Britain's youngest trans child

DS not DH.

DH had gorgeous ringlets when he was that age.

Crikey, the mother said in the hairdressers of the long hair in ringlets "Stormy's previous look".

Toddlers don't have a "look".

How absolutely bizzare. What is going on when 4 year olds have a "look" and have to go to trendy cool hair dressers?

That should be Tra's

They'll take umbrage at their diet being made fun of by lumping them in with crazy trans? 🌱

I noticed the mum said to the barber that her child was trans when he was cutting the littl'uns hair. Reminds me of the old joke, how do you know if someone is vegan?

I knew a little tacker once who was painted into a corner by a questioning adult figure: a headteacher in this case. Child had some marks on his back that were spotted when he was changing for PE. Teacher was concerned and alerted head who was safeguarding lead. Head looked at the marks and interpreted them as injuries from a beating with a belt. The child said he had no idea what they were. Head proceeded to question and harangue child in a persistent and leading way, i.e. "I know daddy has used his belt to hit you, you mustn't lie about it."

Child eventually admits that yes, the marks are from Daddy's belt. Headteacher then calls mum and SS and they all meet up at the child's GP. GP takes one look and declares the marks to be unmistakeable insect bites. Everyone goes home.

Mother to child: Why did you tell headteacher daddy hit you with his belt?!

Child to mother: I knew I wasn't going to get out of that office until I agreed with what head said.

We need to listen hard to what children tell us but we also need to make sure we aren't trapping children into telling us what they might think we want to hear.

Let children play. Let children be children. Let children breathe. Let children learn and grow.

Years ago, there used to be a thing here where people would post in threads aimed specifically at others expecting babues in the same month: "June 2006 babies", that kind of thing. Maybe they still do, and I just don't notice any more.

Anyway, on one thread I used to frequent (under a different name) I remember a particular poster who had a lot of daughters already and was desperate for a son. Baby was born and was female. By the time this child was 3 (maybe 4), this same poster was posting about her trans son of that age. I

I found it very disturbing.

They are also a very sexist family - only pink and sparkly or grey and superheroes to choose from, nothing in the middle - so pick a side.

If it weren't so heartbreaking that this is happening to real children it would almost be laughable at how accurate that statement is in all of these cases of young children transitioning.

On the flip side of that, I taught a cutie last year who was a natal boy. He loved Moana, nail varnish, sparkles etc. Credit where credit is due dad didn't try and get him into boys things or ',trans' him, he just allowed him to be who he is. Low income, poorly educated man and yet the love and understanding of his own children was blinding.
In contrast I know another little boy in the same year group who always went straight to the princess box. Dad furious with the school for letting him dress up and was discouraged. Said little boy is very sad soul now.
Let's let children be children.

I know a child who was transitioned at 4 (yes, in the UK). They are 7 or 8 now and you have never seen a more miserable looking child, it's heart breaking. They also asked the child every day if they were a girl or a boy - when she said girl (she is) they asked again the next day, and the next, until she said boy and they were all over it and stopped asking. To give the NHS credit, they told them the child had no concept of gender beyond stereotypes and to try role playing etc, so off they went to Mermaids who would understand them better.

This child is so clearly unhappy, but the dad would prefer to spend his time sending nasty emails policing the pronouns of 4 yos than actually stepping back to look at what he's done.

They are also a very sexist family - only pink and sparkly or grey and superheroes to choose from, nothing in the middle - so pick a side.

The fact that mainstream media is giving airtime to this is scary. It's very much the Emperor's New Clothes. Why is no one standing up and saying "she's a girl"?

I do so worry about the future for children who are "transitioned" at such mind-bogglingly young ages by their parents after saying typically toddlerish things. My own DB was blessed with two older sister, and innocently enquired of our DM to know when he was going to turn into a girl. He'd deduced that's what had happened to us, and from his point of view and extremely limited knowledge of life, it made a sort of sense.

Now take on board the fanfare and publicity around what are essentially cosmetic and sartorial changes to present this child as male: haircut, clothes, toys, name, pronouns. Nothing that will prevent a female puberty kicking in within 5 - 8 years.

Say the child, as they grow older, emerges, thinking, from all this hoo-ha and decides they want to resume life as a girl. Look at what the parents now have to lose. Instead of being publicised, fawned-over on national TV and living a high profile, minor celebrity life as brave, amazing, dedicated parents of an exceptional child, they emerge as foolish dupes at best; child abusers at worst.

What pressure might there be on a de-transitioning child to keep quiet and carry on?

An open letter to Dr Polly Carmichael from a former GIDS clinician
Kirsty Entwistle

Jul 18, 2019
(extract)
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. (continues)

The above meeting was called in response to a disagreement that I had with X over the two cases that we had seen together. As this is an open letter I cannot go into the details of my disagreements with X over these cases but in both cases I felt that X was too quick to recommend the medical pathway and I did not believe there was a current clinical need for puberty blockers in either case.
It was also surreal at the time to be arguing with X that a child’s early interest in [a certain children’s toy] should have no bearing on whether they are diagnosed with gender dysphoria. (continues)

I am also concerned to see that Mermaids continues to receive financial support and endorsements from high profile people whilst not being subjected to any proper scrutiny of its practice. I believe that it is the duty of GIDS to disclose their concerns about Mermaids as GIDS is one, if not the only place, where information about what goes on at Mermaids is known via parent reports. I also think that it is unethical that GIDS associates with Mermaids when they have associated with the Webberleys (from their website it looks as though they no longer do so). (continues)

I also strongly believe that it is GIDS duty to make it known that it is highly unlikely that any child presenting there will be told that they are not transgender. One of my biggest ethical dilemmas whilst working at GIDS was that there were parents who brought their child to GIDS anticipating that we would confirm that the child was not transgender but we are not able to tell parents that actually there is some unspoken rule that means GIDS clinicians do not tell families, “your child is not transgender”. (continues)

medium.com/@kirstyentwistle/an-open-letter-to-dr-polly-carmichael-from-a-former-gids-clinician-53c541276b8d

My DS couldnt say his own name age 4, let alone reason on any given day whether he was a boy, girl or non binary!

@Ereshkigalangcleg

That's great, Brioche well done

I sent a message to another good friend recently (she's American) with a link to an op-Ed by a liberal democrat who is concerned with the way children are being convinced that they are the opposite gender and are being encouraged to transition. Didn't hear anything back.

That's great, Brioche well done

oops sorry wrong post

I have had one little success today.

A friend posted a link on FB to a BBC article on the consultation on conversion therapy. (www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-57059459) I chickened out of replying to the post (she has lots of friends and I didn't want to start anything that would be awkward for her on her social media) Anyway, I messaged her privately with lots of information and included some links (TransgenderTrend and Billboardchris.com - he has some good resources that I hadn't seen) We've had a chat and she thought the link to the article on TT about the big rise in referral rates of girls to the Tavi was excellent and it's given her plenty to think about. She just hadn't appreciated what the conversion therapy ban would mean in terms of gender dysphoria and agreed it was a much more complicated issue than she had previously thought.

This doesn't make sense to me, the parents say they watchfully waited, but they couldn't have waited long bearing in mind how young the child is. And they say that the child can change their mind later on, yet they've already referred them to the tavi.

I'm not sure what the conclusion was re parental consent and puberty blockers, I know this was being touted as a loophole. But if this was to occur then the decision is already made for them, as not many children tend to go back at the puberty blocker stage. Poor kid must be so confused already with the questions about whether she's a boy or a girl. And kids always want to please their parents with the right answer. Is there space for the child to move back from this place? With the media attention the parents have drawn to it, I somehow doubt it.

These are adult concepts being dumped on the shoulders of a young child. It's a clear safeguarding issue. Why can't people just let kids be kids rather than dragging them into all of this adult drama.

This is my worry. Putting the child in such a rigid box is setting them up for that pathway

I also have a massive worry that when you make everyone else go along with it, we'll eventually the time will come that someone can't or won't. That time will likely be when the child is probably at a very vulnerable state , sick or hurt and drs and nurses will need to treat them.according to their sex.

So you then not only have someone who has to play "bad cop" you are having to do it at a time where they are not in the best situation anyway. Surely just male a bad situation even worse.

I caught up with this on twitter last night, glad to see they are being ratioed to kingdom come. But then that's probably why the program gave them air time because they knew it would attract a lot of comments.

On one hand this is blinding sunlight, on the other this feels like rewarding those idiots with publicity on the telly when the only thing they should be getting is a visit from social services.

Affirming that poor girl as a boy because she doesn't like sparkly princess stuff is abusive. I took DD (3) shopping last week, she saw some Iron Man overnight nappies and said "those are for boys". I told her no, they are for girls too, girls like Iron Man, mummy's a girl and I like Iron Man (big MCU fan), do you want Iron Man? She did, so we got them.

I didn't immediately affirm her as a boy and contact the press. What a dangerous pile of tosh

ScrollingLeaves

“Yes this was the U.K.”

Good grief, I’m getting too old for now

It is irritating the presenter used the trans gender ideological language, “assigned at birth” rather than simply born a girl.