I want to make sure that Irish politicians can't deny their part in Self ID

Second Section:
A Culture of Silencing Dissent or Questions in Medicine

Experts in GIDs
Several experts working in Gender Identity Services have raised serious concerns about the treatment given to young people with dysphoria. They have spoken about a culture in which it is difficult to discuss these concerns and in which evidence is lacking, and political lobbying seems to have undue influence.

Marcus Evans, one of the governors of The Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust has resigned last year. In his resignation email he wrote
“I do not believe we understand what is going on in this complex area and the need to adopt an attitude which examines things from different points of view is essential. This is difficult in the current environment as the debate and discussion required is continually being closed down or effectively described as ‘transphobic’ or in some way prejudicial.”
www.theguardian.com/society/2019/feb/23/child-transgender-service-governor-quits-chaos

Susan Evans, a psychoanalytic psychotherapist, and wife of Mr Evans, resigned from the Tavistock Clinic in 2004 over similar concerns. She is currently bringing a case to see if current treatment guidelines are lawful.
^“I fear that in 10 years time, there will be a lot of people in their mid-20s whose lives have been wrecked by poor assessment and poor evidence based treatment, who will have been rushed down a path which they should never have been taken down so swiftly.
“We have a situation where clinical sense has been overridden by political lobbying and activism. And I am not ashamed to say that.
“I fear that some of these young transgender patients will have grounds to sue the NHS in years to come.”^
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/01/11/fear-young-trans-patients-could-sue-nhs-negligence-former-tavistock/

Kirsty Entwhistle, former clinician at Leeds GIDS:
“I think it is a problem that GIDS clinicians are making decisions that will have a major impact on children and young people’s bodies and on their lives, potentially the rest of their lives, without a robust evidence base. GIDS clinicians tell children and families that puberty blockers/hormone blocks are “fully reversible” but the reality is no one knows what the impacts are on children’s brains so how is it possible to make this claim? It is also a problem that GIDS clinicians are afraid of raising their concerns for fear of being labelled transphobic by colleagues.”
medium.com/@kirstyentwistle/an-open-letter-to-dr-polly-carmichael-from-a-former-gids-clinician-53c541276b8d

In Ireland, experts have expressed concern at the proposals of a HSE steering committee on transgender services.

Paul Moran, consultant psychiatrist at St Columcille’s, says this proposal is “unsound and unsafe” because it “does not enable adequate assessment of patients and does not require proper qualification of professionals”.
“Thankfully there is in place a sound and safe service which, unlike this [proposal], has qualified, highly trained people working in a well-governed service,” Moran said.
Donal O’Shea, a consultant endocrinologist, said the St Columcille model was approved by the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland and was in line with best international practice, so doctors would continue to implement it.
“My concern is that they’re almost encouraging self-declaration to equal ‘you should start treatment’ and that there is no need for a full assessment prior to that decision.
“A person’s gender is their own decision but where that should lead you — should it lead you to hormone treatment and surgery or not — is a really complex decision.”
www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/ireland/simon-harris-pushed-hse-to-review-need-for-psychiatric-assessment-for-gender-switches-pzw7mnrsx?region=ie&t=ie

James Cantor is a clinical psychologist and sexual behavior scientist. He is Director of the Toronto Sexuality Centre and Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto. He has written an article criticising the policy of treating gender dysphoria with affirmation only:
“every follow-up study of GD children, without exception, found the same thing: By puberty, the majority of GD children ceased to want to transition.”
www.sexologytoday.org/2018/10/american-academy-of-pediatrics-policy.html

Trans People
Some trans people and others with gender dysphoria are voicing dissatisfaction with current treatment, and, again, the need for open discussion. GCCAN - Gender Care Consumer Advocacy Network - campaigns for more research, better information and a standard of care that provides alternatives to medical transition, as well as more complete information on side effects of medical transition and support for those who do opt for medical transition.
“Our experience as gender care consumers has shown the lack of professional advice before committing to body-altering therapies, and we have a right to this information before making decisions.” [...]
“We have the right to access peer-run support networks for gender dysphoria, including as a possible alternative to professional care. We have the right for peer-run spaces to allow for questioning and exploration of causes for our gender dysphoria without favoring transition or detransition.”
www.gccan.org/bill-of-rights

Detransitioners - people who have undergone medical transition but who then regret it - are also finding it difficult to be heard.
“Dr David Bell, consultant psychiatrist at the Tavistock, described why it’s so difficult for those services which deal with trans identity to accept the detransition movement. “Detransitioners are a threat to an ideology that has acquired an almost totalitarian quality and cannot be challenged,” he says. “It is extraordinary the way in which, without any evidence at all, trans ideology has had the ears of politicians up to the highest level.””
unherd.com/2019/12/the-nhs-is-failing-trans-kids/

The taboo on discussing detransition is evident in the treatment of journalists like Katie Herzog, who, for an innocuous article interviewing several detransitioners, was ostracized as a transphobe.
Her article: www.thestranger.com/features/2017/06/28/25252342/the-detransitioners-they-were-transgender-until-they-werent
An article on her ostracism: www.nytimes.com/2019/11/02/style/what-is-cancel-culture.html

Detransitioners do exist, however, and their needs are as valid as those of transitioners. Some have set up websites and groups to share their stories and offer support. eg . post-trans.com/
GCCAN also supports detransitioners & campaigns for recognition & support of detrans people.

Cheers Apileofballyhoo

The loss of single-sex spaces, particularly for women.

Prisons:
The GRA has already resulted in a male sex offender being placed in a women’s prison. It appears that this situation was not envisaged or planned for when the GRA was being introduced.
From an article in the Law Society Gazette Ireland, October 2019:
“Criminal defence lawyer Robert Purcell says that the Gender Recognition Act 2015 has placed the State in an impossible position with regard to transgender prisoners.
The law is challenging for the courts and the Irish Prison Service, he believes, since there is, potentially, a safety issue for women inmates housed alongside a male-bodied prisoner.”
www.lawsociety.ie/gazette/top-stories/male-bodied-transgender-inmate-housed-with-women-prisoners/

Richard Garside, Director of the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies, has written about how this further penalises some of the most vulnerable women in society. In September 2018, he wrote,
“The United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners state that 'Men and women shall so far as possible be detained in separate institutions; in an institution which receives both men and women, the whole of the premises allocated to women shall be entirely separate'. [...]
“Highly vulnerable, often traumatised, prisoners are the rule, not the exception, in women's prisons. Many have faced male sexual violence and exploitation.” [...]
“The Chief Executive of the Howard League, Frances Crook, told last weekend's Sunday Times that she had 'personally witnessed female prisoners visibly "intimidated" by a male-bodied trans inmate in their midst. "The trans prisoner was dominating the space and the women were round the edges," she said.'”
(We’d like to make clear that Mr Garside is also concerned for the welfare of trans prisoners and discusses their needs too.) www.crimeandjustice.org.uk/resources/transgender-prisoners

Some more on this issue by Crime & Justice:
www.crimeandjustice.org.uk/resources/let-female-prisoners-decide-who-can-share-their-spaces
www.crimeandjustice.org.uk/news/statement-transgender-prisoners

Refuges:
Karen Ingala Smith, who runs Nia, a refuge for women who are victims of domestic abuse, has given evidence to the British parliament on the problems that self-declaration of gender poses.
womansplaceuk.org/end-to-violence-against-women/
From this speech: “Independent research repeatedly finds that women who have been subjected to men’s violence fare better in women-only spaces [...] Many of the women and children we work with are terrified of males. And yes, this includes males who identify as transgender.”

Changing Facilities & Bathrooms:
In practice Self ID means that male people can no longer be challenged if they are in single-sex spaces such as communal changing rooms. Already facilities are implicitly recognising this fact by opting for ‘gender neutral’ spaces, which put women and girls at higher risk of sexual harassment and voyeurism, and which deprive both women and men of privacy. www.thetimes.co.uk/article/unisex-changing-rooms-put-women-in-danger-8lwbp8kgk
This article by the Cambridge Radical Feminist Network is a reasonable, well-argued & well-referenced overview of the problem. medium.com/@camradfems/there-is-nothing-progressive-about-removing-women-only-bathrooms-37729064cfb7
As it points out: “the need for women’s toilets is often freely recognised in regards to countries other than one’s own. Amnesty International has called sex-segregated toilets a human rights issue in respect of women housed in refugee facilities, who are leered at, verbally and sexually abused by the men — including security staff — in European camps.” [...]
“In certain developing countries, the UN Special Rapporteur on the human right to safe drinking water and sanitation has reported that the absence of sex-segregated bathroom facilities constitutes one of the ‘primary barriers preventing young girls from claiming their right to education’. An absence of privacy for girls in dealing with menstruation can be a major factor in determining whether those girls stay in school or drop out entirely.”
Given the admitted prevalence of sexual harassment in our own culture, shouldn’t we at least be discussing why such precautions are no longer needed here?
The CRFN article also explains how gender neutral facilities usually end up reducing the available facilities for women.

These are the main headings I've got:

1 The loss of single-sex spaces, particularly for women.
1.1 Prisons
1.2 Refuges
1.3 Changing Rooms & Bathrooms

2 A Culture of Silencing Dissent or Questions in Medicine
2.1 Experts in GIDs with concerns
2.2 Trans People with concerns about longterm effects & lack of alternatives
2.3 Detransitioners

3 Reification of Sexist Stereotypes
3.1 Lack of academic freedom to explore concept of gender

4 Loss of Women’s Sports, Shortlists, Awards & Political Representation

5 Problems re Accurate Statistics

6 Accurate Information about Medicine where Sex is Relevant

7 Freedom of Conscience

I'll post each section separately so people can give input if they want.

Hi, sorry to everyone who replied - as I said in my initial post, I was really, really busy over Christmas and since then I just didn't have the energy to tackle this properly. But I've started a document with ideas from other posters (cheers!) and will be working on it over the week. If anyone has any suggestions, pop them in.

Points I think we need to make. Please add/expand:

1. Politicians seem to be taking into consideration one set of interests only, on this issue. Those lobbying appear to have intentionally evaded public debate (reference Denton's report).

1. There seems to have been no discussion and no consideration of how trans rights conflict with sex-based rights.

www.lawsociety.ie/gazette/top-stories/male-bodied-transgender-inmate-housed-with-women-prisoners/

Any more examples?

1. It has become taboo to criticise the medical aspect, making it difficult for care providers to speak out & for parents to pose legitimate questions. (reference Marcus Evans & others who have left GIDs)

1. This issue raises problems regarding freedom of speech/ freedom of thought. Reference cases of Maya Forstater & Fair Cop, treatment of GC academics.

1. It's possible that the trans rights movement will have the opposite effect of the one a lot of its supporters wish it to have. Many supporters talk about breaking sexist stereotypes, but the concept of innate gender identity is often spoken about in terms of sexist stereotypes.

Great! I'm up to my eyes with work just now, I just had to post this after reading the James Kirkup piece, it made me so angry that there was deliberate silencing on this.

I'm going to do up a template letter and maybe people here will have suggestions (or post your own in the meantime if you want). We'll collect the main points that we want to make. I don't think it even needs to be a lot of people who do this - ten posted letters to a politician, ten people all ready to back each other up later if the politician tries to deny knowledge of the other side of this debate - should be enough to at least make them think about it.

So first, let's get the main points we want to make. Then we'll choose the politicians we're contacting. Then we aim for ten people to write to each politician, by post. Does that sound good?