Fimfiction Bug

I'm still alive. I'm just very, very tired. Having a disease like ME/CFS is not much fun.

Teaching is very difficult with my disabilities, even with a reduced load. I'm pretty sure I'll make it through this semester, but I'm not sure what I'm going to do to manage this in the future. I have Summer off. I'll need time to think. I don't have that time right now.

I didn't post this as an update, though. After some people commented on one of my stories, I noticed there's a significant flaw in how Fimfiction is justifying text, and it's in multiple stories. For some reason, it treats many italicized words as though they are followed by a soft break. I don't understand why. I've tried retyping the words and it changes nothing. I'm only using ASCII characters.

For a very obvious example of the bug, go to this chapter and search the page for the phrase "his name". If you don't see what I mean, then this may be a browser or font issue.

It doesn't show up in text previews, either. It only shows up in the actual story. Note that I'm using sans-serif font to view stories, so it's Open Sans via a network resource. You might want to switch to sans serif in Fimfiction's options, then check to see if you're seeing the same font. (In Chrome: highlight text, right click, select "Inspect", click on the "Computed" tab in the right pane, scroll to the bottom. That will show you what the actual font is.)

This is an issue in my stories and I presume may affect other authors as well (or other readers), so any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

oh also Arkansas just passed a law banning medical care for trans children in opposition to AMA guidelines which is technically genocide so yeah that happened

Comments

[B_25]

Glad you're somewhat well.

[Shakespearicles]

Alabama just passed a law banning medical care for trans children in opposition to AMA guidelines which is technically genocide

media.tenor.com/images/82354152b45f4c230eb4664c50579c92/tenor.gif

[Trick Question]

5485890
Oops, I think it was Arkansas actually.

That makes a huge difference no wait I still can't tell idiot states that begin with A apart I'm sorry

[Super Trampoline]

Arm trans people and put transphobes in reeducation camps

[Feech]

Non-justified, sans serif font, that phrase and all the italics in that chapter (I glanced at several examples) all look fine to me. Prior to that I had it set to justified with whatever the default font is and it looked okay that way too.
Edit: fwiw, I'm in Chrome.

I hope you hold up okay until summer break.

[theRedBrony]

I'm using FireFox and have no such issue. Using Open Sans as well. Maybe Chrome's just a piece of shit? idk lol

[theRedBrony]

Also, that bill in Arkansas and South Dakota only prohibits giving hormones and gender reassignment surgery to kids, not a blanket denial of all medical services.

[Olden Bronie]

Sorry you're still feeling tired and ill, Trixie. I'll increase the positive thoughts and send hugs!

Alabama is working in the same type of bill, btw. I just can't understand people in this part of the country... I thought we were all supposed to help one another. Hopefully, that law will be repealed.

[Reese]

Good luck with your health and job; I'm afraid I don't have any specific advice to offer, but I do hope that things go well for you.

As for the bug, though, hm. I don't seem to be seeing it. FIMFiction, at least, tells me I'm also using Open Sans, and while I'm not using Chrome, I think I found the right place in the inspector for the font and found there also "Open Sans". Assuming I'm not just not recognizing an error that is on my screen, I don't recall encountering something fitting your description elsewhere on the site recently either.
Good luck with sorting this out, too; I'm afraid I also don't know what might be going on here, though.

[Calipony]

I don’t see any bug on Safari either. Might be a browser glitch. Could happen.
Trick you have all my sympathies. I hope your condition gets better very soon. You’ll make it!
Big hugs 💟

[hawthornbunny]

Glad to hear you're sorta vaguely okayish. Hope things improve for you soon.

[FanOfMostEverything]

Glad to hear from you, though I'm sorry to hear about the ongoing difficulties. Can't replicate the bug, but that's not the important part. Here's hoping things get easier to manage down the line.

[PresentPerfect]

Yeah, that's been going on for quite a while as a matter of fact. Italics are definitely involved, though I've also seen the line breaks just come randomly, too. You can watch them break in real time if you open up the formatting dialog and change the page width!

Here's hoping the summer helps you figure things out. :C

[Trick Question]

5485909
That's not an entirely accurate portrayal (edit: I mean the first part of your response might be slightly misleading about what is being banned). Hormone blockers are what is being targeted. They delay puberty so kids who are trans have time to go through therapy to decide what's right for them (because it takes time to know if they really do want to transition), and it's a measure supported by the medical community and backed by research.

Forcing children to go through puberty into a gender they do not feel connected to leads to poor outcomes and increased risk of suicide, but scaring people by suggesting doctors are experimenting on children is a great political weapon.

Seriously, I trust doctors over legislators. Elected officials with no medical background should not be trying to control medical best practices, period, end of sentence.

[Trick Question]

5485990
Is this something that could or should be reported to Xaquseg? I guess it's worth a shot. I'll send them a note.

5485908
There's no way throwing soft breaks into BBCode is a Chrome issue. This seems likely to be Fimfiction rendering BBCode weirdly, in all likelihood.

Chrome's pretty awesome, though it hurts my furry cred to not use a fox-based browser.

[Trick Question]

5485908
I actually don't have Open Sans installed on my machine, by the way. I'm using it through the network resource. Google's font resource is pretty popular now. It kind of make sense that fonts should be clouded, tbh.

[Trick Question]

5485894
I like you because you mean well. No reeducation camps, though. Education needs to come slowly and by outreach, not force.

[Trick Question]

5485909
Oops, I may have misread this. Yes, I know it isn't denying general services to children based on whether or not they're trans, it's specifically about medical services related to being trans.

I should probably be more explicit when complaining because I realize people tend to exaggerate (and not fact-check) when something matches what they want to believe, and that's on me. It was just an angry gripe, though. I was having a bad day. Most days are like that now.

[Super Trampoline]

5486054
I mean it’s that or just execute them but I like to give people the chance to change for the better.

[Trick Question]

5486122
To this day I remain convinced you're an ultraconservative fascist who pretends to be liberal.

[DezzarTac]

I don't see the text-bug. MS Edge.

TL;DR.
I got carried away reading an article about the Arkansas law; I find the subject of transgender-ism to be very interesting.

---

---

MSN article:

During Monday’s Senate vote, one of the bill’s Republican sponsors, state Sen. Alan Clark, described gender-affirming treatments as “at best experimental and at worst a serious threat to a child’s welfare.” He argued the bill would “protect children from making mistakes that they will have a very difficult time coming back from.”

“I know that their parents are looking for any kind of answer, and my heart truly goes out to them,” he said. “But this is certainly not the answer.”

But major medical organizations including the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Endocrine Society have supported access to treatments such as puberty blockers and hormone treatments for children diagnosed with gender dysphoria, defined as the distress caused by a mismatch between one’s sex assigned at birth and one’s gender identity.

(Schmidt, 2021)

First link: (Rafferty, et al, 2018.)

Epidemiology
In population-based surveys, questions related to gender identity are rarely asked, which makes it difficult to assess the size and characteristics of the population that is TGD. In the 2014 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, only 19 states elected to include optional questions on gender identity. Extrapolation from these data suggests that the US prevalence of adults who identify as transgender or “gender nonconforming” is 0.6% (1.4 million), ranging from 0.3% in North Dakota to 0.8% in Hawaii.9 On the basis of these data, it has been estimated that 0.7% of youth ages 13 to 17 years (∼150 000) identify as transgender.10 This number is much higher than previous estimates, which were extrapolated from individual states or specialty clinics, and is likely an underestimate given the stigma regarding those who openly identify as transgender and the difficulty in defining “transgender” in a way that is inclusive of all gender-diverse identities.11

There have been no large-scale prevalence studies among children and adolescents, and there is no evidence that adult statistics reflect young children or adolescents. In the 2014 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, those 18 to 24 years of age were more likely than older age groups to identify as transgender (0.7%).9 Children report being aware of gender incongruence at young ages. Children who later identify as TGD report first having recognized their gender as “different” at an average age of 8.5 years; however, they did not disclose such feelings until an average of 10 years later.12

(Rafferty, et al, 2018.)

Second link: (Hembree, W., et al, 2017.)

1.3. We advise that decisions regarding the social transition of prepubertal youths with GD/gender incongruence are made with the assistance of an MHP or another experienced professional. (Ungraded Good Practice Statement).

1.4. We recommend against puberty blocking and gender-affirming hormone treatment in prepubertal children with GD/gender incongruence. (1 |⊕⊕○○)

1.5. We recommend that clinicians inform and counsel all individuals seeking gender-affirming medical treatment regarding options for fertility preservation prior to initiating puberty suppression in adolescents and prior to treating with hormonal therapy of the affirmed gender in both adolescents and adults. (1 |⊕⊕⊕○)

2.0 Treatment of adolescents
2.1. We suggest that adolescents who meet diagnostic criteria for GD/gender incongruence, fulfill criteria for treatment, and are requesting treatment should initially undergo treatment to suppress pubertal development. (2 |⊕⊕○○)

2.2. We suggest that clinicians begin pubertal hormone suppression after girls and boys first exhibit physical changes of puberty. (2 |⊕⊕○○)

2.3. We recommend that, where indicated, GnRH analogues are used to suppress pubertal hormones. (1 |⊕⊕○○)

2.4. In adolescents who request sex hormone treatment (given this is a partly irreversible treatment), we recommend initiating treatment using a gradually increasing dose schedule after a multidisciplinary team of medical and MHPs has confirmed the persistence of GD/gender incongruence and sufficient mental capacity to give informed consent, which most adolescents have by age 16 years. (1 |⊕⊕○○).

2.5. We recognize that there may be compelling reasons to initiate sex hormone treatment prior to the age of 16 years in some adolescents with GD/gender incongruence, even though there are minimal published studies of gender-affirming hormone treatments administered before age 13.5 to 14 years. As with the care of adolescents ≥16 years of age, we recommend that an expert multidisciplinary team of medical and MHPs manage this treatment. (1 |⊕○○○)

2.6. We suggest monitoring clinical pubertal development every 3 to 6 months and laboratory parameters every 6 to 12 months during sex hormone treatment. (2 |⊕⊕○○)

(Hembree, W., et al, 2017.)

The first source has issues as to whether it is or isn't relevant; I think it should've been excluded for the article.
The second source refers to a minimum age of approximately 14 for treatment prior to 16 years of age.
The second source explicitly advices against treatments for children approximately 13 and under.
I'm a little bit surprised that the journo acknowledged those, and more.

Many pediatricians and endocrinologists say these bills are rooted in misinformation about transgender medical treatments. Under medical guidelines in the United States, doctors do not perform most gender-affirming surgeries on transgender minors, requiring that they wait until they are 18. Doctors do not recommend any medical interventions before a child reaches puberty.

Once reaching puberty, medical guidelines say transgender children can consider puberty blockers, which are reversible treatments that pause puberty and give transgender children time to decide what to do next. Later in their teenage years, transgender adolescents can consider hormone replacement therapies, such as estrogen for trans girls and testosterone for trans boys, which create more permanent changes to their bodies.

(Schmidt, 2021)

A transgender girl struggles to find her voice as lawmakers attack her right to exist
Research on these medications is limited, due in part to the nascent nature of the treatments, the challenges of performing studies on children, and the small size of the transgender youth population. But several studies on puberty blockers have found that transgender young people who were treated with the medications showed lower rates of depression and anxiety and demonstrated better global functioning. A study from the Harvard Medical School and the Fenway Institute published in the journal Pediatrics last year showed that young people who wanted a puberty suppressant and were able to access it had lower odds of considering suicide.

(Schmidt, 2021)
I feel Schmidt slightly misrepresented the source.
Schmidt kept writing about children and didn't appear to clarify that the research was extrapolated from adults.
The problem being written in the first highlight of the second quote (above).
Third source: Turban, et al. (2020).

METHODS: Using a cross-sectional survey of 20 619 transgender adults aged 18 to 36 years, we examined self-reported history of pubertal suppression during adolescence. Using multivariable logistic regression, we examined associations between access to pubertal suppression and adult mental health outcomes, including multiple measures of suicidality.

Turban, et al. (2020).

Lee Beers, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, spoke in opposition to the Arkansas bill in a news conference before Monday’s vote, describing it as “discrimination by legislation.” She pointed out the high rates of suicide for transgender youth, mental health concerns that have been exacerbated in the pandemic. A survey conducted online among a non-random volunteer sample of 27,715 transgender people found that 40 percent of respondents had attempted suicide in their lifetimes, eight times the rate of the general population.

“This bill is harmful in two ways,” Beers said. “One, it threatens the health and well-being of transgender youth, and two, it puts politicians rather than pediatricians in charge of a child’s medical care.”

(Schmidt, 2021)
I'm ignoring both source links here because one is a self-serving news bulletin (Washington Post) and the other is a self-serving organization (US Trans Survey).
I don't take those as reliable sources.

Under the legislation, titled the Save Adolescents from Experimentation (SAFE) Act, the state would prohibit public funds from being granted to organizations or entities that provide gender-affirming procedures to people under 18. It would ban state-owned facilities from providing transition-related care and would prohibit Arkansas’s Medicaid program from reimbursing or providing coverage for gender-affirming care to people under 18. If the bill is signed into law, doctors who provide gender-affirming care to minors would be subject to losing their licenses.

In a Senate committee hearing last week, one of the bill’s Republican sponsors, state Rep. Robin Lundstrum, compared gender-affirming treatments to surgical and chemical “mutilation,” and said children should not be allowed to make such decisions before they turn 18.

“This is about protecting minors,” she said. “Many of you, I would hazard to guess, did things under 18 that you probably shouldn’t have done … why would we ever even consider allowing a sex change for a minor?”

The effect of the law is to block people under 18 years of age from accessing Puberty Blockers, Hormone Treatments, and Sex-Reassignment Surgeries.
As quoted above, guidelines already discourage any treatment for people under 14 years of age.
The guidelines already discourage any treatment beyond Puberty Blockers for people under 16 years of age.

So what we have under the guidelines as described by source (Hembree, W., et al, 2017.):
<=13 :: No Option
14-15 :: Puberty Blockers
16-17 :: Puberty Blockers and Hormone Treatments
18+ :: Hormone Treatments and Sex-Reassignment Surgeries

So what we have under Arkansas Save Adolescents from Experimentation (SAFE) Act as described by Schmidt:
<=13 :: No Option
14-15 :: No Option
16-17 :: No Option
18+ :: Puberty Blockers, Hormone Treatments and Sex-Reassignment Surgeries

My personal opinion: Under the Arkansas Save Adolescents from Experimentation (SAFE) Act Puberty Blockers become redundant, Hormone Treatment begins late into puberty, and Sex-Reassignment Surgeries for females becomes more expensive due to the removal of breasts.

---

Okay, so what's in the proposal? HB1570 lists a bunch of health complications regarding the existing treatments, followed by:

Genital and nongenital gender reassignment surgeries are
19 generally not recommended for children, although evidence indicates referrals
20 for children to have such surgeries are becoming more frequent;

(13)(A) It is an accepted principle of economics and public
35 policy that when a service or product is subsidized or reimbursed, demand for
36 that service or product is increased.

As Engrossed: H3/2/21 H3/8/21 HB1570 5 03-08-2021 11:23:08 JMB259
1 (B) Between 2015 and 2016, gender reassignment surgeries
2 increased by nearly twenty percent (20%) in the United States;
3 (14) It is of grave concern to the General Assembly that the
4 medical community is allowing individuals who experience distress at
5 identifying with their biological sex to be subjects of irreversible and
6 drastic nongenital gender reassignment surgery and irreversible, permanently
7 sterilizing genital gender reassignment surgery, despite the lack of studies
8 showing that the benefits of such extreme interventions outweigh the risks;
9 and
10 (15) The risks of gender transition procedures far outweigh any
11 benefit at this stage of clinical study on these procedures.

6 (5) “Gender transition” means the process in which a person goes
7 from identifying with and living as a gender that corresponds to his or her
8 biological sex to identifying with and living as a gender different from his
9 or her biological sex, and may involve social, legal, or physical changes;
10 (6)(A) “Gender transition procedures” means any medical or
11 surgical service, including without limitation physician's services,
12 inpatient and outpatient hospital services, or prescribed drugs related to
13 gender transition that seeks to:
14 (i) Alter or remove physical or anatomical
15 characteristics or features that are typical for the individual’s biological
16 sex; or
17 (ii) Instill or create physiological or anatomical
18 characteristics that resemble a sex different from the individual’s
19 biological sex, including without limitation medical services that provide
20 puberty-blocking drugs, cross-sex hormones, or other mechanisms to promote
21 the development of feminizing or masculinizing features in the opposite
22 biological sex, or genital or nongenital gender reassignment surgery
23 performed for the purpose of assisting an individual with a gender
24 transition.

12 20-9-1502. Prohibition of gender transition procedures for minors.
13 (a) A physician or other healthcare professional shall not provide
14 gender transition procedures to any individual under eighteen (18) years of
15 age.
16 (b) A physician, or other healthcare professional shall not refer any
17 individual under eighteen (18) years of age to any healthcare professional
18 for gender transition procedures.

22 (1) Services to persons born with a medically verifiable
23 disorder of sex development, including a person with external biological sex
24 characteristics that are irresolvably ambiguous, such as those born with 46
25 XX chromosomes with virilization, 46 XY chromosomes with undervirilization,
26 or having both ovarian and testicular tissue;
27 (2) Services provided when a physician has otherwise diagnosed a
28 disorder of sexual development that the physician has determined through
29 genetic or biochemical testing that the person does not have normal sex
30 chromosome structure, sex steroid hormone production, or sex steroid hormone
31 action;

The above sounds a little bit like eugenics, because it is the only exception to the prohibition.

6 20-9-1503. Prohibition on use of public funds for gender transition
7 procedures.
8 (a) Public funds shall not be directly or indirectly used, granted,
9 paid, or distributed to any entity, organization, or individual that provides
10 gender transition procedures to an individual under eighteen (18) years of
11 age.

20 SECTION 4. Arkansas Code Title 23, Chapter 79, Subchapter 1, is
21 amended to add an additional section to read as follows:
22 23-79-164. Insurance coverage of gender transition procedures for
23 minors prohibited.

The vast majority of concerns appear to revolve around the irreversible surgeries.
They described that despite guidelines advising against such actions, there is an increase in the frequency of referrals for children to undergo surgeries.
Note that they refer to "nongenital gender reassignment surgeries" which refers to Puberty Blockers and Hormone Treatment.
They've written into the bill a definition for "Gender transition procedures" which includes Puberty Blockers, Hormone Treatment, and Sex-Reassignment Surgeries.
What they've done is define-away the problem by categorizing chemical treatments as surgeries.

---

References
HB1570 as engrossed on 03-08-2021 11:23:12 (state.ar.us)

Hembree, W., et al. (2017, September 13). Endocrine Treatment of Gender-Dysphoric/Gender-Incongruent Persons: An Endocrine Society* Clinical Practice Guideline. Retrieved March 30, 2021, from https://academic.oup.com/jcem/article/102/11/3869/4157558.

Rafferty, J., et al. (2018, October). Ensuring Comprehensive Care and Support for Transgender and Gender-Diverse Children and Adolescents. Retrieved March 30, 2021, from https://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/142/4/e20182162.

Schmidt, S. (2021, March 29). Arkansas passes bill restricting access to medical treatments for transgender children. Retrieved March 30, 2021, from https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/arkansas-passes-bill-restricting-access-to-medical-treatments-for-transgender-children/ar-BB1f68qU.

Turban, J., et al. (2020, February). Pubertal Suppression for Transgender Youth and Risk of Suicidal Ideation. Pediatrics. Retrieved March 30, 2021, from https://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/145/2/e20191725.

[Trick Question]

5486209
I appreciate the references. I'll have to pore over them, though I should mention it's pretty easy to find individual studies that make claims to the contrary of the prevailing opinion (especially in Britain, which has a culture that has been full of terfs given the extreme nature of their feminist dogma—but I'm not assuming this is the case here).

The banning of surgeries is kind of a red herring because gender confirmation surgery is already not permissible for children or supported by the medical community. It's kind of like making a bill against affirmative action in hiring practices, but mentioning quotas in it repeatedly, when quotas are already illegal. The thing they're focusing on is something that doesn't even apply, because they're trying to inflame public opinion and spread misinformation about medical practice.

[DezzarTac]

5486222

it's pretty easy to find individual studies that make claims to the contrary of the prevailing opinion

Hm? I didn't write a response to the article. I didn't provide references from my own research to combat the opinion of the journalist.
The references are the linked sources used by the journalist who wrote that article for MSN. I just quoted the apparent source of information for each claim the journo made. I was originally looking for anything that would indicate a manipulation or misrepresentation of the research, but I couldn't find any.

Sorry if it seemed like I was making a retort to the article.

[Trick Question]

5486233
I wasn't trying to imply that, because I haven't had time to look through any of it yet. I was just letting you know this is a topic of some controversy where fringe opinions frequently try to make it appear as though they're mainstream, there are organizations that use similar names to sound like professional organizations they're mimicking, and sometimes an organization's public opinion changes over the course of just a few years.

[Super Trampoline]

5486192
You think I’m a psy-op?

[Rocket]

5486192
The banners and slogans are entirely different.

[theRedBrony]

5486055 It's a touchy subject by any measure.