A hot take on the Cass report courtesy of Freddie McConnell

[GenderBlender]

Not quite sure what to make of this one. Freddie welcomes the report and totally agreed with it apparently, but also thinks it has the fingerprints of transphobia on it. Seems vexed that Cass has not unambiguously said that trans kids exist, and that the neurodiversity and mental health challenges are in addition to a teams identity (no explanation given as to why they are so often co morbid).

Seems to be going with the, it's all about waiting lists line that mermaids at al have been spouting.

Totally doesn't get the concept of a systematic review, says lots of research not included, that will be because it was reviewed and found to be shite so not included.

"Cass bemoans the lack of a peer-reviewed evidence base for trans healthcare. Right there with you, Doc (although there is plenty of research you decided to exclude)".

No comment made on the withholding of data by the majority of gender clinics making generating this evidence base impossible.

No comment made on why girls are now presenting much more frequently.

"If the Cass review was held under a black light, we would see the fingerprints of anti-trans ideology. I don’t believe Cass shares this way of thinking, I think she believes in evidence-based healthcare and that trans children exist. However, allowing her review to be so heavily influenced by bias is a critical failure that is hers to own."

So, the battle front is drawn, it isn't actually about gender services, we all totally agree on that apparently. This is about whether we all agree that there is such a thing as trans kids.

I think this is an unwinnable argument, like arguing whether god exists. In my view, from a medical stand point, the starting position has to be that the goal of any treatment for gender confused kids is to help them be more comfortable and live with the body they have. Only when compressive attempts at this have failed, should medical transition even be considered. I don't think this proves that trans kids exist either way, but I think perhaps for a very small number of kids this is the most effective way of relieving their distress.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/apr/11/hilary-cass-trans-children-review

Freddie also made an appointment with a fertility clinic for the week after they had signed for a GRC swearing that Freddie was going to live as a man for the rest of Freddie’s life.

Then there was the debacle about being registered as the child’s mother,that one went to court, judge was very clear in their ruling that if you are the gestating parent then you are the child’s mother.

Freddie has form.

Ah yes, I forgot about the GRC, thus rendering it utterly useless.

I mean, really, what is the point having a law that says someone must intend to live as their acquired gender for the rest of their life if there is no mechanism for revoking a GRC if they do the opposite.

Of course, correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure the only thing you can do to disprove your commitment to living as a man is to give birth, and the only thing you can do to disprove your commitment to living as a woman is to commit rape.

Don’t mind writing this on an anonymous forum: my eldest was due to start same school as Freddie’s child. We chose a different school in the end. It was a hard decision but we didn’t want our child asking awkward questions and I was never going to tell lies about biology.

It just goes to prove that there is no way to ‘live as a man/woman’ other than to have been born as one.

Freddy also crowdfunded to have baby 2 in Sweden where a trans man is allowed to be registered as "father" on the birth cert. The baby came early and was born in the UK but as far as I can tell Freddy never refunded the 11.5k that had been raised https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-freddys-baby-get-a-birth-certificate

I wonder where all that money went.

How can someone think that if you remove all(I mean all) of the breast tissue you would be able to breast feed!!!

Please would you consider writing/emailing your points to The Guardian and/or other papers with letters pages. The more people gradually realise the damage caused the better. More and more people are being peaked but there are plenty more that are ignorant to this.

Here are more details from the British Medical Journal on the quality of research studies in gender medicine.

"One emerging criticism of the Cass review is that it set the methodological bar too high for research to be included in its analysis and discarded too many studies on the basis of quality. In fact, the reality is different: studies in gender medicine fall woefully short in terms of methodological rigour; the methodological bar for gender medicine studies was set too low, generating research findings that are therefore hard to interpret"

Boom. In your face Freddie

Silly girl.

The baby came early and was born in the UK

I think it might have been Elaine Miller who pointed out that testosterone weakens the womb and makes it harder for a transman to carry a child to full term, in addition to taking months for the female body to get the T out of its system so possibly affecting the child in utero. I don't know how long Freddie was off T before becoming pregnant.

I’ve seen lots of how wrong it is that the goal is happy, healthy kids that are comfortable in their bodies without surgery and lifelong medication. Instead it should be autonomy and self-determination apparently. Anything else is transphobic. There’s no way to argue against this line. Despite the fact that anyone with any experience of kids would know that left to their own devices they’d never brush their teeth or bathe. Surely no one is arguing that, so why are we arguing that opting into a lifetime of medication in pre-adolescence is a good thing?

I’ve also seen a lot of ignoring the evidence that social transitioning is not a neutral act and still pretending that puberty blockers are reversible and that Cass’s stance against these is inherently transphobic.

Freddy helpfully documented Freddy’s second conception and pregnancy via a Vice column:

https://www.vice.com/en/topic/dad-bod

Freddy has been secretive about the sex of Freddy’s second baby - I’d be willing to make a sizeable wager on Baby 2 being a girl.

Queens' Speech on Cass Review. I hadn't realised that the NHS is digging heels in.

I know nothing about the misgendering or the breastfeeding.

But the whole idea of claiming to be a man, and being so distraught over any suggestion that you are not a man, and then... giving birth! It doesn't engender much sympathy in me.

JFC,people actually fell for that shit?

Apparently Freddy waited 6 months before conceiving. I have no idea how long it takes for the testosterone to completely work its way out of your system to make it safe to conceive; there probably isn't a lot of data on that point.

There's a detransitioned woman on Twitter who is currently pregnant and she says her doctors have advised her to have a C-section because attempting a vaginal birth would be too dangerous with a partially atrophied uterus.

But Freddy previously posted about wanting a home birth so I guess his first pregnancy wasn't deemed high risk.

I’ve just read Freddy McConnell’s article in the Grauniad and the whole piece makes absolutely no sense if you don’t define what a trans person is, which McConnell fails to do.

This is eye opening to me as I am late to the party but oh my gosh. I’m sending it to a psychologist and to two teachers in my family.

Dennis and Clive of the Queens
Speech are great fun and a good reminder that the T doesn’t actually fit on to the end of the LGB - it’s it’s own separate thing.

Dennis founded the Gay Men’s Network and as he’s a barrister by trade he’s particularly good at looking at the legal aspects of trans overreach - Gay Men’s Network have written a couple of really excellent responses to Government consultations and they publish them early so others can use them as a template or to borrow ideas from. Well worth checking out @Actuallylocaltome

https://www.gaymensnetwork.com/

Hardly "living as a man" is it?

Freddie isn’t a man because Freddie has given birth twice and men cannot give birth.

Freddie did the ultimate female act in giving birth. Freddie doesn't hate her own female body, Freddie's wonderful female body created life. Only women give birth and Freddie did that like millions of other women do.