Great article about Transgender Trend in the Mail. Yes really.

[EmpressOfTheSpartacusOceans]

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5027927/NHS-pressured-kids-change-sex.html

They got Stephanie's surname wrong but other than that, they actually deserve clicks for this one.

The comments all seem to be gender critical too. Its odd that I agree with DM comments...feels all wrong

Needs must, I suppose.

I did wonder who had done the redacting. If it was the Daily Mail then that means they're (perhaps inadvertently) going along with Alex having become a man.

The DM recently pixelated the fondant nipples of a fondant woman and fondant penis of a fondant man. Note that the man’s fondant nipples remain unpixelated. It’s unclear whether they were doing irony.

Parents of teens/young adults can't go public about our fears for risk of alienating our already vulnerable and distressed children. That article was a good start.

The point about social media is really terrifying. I have recently come to understand something of what is going on in teens lives - google fandoms for certain things like Harry Potter, Hamilton - you name it - and add the word "trans" and the posts and it's all there.

If you have 10/12 year olds and don't understand Tumblr and Instagram better learn fast.
Ask your school what they understand about what might be going on, and whether they get any of their diversity training form Mermaids or GIRES.

@nauticant Alex says Alex did the redacting

This is of huge concern to me.

I'm still not 100% sure of my feelings on the trans issue, it's not something I can properly comprehend but then it's not my place to, and I guess you can't if you haven't experienced it. I can't fathom how anyone knows that they "feel female" since I don't feel female myself, what does it even mean to feel female? But perhaps I don't understand it because I can't, and I accept that it's no ones responsibility to make me understand or should care that j don't.

Having said that, I find the treatment of children really concerning. I can't think of any other condition where what you feel is the trigger for treatments and surgeries that cause irreversible physical changes. There are people who have all their limbs but feel like an amputee - we would never sanction amputations for those people, right? It feels like this is the one dysphoria that we must accept as legitimate without discussion.

Saz432

Everything you’ve said is completely logical.

And in fact, when you ask a transwoman what it is that makes them feel female, they can’t answer.

However, they used to answer. It was all stereotypes. I feel more empathetic, I feel more vibrant, I cry at movies, I feel at home in a dress, etc. Until feminists got hold of that argument and pointed out that they were talking about gender stereotypes. Not innate feelings.

So they stopped saying it. But now they can’t say anything else, because, of course, it is all about stereotypes.

So they started to say, I just do, I can’t explain it. And now they say it’s transphobic to even ask because it’s invalidating.

And all women feel differently anyway. Which is a very useful argument from their side, because it means they can act in any misogynistic way they feel, but that can’t invalidate their womanhood, because women all act differently, right?

It’s a mindfuck of mammoth proportions once you start to drill down.

I've been part of a lefty women's group on fb for a few years and there were some really interesting discussions around this... until several transwomen joined the group and admin laid down the law that to discuss this topic was transphobic and anyone who believes that trans women are not women should leave. There's a transwoman there who's basically treated like a monarch by the other members. So much for equality.

I've never understood why transwomen are so insistent to be thought of as women - isn't that erasing their experiences, which I'm sure can't have been easy either? I've never met a BME person who is happy to go along with the colourblind principle.

I found it especially interesting during the Rachel Dolezal incident since the language being used against her was identical to the language of supposed TERFs and yet that was completely fine.

IMO we really need to stop saying 'transwoman'. It completely obscures the power dynamics at work here, prevents us from naming the agent.

Saz432

Unfortunately your experience is only too common. Transwomen, or trans-identified males (TIMs) fall into two categories. HSTS (homosexual transsexual) and AGP, (autogynephile).

The HSTS are mostly quite happy to be known as trans, not women. Aren’t interested in appropriating women’s spaces and culture to the detriment of women.

But AGPs (basically cross dressing men with a fetish) are utterly compelled to be considered women and to infiltrate women’s spaces as much as possible as it feeds the fetish. The ones who find women talking about biological stuff exclusionary because it doesn’t feed the fetish of their idea of themselves women.

The transwoman, sorry TIM, in your group who demands to be centred and will not defer to other women is typical of an AGP. Generally the profile is that they are older, divorced, often fathers and with a background in some male dominated profession like IT or the military.

Not always. But it’s fairly typical. Think Bruce Jenner, Frank Maloney, Zoey Tur.

The Sun have got a shorter article on this today:

www.thesun.co.uk/news/4796904/confused-kids-are-being-rushed-into-sex-changes-by-the-nhs-with-dangerous-new-codes-of-practice-parents-warn/

Also one on some government agencies no longer recording people's sex:

www.thesun.co.uk/news/4791493/five-government-agencies-will-no-longer-ask-your-sex-because-of-new-gender-laws/

And at the same time doctors refuse to sterilise women in their 20s & 30s because they "might change their mind"...
You know I'd not considered that.
Grown women can't make a decision about their reproductive choices but a child can make an 'informed decision' which may leave them most likely unable to ever have children.
What a bizarre state of affairs

Maisy I posted a similar issue on a thread recently. At 47 and having awful peri-menopausal symptoms my GP refused me HRT because guidelines say that I'm not 'officially' menopausal and allowed HRT until my periods had stopped completely for 2 years.

However, identifying as gender-dysphoric at 9 would entitle me to meds to alleviate unwanted physical symptoms (i.e.: to stop hormones that lead to puberty). It's surreal in some ways isn't it?

Witch, could you not just lie or do they pop by daily and check your liner?

Does anyone have a link to the NHS memo mentioned in the DM article? The PDF I found seemed quite bland, so I wondered if it was the interpretation of the guidance rather than the letter which is causing problems.

Witch, could you not just lie or do they pop by daily and check your liner?

There are blood tests to check your hormone levels which show whether you are peri/menpoausal.

Ah, ok. So it’s a particular hormonal profile they need to have evidenced, not just reported lack of periods?

Is it this? : www.psychotherapy.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/UKCP-Memorandum-of-Understanding-on-Conversion-Therapy-in-the-UK.pdf badhusky

Has everyone seen this Mermaids parody? Get in quick before mermaids shut it down.

Particularly interested about the CEO who had a failed pop career? Is that true?

mobile.twitter.com/mermans_gender

Brilliant!

Love that Twitter account!

Don't worry Datun. I've just taken screenshots

For posterity.

And more posterity.

The profile picture amuses me greatly.

Oh that is brilliant!

Witch
You might like to look at www.menopausematters.co.uk or patient.info/health/menopause-and-hormone-replacement-therapy-hrt#nav-3. They have lots of useful information, including about treating menopausal,symptoms during the perimenopause and HRT. As a general rule, NICE advises that hormones should not be routinely used to diagnose the menopause (although as always there are exceptions to this) in women over the age of 45 experiencing menopausal symptoms.
Sorry to derail.