Observer view on gender identity services for children

[Popuptent]

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/mar/20/observer-view-cass-review-gender-identity-services-young-people?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Very good

Yes, I was just reading this. Clear, fair, sensible. I think it might have been written by a grown up.

As someone who has raised concerns about the affirmation model and what seems to be known and what seems not to be known due to lack of data, this stood out:

"There has been a deplorable tendency by some to mislabel clinical concerns about the affirmative model as transphobia."

And this:

"Even in the wake of the Cass report’s hard-hitting findings, some clinicians and charities continue in their efforts to shut down legitimate debate about the affirmative model. These adults must examine their consciences, because it is children whose care is compromised as a result of their ideology."

Excellent article. Thank you for link.

Always good when an adult writes for the Guardian / Observer.

I think Sonia Sodha writes leader columns for The Observer. She’s a grown up.

Very different from the Mon-Sat Guardian.

I was just coming to post about this. It’s clearly taking a stand and making the point that it is about the needs of children, and that it is deplorable to mislabel these concerns as transphobia. Thank you Observer.

Was surprised to see this today.
Obviously lots of people on social media saying they can't stand that transphobic Observer/Guardian (yet continue to read it daily, from what they post to moan about).

Thanks for posting thi. I'm glad that this is in the observer/guardian as it will bring this to people who don't normally listen to our side

Good article. Would love to see comments on it.

@Barrawarra

Good article. Would love to see comments on it.

Me too - but the balanced child centred concerns they'd be won't be allowed, it would undermine their narrative of all opposition as transphobia.

Good article.

Sonia Sodha at the Observer has been consistently excellent on this. The Observer has had a totally different approach to the Guardian. Sodha is also clearly following other events such as Maya's ET, the case of the rape in a single sex ward and the cancelled even at GOSh as she has been tweeting lots about them this week.

This was good to read, I had not realised what a different take the Observer and the Guardian have on this issue. (As I uaually read both on the same phone app I don't always think clearly about which one I am reading).

So pleased by this editorial - was reading it waiting for the "...But...", then remembered it was the Observer, not the Guardian. Is it cynical that I'd put serious money on an attempted rebuttal/hatchet job from the Graun in the next couple of days?

Very interesting and I wish a friend of mine, who is a total TRA and supporting her child's FTM transition without question, could read this with an unbiased mind.

Observer still very much configured as a physical newspaper rather than mostly being read online so perhaps doesn’t have to appease US readers

I thought it must be good as the Fox Killer has a rather testerical Twitter thread about it

Oh dear. Indeed he has @ItsAllGoingToBeFine. Is he quite well, I wonder?

Sonia Sohda is brilliant. What did the Fox Killer have to say ? I'm blocked by him

Sensible editorial, which of course can be more opinionated than just reporting news.

Interestingly most of the replies to JM's thread are pointing out the obvious unfairness of Lia Thomas. Even though he's blocked anyone who has objected to his opinion in the past.

I honestly can't see how anyone can deny that evidence based care, especially for children, is a good thing. To write that off as transphobic is saying that you believe that some children don't deserve the same standard of care as their peers.

You can dress that up however you like but that's what TRAs are saying.

Great article. Thanks for posting @Popuptent - I have long given up on the guardian so this is refreshing.

This is Foxy's twitter. I'm cringing thinking a rich adult white man could make these disgustingly racist arguments. I see he gives zero shits about trans men - presumably there's something specific to trans men that he doesn't really care about. Can't imagine what.

@JolyonMaugham
'We're not transphobes,' say the Observer leader writers. So what is the explanation for the fact they write again and again, on all aspects of trans lives, and invariably in a fashion hostile to trans people?

'Black people are a danger to white women. I don't think they should get public services I take for granted. And how dare they call me out as a racist - don't they know I have free speech rights?'

If you are going to use your privileged pulpit to preach ignorance and hate at least own who you are: you are a bigot.

Maybe you think trans women shouldn't compete in women's sport. Or trans women are a danger to cis women. Or being trans is a mental illness requiring therapy. There's no link of logic between those views. If you hold all three it's a racing certainty you're a transphobe. Own it.

Maybe you think the analogous situation to 'men, as opposed to women, commit 98% of sexually violent crimes' is 'Black people, as opposed to white people, commit 98% of dangerous crimes'. But then you'd be incorrect, because they don't. If in some parallel universe, race was a consistent and universal predictor of risk for violence, it might be something to look into.
Perhaps JM thinks it is, but that says a lot about him and the world he lives in.

He can't make a proper argument, so he has to make up this crap.