Mail: Parents of three-year-olds 'took their children to NHS Tavistock clinic claiming they were trans when they just wanted a child of a different sex', psychiatrist says

Screenshot from
here re non GP referrals: healthtalk.org/Experiences-of-parents-and-carers-of-young-trans-and-gender-diverse-people/Parents-and-carers-experiences-of-their-child-getting-referred-to-the-Gender-Identity-Developm

The linked project is fascinating- lots of on camera interviews with parents who are on the affirmation track. One mother outright says her primary school aged child (male sex, socially transitioned to a ‘girl’ identity) experiences no bodily distress at all but wants puberty blockers prescribed anyway.

GIDS has been taking referrals from teachers, youth workers etc for years.

some GPs are definitely sensible about not referring very young children but parents and activists and adult transitioned people are very angry about GPs that don’t unquestionably refer on request.

These screenshots are from Reddit.

That's grim PurgatoryOfPotholes. It's like reading a personal statement from a 14 year old, not a qualified psychologist working with children with complex mental health issues.

This was their profile on the GIDS page.

profile

Tell us about your role?

I have worked at GIDS since October 2015. I initially came here as a trainee and became a qualified member of the team in October 2016. The main part of my job as a psychologist is to meet with families and young people who attend the service. In addition to this I liaise with other professionals involved with families, do some teaching/training and also some research.

What are your special interests within the work you do?

I have a particular interest in the topic of gender diversity, e.g. non binary/genderfluid/genderqueer/agender identities. Relatedly, I am also interested in sexual and relationship diversity- moving away from models of sexuality that are purely based on orientation (e.g. heterosexual, bisexual, homosexual) and thinking about sexuality more broadly.

What interested you about working in GIDS?

I find the topic of gender fascinating and it is something we all have a relationship regardless of how we identify. I feel that I can learn a lot about this topic from the young people who attend the service.

What advice would you have to someone coming to their first appointment with you?

We are aware that a first appointment can often be quite anxiety provoking for young people and families and we want to try and reduce these feelings if we can. So let us know if there are things we can do to make the sessions feel easier. I think it can sometimes feel that there is a lot to cover in the time that we have, so it can sometimes be useful to come with a list of questions or topics you want to cover and also have an idea about which are the most important.

GIDS is a national service so young people and families come from all over England and Wales, some of whom are coming to London for their first time. London is an amazing place with so much to choose from and there are lots of free exhibitions and activities to do while you are here for the day. One place in London I really like is Camden. If you are into any aspect of ‘alternative’ culture I would really recommend exploring Camden market, taking a walk along the high street and visiting some of the interesting stores.

Which person do you most admire?

One person I really admire is Meg-John Barker. They are a non-binary writer, activist, researcher and therapist. I really like the way they write about some very complicated topics and they write about these in a really accessible way, including a comic book about Queer Theory.

What is your favourite book?

I tend to read a lot more non-fiction books rather than story books. Though I did recently read a book called ‘Normal’ which is about trans young people. It was so good I read it in three days and would definitely recommend it! I also love Harry Potter and have all of the talking books. I went to the Warner Brother Studios Tour recently, though Butter Beer is a lot sweeter than I imagined it would be!

What is your favourite music genre?

There isn’t one genre of music that I like more than others. When I was a teenager indie music was my passion, with The Stereophonics being particular favourites. Now I tend to listen to a range of music, at the moment I am enjoying Frank Turner, I also listen to some breakbeat, some funk, and also musicals.

Absolutely agree Purgatory. And with some of the Mermaids activists who have done that to their children I think there's an added impetus that they HAVE to be right. Imagine the regret you'd feel as a parent if you arranged for your own child to be medically sterilised and you were wrong.

I've obscured certain identifying bits of information. The impression I got from this and other blog excerpts is of a person who believes they have found a personal health solution in transitioning and who is evangelical about that being the solution for other younger females experiencing distress.

To an extent, that's usual human behaviour. Whatever the issue (plumbing, toothache, how to plant a north-facing garden, chronic knee-pain), when people do find something that works for them, they can find it very difficult to accept that it's not a universal solution.

But this is an NHS clinic, not an informal chat at the bus-stop, and inability to distance oneself from other people's apparently similar struggles is far more serious in impact. Someone more senior should have been stepping in here. But I think that by that time the Tavistock didn't have a workplace culture that permitted that. It would have been "cisplaining" to a trans employee or something.

How many threads a week do we get with posters devastated and the awful news that they are having a boy, and how many people jump on to validate the feeling.

When you are a parent your child's needs come first, someone with a significant desire for one sex over the other is having a child for themselves and not for the person they are bringing into the world. We shouldn't be encouraging that this is ok.

You also have to wonder at the supervision processes that aren’t picking this stuff up.

It’s amazing no one in the organisation seems to ponder the possibility of conflicts of interest. Isn’t it?

One of the psychologists at the Tavistock helped run a tantra group in their leisure time, where they described themselves as a "gender queer elf and political pervert".

I'm using they/their/themselves here as those are the pronouns they prefer. I think the person is a female transitioner, if it matters.

Maybe they just glossed over the early childhood developmental stuff in the training - since the services being offered are just wildly inappropriate for children that young. Then they completely forgot that they don’t actually know enough about early child development to be treating such young children.

Like someone intent on a geriatrics career probably didn’t prioritise learning or retaining that much information about early child development. But, on the other hand, they wouldn’t accept a 3 year old as a patient - on the basis that their service was completely inappropriate for that child.

Or how an electrician will divert you to a plumber if you call them asking to have your leaky pipes fixed.

It’s completely nuts.

3 year olds haven’t even necessarily mastered playing with rather than alongside other kids. And are learning that they can pretend.

Yet some idiots are not just referring them to gender identity clinics, the people who work there are in any way entertaining it. 🤦🏻‍♀️

I am a mum of 3 boys and have to deal with other peoples disappointment I didn't have a daughter.

I’ve got the same experience.

Even my STBXH said ‘it’s a shame you didn’t get a little girl’ as if I’m in any way disappointed with my lovely boys (who are their own people with their own personalities and interests).

just bullshit really. I hate the concept of gender and the damage it does in society.

I agree. Any charity or health organisation which promoted this should be investigated. Not least because it shows they are open to dangerous political capture.

Groups other than Mermaids have posted binders to children behind their parents' backs.

Yes, Lush. Bloody Lush! A shop that sells moisturiser and bath bombs, ffs.

A bloody high street shop selling toiletries, thought it was appropriate to supply breast binders.

Who is referring these preschool children - who’ve fairly recently discovered that they’re separate people from their mothers and are still grappling with theory of mind - to a gender identity clinic? There’s no possibility of them having an identity that is some essential part of them (rather than imposed from outside).

How did we end up with a clinic of paediatric psychologists and psychiatrists who had forgotten this?

I know of a parent who has 11 boys then a girl. They were desperate for a girl and would not stop till they got one. I could never decide if I felt more sorry for there son's that it was made so clear to them they were not enough or the daughter who had a lifetime of other peoples expectations and plans placed on there newborn shoulders.

I am a mum of 3 boys and have to deal with other peoples disappointment I didn't have a daughter. Neither me or dh felt disappointed. It's alarming the lengths some parents will go to get what they want. We planned to stop at 2 but ds3 was a lovely surprise.

GIRES have been very active in promoting the transitioning of children. They had some appalling training for adults working with children - complete safeguarding busting advice encouraging the social transitioning of even very young primary children in schools with no reference to safeguarding or parents.
They grudgingly amended it to include some references to safeguarding but again displayed their ignorance of safeguarding by recommending teachers risk assess the mental health of individual children.
Fucking dangerous yet nobody calls them out or stops them.

This

You don't need a psychology degree to see the problems with little children being transitioned yet we've allowed this group of predominantly adult males - many with a fetish - to set themselves up as "experts" and promote socially transitioning and medicalising children to recreate them in their own image.

2005: Sue Evans, a nurse at Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust's Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS), warned that youngsters were being assessed too quickly and their treatment was influenced by transgender rights groups.

That's 17 years ago.

The person I know who transitioned was one of 5 children. All boys apart from the youngest who was noticeably favoured by the mother.

He basically transitioned into his sister. Dressing identically to her. Taking up all the activities his mum and sister had done just the two of them.

All "she" used to talk about was how frat the relationship with the mother had become.

If you look at some of the prominent trans-child-in-the-media families they often have a sex imbalance amongst the siblings.