Sen. Janet Nguyen wants a spot on the OC Board of Supervisors again

• July 11, 2023

State Sen. Janet Nguyen is running for the First District seat on the OC Board of Supervisors — an entity she’s served on before.

And as far as goals go, Nguyen said she has many.

“I’m well aware that the Board of Supervisors can make a direct impact on quality of life, whether it’s crime, homelessness, cost of living, traffic congestion, health care,” Nguyen said in a phone interview.

Earlier this year, Nguyen was elected Senate Minority Caucus chair, a position which required her to lead floor operations, run caucus meetings and put together the Republicans’ agenda with Minority Leader Brian Jones of San Diego. She is the highest-ranking Vietnamese American elected official currently serving in California’s government, according to her office.

She has also served as a state assemblymember, Garden Grove councilmember and First District county supervisor.

“For the last several months I have heard from constituents and community leaders from throughout the First District who have urged me to return to the Board of Supervisors,” Nguyen said. “I share their frustration with the super-majority in Sacramento and its misguided priorities and have always believed that the most effective government is the one closest to the people.”

She describes her political philosophy as “conservative, compassionate and reflective” of those she represents in office.

Supervisor Andrew Do, who represents the First District and serves as vice chairman of the board, is term-limited.

Nguyen has already received support from Garden Grove Councilmember Stephanie Klopfenstein.

“Sacramento has proven to be incapable of fixing what’s wrong in California and the super-majority in the legislature is not interested in our problems here in Orange County,” Klopfestein said in a news release. “We need our best, brightest and most experienced problem-solvers working right here at home.”

Nguyen has been named “Legislator of the Year” by the American Legion, the Association of the U.S. Army and the Vietnam Veterans of America. She was also named “Champion of Manufacturing” by the California Manufacturers and Technology Association and “Elected Official of the Year” by the American Council of Engineering Companies.

While serving as a county supervisor in 2013, a grand jury report criticized Nguyen’s role at CalOptima, the county’s public health plan for low-income residents. The grand jury report noted CalOptima as a troubled organization that saw high executive turnover since Nguyen joined its board. However, Nguyen said she remedied an organization that she described as having been badly mismanaged before she joined its board of directors.

Nguyen and her family arrived in California in 1981 after fleeing Vietnam. A graduate of UC Irvine, she has lived in the district for more than 30 years and resides in Huntington Beach.

The race for the District 1 seat is heating up with Cypress City Councilmember Frances Marquez, former Assemblymember Van Tran and Westminster Councilmember Kimberly Ho also vying for the position.

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​ Orange County Register 

Building empathy and compassion through prison visits

• July 11, 2023

I vividly recall the sensation of sitting in a courtroom.  I was young, terrified, and just 16-years-old, and I was shackled both physically and emotionally. It remains etched in my memory how the prosecutor branded me a monster, someone beyond redemption, and deemed me worthy of a lifetime behind bars. At that moment, I viewed the prosecutor as a monster as well, an anonymous figure who knew nothing about me or my background except for my crime–the worst thing I’ve ever done. 

It never occurred to me that 30 years later I would be collaborating so closely with prosecutors. Today, I’m working with the Prosecutors Alliance of California to make sure that when District Attorneys across the state look across the aisle at those they’re seeking to hold accountable, that they don’t see monsters–they see people.  We’re working together to ensure District Attorneys know about the prisons they’re sending those they prosecute.  And together, we’re bringing about positive change within the criminal legal system.

In 1994, I was sentenced to 19 years to life in state prison. I would go on to spend 21 years of my life behind bars at Pelican Bay, eight of those years in solitary confinement. It was during this time that I embarked on a journey of self-reflection, striving to understand my actions, the pain I had caused, and the system that had condemned me. In this crucible of isolation, my perspective began to shift, and I realized the need for mutual understanding and empathy between those who prosecute and those who cause harm.

Today, as an advocate for reform, I am working on a transformative idea that might seem radical at first: taking prosecutors behind prison gates to meet with incarcerated people. In facilitating visits that immerse prosecutors in the reality of incarceration, we foster understanding, empathy, and compassion between those who broke the law and those that enforce it.

Prosecutors are entrusted with an immense responsibility: to uphold justice and protect society. However, to fulfill this duty effectively, they must not only comprehend the law and work to advance justice for victims, but also understand the individuals whose lives they influence. Unfortunately, prosecutors rarely know the backgrounds of defendants and most prosecutors have never stepped foot inside a prison. We hope to change that.

These visits offer an opportunity for dialogue between prosecutors and  incarcerated people, allowing for genuine conversations that transcend the barriers of judgment and stigma. Sharing stories, experiences, and perspectives can help humanize both parties, eroding the preconceived notions that often breed animosity and mistrust.

Empathy is the cornerstone of a fair and just legal system. Witnessing the resilience and personal growth that can occur within prison walls might challenge prosecutors’ assumptions about the potential for rehabilitation and reintegration. 

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Moreover, these visits expose prosecutors to the systemic flaws that perpetuate cycles of crime and recidivism. They witness the overcrowded cells, the lack of access to education and mental health resources, and the limited opportunities for redemption. People can and do change despite the shortage of programs and services in prisons, but they can undoubtedly get there sooner if prisons were adequately structured and resourced to actively foster rehabilitation. This first-hand experience can instill a sense of urgency and motivate prosecutors to advocate for necessary reforms within the criminal justice system.

The “monster” narrative perpetuated in courtrooms serves neither the pursuit of justice nor rehabilitation. Just as I embarked on a journey of self-reflection and growth behind bars, prosecutors can similarly evolve and embrace a more holistic view of the individuals they prosecute.

The path towards justice and safety lies in understanding the root causes of crime, addressing systemic issues, and promoting the rehabilitation of  incarcerated people. Prison visits can be a catalyst for this education, laying the foundation for collaborative criminal justice reform. Ultimately, to make better decisions about appropriate case outcomes, every prosecutor should be willing to see firsthand the places they send those they prosecute. 

Artie Gonzales is program director of the Prosecutors Alliance of California.

​ Orange County Register 

Cat’s disappearance near Disneyland sparks a 2-year tale of heartache and hope

• July 11, 2023

Michelle Chang thought the wind sound echoing through the car was just her imagination as she drove south on the 5 freeway toward Irvine. Her weekend duffel bag was in the trunk, alternative music filled the air and Coco, a Snowshoe Siamese, was resting atop her kennel as she approached Disneyland.

Chang was 21 and almost home, excited to surprise her mother with Coco’s visit on Mother’s Day weekend in 2021. The UC Santa Barbara graduate had taken the family’s beloved 8-year-old feline up north so she could have company during the pandemic.

As the sound persisted, Chang said she pulled up on the power window buttons to try to make the noise stop. When she turned around and looked where Coco had been perched, the cat wasn’t there.

“I quickly pulled to the side of the freeway,” she said. “I couldn’t find her. I was in panic mode.”

Chang called her younger sister, Sarah, who helped search along the freeway in the dark. The sisters said they half expected to find the cat alive in the bushes and half expected to see her dead on the freeway.

After weeks of the family searching — driving along the freeway and along Manchester Avenue where Coco most likely went missing, posting signs and checking the county’s deceased animal site  — the cat with striking blue eyes and white mitten feet, was nowhere to be found. Chang surmised Coco stepped on the window button and “flew out” of the car.

Kim Taylor, their mother, said each Mother’s Day has been bittersweet since. Her eccentric, smart, gentle cat who she taught to sit on command; who liked her ears scratched, but not her belly; and who hated people food, but loved kibble, was gone.

***

For two years Mercedes and Oscar Chavez of Grants Pass, Oregon, saved up money to take a family trip to Disneyland for their son Gabriel’s 15th birthday. They brought along their three other children, ages 16, 13 and 7, and one of Gabriel’s friends.

After arriving July 1 for their week-long vacation, the tribe of cat lovers noticed a paper plate on the ground at the Anaheim hotel they were staying at with remnants of dried cat food and then spied a cat “hunkered down, laying on her side near the air-conditioning unit,” Mercedes Chavez said. “She was panting because it was so hot.”

Chavez gave the cat water and inquired with hotel staff about the curious creature. She was given conflicting information. The cat lived at a trailer park next door. The cat was fine and being cared for by hotel guests who fed her eggs off the breakfast buffet. The cat was a stray and no one could catch her.

“But this didn’t sit right with me,” Chavez said. “I kept badgering workers trying to piece together the story. A real stray is apprehensive, but I could tell at one point she had a family because she was super gentle — meowing, rolling over, rubbing against our legs and letting us pick her up.

“She wanted help. She wanted love,” Chavez said.

When the cat tried to follow the family into their hotel room on their second night, Chavez said she burst into tears. “I told my husband that we need to get her to a safe place.”

In the meantime, Chavez went to Target and bought kibble and wet food, she said. “She went crazy and devoured it.”

Chavez then looked up cat rescue organizations. The first one she contacted told her they only spayed, neutered and released cats. But they provided a “huge list” of other places in Orange County that could possibly help.

Chavez contacted each of the approximately 20 organizations through email “any time I had the chance” between theme park fun, she said.

“They either auto replied saying they aren’t taking any more animals because they are at full capacity, or they wanted me to call at a specific time and then wouldn’t answer or I got busy signals,” she said. “It was almost impossible to get a live person to answer.”

Chavez’s logical sense thought, “I already have two cats and we can’t travel back to Oregon with five kids and a new cat.”

But her heart decided, “If we can’t get help, the cat will go home with us.”

***

On July 4, “by the grace of God,” Chavez said, Kindness2Cats contacted her. The organization run by Jenifer Brooks and Ed Michalek assured Chavez the animal would go to a good home. Chavez tearfully scooped up the kitty and put her in the portable crate Brooks had brought to the hotel.

“She didn’t fight it,” Chavez said. “I know she knew we were going to help her.”

A full checkup revealed the cat was microchipped. Her health was good, save for one broken tooth, and she was estimated to be 2 years old (She is actually 10).

Taylor was at work when the call came that her favorite pet was alive and well and found in the area the family had searched so many times. She showed the cat’s picture to co-workers and took the rest of the day off.

“I was stunned. I was over the moon. I had a happiness in me,” Taylor said after Coco was reunited with her daughters in Michelle Chang’s Irvine apartment.

At Saturday’s reunion, Coco slinked out of the same baby blue kennel that Chavez tearfully placed her in before saying goodbye.

Before acknowledging the sisters, Coco opened a closet and sat inside, hid behind a TV,  and jumped on the same gray couch she years ago had clawed. Then she found Alice, Chang’s other cat, hiding in a bedroom.

Michalek wondered if Coco might have dashed out of the SUV when Chang stopped and opened the door to search for her. He emphasized the importance of never letting a cat travel in a car without being in a carrier, and microchipping and spaying and neutering them.

Taylor said she is forever grateful to Chavez for all she did in reuniting the family and hinted that bake goods may be in Chavez’s future.

Taylor will soon be flying back from North Carolina to California for a reunion.

“I’m going to order pizza and sit with that cat.”

​ Orange County Register 

Ukraine war: Analysis shows Russia has lost nearly 50,000 soldiers

• July 11, 2023

By Erika Kinetz | Associated Press

BRUSSELS — Nearly 50,000 Russian men have died in the war in Ukraine, according to the first independent statistical analysis of Russia’s war dead.

Two independent Russian media outlets, Mediazona and Meduza, working with a data scientist from Germany’s Tübingen University, used Russian government data to shed light on one of Moscow’s closest-held secrets — the true human cost of its invasion of Ukraine.

To do so, they relied on a statistical concept popularized during the COVID-19 pandemic called excess mortality. Drawing on inheritance records and official mortality data, they estimated how many more men under age 50 died between February 2022 and May 2023 than normal.

Neither Moscow nor Kyiv gives timely data on military losses, and each is at pains to amplify the other side’s casualties. Russia has publicly acknowledged the deaths of just over 6,000 soldiers. Reports about military losses have been repressed in Russian media, activists and independent journalists say. Documenting the dead has become an act of defiance; those who do so face harassment and potential criminal charges.

Despite such challenges, Mediazona and the BBC’s Russian Service, working with a network of volunteers, have used social media postings and photographs of cemeteries across Russia to build a database of confirmed war deaths. As of July 7, they had identified 27,423 dead Russian soldiers.

“These are only soldiers who we know by name, and their deaths in each case are verified by multiple sources,” said Dmitry Treshchanin, an editor at Mediazona who helped oversee the investigation. “The estimate we did with Meduza allows us to see the ‘hidden’ deaths, deaths the Russian government is so obsessively and unsuccessfully trying to hide.”

To come up with a more comprehensive tally, journalists from Mediazona and Meduza obtained records of inheritance cases filed with the Russian authorities. Their data from the National Probate Registry contained information about more than 11 million people who died between 2014 and May 2023.

According to their analysis, 25,000 more inheritance cases were opened in 2022 for males aged 15 to 49 than expected. By May 27, 2023, the number of excess cases had shot up to 47,000.

That surge is roughly in line with a May assessment by the White House that more than 20,000 Russians had been killed in Ukraine since December, though lower than U.S. and U.K. intelligence assessments of overall Russian deaths.

In February, the U.K. Ministry of Defense said approximately 40,000 to 60,000 Russians had likely been killed in the war. A leaked assessment from the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency put the number of Russians killed in action in the first year of the war at 35,000 to 43,000.

“Their figures might be accurate, or they might not be,” Treshchanin, the Mediazona editor, said in an email. “Even if they have sources in the Russian Ministry of Defense, its own data could be incomplete. It’s extremely difficult to pull together all of the casualties from the army, Rosgvardia, Akhmat battalion, various private military companies, of which Wagner is the largest, but not the only one. Casualties among inmates, first recruited by Wagner and now by the MoD, are also a very hazy subject, with a lot of potential for manipulation. Statistics could actually give better results.”

Many Russian fatalities – as well as amputations – could have been prevented with better front-line first aid, the U.K. Ministry of Defense said in an intelligence assessment published Monday. Russia has suffered an average of around 400 casualties a day for 17 months, creating a “crisis” in combat medical care that is likely undermining medical services for civilians in border regions near Ukraine, the ministry said.

Independently, Dmitry Kobak, a data scientist from Germany’s Tübingen University who has published work on excess COVID-19 deaths in Russia, obtained mortality data broken down by age and sex for 2022 from Rosstat, Russia’s official statistics agency.

He found that 24,000 more men under age 50 died in 2022 than expected, a figure that aligns with the analysis of inheritance data.

The COVID-19 pandemic made it harder to figure out how many men would have died in Russia since February 2022 if there hadn’t been a war. Both analyses corrected for the lingering effects of COVID on mortality by indexing male death rates against female deaths.

Sergei Scherbov, a scholar at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis in Austria, cautioned that “differences in the number of deaths between males and females can vary significantly due to randomness alone.”

“I am not saying that there couldn’t be an excess number of male deaths, but rather that statistically speaking, this difference in deaths could be a mere outcome of chance,” he said.

Russians who are missing but not officially recognized as dead, as well as citizens of Ukraine fighting in units of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk republics, are not included in these counts.

Kobak acknowledged that some uncertainties remain, especially for deaths of older men. Moreover, it’s hard to know how many missing Russian soldiers are actually dead. But he said neither factor is likely to have a huge impact.

“That uncertainty is in the thousands,” he said. “The results are plausible overall.”

Asked by the Associated Press on Monday about the Meduza and Mediazona study, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said during a conference call with reporters he wasn’t aware of it as the Kremlin had “stopped monitoring” Meduza. Peskov also refused to comment on the number of deaths mentioned in the study, saying only that “the Defense Ministry gives the numbers, and they’re the only ones who have that prerogative.”

Meduza is an independent Russian media outlet that has been operating in exile for eight years, with headquarters in Riga, Latvia. In April 2021, Russian authorities designated Meduza a “foreign agent,” making it harder to generate advertising income, and in January 2023, the Kremlin banned Meduza as an illegal “undesirable organization.”

Moscow has also labeled independent outlet Mediazona as a “foreign agent” and blocked its website after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Dasha Litvinova contributed to this report from Tallinn, Estonia.

​ Orange County Register 

Angels’ 3rd-round pick Alberto Rios was Pac-12 Player of the Year after 2 years on Stanford bench

• July 11, 2023

Alberto Rios came a long way from catching bullpens for the Stanford baseball team in one season.

Although Rios barely played at Stanford in his first two seasons, instead helping out as a bullpen catcher, he flourished enough as a junior that the Angels picked him in the third round of the draft on Monday.

“It’s a neat story,” Angels scouting director Tim McIlvaine said of the St. John Bosco High product. “He was recruited by them, got there and just really couldn’t get into the lineup. He kept working hard, kept working at it. Then something seemed to click for him in the fall and he really started swinging well. Once they put them in there this spring they just couldn’t get him out of the lineup.”

Rios hit .384 with 18 home runs and an OPS of 1.192 this season at Stanford, winning Pac-12 Player of the Year honors.

McIlvaine said the Angels had Rios at a workout at Angel Stadium and “got to know him.” They still don’t know what position he will play though. They probably won’t try him behind the plate until instructional league in the fall, McIlvaine said. In the meantime, he’ll get some time at third base, second base and the outfield.

Rios was the first of eight players the Angels took in Day 2 of the draft, which concluded with the 10th round. Their only selection on Day 1 was No. 11 overall pick Nolan Schanuel, a first baseball from Florida Atlantic.

The Angels did not have a second-round pick because they forfeited that selection when they signed left-hander Tyler Anderson last fall.

After they took Rios in the third round on Monday, they picked Sam Houston outfielder Joe Redfield in the fourth round. They did not take a pitcher until the fifth round, when they selected Harvard right-hander Chris Clark.

Although the Angels took five pitchers with their first nine picks, it was the first time since 2006 that they didn’t take a pitcher before the fifth round.

“You try and line up the board and you try to get the best players you can get, however that falls,” McIlvaine said. “We debate between pitchers and hitters all the time, high school and college, whatever it may be, but we just try and get the best player.”

The Angels took Wake Forest right-hander Camden Minacci with their sixth-round pick. Minacci was the closer for a team that spent much of the season ranked No. 1 in the nation.

“He brings different kinds of energy and fire and excitement to the other guys, who just kind of feed off it,” McIlvaine said. “He comes at guys with a big fastball. He’s got a good slider. He’s not afraid of anybody.”

In the seventh round, the Angels picked TCU third baseman Cole Fontanelle. Their only high school selection was eighth-round pick Barrett Kent, a right-hander from Pottsboro High in Texas.

With their ninth- and 10th-round picks, the Angels took right-hander Chase Gockel from Quincy (Ill.) University and right-hander Chris Barraza from the University of Arizona. Gockel is a 23-year-old who already graduated and Barraza was a senior, so both players are expected to sign for minimal bonuses, which allows the Angels extra money to take some gambles on high-upside players on the final day of the draft on Tuesday.

Gockel is an intriguing pick because McIlvaine said he was throwing 98 mph this year, even though no one drafted him last year.

The draft concludes with rounds 11-20 on Tuesday, beginning at 11 a.m. PT.

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​ Orange County Register 

Kings show glimpses of the future in development camp

• July 11, 2023

EL SEGUNDO –– A showcase of the Kings’ budding prospects on Monday offered a glimpse of how the organization has unearthed promise from every depth of hockey’s talent pool, as 2021 lottery pick Brandt Clarke drove play while late-round selections Martin Chromiak and Ryan Conmy notched two goals apiece.

The heirs to the Kings’ throne packed their practice facility for the past five days for a development camp that culminated in a scrimmage won by the Kings’ white team, 7-1.

Clarke was the only participant with NHL experience and a strong shot to make the parent club’s roster this coming season after being selected eighth overall in 2021. Conmy shot up the Central Scouting rankings last season but still ended up going in the sixth round, one round later than the Kings snagged Chromiak in 2020.

Other standouts, even in a losing effort, included forwards Francesco Pinelli and Alex Laferriere, as well as defenseman Jakub Dvorak, whom the Kings selected with their first pick (Round 2, No. 54 overall) this year.

Clarke demonstrated patience and guile as he created high-quality chances in addition to assisting on multiple goals, but he was quick to share plaudits for his fellow prospects.

“(Chromiak) always shows out … every time I’ve ever seen him,” Clarke said. “Conmy’s a really good player, (Dvorak) is really great defensively and really strong. I feel like there’s just a lot of promising people coming up through this organization.”

Dvorak appeared headed for another campaign in his native Czech Republic’s system, hopefully with an expanded role at the top level. Pinelli and Laferriere will likely start the year in the American Hockey League, where Chromiak competed last season and likely will again this year. Pinelli completed his second campaign as captain of the Ontario Hockey League’s Kitchener Rangers last season while Laferriere played four AHL contests after wrapping up his career at Harvard.

Clarke began last season with the Kings and then spent time at the American Hockey League level. Both game experience and considerable practice time prepared him for a second-half return to the Barrie Colts, where he eviscerated the OHL to the tune of nearly two points per game in both the regular season and playoffs.

“I think Brandt showed a lot of improvement during his time with us earlier this year,” said Barrie’s director of player personnel, Mark Seidel. “His game continues to mature and his development on the defensive side of the game continues to improve. He is an offensive savant and his continual improvement away from the puck will make him a star for the L.A. Kings.”

The Kings’ director of player development, Glen Murray, echoed that sentiment, saying that Clarke’s defensive game was often overlooked because his offensive instincts were so readily apparent. He also said Clarke had more deeply embraced his conditioning regimen and continued to display panache in big games and key situations.

“The way his brain works is, it’s the last day of development camp, and he’s like, ‘Okay, I’m going to be the best player out here,’” Murray said.

All five of the Kings’ 2023 draft picks attended development camp: Dvorak, Conmy, goalie Hampton Slukynsky, defenseman Matthew Mania and winger Koehn Zimmer. A far cry from the big city’s NHL ice, Slukynsky was playing high school hockey this time last year in the Northern Minnesota town of Warroad, with a population of fewer than 2000 people and located a stone’s throw from the Canadian border.

“I thought they all really did well,” Murray said. “It’s hard to come in here, if you’re nervous, you haven’t been to L.A. before, you see Drew Doughty walking around the locker room and stuff like that, they get a little nervous but once they get that out of their system … it gets a little bit better.”

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​ Orange County Register 

Families of trans kids increasingly have to leave state for care

• July 11, 2023

By Arleigh Rodgers and Michael Goldberg | Associated Press/Report for America

CHICAGO — On an early morning in June, Flower Nichols and her mother set off on an expedition to Chicago from their home in Indianapolis.

The family was determined to make it feel like an adventure in the city, though that wasn’t the primary purpose of the trip.

The following afternoon, Flower and Jennilyn Nichols would see a doctor at the University of Chicago to learn whether they could keep Flower, 11, on puberty blockers. They began to search for medical providers outside of Indiana after April 5, when Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb signed a law banning transgender minors from accessing puberty blockers and other hormone therapies, even after the approval of parents and the advice of doctors.

At least 20 states have enacted laws restricting or banning gender-affirming care for trans minors, though several are embroiled in legal challenges. For more than a decade prior, such treatments were available to children and teens across the U.S. and have been endorsed by major medical associations.

Opponents of gender-affirming care say there’s no solid proof of purported benefits, cite widely discredited research and say children shouldn’t make life-altering decisions they might regret. Advocates and families impacted by the recent laws say such care is vital for trans kids.

On June 16, a federal judge blocked parts of Indiana’s law from going into effect on July 1. But many patients still scrambled to continue receiving treatment.

Jennilyn Nichols wanted their trip to Chicago to be defined by happy memories rather than a response to a law she called intrusive. They would explore the Museum of Science and Industry and, on the way home, stop at a beloved candy store.

Preserving a sense of normalcy and acceptance, she decided — well, that’s just what families do.

Families in Indiana, Mississippi and other states are navigating new laws that imply or sometimes directly accuse them of child abuse for supporting their kids in getting health care. Some trans children and teens say the recent bans on gender-affirming care in Republican-led states send the message that they are unwelcome and cannot be themselves in their home states.

For parents, guiding their children through the usual difficulties of growing up can be challenging enough. But now they are dealing with the added pressure of finding out-of-state medical care they say allows their children to thrive.

In the Nichols family alone, support took many forms as they traveled to Chicago: a grandmother who pitched in to babysit Flower’s 7-year-old brother, Parker, while their father Kris worked; a community of other parents of trans kids who donated money to make the trip more comfortable.

“What transgender expansive young people need is what all young people need: They need love and support, and they need unconditional respect,” said Robert Marx, an assistant professor of child and adolescent development at San José State University. Marx studies support systems for LGBTQ+ and trans people aged 13 to 25. “They need to feel included and part of a family.”

In Indiana, rancorous legislative debates, agitated family relationships and exhaustive efforts to find care have drawn families to the support group GEKCO, founded by Krisztina Inskeep, whose adult son is transgender. Attendance at monthly meetings spiked after the state legislature advanced bills targeting trans youth, she said.

“I think most parents want to do best by their kids,” Inskeep said. “It’s rather new to people, this idea that gender is not just a binary and that your kid is not just who they thought at birth.”

The perceptions of most parents, Marx said, don’t align neatly with the extremes of full support or rejection of their kids’ identities.

“Most parents exist in a kind of gray area,” Marx said. “Most parents are going through some kind of developmental process themselves as they come to understand their child’s gender.”

On June 13, Flower and Jennilyn set off on their trip, unsteady but hopeful. They brought a care plan from Indiana University’s Riley Children’s Hospital, the Hoosier State’s only gender clinic.

At the time, the pair worried whether Chicago providers could meet their request for full-time support or as a backup if Indiana’s ban went on hold. They considered whether they could make the drive every three months, the necessary interval between Flower’s puberty blockers.

The decision for Flower to start puberty blockers two years ago wasn’t one the family took lightly.

Jennilyn recalled asking early on whether her daughter’s gender expression was permanent. She wondered if she had failed as a mom, especially while pregnant — was it an incorrect food? A missed vitamin?

Ultimately she and Kris dismissed those theories, ungrounded in science, and listened to their daughter, who recalled the euphoria of wearing princess dresses at an early age. Flower cherished a Little Red Riding Hood cape and felt certain of her identity from the start.

“I remember that I really disliked my name,” Flower said of her birth name. “This is just like who I am. It’s all that I have a memory of.”

Conversations between Flower and her mother are often marked by uncommon candor, as when discussing early memories together at an Indianapolis park.

“Before I knew you and before I walked this journey with you,” Jennilyn told her, “I would not have thought that a kid would know they were trans or that a kid would just come out wired that way. I always thought that that was something adults figured out, and so there were times that it was really scary because I didn’t know how the world would accept you. I didn’t know how to keep you safe.”

Now, Jennilyn said, her worries have shifted to Flower’s spelling skills and how she’ll navigate crushes.

Flower, for her part, appreciates being heard. She said she and her parents make medical decisions together because, “of course, they can’t decide on a medicine for me to take.”

“At the same time, you can’t pick a medicine that we can’t afford to pay for or that, you know, might harm you,” Jennilyn responded.

“That’s what I really like about her,” Flower said, of her mother. “She leaves a lot of my life up to me.”

In Mississippi, a ban on gender-affirming care became law in the state on Feb. 28 — prompting a father and his trans son to leave the state at the end of July for Virginia. There, he can keep his health care and continue to see doctors.

“We are essentially escaping up north,” said Ray Walker, 17.

Walker lives with his mother, Katie Rives, in a suburb of Jackson, the state capital. His parents are divorced, but his father also lived in the area. Halfway through high school, Walker is an honors student with an interest in theater and cooking. He has a supportive group of friends.

When Mississippi Republican Gov. Tate Reeves signed the bill banning hormone therapy for anyone younger than 18, he accused “radical activists” of pushing a “sick and twisted ideology that seeks to convince our kids they’re in the wrong body.”

The state’s largest hospital halted hormone treatments for trans minors months before Reeves signed the ban. That hospital later closed its LGBTQ+ clinic.

After that clinic stopped offering its services, Walker and other teenagers received treatment at a smaller facility in another city, but those services ended once the ban took effect.

As access to gender-affirming care dwindled and was later outlawed, Walker’s father, who declined to be interviewed, accepted a job in Virginia, where his son could keep his health care. Walker plans to move in with his father this month. Rives, however, is staying in Mississippi with her two younger children.

Walker’s memories of the anguished period when he started puberty at 12 still haunt him. “My body couldn’t handle what was happening to it,” he said.

After a yearslong process of evaluations, then puberty blockers and hormone injections, Walker said his self-image improved.

Then the broad effort in conservative states to restrict gender-affirming care set its sights on Mississippi. The path toward stability that Walker and his family forged had narrowed. It soon became impassable.

“I was born this way. It’s who I am. I can’t not exist this way,” Walker said. “We were under the impression that I still had two years left to live here. The law just ripped all of that up. They’re ripping our lives apart.”

The family sees no alternative.

“Mississippi is my home, but there are a lot of conflicting feelings when your home is actively telling you that it doesn’t want you in it,” Walker said.

As Walker’s moving date approaches, Rives savors the moments the family shares together. She braces for the physical distance that will soon be between them. Her two younger sons will lose Ray’s brotherly presence in their daily lives.

She still feels lucky.

“We know that’s an incredibly privileged position to be in,” Rives said of her son moving to Virginia. “Most people in Mississippi cannot afford to just move to another state or even go to another state for care.”

Flower, initially dispirited by the debates at the Indiana Statehouse, brightened after her parents took her to her first Pride march on June 10 in Indianapolis.

She tied a transgender pride flag around her shoulders and covered her pink shirt in every rainbow heart-shaped sticker she could find. She gripped a sign that read: “She belongs.”

Her favorite activities are often less inflected with politics than her status as a soon-to-be teenager. She’s a Girl Scout who enjoys catching Pokemon with her brother. Before the trip, she zipped around an Indianapolis park on a pink scooter, her hair tangled by the wind.

Prior to entering Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry, Flower used a women’s bathroom. At a diner in the city, she ordered a mint chocolate chip milkshake and a vegan grilled cheese. Jennilyn created an itinerary to make their experience as joyful and uncomplicated as possible.

“First of all, we’re going be able to chill at the hotel in the morning,” Flower said. “Second of all, there’s a park nearby that we can have a lot of fun in. Third of all, we might have a backup plan, which is really exciting. And fourth of all: Candy store!”

The doctor’s appointment the following day, initially intimidating, soon gave them another reason to celebrate: If care was not available in Indiana, they could get it in Chicago.”Indiana could do whatever the hell they’re going to do,” Jennilyn said, “and we can just come here.”

Arleigh Rodgers reported from Chicago and Indianapolis. Michael Goldberg reported from Jackson. Rodgers and Goldberg are a corps members for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

​ Orange County Register 

San Clemente surfer Houshmand earns another big win

• July 11, 2023

San Clemente’s Cole Houshmand has earned yet another massive win, this time in South Africa, putting the up-and-coming surfer in striking distance of making next year’s World Surf League World Tour.

Houshmand earned the top spot at the Ballito Pro in South Africa on July 8, a win that follows another victory in Australia in May, putting him in the lead for the Challenger Series rankings, the route to earning a spot to compete against the world’s best.

On the women’s side, Australia’s Bronte Macaulay earned the event’s win.

Houshmand had waited for the right set wave to roll in, but after a long, 10-minute lull, Frederico Morais was able to take the lead.

The two surfers exchanged waves, but it was a last-second, 4.67 buzzer-beating wave ride that earned Houshmand the win – just 0.33 above what he needed to overtake his opponent.

“I’m speechless right now, that was the scariest heat I’ve had this whole event,” Houshmand said in a World Surf League interview. “Luckily that wave came, but congrats to Frederico, he was ripping the whole event. It’s been amazing.”

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Houshmand gave a shout-out to his San Clemente support crew, including former World Tour surfer Kolohe Andino, who was cut mid-year, and Kade Matson, who had a semi-final finish in the South Africa event and is currently ranked 5th on the Challenger Series. Matson is also in a good spot to land on the World Tour.

Kade Matson, of San Clemente, also had a stand-out result at the Ballito Pro on July 8, 2023, making it to the semifinals at the event in South Africa. (Photo by Kody McGregor/World Surf League)

Now, Houshmand has his eye on the U.S. Open of Surfing in Huntington Beach that kicks off July 29, a place where he grew up competing on the amateur circuit. Earlier this year, he took runner up at the pier in a lower-level qualifying series event, the Jack’s Surfboard Pro.

The U.S. Open of Surfing is the fourth of six stops on the Challenger Series, with the top 10 earning a spot on next year’s World Tour.

​ Orange County Register