Children of 12 to be allowed gender drugs to prepare for sex change

[femtastic]

Do you consider this to be a positive development?

Children of 12 to be allowed gender drugs to prepare for sex change

CHILDREN as young as 12 are to be allowed drugs to prepare them for changing sex.

The controversial treatment halts puberty, stunting sex organs and preventing the growth of facial hair and sperm in boys, and breasts in girls.

The injections, previously available only to over-15s with gender identity disorder, are being made available to younger people under an NHS study after pressure from families and doctors.

Doctors admit most children with the problem do not go on to have a sex change, often turning out to be gay. But blocking puberty hormones can make surgery easier if they need it.

Dr Polly Carmichael, who runs Britain?s only GID clinic in London, said several under-16s were prepared to sign up for the jabs, until now available only in the US, Holland and Germany at that age.

She said: ?The majority of our referrals are 15-plus. Of the children aged 12 and 14, there?s a number who are keen to take part.?

The study was approved by the ­National Research Ethics Service, which oversees hundreds of NHS projects.

goodegg, it's taken me ages to get my head around my views on this subject. In fact, it was only this thread the other day that finally clarified it all for me. My views are very much "dismantle gender" rather than antitranspeople.

Dittany quoted Sheila Jeffreys on the thread I've linked to and I agree with this quote:

""feminists who want to dismantle gender, because they see it as a product of male dominance, do not "trans" gender, they simply get over it. Transgenders are so attached to the notion of gender, albeit to a different one in which they were brought up, that they spend huge amounts of time, energy and money to acquire the gender of their choice. Transgender politics are fundamentally conservative, dedicated to retaining the behaviours of the dominant and subordinate classes of male supremacy - masculinity and femininity""

If there was less of a gaping chasm between accepted behaviour and presentation of people with male genitals compared to people with female genitals, then people would just dress and act however they wanted. Men could groom their body hair and wear make-up without having to question their maleness, and women could wear comfortable clothes, little grooming and not be questioned as to their femaleness.

It makes sense to me now. No wonder people feel they need to change their basic sexual organs in order to act how they want to - society makes it impossible to follow both your rightful sexual behaviour and your lifestyle choices with dress and manner.

I have no idea Dittany. I am merely on this thread to further my knowledge and understanding....

Thanks for that Ayerobot. It does seem as though transgender is conservative by its narrow definitions of gender - you have to make a massive leap from male to female, or vice versa. Tories have never been good at grey areas

Would you say that a woman who has had a double mastectomy and hystrectomy is no longer a woman?

Intersex conditions are a red herring in thse discussions.

Aw, dittany, I've made such an effort to spell your name right tonight, have I fucked up again? :( Sorry.

I'm getting a bit lost in this debate...no, men who have surgery to become women are not "women" in the true sense...but I don't get why it really matters....I'm for diversity and equality. Shouldn't we embrace differences?

Hmmm I do think that on an individual level, men who elect to have surgery are in a sad situation owing to societal demands on them to be 'masculine' and they identify more with the polarised 'feminine' so I don't think they deserve anything other than help and sympathy tbh - I think you're being a little harsh Dittany.