James Esses reaches settlement and receives apology

[LargeSquareRock]

This is just wonderful news.

Take note, all of the institutions that continue to discriminate against lawful gender critical beliefs.

x.com/jamesesses/status/1823642057669259573?s=61&t=NHDSDk1MaF98_GOtcuLi0Q

Such good news, well done to James and his team.

I really hope this is also reflected in counselling practice around the country. We have seen too many vulnerable children and adults damaged by affirmation. They need, and should receive, proper counselling from ethical counsellors.

I look forward to seeing the BACP take note of this.

Wow that's quite the apology, well done to James, and thanks to him for fighting this.
Will the Metanoia Institute now follow through and make the lessons they've learnt because of this, a part of their training programmes in future?

I'm not holding my breath...

Excellent news and a most fulsome apology. It sounds as though some people in the org may have 'moved on' and some adults who have read Cass are now in charge.

Credit to James for pursuing this over a number of years.

They'd have to be very, very foolish not to.

Great news and importantly, thanks to all us crowdfunders, we backed another winner.

Can you let us know how this apology is received please?

So pleased for James. A very good statement.

Very pleased for James - yet another in a long line of gender-critical wins. How many more to come, I wonder?

Does anyone want to start a thread where we keep track of them all? ie gender critical victories, plus the ones still ongoing?

There’s this one, @RoyalCorgi

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/4910748-court-casesjudicial-reviewsetetas

"BACP and several other UK therapy bodies have pledged their support to the Memorandum of Understanding on Conversion Therapy (MoU),10 which firmly denounces any practices aimed at converting a person's gender or sexuality, overtly or otherwise."
I'm sure they don't have a shred of foolishness between them!

Thank you! I'd forgotten that one.

Presumably the wording of the apology would have been one of the terms of the settlement agreement and their agreement to such a term would have been wrestled out of them. Arguably that makes it more of a triumph not less. In any case a very positive result.

Great result and a stonking apology.

Disgusting that they had to take years to get here and ruin a good career in the process.

I'm sure James is considering his options, or will do after the much deserved celebration. He could do worse than helping the development and growth of exploratory therapy post Cass. It's much needed and he's an excellent communicator, could be CEO of an organisation to oversee that change in view of the fight he's had, how he has conducted it and the reach he's achieved in the process.
Alternatively he could do something different. Or finish his studies and be one of the best counsellors for children out there.
Congratulations James,
well done and thanks for taking it on.

I've left several pages!
As a psychotherapist I have felt silenced about many things over the past years and it does/ can really damage our work.
As for the BACP they will only do the same if pushed and absolutely only for their gain and not for us therapists or our clients!

What have James’ detractors been saying about the result? I can only imagine the tantrums and wailing about how unsafe they all are now…

That's excellent news. Beyond vindication for James.

I want to see big MSM headlines about this as a signal of how reality is being returned to us,

Surprisingly, it is currently a top story on the Guardian, calmly reported and explained in detail by Amelia Gentleman.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/article/2024/aug/15/student-psychotherapist-wins-apology-over-expulsion-for-gender-critical-views?CMP=ShareiOSAppp_Other

The coverage in the guardian is a good development. Particularly at a time when the ban on conversion therapy is looking to be coming closer. It is essential that Parliamentary discussion of the proposed ban is able to burrow down into what is really meant by conversion therapy in relation to gender identity, and how it can be robustly defined in a way that doesn't put people on the back foot when they assert the need for proper exploratory therapy before any 'affirmatory' medical interventions are made.

If a sufficiently robust definition is achieved then I suspect a legal ban would be revealed as nothing more than an ideological/political gesture, since the practices in question would surely be ones that any therapists' regulatory body would already have prohibited. It simply isn't ethical for any therapist to begin therapy with a ready-made agenda of reshaping an aspect of personality and (in the absence of any evidence of gender identity conversion practices of this sort actually operating) I'm not sure we need the law to back that up

What I would like to see now is some statements from the individuals at the Metanoia Institute who caused this series of events, now that it's been established that policies were disregarded. Would anyone be willing to say that they thought the issue of supporting transgender people was so important that anyone who disagreed had no rights that needed to be respected? Or however they might want to present it now that all these admissions have been published.

But I think that anyone who was responsible will be covering their identity as well as they can, and if they can be identified, they'll say "The case is over, and I have no further comments to make".

That's excellent news.

However, I would have liked to have seen personal apologies from the individuals concerned. It's fine that the institution apologised - and it's right they did - but it's the individuals who got him expelled that we need to hear from.

Notwithstanding the use of light being shone, I'm looking forward to the day when these cases aren't happening because people aren't being dismissed/accused.

Surely sometime soon lessons will be fully learned in a joined up way?

Yes it would be good to see people being held to account.