What changes for children and YA after the SC ruling?

[TheSaltyIceCream]

I'm the mum of a gender questioning teen. I read a lot here, rarely write, and name change often to protect our privacy.

Which are the implications of the SC on gender questioning children?

I think the situation of toilets and changing rooms is excellent from the safeguarding point of view, but also positive because if affirms that the sexed body matters.

I hope it will empower teachers, parents, therapists and doctors who favour a careful approach: they can't be silenced when they say that biological sex matters.

I hope it will protect parents from teachers and social services that misunderstand out cautious approach.

I hope it will change journalism, although the BBC is certainly trying to resist.

I hope negative effects of medicalisation will be discussed more openly.

And if our children will choose to medicalise, because they believe that that's the best approach for them, they will do so, knowing that it doesn't change their sex.

Am I too optimistic?

It gives a gravitas and seriousness to the message that you can’t change sex…

that allows space to have a lot of discussion around why / drivers / hopes / desires etc. with looking at how a child might choose to be happier with who they are without body changes / medicines etc as the law has clearly established that sex can not be changed and that biology is right…

Yes - agree with what@akkakk says.

Similar is being said in the letter discussed here:

www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5325983-letter-to-nhs-england-and-wes-streeting-about-puberty-blockers-trial

I think that accepting the truth that one’s internal sense of ‘gender identity’ doesn’t change one’s sex and that society at large still recognises that sex is immutable and that it matters in many contexts will go a long way to ensuring people who do want to transition weigh up the pros and cons of doing so extremely carefully going forward.

Transitioning seems like an easy option in magical Stonewall land where everyone can be whatever they want to be and the law can be whatever you say it is. But back in the real world, telling everyone “I’ll do whatever I like, get over it” doesn’t work, as we have actual laws instead.

There is an interesting thread on here at the moment where an adult transwomen (not the OP, another poster) is discussing the fact that the trans medical treatment plan typically involves supporting patients to live as if they were the opposite sex. This person is understandably distraught at the notion that this lie they’ve been sold isn’t possible (and as the SC confirmed, shouldn’t have been happening in the first place).

As I mentioned in this other thread, no medical treatment plan should depend on the rest of society complying with what a doctor thinks would be best for their patient to the detriment of others in society.

I think that, over-time, the SC ruling will force doctors to consider whether their advice to “live as the opposite sex” is actually workable and realistic, given that biological sex is patently real and important to the rest of us (and will be important to the patient in many contexts through their life too, no doubt).

I have a similar teen @TheSaltyIceCream. I think it will take a very long time for them to feel the effects of the SC judgement. They do not engage with health professionals in good faith - everything is done with self diagnosis on Reddit and sources of ‘treatment’ found through the trans network.They share info on what they think doctors want to hear, to enable them to ‘pass’ any eligible criteria. And they are convinced that any questions come from an attempt at conversion therapy.
Of course I hope that the SC judgement will empower other adults to say ‘it’s not possible to change sex’, and that all the discussion in places that have avoided it up to now (like R4) will mean that the public start to realise that it isn’t necessarily kind to ‘be kind’. Maybe this will work like water on a stone in the long term, who knows.

Thank you @TheSaltyIceCream & @Bluebootsgreenboots for sharing and I sincerely hope that society wakes up to the harm this imposition of trans ideology is doing to children and young people.

In addition to online, some schools have been a worrying source of gaslighting children with transactivist adults running amok, socially transitioning children, often in secret from parents. Transgender Trend have written an insightful piece about the numerous implications for schools of the SC:

https://www.transgendertrend.com/uk-supreme-court-judgment-schools/

@MrsOvertonsWindow
Thank you.
Thank you also for the transgender trend link, there's so much to think about, since the ruling, and I had missed it.

I think you've pretty much summed it up. It's mostly a good decision for trans people, and especially for young trans people who haven't already built their lives round a wrong set of assumptions about how they will be able to navigate society.

Plus, while my DC is the wrong sex to benefit it's also made sure that transmen don't lose important sex-based rights like maternity, even if they have a GRC.

I don't think they're going to like it very much, but kids don't always like what's best for them, do they?

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