Tortoise podcasts re GIDS

[WagnersFourthSymphony]

I've just listened to the first episode of this series of three, by Polly Curtis of Tortoise Media. It's aiming to be a balanced look at the work of GIDS, and is well worth a listen (despite the annoying music). She is trying to get all sides and has a sensitive but not uncritical approach.

In the summer of 2022 the NHS announced it was winding up the Gender Identity Service for children and young people at the Tavistock. Critics of the service celebrated, its supporters were left in despair. In this series journalist Polly Curtis has spent months trying to understand what happened at GIDS. Why has it attracted such criticism and what is the best way going forward of treating young people with gender dysphoria?

www.tortoisemedia.com/audio/a-verdict

Cool, so you would recommend? I'm always in the market for a good podcast!

If you have 38 minutes to spare, yes - though it's only the first of three and I don't know where it's going yet. The journalist (who has teenagers of her own) is sympathetic to the distress of gender dysphoric young people and talks to one who is frank about how they ended up identifying as non-binary. She doesn't comment on what they say but lets the words speak for themselves.

She is very careful to be respectful.

The podcasts ends when she's talking to Polly Carmichael and is astonished at Carmichael's lack of certainty about whether what they were doing was for the best. A cliffhanger to draw you in to the next episode, but I wouldn't assume it's going to be at all like Norris. It will be fairly nuanced.

Tortoise Media's schtick is "slow news, not breaking news. Calm, clear reporting on the stories that matter most."

I have a lot of time for Tortoise so thanks for the suggested listen WagnersFourthSymphony.

I find tortoise podcasts some of the best available over the last few years. I enjoyed this first episode - thoughtful, reflective and sensitive. And so far, balanced.

Another voice of thanks for the recommendation. I’ve listened to the first three. Interesting and lots to think about.

I found the offensiveness of the question “what makes you trans?” (which I took to mean: how do you know you are trans) quite hard to understand. The parallel with “what makes you gay?” didn’t help me because I understand the idea of sexual attraction and if a person is sexually attracted to the same sex, they’re gay. That is what makes them gay. But there’s nothing like that explanation in the trans world.

Is it like someone who has never experienced sexual attraction trying to understand the idea of fancying someone? But even there, there are clear nuts and bolts, observable physical responses, that you could explain.

With gender identity, it’s either “I just am” or “I always liked (insert opposite sex stereotype)”, neither of which makes sense to me.

Which is fine. It’s not my life.

But when it comes to irreversible medication or surgery on minors, it’s safeguarding and it’s everyone’s concern.

All I heard from Stef was a story of a kid of 10/11 who wasn’t fitting in and spent a lot of time online and suddenly got a simple explanation. I was shocked when the journalist revealed quite a way into the story exactly how young Stef was when she came out.