‘Trans children more likely to be white and privileged’ says head

[hholiday]

In The Times today. https://www.thetimes.com/uk/education/article/trans-children-white-privilege-katherine-birbalsingh-73d578v7q

There is no statistical evidence of the headteacher’s claim in the article (it’s anecdotal, based on the fact she teaches at an inner city London school and says it’s not really an issue there). And the Cass review and others have given other explanations for the transgender trend among young people, eg autism. But I thought it was really interesting it was being discussed at all - and so bluntly. It would be interesting if this view does get looked into a bit more, as I suspect if there’s one thing likely to bring the transgender movement skidding to a halt among kids, it would be the idea that it’s something for the rich and privileged.

The identity of choice for angst-ridden white kids used to be Goth, listening to the Smiths, Nirvana, reading Kerouac and Catcher in the Rye....there was always a white culture around low levels of despair which wasn't so popular in other cultures. Surely this has morphed into taking on a trans identity? You don't see Goths so much these days.

My daughters are adopted and adoption is another of the highly represented co issues in trans kids. I know several adopters whose kids are trans. They are all some of the saddest young people you could ever meet.

Would you say this about an anorexic? To my mind it's a similar issue - a highly damaging mental health condition based in dysmorphia and highly correlated with neurodiversity.

Anorexia and EDs can be more around extreme anxiety and the need for control over some aspect of their lives.

linked to autism through digestive issues, sensory eating issues - it can be more of a physically driven condition in some children. Again though there’s a social containment aspect and body dysmorphia/ self perception issue.

I see goths these days! Not young ones though. Maybe goths don’t breed? Save the goth.

And notice how many musicians and actors children “come out as trans”. One way of getting noticed by your self obsessed parents.

82% of the population of the UK is white so that would be appear to be in line with the average.

Oh please, not again with this. Please read my post on this thread from yesterday at 13:05

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5340328-trans-children-more-likely-to-be-white-and-privileged-says-head?reply=144486096

If you can't be bothered to click on the link (or maybe even just RTFT) then this is what I said:

Just a small point, but there is a real difference between "white" and "white British".

Yes, 81.7% in the census were white but only 74.3% were white British. The other 7.4% were made up of Polish, Irish, Romanian, Italian, Roma, Lithuanian, Portuguese etc.

Although if you look at particular areas then the numbers can vary dramatically.
In London only 53.7% were white and only 36.8% were white British.

Contrast that with somewhere like Wales which is 93.8% white and 90.5% white British or the North East with very similar figures of 93.0% white and 90.6% white British

I'm sure that when the first stats started trickling out of GIDS at the Tavistock, that there was mention of a significant proportion of the children having a parent who was a sex offender. Given that the majority of sex offenders are white and middle class, I guess it would fit the profile here.

My experience is that children from higher socioeconomic backgrounds tend to access the type of mental health support that is gentle and affirming, no matter what the presenting issue. Those from poorer and minoratised backgrounds are more likely to be pathologised as having serious mental health issues and be drugged.

We know that most of the support for gender ideology is from people who have been to university and are well off economically, so maybe it's just that the kids who transitions often have parents like that.

That's quite an allegation. Can you back it up?

Yes. Ten times the average. I will see if I can find the reference tomorrow.

It’s definitely in the Hannah Barnes book, I remember it as well.

Ok, so they are more likely to have a sex offender as a parent, be autistic, be a victim of abuse or adopted from the care system, have lost a parent via death or separation, AND yet they are mega privileged strident university educated middle class white kids who are having, to quote a pp, to 'invent their own problems ' . Righto.

I think that the person may have been objecting to the phrase:

"...the majority of sex offenders are white and middle class"

rather than the ten times more likely statistic. But, who knows?

The majority are, of course, white purely by the fact that this is a mostly white (81.7% in England & Wales) country.

There was an FOI to the Ministry of Justice that gave figures as of 2020 and there was some earlier research done by the Manchester Metropolitan University looking at figures from 2007.

The figures from 2007 give 81.9% white prisoners with a conviction for a sexual offence and the the 2020 figures give 82.0%.

White prisoners are also slightly over represented where there is a CSA conviction.

But I think that it is largely the "...and middle class" that the poster is likely objecting to. There really appears to be nothing to back up this assertion.

I'm sorry for missing your post. It still does not appear to be a large discrepancy. It's nowhere near as significant as the discrepancies regarding adverse childhood experiences, which really don't correspond to the claims of trans-identifying kids all being privileged. It's wrong to misrepresent like that when it's actually some very vulnerable children being swept up by this ideology.

Most of us know that child abuse, bereavement, autism, having a parent who's a sex abuser or having divorced parents are not restricted to any particular class.

None of these children and young people have been well served by the professionals who should have been enquiring, keeping and analysing detailed data and maintaining ethical professional standards about safeguarding children from harm.

It's what makes supporting them so very difficult because extreme transactivists have been allowed to influence child healthcare, child psychology, research and data collection etc for far too long - along with bullying parents into immediate affirmation.

Despite the shameful behaviour of some in the medical profession towards all this, I still retain hope that the high standards of child healthcare in our Children's hospitals will go along way towards challenging the toxic power and influence of transactivist groups and that in the next years, with these organisations being prised away from schools, we'll have more accurate data about these children and more appropriate routes to support their mental vulnerability than the dangerous drugs and surgery promoted by so many dodgy adults and groups.

There's one big assumption here that says rather a lot.

That's the assumption that if you are are middle class you can't be in the position of any of those.

The middle classes are just better at hiding it.

Read the Hannah Barnes book. It's clear that in some cases genderism might well be a manifestation of abuse by a parent.

That's not my assumption at all. The opposite in fact. All through this thread I have reiterated that the trans teens I know are vulnerable. Really vulnerable.

My irritation is at the idea set out by a number of people on this thread that white middle class children are all automatically privileged and have no real problems compared to those of other cultural and ethnic backgrounds, so they have to invent them.

It's a really nasty unpleasant viewpoint.

If for no other reason they are vulnerable because they are children.

There is a level of privilege from being white and middle class, regardless of what else happens to you or what conditions you have. I have two adopted daughters. They are both on the autistic spectrum and one has a learning disability. They both went to sen schools. They have plenty of disadvantages. But they still have the white middle class advantage.

Yes of course.
Not saying otherwise.

My apologies- my middle class sex offender thing was purely anecdata, drawn from 13 years of working with sex offenders in custody. I'm sure I've seen some actual data, let me see if I can find it.

Blackpool has a I think one of the highest rates of referrals to gender services, higher than Brighton. Not exactly an outpost of middle class privilege. As many people have said there are multiple cohorts caught up in the trans phenomenon this kind of sweeping statement is unhelpful and reductive. But then wouldn’t really expect much better from this source.

I think there is likely a significant element of differernt groups, not having much in common.

Well off kids kids may be the majority of those who are playing around with trans identities just as a kind of teen fad, but they tend to be supported in that by parents.

I also suspect that as far as child transitioners, those under 10 say, might mainly be from a similar demographic.

The vulnerable kids I imagine represent a differernt group that is really struggling with serious issues. Being poor or especially being in care can be correlated with some of these other issues, like mental health problems.