Observer today re Keira Bell

[rogdmum]

There’s also two great stories in the Sunday Telegraph today which deserve their own thread (I’ll not hog all the thread starting) but here’s the Observer with quote from Bayswater Support Group:

“The Bayswater Support Group, which describes itself as supporting “the parents of children with adolescent-onset gender dysphoria” who want to “explore all options before resorting to irreversible medical treatments and surgery”, welcomed the ruling.

A spokesperson said the UK’s current approach affirming a child’s need to transition was embedded at an institutional level.

One mother belonging to the group said: “Nothing can describe the fear you feel as a parent when you realise that medical transition is the only solution presented to your child for distress around their gender identity. Given that institutions – from schools to government, charities to the NHS – have supported this route, we have felt powerless to intervene.”

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/dec/06/keira-bell-lawyer-warns-on-internet-coverage-of-transgender-issues

Thanks rogdmum

Excellent editorial from the Observer too:

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/dec/06/the-observer-view-on-the-high-courts-ruling-on-puberty-blocking-drugs-for-children

This is a very balanced article (surprisingly so). I hope this marks a turning of the tide.

I do feel for the children who have had their treatment withdrawn. It must have come as a big shock to them but they have been badly let down by the clinic that was meant to be supporting them. I hope they do get some actual mental health support.

The Observer really diverges from the Guardian on this issue, doesn't it?

Are the US Guardian staff going to revolt again?

Is this now an end to this sorry era of children being affirmed and issued PB drugs?
Now that it will be pretty difficult for kids to get these drugs the whole raison d’etre of Mermaids must be called into question. You won’t be able to do what she did to her child.
The child will still be able to “socially transition” but without the drugs, puberty will kick in.

When even the safeguarding lead files a complaint, you've got issues.

Thanks for sharing. I always think of the Observer as the Guardian on Sunday so am pleasantly surprised.

@Taswama

Thanks for sharing. I always think of the Observer as the Guardian on Sunday so am pleasantly surprised.

I was going to say exactly that but you beat me to it.

Absolutely excellent Observer article. It puts clear blue water between 'gender dysphoria' and 'being trans'. TRAs believe that being trans is an innate condition, whereas gender dysphoria is a medical condition in need of treating. This distinction will help us win the argument by allowing the space for other forms of treatment to fill the PB void, such as counselling and waiting.

Clearly from the TRA point of view the whole purpose of PBs is to continue on to CSH. Because they believe that if a 5 year old says they are trans, they are. So why wouldn't the child continue all the way? However the only way that TRAs and their ideologically captured services such as GIDS can get away with prescribing them is with the 'thinking time' argument. And that untruth that they had so successfully weaved until now is what has allowed this case to be successful. They have essentially been hoisted by their own spin.

This quote from a Mermaids mother jumped out at me from that article and I feel so sorry for all those families that have been taken in and damaged by this nonsense. I hope someone is offering them good quality mental health support

"I thought the facts were so abundantly clear, waiting lists aside, nobody serious could object to the status quo"

I'm not surprised. The Observer has at least one senior staff member who I follow on Twitter who is clearly GC, but who I won't name, to prevent them getting a load of grief on social media or from colleagues. Bravo to them for this.

Glad the Observer is taking it's own stance.

Yet again someone spouts the line that much needed medical treatment has been withdrawn. Like Susie Green on Newsnight saying "this is the only area where you have to go to court to get treatment". The experimental drugs have been withdrawn, but it's very misleading to suggest there's no treatment at all on offer, or that blockers are the only possible treatment. Although I do appreciate that child mental health services are not in the best of states.

It will be interesting to see if there is a drop in the number of "trans children" once it becomes apparent that there is no longer the same possibility of access to puberty blockers and a clear "solution", for want of a much better word.

Would be good if a newspaper covered how every single LGBT and Trans group on Reddit has been taken over by extreme trans activists and any dissenting opinions or alternate groups set up are immediately deleted/banned.

That said, the first article annoyed me in this section:

"I did not imagine for one moment that the outcome of this case would be the effective withdrawal of medical care from children in dire need of it, and the removing of medical decisions from the hands of specialist doctors and the placing of them instead into the hands of judges who are not medically qualified,” said Molly Muirhead, the mother of a transgender boy.

She added: “I thought the facts were so abundantly clear that, waiting lists aside, no one serious could object to the status quo.

“Trans children go through a period of lengthy assessment before a decision is taken by a specialist medic about whether they should be prescribed puberty blockers – a safe, reversible treatment which temporarily pauses puberty, gives a child thinking time, and saves them from having to watch their body transform in a way which causes them profound distress."

Why have an article which warns of the dangers of online misinformation on the dangers of undergoing medical transition, only to include, uncritically, and without comment, a quote that then gives this misinformation, directly contradicting the findings of the court? Why was this quote included, or if included to show these parents' point of view, why was it not challenged?

*“It is natural,” she said. “It might be statistically uncommon, but then so too is ginger hair.”
“Trans children go through a period of lengthy assessment before a decision is taken by a specialist medic about whether they should be prescribed puberty blockers – a safe, reversible treatment which temporarily pauses puberty, gives a child thinking time, and saves them from having to watch their body transform in a way which causes them profound distress.”

The parents are as brainwashed as the children, is this as a result of the internet or coming from the clinics? Do you think the parents will change their minds when they’re finally told we have no idea if PBs are reversible?

Thanks rogdmum and KihoBebiluOute for the links.

Here are all saying that GIDS must step up and make sure the children are fully supported through this. And what are Mermaids doing? Having tantrums about the ruling.

*Here we are

That editorial in the Observer especially the last section is great. I am not sure how anyone could read that and not agree.

Yes xxyzz in the Times podcast on this topic this week a mother of a ftm transitioner said exactly the same thing about PBs being reversible and was not questioned at all.

Very good from observer

The Observer editorial doesn't pull its punches. That is really good to see. Wonder what Kath Viner is going to do at the Guardian - very interesting to see if she continues on her increasingly lonely path.

from the Observer Editorial

From the age of four or five, she started to prefer clothes and games society associates with boys

gosh it's like they're figuring out that the whole thing is built on sexist stereotypes

Really important to see that in the Observer - all my lefty friends who think I've had my head turned by the Murdoch press read it.

Every parent who argues puberty blockers are reversible has a child who has no intention of ever stopping them, given ongoing access.

They only seem to care about puberty blockers being seen as reversible so they can keep getting them for themselves.

No one ever asks these parents why they’re so happy to be rendering their child infertile and sexually dysfunctional.