Joe Biden IS the “apparent winner”. There is literally no doubt about who won other than the insane legal and conspiracy theories being pushed by Trump, which are getting rejected over and over again. Biden got the most votes and won the EC. She needs to do her job starting yesterday

Are they implicitly admitting that all those laws they've passed in just about every state over the years making it harder for people to vote *legally* are actually still not enough to prevent massive voter fraud (proof of which never existed in the first place)?

Why aren't there actual Election Officials in states corroborating this? I mean, if it were sooooooo obvious?

Like his policies, embarrassed by his behavior and antics. I don't think that there are actually a lot of true "undecided voters" out there because I'm just not sure what they're undecided about. If this were an election between, say, George H.W. Bush and Joe Biden, then, yeah, sure, I can probably see where there might be some indecision. Or Bob Dole and Joe Biden. But between Donald Trump (+4 years of history) and Joe Biden really should not be hard to decide unless you voted for Trump in 2016 and are stuck trying to figure out if you're going to vote for him again or how you might rationalize such a decision.

I feel pretty good about the state of the Presidential race as we head into the final week, almost as good as I felt about Barack Obama's chances heading into the 2008 race (which seems like a lifetime ago) but I had also felt pretty confident that somebody as awful and crass and unqualified as Donald Trump couldn't possibly beat Hillary Clinton, disliked by many as she was. Because of the stunning and seemingly unexpected outcome of the race in 2016, it seems impossible to feel good about this election without somebody jumping in with some kind of caveat and/or reminder about 2016 seemingly being in our favor- until it wasn't. Most of my friends here and elsewhere on social media are fairly optimistic about Biden's chances but can't help throwing in caveats as well. I just don't think that, until the voting is done and Biden is proclaimed the winner of the race that I- or anybody else- can feel any kind of sense of relief. How is everybody else coping right now?

One of my friends posted on FB short time ago that Trump is gaining steam in PA? Is there a new poll out or something?

Cases seem to be trending upwards just about everywhere but nobody is talking about the possibility of more lockdowns or restrictions. It's going up here in Indiana but our Governor just moved us to Stage 5 (less restrictions). Republicans seem to be getting restrictions overturned in the Courts in places like Wisconsin and Michigan and Republican Leaders in those states, Ohio, and others (and of course Trump) just seem to be telling us that we have to "learn to live with it." Plus, they are fighting just about every plan to ensure safe voting in November. So, are most of our leaders (not all of them but a lot of them) just giving up and adopting sort of a tolerance where we're not really fighting it anymore, at least until we have new leadership (hopefully) and a vaccine next year? What is going on? Are there no other strategies for dealing with this rise in COVID cases being contemplated or looked at? I'm starting to see a lot more reports of potential exposure in my job and among my Facebook friends too. It feels like it is getting worse and worse.

but prebubescent children get NOTHING in terms of medication, hormones, surgery, etc.
Pubescent children can get put on blockers in order to delay the onset of puberty. These have no known serious side effects for children and just put the brakes on natal puberty. Natal puberty produces some changes to ones body that can exacerbate gender dysphoria for Transgender people and be costly to address via surgery and other procedures. It is undeniably ideal for Transgender children to not have to go through their natal puberty. Cross-sex hormones, which DO cause changes in the body are not typically introduced until age 16 or so recommended by their doctors and nobody is getting surgery until adulthood. There will always be some people for whom transition may have been the wrong choice and desire to detransition. They should be supported and affirmed in that choice. However, what I am most concerned about is people freaking out about a handful of detransitioners or people regretting their choice and imposing new and unreasonably stricter rules on others whom literally are going to die if their dysphoria is not addressed. Bigotry against Transgender people, especially in the UK, is a serious problem and people like JKR are promoting ideas and theories and information that is harmful to the cause of Transgender equality and access to transition-related care.

So, if I seemed a little concerned about that in this thread, this is why. Thank you for being supportive and trying to understand.

And let me emphasize that I support people whom choose to detransition as long as they're not in turn trying to make it harder for people seeking transition to get the care they need.

No system of care is going to be perfect. De-transitioning is still very rare. Very few people de-transition or experience regret (and a lot of those people who do do so because of adverse social circumstances). I feel like some people would rather 10 Transgender people be denied or delayed gender affirming care instead of having 1 person make a mistake regarding transition and have to deal with the consequences thereof.