Stephen Whittle’s blog on Genderquake - with a detailed briefing for panelists

[flowersonthepiano]

Stephen Whittle’s blog on Genderquake with a briefing for panelists including the following gems:

“male and female are biological categories which were defined when science was not properly aware of the complexities of the ‘natural’ body”

“‘Self-identification’ doesn’t mean anyone can get legal gender recognition, but it would mean trans people no longer have to be diagnosed as having a mental illness.”

How is that good for people with such high rates of suicide ideation who need care?

“Unfortunately, the Rules don’t allow trans prisoners to be placed in a prison of their preferred gender role until they have obtained legal gender recognition.”

“The UK has an excellent child and adolescent Gender Identity Clinic as part of a larger mental health trust – but it is only one for the entire nation of 66 million people.

Whilst the Clinic provides an excellent service,
· it cannot cope with the numbers seeking help, and
· there is no doubt that it has increasingly drawn flak from some feminist women who object to the idea of affording children any support in their preferred gender identity.
PFC REPEATEDLY states that

• children do not receive cross-gender hormones and
• no child has ever been given gender reassignment surgery,
but the Feminist attacks have been sufficiently vocal to make clinicians very nervous about the provision of the service.”

blatantly neglects to mention puberty blockers...


Note the frequent references to “Press for Change (PFC)” which is described as “the UK trans lobby group”. A week or so ago newspaper editors were hauled before a parliamentary committee and grilled for suggesting that there is even such thing as trans lobby group. Suggesting that stating there is a trans lobby was labelled bigoted/hate speech.

Stephen Whittle is a very influential person. The views above are being inculcated into our society. It’s clear they recognize the influence that feminist protests have had in stalling the proposed changes to the GRA and making clinicians think how they handle children who arrive in their consulting rooms.

You are doing a great job! It wouldn’t surprise me if Stephen Whittle had a hand in recent efforts to silence the MumsNet FWR boards, but then I am getting a bit tin-foil hatty these days....

[Italiangreyhound]

www.change.org/p/tell-san-francisco-public-library-to-remove-exhibit-of-weapons-intended-to-kill-feminists

[PermissionToSpeakSir]

So true Ereshkigal

[R0wantrees]

Ereshkigal
If you use the document, which is the most basic of guides to propaganda techniques, there are many examples to find.

[Ereshkigal]

Sorry

[Ereshkigal]

Permission

That propaganda post you've done is great, but to "Fear" I'd add the fear tactics they use on gender critical women as well as them claiming to be afraid. Doxxing. Writing to women's employers. Calling the police and threatening prosecution for hate crime. Threats of violence. Actual violence. Culture of violence which is tolerated, like SF library exhibit.

[Ereshkigal]

Permission

That propaganda post you've done is great, but to "Fear" I'd add the fear tactics they use on gender critical women as well as them claiming to be afraid. Doxxing. Writing to women's employers. Calling the police and threatening prosecution for hate crime. Threats of violence. Actual violence. Culture of violence which is tolerated, like SF library exhibit.

[Bowlofbabelfish]

That James Kirkup article is excellent

[R0wantrees]

A truly free press is essential for a free society. That doesn’t absolve the press from responsibility - they should still be able to be sued for libel for example, but it means that no one restricts what journalists can say. No one person, organisation or government should be able to dictate what the truth is.

James Kirkup in response to Home Affairs questions asked by Stephen Doughty MP:
"Surely a bright, thoughtful chap like him didn’t mean to imply that it was his job as Member of Parliament to tell newspapers what they can and cannot write? Surely he had no intention of acting as if it is in any way appropriate for a politician to decide what is and is not acceptable for journalists to say, and how they say it?"
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3237268-James-Kirkup-article-Why-are-some-MPs-trying-to-shut-down-the-transgender-debate

discussion about the enquiry:
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3233421-Home-Affairs-Committee-Hate-crime-enquiry-Newspaper-editors-interviewed

Briefing paper submitted by TRans Media Watch:
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3238618-Trans-Media-Watch-has-written-to-parliament-saying-trans-identified-male-can-be-considered-as-hate-speech-and-that-Mumsnet-users-referring-to-penises-are-being-transphobic

[R0wantrees]

Link to discussion about the Guardian article about the role of schools:
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3249931-Interesting-guardian-article-May-15th

[Bowlofbabelfish]

What if the press was gvt regulated to only ever tell the truth?

It would only tell the government’s truth.

Press regulation should focus on financing etc, not on print content, past things like obeying the law on privacy of minors/medical confidentiality .

A truly free press is essential for a free society. That doesn’t absolve the press from responsibility - they should still be able to be sued for libel for example, but it means that no one restricts what journalists can say. No one person, organisation or government should be able to dictate what the truth is.

[Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g]

Comments are open on that Guardian article.

[R0wantrees]

additional extract from article above:

"Susie Green, CEO of the charity Mermaids, disagrees, saying the debate about single-sex toilets seems “engineered to whip up fear” and is equivalent to “arguing people of colour shouldn’t be allowed to use the same toilets as white people in case they make them dirty”.

Claire Birkenshaw, a transgender former headteacher, says the wide range of different advice creates confusion and conflict. “There needs to be clear statutory guidance for schools that incorporates the views of experts from education, the medical profession, the Equality and Human Rights Commission and trans people,” she says. “Rows about a vulnerable and marginalised group in education are not helpful.”

The EHRC is planning to issue guidance of its own next month, something Birkenshaw welcomes. “Schools want to support the transgender young person, but at the same time they’ll be reflecting on how other children may feel, on how staff are going to feel and parents."

Claire Birkenshaw was interviewed in March by The Guardian.
Link to the article and discussion of points made in the thread below.
OP comment,
"I really don't know what to think about this, but I suspect it's the usual pushy agenda on kids who may be confused about their sexuality. They are just being shoved into the 'transkids' umbrella. I really worry about gay rights and am baffled as to why Stonewall is supporting this.
I mean, good on the teacher for making a stand for her/him/self but some of what the article describes smells like shutting down dissent to me."
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3192837-Transitioned-headteacher-Guardian-article

[Wanderabout]

What if the press was gvt regulated to only ever tell the truth? Would "transwomen are women" (eg) have gained as much traction?

Are you serious? Can you imagine if Corbyn's Labour got into power and had control of the press? People got suspended from the party for saying men have dicks and calling an organisation that condoned violence against women a 'hate group'.

Newspapers are supposed to hold governments to account. They can't do that at all if the government controls the content.

Current system isn't perfect, but the issues have been covered in a broad range of places. It really made me appreciate the value of a free press.

[Bowlofbabelfish]

Of those children, 70% are biologically female.

I’m not surprised. The current hyper sexualised culture must be pretty awful to suddenly start puberty in.

[R0wantrees]

@PermissionToSpeakSir

The Guardian article in full is worth considering with regards the linguistic techniques of propaganda.

[R0wantrees]

Guardian article today:
'Schools pulled into row over helping transgender children
As more teens come out as trans, experts clash over how schools should help'

(extract)
Schools are supporting increasing numbers of transgender students, using a variety of guidance from the teaching unions and charities such as Mermaids (which has a grant of £35,000 from the Department for Education to deliver training to 35 schools).

This rise is reflected in referrals to the children’s Gender Identity Development Service (Gids), run by the Tavistock and Portman NHS trust, which increased by 1,978% – from 97 in 2009 to 2,016 in 2016-17. Of those children, 70% are biologically female.

Bernadette Wren, a clinical psychologist at Gids, says many young people seen by the service have been bullied or self-harm, and a number are on the autistic spectrum."

www.theguardian.com/education/2018/may/15/transgender-row-teachers-afraid-challenge-breast-binding

[Bowlofbabelfish]

I would need to think pretty carefully before going out in public with that assertion. That’s my honest view.

Which frankly is shameful. What has the world come to when you can’t state biological facts without being called a bigot? It would entirely depend on what the action was I think.

[PermissionToSpeakSir]

Name-calling - Terf

Bandwagon - Woke

Glittering generalities - inclusion, progressive, equality, privacy

Card stacking - read Whittle's textbook brief

Plain folks - I just need to pee

Fear- suicide, you want me dead

Transfer- rainbows

Make the opposing side look shabby- Greer is forgetful, heckling

Censorship - get that woman out of the building and her political party

[PermissionToSpeakSir]

Rowan

This post is fantastic:

Propaganda Techniques

//people.howstuffworks.com/propaganda1.htm

"A commonly used technique is name-calling, which takes its cue from playground behavior. Often, this technique is utilized to divert attention when someone is trying to avoid answering a question or providing hard facts.

The bandwagon technique encourages the viewer or listener to join the crowd by aligning with the most popular, successful side of an issue

Glittering generalities are very common in political propaganda. Glittering generalities combine words that have positive connotations with a concept that is particularly beloved.

Card stacking is the presentation of only the details, statistics and other information that impacts public opinion positively. In other words, the bad stuff is left out entirely.

The plain folks technique is designed to get ordinary citizens to identify with a political candidate or other figure that they otherwise may have nothing in common with.

Propaganda based on fear is designed to scare people into choosing sides.

The transfer technique is more subliminal (operating on a subconscious rather than conscious level) than the other techniques we've discussed. Using this method, a group or person attempts to align themselves with a beloved symbol in an effort to transfer the status of the symbol to the cause they represent.

Many other propaganda methods exist, but they subsist on the same basic principles as the ones listed above: Manipulate the message to portray an issue or person in the most favorable light possible, and when necessary, make the opposing side look shabby in comparison.

Many people believe that propaganda does more harm than its proponents would admit to. Some go so far as to claim that propaganda is a bedfellow of censorship because they both serve as tools for repression, confusion and suppression of information"

Of course important to acknowledge that the use of these makes no comment on the worthiness of the cause. They have been employed to great effect by many admirable people.

[nauticant]

Yeah, I know and having a scientific background I find it depressing. That goes hand in hand with the recent push along the lines that according to the "newest science", sex is so complicated as to be effectively meaningless as a concept. Which is largely based on using people with intersex conditions as gotchas.

The entire ideology is run through with gaslighting, bullying, and co-opting others' life-experiences.

[R0wantrees]

That would be a priority surely? But hardly anyone in the trans activist community seems to be pushing for more to be learned in an objective scientific sense.

Perhaps sometimes actively resisted?

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3152066-Times-article-today-James-Caspian-and-Bath-Spa-University

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3129659-Update-from-James-Caspian-on-his-case-against-Bath-Spa-University-to-be-allowed-to-research-detransitioners

Heather Brunskell-Evans recent talk in Bristol:
www.facebook.com/TheJamJarBristol/videos/793672257494647/

[Terfulike]

I agree with op.

The ball is in our court as far as science is concerned because if we don't do something a great scientific lie will be incorporated into legislation.

Babel are you prepared to put your head above the parapet? I am.

[gendercritter]

Ben Goldacres work is great - as is David Colquhoun’s and Sense about science. They’ve happily taken on every single quack or poor practitioner out there, regardless of size

I'm afraid that's not true. I hugely admire BG in some regards but he's a coward in others.

I have M.E. £5 million was spent on the crappest piece of science know as the PACE trial. It was a scandal. It was part funded (unusually) by the DWP. The M.E community has repeatedly, over years, asked BG to stand alongside us and point out the srious flaws in it because it has actively done patients harm in what it thinks of our illness (essentially it treats it as a form of hysteria).

It's been several years of him resolutely refusing to speak out. Why? Because his once supervisor and friend Simon Wesseley was heavily involved in PACE and supported it.

It's taken a respected American journalist, David Tuller, to take a public stand and criticise the study' failings. He is now making an impact after years of harm has been done.

BG could have made a huge difference to some very ill people. It would have been the ethical thing to do - the study was an expensive car crash. He has been spineless about it. It reflects v badly on him.

Based on that I'd say he won't speak up over the trans issues. It's too controversial. I'd be happy to be proved wrong.

[nauticant]

What if the press was gvt regulated to only ever tell the truth? Would "transwomen are women" (eg) have gained as much traction?

Looking at the recent carry on in Parliament, if politicians had had the option to compel newspapers to tell the "truth"* then I think there's a fair chance self-ID would have already been incorporated into UK law.

• a very slippery concept

[Opheliah]

Recently, watching the way the media has been covering this issue, I'm coming to think that an regulated press that occasionally behaves badly is better than a regulated press that always behaves correctly. When we next meet I'm going to say to my mate that I was actually wrong when we argued

But the press is regulated, by wealthy private owners who don't care about facts and can push their own agenda.

What if the press was gvt regulated to only ever tell the truth? Would "transwomen are women" (eg) have gained as much traction?