Allow me a moment of whimsy here, but folktales are full of warnings about those who seek to cut you off from the people who care and love you. Don't trust those people.

Parents should be involved in the care of their children until that child is legally adult.
Parents should strive to be open and honest too.

In my daughter's school. DD1 bestie is trans. She's high functioning, could well have been a loner if not for DD. Trans issues raised their head around pubity (not before) coincidentally, I'm sure, as she got involved with people online. Her family is full of tragedy. She has anxiety. Her brothers have mental health issues too... cutting, stealing.
She has no male friends, no stereotypical male pursuits or interests. In fact she's very feminine. For what's that worth. Just has this idea she's a boy. Boyish magical essence.

It's bollocks. Without bollocks

Andhow it's on there, but I bet this sticks in the BBC's throat.

Yes you, BBC, you are complicit in this indoctrination.

Surely every parent has a right to know. Advice to keep it a secret breaks the No 1 rule about child protection.

I don't understand how keeping it a secret from parents works:

Child at school: I'm not a boy, I identify as a girl.
Teacher: oh, ok
Parent at parent-teacher night: I'm Bob's parent
Teacher: I don't have a Bob in my class
Parent: yes you do, here (shows photo) Bob.
Teacher: oh, Bobbette - she's doing well.

Has the teacher just 'outed' Bob?
Or should the teacher 'deadname' him and refer to him as Bob?

GC women are frequently accused of being 'unkind' and transphobic. On Twitter when I expressed alarm over Butterfly, there was a backlash from the trans lobby.

Meanwhile, Mermaids is branded as 'the good guy or gal' helping children and families.

When gC women point out that the drugging and medicalisation of children is child abuse, we are demonised. Ironically, Mermaids receives praise and lots of cash.

This is why I like this quote from the article, because it asks why nobody is stepping in to stop this abuse:

They (children) will ask why nobody stopped them, told them treatment could destroy their sex life – or warned them that it would make them infertile and might not make them happy after all. They might also have lawyers asking the same questions, eyeing millions of pounds in compensation.

I don't really like the mail online site, but the sidebar of shame is an excellent lesson in how women and men are viewed differently by the media and are talked about in different ways.

I could quite easily see this happening to me and a friend when we were at school, and I can imagine it feels easier doing it as a group.

I really wish that it was possible to identify out of being treated like a female in society. And it doesn't surprise me that children and teenagers, who can be used to feeling like the centre of the universe, would believe that if they changed themselves, then the world will just go along with it.

What is the link with eugenics?

While we should be wary of trying to draw any direct historical parallel or link, in the interests of historical accuracy and respect (if we are talking about eg Nazi eugenics- not the only kind) it’s also true that they forcibly sterilised thousands of people from the social groups that they despised and also that they specifically targeted gay men for castration. On top of other horrific abuse of lesbians and gay men.

And why are the kids transing now mostly female to male whilst the older transpeople seem to be male to female?

Because this:

I really wish that it was possible to identify out of being treated like a female in society.

I’m fairly sure I would be calling myself non-binary if I was a teenager right now. I’d see it as opting out of the gender bollocks foisted upon me because of my sex.

If only it were that easy.

'Young people and old people are now able to express themselves as they know who they are and they can understand it.'

Unless they are a lesbian aka a female who only fancies women and then they had better keep their mouth shut if they don't want to be called a bigot.

Piers Morgan joins in;
NZBirder (@NZBirder) Tweeted:
RT @piersmorgan: Bloody ridiculous - what the hell are we doing to our children???? t.co/9eDJNtQuOs twitter.com/piersmorgan/status/1064079329024507904?s=17

Slightly off the point, but interesting that the Mail on Sunday chose to give over its front page to this in the middle of the Brexit crisis.

I assume they calculate that people who actually buy a Sunday paper, as opposed to reading it on line, will be more attracted by this story than the Brexit mess. Which implies a lot of resonance in middle England/Wales. (The Mail has a seperate edition in Scotland?)

This is a really excellent article - it lays out the issues in a real clear and thorough way. Well done, Sanchez Manning - I hope her bosses are giving her some acknowledgement of the work she's done on this issue.

I also wonder if this finally could be the wake-up call we've all been waiting for. This is something we've all been talking about for the past year or more, but at last a mainstream newspaper is taking it seriously. Brilliant to see it on the front page.

Slightly off the point, but interesting that the Mail on Sunday chose to give over its front page to this in the middle of the Brexit crisis. *

I like to think they've done it so that the BBC is forced to put it on its site and to discuss it on TV.

The Mail brought us the Jess Bradley story. It does not shy away from tackling the issues that others are too afraid, too pc to talk about.

And I'll caveat that with I am not generally a DM reader but I applaud any media that takes on this juggernaut, knowing the possible consequences.

Mimmymum's wise words

I snarked a little at who they tagged into their photo. Who do they think they are?

Just a comment about safeguarding and parents.
If a school doesn't share this information with parents then they remove the parent's ability to safeguard their own child. And the school are also removing the parent's rights / responsibilities which they are not competent to do. Only the courts can remove this, not schools.
If a teacher follows trans lobby groups guidelines and keeps a child's disclosures about being trans confidential - ie not sharing with pastoral / safeguarding leads in the school - then the teacher is breaching the school's safeguarding guidelines.
All of this leaves a vulnerable child isolated from support and even more vulnerable to grooming / abuse / harm

Normal whistleblowing procedure is to report within the system. The entire point with this story is that it has become impossible to do so. Like was the case with North Staffs.

This is a really important point to take in. Anyone who cares to research further should look at Lisa Muggeridge's video on institutional grooming. This has happened here and whistleblowers can no longer use internal procedures to report concerns.

I teach in a rural comprehensive with a mixed cohort. Predominately white but a range of middle and working class kids. We have recently had a couple of kids identifying with trans who receive counselling and what seems to be 'watch and wait'. They are in a similar friendship group and apparently have a name friend who secretly identifies as female. There is one other child in the year below that I'm aware of.

However, when the new Year 7s arrived in September there are a cluster for females who identify and present as males. School are aware and are not intervening except where anxiety is involved.

As LangCleg said

If a school doesn't share this information with parents then they remove the parent's ability to safeguard their own child. And the school are also removing the parent's rights / responsibilities which they are not competent to do. Only the courts can remove this, not schools.
If a teacher follows trans lobby groups guidelines and keeps a child's disclosures about being trans confidential - ie not sharing with pastoral / safeguarding leads in the school - then the teacher is breaching the school's safeguarding guidelines.
ll of this leaves a vulnerable child isolated from support and even more vulnerable to grooming / abuse / harm

Great post.

Remember everyone: only the family courts can remove PR (legal parental responsibility) and even then, PR would be given to the Local Authority and not the school.

Mimmymum's wise words... I snarked a little at who they tagged into their photo. Who do they think they are?

There are a number of parents, volunteers, trustees and people employed by Mermaids Charity (as is the case with other trans rights lobbying groups, organisations and charities) who believe they are omnipotent.

In fairness, this belief has been formed/ supported by the unquestioning backing they have had from many influential, powerful people and public bodies.

The DM is a hate filled rag. You think they care about women, working class people, autistic people, or LGBT people? Anyone who's ever had anything to do with them would know they are driven by ££ and nothing else. This is behind all their racist, anti immigration, pro Tory wind-up merchant 'journalism'.

If I was part of a movement and the DM was backing my p.o.v. I'd be worried. Very worried.