Update from James Caspian on his case against Bath Spa University to be allowed to research detransitioners

Incidentally, does anyone know why I can only find that one DM article about the GEO investigation when I google? I'm sure at the time it had a fair bit of publicity.

De-transitioning children are not easy to find

Well no, because transitioning children is not legal, despite what Suzie Green did. Did you mean 'desisting children'? I believe the vast majority do desist, if not given puberty blockers.

I have no doubt that if someone of James' calibre plus relevant experience decided to research desisting children, there would be a LOT of parents who would be happy to work with them. Many of these parents have probably already donated to this crowdfunder.

I very much hope that desistence is looked at as part of the Government Equalities Office's URGENT investigation into ROGD - so urgent they launched it half way through the GRA consultation.

In view of the times article today about silencing of academics this case takes on even greater significance. I’ve donated already and would urge others to do the same you can afford to spare a few pounds.

Done

There are extra hoops to jump through if you want to interview children or other vulnerable groups, and it is very hard to get ethics approval in these areas for very good reason. It’s not about being trans - he’d have just as much trouble accessing children with kidney disease or cancer.

And then there is the likelihood of him recruiting sufficient children for his study. De-transitioning children are not easy to find, unless you plan to use confidential medical records (which he obviously can’t). How is he planning on obtaining their parents’ contact details to seek consent? He can’t ethically contact the children directly.

Beg to differ on a number of points. Once upon a while, I was that random PhD student looking for access to a severely ill, highly limited pool of children for a research project. My stack of ethics board approval applications measured four feet tall in the end. It was laborious, completely necessary, and fully approved. Not impossible by any means.

With parental and physician approval, it was possible to access medical records, sometimes in lieu of interviews if the child and/or parents were too ill or declined to speak to me. And as for getting enough data, I worked across a number of centres around the UK because psychiatry professionals referred cases to us. We also looked at retrospective cases where possible. I'm afraid all your objections here do have precedent and can be solved - particularly by someone with the pedigree of this researcher (who I'm quite sure would find all the negotiation and travelling far less challenging than I did!)

Here is his background:

humanumreview.com/articles/a-gender-therapist-asks-questions

I think somebody should research de-transitioning children, but as a medical academic I absolutely do not think that this should be some random inexperienced master’s student.

Then you should be very reassured to know that "No one could accuse psychotherapist James Caspian of being a bigot or prejudiced against transgender people. His LGBT — that's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender — credentials are impeccable.

For this slight, measured, gay man is not only a trustee of the transgender charity The Beaumont Trust, but he has dedicated more than a decade of his life to counselling hundreds of patients who wish to change their gender.

He publishes academic papers on the subject, contributes to books and addresses some of the finest minds in the health professions at conferences around the world — and has done extensive work training fellow psychotherapists on transgender awareness.

If there was ever an expert in this field, James, 58, is it."

About as far as you can get from being a "random inexperienced master’s student".

I haven't seen any suggestion he's intending to work with children.

He's a psychologist and therapist with 10 years' experience working in a gender clinic, a trustee of Beaumont and had input into the memorandum of understanding.

Hardly 'some random inexperienced masters student' or 'just some bloke dabbling'

Maybe there are even better qualified people to do this research but they aren't doing it are they? Meanwhile the numbers of detransitioners continues to grow.

I found this guy's videos today. There are a few in English on his channel. We need to listen to detransitioners.

some random inexperienced master’s student

He's a trustee of the Beaumont Trust, FGS.

www.beaumont-trust.org.uk/organisation/

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4979498/James-Caspian-attacked-transgender-children-comments.html

Not inexperienced at all.

www.theguardian.com/education/2017/sep/25/bath-spa-university-transgender-gender-reassignment-reversal-research

If he is who I think he is, he's worked with trans people for years @Sashkin .

I actually don’t agree with this. I think somebody should research de-transitioning children, but as a medical academic I absolutely do not think that this should be some random inexperienced master’s student. These are very vulnerable children and he has the potential to do untold damage if he approaches his research in the hamfisted way he is approaching his ethics application.

There are extra hoops to jump through if you want to interview children or other vulnerable groups, and it is very hard to get ethics approval in these areas for very good reason. It’s not about being trans - he’d have just as much trouble accessing children with kidney disease or cancer.

And then there is the likelihood of him recruiting sufficient children for his study. De-transitioning children are not easy to find, unless you plan to use confidential medical records (which he obviously can’t). How is he planning on obtaining their parents’ contact details to seek consent? He can’t ethically contact the children directly.

If this was an experienced paediatric psychiatric researcher with a full research team behind them, fine. But this is just some bloke dabbling. It is wildly unethical, and his court case has zero chance of success.

Donated.

Is there an update on the OIA and the judicial review?

Thanks for the update, have donated, please share.

James Caspian is still asking for help funding his challenge of Bath Spa universities refusal to allow him to research people who reverse gender reassignment.

This second fundraiser has 18 days to go and has met £3,650 pledged of £5,000 stretch target. Can everyone share it around as much as possible, so that he gets that last £1,360? www.crowdjustice.com/case/free-speech-matters-round2/

The research is vitally important and it is horrendous that regret and destransition research is being blocked at a time when the number of young girls demanding hormones and surgery are increasing exponentially.

I'm not in contact with him as such.

I got an emailed update from the crowdfunder site which I copied and pasted.

I have shared it on Facebook, but I have the sum total of 9 friends.....

Maybe we could ask Count Dankula too? He was in court recently for free speech and raised a fair amount!

"James is a masters student which means he needs a supervisor for his project.

Bath can't be forced to provide a supervisor...."

Actually, this may not strictly be the case. At my uni, Masters courses with a taught part and a research project part, we are required to provide a supervisor, although means that students who insist on doing a particular project, rather than one a supervisor suggests, don't always get a specialist in their chosen area. But we are required to provide a supervisor -- provided, that is, that the project has obtained ethical approval (if that is relevant), which is the sticking point in this case. I presume there are also issues around projects not being considered academically suitable, but that would be an issue for the supervisor (along the lines of if this is all you propose to do, that isn't sufficient or at the correct level for masters research), rather than the uni admin.

Basically, if someone is accepted on a masters course, pays the fees and turns up, we are contractually obliged to provide a reasonably suitable supervisor, it is part of what they have paid for! :-)

I've just shared and will donate when my CC is handy.

that such a good idea to ask higher profile people to tweet about it. OP, if you are in touch with him, could you ask him if he could contact Jordan Peterson? Hopefully wealthy North Americans will donate if he can give it a 'free-speech' boost...

Has he tweeted Jordan Peterson for a retweet? Or other high follow supporters of free speech in this regard.

The latest update from James Caspian's appeal for funds

Update on Free Speech Matters

Dear Friends and Supporters,

There has been a significant development in my case.

Last week the Office of the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education, (that is, the ombudsman for universities) agreed to consider my complaint against Bath Spa University, on condition that my lawyers ask for a stay (that is, a holding off from) of application for judicial review.

In December 2017 I asked the OIA to look at the complaint, and it refused to do so. When my lawyers applied in March 2018 for Judicial Review of Bath Spa University's decision to not allow my research proposal, they also included the OIA in the application. Following this, the OIA decided it would look at my complaint against the university after all.

So we have asked the court to stay the application for Judicial Review while the OIA investigates my complaint. This is a necessary part of the process. Should it find in favour of the university we will continue our application for JR.

I will keep you updated as things progress. I am still raising funds to cover my legal expenses on Crowdjustice and ask that you continue to tell people about the case and the page, see

www.crowdjustice.com/case/free-speech-matters-round2/

Please tweet, re-tweet, share on Facebook and other platforms. Please ask friends and supporters to pledge.

Thank you once again for your interest and support while this long and laborious process continues.

Best Wishes,

James.

He has 4 days remaining to raise £2,455.

Can we help?

Hmmmm,

I don't get this fundraiser. James is a masters student which means he needs a supervisor for his project.

Bath can't be forced to provide a supervisor....

Does anyone have an update on this?