Julie Bindel article- quite shocking look at Blackpool and the reasons behind the high GIDS referrals there.

[Xoxoxoxoxoxox]

Alhough I was aware of its decline as a resort I did not realise that Blackpool had fallen so far as to become a centre for sex trafficking of young girls.
The last thing these girls need is gender ideology offering a quick fix by escaping from womanhood, this article clearly articulates how one failure of safeguarding leads into the other.

t.co/XuCoNOCYnp

I just came here to post this. I’m so glad JB has written about this. I listened to the Tortoise episode in question and was shocked. There seemed to be serious social contagion in the schools in Blackpool helped by a teacher (possibly more) who facilitated social transition and gave a binder to one of the interviewees. The podcast didn’t say if this was with or without the consent of the parents. After the Mermaids scandal I found this problematic, even if the journalist didn’t.

One thing the Tortoise journalist did pick up on was a TM had been given T before any contact from GIDS. I pondered if an Adrian Harrop-style GP combined with an activist teacher could influence the uptick in GIDS referrals?

I know at my workplace, 2 trans activists is all it’s taken to get policies changed and gender ideology embedded.

My sisters lived in Blackpool, fortunately neither do now. The local authority tried to set up a bail hospital on the end of their road which would have housed this type of offender.
There are at least two large prisons relatively nearby. The town also has a lot of accommodation originally aimed at holiday makers and now unwanted. Some former hotels are now squats. These men have to go somewhere.
Are there similarities between the children in Rochdale and elsewhere and girls drawn into having a gender identity?
In Rochdale the children were deemed competent to consent to abusive and damaging behaviour. Little attention was given to the predators driving it.
Can I see any parallels?
I couldn't possibly say.

Just to link up, there is another thread about this Blackpool, CSA and 'gender identity' www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/4711342-blackpool-csa-and-gender-identity

I am a Blackpool resident. I work for a local charity. I won't say which as it is small out outing. We know there is a problem with this. Jesus Blackpool has every problem going. There are groups working to help the situation. The thing about arcades, I know which one they are referring too, I will not go in the place and my kids also know they are not to go there. The town is improving but it's slow and the funding just isn't enough. The residents feel that the government have just swept it under the carpet

I found that a really upsetting read. So grateful to Julie Bindel for everything she does

Also a side note. My son is on pathway to asd diagnosis. He had some feelings around being trans, unsure of sexuality. I know the article says girls changing and I'm talking about my son but school and professionals were very quick to suggest Tavistock and puberty blockers. He was 10. Me and dh said no. If this is still the case later we will look into it all but he had only mentioned it once to a teacher and once to me. And also confusion is common with asd as they navigate the differences between them and 'normal' children.

Professionals were wanting referrals started after just saying it to one teacher. We felt like it was spinning out of control and had to forcefully stop it all. Good job too as he has changed his mind now at 12.

I'm finding it concerning that there seems to be this increasing sense that any girl not special enough to opt in to becoming a man or non-binary is passively consenting to become the most regressive conception of a woman: porn, prostitute, drudge, surrogate, subsistence-wage worker.

I spent several years wishing I was a boy and trying to pretend I was one.

There were several reasons.

Safety. I had already been sexually assaulted several times (and some more followed) so I thought being a boy, being one of the guys, laughing at the banter , laughing at "other girls" would make me one of them,give me protection. They'd defend me. They wouldn't look at me "that way" either due to "real" friendship or because I was too weird to be involved with. I was deluded and the years proved me wrong.

Misogyny. As a girl I was too much. Too loud,too funny, too giggly, too rough, too unladylike . Everything about my behaviour,my personality,my interests, what I wanted to do, how I wanted to live was just wrong. But it would be ok if I was a boy. So I wanted to be a boy. I thought i was behaving like a boy and thinking as a boy. It was the body that was wrong.

The laughed at, bullied,abused body. Too fat, breasts too big , pretty clothes not fitting it well, trendy clothes too revealing or slutty .

I hated being a girl , because that made me always in the wrong. No matter what was done to me I was in the wrong, because I was a girl that was girling wrong.

I definitely was the "not like other girls" type and preferred the company of boys. I sneered at other girls, calling them shallow and stupid and superficial, when deep down I hated them because girling came easy to them in my eyes. They just had to be , and they were the right kind of girl. Being a girl was the worst thing you could be. Limitations,shame, abuse, guilt.

If that was now, I probably be on the path to transition when all I needed was safety,love,acceptance, protection.

Horrible set of options. Given the prevalence of misogynistic pornography, and the lack of police action against sexual harassment of young girls, I’m not surprised that so many seize what looks like a golden opportunity to opt out of becoming women.

They can’t opt out, of course. And they are damaged by drugs and unnecessary surgery. But the abusers don’t care.

Thank you for sharing trevthecat. It's shocking that so many unthinking adults are allowed to try to influence children in this way.

Julie misses that LGBT groups have a strong grip on the town

Converting the LGB teenagers into ‘trans people’

I must say, I was hoping for a bit more depth. It contains the things that do seem to be the case but doesn't quite make the case, IYSWIM.

For example here:

"Could it be that for many abused and neglected girls, presenting as transgender can be a form of attention seeking and validation?

Until recently, Norma* was a secondary school teacher in Blackpool. She tells me she saw transgender ideology creeping in among young girls: “I tried to raise the alarm of the potential harms surrounding gender non-conforming young women and girls to safeguarding leads. This was met with naivety of the realities of the situation and their insistence on using ‘he/him’ pronouns with no scrutiny as to any other issues.”"

Could it be? The following paragraph doesn't really support that it could be.

I seem to recall that Nikki da Costa and someone else (Transgender Trend??) had data on referrals in local areas. I would think a journalist would perhaps be using those numbers to investigate whether vulnerable minors - ones who've been sexually abused in this case - are being wrongly pushed down a path that does not help them recover, and does more damage.

I appreciate that's hard work but I would think journalists with contacts would be able to investigate and build a case and report it in a way that does not identify the victims. If that's what they find.

Andrew Norfolk unearthed what seemed to have been determinedly kept from public view, in a geographical location, without identifying those who should not be identified. So it can be done.

A good point ResisterRex. How did so many children from Blackpool all get referrals to GIDS? Is this the impact of a small number of self invested adults able to fast track vulnerable children through the system via personal relationships with someone in GIDS? Or not.
Like so much of the systematic exploitation of vulnerable children, it needs more investigating.

Thanks OP. Just when I thought I couldn't be more horrified at the evils done there is another example. Those poor children

Thank you for the link, will read tomorrow.

Aren't those the categories of women in "A Handmaid's Tale"? What a depressing thought that it could happen by an ideological takeover rather than a religious one.

On the other thread about this someone's posted an article about the number of 'looked after' children in Blackpool. The highest in the country both homegrown and bussed in.

Thanks for the link op. I really appreciate Julie Bindel for writing this article. I can't think of any other contemporary journalists who've shown the slightest interest in Blackpool. (Possible exception for John Harris.)

This is an awful read. Where can we find the stats to back this up? Number if referrals from the area to GIDs, I do remember seeing a graph by region but can't remember where. It also showed a higher number of looked after children being referred (as well as autistic girls and those girls who have experienced trauma).