Victoria, Australia-parents: consent to puberty blockers or be prosecuted

The document contradicts itself. It starts by saying that medical interventions are conversion practices:

Change or suppression (also known as conversion) practices are teachings, counselling, spiritual care activities, or other psychological or medical interventions based on the ideology that there is something wrong with or broken about people with diverse sexualities or gender identities.

You are not broken or damaged, and you do not need to be fixed.

Then in the section about illegal practices:

a parent refusing to support their child’s request for medical treatment that will enable them to prevent physical changes from puberty that do not align with the child’s gender identity and denying their child access to any health care services that would affirm their child’s gender identity

Surely this medical treatment is based on the idea that there is something wrong with the child, which makes this medical treatment an illegal conversion practice.

Allowing your daughter to play with dinosaurs or to wear suitable clothing for play will not result in her wanting to be a boy. In fact, the very opposite could indeed be true.

This sort of thing crops up very regularly in stories of "trans kids", like Susie Green's TED Talk - boys being punished for playing with girly toys, or vice versa. Unsurprisingly, this leads the child to the conclusion "if I was a girl, I would be allowed to play with the toys I like", hence leading to some sort of declaration of desire to be or actually being a girl.

Which then hits some adult stupid enough to excitedly latch onto that and declare that child a "trans kid".

Everyone's spotted this pattern now, so it's unsurprising some might want to do some DARVO to make out it's gender-critical people doing that. Laughably transparent if you're even vaguely aware of who we are (the people that brought you "Let Toys Be Toys"), but worth a try, I guess.

This is a rather extreme way to deal with a situation that hasn't happened yet. I feel sad you've taken her dinosaurs away! The toys won't make her feel masculine - and as long as you just teach her factual biology from an early age she is going to be fine. Another thing to remember is that the backlash to this is going to be breathtakingly swift when it finally takes hold so it might not even be a social contagion issue by the time she's 10. Just raise her as drama free as you can, keep her away from the internet for as long as possible and keep an eye on her friends.

@NZdad Thank you for sharing this here. We need to remind doctors what informed consent is and what competance to make informed consent looks like.

I wonder of there are civil rights organisations who would be able to supoort parents in these situations.

@Vitsyra I believe that if we have open and honest communication with our children, we can nurture them to love the bodies they are born in. I do know that parents all over the world have challenging situations with their children but the vast majority of parents do not face this question. In my opinion we should not be complicit in restriciting the growth of our children by imposing sex based stereotypes upon them. Allowing your daughter to play with dinosaurs or to wear suitable clothing for play will not result in her wanting to be a boy. In fact, the very opposite could indeed be true. Find some like minded people, be the positive force and role model your child needs.

Vitsyra, if you are a real poster, please get some help and perhaps go on a parenting course to get practical support as it seems that paranoia is affecting your parenting.

NZdad I'm aware that Australia can be an intensely religious society with a lot of churches that seem very extreme to me - i had a colleague here that went to a Hillsong church in the UK which I think is originally an Australian movement, and I find what they do worrying. I'd be more concerned that my child would be converted to this sort of religion than about puberty blockers. I'm not sure if NZ is the same?

Looking at the website I would put the Act into that context - that there is a lot of organised homophobic action taken against individuals in religious movements. I'd also agree with the 'not broken and don't need fixing' message.

Having said that - i also agree that it is outrageous for a parent to be prosecutable if they are saying their child is not sick and does not need invasive medical treatment - that doesn't fit at all with the 'not broken' message. It's quite jarring to see them put together, in fact.

It is pretty rare to be faced with this to such an extreme extent - puberty blockers remain a very minority treatment, and I hope soon will stop being used. I wouldn't take it into account if deciding where to live but I would want to keep my child's Internet use under review and talk about what they are seeing. Essentially aim to head off any medicalising voices.

I understand that drugs can be directly advertised to consumers in NZ, do you see any of that?

The threat of prosecution unless a parent consents on behalf of their child is obviously coercion. Coerced “consent” is NOT consent. I am amazed that no Australian healthcare body is speaking up to point this out, regardless of what their politics are on this issue. Any “consent” that a healthcare professional sought by using coercion tactics would not be admissible in court. This is no different but appears to have the blessing of local government. But then, it’s quite likely that this example of coerced “consent” is just well hidden enough to suit the TRAs.

This needs to be brought to the attention of parents everywhere, especially in Australia. It has made my blood run cold too @MagnoliaTaint. Thank you @NZdad for bringing this to our attention.

genderclinicnews.substack.com/p/overreach-by-conversion-therapy-watchdog?s=r

You might be interested in this substack about this very topic!

I'm sorry, OP, that makes my blood run cold.