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Transgender Documentary on BBC2 Thursday 2100 "Transgender Kids: Who Knows best?"

860 replies

ItsAllGoingToBeFine · 06/01/2017 08:09

Looks like an interesting watch, that does not just accept the trans children or they will kill themselves rhetoric. I just hope the BBC actually do show it and aren't bullied into not showing it.

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b088kxbw

The blurb:

Around the world there has been a huge increase in the number of children being referred to gender clinics - boys saying they want to be girls and vice versa. Increasingly, parents are encouraged to adopt a 'gender affirmative' approach - fully supporting their children's change of identity. But is this approach right?

In this challenging documentary, BBC Two's award-winning This World strand travels to Canada, where one of the world's leading experts in childhood gender dysphoria (the condition where children are unhappy with their biological sex) lost his job for challenging the new orthodoxy that children know best. Speaking on TV for the first time since his clinic was closed, Dr Kenneth Zucker believes he is a victim of the politicisation of transgender issues. The film presents evidence that most children with gender dysphoria eventually overcome the feelings without transitioning and questions the science behind the idea that a boy could somehow be born with a 'female brain' or vice versa. It also features 'Lou' - who was born female and had a double mastectomy as part of transitioning to a man. She now says it is a decision that 'haunts' her and feels that her gender dysphoria should have been treated as a mental health issue.

OP posts:
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felixthecar · 13/01/2017 00:05

Not on subject, but I bet Gina Ripon is the sister of Angela, they look so similar

venusinscorpio · 13/01/2017 00:02

They couldn't give a shit what happens to most of those wrongly transed children and what emotional trauma they might go through in being pushed down a path that they discover is wrong for them. I've heard transactivists pretty much write them off as collateral damage for their glorious cause.

TheCunkOfPhilomena · 12/01/2017 23:55

The hypocrisy of the transman saying that only a few percent regret transing when only moments before he was dismissing the 80% of children that grow up to not have gender dysphoria and that we should be looking at the 20% of children that 'persist' was astounding!!

I loved Prof Gina Ripon, she spoke brilliantly.

SuburbanRhonda · 12/01/2017 23:47

The transman was almost incredulous that anyone would actually give a shit about people who desist.

TalkingintheDark · 12/01/2017 23:45

The transman also seemed to be completely unaware of the huge irony of saying "well they're only a minority so fuck them" while at the same time being a campaigner for the rights and interests of a tiny minority of the general population...

SuburbanRhonda · 12/01/2017 23:45

And the way he implied that it made him feel good about himself to experience the "rebirthing" was quite revolting.

Beachcomber · 12/01/2017 23:42

The doctor who said GRS was like rebirthing patients seemed to have a god complex

YY. He totally gave himself away. I've read stuff about him before and he's creepily enthusiastic about medically transing minors.

Beachcomber · 12/01/2017 23:38

Me too SuburbanRhonda. I thought that was well edited. Lou's story was so heartbreaking and obviously took so much courage to tell and then you had the transman cheerfully saying "well there aren't that many so who gives a fuck". It was shocking.

I'm glad they mentioned that poor Lou had to tell her story anonymously due to death threats and online abuse.

That woman priest came across very badly with all her "do you want your kid to DIE, do you, do you, huh? you do don't you".

DeviTheGaelet · 12/01/2017 23:29

Flipping autocorrect! *Herschel

DeviTheGaelet · 12/01/2017 23:29

*God complex

DeviTheGaelet · 12/01/2017 23:28

I thought the bit where Hers Chelsea compared gender identity to dancing to internal music was almost Evangelical.
The doctor who said GRS was like rebirthing patients seemed to have a good complex. They didn't seem entirely rational.
Then again they portrayed families who didn't trans their children as old fashioned.

DeviTheGaelet · 12/01/2017 23:26

It has an air of hysteria. Don't get it. I thought the programme was very sensitive

SuburbanRhonda · 12/01/2017 23:25

I found the trans man (Herschel Russell?) so offensive when he dismissed people who desist transition, on the basis that they were a small minority compared with those who persist.

I mean, seriously - would he actually say that to "Lou", to her face? That her experience wasn't as important as his because she was in a minority?

venusinscorpio · 12/01/2017 23:22

In danger of what, exactly?

DeviTheGaelet · 12/01/2017 23:19

Oh dear twitter is not happy

Transgender Documentary on BBC2 Thursday 2100 "Transgender Kids: Who Knows best?"
Datun · 12/01/2017 23:14

Given that it's the first trans critical programme I have ever seen, I thought it was fairly well balanced. It has to be noted that the pro trans allies were not scientists or doctors. Just one trans-man.

At least they managed to get in the statistic about most children growing out of gender dysphoria. For any parents of trans children out there, I hope you take heart from this.

charlestrenet · 12/01/2017 23:12

I hadn't heard of her previously but I've googled her and she has been saying what she said in the programme for at least six years. I must say that debunking the male/female brain theory is far more useful for gender equality than telling boys who like dolls and dresses that they are born in the wrong body and will never be happy unless they mutilate themselves.

Muppetslikecoco · 12/01/2017 23:09

I thought it was brilliant, fairly balanced and allows people to come to their own conclusions and perhaps challenge their views.

Cherylene · 12/01/2017 23:09

No it doesn't - iplayer fail Blush

Cherylene · 12/01/2017 23:08

Tonight's newsnight has more.www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/live/bbctwo

venusinscorpio · 12/01/2017 22:48

Her name rings a bell, I must have come across her before.

Blerg · 12/01/2017 22:42

Yes I agree Beachcomber

Beachcomber · 12/01/2017 22:39

I thought it was pretty good all things considering. Came across as very fair in letting both sides say their piece and I think that was vital in order to avoid claims by TRAs that it was "anti-trans propaganda" being taken seriously by anyone new to the subject.

IMO the pro transing kids people came across as scaremongerers and zealots whose position was almost entirely based on restrictive ultra sexist stereotypes. Zucker et al came across as serious, sensible experts - I liked how they kept saying stuff like "it's simplistic to claim that all gender dysphoria has the same cause".

Kennington · 12/01/2017 22:28

Agree can you imagine a child making a decision on a psychiatric or cancer therapy.
And if the child is saying things it is often, not always, the parents or Internet or bloody Disney influencing them.

Miffer · 12/01/2017 22:21

What baffles me most is the hastag of Zucker critics kidsknowbest. What the fucking fuck would a kid possibly know 'best' about? Kids should be listened to buy kids do not know best about what they need.

Ultimately this is a medical decision, regardless of what you believe about the whys and wherefores these things require a medical doctor to carry out a medical intervention. What other medical treatment would we claim kids (and these are fucking kids in the case of puberty blockers) know best about? Literally not a single one, they can't even self medicate with off the shelf cold remedies and yet suddenly they know best about ongoing, life changing medical treatment. Everybody who used that hashtag is on some other planet.