Context
article published by Transgender Trend by Micheal Biggs 'who researched and wrote this analysis in September 2018 in response to the trailer for the new ITV drama Butterfly which promoted the line “I’d rather have a happy daughter than a dead son”.
Michael Biggs is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Oxford and Fellow of St Cross College. He researches social movements and collective protest
(extract)
‘I want a happy daughter, not a dead son’, proclaims Anna Friel in the new ITV drama Butterfly. This line required no creativity from the scriptwriter, as it is a constant refrain in interviews with parents. ‘I’d rather have a live daughter than a dead son.’ ‘We prefer to have a living son than a dead daughter’. ‘Our only choice was to have a dead son or a living daughter.’ ‘I’d rather have a living son than a dead daughter’. ‘Do you want a happy little girl or a dead little boy?’ ‘My wife and I decided that we would much rather have a happy, healthy daughter than a dead son.’
ITV’s drama was heavily influenced by Mermaids, the British organization invested in the transgendering of children. According to its chief executive, Susie Green:
‘I have my daughter, whole and alive, but if I had refused to listen then it’s very likely that I would have a dead son.’
Like other transgendering advocates, she never shies from raising the spectre of suicide:
(see screen shot)
Her tweet implies that four trans-identified youths committed suicide last year, though the language is ambiguous and does not specify age. Another mother associated with Mermaids announced two trans teenage suicides in under a week:
(see screen shot)
When transgendering organizations cite evidence on suicide, it almost invariably comes from surveys that recruit respondents haphazardly—without random sampling from a defined population—and ask them whether they have ever attempted to commit suicide. These surveys have been scrutinized in two earlier posts, and also on 4thwavenow. One problem is that trans-identified respondents might be primed to respond affirmatively to such questions by the continual emphasis on suicide in transgenderist discourse. Toby Sinbad Walker, for example, suggests that trans-identified females will kill themselves if they have to wait for breast amputations:
(see screen shot)
What is the evidence on actual suicide amongst trans-identified young people in Britain? I submitted a Freedom of Information request to the NHS Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS), which serves patients aged under 18 in England and Wales. It provided information from 2016 to August 2018. One patient committed suicide (in 2017) and two attempted suicide. In addition, two patients on the waiting list committed suicide (in 2016 and 2017) and two attempted suicide. This makes a total of three suicides in two and a half years. Each case is a tragedy for the young person and for their family and friends. But the number is hard to square with the claims of Susie Green and @ transmum.
Although GIDS told me that it could not provide information before 2016, its website in 2017 stated that ‘suicide is extremely rare, with one case in the service in the last decade, of a young person in an inpatient ward who was referred with severe psychiatric difficulties.’ Presumably this case occurred before 2016. This brings the total—for over a decade—to four. (continues)
concludes
Although calculated from only four suicides, the suicide rate is much higher than for teenagers overall—in my rough (over)estimate, 13 times greater. This is a genuine cause for concern. By comparison, anorexia multiplies the risk of suicide by 18 or 31 times (depending on the method of estimation), while depression multiplies it by 20 (Smith, Zuromski, and Dodd 2018). One study finds that autism multiplies the risk of suicide by a factor of 8 (Hirvikoski et al. 2016). This latter figure is especially relevant, given the fact that 35% of children referred to GIDS recently have moderate to severe autism (Butler, De Graaf, Wren, and Carmichael 2018).
Whether the higher rate of suicide among trans-identified teens is due to gender dysphoria or to co-incident conditions such as autism deserves urgent research. At the same time, we must realize that suicides of trans-identified children are rare tragedies and not—as transgendering organizations like Mermaids imply—a common occurrence. Rational and compassionate policy-making cannot be driven by the threat of suicide."
www.transgendertrend.com/suicide-by-trans-identified-children-in-england-and-wales/
Protest against delayed elective mastectomies for female transpeople discussed:
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/3368777-To-think-that-in-the-current-dire-state-of-the-NHS-finances-its-a-no-brainer-that-first-priority-for-mastectomies-goes-to-cancer-patients
Michael Biggs:
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3257819-Michael-Biggs-Sociology-Dept-Oxford-Free-speech-at-Oxford-Do-women-have-the-right-to-meet-to-discuss-legislation
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3260270-Michael-Biggs-Oxford-Sociology-dept-The-Open-Society-Foundations-the-transgender-movement-incl-comparison-with-funding-for-women
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3433485-Prof-Michael-Biggs-How-Queer-Theory-Became-University-Policy-re-Oxford-Gendered-Intelligence
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3406042-Oxford-Student-newspaper-doxes-Twitter-account-by-possible-criminal-unauthorised-use-of-a-comptuer-system
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3394224-Let-A-Woman-Speak-Observer-Letter