March 13, 2025

Now, on to the news…

A growing number of children and adolescents have undergone permanent, life-altering surgeries in a doomed effort to align their bodies with their “gender identity.” Doctors perform these procedures despite documented risks and the reality that many children will regret the outcomes after they come of age and outgrow their dysphoria. Left with disfigured bodies, these young people too frequently find that the same medical professionals who had eagerly operated on them are now unwilling to reverse the damage.

The stories of these “detransitioners” often go untold, as proponents of “gender-affirming care” maintain the narrative that post-operative regret is rare.

Through extensive research and interviews, however, Manhattan Institute investigative reporter Christina Buttons has uncovered the tragic story of one such detransitioner—Yarden Silveira—whose family believes that he committed suicide after undergoing gender-related genital surgery. Chronicling “Yarden’s short and painful life,” Buttons argues that “blind affirmation can do irreparable harm.” Read her heartbreaking account here.

Mahmoud Khalil, a Syrian national with U.S. permanent resident status, was arrested over the weekend because he “led activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization.” But a federal judge has blocked his deportation for now.

He deserves to be deported, argues Manhattan Institute Fellow Hannah E. Meyers. She writes that expulsion is often the best solution in cases involving “those who commit the kinds of anonymous violence that have characterized the anti-Israel movement at Columbia and Barnard, and which Khalil, as a leader of Columbia University Apartheid Divest, has helped propel.”

Read her take here.

President Trump’s executive order to keep men out of women’s sports is likely to conflict with New York’s Proposal 1. The amendment “enshrines several protected classes—categories of people legally shielded from discrimination—into the state constitution, including age, gender identity, and gender expression,” Manhattan Institute Cities Policy Analyst Paul Dreyer explains. The tension is sure to set the stage for a series of court battles.

How can a three-family home be legal and safe in one part of a city but not in another nearby neighborhood, especially when each has access to the same municipal services?

This is why single-family zoning doesn’t make sense, and why Cambridge, Massachusetts, was smart to end it last month, writes Charles Gardner, research fellow at the Mercatus Center. Read his take on why the city’s move should serve as a model for other areas in the U.S.

“‘Sex work is work’ only when it's someone else's daughter.”

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Skeptic, commenting on the rise of prostitution in New York City

Photo credits: Scott Dudelson / Contributor / Getty Images Entertainment via Getty Images