm and honoring the deeply personal journeys towards one's 'authentic self.' Our conversation ventures into the controversial realms of body contouring, hormone therapies, and the potentially life-altering effects of gender transition procedures. We confront the questions that arise when healthcare providers attempt to guide patients through the labyrinth of medical intervention, all while examining if true fulfillment can be attained under the surgeon's knife or through a pharmacist's prescription.
In a narrative that stretches from the intimate corridors of personal struggle to the broad stages of societal debate, we examine the hurdles faced by those seeking gender-affirming surgery. Listen as we contrast the varying paths navigated by individuals within the healthcare system, from the stringent prerequisites for surgeries like phalloplasty to the educational forums that shape patient expectations and experiences. The episode doesn’t shy away from the contentious climate surrounding transgender issues in media and politics, exploring the impact of adult decisions on gender expression over communal concerns including safety and sexual assault statistics. Join us for a critical analysis of how the stories we tell and the policies we enact reflect the values we hold and the future we envision for all members of society.
Engage the conversation on Substack at The Common Bridge!
Kaiser's Approach to Gender Dysphoria
Speaker 1Welcome to this episode of Season 5 of the Common Bridge , where policy and current events are discussed in a fiercely nonpartisan manner . The host , richard Helpe , is a philanthropist , entrepreneur and political analyst who has reached over 4 million listeners , viewers and readers around the world . With our surging growth in audience and subscriptions , the Common Bridge continues to expand its reach . The show is available on the Substack website and the Substack app Simply search for the Common Bridge . You can also find us on YouTube and wherever you get your podcasts . The Common Bridge draws guests and audiences from across the political spectrum , and we invite you to become a free or paid subscriber on your favorite medium .
Speaker 2And welcome to episode 242 of the Common Bridge . My name is Brian Kruger and I'm the producer of the show . This is the conclusion of a two-part interview with Beth Bourne and we're going to back it up about a minute or so from last week's episode . I think you're going to find this very , very fascinating and if you want to get caught up , go back to Substack or your podcast host of your choice and listen to episode 241 , the first part of this podcast . The interview is really interesting , the conversation is incredible and , without any further ado , let's rejoin Rich Helpy and Beth Bourne on the Common Bridge .
Speaker 3Instead of saying are you sure you want to do this ? They're kind of upselling you .
Speaker 4Yes , that's exactly it .
Speaker 3Now if there's a short answer , what is body contouring ? I don't even understand what that is .
Speaker 4You know I actually , when she brought it up I had not looked up the term , but what it is , it's just moving around . You know how women tend to have more weight or fatty tissue on your hips or your muffin top , or you know you're on your thighs to look more masculine . They would just take some of that . I guess that you know that extra fatty tissue and maybe they could put it in your pecs or your calf muscles , and you know . But you know , and this is part of the problem though , once you start these surgeries and I heard from some patients at Kaiser because I went on to some of these workshops you know they do multiple surgeries . They do the mastectomies , they do the hysterectomy , the mastectomies , they do the hysterectomy . They , you know , might even do a phallus surgery . Or you know facial surgeries For the men it's really common to have their Adam's apple removed or shaved down .
Speaker 4But you know you still . The problem is is you still might feel like you don't pass for the opposite sex , and so you know , if your hands are really small as a woman or your hips are wide you're only five , three you're still not going to feel , probably satisfied , so you're going to keep going in for more and more surgeries , and that's the part that they never brought up to me . They never brought up hey , you're only 125 pounds , you're only five four . You know we could give you a fake phallus , but you still might not pass , because everything about me still looks like I'm a woman , no matter how short I cut my hair .
Speaker 3If you presented as someone that has gender dysphoria , if I'm understanding that , and they're now recommending hormone treatment and they're recommending surgeries , were you told this will cure your gender dysphoria ?
Speaker 4You know , the term they like to use is is we're here to help you reach your goals . You know , and they even said that we don't want to be seen as gatekeepers . You know , we want to help you become your authentic self . And they compliment you , they say you know this is so . You know , brave of you , or I'm not sure the word was brave , but you know , it's very much of like praise for you to be here asking for these things and advocating for yourself .
Speaker 3I'm going to come back to that gatekeeper . I've got some experience and I'm not a clinical person , but I've worked for a lot of different hospitals , including Kaiser , and the notion of gatekeeper is that you want to have appropriate and effective care . The insurance companies all the time prior to a procedure and after the procedure they want to know was it appropriate for the diagnosis and did it work ? Because their intention is hey , we're not paying for it , right ? And the physicians and other caregivers have the Hippocratic oath to say do no harm .
Speaker 3So , like an extreme example , if I went over to the University of Michigan this afternoon and said I want you to cut my left arm off , they know how to do that , right , I'm sure there's a guy in there that knows how to do that oh , that's a gender neutral term , by the way , here in the Midwest guy I'm sure the doctor would say we're not going to do that , that's going to harm you . And I can't imagine my insurance company saying , oh , yeah , we approve that procedure . But what you're telling me , beth , is and it's almost so bizarre to be true that Kaiser said to you hey , we don't want to stop you from doing this , we want to encourage this . But what was the malady they were curing ? Did they say you were going to feel better mentally and physically after you've had this , and how long was the process before you were offered hormones and surgeries and the like ?
Speaker 4Right ? Well , you know . Just to go back to that , and I really I strongly advise anybody who wants to learn more about this medical side of it . This will take you five minutes . Just go onto Kaiser's website and just ask you know , kaiser , gender dysphoria ? You know what are the symptoms , how do you diagnose it and how is it treated .
Speaker 4You know , and I have the handout here in front of me but you know , the symptoms of being gender dysphoric is just that you're uncomfortable with a part of your body and it doesn't match your gender identity , that you're anxious , anxious or depressed or that you're stressed . So the definition is something that you know . By this definition , I've been gender dysphoric my entire life because I didn't like having big breasts when I was , you know , 12 or 13 years old and running around the track . You know I didn't like the fact that . You know . You know , whatever the way my hips look , and most women are anxious and stressed . So everybody , I think , could fit the category of . You know , are you gender dysphoric ? And then the way you diagnose it is it just says all you need to do is talk to your doctor and tell them that you feel upset about your gender identity . So that's it . That's how it's diagnosed .
Speaker 4Is you tell a doctor , you know they kind of lay it out for you here that you don't believe your body , you know makes you feel comfortable with your gender , and then the way it's treated , you know . They just give the list of all the procedures and the drugs that they can do .
Speaker 3But isn't there something in there about mental health and you know emotional conditions ? So there's been two studies where the correlation with autism and misdiagnosed gender dysmorphia statistically they are joined that there's other mental and emotional . There had to be some screening . I mean , didn't they screen you for mental trauma or anything to say , well , wait a minute , let's make sure we know what we're dealing with here .
Speaker 4That's just it .
Speaker 4And that's why I brought up the red flags . You know I brought up the red flags of having an eating disorder and these are all true when I was in college and you know I was a distance runner in college . You know anorexia and bulimia was , you know , rampant in my running club and so I also had some eating disorders . And you know I asked , could that be a red flag that you know I've always felt uncomfortable with the way I look and maybe that's why I want to change . And they said no , no , no , don't worry . And then when I brought up that my mother had had some mental illness in her 50s as well and had a body dysmorphia with , you know , she thought she had some like cancerous lymph nodes . Anyways , the doctors were not willing to operate on her . She got some , you know , wonderful mental health treatment . But when I brought that up to the Kaiser mental health , you know , and the mental health assessment , they tried to say no , no , even though they did acknowledge that having a gender I mean , sorry , a body dysmorphic dysmorphia in your family could be hereditary . They said no , that's not the case with you , because in your mother's case there wasn't really , you know , a cancerous lymph nodes . But in your case you just want your breast removed . And we know and they didn't say breast , they said your chest tissue we know you have chest tissue and we know you want it removed . So you know what you're doing is logical .
Speaker 4And then the last issue I brought up was , oh , that I had been sexually assaulted growing up , which you know most , not most , but like a quarter of girls will have some kind of sexual assault when they're growing up . Girls will have some kind of sexual assault when they're growing up and in my case I was , you know , grew up overseas , in Mexico City , and so I was on the metro and the subways as a kid and you get groped a lot by men and that's a big issue , and anywhere you have tight public transportation . So I brought that up . Is that maybe a reason ? I'm uncomfortable , you know , um ? So I brought that up . Is that maybe a reason that I'm uncomfortable , you know , in my woman body is because I was sexually assaulted ? And and again the Kaiser you know , gender specialist said no , no , that's not a concern , um , we'll just make sure . She said , you know , when you go to meet with a surgeon to have your um , top surgery , um , done . We'll just be aware that you've you know've been sexually assaulted . So that's how we're going to deal with it is . We're just going to put a note in your records .
Speaker 4So there was nothing I could do to try to get them to give me what I would have seen as mental health services that I really needed , right ? They never suggested , hey , why don't you first do some therapy ? So they rushed it all . Within four months I was given an appointment to actually have the surgery done and all of the visits you know from my top surgery , my mastectomy were all done online . It's all telemedicine . So , you know , when I met with the surgeon , she just had me , you know , lift up my shirt with no bra on , so she could see how the surgery would go . And then she asked me you know , do you want , you know , where do you want the nipples placed after we remove the breast ? Do you want to have them grafted back on ? Or we could use tattoos to put them back on .
Speaker 3So you never were in the same exam room with a physician . Were in the same exam room with a physician , Nobody saw you in 3D . They're planning your surgery just like you and I are having this call today , three time zones away , and they're going to do an irreversible , life-changing surgery . I am astonished . I've had friends bankrupted or near bankrupted for tragic cases that they didn't choose Breast cancer , ovarian cancer . Did they talk to you about what this was going to cost you ?
Speaker 4Well , that's the other thing too . I learned during this conversation that these top surgeries have become so popular within the Sacramento area that they'd hired four new plastic surgeons . Popular within the Sacramento area that they'd hired four new plastic surgeons . So this is my little area here in Sacramento that there's this great demand that they're hiring new plastic surgeons to do these . And then I also learned that the reason why the plastic surgeons want to do these top surgeries is because when they're doing a know doing a procedure on a woman who's had breast cancer , they have to get out all of that cancerous tissue . So they have to be very careful . And then they also usually have to put in some kind of you know breast implant .
Speaker 4But if you're somebody who's going in for top surgery , they can just fit you in their calendar , you know , with a cancellation , because they don't have to worry about you know , really , any breast , uh , you know cancerous tissue they can just chop and then you're not asking to have any kind of implants . So it's just , you know , stitching up , um , but also , kaiser , you know they were excited to tell me that it's only $100 copay for this surgery . So it's $100 because it's outpatient and that means you know a procedure that's going to cost the Kaiser surgeon . You know they're going to make $10,000 , $15,000 off of it is only costing me $100 because all of the other members of Kaiser are paying for it , right . So you have Kaiser as an insurer , but they're also the provider as an HMO . And then for the phalloplasty , they told me it was only $200 because you know it's three days of overnight stay at a hospital . But you know , with my insurance it would only be $200 . But you know , with my insurance it would only be two hundred dollars .
Speaker 3and you know , um the phalloplasty for the surgeon it's a hundred thousand dollars is what it costs to do , but I'm trying to think if that's a male privilege , that it costs you two hundred dollars to have a penis added and dollars to take your breasts off .
Speaker 3Um , I guess , I guess I'm not , wouldn't know what it would be . Well , what did they tell you about the phalloplasty ? How were they going to do that and how functional would this new penis look ? And how functional would it be and how would it look ? What did they tell you about that ?
Speaker 4Real quickly
Challenges in Gender Affirming Surgery
Speaker 4. Going back to the top surgery , my good friend down in Southern California , she wanted breast reduction . She's my age and she'd had three kids and larger breasts and she had to push so hard with her doctors to call it medically necessary so she didn't have to pay the $10,000 to have just her breasts reduced two sizes , you know , from a , I don't know an E to a C cup . But for me at Kaiser , all I had to do is say this is you know , I'm non-binary or transgender . And and they just say immediately well , it's medically necessary then . So you know , that's . Another question is why ? Why is it so hard to have your breast reduced in size when you have a bad back , you know , or a real medical need versus , you know , this mental need where your brain doesn't match your body ? Okay , so for the phalloplasty and this was really shocking to me was I was told I was going to need to be on the testosterone for 11 months and I wanted to push back and say , really , I have to be the testosterone for 11 months . And I was wanting to push back and say , really , I have to be on testosterone for 11 months , I want to have my phalloplasty sooner than that I want to have . You know , my top match , my bottom and Kaiser . They said we'll talk with our specialists in San Francisco that's where the surgeon is and we'll see if they'll make an exception . And they did so . They gave me approval for a phalloplasty within four months and I didn't really know much about what this surgery means . I learned a lot . So one of the first appointments there's only two appointments for mental health and the first appointment they told me . You know they asked me first why are my , what are my goals for having this phalloplasty done ? And I just said you know , I want to . You know , have a penis and be able to stand . You know when I go pee or you know I give some some reasons why . You know , none of them make sense and I wasn't worried about that right Cause I'd already learned from the top surgery . I don't know what their incentive is to prove everything , but they do . I don't think there's anything you could say to not get approved for these surgeries .
Speaker 4But this is the decision chart for having your phalloplasty done . I kind of wrote all over it , but it's like these three little circles that you choose from when you're making a decision about your lower surgery , and this is included in my article . This is one of the slides that Kaiser gave me , um , and and so , uh , you know , one of the big decisions you have to make is um , for this fake phallus , is you need to get tissue from your body that they can transplant phallus is you need to get tissue from your body that they can transplant ? So you need to choose between , you know , using this tissue on your wrist or using the tissue on your thigh . And then you know , they explained to me that if you use the tissue on your wrist , the phallus is going to be longer and smaller and and I guess , diameter , because you know , this skin on my arm has less fatty tissue , but if you use your thigh skin tissue , then it'll have more girth or you'll have a wider , thicker penis , anyways .
Speaker 4So those are the decisions you have to make , as well , as your phallus can either be allow you to pee standing up or to have penetrative sex , and you know , none of this makes any sense , right ? Because you're actually you're . It's never going to be functioning , and so you're not really going to be able to um , use it as if you were a male person with a healthy penis . Um , you know , if you look at you can look online what these surgeries look like afterwards and they're really disturbing . None of it makes any sense . You know , I don't even call it plastic surgery because it's not even trying to look like something that's real , so it's all shocking to me .
Speaker 3Here's the thing . This sounds like a firsthand account . How can we be in this situation where we have the president of the United States , we have state legislatures , we have governors , we have well-funded and respected medical institutions , all saying we need to do this , we need to do more because without it we're not a good society , and they're quite firm about that , that we're not being inclusive , that we're being harmful to trans people ? Were you ever told about success stories and like look , we had a patient that was like you and we did these , and that person's living much happier , healthier life . What did they tell you about that ?
Speaker 4Yeah , so I will bring up some examples of how they try to . Well , let me mention this first yeah , so what they do , what I see with Kaiser is you know immediately they let you change your records on your health records . They let you change your name or pronouns , they give you all the attention of meeting with these different people you might want to meet with and then they send you to these workshops . So for any surgery at Kaiser , for gender affirming care , you can attend a Zoom call and you can hear the surgeon you know answer questions and then they have a panel of recent patients who will talk about you know their experience , and in very positive ways . And this is just a few months after these young women have had their breast surgeries . And so you know , I don't believe we do anything like this in any other kind of surgery .
Speaker 4I've never heard of people going and listening to people talk about their knee replacements or their their you know hip surgeries or or some kind of like panel discussion where , um , you know you're to me , when I was listening to people talk about their experience having top surgery or their mastectomy , is that they were . They were trying to tell you , you know , if I could do this and you could do it , and here's what I did . You know I made sure I had . You know , people help bring me meals or take care of my pets or I , you know , change my room around , and so this way it's much harder to back out of .
Speaker 3You know your consideration of doing this because you're seeing these other people and so Well , one thing I want to push back on a little bit , that it is common to have other patients talk but , like in the case of knee replacement , hip replacement , other surgeries it's not necessarily recent patients , because people really don't know . You might get your knee replaced and how do you feel about it three years down the road , eight years down the road , 12 years down the road big difference when you get it first done . If you've been in pain , you're so relieved you go . Yeah , I think it's going to be better . So did they have any patients that had the surgeries done five years ago ?
Speaker 4No , all very recent . All young people . The surgeon himself he's actually a male who identifies as a trans woman . So to me that was also , you know , it raised a red flag for me . Why do we have a patient who identifies as transgender being the surgeon who's doing these surgeries on young women who I don't think need to have their healthy breasts removed ? So there's just a lot of concerns , and I saw that throughout Kaiser there's a lot of doctors who are captured by this .
Speaker 4Oh , and I want to add this is that you know I have friends here in this town who do work for Kaiser and I know for a fact there's lots of physicians who don't want to be prescribing cross-sex hormones , right , so if you're an adult , you can go to your primary care physician and get a prescription to take , you know , in my case , testosterone or in your case , you know , estrogen , even though it's off-label use .
Speaker 4You know FDA has not said it's safe to do , but these Kaiser doctors , they don't want to be doing this and so they've actually asked you know , can you please give this ? You know request from a patient to another doctor . So they have a champion within . You know Kaiser clinics where you have one doctor who is the gender affirming specialist . You know for adults to give out these , you know , wrong sex hormones . So I do think there's some really good doctors who don't want to be doing this , they don't want to be involved in it , they know what's wrong . But you know , kaiser has I don't know what it's called the golden handcuffs where they pay their medical providers really well , and so a lot of doctors , I think , stay and I do think a lot of the other Dignity Health or Sutter or the other big HMOs are also doing these kinds of gender treatments .
Speaker 3Beth , you've had an incredibly difficult journey with your child and you know the things that she's been exposed to and potentially she has some big decisions coming up . I hope she'll hear your experience and hear that there are not the logical safeguards we do , for you know everything in medical care . Everything in medical care . You know simple hernia repair would take more disclosure and it would take more pre-authorization than these radically changing procedures with no apparent positive medical outcome and what you've experienced at Kaiser . I'd love to have somebody from Kaiser come on or somebody from an opposing view to explain to us what are we missing here ?
Speaker 3But you've had some issues in your community as well that you're being quoted as a quote anti-trans activist . That's pretty harsh for an investigative journalist and a mother and a citizen .
Media Coverage and Transgender Issues
Speaker 3What's happened as far as the media coverage and I understand , were you accused of planting bombs in a library or something ? First of all , I should ask you stipulate do you have anything ? You accused of planting bombs in a library or something like you didn't ? First of all , I should ask you stipulate Do you have anything to do with planting bombs or making bomb threats to a library or anything ?
Speaker 4No , I have . Yes , I've , there is . I have nothing to do with that . And of course , any kind of threat of violence is . It is a terrible idea . But no , I have , I have nothing to do with that . And so I think they're trying to find some way to frame me in a way that doesn't make me look like just a rational , concerned parent . And so you know , we've seen these bomb threats all over the country . Anytime you have someone speaking out about something that's happening in the schools or the libraries , and then you get these , these threats , these bomb threats .
Speaker 3So has anyone ever produced the emails or recordings of voice calls with these bomb threats ? Do we know that they're real ?
Speaker 4You know , I did have one of the local journalists . He did send me a copy of the bomb threat email that he was sent .
Speaker 3So I have seen them .
Speaker 4You know they said the FBI and the Yolo County Sheriff and our local police department were all investigating it . They never interviewed me , they never asked to see . You know my , my computers . I don't think they actually thought I had anything to do with it . But you know , transgender kids , whatever they want , and it's the right wing who's actually hateful and bigoted and transphobic for pushing back on this . And I keep trying to say you know , I've been a Democrat my whole life . You know . You know I voted for Biden .
Speaker 4You know how can you say that I am a right wing extremist ? And why is it an extremist view to tell your child that ? You know for them to go on puberty blockers , they're going to be a guinea pig , right ? This science has never been done before . You know , when I spoke to my the endocrinologist here at Kaiser , they even said to me it's an emerging field of science . You know we don't have any long-term studies , but we'll put your daughter right away on period blockers or testosterone because we think it could be life-saving . You know why is it life-saving to give a child a drug that's actually going to harm their body ? You know , none of it makes sense a drug that's actually going to harm their body . You know , none of it makes sense . But they'll say to you you know , would you rather have , you know , a living son or a dead daughter ? So they put the parents in this hostage situation where you have to make the decision .
Speaker 4If you don't give your kid these drugs , even though we can't prove that they're safe , you could risk losing your child to suicide . And it's all over the schools this idea that transitioning is life-saving . So kids are even being introduced to this idea .
Speaker 3Okay , Let me break into that a little bit . First of all , I went looking for any kind of study that said suicidal ideation is caused by belief in a transgender identity and is fixed by applying these chemical and surgical procedures and there is none . And surgical procedures and there is none . There is no body of evidence that says we have studied this and , yes , we think this reduces suicidal ideation . In fact , they said it's anecdotal and that we should not be taking extreme measures based on these anecdotes . And that's what Finland , sweden , the UK and the people that haven't been cowed into silence in the United States are starting to say that it doesn't solve this suicidal ideation . The other thing is threats of suicide , all right , are made in lots of circumstances . A person tells their lover if you leave me , I'm going to kill myself . That doesn't mean that that person needs to stay with them to prevent a suicide . It means that person that has a suicide ideation needs to have help coping . And we've seemed to have lost our common sense with that phrasing .
Speaker 4And again , I would be happy to look at any data , but it's not only not there , but it's not working as well . You know you've lost five to 10 years of your life . You know a phalloplasty means you're never going to have , you know , a healthy sex life . If you have top surgery , you're never going to be able to breastfeed your baby . Of course you're going to have more suicide ideation after these surgeries than before it . So you know , they , they , the , the numbers are all um right , they're just not the studies out there right now .
Speaker 3So you're , you're in Northern California , right ? So presumably , uh , you're not far from , uh , san Francisco and as a liberal person and living in that part of the country , I would imagine correct me if I'm wrong that if a man wanted to , you know , dress in traditional female attire and that's the way they wanted to live their life , you'd probably shrug more power to them if they made that decision at 35 years old , something like to that degree . That wouldn't trouble you a bit , an adult making an adult decision .
Speaker 4You know I probably would have said that a couple of years ago that it wouldn't bother me . But you know you really are not as in a safe situation . If you see grown men , you know , using your bathrooms or you know even dressed in an appearance that that looks like they're trying to not be . You know that you would not be as at risk of being harmed .
Speaker 4But we know , you know , 99% of sexual assaults are done by men and it's just normal for a woman to want to feel safe or for a child to want to feel safer because they see a female body . So some of it just does kind of bother me , you know , the idea that we're in situations where women or anybody wouldn't feel as safe because we're not seeing what's reality .
Speaker 3I'm just saying I've been passing down the street . You're not going to judge somebody If somebody's in a personal space . That's a little different issue . I would imagine Caitlyn Jenner doesn't bother you a bit .
Speaker 4Well , I've heard Caitlyn Jenner likes to play golf as a woman . So you know , even though they have said that they don't want to have boys or men in women's sports , I'm not sure if in their own golfing situation , if they always don't acknowledge that they have a great advantage in golf as a male body .
Speaker 3Caitlyn Jenner even says that transgendered people don't belong in women's sports . And Jenner will not hit from the ladies' tees .
Speaker 4Oh , I didn't know that . Okay , so that's good , I like that because you know male bodies are stronger , faster . You know more spatial awareness , quicker reflex . Good , I like that because you know male bodies are stronger , faster , you know more spatial awareness , quicker reflexes . I mean there's advantages in every sport , from you know fishing to darts , to pool , to you name it .
Speaker 3That's why we have women's sports , which and women have come a long way in basketball . Women have come a long way in basketball , women's softball , swimming , and , yeah , it's very difficult to compete with a male . And we of course have the Leah Thomas , which I understand has not gone all the way , that likes to show his male genitalia in the locker rooms . Again , I'm not an expert on this , I'm just the interviewer . But let's come back to what's the media coverage been like . I mean , I would think if I was in , you know , davis , california or Sacramento , and I had this story on the local news and I maybe I'm I'm a you dues-paying member of Kaiser , I'd kind of like to want to know about this . Have you gotten much coverage on local print or electronic media ?
Speaker 4You know , I did notice just last week our local newspaper did . They had an event where they brought in this national speaker to speak out against Moms for Liberty , and so they mentioned me being , you know , the chair of Moms for Liberty and that I had done this , this , um , um , I'm not sure what the word was they use , but basically they were trying to say that I had , I had done something wrong by , um , trying to figure out what would happen to my child when they turn 18 . Um , so the article was written in a very negative way of me doing this , this , you know , this undercover work . I would hope mainstream media would pick it up more , but I can see why they wouldn't . I mean , if you open a newspaper or magazine or go on a website , some of the biggest ads all come from these medical providers and these drug companies right .
Speaker 4So if you open up my local paper , you're going to see a big ad for Kaiser . You're going to see a big ad for , you know , dignity Health . Why would a newspaper want to , or a news station want to , cover the story of a woman who's saying that our medical establishment , or , you know , kaiser , has been captured by a dangerous , you know , ideology ? So I'm not surprised that the local or the you know , the mainstream media is not picking it up , but some other much bigger , larger , international news outlets are hopefully picking up the story soon . So I've been talking to reporters who who will be picking up the story .
Speaker 3Well , you've . You've had quite the journey as a mother and as a investigative journalist and now as a target , if you will , of a backlash , and it sounds to me like you're trying to get facts out there and your perspective and of course , there's always more facts to come as a story's unfolded and there's other perspectives , and again , we invite anybody that has a countervailing view . We'd love to have you on the program and to express your support , and if we've gotten something wrong here , we'd sure like to be corrected about it . So we invite that . Beth , as we come to the close of our talk today , is there anything that we didn't cover that you'd like to make the readers , the listeners and the viewers of the Common Bridge aware of , or any kind of closing remarks ? This has really been a powerful talk today .
Speaker 4No , I've just enjoyed all your questions . They've been excellent . I think what I , maybe the wisdom I would like to pass on to any parents or aunts and uncles or grandparents who are listening , is to just be really curious about what it is your kids are learning , from elementary school through high school , college . If you could just ask them some questions about what do you think about being a man or a woman ? Or ask them if you could see their science book , if you could look at what they're learning in their health class and maybe even meet with a teacher , but to really drill down deep into finding out how what they're learning about you know human bodies and then you know what does that mean ? As far as you know , could you change your human body ? And then what is being offered to kids ?
Speaker 4You know , whatever your insurance is , just ask that question to your . You know your child's pediatrician is is . What would you do if you heard from my child that they want to change their sex ? Because a lot of those conversations are happening now while the parents are asked to leave the doctor's office . You know , once a child is 12 years old here in California , they can meet in private with their doctor , and once they're 14 , you know , parents don't even have access to their emails back and forth . So just be really curious and just appreciate getting to be on your show today . It's wonderful .
Speaker 3Beth , thank you so much . We've been talking today with Beth Bourne about a very delicate , very complicated topic around transgenderism , transgender rights , transgender ideology and the impact on youth and the medicalization . Look up Moms for Liberty , Look up Colin Wright , Look up Beth Bourne and satisfy yourself with your own education . We try to do our part to inform here on the Common Bridge and with that , this is your host , Rich . Helpe signing off on the Common Bridge .
Speaker 1Thanks for joining us on the Common Bridge . Subscribe to the Common Bridge app .