MoS: "Angela" the Mother in Keira's case speaks out

[Malahaha]

Great front page article in the Mail on Sunday.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9046865/Mother-explains-fight-legal-victory-stop-puberty-blockers-daughter.html

For one mother, the momentous High Court decision marked the end of a desperate year-long battle to prevent her autistic teenage daughter from being sucked into what she believes is a dangerous programme of experimental therapies at the controversial Tavistock clinic in London.

Had she not intervened by joining in the judicial review to stop the clinic doling out the drugs, her 16-year-old daughter risked suffering irreversible physical changes and destroying her chances of having children.

But while others celebrated, mother- of-three Angela, whose name we have changed for legal reasons, kept her profound sense of relief very much under wraps.

For what few have known until now is that her daughter is unaware she was at the centre of the landmark case – and that her mother has no intention of telling her.

Gosh what an utterly brave woman and fantastic parent. Thank you so much for all you’ve done Mrs A.

Thanks rise. That sounds more like what you would hope would happen there. The exploration and treatment of any underlying issues first or simultaneously. I wish your son and your family luck in continuing to find treatment that does look at all the issues if he feels he need it.

I am full of admiration for this woman and sorry she had to go through it. It's mind-boggling to think that it took a parent to get the ball rolling.

The media should stop calling Tavistock 'the clinic for transgender children'. It's for children with gender-related distress which doesn't necessarily persist into adulthood, and not everyone with gender dysphoria identifies as trans.
And the same goes for people who work for NHS. The GIDS reports include snippets of feedback from new employees, and one of them comments how great it is to be able to support 'transgender' people. I'm sure they mean well but that's completely inappropriate. You are there to help distressed children, not to stick identity labels on them.

Thank you Mrs A for bringing this case upholding consent, the foundation of modern medical practice, against the politicised misuse of Gillick. Mrs A and Keira honestly deserve public honours for bringing this case with so much stacked against them. I am so proud to have put a few pounds in to support this case and this article reminds to do what another poster suggested on a different thread, to send them a card vis their legal team’s address.

I really wish for her sake, Mrs A hadn’t ever needed to bring the case. I wish there had been abundant professional and appropriate psychological support available for her daughter and for all the other children that have become distressed about gender issues for various reasons. Like Keira. As a parent it is distressing and frightening to understand how seriously kids are being let down. I have such admiration and respect for Mrs A for looking this problem right in the eye and taking it on.

I really hope a side effect of this case in time will be to bring that proper investment in CAMHS about. That takes nothing away from how vital and brilliant it is that in the immediate there will be a new way of overseeing the use of puberty blockers, plus that their legal case has reasserted children’s rights to have proper practice around consent. This outcome will contribute to safeguarding for children for years to come.

I can only imagine how stressful and lonely doing the case in confidence in this way must have been for Mrs A. A different kind of stressful and lonely as it must have been for Keira doing it as the public face. to them both.

I really appreciated Mrs A’s points here about the need to keep her daughter’s options open- the child’s right to an open future. That’s the key difference between gender critical people and the TRA lobby who just seem to want to lock in poster children into their own adult cause with no actual concern for whether that end result actually benefits kids or not.

Wishing Mrs A (and her daughter, whatever path she decides to take later on) the absolute very best if she ever reads this.

Thank you Mrs A.

I had to do the online government Prevent training for work and sat through it seeing all the parallels, especially alienation from family

It ticks every box under prevent.

@SmallBalloonAnimals

I had to do the online government Prevent training for work and sat through it seeing all the parallels, especially alienation from family

It ticks every box under prevent.

Which is very strange considering one of the Prevent experts, Andrew Moffat, used No Outsiders (an org that's original purpose was about tackling terrorist radicalisation in schools) to introduce Queer Theory to the classroom.

It's discussed from pg2 on this thread

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3858425-Andrew-Moffatt-No-Outsiders-online-lessons?pg=2

Definition of awesome parenting! I'm sure it's been so hard to love through and hopefully after the teen years her daughter will appreciate it, whatever decisions she then makes for herself.

Good to see the article mentions puberty blockers impact brain development.

Thank you Mrs A and Keira

Brilliant, brave woman! Well done, Mrs A.

Overwhelmingly positive comments.

Wow. Amazing and brave Mum fighting for what is in the best interests of her child.
As a mother of an autistic daughter I find it terrifying that clinicians could start her on puberty blockers whist under 16 which will impact on her brain development.
It's frightening this has been happening.
Well done to these brave females.
I hope more investment is provided Into services to provide support to those children who are struggling and so unhappy.

What a woman. Thats what parents should do.
I do wonder if she's here. Hats off to her.
I do hope things work out and she's bought her daughter enough time.

My son now has the choice of going to the adult services, which is a medical treatment route only.

Is this true? Do they offer no further counselling? There must be many young people who are as much in need of psychotherapy as the under 18s.

Awesome woman & mother.

Very clear cut article too; well done MoS. Nice not to have to read a "balancing" comment from mermaids, complete with false suicide stats. I think journalists are getting braver.

OldCrone
Yep, that’s what they told us at the Tavistock, the adult services just put you on a treatment plan, it’s not a place to go if you’re questioning your ‘trans ness’.

It’s fantastic that this is a front page story also. Well done to the MoS.

@ErrolTheDragon

Overwhelmingly positive comments.

There's one outlier that was posted 20 hours ago:

Puberty blocking delays or interrupts puberty and is therefore entirely reversible. It gives the child more time to consider, and may in fact stop some children undertaking your fear of irreversible procedures. Why put your child through puberty twice, instead of once, at either their assigned sex at birth, or their desired sex? Easy enough to educate yourself on this matter.

Not entirely sure what it means, but I'm pleased to say that it's acquired zero upticks in that time.

More of the "educate yourself" arrogance...

@OldCrone

My son now has the choice of going to the adult services, which is a medical treatment route only.

Is this true? Do they offer no further counselling? There must be many young people who are as much in need of psychotherapy as the under 18s.

I remember a U.K. detransitioner describing exactly this.

There was some gatekeeping in children's services and the waiting lists were long. She also wasn't entirely sure what her identity was. She was then put into adults services where she describes you can pretty much get what you want.

She was close to starting cross sex hormones under the adult services but had a full 360 epiphany just in time. (Thomasin I think.)

Thanks for the link to the article (so sad we have to rely on the Daily Mail to get the story, you would think other newspapers would be begging for it).

Was really struck by this comment in response to the article:

"Same here. I told them all they'd have to take me to court and remove my parental right before I'd allow any hormone drugs placed into my 13 year old daughters body, and intercepted all paperwork from the Tavistock that was arranging appointments for her to go there. I have and never have had any regret at all and know it was the correct decision based on knowing my daughter. At 17 she's happy within her own skin and is with a wonderful girlfriend"

Dont Tavistock look at these common patterns, eg autism, or being lesbian or ...

It is so frightening that health providers that you would like to think only act on fact substantiated by good research - not on "feeling".

I am sure there are many who are concerned by the distress of some of the young people, but only putting forward one solution to the distress, rather than challenging that was is felt as distress is actually part of the growing up process. That life isn't fairy story but a serious of events you just try to navigate as best you can.

‘I see my job as a parent to be to get her to adulthood with all her options still open to her. Pursuing this path would have closed off her options – the option to be a woman and the option to have children.

‘I’d have been forced to stand by and watch as her future was changed for ever.’

She continued: ‘I am convinced the Tavistock wouldn’t have tried to dissuade her from going on puberty blockers. They would have affirmed her belief in being trans.

‘I know that because by the third letter we had from the clinic, they were already referring to her by her chosen male pronouns, having never even met her.’

That blows out of the water all the repeated claims by the Tavistock that they assess children carefully and help them to explore identity confusion with an open mind.

GIDS About us

”We help our clients to explore their feelings and choose the path that best suits their ideals.

We spend a lot of time engaging with clients to understand their thought processes and to help them manage any uncertainties they may have and be understood.”

archive.is/MaOuy

Current controversies

”We work with every young person who visits our service individually, on a case-by case basis, with no preference or expectation for the pathway or outcome they may follow.”

archive.is/Vbeih

They are outright lying. They are pushing an Affirmation Approach with parents before they have even met the child.

They should be asked for a copy of their Policies and Procedures covering correspondence with parents pre-assessment. Nowhere on the GIDS site do they acknowledge that they use an Affirmation Approach but it is clear that they do - even before first meeting a child.

Stephanie Davies-Arai makes a good case that the first step towards “medical transition” (hormones and/or surgery) is not prescription of Puberty Blockers but “Affirmation” and “Social Transition”. Which is exactly what Tavistock GIDS is doing here even before meeting a child for the first time.

What is this but medical negligence? Despite what they say they are diagnosing and starting treatment with Affirmation on the basis of referral information. Do they do this with every child? Are they just rubber-stamping a self-diagnosis by a child? That is not what they claim to do.

There is a lot of woolly talk on the GIDS site that they might try to hide behind. However, nobody reading their claims about their methods would imagine that they would be so irresponsible as to affirm a child in a cross-sex identity before even meeting them. Appalling dereliction of Duty of Care.

”Challenging the Gender Mythos | with Stephanie Davies-Arai”

Is ‘affirmation’ an appropriate approach to childhood gender dysphoria?
By Stephanie Davies-Arai

www.civitas.org.uk/content/files/2399-B-Transgender-Children-WEB.pdf

My heart goes out to “Angela”. What a wonderful mother and what a hell of a time she must have had and still be having. What enormous courage and determination to protect her daughter