James Esses reaches settlement and receives apology

Been a few decent pieces in the Guardian lately, so whether the oil-tanker is turning... But with Viner in charge, I don't think it will change much, unfortunately. Maybe they are aware that they are losing (female) readers? I did wonder when they did that big front -page spread on VAWG the other day. Because a pro-GC Guardian would be massive, wouldn't it? I think it would make an enormous difference to the media climate. But don't get me wrong; we're a long way away from that.

I imagine that quite a few of us have had our eye on the Guardian and especially the BBC for quite a while now, and on their tandem act of both ignoring and T-washing news stories. I wonder if they influence each other? I can imagine BBC employees taking the Guardian as their paper of choice.

Putting Lisa Nandy in charge of culture, media and sport was a backwards step, in my personal opinion, as despite her politics degree she simply doesn't have the ability to see the big picture.

I had got as far as writing to the Chair of the Select Committee earlier in the year (Caroline Dinenage, Con.) about whether or not the committee were minded to examine BBC bias, but didn't receive a reply to that by the time the election was called. The new Select Committee Chair and members are yet to be appointed. But I'll write to the Chair once the name is available.

Any shift from the Guardian is interesting. I wonder if they've lost readers over their 'gender woo' approach, now the court cases, tribunals and inquiries are starting to take lumps out of the ideology? I frequently get the begging pop-ups when I'm looking at articles, but I'm not actually paying them money given the pile of dangerous crap they've produced over the last few years.

Anyway, once again well done to James Esses on this very important result, and for keeping his head and his humanity while all around were losing theirs.

The Guardian seems to be a bit less aggressive at the moment. Previously I'm thinking they'd have gone out of their way to avoid acknowledging this.

The Guardian have reported it, quite fairly:

https://www.theguardian.com/society/article/2024/aug/15/student-psychotherapist-wins-apology-over-expulsion-for-gender-critical-views

Interview with James in the Times:
https://www.thetimes.com/article/2b234e51-6a04-489c-8f11-fc40ec8249b9?shareToken=a69e1e8b6aea78d2ff078f68a714b840

It feels increasingly inevitable that once all of this child gender surgery scandal subsides there will be a public inquiry and it would make sense that there would be an employment discrimination/whistleblower tranche where both institutions and individuals would be held to account.

So pleased for James Esses. Certainly a fulsome apology.
I hope he got a shed load of compo.

I wonder if a FOI request asking how many settlement agreements paid out and total sums paid would work?

Yes it would be good to see people being held to account.

Notwithstanding the use of light being shone, I'm looking forward to the day when these cases aren't happening because people aren't being dismissed/accused.

Surely sometime soon lessons will be fully learned in a joined up way?

That's excellent news.

However, I would have liked to have seen personal apologies from the individuals concerned. It's fine that the institution apologised - and it's right they did - but it's the individuals who got him expelled that we need to hear from.

What I would like to see now is some statements from the individuals at the Metanoia Institute who caused this series of events, now that it's been established that policies were disregarded. Would anyone be willing to say that they thought the issue of supporting transgender people was so important that anyone who disagreed had no rights that needed to be respected? Or however they might want to present it now that all these admissions have been published.

But I think that anyone who was responsible will be covering their identity as well as they can, and if they can be identified, they'll say "The case is over, and I have no further comments to make".

The coverage in the guardian is a good development. Particularly at a time when the ban on conversion therapy is looking to be coming closer. It is essential that Parliamentary discussion of the proposed ban is able to burrow down into what is really meant by conversion therapy in relation to gender identity, and how it can be robustly defined in a way that doesn't put people on the back foot when they assert the need for proper exploratory therapy before any 'affirmatory' medical interventions are made.

If a sufficiently robust definition is achieved then I suspect a legal ban would be revealed as nothing more than an ideological/political gesture, since the practices in question would surely be ones that any therapists' regulatory body would already have prohibited. It simply isn't ethical for any therapist to begin therapy with a ready-made agenda of reshaping an aspect of personality and (in the absence of any evidence of gender identity conversion practices of this sort actually operating) I'm not sure we need the law to back that up

Surprisingly, it is currently a top story on the Guardian, calmly reported and explained in detail by Amelia Gentleman.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/article/2024/aug/15/student-psychotherapist-wins-apology-over-expulsion-for-gender-critical-views?CMP=ShareiOSAppp_Other

That's excellent news. Beyond vindication for James.

I want to see big MSM headlines about this as a signal of how reality is being returned to us,

What have James’ detractors been saying about the result? I can only imagine the tantrums and wailing about how unsafe they all are now…

I've left several pages!
As a psychotherapist I have felt silenced about many things over the past years and it does/ can really damage our work.
As for the BACP they will only do the same if pushed and absolutely only for their gain and not for us therapists or our clients!

I'm sure James is considering his options, or will do after the much deserved celebration. He could do worse than helping the development and growth of exploratory therapy post Cass. It's much needed and he's an excellent communicator, could be CEO of an organisation to oversee that change in view of the fight he's had, how he has conducted it and the reach he's achieved in the process.
Alternatively he could do something different. Or finish his studies and be one of the best counsellors for children out there.
Congratulations James,
well done and thanks for taking it on.

Great result and a stonking apology.

Disgusting that they had to take years to get here and ruin a good career in the process.

Presumably the wording of the apology would have been one of the terms of the settlement agreement and their agreement to such a term would have been wrestled out of them. Arguably that makes it more of a triumph not less. In any case a very positive result.

Thank you! I'd forgotten that one.

"BACP and several other UK therapy bodies have pledged their support to the Memorandum of Understanding on Conversion Therapy (MoU),10 which firmly denounces any practices aimed at converting a person's gender or sexuality, overtly or otherwise."
I'm sure they don't have a shred of foolishness between them!

There’s this one, @RoyalCorgi

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/4910748-court-casesjudicial-reviewsetetas

Very pleased for James - yet another in a long line of gender-critical wins. How many more to come, I wonder?

Does anyone want to start a thread where we keep track of them all? ie gender critical victories, plus the ones still ongoing?

So pleased for James. A very good statement.