Public Consultation - Interim Service Spec for Specialist Gender Dysphoria Services for Children/Young People

He thinks the only treatment there should be for troubled children caught up in the gender madness is sterilisation and mutilation.

twitter.com/JolyonMaugham/status/1583364606755753984?cxt=HHwWgMDS-ZDunvkrAAAA

The fox killer isn't happy.

This is so important.
I've been waiting to hear how these clinics are going to support children and what messages this will send to parents and schools.

The message I'm getting here is: Caution.

Which would at least start to shift the narrative from the sparkly rainbow pom poms Be Your Authentic Self where we have been.

Response to this is really important.

I'll be emphasising the need for extreme caution for social transition which places a child's well being on maintaining a fiction which the reality of their body will challenge every day, which is therefore likely to increase dysphoria and lead to body modification rather than acceptance.

It also places a child's wellbeing and sense of self as relying on other people to support this fiction which they will not consistently do.

A child's wellbeing being at the mercy of how others perceive them goes against everything we know about positive mental health.

We need to move away from this concept of social transition altogether. We should never support children to deny reality and ask others to play along.

If anything transition should just mean a change in presentation: Jack is growing his hair long and wearing sparkly hair slides because he likes it. Not because he's a girl.

This is a positive step but there is still a flawed premise even in the consideration of 'social transition.'

The Wobberlies too. And this classic.

I mean, I'm the same. You can't be a medical expert on childbirth unless you're pregnant. I only want an oncologist who is actually having chemo. 🙄

Generally yes, very happy. A few points in my mind: (1) autism leads to specific problems with "watchful waiting" as people with ASCs can react badly to uncertainty and transition may seem less immediately painful (2) what about support for young people who have started medicating illegally and need medical help to stop? (3) broader point from (2) - what about detransition? In theory no-one that young should need it but I wouldn't rely on it. (4) no mention of breast binding - is that a safeguarding issue or not?

So has anyone fully read and do they have any comments either way? As many gc teachers parents and anyone else should respond in agreement to counter the tra mass response which will not agree with this?
I don't want to fill it in badly as it were but also think individual responses carry more weight than if we do it through an organisation template?

Do they normally view health reports from other countries in this way? Do they think Scottish people and people who live in Scotland are so different from people in the rest of the UK?

When it suits their politics, yes. The SNP/Green alliance are positioning themselves as oh-so-progressive against fuddy-duddy old England.

The government are busily ignoring the interim Cass report as hard as they can, they are still putting forward a conversion therapy bill that includes transgender, and in the GRC self-id bill they want to lower the age to apply for a GRC to 16.

Scotland let 16 year olds vote in the Independence referendum and now caution and safeguarding are for the birds.

Excellent. Have submitted a response.

It's really important that we make our voices heard. The munchy mums on Twitter are all over this.

Ideally, ScotGov would listen as well, but I suspect they’ll just say as it’s NHS England, it’s nothing to do with them and double down on their affirmation only stance.

That's a really odd attitude. Do they normally view health reports from other countries in this way? Do they think Scottish people and people who live in Scotland are so different from people in the rest of the UK?

And with the tightening of prescribing of hormones and moving onto to medical transition from social as puberty hits (rightly imo) social transition in schools will be more problematic as those who have presented and been accepted as the opposite sex will start to have physical signs of puberty and their natal sex. It's actually easy to see that this could increase the sense of dysphoria and associated issues. So by socially transitioning pre puberty you're just kicking the can.

Yes schools need to know what they are doing us not neutral and could have an adverse impact.

Sorry, I went and found it and read it properly!

"In cases where a pre-pubertal child has effected, or is effecting, a social transition (or expresses a wish to effect a social transition) the clinical approach has to be mindful of the risks of an inappropriate gender transition and the difficulties that the child may experience in returning to the original gender role upon entering puberty if thee gender incongruence does not persist into adolescence."

This for me is hugely important.

i am aware of a 'mummy blogger' who has a 'trans child' and seems to have fully (not only socially but very publicly) transitioned their very young child and I find it incredibly disturbing that no professional has stepped in and raised considerations such as these.

Hopefully this document and guidance will come in effect and help children such as these.

Or where it has been instigated and encouraged by parents and schools have unquestioningly joined in and encouraged other children in the school to comply with the social transitioning.

Where neurodivergence or early exploration of sexuality are not sensitively explored.

Where things like FII, and other forms of abuse or household issues have not been considered.

"Not all adolescents will want or benefit from social transition. The provision of approaches to support social transition may be considered in cases where:..."

This is interesting as it specifies adolescents and does not mention children. Can one take from that that they have not considered that parents and primary schools are also facilitating (and in some newsworthy cases, enforcing) the social transition of very young children? Or that they are talking about adolescents only to exclude the idea that you g children may have this done to them?

This feels quite promising, it is feeling more balanced and measured.