Feminist Library statement on the NHS Cass Report

[IwantToRetire]

The Cass Report is the final report of Dr. Hilary Cass’s review of trans healthcare for children and young people in the NHS. The report is unequivocally transphobic, rejecting the agency and self-determination of trans people. We at the Feminist Library stand in solidarity with trans people in the fight for their healthcare, and see the struggle as part of wider Feminist struggles for bodily autonomy and healthcare equality. We echo the statements of @transationbloc and @thedykeproject in our position. Below is a statement written by a volunteer on the report and public response to it.

https://feministlibrary.co.uk/statement-on-the-nhs-cass-report/

Email them about a right to reply here:

[email protected]
[email protected]

Leave a comment, perhaps:
"The Feminist Library's statement on the Cass Review misrepresents its findings and intentions. The Review is not transphobic; it is a careful, evidence-based examination aimed at safeguarding all young people, ensuring they receive the most appropriate care. It is vital to correct the record and affirm that feminist principles demand fairness and accuracy in all public discourse, without compromising the rights and safety of any group. #CassReview #Feminism"

On their facebook

https://www.facebook.com/FeministLibrary

Or twitter

Or Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/thefeministlibrary/?hl=en

So the feminist library advocates for medical experimenting on children!

Fuck right off with that.

I hadn't realised they were that captured!. I worry for the personal papers that were lodged in good faith and trust when it was the Feminist-Feminist Library.

Seems to be a charity? But doesn’t say who is on its board of trustees.

https://feministlibrary.co.uk/about/our-collective/

'Any ‘women only’ events organised at the Library must be inclusive of all self-identifying women, and we ask groups to make this clear when promoting events. No group is permitted to organise events contrary to this at the Library.'

So, they're excluding men, but including men who identify as women. Is this permitted under the EA?

'Everyone (trans, cis and intersex), who remains attentive to the community policy is welcome in our space and can volunteer with us. We do not police gender in our spaces.'

https://feministlibrary.co.uk/support/volunteer-2/

That's consistent, at least. Nobody's excluded. But how do they manage to exclude some men, but not all men, in their 'women only' events?

'Assistance pets are welcome in the Library. There may be dogs in the Library on occasion, please let us know if you are not comfortable with this.
Hand sanitiser and masks available. Let the Openers know if you would like others to be masked.'

😶

That's very dim.

You'd expect a library, if commenting at all, to comment on the methodology of a research report, not in the Stonewall way but a considered view, even if negative. That's a librarians job. You might also expect them to comment on any evidence in their own collections. For example, Michael Dillon, one of the very earliest transmen on a medical pathway in the 1940s (sorry the first name is from memory) - do they have papers from him? Maybe an appeal for more transmen to deposit their papers?

And with the harping on about how only trans people in big cities with resources can get treatment- you'd hope at least for an acknowledgement that Cass was the force behind dispersing services from only 2 cities in the UK to be more accessible.

The lack of real focus on 'kids' and the constant sliding back to transwomen as the important group is very telling.

Upcoming event:

'Remember, this part of Butch Lineages is ONLY FOR BUTCH DYKES of any kind and gender identity (and other masculine DYKES who are down w butches). if you are masc nonbinary and dont identify as a butch dyke, we love you but this isnt your space. all you femmes and butch lovers come see us at the open programme pls'

I'm confused.

Subsequent upcoming event:

Book signing with Alvina Chamberland:

'I think I’ve reached a turning point, being fun and flirty and going to parties was never the core of my personality. I believe in the future I will look back on these 2-3 years of my life as a social anthropology experiment where I flirted with and fucked countless predominantly handsome straight men in order to figure something out – about them, about myself, and about society. My mission was never to pose for them, but to try to understand – and lately it’s become painfully clear that it’s about the herd mentality. Their sexual desire for us is so strong – in some countries and cultures stronger than in others – but the percentage who dare to live openly with us in a serious relationship is roughly the same everywhere. Because straight men more than anyone are obsessed with being part of the herd. With a cis woman by their side they are. With us they are not. This taps into a deeper, existential issue that goes far beyond transness. Nietzsche analyzed this already, and called for a stronger kind of human who’s reached a higher level. Girls like us have transgressed and risen above the herd mentality long ago, and the only straight men who deserve us are the ones who are ready to do the same. Freedom is the truest most beautiful place to reside, but it is not without consequences. I do not want men around me who are not there, or at least aiming to go there, and thus the amount of straight men I will allow near me in the future will be significantly fewer, at times maybe even none. They’ve got a lot to prove, many of them have muscles, but few have balls. Time to step up boys!

And as for my beauty? It will continue to be a priority for me, because it is a source of protection, a granter of respect and decency for girls like us, a sense of defying the odds, and of joy. It also serves as a reminder of my own worth, of why straight men have to try harder, and change, and become better and stronger in order to enjoy my energy, sensuality, and sexuality. And let them pine for it and drool over it.'

Who knew feminism would end up revolving around the sexual desire of men?

The women who run these organisations are not feminists in any meaningful sense.

That's another topic for the inevitable inquiry - how are so many organisations (Fawcett Society, Feminist Library, Breeze cycling etc) being allowed to spend public money or donations on initiatives which are directly opposed at worst and irrelevant to at best their legal purposes?

How can you possibly be confused by that??? It's as clear as a shitblizzard!

They're not run by women. As someone else has stated, there's at least one fox in the henhouse.

They are at least part run by women who enable these males. They wouldn't have got a toe in otherwise.

Ask them if they are OK with children chopping their arms off too.

No, it isn't.
Women-only would be fine, I think. I don't know if this is one of the situations in which Haldane's judgement would apply and women would also include men with a GRC, but restricting attendance on the basis of self-ID would be unlawful. Direct sex discrimination, against men who don't claim to be women, I reckon. Speaking as a non-lawyer.

I've just got your username, Terref! 😂😂

Here's the current trustees as listed on the charity commission gov page.

Surely if you identify as a butch dyke, you have already chosen your gender ID, i.e. a non-conforming 'masculine' identity and style [Note the quotation marks around 'masculine', you know what I mean!]. Is there another kind of butch dyke gender ID? A gender-conforming 'feminine' femme butch dyke?

Such disregard for classification, in a library, FFS. Dewey must be turning in his 393.1.

As the mother of a white middle class child with autism who has attempted suicide and is absolutely dependent on the existence of a SENCO to be able to access school at all, this is one of the most offensive and ignorant things I have read. Fuck the white middle class children with special needs, eh?

It is not granting young children agency (even if you believe four year olds should be granted that level of agency) to ignore the evidence. If you tell children they can change sex and puberty blockers are perfectly safe, totally reversible and have no down sides then you are denying them agency.

Anyway, <shrug>, like the academics who signed the letter against Cass despite knowing nothing about medical research and thus made themselves look like absolute clowns, this bunch are making themselves look idiotic.

Again, I am not sure the commentator read the Cass report. They certainly didn’t reference it. And talk of exclusion up to the age of 25 in the postscript which is not what the report says. Their reference list is made up of the sort of serious scientific papers you would expect: