Propaganda aimed at 'trans kids' in today's Guardian

That cartoon is fucking cringeworthy and utterly patronising. WTAF. No teen is going to read the Guardian and if they did they would massively eyeroll and ignore. Ken the Hen give me strength

The kids who need love are not the ones first dog seems keen to support.

Not so many brownie points in it. Easy stuff.

*Every 'transkid' I know in Australia is

• middle class
• has uni educated parents
• is either autistic or has been flagged as having ASD traits
• has parents who identify as progressive.
• urban
• atheist
• identified as trans grade 6 or later *

Yep. Mine included. These are not kids who are lacking care.

And we have a massive crisis with way too many children living below the poverty line, in insecure housing, being housed in motels by children's services, in the foster care system and being moved 17 times in 5 years, in our disgusting juvenile prison system and held in detention by a government that claims they don't exist.

The kids who need love are not the ones first dog seems keen to support.

Every 'transkid' I know in Australia is

• middle class
• has uni educated parents
• is either autistic or has been flagged as having ASD traits
• has parents who identify as progressive.
• urban
• atheist
• identified as trans grade 6 or later

I'm sure there are some who fit the American pattern

• Christian/churchgoing
• homophobic parents and society
• high school educated parents.
• identified as trans early in school life.

NotBad

Yeah :(

Yes Jane, I know the article you mean, that closed after 40 comments were allowed. It is a bit heartening that comments like yours get the most recommends, but as with the Guardian (UK), all that will mean is they will not allow comments from now on, or pre-moderate your sort of comments out of view.

emerence

I'm disappointed in First Dog too. It's unthinking, and FD was never that, so why on this issue ?

I had a recent comment in TGA re the irresponsible use of 'better a trans kid than a dead kid' which got a suprising number of likes, so there are Guardian AU readers out there who don't buy the simplistic rhetoric.

Most 'trans' kids I know, and know of, are urban, solidly middle class and from progressive families - I hate this imported US b/s that all those kids are unloved and in extreme danger. It's ridiculous. There are lots of kids in AU who are unloved and in danger (let's start with the kids in care, the kids in juvenile justice, the indigenous kids in over-crowded housing, the gay and lesbian kids in homophobic households ) but the vast majority of 'queer kids' are not those kids.

And indigo children was a thing when my now teen was small.

As was Lupron being called a cure for autism.

Language shifts but it's the same nonsense.

The rhetoric in Australia has become really nasty in the last couple of weeks.

This is partly because of:

1. The bill before the Victorian parliament (passed the lower house) which allows birth certificates to be edited on the basis of a declaration by the individual backed up by one written by someone who has known them 12 months.

1. The fact that there was a meeting held at Melbourne university discussing sex based rights which was protested by TWAW

1. Cricket Australia

1. The Australian (newspaper) not only publishing a number of articles about puberty blockers and ROGD but also collating all the articles published on trans issues under the heading gender. This is a Murdoch owned right wing paper and left/woke society reflexively dismisses everything published there.

1. As a response to 4 the strongest Gay voices on Australian twitter have been up in arms.

1. Labor and Greens politicians have buckled down and have been photographed holding signs saying 'I support fair birth certificates' (yes. We've asked what an unfair certificate is but there is no answer).

1. The backlash from feminists upset that the decriminalisation of abortion in NSW has finally been achieved without the word woman appearing in the legislation. The bill refers to pregnant people. Woke logic is hurt that anyone objects to the inclusiveness of the bill.

Our federal gov is headed by our first ever evangelical prime minister. This is a racist, homophobic, misogynistic leadership that is trying to dismantle all that was good about the country. The official opposition is weak. And to agree with the gov on anything at all - including the idea that biological sex is relevant and unchangeable - is considered by the so called left to be horrendous.

There has been a lot of shouting about how trans children and people and being hurt. How likely they are to self harm. To attempt suicide. It's shoddy and it's going to convince some people that if they truly are who they say they are they need to demonstrate it.

I'll probably complain to the guardian about this cartoon. But they won't pay attention.

(First dog has over the last few years often been a source of laughter and comfort. Never again after this harmful bullshit).

I’ve had enough of it all. I’m going to start escalating concerns professionally about puberty blockers.

Good on you. Hope it doesn't have dire consequences for you professionally though.

JanesKettle

I think what was interesting was I was pre-moderated without there being any indication of such. Which means one of two things: either I have been singled out, or they were monitoring comments anyway for those critical of puberty blockers. It’s very telling.

I’ve had enough of it all. I’m going to start escalating concerns professionally about puberty blockers.

NotBadConsidering

Blockers are a touchy subject at TGA. When I commented on a different article the other day and briefly mentioned blockers as an example of an issue parents may be concerned about, there was a very quick jump to shut down any conversation about it.

I think that's because people know blockers are bad, and they know they can't continue to advocate child transition once parents know how bad blockers are.

I contacted the community of behalf of my trans kid - parental permission needed to attend Rainbow Kids event - and asked some questions before I signed the permission slip.

One of the things I asked was 'what adult supervision is in place and who are the adults supervising?'

Never. Heard. Back. Community loves my kid so much they can't even answer a freaking most basic of basic safeguarding question. I did not sign the permission slip.

People in the community - other than rad fem lesbians, a sprinking of gay men and some older transexual people - do not love my kid at all. They want to recruit my kid, but they don't love him. If they did, they would answer my questions.

Guardian Australia is full of such bullshit.

You are perfect as you are...
we just need to put you on puberty blockers because your body is growing in the wrong way,
then snip a bit off here and another bit off there,
then put you on medication for the rest of your life,
and you will never be a biological parent,
...but apart from that you are perfect - lucky in fact.

This idea of indigo or trans children is crazy. in my day many girls were tomboys, many boys were "romantic", but we never considered that to be pushing sexual boundaries. It was simply pushing gender boundaries.

Thing is, most of it comes across as GC. “You’re perfect as you are”- so nobody should be giving you puberty blockers, or hormones, or binders, or suggesting surgery. "Sadly for you, not everyone can be a chicken”- so anybody telling you otherwise is lying to you and doesn’t have your best interests at heart. It’s only the queer non-binary bit that’s off.

I don't like the statement that queerness is to be celebrated and is special.

It's equal.

Not worse not better, equal.

On first google of 'cloaca question', I see the definition of cloaca in relation to human females.

I've only ever known the word to refer to the dual-job butthole of a snake or bird, through which they both poop and lay eggs, ergo why I assumed it meant the chicken vs egg debate.

Well, I suppose the cloaca question is an expansion of the (offensive) conflation of trans and intersex they're always doing?

'Your queerness is something sacred and special to be celebrated'- What the fuck? NO! YOU are someone sacred and special and should be celebrated! Whether you're 'queer', female, male, academic, sporty, autistic, quiet, loud, epileptic, shy, a human being etc. Trans people (or gay, lesbian, bi, non binary, whatever!) are no more special than anyone else. Suggesting they are is just begging for every 'square peg round hole' feeling kid to jump on the bloody bandwagon.

"Right now you are perfect"

If they are, why the blockers and hormones?

Why are perfect children being medicalised for life?

On first google of 'cloaca question', I see the definition of cloaca in relation to human females.

I've only ever known the word to refer to the dual-job butthole of a snake or bird, through which they both poop and lay eggs, ergo why I assumed it meant the chicken vs egg debate.

Assumed the cloaca question referred to the chicken vs egg debate. I'm guessing there's no point chucking that out there as a possible for what the author meant though? And yes, I'm about to google what's been mentioned up thread.

I remember the murmuring about indigo children when DD was a baby.
Reading that list she obviously is one and I didn't realise!
Don't hear a peep about them now sadly.

Thanks LordProf re Indigo Children explanation

Oh my gosh, indigo children, I'd forgotten all about them. When my DDs were little we lived in a village in southern England which attracted more than its fair share of New Age hippie types. DD1 had a friend in Reception whose parents were convinced she was an indigo child, and there were always a few parents who insisted on asking questions at parents evenings about how the school would accommodate the very particular needs of their indigo little ones. But then we moved to Scotland and I never came across anything similar up here. Maybe too cold for them!