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A good friend of mine has a son who was born his daughter. I first met the kid when he was 11. He was the obviously-bright kind of kid you'd expect from two brilliant engineer parents who strike me as having the perfect balance of caring for their kids but not being all up in their shit. When she hit puberty, she had a rough few years before deciding to come out as a man. I can't imagine the guts it took to do that in a rural TX town, but he eventually transitioned and is just wrapping up undergrad in an advanced field with several institutions actively pursuing him for post-grad. He's just a really kind, well-adjusted, extremely ambitious, super-smart 22 year old who's going to make some big waves in a really positive way. I'd hate to think what would have been missed if he'd not been allowed, or not had the guts to make the call to live life as his true self. No doubt there's been countless unnecessary loss and suffering over the years from people not feeling like they had the option to transition, or not being accepted after they did. That said, as with most people on here I think any irreversible changes on minors are generally a bad idea. There are going to be exceptions, but they should be rare. For every example of somebody who really needed to transition (and I really don't want to under-count that group!), how many kids are there who are struggling to find their identity and might be willing to dive into something just to set themselves apart? As a horrendously imperfect comparison, you don't see many 40 year old goths and on that note, teenagers sometimes fuck up when trying to figure out their identity.

Dear sfzombie13, Sailors will tell you that you need a rag to inspect steel cables. There are two methods of inspection. First, you can slide the rag along the steel cable to check for broken strands. Secondly, you can slide your bare hand down the cable, then use the rag to staunch your bleeding hand. Hah! Hah!

On Twitter, Adam Kinzinger had a great shutdown for some fool regarding the Jan 6 Committee; Fool: "We need to hear the other side." Kinzinger: "So you want to hear from the Democrats? All the evidence and testimony came from Republicans."

Tom Cruise is having waaaayyyy too much fun making movies!

Colorized and enhanced the Count Coopula sketch

I was one of 12 who made a life/death decision in a capital murder case. Gut feeling of all of us was the POS pulled the trigger. The DA didn't prove it beyond a shadow of a doubt. The science didn't show what we needed to see to decide anything other than life without possibility of parole. We were all white and so was the defendant. He grew up in the same middle class suburban white world most of the jury did. We could see the wrong turns he took. There was even some compassion expressed for his family and their "loss " of a son. I wonder how many prisoners he's shanked since then. He'd only paralyzed one before our decision was made. I like to think we'd have made the same decision if he had not been white. That's the thing that makes me uncomfortable about capital punishment in the US.

But with luck they will grind fine enough that even Trump won't be able to weasel (or buy) his way out of accountability.

This is not accurate, puberty-blockers alone have no effect on fertility. Only if you continue on to HRT with testosterone or oestrogen would you face the risk of impacting egg or sperm production, respectively. It may seem like a semantic distinction, but the blockers and the later hormone treatments are two very different things, with different impacts. That said, yes the fertility concerns around transitioning are valid and clearly laid out for those who go through this process.

$2 billion buys more than a one time transfer of secret information.

Alright, you are right, BillVon is right and, like it needs to be said, airdvr is very right. But until the non-flaky teenager is 3D printed, and until kids are well known not to be reactionaries always adverse to applied labels I'll remain in the camp of saying no surgical changes until the person is of the age of majority.

What do you mean? I figured out that I liked girls in 6th or 7th grade. It wasn't a 'choice' or a 'decision'. It was a realization. For a kid to realize they like the same sex (or the opposite one), or to come to the understanding that they don't 'fit' in the body they were born with isn't all that different. To take permanent, life altering measures in that direction is not appropriate, but it also isn't something that happens often. The key is accurate, professional diagnosis and treatment. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/what-medical-treatments-do-transgender-youth-get Note: I have a small amount of personal experience in this. My former nephew is now my niece. She is in no way, shape or form 'confused'. And her parents (my sister and her husband) are far from 'enabling'. The transition is entirely hormones & hormone blockers, which is not permanent. They have an amazing therapist and an excellent endocrinologist. My (now) niece is far better, far happier and far more stable as a female that ever before. This is NOT any sort of 'fantasy' or 'fashion statement'.

Hi Peter, Back in the 70's, RWS could not keep up with the production demands. So, they entered into an agreement with Guardian Parachute ( subsidiary of FXC Corp ) to build rigs for them. Three employees of Guardian stayed late at nite & built bogus rigs; these rigs were never entered into the production documents. They then sold the rigs out of their cars at various dz's in SoCal. When Guardian found out, all three were fired immediately. This was told to me back in 1978 by Chuck Embury, one of the three. Jerry Baumchen

That reminds me about trying to sell a Vector II for a friend, maybe 20 years back, that had had a few owners over the years. When I checked the size code listed on the rig, it just didn't exist in the manual. And when I checked the serial number, it said "BOBBY". Hmm. I got the impression it was a rig that some trusted production line guy was allowed to assemble for himself.

I like the story that Moe Viletto told about building ~ 70 counterfeit wonderhogs and having you inspect his personal rig with a white harness at a Nationals. So the story goes, you said when seeing the white harness, "those assholes in Production, always building custom sh1t for their friends, no wonder we can't deliver fast enough". True? PS, love your stories told on Skydive Radio about trips to the Poles. Be well. Craig

I haven't figured it out completely. There actually needs to be two books...one for my family, and one for jumpers. Right now I'm just writing down everything I can remember, mostly in order. I'm up to the invention of the hand deployed pilot chute. Trouble is, a lot of this stuff happened over 50 years. There were also no cell phones, so I don't have nearly enough photos to back up the stories. So I do hope other people can add some memories, insight, and photos.

Bill, I was literally in diapers, a newborn actually, in 1970. This photo is from the wrong timeframe - it's 2014 during one of Tom's examiner courses. But feel free to use if it's helpful at all. And thanks again for all you've done for our sport. I'm truly grateful for my time in Deland learning from the masters. Can't wait for the book. Louis