News commentary on the Cass Report

[HagoftheNorth]

Thread to record where and when to find tv/radio commentary on the Cass report, so that it is easy for people to find it on catchup. If you’re listening/watching and it comes up, please record the channel/show and the time

The toy choices thing was odd in the Cass report. I'm sure I've read those studies being heavily flawed by Cordelia Fine in her Delusions of Gender book.

There are frequent references everywhere - including by Dr Cass herself - to the 'toxic debate'. But the what was going on at the Tavi etc wasn't just a subset of the TWAW no TWAM no TWAW 'debate', it was medical professionals calling out other medical professionals over what they perceived as unprofessional and potentially harmful practices in the treatment of children, which Cass seems to back up.

I'm sorry, what?!

Hilary Cass was no doubt acting out of the best intentions in mentioning the toxic debate but she has blundered in doing so in untentionally supporting a "both sides" narrative.

Despite the best intentions of everyone with a stake in this complex issue, the toxicity of the debate is exceptional. I have faced criticism for engaging with groups and individuals who take a social justice approach and advocate for gender affirmation, and have equally been criticised for involving groups and individuals who urge more caution.

The surrounding noise and increasingly toxic, ideological and polarised public debate has made the work of the Review significantly harder and does nothing to serve the children and young people who may already be subject to significant minority stress.

Although these issues are outside the scope of this Review, they have an impact on gender-questioning young people because of the inflexibility of the factional opinion and resulting toxicity of the debates.

This is shockingly irresponsible.

Just one incredibly biased viewpoint from people with no clinical experience but a lot of skin in the game.

A mother who doesn't want to acknowledge the harm caused by puberty blockers because she allowed her own child to use them, and an 18 year old - i.e. someone who was a legal minor less than a year ago - expressing the view that instead of halting the prescription of puberty blockers we should be speeding up access to them, i.e. the literal opposite of what Hilary Cass, a consultant paediatrician who has been working on this for over 4 years, has recommended.

Why has the Guardian given less prominence to the recommendations of Dr Cass than it has to the opinion of a vulnerable young adult who was 13 or 14 when she began her review?

Apologies, I started my own thread without seeing this. Storm Huntley handled the segment woefully in my opinion. One guest the male just wanted to focus on kids' feelings and how they should be listened to, Carole Malone is sometimes an acquired taste but rightfully focused on the report and giving drugs to children with disastrous consequences.

A woman called phoned in to say she had anorexia as a teenager and now has osteoporosis so it wouldn't have been in her best interests to affirm this when younger. A lot of umming and aaahing from Storm.

A mother who sounded at breaking point with her own kids wanting to transition at 19, with the male panelist defending that young adult's right. Carole pointing out not being able to drive and all the other things afforded to you when you turn a certain again didn't have the finality of taking irreversible drugs.

And finally a trans woman who said every child should be able to take puberty blockers blockers until they decide who they are, the previous women were just terfs and Rishi a big transphobe, which Carole (rightly imo) taking the TW to task with calling them terfs. Storm then fell apart at this stage trying to somehow stick up for the TW.

Massively summarising here but that was my opinion on the whole thing. Just - think of the kids feelings, that's what's important and both sides are toxic.

I found that interview really emotional - my 19yr old dd is autistic, a lesbian and totally fell apart in lockdown, and I could so easily have been in their position. I have emailed WATO to thank them for broadcasting it and the parents for speaking out.

BBC television news 25 an hour or so ago had Helen Joy and Keira Bell’s lawyer talking followed by Sonia a transwoman describing how very difficult waiting for cross sex hormones had been for them.

Then a transwoman (male at birth) BBC employee came on to describe how she (he) had had gender ‘medication’ by the age of 16 from a private clinic after having had to wait too long then been unable to access care through the NHS. She (he) explained he had known from age 4 that she (he) was a woman when she (he) had a Hannah Montana birthday cake.

I felt this transwoman, who appeared happy and successful, presented a slightly biased approach by the BBC in their ‘both sides’ reporting, in that, by comparison, the previous Kiera Bell part was second hand as opposed to a first person account and therefore less compelling.

Also, as the other person was a BBC employee it was difficult to say more,
for example that boys who felt they were female from a very young age, and never wavered in their feelings, were typical of the earliest/former cohorts of people who felt they were transgender, which did not explain the more recent phenomenon of thousands of girls, or boys, with no previous history of this, presenting to gender clinics.

Though this BBC employee had had a happy outcome, to viewers, imo, we were left with the sense that the employee was an exemplary example of a transgender success story, they had transitioned when young, so why not others?

(I cannot now find this person on News at One iPlayer, or the BBC news written resume for today, or I would provide a link.)

There are at least 400 trans identified people working at the bbc scrolling. It might be like trying to find a needle in a haystack.

I don't think the massive difference between the experiences and motivations of female and male transitioners has been given nearly enough focus. Even on Woman's Hour, Emma Barnett mentioned the huge rise in young teen and pre-teen girls questioning their gender but didn't (for time constraints, I'm sure) explicitly state that they have very little in common with older male transitioners, whose are the voices we are hearing most in the media today. (And every day. Surprise surprise.)

Helen Joyce's clip on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?si=yB0Au3cAB_jIt_QN&v=iSVEJjqm8vQ&feature=youtu.be

RTE1 News report on Cass. Thanks to Genesis1v27 for these links:

The segment is on the player herefor the next few days, if anyone wants to share it, it starts at 13:36. The news report is here.

The Guardian is a disgrace, and not for the first time. Its reaction to the draft new schools' guidance was a wholly irrelevant human interest story about a sad transboy who was bullied at school.

Very stupid. The idea that the purpose of public policy is to make sure that nobody feels sad is ridiculous and really testament to the extent to which we've allowed objectivity to wither.

Am looking forward to PM shortly

I came here to post that!

Oh. It's Adam Fleming. He's not the world's biggest fan of ideological wrongthink.

And it's Adam Fleming on R4 PM. You could hear him polishing his 'be kind' goggles in the trailer.

First person Adam Fleming interviews is a transwoman who works for Pink News.

And I was worried it was going to be Evan: I'm afraid I value my radio too much to risk it going through a window,so any updates appreciated 👍

FFS

BBC PM almost never tweets like this:

https://twitter.com/BBCPM/status/1778093004726636631

The BBC must have a team who have been tasked with coming up with different ways of saying 'Nothing to see here,' and 'Look, squirrel!'

Interesting that the BBC covers a story about appalling medical malpractice inflicted on children with a self absorbed account from a transwoman. So many possible areas to cover from this report yet it's down to personal anecdote. 🙄

So a male journalist interviews another male journalist about their experience of 'transition'. When one of the things noted by and concerning Cass was that the vast majority of referrals to GIDS were girls.

FFS.