Open letter to Dr Polly Carmichael from a former GIDS clinician

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Former GIDS clinician speaking out, in detail, with her name and face public. Brava!

medium.com/@kirstyentwistle/an-open-letter-to-dr-polly-carmichael-from-a-former-gids-clinician-53c541276b8d

Wow such a courageous stand to take. Thank-you Kirsty.

I suppose it depends on your definition of transgender, but surely there is no such thing as a transgender child?

In UK, there is no definition of a "transgender child. There is no such person as a "transgender child". There is no such thing as " gender dysphoria". This description is a misnomer. Any "dysphoria" that may be experienced is related to the sex of a person in such a circumstance.

GIDS needs to rename itself as SIDS: Sex Identity Development Service.

I take your point Jacky although SIDS of course has another meaning.

wow. Hope this doesn't get brushed aside.

I take your point Jacky although SIDS of course has another meaning.

Sex does not equal gender:

Sex = female; gender = learned stereotyped behaviours described as feminine / femininity

Sex = male; gender = learned stereotyped behaviours described as masculine / masculinity

Sex relates to gametes:

Female sex supplies the large gamete

Male sex supplies the small gamete

Brave person Kirsty - thank you.

I am hoping that the adult service will also take note of the complexity of the cases they are seeing, especially in the 17-25 year olds

SIDS = sudden infant death syndrome

So you would need another acronym - I think that is the point Macareaux is making.

In terms of complexity I also had on my caseload several young people who declined to communicate verbally or communicated verbally to a very limited extent. I think that at GIDS verbal communication difficulties are often minimised as transmales being afraid to speak because they have a ‘feminine voice’ but in all of these cases I believe that there was something more complex than that going on. Again, it’s very difficult to undertake a gender identity assessment with a young person who struggles to communicate verbally, especially within the time constraints of the service.

The whole ideology will spin anything. Anything. Girls being non verbal is due to not wanting to use their feminine voice? WTAF.

Kirsty

Whatever happens, you are incredibly brave. And I want to say thank you.

It terrifies me beyond belief what is happening to children. Kids who need love support and help to deal with whatever they have been.through.

Every day I hope that today is the day this crap ends.

Christ this is shocking. You are very brave. How can they keep shrugging off the allegations.

That's particularly worrying about the verbal communication. My DS has an ASD and has a lot of difficulty with verbal communication especially in a therapeutic/official/public setting.

He has had CAMHS appointments for the last ten years and I can count on one hand the amount of times he has spoken to or made eye contact with a clinician (partly because appts are infrequent so no rapport is built up). The SEN team at school have had more success but it's taken a number of years for him to be comfortable enough around them.

If any of these children are on the spectrum I can easily imagine that being one explanation.

That was disturbing, and important. I hope there is a proper response. There really has to be now.
If anyone is on medium, I'm sure a few supportive comments to balance out the lovely one from joss prior would be appreciated.
It sounds like she has mainly been thinking about this on her own, and reading stuff online. There are some other psychologists who are speaking out about this. I hope she gets in contact with them.

I was surprised to read how many of the kids referred to them live in poverty: I supposed I'd imagined they would be the precursors to the blue-haired uni students.

Old Joss Prior got in there with the usual snide & ill-informed comments Joss is given to making.

Not understanding the ‘Webberleys’ reference I googled, found GenderGp.
“Due to ongoing concerns of transphobia in some public bodies in the UK, all medical services are managed and provided by doctors working outside of the UK.”...
“Many patients are faced with barriers when they are trying to access gender-affirming surgery. Surgeons are often anxious about performing irreversible procedures on patients who may later not achieve their desired outcome and be dissatisfied with their results. ”...
“We can refer you to people who can make low cost assessments and referrals for surgery.”

Again transphobia is cited: Duty of care is a barrier?

Dr Entwhistle is raising crucial ethical issues in a context of the wider provision.

The piece about lack of verbal communication frightens me. Are these children with ASD and associated communication impairments just being shoved into the medical machine? Please god let that not be true. It’s monstrous.
Extremely courageous to speak out. I wonder if she will receive the courtesy of a response.

TheRedBarrows the Webberlys have the bare faced cheek to put on their website that they're practising outside the UK due to "transphobia"? Talk about more front than Blackpool.

They had their licences to practice revoked for prescribing off label drugs to children on the basis of sketchy internet "consultations". That's why they're not practising in Britain. Because they're banned from doing so.

It’s a chilling read. This isn’t misguided liberals doing their best, it’s zealous idealists wilfully interpreting things to suit their cult.

In any other situation a silent girl should raise major safeguarding flags, and major trauma including sexual abuse would be considered. Yet, according to this article, at GIDS it has been interpreted as evidence of gender dysfunction.

Not for the first time I’m reminded of The Crucible.

And these are the good guys.
What a world, eh?
I’ve always gone outside state resources for help for DS who has ASD and thank god, had the means to do so. Reading stuff like this convinces me to continue with that policy. But most parents haven’t that option.

That is chilling about Webberleys. And how the ‘transphobe’ narrative is used to head off clinical objectivity and undermine professional practice at GIDS, as alleged by Dr Entwistle.

Letter is also archived: archive.li/VOjns

The failure of qualified psychologists to address acknowledged trauma in their young patients (clients?) shoes how far ideology has pushed boundaries.

I know two women who have daughters who have transitioned; both suffered different kinds of significant abuse from their fathers.

A brave and principled letter. Thank you, Kirsty Entwhistle.

On a purely practical level, how can it be sensible to put children who are living in such unstable or deprived situations that they can't wash properly onto a medical pathway. How are they going to be able to consistently take medication correctly.

You can feel her dismay at how children are being rushed through this without any thorough diagnosis or attempt to actually help them rather than just prescribe medication to trans.