Ben Hunte BBC article about puberty blocker ban

Original para:

Doctors and parents have told the BBC the ruling could cause distressed trans teens to self-harm or even take their own lives.

Updated para:

Doctors and parents have told the BBC the ruling could put already vulnerable trans teens at risk.

That you do recognise that the current cohort of particularly teens identifying as trans is significantly different to your own experience in that they are teenaged girls?

I and everyone here will certainly agree that all children and teens need better evidence led care and intensive mental health care. And that every transition should be followed up as part of this.

Ben isn't a journalist he is an ideologue

What I really, really do not understand is Ben, Adrian and others, seemingly happy young gay men are promoting the mutilation, and long term medicalisation, of adolescent girls.

Both trained as scientists, so should be aware of the need to establish fact, and bright enough to weigh up the available research (and lack of it). Neither has skin in the game. So why?

I really hope that it is not that both see career openings within a growing transgender "industry".

Ben isn't a journalist he is an ideologue. The BBC need to provide some stricter oversight of his output.

OldCrone a look through this forum will show you’ve been asking the same question over and over for years and even when the answer isn’t about stereotypes you go on asking it regardless.
Not sure what the point is really.

Go on then, if you have something better to explain gender identity than stereotypes. All ears.

I agree with Old Crone. If I had a male body I wouldn't think I'm a woman trapped in a male body I would think that I was a man and my opinions and personality traits were those of a man and that men have a variety of personality traits.
The fact that so many males feel they have a feminine side just shows that this is fairly common in males and that macho masculinity is not universal against males. It doesn't mean they are really women.
When Philip Treacy the milliner was a boy and wanted to do dressmaking at school and realised he was attracted to males he didn't decide that meant he was really a girl. He decided that meant boys could be interested in dressmaking too and he successfully campaigned to let boys study dressmaking and cookery in his school. He also married a man.
Challenge the stereotypes rather than change your body.

Ghouls. Absolute ghouls.

They need to get a real journalist to write up the truth about the issue - and the stats. Incredibly irresponsible ‘journalism’ from a ‘journalist’ 🤡

^Janice Turner says they've also quietly removed all references to suicide from the article too.

The update doesn't say she was struck off, it says she was suspended and is challenging the decision.
I don't see how they can justify promoting a suspended GP.

It still says;
''In a letter seen exclusively by the BBC, GenderGP - one of the only private healthcare providers for transgender people in the UK - .''

From the BBC:

[quote Mollyollydolly]Great response from James Kirkup in The Spectator. Cannot believe it's still on the website frankly.
www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-bbc-should-be-ashamed-of-its-reporting-on-trans-teenagers[/quote]
A clear and succinct summary of the problems with the article. It is still on the BBC news site, however as was predicted earlier in the thread it has been toned down slightly. It now mentions the fact that HW was struck off and gives a link to the Samaritans. Too little too late I would say - the original will no doubt have been shared countless times by those whose agenda is more important than child safeguarding.

There’s likely lots of reasons it’s happening. The fact that there is currently a cultural phenomenon driving 100s of girls to present with some sort of dysphoria (unrelated to transsexuality) doesn’t mean within that there isn’t a much smaller group of genuine gender dysphoric children who will never grow out of it and for whom transition might be the only treatment at some point.

I agree with you here, Types but if any form of treatment other than blockers is considered transphobic how do we meet the needs of ALL the children, not just the few that will not regret transition?

a look through this forum will show you’ve been asking the same question over and over for years and even when the answer isn’t about stereotypes you go on asking it regardless. Not sure what the point is really.

The point is that when it's not about stereotypes, it's about 'feelings' about 'gender'. 'Feelings', by definition, cannot be explained objectively to another person.

Here are the criteria for diagnosis of gender dysphoria in children from DSM 5:

A strong desire to be of the other gender or an insistence that one is the other gender (or some alternative gender different from one’s assigned gender)
In boys (assigned gender), a strong preference for cross-dressing or simulating female attire; or in girls (assigned gender), a strong preference for wearing only typical masculine clothing and a strong resistance to the wearing of typical feminine clothing
A strong preference for cross-gender roles in make-believe play or fantasy play
A strong preference for the toys, games or activities stereotypically used or engaged in by the other gender
A strong preference for playmates of the other gender
In boys (assigned gender), a strong rejection of typically masculine toys, games, and activities and a strong avoidance of rough-and-tumble play; or in girls (assigned gender), a strong rejection of typically feminine toys, games, and activities
A strong dislike of one’s sexual anatomy
A strong desire for the physical sex characteristics that match one’s experienced gender

-------

Stereotypes and waffle about 'gender' (with no definition of what 'gender' means - stereotypes perhaps). A couple of points about dislike of the sexed body, which could point to the child having experienced abuse or trauma.

None of this is a good reason for sterilising children.

I keep asking if you have anything better than this in the (futile) hope that there might be something other than stereotypes behind this movement.

It seems there isn't.

I think that gender identity doesn’t necessarily exist - the reason male people feel male is because they are male and have been raised knowing that. Gender dysphoria is a condition where you believe or wish you were the opposite sex. That doesn’t mean that all persons have a gender identity that either does or does not match with their sexed body.

Great response from James Kirkup in The Spectator. Cannot believe it's still on the website frankly.
www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-bbc-should-be-ashamed-of-its-reporting-on-trans-teenagers

An important article from James Kirkup on this. I hope the BBC takes note:

www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-bbc-should-be-ashamed-of-its-reporting-on-trans-teenagers

OldCrone a look through this forum will show you’ve been asking the same question over and over for years and even when the answer isn’t about stereotypes you go on asking it regardless.
Not sure what the point is really.

Maybe that's because no other answer is ever forthcoming. Most recently we have been told that trying to explain 'gender identity' to someone who doesn't have one is like trying to explain the colour red to a blind person. That still does not describe what constitutes a gender identity. What would you expect someone whose gender identity is female to be like? How would that gender identity manifest itself? How would it differ from someone who had a male gender identity?

OldCrone asks these questions so that we can consider the answers. If no answer is forthcoming, we consider that too.

Some people who are gender (sex) dysphoric about their bodies don’t have any sexual relationships at all.

Do you think childhood is the best time to set that expectation in stone?

Ben Hunte has a degree in neuroscience. No excuse at all.

From his website:

^One of the BBC's youngest correspondents, since being appointed to the role in April 2019, Ben Hunte’s journalism has already been nominated for prestigious national and international awards:

Winner - Journalist of the Year - One Young World, 2020

Finalist - Specialist Journalist of the Year - British Journalism Awards, 2020

Finalist - Young Talent of the Year - Royal Television Society, 2020

Finalist - Journalist of the Year - PinkNews and British LGBT Awards, 2020

In 2019 Ben was awarded an ‘Alumni Laureate Award’ by the University of Nottingham, where he studied a Neuroscience degree on an all-expenses-paid scholarship in Malaysia.^

I know of some really good young journalists. Yet this uncritical and under researched approach seems to be the stuff you need to write to win the prizes.

Human brains don't mature until 25. No one should go through irreversible surgery before then.

How, then can you separate the two out, when the criteria for a diagnosis of gender dysphoria itself contains an element -distaste or distress relating to one’s genitals- that is equally likely to apply to a child or young person being sexually abused?

The answer has to be a decent length of exploratory psychotherapy. Which requires funding properly.

Genuine gender dysphoria is caused by an underlying cross-sex core gender identity.

What does this mean? And how is it diagnosed?

All I've ever seen in answer to these questions is a lot of regressive and sexist stereotypes. Do you have anything better?