LGBT children board title

[ArabellaScott]

Given that the Cass Review says social transitioning is not a neutral act, and refers to 'gender incongruent' or 'gender questioning' children, the use of 'trans children' looks startlingly out of date and incorrect on Mumsnet.

The board should be renamed 'LGB and gender questioning children' to better reflect best practice.

The new school guidelines likewise use 'gender incongruent' and 'gender questioning' and not ever 'trans' when referring to children.

Meantime parents are missing out on vital online support because MN decided that not looking dubious is more important.

There's nothing wrong with additing to the already existing title if it makes people happy, but taking away the most commonly used terminology is potentially quite dangerous.

No, describing children as "trans" is the potentially dangerous thing here, as the Cass review has evidenced.

Actually, I'd say labelling children as 'transgender' is potentially quite dangerous. It risks cementing an identity that involves off label medication and health interventions with serious consequences. Any website using the term is tacitly supportive of the idea of a 'trans child', which the government and the NHS are clear is not a thing.

And, as I said previously, not using the term parents will google when looking for support will drive them to sites where dangerous behaviour is encouraged.

https://www.lbc.co.uk/news/tavistock-clinic-whistleblower-doctors-captured-trans-ideology/

'Dr Bell - who was a consultant psychiatrist at the Tavistock Portman NHS Foundation and raised concerns over the trust's gender identity development service - said "affirming a child in what they say is not an appropriate clinical stance".
...
Dr Bell said: "There is no such thing as being born in the wrong body. There isn't a kind of biological essence of gender that you're born into.
"You're born as your biological sex, and of course, you're the way you identify and your gender is mainly not completely, but it's mainly a constructive socially through your family and the social world that you live in.
"So I think it's right in a way to say there's no such thing as a transgender child in the sense that forecloses.
"Trying to understand a better term is gender dysphoria or gender stress. How this happens is part of a much bigger thing.
"It's not just about the clinic, it's about the it's about the whole culture. It's about the universities.
"It's about private organisations and businesses. The whole world has got invaded by a transgender ideology."

I think doing anything that will confuse parents looking for support is not what Mumsnet should be about. Parents will be looking for LGBT info, whether you like it or not.

I hope they don't do this.

Using a term that is used by activists, and not by schools or the NHS, is also likely to confuse.

CAMHS use it. Not that I'd recommend any parents with a gender questioning child to visit mumsnet for advice.

And that would be because you disagree with the Cass recommendations of neutrality and concerns about affirmation, and would prefer affirmation only. And would prefer parents not to be exposed to concerns and information that makes them question affirmation. And view women with concerns about affirmation as having them through ill intentions and exposure to them not in the best interests of gender questioning people.

LGB children need support and information that is not coloured with this political bias and to always be seen through the lens of gender ideology.

No, it's because I meet parents where they are, and don't have a political agenda.

The problem with using this as a standard is no-one is posting as a clinician. We are posting as random Internet users. Trying to insist on the same standards that professionals would use is unnecessary.

I don't think mumsnet should be in the business of policing words. If some parents choose to refer to their own child as trans instead of gender questioning, that's up to them.

The last thing any parent posting for support needs is a lecture about terminology.

Agree. It needs 2 boards anyway and a suitable name for the gender questioning kids

Split the boards:
LGB
Gender Questioning / Trans

I would also like 2 separate boards. I would like to throw 'trans & gender questioning offspring' into the mix so that my gender questioning son, who is technically a young adult, is included.

I googled gender questioning 🤷

Adult children are still your children...

OK? Most people wouldn't.

What are you basing that assumption on?

Why do you say that?
My then 5 year old was saying he was a girl. He's not transgender but was asking questions.

I googled what was happening, gender questioning.

The hundreds of parents that I've met and spoken to over the last, almost, 20 years, and my own experiences.

If a kid tells you they are trans then you're not going to say "sorry sweetheart, according to this review that's factually incorrect so I'm going to Google gender questioning actually".

I'm not saying every parent, but the vast majority will use 'trans'.

So what would you search?

Because
"is my child trans"
Vs
"Gender questioning"
Vs
"Trans child help"

On Google trends suggest gender questioning is more common.

https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&geo=GB&q=gender%20questioning,Is%20my%20child%20trans,Trans%20child%20help,Do%20I%20have%20a%20trans%20child,how%20can%20I%20support%20my%20trans%20child&hl=en-US

Pretty sure some will google 'gender questioning' and some 'trans'. How many of each is somewhat irrelevant, each is about a child. It'd be shame if the latter only found the likes of mermaids.

I couldn't say with any great certainty what I would search at this point tbh, resources were very limited when I need the help and I googled many variations of things just to try and access some support.

Even so, I'm not saying don't put 'gender questioning' in the name, just don't exclude the word 'trans'.

All of the parents I've met over the years have searched some variation of trans child, and that's how they have accessed help and support.

It would be ridiculous for a support site for parents to change the name for people who don't need that support, which could prevent the people who do need the support from accessing it.

Surely the googling thing is a red herring! As PP have said, pages can be tagged with words that don't actually appear on the page, so the board could still return hits on the word trans, especially given that the word will appear in posts in any case. It isn't just going to disappear from google results because of a name change!

At most it would drop down a bit, but I'm not sure it is imperative that the MN board should be super-high in search results on the word 'trans'. It is a useful place for parents to talk. That's all. Opinions posted there are as unexpert and erratic as anywhere else on MN. I doubt that many professionals would regard it as a suitable place to signpost for the parents of children needing support with sexuality or gender.

I agree.