Sunday Times: Gender reassignment: I’m man enough to admit that it was a mistake

[TimeLady]

Good on him for speaking out. I wish him well

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/gender-reassignment-im-man-enough-to-admit-that-it-was-a-mistake-g2nn79j9j?shareToken=36344b9975b97432517f1ca4cf4d2a2b

”This bloke seems a bit of a mess. He sounds like he has been easily swayed in his decisions to transition and detransirion. I wouldn't be surprised if he was a woman again next year.”

I wonder though. If it is a sexual fetish, and castration removes your sex drive, he may no longer feel that desire to be female. Depends what’s driving it and whether he will now take replacement hormones.

But it highlights again. The fact that there are far too few assessments for concurrent MH problems within the current system.

It strikes me as shocking that he seems to have thought you have to be a woman to enjoy pursuits associated with women as a matter of sexist stereotype.

There is nothing stopping men and women being friends. Nothing to stop him enjoying lunches with women or having women friends round for coffee. That he couldn't see that is a tragedy, a complete failure of society.

It is good to see the mainstream media publishing a very clear account of classic AGP behaviour and good that this an has at least some insight into the enormous harm he has caused his wives and children. However, the public too often think XY trans people are mostly homosexual transsexuals when in reality the vast majority are AGP (at least as far as I can make out) and very few AGPs have the insight to be honest about their fetish even to themselves.

What a mess.

I do not believe AGP can ever be successfully destigmatised until it is understood as an aspect of male sexual identity.

There is no female equivalent, right?

And to save me ploughing through loads of "ew" online may I also ask - is it also true that sexual fetishes generally are a male thing?

I completely agree with this:

It is tragic that such a vulnerable man was given a life-changing, irreversible and ultimately devastating operation without his profound mental health issues being addressed properly.

This is something we see time and time again - people, including children, who have mental health problems being treated by being given hormones or having bits of their body surgically removed. We look back in horror at the idea of removing boys' testicles to keep their singing voices and yet somehow we now think it's acceptable to do exactly the same in support of the complete lie that it's possible to change sex.

And to save me ploughing through loads of "ew" online may I also ask - is it also true that sexual fetishes generally are a male thing?

Yes. Similar proportions to sex offending: ie, overwhelmingly male.

That's a heartbreaking video. Poor guy.

I would say failed by the system, but it seems worse than that, it seems he was actively harmed.

I hope he gets the help he needs. I'm glad he has friends and support, now. What a mess.

As an aside, @LangCleg does anyone know why it's an overwhelming male thing?

There is a lot of embarrassment and stigma about AGP, but each person who speaks out makes it easier for the next.

I respect this man’s honesty and wish him, and also his kids and ex wives, all the best.

I wish him well too. I agree that the Christian Legal Centre don’t seem helpful at winning cases but I am happy that his church community are supportive, he sounds very emotionally fragile. And obviously while everyone is right to be concerned about children being rushed through children, many of that already add vulnerable adults to that list also.

Sorry to go off-topic but I’d missed the call for individual judicial investigation before treating children, mentioned in this article:

‘his interview comes 24 hours after it emerged a former psychotherapist at England’s first NHS child gender clinic, run by the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust, is asking judges to ban it from giving children hormone-blocking treatment unless a court decides that is in their best interests.’

I think that is a welcome call but I have legally no idea how that could work. Can anyone comment on that?
What would be the advantages for children of this route over statutory regulation or just making an act of Parliament that bans this for anyone under 25 for example?

I had assumed regulation based on statute would be the optimal way because then you have the democratic involvement of MPs in setting the consistent parameters for the law of the land.

Regulators informed by that law are then legally required to work with transparency (publishing decisions etc) also so everyone would know how the interpretation of the law was happening in action and being inspected against. Are the courts always going to make these judgements available? Could a process involving going to court not be appealed and take years to resolve? Wouldn’t the rich powerful lobby organisations always intervene on their behalf? How does the judge deciding on best interests of the child route work?

I can see how it would be helpful in weeding out cases where there is other issues going on and definitely NOT in child’s interests. But what about the cases where the judge said it WAS in the best interests to give the treatment. Based on what?

Surely such treatment - for which there is no consensus (based on evidence) of successfully resolving children’s dysphoria or ‘dysphoria’- can basically never be in the best interests of a child? At least with a regulatory body it’s possible to see what evidence they are relying on, and the law is available for all to see. And a regulator has to publish overall statistics regularly and anything else can be uncovered under Freedom of information requests and so on.

I am cynical if the regulatory approach Is not being explored, because that would cost the government a lot of money to set up. It would need an annual budget to run such a body or make it a subset of an existing regulatory body.

Ironically this seems like an area which a publicly funded body like the Law Commission could usefully explore although their projects seem to last a minimum of three years. Maybe the judicial route is preferable now for immediate action, if that can be brought in, then move to the statutory model later.

If there’s another thread I have missed discussing this I would appreciate if anyone could point me to it. I think any such judicial Or regulatory system should be extended to adults too to help to avoid cases like Peter in this article.

My fleeting impression from reading a range of newspapers is that the Christian Legal Centre takes on the "matters of conscience" cases that few others would touch. They are trying to hold the line against what seems to be a sharply emerging hierarchy of rights where some rights trump others, however sincerely and lawfully held.

I’ve often wondered as someone else commented that a lot of this is a fetish based on strong testosterone once that’s removed and everything else the person is left wondering what happened?

As women we are used to the ups and downs of hormones changes due to periods/birth etc but men are not and must be rather a abrupt shock to them? I wonder if this has been researched?

Very sad but have heard of a similar cases. A lot of it seems to be a mixture of a common fetish combined with very much wanting to fit in and have a social life they do not have.

Poor bloke. When I read the article, it did sound like a case of people not accepting his transition. But the video makes it plain that it was a fantasy and 'lust'.

I found the relevant article about the legal case mentioned, so just pasting it here. Looks like a mother of a child patient and a nurse who worked there is suing the clinic www.thetimes.co.uk/article/mother-sues-tavistock-child-gender-clinic-over-treatments-r9df8m987

I’ve often wondered as someone else commented that a lot of this is a fetish based on strong testosterone once that’s removed and everything else the person is left wondering what happened?

I agree *orange^. And it stands to reason, doesn't it?

If you remove all the testosterone making equipment, and the organ to achieve a, relatively straightforward, orgasm, what then?

Blaming it on lust sounds like his church's influence? Perhaps it's helpful to him now.

It sounds as if unpacking the causes if this would take a lifetime, and caring support with explicit structure could be really helpful.