MAJOR NEWS - NZ restricts Puberty Blockers

Crazily NZ government opened up public submissions on whether puberty blockers should have further restrictions. This unleashed a huge campaign from heaps of groups (some of them govt funded) and media stories trying to get people to submit pro-puberty blocker submissions. I wrote a bit about writing a submission and shared my submission here "Puberty blockers are ghoulish" (I write a NZ-focused Substack on gender issues (long time lefty feminist and Mum)).

Does anyone know about a group / organisation called THEATA?

Tanya Unkovich (NZF) comes the closest - she regularly speaks out on the importance of fairness in women’s sports, the right of women to single sex spaces and restricting puberty blockers. Obviously this gets her no coverage in the media.

Listen to Leah Panapa’s interview (she is very good) with Chief Medical Officer Dr Joe Bourne to get an idea of how little things have changed. It’s appalling.

x.com/rosey_nz/status/1860093550207336955?s=46&t=omuKeAgAjscgni2jfxrNng

All fair points. I don't think there's any politician willing to make a culture war over this let alone a principled stand. There's no Badenoch here. Winston Peters would be the closest I think. David Seymour is more concerned with free speech (and causing turmoil over the Treaty) than trans issues in themselves.

I don't see a change of government at the next election though. TPM and the Greens are a turn-off to centrists I think.

Yes, the government at D.U.M.B. but the last good PM in my view was Helen Clark. She'd have been full TWAW though, I suspect.

Sadly, I don't think the NZ change is due to an understanding of the facts. We have, I hate to say, a particularly D. U. M. B. government right now. They don't pay attention to facts about the economy, the environment, regulation of industry, anything. So why would they start with trans issues?

This is politically motivated (as it is in Australia? which currently has a Labour government).

Which probably means that as soon as the politics turns over, we'll be right back to twaw-twaw-twaw.

Until the world gets away from the stupidity of deciding facts don't matter and women matter even less, this stuff will keep going back and forth until crushed by reality.

I take the point that there is no imminent ban. However, it is a considerable shift from the enthusiastic promotion that existed before. Another point to consider is simple budget constraints. The government is cutting costs everywhere and I think they would welcome any reason to restrict treatments for that purpose, and there are clearly more decisions to come.

Wellington is basically a southern hemisphere Brighton, and NZ is a small country where consensus quickly forms among those with power (and being outside that consensus can be brutal.) So, it's definitely a change.

It doesn't look quite as great as I initially thought. The media release from Speak Up For Women says that nothing much has changed. It's a lot less than they were hoping for. Disappointing.

On one hand the statement appears to indicate acknowledgement and acceptance of the findings of the widely read Cass report - that there is a lack of high quality evidence of any benefit of the use of puberty blockers in young people with gender dysphoria. On the other hand, the statement asks only that clinicians exercise caution when prescribing blockers - something that surely should have been occurring anyway, given that the blockers are prescribed to minors, off-label, and with no clinical trial evidence available.

www.speakupforwomen.nz/post/media-release-ministry-of-health-sends-confusing-message-with-latest-puberty-blocker-guidance?utm_campaign=afb5478c-4615-47e5-9f44-fde2d115ca02&utm_source=so&utm_medium=mail&cid=0dbad9cb-401a-48ab-9dbd-ef39f8b4e2f9

The statement is promising but the detail is more pesimistic. It is pretty much business as usual. They are basically fudging, no clear guidelines have been given and instead they have sent a rather confusing message with this latest puberty blocker guidance.

Despite the statement they haven't added a layer of protection as they have given no concrete guidelines or restrictions to clinicians. Instead the Ministry of Health has opened public consultation with the public “organisations that represent people who may be affected by safety measures or that may be involved in how safety measures are used in practice”.

Which sounds like an invitation to gender ideologues. it is very concerning.

NZH article, not entirely encouraging. Includes a link to another article that states:
New Zealand is prescribing up to seven times more puberty blockers to young transgender patients than other similar countries, new analysis shows.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/puberty-blockers-to-be-prescribed-more-cautiously-in-new-zealand-after-review/UTYF74GEOBE5FL5UVDSSZJJQGM/

Yeah I was ASTONISHED that they covered it. I think there are a few articles floating around, on RNZ, NZ Herald and Stuff. I haven't read them though.

Wow! I don't watch the news on TV, but surprising it's not on the main news sites.

It was on the 6pm TVNZ news last night.

This is great news, thanks so much for posting. I live in NZ and can't find this announcement in the three news websites I've just checked - just shows how captured our media is. I too am surprised - NZ is frustratingly slow sometimes.

There's a government review underway into transwomen in women's sport - I'm hopeful they sort that out too.

Absolutely brilliant news!!!

Re your last paragraph - what a prime example of NZ exceptionalism 🙄 Not a fan of the new govt but they are definitely on the right track on this issue.

I think this is entirely due to two things. First, a change of government in Oct 23. Some senior politicians in the new government are openly sceptical of gender ideology. Second, the Cass report, which was basically adopted, as far as I can tell.

This report was tremendously delayed. It was meant to come out just after the Cass report. I suspect it was originally going to say 'all good', then when Cass was released the ministry shat themselves.

When Cass was released, PATHA issued a prim statement saying it had 'limited relevance in an Aotearoa context'. I would love to see their faces now.

Watch them all fall down

Woah.

Insurance providers will be watching closely.

Surprising but great to hear. Bit by bit children are being proctected

Having also watched the livestream, I think yet again, KJK brought it to a head. It meant people could talk about it and had permission to ask 'why were all those men so violently against a woman talking'...

YY. People underestimate the power of that.

Hope Aus comes to its senses also.

Having also watched the livestream, I think yet again, KJK brought it to a head. It meant people could talk about it and had permission to ask 'why were all those men so violently against a woman talking'...

Good for New Zealand. Another domino down!

And I agree @redalex261

This is great news. Being cynical, I do think the “genie out of the bottle” effect in US MSM opening up discussion following the swing state ads in the election has reverbrated internationally, and will push change along more quickly as politicians realise the strength of public feeling on this issue - it’s a no brainer politically - science supports GC stance and wider public waking up. Seeing the pivoting and reverse ferreting of US politicians has been fascinating.

Totally agree, @Helleofabore - much to my dismay.