I watched Reported Missing on bbc iplayer last night. Series 5 episode 3.
In this a very troubled young person called Taylor goes missing from a residential facility.
We are told Taylor is 5ft 3 slim build.
As the programme goes on Taylor’s adoptive mother talks about adopting Taylor aged 3, Taylor’s awful early life pre adoption.
She then tells us Taylor was Emma but decided at around 14 that she was a boy and wanted to be called Taylor.
At around the same time Taylor’s behaviour became so reckless that mum contacted social services and said she could no longer keep Taylor safe and a residential place was arranged, albeit mum had thought and hoped it would only be temporary before a return home after help/ treatment was in place but in fact Taylor has needed residential care even post aged 18, which is fairly unusual and I think an illustration of the level of need.
The events which unfold throughout this programme show police desperately searching for Taylor as a vulnerable young person.
Eventually, thank goodness, the search is successful but at one key point there was unneccesary and potentially life threatening confusion because the police had told a witness they were searching for a young man called Taylor and it transpired that this witness knew Taylor as a young woman called Emma.
It seemed Taylor had chosen to revert to Emma temporarily.
No reference was made to the clear problem that changing identities cause the police when they are trying to find someone.
Surely they could include an AKA of the actual biological sex and associated name if nothing else?
It is ridiculous that police have to be more concerned with appearances of respecting someone’s pronouns that the reality needed to perhaps save their life.
This is of course without even thinking about the issue of “affirming” a clearly damaged and unwell teenager in the believe that they really are the opposite sex.