Religion is a Mental Illness

Claims of Suicide Surge For Gender-Confused Kids Is Challenged

An activist legal group's claims of a spike in suicides of gender-confused youth on wailting lists for treatments is being questioned.

The New York Sun

The landmark report on pediatric gender care also undermines suggestions by a British legal group that the clinic all but eliminated pediatric gender-transition treatment referrals in 2021 and that this drove a wave of suicides on the waiting list.

A British legal advocacy group has claimed there was a “huge increase” in suicide deaths among minors on the waiting list for the U.K.’s recently-shuttered pediatric gender-care clinic. This surge, the group argues, is the result of what it characterized as the clinic’s harsh restrictions, beginning in 2021, on adolescents’ access to gender-transition treatment.

However, the recent landmark British report on the care of minors who are distressed about their gender calls into question the specifics of these claims, as does documentation posted on social media by the head of the legal group. 

If substantiated, the legal group’s claims would cast a pall over the central recommendations of the report, which is called the Cass Review and was published to global fanfare on April 9. The report asserted that England’s state-funded health care system, the National Health Service, should prioritize comprehensive psychological care for gender-distressed children.

More significantly, though, it further said that those younger than 16 should only be provided gender-transition treatment, including puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones, through clinical trials; at least in the short term, this would sharply limit minors’ access to these treatments. The N.H.S. has heeded Cass’s counsel and is overhauling its care system for such young people accordingly.

The founder and executive director of a British liberal legal advocacy nonprofit, the Good Law Project, Jolyon Maugham, on June 20 claimed on X, formerly Twitter, to have evidence that suicides among minors on the waiting list for N.H.S.’s pediatric gender clinic, the Gender Identity Development Service, or GIDS, increased to 16 deaths from 2021 to 2023 from one death between 2014 and 2020.

Mr. Maugham and the Good Law Project attributed these reported deaths to GIDS having “immediately pulled down the shutters” on pediatric access to gender-transition treatment following a 2020 court decision — a policy shift that Mr. Maugham claimed also led the clinic’s waiting list to balloon. 

Yet the Cass Review suggests that at least some of the 16 apparent recent suicide deaths were among youths who were either GIDS patients and thus not on the waiting list or who had already turned 18 and aged out of the program. The review also provides data countering Mr. Maugham’s suggestion that GIDS began harshly restricting access to gender-transition treatment beginning in 2021.

Additionally, a 2022 study found that between 2014 and 2020, there were, in fact, two apparent suicides among minors on the GIDS waitlist, not one; there were also two apparent suicides during that period among minors who had made it off the waiting list and were GIDS patients. 

A top British pediatrician, Dr. Hilary Cass, spent nearly four years developing her almost 400-page report on pediatric gender care at the N.H.S.’s behest. In a statement to the Sun, Dr. Cass said her team “spoke with a member of GIDS staff who reported that there had been an increase in deaths among children on the waiting list, but no evidence was provided.” Referring to the N.H.S. division that operated GIDS, she said, “This was not substantiated by Tavistock and Portman N.H.S. Foundation Trust.” 

The specter of suicide among gender-distressed youths plays a central and controversial role in the politicized global debate over pediatric gender-transition treatment. It is well documented that such young people suffer from high rates of mental health problems, including suicidal thoughts and behaviors. Supporters of minors’ access to gender-transition treatment typically argue the treatment is effective at improving mental health and often claim this is “life-saving care.”  

However, a systematic literature review conducted by the University of York on Dr. Cass’s behalf found no conclusive evidence that puberty blockers are tied to mental health benefits in gender-distressed youth. In a separate review of cross-sex hormone research, the investigators did find some moderate-quality evidence that “suggests mental health may be improved during treatment, but robust study is still required.” Dr. Cass concluded that researchers have not substantiated the claim that prescribing gender-transition treatment to minors prevents suicide deaths. 

In March, weeks before the Cass Review’s publication, the N.H.S. solidified new rules that barred its physicians from newly placing gender-distressed minors on puberty blockers. Pediatric prescriptions for cross-sex hormones are now restricted to 16- and 17-year-olds. Dr. Cass concluded that pediatric gender-transition treatment is based on “remarkably weak evidence.” She cautioned U.K. doctors to observe “extreme caution” in prescribing hormones even to older minors.

Any British clinical trial of pediatric gender-transition treatment that might provide minors access to such medications first needs to pass muster with an ethics board and is not expected to launch until early 2025 at the soonest.

Mr. Maugham has suggested the N.H.S.’s recent move to restrict access to puberty blockers by gender-distressed adolescents, which now aligns the nation with health authorities in four Scandinavian nations, could have a lethal impact on young people.

In his June 20 X thread, Mr. Maugham said his information about a post-2020 suicide surge came from two N.H.S. whistleblowers and other internal documents.

News of the 16 deaths spanning from 2021 to 2023, Mr. Maugham wrote, “are said to come from a presentation to Tavistock staff given by the Named Doctor for Safeguarding Children.” One of the whistleblowers told Mr. Maugham that they had expressed concerns about these deaths to both Dr. Cass and the Tavistock director and complained vigorously “of the failure of both to engage with these numbers.”

Mr. Maugham and the Good Law Project made a bold accusation: that by restricting access to such medication starting in 2021, GIDS administrators drove a “predictable and predicted” wave of suicides. 

“N.H.S. management has sought to suppress that evidence,” Mr. Maugham wrote.

A clinical psychologist and former GIDS staffer, Dr. Anna Hutchinson, who is among those who in recent years raised concerns about the clinic’s care of gender-distressed children, similarly expressed concern about the potential impact of Mr. Maugham’s words.

“Making assumptions about what has caused any suicide and talking about that assumption in public is known to be dangerous,” Dr. Hutchinson said, referring to research indicating suicide can be socially contagious. “When we’re talking about very distressed children in a toxic environment, we have to be even more careful.”

Dr. Hutchinson stressed that the minors referred to GIDS had a high rate of co-existing difficulties and psychiatric diagnoses that, independent of their gender distress, put them at a higher risk of suicidality. 

Mr. Maugham divided his two periods charting suicide death trends, with one death before and 16 after, according to the timing of the December 2020 British High Court decision in the Bell v. Tavistock lawsuit. This case concerned a former GIDS patient who sued the Tavistock Trust over her care there. The court ruled that those younger than 16 were “unlikely to be able to give informed consent” to puberty blockers. The ruling was overturned on appeal in September 2021. 

However, it was not solely the late-2020 judgment that led to a subsequent change in GIDS’s methods as Mr. Maugham suggested. This shift was also driven by a January 2021 report from the U.K.’s Care Quality Commission that found the clinic’s care was “inadequate.” Mr. Maugham made no mention of that report.

And so, beginning in August 2021 and at the behest of the N.H.S., a newly established independent review panel began surveying GIDS referrals for patients younger than 16 to see an endocrinologist for gender-transition treatment. The panel sought to ensure that all the appropriate processes had been observed in making the referral. 

The Cass Review provides data through April 2023 indicating the panel approved 138, or just more than three quarters, of GIDS’s 180 referrals during these 22 months. By comparison, per the Bell judgment, during a 12-month period from 2019 to 2020, GIDS referred 161 children to endocrinology for puberty blockers. So while the pace of endocrinology referrals definitely slowed after the judgment, they did not all but grind to a halt as Mr. Maugham suggested. 

In her book about the downfall of GIDS, “Time to Think,” British journalist Hannah Barnes estimates that since the early 2010s, the clinic referred some 2,000 children to endocrinology, “with the vast majority going on to start treatment.” 

Dr. Cass reports that there were 3,820 GIDS patients in the system by early 2023 who had not been submitted for review by the panel. According to Dr. Hutchinson, during the early 2020s, the staff was increasingly demoralized by their “lack of ability to address” the swelling public controversy over their work; and their numbers shrank by attrition. As Mr. Maugham demonstrated from a Tavistock chart he posted, GIDS caseloads shrank during this time.

The Cass Review indicates that the review panel kept up with its caseload; so its own efforts were not likely a driver of the GIDS waiting list. That said, GIDS staffers had to spend more of their time on documentation for the panel’s benefit and Cass indicates that the average number of clinic appointments before a referral apparently doubled after the Bell judgment.

The waiting list swelled to about 6,000 minors by the time the clinic was closed on March 31 of this year and the N.H.S. began establishing the new, Cass-advised care system. Since 2011, GIDS saw about 9,000 patients.

When Dr. Cass was asked about the recent deaths by the Good Law Project, Mr. Maugham said, her team referred the nonprofit to a paragraph in her report in which she recounted that her team met with Tavistock representatives to discuss deaths that occurred between 2018 and 2023 among people “who had been referred to or were currently or previously under the care of GIDS.” The wording of this statement thus undermines Mr. Maugham’s claims that all 16 recent suicide deaths were among minors on the GIDS waiting list. 

The paragraph further states that Tavistock “observed that risk of suicidality was heightened at transition points in patient care; for example, between child and adult services.” This suggests that at least some deaths were among patients who had been GIDS patients, rather than on the waiting list, and had turned 18.

Dr. Cass accordingly advised that the N.H.S. take particular care in overseeing young adults’ transition to adult-care services.

Those who died, the Cass Review stated, “were described as presenting with multiple comorbidities and/or complex backgrounds.” Most were biological females.

On X, Mr. Maugham provided screenshots from minutes of 2018 to 2023 Tavistock board meetings that reported suicides. But post-2020, only three such deaths were indicated in the screenshots to have been minors on the GIDS waiting list. For other reported deaths, it was often unclear whether they were adults or minors or whether they were on or off the GIDS waiting list; at least two were, however, reported as GIDS patients and two as former GIDS patients.

A second whistleblower, Mr. Maugham said on X, reported to the Good Law Project that “when staff working at the Tavistock planned an open letter” about the suicides “they were threatened with disciplinary proceedings and being reported to their regulatory bodies if that letter contained the death numbers.”

The Tavistock trust did not return emails from The Sun requesting comment. 

A spokesperson for the Good Law Project said in a statement: “We stand by what we said. We are pleased The New York Sun acknowledges that there has been a huge increase in trans suicides since the NHS’s response to the flawed, and later overturned, Bell decision.” 

A former psychiatric nurse at GIDS, Sue Evans, in 2005 anticipated Dr. Hutchinson’s complaints as the first to blow the whistle on what she characterized as a lack of proper assessment for minors referred for puberty blockers. In an email to The Sun, she criticized Mr. Maugham and the Good Law Project for, she asserted, jumping to conclusions about death reports based on insufficient evidence.

“In clinical work, unless you have full records and follow-up data,” said Ms. Evans, noting that GIDS notoriously kept very little data on its patients, “then to pluck any kind of meaning from clinical incidents, accidents or suicide statistics is of little or no clinical relevance.” Referring to Mr. Maugham she continued: “I am surprised a lawyer has gone down this route, and made such claims of the evidence.”

Oxford University sociologist Michael Biggs published a paper in 2022 analyzing suicide deaths among GIDS patients from 2010 through March 2021. His findings conflict with the Good Law Project’s claim of one suicide death on the GIDS waiting list prior to the Bell judgment.

Dr. Biggs identified one suicide death and one likely suicide death among minors on the GIDS waiting list, in 2016 and 2017. A GIDS patient also died by suicide in 2017. A fourth death, also of a GIDS patient, was in 2020 and was considered a likely suicide death.

In a statement to the Sun, Dr. Biggs said his paper has been widely viewed and cited, “so it is not an obscure source.” 

To date, only one study has directly assessed the association between gender-transition treatment and suicide death among young people. The study, which examined comprehensive national health records in Finland, found no such association.

“At the end of the day, suicide is a psychiatric problem and will be better managed by mental health professionals than endocrinologists,” Dr. Hutchinson said.

Dr. Biggs’ analysis and the Finnish paper found that suicide death rates among youths referred to gender clinics were a respective six and three times higher than among each nation’s general population of young people, and yet were nevertheless rare. 

Mr. Maugham concluded his June 20 social-media thread with a request for donations to the Good Law Project. A pair of pages on the nonprofit’s website reiterating the details of Mr. Maugham’s posts made a similar plea for financial contributions to support the nonprofit’s legal efforts to fight for pediatric access to gender-transition treatment.

On Monday, Mr. Maugham stated on X of his nonprofit’s plans: “We are in the foothills of discussions with several lawyers about options for suing N.H.S. England for these predictable and predicted deaths.”

The Good Law Project has issued a claim for judicial review over the British Parliament’s new, three-month ban on private clinics prescribing puberty blockers for gender distressed minors. The outgoing conservative government put this so-called emergency measure in place at the 11th hour before Parliament was dissolved. 

The Labour party is widely expected to emerge victorious from the July 4 national elections. Its leaders have generally expressed support for the Cass Review; but it remains unclear whether they would maintain the new sweeping puberty-blocker ban, which also forbids the importation of such medications from abroad.

Blind to autism

The Cass review picks up an Australian gender clinic not screening for autism

genderclinicnews.com

England’s Cass review has revealed that the fast-growing gender clinic of an Australian children’s hospital does not screen new patients for autism.

In an international survey commissioned by the British paediatrician Dr Hilary Cass, one of five unnamed Australian clinics reported that it does not screen for autism because it claims such screening is “not accurate in [the] trans population.”

Clues in survey responses suggest this is the gender clinic at the Queensland Children’s Hospital in Brisbane, which also has the quickest fast-track to puberty blockers for children as young as age 8-9.

Patient numbers there reportedly rose from 190 in 2017 to 922 in 2022. In 2019, the Queensland clinic had more than 200 minors on puberty blockers1. Also in 2019, a concerned member of the public asked the clinic how many girls with autism were on blockers and was told no such data was kept.

Two other Australian gender clinics in the Cass-commissioned survey—identifiable as those at the Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne (RCH) and the Perth Children’s Hospital [PCH]—use the Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS) to screen for autism traits.

The results of this screening test do not amount to a formal diagnosis but can identify children for referral to an autism specialist for diagnosis. A 2019 study stated2 that the PCH gender clinic “does not have capacity and resources to formally diagnose [autism].”

Youth gender clinics in Denmark, Finland and the Netherlands use the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule for screening, according to the Cass survey.

The over-representation of minors with (sometimes undiagnosed) autism in gender clinic caseloads internationally is a key concern in the debate3. One theory is that gender confusion may be a product of children with autism being immature and desperate to fit in, having rigid and concrete styles of thinking, and obsessional interests.

RCH in Melbourne has reported that 16 per cent of a patient sample had autism4. The prevalence of autism in the general population of Australian children is thought to be less than three per cent.

A psychologist whose daughter attended the Queensland gender clinic told GCN that in her experience “the psychological assessment was not thorough, and no history of trauma5 was taken.”

“If they are not digging deeper to carefully screen for trauma and neurodivergence and treating these issues, then they are applying very poor science,” she said.

Clinical psychologist Dr Vanessa Spiller pointed out that screening for autism was recommended by the first clinical guideline for co-occurring autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and gender dysphoria in adolescents.

“Diagnosing [gender dysphoria] can be complex in adolescents with ASD due to ASD-related weaknesses in communication, self-awareness, and executive function6,” the 2016 guideline by Strang et al says.

Dr Spiller told GCN that in her opinion, it would be negligent for a gender clinic not to take into account the effect of autism and its impairments on a minor’s capacity to make decisions and give informed consent to medical treatment.

Last month’s Cass report says England’s new regional services to replace the London-based Tavistock gender clinic should include autism specialists in their multidisciplinary teams, and standard assessment of new referrals should screen for autism and other neurodevelopmental conditions.

A Cass-commissioned evaluation of international treatment guidelines includes the 2018 “Australian standards of care” document issued by RCH in Melbourne and used across Australia’s youth gender clinics.

The Cass researchers note that the RCH guideline is among the majority of guidelines in which the recommended domains for assessment do not include neurodiversity or autism7.

Australia’s Health Minister Mark Butjler has played down the relevance of the Cass report, saying that “the clinical pathways are different in the UK from Australia.”

Last month, Western Australia’s Liberal leader Libby Mettam, who is in opposition, cited the influence of the Cass report when announcing a policy to prohibit puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and trans surgery under the age of 16, pending a comprehensive review.

“The need for urgent action is compounded by the rapidly growing number of children being diagnosed and treated for gender dysphoria in [Western Australia],” Ms Mettam said. “Our review will also inquire into why we are seeing this rise in diagnosis.

“There are currently more than 100 children and adolescents being treated at Perth Children’s Hospital with either puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones, with the youngest aged 11.

“When experts are telling us the potential permanent side effects of these treatments can include infertility, sexual dysfunction, obesity, heart and liver disease, blood clots and atrophy of the genitals, we need to investigate.”

In line with England’s Cass report, Scotland and Wales have announced restrictions on puberty blockers.

In Canada, Alberta’s premier Danielle Smith said the Cass report vindicated her province’s plans to prohibit blockers and cross-sex hormones for minors aged 15 and under. She said she had spoken to Dr Cass to better understand her report.

“If we want to take a science-based approach, we’ve got to use the best information available,” Ms Smith told the National Post.

In the US, South Carolina has moved closer to becoming the 25th state to restrict medicalised gender change for minors.

The Cass report cites research suggesting that those who identify as transgender or non-binary are three to six times more likely to be autistic than the general population.

“These findings are echoed by clinicians who report seeing teenage girls who have good cognitive ability and are articulate, but are struggling with gender identity, suicidal ideation and self-harm,” the report says.

“In some of these young people the common denominator is undiagnosed autism, which is often missed in adolescent girls.

“Despite often being highly articulate, intelligent and skilled in many areas, autistic young people have difficulties with social communication and peer relationships, which may make it difficult for them to feel accepted and ‘fit in’.”

In her book on the scandal at England’s Tavistock gender clinic, journalist Hannah Barnes recounts how some staff were “stunned” by the clinic’s poor data collection when this was revealed in court proceedings brought by detransitioner Keira Bell.

“[The clinic] could not even tell the High Court how many of the young people put on blockers were autistic,” Ms Barnes writes in Time to Think.

“Some staff feared that they could perhaps be unnecessarily medicating autistic children. Less than two per cent of children in the UK are thought to have an autism spectrum disorder. Yet, according to [the Tavistock], ‘around 35 per cent of referred young people present with moderate to severe autistic traits’.”

In 2020, the regulatory Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspected the clinic.

Ms Barnes writes: “In a sample of records of young people referred for puberty blockers, the CQC found that more than half referred to autism spectrum disorder or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Yet, the regulator noted, [the Tavistock] generally did not record how many patients had a diagnosis or a suspected diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder. ‘Records did not demonstrate consideration of the relationship between autism spectrum disorder and gender dysphoria’ or that the needs of autistic patients had been ‘fully investigated’.”

“It wasn’t that anyone thought that it was not possible to be both autistic and trans, but clinicians openly questioned whether the over-representation of autistic young people [at the Tavistock] warranted pause for thought and a change in practice.”

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The psychologist whose daughter was seen by the Queensland gender clinic told GCN that in her opinion the approach to assessment there “put the cart before the horse.”

“Gender dysphoria is similar to other psychological conditions disproportionately affecting teen girls and young women, in that we see obsessional rumination related to identity, appearance and the changing body,” she said.

“But it’s the tip of the iceberg. Underneath the presenting issues, we almost always find neurodivergence and/or trauma and/or anxiety disorders, and shame. [The Queensland gender clinicians] are, in my opinion, missing everything under the waterline.”

The psychologist, whose daughter in time re-embraced her birth sex, was sceptical about the clinic’s stated reason for not doing autism screening.

“What is about this so-called ‘adolescent trans population’ that means standard [autism] assessments used the world over with young people are not suitable for these young folk?”

Clinical psychologist Dr Spiller said the Queensland clinic might be correct in claiming that autism screening tools have no norms for trans-identified individuals.

“[But] if you took this argument to its logical conclusion, it would be impossible to assess or diagnose anyone who identifies as transgender with anything—a learning disorder, depression, anxiety, intellectual disability and so on, because there are ‘no norms’ for them,” she said.

“It is accepted practice to use the tools you have available and to use clinical judgment and observations until new tools are created, if necessary. 

“Ethically, it would be deemed a greater risk or harm to not diagnose someone, even with poor tools—it would stop kids from getting support in schools, early intervention, and [funding under Australia’s National Disability Insurance Scheme]. That would be considered discriminatory.

“The underlying brain areas impacted by autism are universal and include deficits in adaptive functioning (social skills, self-care skills), executive functioning, communication and sensory issues—regardless of gender identity.”

“The [approach of the Dutch pioneers of paediatric gender transition] differs from the [Tavistock’s] approach in having stricter requirements about provision of psychological interventions. For example, under the Dutch approach, if young people have gender confusion, aversion towards their sexed body parts, psychiatric co-morbidities or autism spectrum disorder (ASD) related diagnostic difficulties, they may receive psychological interventions only, or before, or in combination with medical intervention. Of note, in 2011, the Amsterdam team were reporting that up to 10 per cent of their referral base were young people with ASD.”—Dr Hilary Cass, interim report, February 2022

In 2018 de-identified case notes, psychiatrist Dr Brian Ross from the Queensland gender clinic discusses the overlap between youth gender dysphoria and autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

“Individuals with ASD have the same rights as other individuals to appropriate assessment and treatment of gender-related concerns,” Dr Ross says.

He cites several possible reasons for minors with autism identifying as trans or gender-diverse, including the wish “to find a community or tribe” or the belief it will be “safer to change gender” after sexual assault.

He suggests a girl with autism might identify as a boy because she thinks “boys are logical, girls are complicated and unkind in ways I don’t understand.”

And boys with autism might identify as a girl because they are “shy, submissive and introverted, don’t like dirt on their hands, [are] vulnerable and prefer intellectual pursuits.”

Dr Ross adds a warning that “these psychosocial explanations do not explain that for a socially disabled adolescent, the choice of another gender [at] variance to their biological assigned gender could in fact worsen underlying ASD factors.”

He describes three gender clinic patients with autism—

W, a nine-year-old female. Diagnosed with autism at the age of three. Wore boys’ clothes from age of four. “Solitary non-imaginary play with a preference to be a ‘dog’ where he would bark like a dog and seek affection by rubbing himself against others like a dog.” Could not fit in with peers. Mother thought her daughter might have identified as a boy because she lacked the more advanced language and social skills of her female peers.

Mother concerned that puberty blockers might deny her child the positive effects of her natural oestrogen and “disadvantage her child’s true gender journey.” Dr Ross reassured mother that the clinic had allowed W to enter early puberty to expose the child to oestrogen and the resulting intensification of gender dysphoria favoured the early use of puberty blockers. With natural sex hormones suppressed, W would have “a better ability to explore and experience his gender identity without the distress of his gender dysphoria.”

L, a 13-year-old female. Identifies as a boy. Father diagnosed with brain tumour when she was five months old. “Observed to not socially function in a socially appropriate [way] at school or in the family.” Few friends. “Acknowledges that he is becoming socially avoidant and experiences increasing anxiety in some social situations.” Special interest in the history of Prussia and American statesman Alexander Hamilton.

Diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) at the gender clinic after speech therapist noticed language impairments. “Delay in detection of ASD may have arisen with the preoccupation with the father’s illness and death throughout this child’s development.” L describes four personas inside her head: “C, a gay man with HIV who is angry; R, an angel-like character who is protective of all the other personas; V1, a man who likes sex; and V, who is wanting a physical form, such as his own physical body, to express himself.” Dr Ross says L presents “as a socially odd ASD transgendered adolescent who discusses his issues in the psychodrama of his various personas” but is not psychotic or suffering from dissociative identity disorder (once known as multiple personality).

S, a 12-year-old male. Initial psychology screening suggested autism features. “Wanted to be a girl because they are kinder and seem to have and hold more friends than boys that he found rejected him after a period of time… [His] desire to be a girl arose from his need to have friends and be accepted in the context of his lifelong social skills deficits and impaired social functioning… [He] was unable to articulate any other benefits of his desire to be female [and] was not able to describe any revulsion of his male body.” Dr Ross concludes that S meets the diagnostic criteria for ASD level 1 (or Asperger’s syndrome) and does not have gender dysphoria.

GCN put questions to the office of Queensland Health Minister Shannon Fentiman and Children’s Health Queensland.

The Perfect Storm

What drives rapid onset gender dysphoria in adolescent boys?

realityslaststand.com

[A]utistic people typically intuit that they differ from their peers, but are unable to pinpoint or describe the reason, which can be distressing. As they struggle to assimilate, they may become preoccupied with understanding themselves and how they fit in with those around them. In a desperate attempt to resolve their distress, they may “try on” different identities or diagnoses to see what “fits.”

The really crucial point that we're not grappling with at all is, even the diagnosis of gender dysphoria itself, whatever you want to call it - we've got the World Health Organization calling it "gender incongruence," we've got the DSM calling it "gender dysphoria," in the past it was gender identity disorder - you've really got to look at, is this even real?

Is this-- as far as I'm concerned it is a culture-bound syndrome that appeared at this time and in this place, and because it's in the symptom pool-- I love Edward Shorter's concept of the "symptom pool," which is the pool of legitimate mental health diagnoses that exist in any culture, in any time.

And so, what you have is a bunch of unhappy people, people who are in a state of distress and mental fragility, and what they do, they select a diagnosis from the symptom pool of their time. Right now, they can select gender dysphoria and then they apply that to their lives, and it feels very real, and it feels very-- it feels totally legitimate to them.

But then they go, and they show up at gender clinics and they've given themselves this diagnosis. And the madness is the fact that in gender clinics, nobody questions the diagnosis. Even though it is as culture-bound in my opinion as like if we had the epidemic of multiple personality disorder in the 1980s and 1990s. That was, it spread like wildfire. It just, it was an epidemic. And then it disappeared, because it was based entirely on something completely nonsensical that had no science and no evidence to it.

The same thing is happening now. Gender identity ideology, this whole trans rights movement, has created a culture-bound syndrome of gender dysphoria and people, unhappy people are just applying that label to their lives. But it's not necessarily-- it's not real in the sense that, you know, cancer is real, or diabetes is real. And yet, we're treating it with this harsh, brutal medical pathway that is as extreme as cancer treatment, and that-- Really, I think a focus on what exactly the diagnosis is, is absolutely essential to avoid misdiagnosis. To avoid all of these kids, maybe they're autistic and they're interpreting the difficulties with autism as a sign that they're transgender.

Andrew Doyle: On Friday there was a heated debate in the House of Commons about conversion therapy. Emotions ran high and few were more impassioned than the conservative MP Alicia Kearns who berated Alba MP Neil Hanvey for appealing on behalf of the LGB community.

So, here's how that exchange went.

Hanvey: People in the LGB community are often referred to as bigots and transphobes and other slurs just because we have concerns about legislation such of this. And we want to make sure that young LGB people are protected. And trans people. Does she agree with me that that must apply, that rule must apply, to all sides of any debate and not just one side that she favors.

Kearns: ... absolutely right, but there was one digit missing from his LGB: LGBT. We do not divide the LGBT community in this place. You can say that you have concerns about we doing. But by removing the T, you are suggesting that transgender people do not exist. You are suggesting they are lesser than other LGB people. And I will not stand for that, because it was trans people who stood with gay people at Stonewall. It was trans people who fought alongside for LGBT rights. So, when you say LGBT, when you remove the T, you suggest that they are lesser.

Doyle: Now it's clear to me that Alicia Kearns is well intentioned and sincere, and I mean no disrespect when I say that this is a subject about which she clearly knows very little. And that is dangerous, because if she gets her way on this issue, it will set back gay rights by decades.

So, let's address some of the key misconceptions. So, firstly, Kearns claimed that Hanvey was suggesting that transgender people don't exist, and at no point did he make such a claim. Sexual orientation and the belief in gender identity are totally unrelated concepts. Kearns seems to be suggesting that gay people have no right to campaign for their interests unless they simultaneously campaign for trans people. But why? Groups such as Mermaids campaign solely for trans rights. Are they therefore homophobic? Perhaps Alicia Kerns would like to berate them in Parliament. I look forward to seeing that.

Kearns went on to say that it was trans people who stood with the gays at Stonewall. Trans people fought together for LGB rights. Did they? I mean there were some trans people involved in the struggle for gay rights, certainly. But not all that many. The activists who changed history for the better were predominantly lesbians and gay men. At the Stonewall Inn, it was mostly gay men with some lesbians and drag queens who were involved in the riots. And it was likely a lesbian, Stormé DeLarverie, who sparked the whole thing. After the police raided the bar, she was being forcibly arrested and is said to have shouted to the crowd, aren't you going to do something?

Now, some trans activists have since attempted to rewrite history, claiming that a transwoman called Marsha P. Johnson threw the first brick at the Stonewall Inn. The trouble is, Marsha P. Johnson wasn't trans. He was a drag queen. And he wasn't even there when the rioting started.

Now, if Alicia Kearns wants to know about the actual history of Stonewall, not the revisionist fabrications of activists, she could read "Stonewall: The Riots That Sparked the Gay Revolution," by David Carter. Or, she could talk to someone who was actually there, such as the gay rights veteran Fred Sargeant.

Now let's talk about the confusion that's at the heart of this parliamentary debate. What exactly is conversion therapy? A YouGov poll last year revealed that 65% of voters believe that gay conversion therapy ought to be banned, and 62% feel the same about "trans conversion therapy." And this would suggest that most voters do not recognize the difference between the two, and nor do many politicians. Now this photograph was taken in Westminster Hall. A cross-party collective of dozens of MPs with a placard that reads, "I support a trans inclusive ban." The image was posted on Twitter by Laboir MP from Nottingham East, Nadia Whittome.

In truth, and without realizing it, the these politicians are supporting a new form of gay conversion therapy, something that most of us thought would be consigned to the history books by this point. When we hear that phrase, "conversion therapy," most of our minds leap to a variety of horrific practices. So, in America, Christian fundamentalists have established programs to address the "problem" of homosexuality, there are camps where young people can "pray the gay away." Which I suppose is at least a step forward from brain surgery, castration and the kind of electric shock treatment favoured by scientific practitioners in the 20th century, or the corrective rape of lesbians to "cure" them of homosexual tendencies that still goes on in some countries.

Such practices are of course already illegal in the UK. So, why the need for a conversion therapy ban? Well, what's happening is there is a conflation of sexual orientation and gender identity and this is why so many are confused. In her book, "Time to Think," Hannah Barnes revealed that between 80 to 90% of adolescents who were referred to the Tavistock pediatric gender clinic were same-sex attracted. We've known for a long time there's a strong correlation between gender nonconformity in youth and being gay in adult life. Members at the Tavistock itself joked that, "soon there would be no gay people left." Whistleblowers revealed that homophobia was endemic. In other words, children who are likely to grow up gay are being "fixed" by medical practitioners to better conform with stereotypical heterosexual paradigms.

Barnes's research shows that the Tavistock clinic -- and this is a quote -- "ignored evidence that 97.5% of children seeking sex changes had autism, depression or other problems that might have explained their unhappiness." They are only 2% of the country's children that suffer from an autistic spectrum disorder, so why is it that 35% of referrals to the Tavistock fit into that category?

in almost all instances, children who are prescribed puberty blockers go on to cross- sex hormones, which in some cases leads to irreversible surgery. We're dealing here, overwhelmingly, with gay and autistic children fast-tracked onto a pathway to sterilization. This is what MPs such as Lloyd Russell-Moyle and Alicia Kearns and Keir Starmer are supporting. Whether they realize it or not.

Now, thankfully, more and more people are waking up to the scale of this problem. So, recently the equalities Minister Kemi Badenoch wrote to the Commons Women and Equality Select Committee about her discussions with former clinicians at the Tavistock. And the conclusion? So-called gender affirmative care amounts to what she described as, "conversion therapy for gay kids." And crucially, she cited a survey of detransitioners -- these are people who have been pressurized into transitioning and they later regret it -- in which 23% of respondents put their determination to transition down to experiences of homophobia.

Badenoch quoted a gender clinic in Germany. They said, "it must be understood that early hormone therapy may interfere with the patient's development as a homosexual. This may not be in the interests of patients who, as a result of hormone therapy, can no longer have the decisive experiences that enable them to establish a homosexual identity."

It is profoundly disturbing that Starmer's Labour party is now officially supporting gay conversion therapy in the form of a ban on "trans-inclusive conversion therapy," and that he's gaining cross-party support. Now, a charitable interpretation is that Starmer, Kearns, Russell-Moyle, Whittome, all the other MPs who are supporting this, simply do not understand that they are advancing dangerously anti-gay proposals. They are supporting the new Section 28. And all the while, they think they're doing the precise opposite.

If any of these politicians would like to come on to this show and discuss these issues, I would be delighted to have them. Consider it an open invitation. In the meantime, I'd like to remind Parliament that homosexuality was removed from the World Health Organization's list of psychiatric disorders back in 1993. Being gay is not a medical condition that requires treatment. Unfortunately, activists have been remarkably successful in confusing the issues through semantic ambiguities and the redefinition of terms. And so, although it sounds desperately counterintuitive, the truth is that in order to oppose gay conversion therapy, one must be opposed to a ban on "trans conversion therapy."

Gay, not trans

A powerful challenge to gender medicalisation enters the political mainstream

genderclinicnews.com

“Not all children with GID (Gender Identity Disorder) turn out to be transsexuals after puberty… Prospective studies of GID boys show that this phenomenon is more strongly related to later homosexuality than to later transsexualism. These findings are in accordance with retrospective studies that have shown that male and female homosexuals recall more cross-gendered behaviour in childhood than male and female heterosexuals.”

“Follow-up studies have demonstrated that only a small proportion of gender dysphoric children become transsexual at a later age, that a much larger proportion have a homosexual sexual orientation without any gender dysphoria.”

The Committee asked about data on the significant rise in referrals of young people to gender identity clinics. NHS England report that in 2021/22 there were over 5,000 referrals into the Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) run by the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust. This compares to just under 250 referrals in 2011/12. The Cass Review reported there were approximately 50 referrals per annum in 2009 meaning that referrals have risen since then by 10,000%.1 The Cass Review also noted that in 2020 referrals stood at 2,500 per annum, meaning that the rise to 5,000 in the most recent year represents a doubling in a single year. As I said in my evidence session, this trend represents an explosion in numbers of referrals.

I committed to providing further details on the evidence that children likely to grow up to be gay (same sex attracted) might be subjected to conversion practices on the basis of gender identity rather than their sexual orientation. Both prospective and retrospective studies have found a link between gender non conformity in childhood and someone later coming out as gay.2 A young person and their family may notice that they are gender nonconforming earlier than they are aware of their developing sexual orientation. If gender non-conformity is misinterpreted as evidence of being transgender and a child is medically affirmed the child may not have had a chance to identify, come to terms with or explore a same-sex orientation.

The strong link between same sex attraction and a transgender identity has been discussed in the relevant academic literature for many years. The Dutch founders of medical gender transition for adolescents wrote in 1999 that (the language is their own):

“Not all children with GID (Gender Identity Disorder) turn out to be transsexuals after puberty… Prospective studies of GID boys show that this phenomenon is more strongly related to later homosexuality than to later transsexualism. These findings are in accordance with retrospective studies that have shown that male and female homosexuals recall more cross-gendered behaviour in childhood than male and female heterosexuals.”3

In 2012, one of the same authors also found a clear pattern emerging: “Follow-up studies have demonstrated that only a small proportion of gender dysphoric children become transsexual at a later age, that a much larger proportion have a homosexual sexual orientation without any gender dysphoria.”4

The most recent reported data from GIDS in England demonstrates that older patients expressing a sexual orientation were overwhelmingly not heterosexual. 67.7% of adolescent female patients were recorded as being attracted to other females only, 21.1% were bisexual, and only 8.5% were listed as heterosexual. Among adolescent male patients, 42.3% were attracted only to other males, 38% were bisexual, and only 19.2% said they were attracted only to females.5

As I mentioned at the Committee hearing, I am aware of troubling accounts that some clinicians are hesitant to work in gender identity services. I take this extremely seriously. As detailed in the interim report of the Cass Review, primary and secondary care staff have stated that they feel under pressure to adopt an unquestioning affirmative approach, which is at odds with the standard process of clinical assessment and diagnosis that they have been trained to undertake.

Dr Natasha Prescott, a former GIDS clinician reported in her exit interview from the Tavistock that ‘there is increasing concern that gender affirmative therapy, if applied unthinkingly, is reparative therapy against gay individuals, i.e. by making them straight’ and Dr Matt Bristow, a former GIDS clinician, reported to Hannah Barnes that he came to feel that GIDS was performing ‘conversion therapy for gay kids.’6 In a survey of 100 detransitioners, the experience of homophobia or difficulty accepting themselves as lesbian, gay, or bisexual was expressed by 23% of respondents as a reason for transition and subsequent detransition.7 As German gender clinicians have noted:

"it must be understood that early hormone therapy may interfere with the patient's development as a homosexual. This may not be in the interest of patients who, as a result of hormone therapy, can no longer have the decisive experiences that enable them to establish a homosexual identity." 8

During our evidence session you also asked me if there is a pattern being established specifically around girls with autism and transition. In its June 2023 statement, NHS England noted the rise in autistic young people seeking gender transition:

"Marked changes in the types of patients being referred which are not well understood. There has been a dramatic change in the case mix of referrals from predominantly birthregistered males to predominantly birth-registered females presenting with gender incongruence in early teen years. Additionally, a significant number of children are also presenting with neurodiversity and other mental health needs and risky behaviours which requires careful consideration and needs to be better understood.”

Many studies have reported that autistic people are over-represented in gender clinic populations, including a recent study noting "evidence of an increased rate of autism in adults and young people accessing gender clinics internationally, ranging from 5% to 26%".9 Authors have cautioned that this represents a challenge to the affirmative model:

The Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders published a 2018 study which found ‘autistic traits appear to be more prevalent in transgender people assigned female at birth’.10

• 9.4% of adolescent Dutch gender patients were autistic. Autistic patients were reported to be on a range of gender-affirming pathways, including on puberty blockers, gender-affirming hormones, and having undergone sex reassignment surgery.11
• The Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders in 2012 published a study which found that nearly 30% of transgender men (natal females) were autistic compared with only 2% of non-transgender females.12
• Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health in 2015 published a study which found that 26 % of adolescent sex reassignment applicants were diagnosed to be on the autism spectrum which far exceeded the prevalence of 6/1000 for the general population. The authors concluded ‘autism spectrum needs to be taken seriously in considering treatment guidelines for child and adolescent gender dysphoria’.13

There is also significant evidence young people with gender dysphoria are more likely:

• to have associated difficulties including non-suicidal self-harm, suicidal ideation, suicide attempts, attention deficit hyper- activity disorder (ADHD), symptoms of anxiety, psychosis, eating difficulties, bullying and to have experienced abuse (i.e. physical, psychological/emotional, sexual abuse and neglect). These findings were from a cross-sectional study of 218 children and adolescents with features of gender dysphoria referred to the GIDS in London during 2012. In 2014, the three most common associated difficulties in GIDS’ patients were: bullying, low mood or depression and self-harming – found in 47, 42 and 39% of the cases respectively.14
• To be looked after. A study of 185 young people referred to GIDS over a 2-year period (1 April 2009 to 1 April 2011) found looked after young people represented 4.9% of referrals, which is significantly higher than within the English general population (0.58 %).’15
• To have experienced difficult life events. A study of children presenting to a multidisciplinary gender service in Australia found a prevalence of adverse childhood experiences including family conflict (65.8%), parental mental illness (63.3%), loss of important figures via separation (59.5%). The study also identified high rates of comorbid mental health disorders: anxiety (63.3 %), depression (62.0%), behavioural disorders (35.4%), and autism (13.9%).16

Following the interim report, NHS England is setting up a new clinical model for children and young people experiencing gender incongruence and gender dysphoria. We are expecting the final Cass Review to be published shortly, which will include further recommendations in this area.

Andrew Doyle: Speaking in the House of Commons this week, the UK Secretary of State for Women and Equalities, Kemi Badenoch said the following:

Kemi Badenoch: "We are seeing, I would say, almost an epidemic of young gay children, young gay children, being told that they are trans, and being put on a medical pathway for irreversible decisions and they are regretting it. That is what I'm doing for young LGBT children. I am making sure, I am making sure that young people do not find themselves sterilized because they are being exploited by people who do not understand what these issues are."

Strong words from Kemi Badenoch, but joining me now to discuss it is Dennis Kavanagh, director of the Gay Men's Network.

It is very refreshing to hear a member of parliament stand up in the House of Commons and say this, because this, the debate has been silenced on this for so long, hasn't it?

Dennis Kavanagh: Well, that's right, as you probably know Andrew, in 2015 when Stonewall adopted extreme gender identity ideology, they also adopted a tactic which they called "No Debate," and it's as simple as it sounds. It meant that they would present a series of extremist demands, and absolutely not debate any policy, any proposition, and woe betide anyone who challenged them. They would be canceled, they'd be called transphobic, they'd be called bigots.

"No Debate" died in the House of Commons on Wednesday of this week, and as I wrote this week, the last rites were administered by Kemi Badenoch. And thank goodness that it is gone, because behind "No Debate," the very constituency Stonewall was set up to serve and represent, gay people, were being hurt by this. You and I have spoken before. We know that 80 to 90% of children, and I remind people this is children we're talking about, at the Tavistock were same-sex attracted, 35% autistic, 70% presenting with five or so comorbidities. Deeply, deeply, deeply vulnerable people. The sort of people who were facing irreversible medical changes, and what are the gay rights charities doing? They're saying there should be no discussion about this.

Doyle: So, that's really interesting, because you know, you saw in that clip the MP Chris Bryant on the other side of the house, effectively sneering at what she's -- now he's a gay man and he's sort of saying that he believes that he's standing up for gay people. Stonewall would say that they are standing up for gay people. So what would you say to that? How is it that they are in fact damaging gay people?

Kavanagh: It's just ludicrous because if you look at that exchange in Parliament, what happened was the Secretary of State for Women and Equalities, Kemi Badenoch, made a series of very sensible points about what's going on in gender medicine. I want to emphasize this isn't party political. She herself said this isn't a left-right issue. She had exchanges with the heroic Neil Hanvey MP from the Alba party and the brilliant Joanna Cherry KC MP from the Scottish National Party, I'm sure I've seen her have similar exchanges with Rosie Duffield from the Labor Party and these are adult exchanges about pediatric medicine.

Now, Sir Chris Bryant sadly stood up in the chamber about this serious area and simply said, which I found rather odd, simply said, "well what the Secretary of State said has made me feel less safe." That's extraordinary for a grown man to be saying that across the floor of the chamber. It's embarrassing to me to hear a gay man say it.

Doyle: I mean, he might feel less safe, we can't talk about his emotions, I suppose, but what about the gay people, gay young children who are being fast-tracked onto medication because they're not the norm?

Kavanagh: Yeah, what a very good point. You want to talk about safety, Sir Chris Bryant, let's talk about the safety of Keira Bell. Now, the Secretary of State spoke to Keira Bell. Keira Bell is a lesbian, a detransitioner who was so badly hurt by gender medicine at the Tavistock, she mounted a remedy in judicial review in 2020. If we're going to talk about anyone's safety in this debate, let's talk about the safety of vulnerable young gay and lesbian children, vulnerable autistic children. Let's be honest what's going on here. This "I feel unsafe" is just a continuation of "no debate." It's just a different way of saying, "shut up you should feel bad because you've made me, a gay man, upset." That is not an adult way to have a debate. And it's particularly inappropriate when we're talking about pediatric medicine. We're talking about the health of young gay people, young lesbians, and young people on the autistic spectrum.

Doyle: Yes, but the problem is that a lot of gay people like Chris Bryant do seem to support these views, and do seem to think that anyone who is raising concerns such as yourself, is coming from a place of -- what is it, transphobia? Hatred? Bigotry? Whatever. Why is it the case that so many within -- well, shall I say, our community seem to support incredibly anti-gay movements? What's going on there?

Kavanagh: I ask myself this every day, cause we're all looking at the same evidence, right? I've read the Interim Cass Review where Hillary Cass, quote, "spoke to lesbians who reported pressure to trans identify because they felt they were at the bottom of the heap." We've read the Times article. You know, there was a dark joke amongst Tavistock staff, "soon there will be no gay people left." We've read the case of Sonia Appleby, the safeguarding lead who said the malign influence of Mermaids was leading to children being fast-tracked to making irreversible medical decisions. So I don't think I really know the answer to your question, Andrew, because we're all looking at the same thing. It's almost like they're blinded by Stonewall briefing sheets, because I hear a continuation of "no debate" tactics. They won't brook any criticism of what is increasingly being shown to be a global medical scandal.

Doyle: But this this part of a broader problem in our culture, which is now all sorts of political differences and ideological differences seem to be interpreted as a matter of good versus evil. Stonewall has come down and has been, for whatever reason, perceived as being the goodies, and so everyone who opposes them is perceived as being the baddies. It's very simplistic, like a Disney view of the world where there are heroes and villains. But actually, of course, if you're going to talk about goodies and baddies, I would say the people who don't want to medicalize gay kids are probably on the good side.

Kavanagh: Well, I would be with you on that. I think that's probably the right approach.

Doyle: Are Stonewall dining out on their old reputation? Because they did do a lot of good for gay rights.

Kavanagh: Yeah, absolutely, but I mean, they're in freefall in terms of being taken seriously. The reality is that Stonewall achieved gay marriage primarily through discussion, primarily through having a debate. That all changed in 2015 with the adoption of extreme gender ideology and "no debate." This is a different beast to what it was.

Doyle: Yes, so what can we do about this? How can we raise awareness of it, because a lot of people just don't believe it's happening, a lot of people haven't read the Cass Review, a lot of people don't understand the implications on gay people, and they don't understand that when you promote gender identity ideology in this way that we are actually taking gay rights backwards. They think it's a nonsense, because they are so used to hearing about LGBT, that this is one whole thing, one happy family. So how do we change that narrative?

Kavanagh: What we've got to do is change the discourse and this week has been a powerful step forward in doing that. Kemi Badenoch said the sorts of things -- and so did Neil Hanvey and Jo Cherry in the chamber of the commons that would have got them banned from social media three years ago. That came off the back of Neil Hanvey MP saying in Westminster Hall, there are fears about transing the gay away. The next day there was a constructive and brilliant debate in the House of Lords led by Baroness Jenkin, in which I particularly noted one peer very movingly speaking about the plight of autistic children who, obviously I'm here for gay rights, autistic children are often forgotten in this as well.

Doyle: Because they are disproportionately represented in those who go to the Tavistock, who have symptoms of gender dysphoria.

Kavanagh: 35%, Andrew, 35% of the patient cohort compared to 2% in the general population. So, I think the answer to your question is, we've got to keep spreading the word, we've got to keep changing the discourse, and what happened in the commons, Kemi Badenoch in particular saying the unsayable, but people across the House doing that. That changes the discourse. That gives people the power to speak about this and the strength to speak about it. And we should speak about this. These are deeply, deeply, deeply vulnerable children.

2018, Dr David Bell reported instances of homophobic parents bringing children to the Tavistock to put them on puberty blockers to effectively trans away the gay. We have to have this conversation. Puberty is a human right, and it is a gay right to grow up free from surgery. And in 2023, being gay shouldn't be a medical problem.

Doyle: Excellent, thank you so much for joining me, Dennis Kavanagh.

Andrew Doyle: If reports are to be believed, Rishi Sunak is set to roll back on plans for a ban on LGBT+ conversion therapy. After more than 40 Tory MPs signed a letter demanding a U-turn, the prime minister is said to be willing to no longer include legislation to ban the practice in The King's Speech next month.

There's a lot to unpack here, so joining me to discuss it is Barrister and Director at Gay Men's Network Dennis Kavanagh. Welcome back, Dennis.

First thing to ask is, what do they mean by "conversion therapy"?

Dennis Kavanagh: Well this is pure Orwell. These bans are in place all over the planet, and where principally they're directed towards the field of pediatric medicine, believe it or not. Now that's not what people will think of when you mention gay conversion therapy, but we're talking about the trans conversion therapy bit.

Doyle: Right, it's been conflated though hasn't it?

Kavanagh: That's correct.

Doyle: So when you think of gay conversion therapy you think back in the 60s, people putting electrodes on gay men to try and cure them and obviously we all agree that that's horrific and it needs to be banned…

Kavanagh: I certainly do.

Doyle: But it's not going on all that much.

Kavanagh: No, it's not happening at all in this country, thankfully. We could have done with a gay conversion therapy ban about 50 years ago, so we're legislating over a problem that doesn't exist so far as gay conversion therapy is concerned.

In terms of the so-called trans conversion therapy, the government found no evidence of this at all when they went to Coventry University for a study on this. We asked them what it is, we asked them what a ban would look like, and I'm afraid what we know from looking around the planet is what they really want to do is they want to expose pediatricians to the risk of prosecution when they're treating children who are, in explosive numbers, presenting with gender incongruence. 5,000% increase in females, well girls, little girls at the Tavistock between 2003 and 2013. So what the trans activists want, is they want a situation where a doctor is forced to accept the self-diagnosis of a child.

Doyle: Yes that's a problem isn't there, because Hannah Barnes' book on this subject, "Time to Think," found that there were all sorts of other issues going on with young children who who say they are gender dysphoric, or experiencing symptoms of such, such as autism, domestic violence, abuse, all sorts of other things that require a therapeutic interrogation.

Kavanagh: Well of course, and funny you should mention Hannah Barnes, I have some statistics from her book here: over 70% of referrals to GIDS had more than five associated features of comorbidities: abuse, depression, self-harm, suicide; 35% were on the autistic spectrum compared to 2% in the population; 42% of referrals had lost a parent through death or separation; 25%, that's a quarter, had spent some time in care. These are alarming statistics. This is a medical scandal of global proportions.

This is why Dr Hillary Cass, in her interim review on this matter, has said look, the affirmation approach - so that's the approach that this lot wants, and they want to enforce with their "conversion therapy ban" - she said that that is causing tremendous harm, in effect, and it should be replaced with a multidisciplinary model where talking therapies are employed, where doctors try to get to the bottom of this.

Because look, this is the only field of medicine, isn't it, where activists are saying that someone involved in psychotherapeutic interrogation, and I remind everyone of little children, confused little childre, vulnerable kids, autistic kids, kids, according to the Tavistock, 80 to 90% are same seex attracted, it's mainly gay kids, that's who we're talking about.

Doyle: Yes, but the activists would say that, when some a child says "I'm in the wrong body," that you must automatically believe them, and if you don't, and if you try and talk about those other potential issues that could have led to that feeling, you're effectively trying to convert them away from their true trans identity. That's the idea isn't it?

Kavanagh: That's what they say, but let's look at this seriously and as adults. If you leave these children alone, right, if you employ what's called "watchful waiting" or normal exploratory therapy, because that's what you normally do as a psychiatrist, something like 90% of those children will desist from their trans identification.

Doyle: During puberty?

Kavanagh: That's right. Puberty is the cure, and look the more and more I look at this debate, the more and more I form the conclusion puberty is a human right. And if we want to talk about the real conversion therapy that's going on in this country and around the planet, it is gay conversion therapy by gender.

Dr David Bell said in 2018 of the Tavistock, there are homophobic parents here. Matt Bristo, one of the psychotherapists there said, it feels like a new form of gay conversion therapy. Sonia Appleby, the safeguarding lead said, you cannot discuss the safeguarding issue of homophobia either coming from families or internalized homophobia. And it's not just staff at the Tavistock. Dr Hillary Cass, in her interim report said, we have spoken to lesbians, young lesbians, these kids remember, who felt under pressure to adopt a trans identification, cause lesbians felt they were at the bottom of the heap. That is modern gay conversion therapy, what is going on in the gender medicine business.

Doyle: So people are going to find that very confusing, because effectively what you're saying is that, to oppose trans… sorry to promote… sorry to oppose trans conversion therapy is a form of gay conversion therapy.

Kavanagh: I told you it was pure Orwell.

Doyle: That's the problem you know, it's difficult even to get your head around it. So is the problem when it comes to the government getting involved with these things, that they just don't understand that the language has in fact blinded well-intentioned people to a grotesque evil that could be taking place?

Kavanagh: Absolutely, I'm sure that's right. There's one thing that the other side in gender are good at, it's language games. We see this all the time and debates are often framed in ways that sound agreeable, that sound nice. Nobody wants gay conversion therapy, no one wants anybody subject to what is in effect a form of modern torture. But that's not what this is. You've got to look at this with some nuance.

What this is, is a threat of criminal prosecution to a therapist doing their job. I heard Dr Az Hakim on your show just the other week, he he calls the affirmation only approach a form of grooming, a form of reassuring a child that the transgender identity they've adopted is a good thing for them, that they should stick with. This is about concretizing identities in very young people at a time when they're experimenting.

Doyle: And that's a key point, isn't it, we're talking about about children. When it comes to adults, should be able to do whatever they want with their bodies, etc. But when we're talking about children, just to simply say, yes, a child's self diagnosis is what we must persist with, and put them on drugs which lead to cross- sex hormones in almost all cases, which can lead to irreversible surgery, I mean the ramifications here are extremely serious.

Kavanagh: They're tragic. There's a case in North Carolina today of a young lesbian who's now suing all the various gender doctors who she's been involved with. She's had a double mastectomy, she has serious mental health problems the rest of her life, you've interviewed numerous detransitioners here who tell exactly the same story. Who's paying the price for these luxury beliefs that you can change your sex, which as a matter of science you just can't. Who's paying the price? It's vulnerable children who are paying the price for this.

And and now we are in the era of lawsuits because, as you pointed out, this isn't just therapy, these aren't just small decisions. Puberty blockers will lead in most cases to problems with bone-density. God knows what they do to brain maturation. Cross-sex hormones will render children infertile. These are serious issues.

Doyle: And it's important to point out that the Cass review has said that we just don't have enough evidence about the long-term effects of puberty blockers, it doesn't exist. And there are no long-term studies.

Kavanagh: Well that's right. What Dr Hillary Cass said was there was no safe evidential basis for the prescription of puberty blockers and they should no longer be prescribed as a matter of routine. Now, someone dug into the Cass dataset and Professor Kathleen Stock's looked at it this week, and once the data were disaggregated, they found actually the puberty blocker cohorts, 70% had neutral to negative mental health effects. So these drugs are either doing nothing for part of the cohort, or they're actively hurting them. At the end of the day it's an experiment. It's an experiment on kids.

Doyle: Dennis Kavanagh, thanks so much for joining me.

A Gender-Ideology True Believer, Mugged by Reality

When my first son claimed he was trans, I eagerly ‘affirmed’ him. When his three-year-old brother decided he wanted to be trans, too, I real

Quillette

When my first son claimed he was trans, I eagerly ‘affirmed’ him. When his three-year-old brother decided he wanted to be trans, too, I realized I’d made a terrible mistake.

I was a social-justice organizer and facilitator before social justice took over the progressive world. I was at the nascent movement’s forefront, introducing the concept of intersectionality to organizations and asking people to share their pronouns.

My friends and I felt like we were the cool kids, on the vanguard of the revolutionary wave that would change the world. We were going to achieve what people in that milieu call “collective liberation.”

Within this context, I came out as a lesbian and identified as queer. I also fell in love, entered a committed relationship, and gave birth to a son. Two years later, my spouse gave birth to our second son.

Having children and experiencing the love and devotion I felt toward them, was a game changer for me. I began to experience internal tensions. My thinking was split between what I felt instinctively as a mother; and what I “should” be feeling and doing as a white anti-racist social-justice parent.

Because I’d felt victimized by my parents’ rejection of my sexuality, I wanted to make sure to honor my own children’s “authentic” selves. In particular, I was primed to look for any clues that might suggest they could be transgender.

My spouse and I raised our sons with gender-neutral clothes, toys, and language. While we used he/him pronouns, and others called them boys, we did not call them boys, or even tell them that they were boys.

In our everyday reading of books or descriptions of people in our lives, we did not say “man” or “woman”; we said “people.” We thought we were doing the right thing, both for them and for the world.

Even when our first son was still young, he already struck us as different from other boys—being both extremely gifted and unusually sensitive. By age three or so, he started to orient more toward the females in his life than the males. “I like the mamas,” he would say.

We started to attribute some of this difference to the possibility that he was transgender. Instead of orienting him toward the reality of his biological sex by telling him he was a boy, we wanted him to tell us if he felt he was a boy or a girl. As true believers, we thought that we should “follow his lead” to determine his true identity.

At the same time, I was taking a deep dive into the field of attachment and child development. This made me understand that attachment is hierarchical; and that parents, not children, are meant to be in the lead. This obviously conflicted with my insistence on letting my child decide his gender. Sadly, it was the latter impulse that won the day.

At around age four, my son began to ask me if he was a boy or a girl. I told him he could choose. I didn’t use those words—I imagined that I was taking a more sophisticated approach. I told him, “When babies are born with a penis, they are called boys, and when babies are born with a vagina, they are called girls. But some babies who are born with a penis can be girls, and some babies born with a vagina can be boys. It all depends on what you feel deep inside.”

He continued to ask me what he was, and I continued to repeat these lines. I’d resolved my inner conflict by “leading” my son with this framework. Or so I told myself.

His question, and my response to it, would come back to haunt me. In fact, I remain haunted to this day. To the extent I was “leading” my son anywhere, it was down a path of lies—an on-ramp to psychological damage and irreversible medical interventions. All in the name of love, acceptance, and liberation.

About six months later, he told my spouse that he was a girl and wanted to be called “sister” and “she/her.” I received a text message about this at work. On the way home that night, I resolved to put all my own feelings away and support my transgender child. And that is what I did.

We told him he could be a girl. He jumped up and down on the bed, happily saying, “I’m a girl, I’m a girl!” We—not our son—initiated changing his name. We socially transitioned him and enforced this transition with his younger brother, who was then only two years old and could barely pronounce his older brother’s real name.

When I look back at this, it is almost too much to write about. How could a mother do this to her child? To her children?

Once we made this decision, we received resounding praise and affirmation from most of our peers. One of my friends, who’d also socially transitioned her young child, assured me that this was a healthy, neutral way to allow children to “explore” their gender identity before puberty, when decisions would have to be made about puberty blockers and hormones.

We sought out support groups for parents of transgender children, so that we could find out if we’d done the “right thing.” It hadn’t escaped my notice that our son hadn’t exhibited any signs of actual gender dysphoria. Was he actually transgender?

At these support groups, we were told, again, what good parents we were. We were also told that kids on the autism spectrum (which our son likely is) are gender savants who simply know they are transgender earlier than other kids.

At one of the support groups we attended, we were also told that transgender identity takes a few years to develop in children. The gender therapist running things told us that during this period, it’s important to protect the child’s transgender self-conception—which meant eliminating all contact with family or friends who didn’t support the idea that our son was a girl. I believed her.

Looking back, I now see her comments in a shockingly different light: this was part of an intentional process of concretizing transgender identity in children who are much too young to know themselves in any definitive way. (One set of parents attending the group had a child who was just three years old.) When identity is “affirmed” in this manner, children will grow up believing they are actually the opposite sex.

The therapist endorsed the same approach that many adolescents use on their parents, who are urged to write letters to grandparents, aunts, and uncles to announce the child’s transgender identity. In these letters, the conditions of continued social engagement are made clear: Recipients must use the new name and new pronouns, and embrace the new identity, or they will be denied contact with the child.

After about a year of social transition for our older son, our younger son, who was by now only three years old, began to say he was a girl, too. This came as a complete shock to us. None of the things that made our older son “different” applied to our younger son. He was more of a stereotypical boy and didn’t show the same affinity for the feminine side of things that his older brother did.

The urge for “sameness” is a primal attachment drive in many family members. We felt that our younger son’s assertion of being a girl likely reflected his desire to be like his older sibling, in order to feel connected to him.

His claim to be a girl became more insistent when both brothers went to school part-time, because their program included pronoun sharing. Why could the older sibling be a “she” when the younger sibling couldn’t? Our younger son became more insistent, and we became more distressed.

We made an appointment to see the gender therapist whom we’d met at the support group. We truly believed that she would be able to help us sort out who, if anyone, was actually transgender.

To our shock, the therapist immediately began referring to our younger son as “she,” stating that whatever pronouns a young child wants to use are the pronouns that must be used.

She patronizingly assured us that it might take us more time to adjust, since parents have a hard time with this sort of thing. She added that it was transphobic to believe there was anything wrong with our younger son wanting to be like his older transgender sibling.

When I pushed back and asserted that I wasn’t yet convinced our younger son was in fact transgender, she told me that if I failed to change his pronouns and honor his newly announced identity, he could develop an attachment disorder.

We were unconvinced. But, again, we wanted to do what was right for our son and for the world. We decided to tell him he could be a girl. And that night at dinner, we told him that we would call him “she/her.”

Right after dinner, I went to play an imaginary game with him, and I wanted to be affirming. So I put a big, warm smile on my face and said, “Hi, my girl!”

At this, my younger son stopped, looked at me, and said, “No, mama. Don’t call me that.” His reaction pierced me to my core. I didn’t turn back after that.

For the next two years, my partner and I dug deeper, agonized, and then continued digging again. Everything we thought we knew or believed that had led us to socially transition our older son began to unravel.

I continued to study the attachment-based developmental approach to parenting and learned more about autism and hypersensitivity. We decided not to socially transition our younger son. Not only was he not transgender, we now realized, but our older son probably wasn’t either.

He was just a highly sensitive, likely autistic boy who saw a girl identity as a form of psychic protection. It also provided him a way of attaching to me through sameness.

My spouse and I decided that since we’d been the ones who’d led him down this path, we were the ones who needed to lead him off of it.

A year ago, just before our older son’s eighth birthday, we did just that. And while the initial change was hard—incredibly hard—the strongest emotion exhibited by our son turned out to be relief.

In the days following my first conversation with him about going back to his birth name and pronouns, during which I told him that males cannot be females and that we were wrong to tell him he could choose to be a girl, he got very mad at me, then sad. Then, the next day, I felt my son rest. I felt him release a burden, an adult burden that he, as a child, was never meant to carry.

Since that time, we’ve all been healing. My son is now happy and thriving. We’ve watched him come to a deeper peace with himself as a boy.  

Our younger son is also thriving. Once his older brother became his older brother again, he happily, and almost immediately, settled into his identity as a boy.

I feel like someone who’s escaped a cult—a cult whose belief system is supported by our mainstream culture, the Internet, and even the state.

I fear for the future—the future of sensitive, feminine, socially awkward boys. I fear what the world will tell them about who they are.

But no matter what the future holds, I will never ever stop fighting to protect my sons. I am no longer a true believer.

'Not my daughter'

A mother's fierce love up against the gender-transition industry

genderclinicnews.substack.com

My Daughter’s Therapist: You Were Wrong

It has been some months since you and my daughter had the last of four sessions. In the third session, I was invited to sit in on a discussion of the effects of T, testosterone, on a human female body. You smiled calmly as you led us through a series of PowerPoint slides, explaining that my daughter’s reproductive organs would atrophy, that she would grow a beard, that her voice would deepen, and that “the phallus” would become enlarged. I sat listening, summoning all of my own skills as a clinical psychologist to not let a tirade loose at you in front of my brittle and fragile seventeen-year-old.

Between your third and fourth (and final) session with my daughter, you and I had a one-on-one conversation wherein I believe you recognized that this mother and this family were not going to easily or willingly surrender this child to whatever gender transition services you were prepared to refer her for after just three forty-five-minute meetings.

I asked what it was specifically about my daughter that convinced you that medical transition would be the right course of action to relieve her distress. You said, “He has gender dysphoria.” I said, “She has an eating disorder, body dysmorphia, and ADHD, all of which seem to have some overlapping features with gender dysphoria. Why wouldn’t you assess for and treat those before triggering any kind of medical intervention?”

I asked you what happens if my daughter, upon taking T and going through the changes you described, is not relieved of her dysphoria. What if her feelings and symptoms of self-loathing, dissociation, anxiety, depression, and self-harm become exacerbated? You visibly cringed at my questions and responded that most people who transition are satisfied with their results and don’t regret their decision. I asked where I might find peer-reviewed longitudinal studies that suggest that affirming and facilitating social and medical gender transition produce happy, well-adjusted teens and young adults. You said you would gladly send me links to those studies. The links never came.

I was clear, perhaps brutally so, that affirmation of male gender identity would not be the focus of your subsequent sessions and that you would instead help her explore her discomfort with her now almost fully developed, curvy female body. You would talk with her about her anxiety, her depression, her giftedness, her sense of alienation from her peers at a highly competitive suburban high school, and the impact of the pandemic at such a pivotal point in her life. In other words, you would work to slow the transition train way down.

Thinking back to that conversation, I feel a delayed sense of dread, as that was before I knew that major medical and mental health associations, the law, and key players in our state and federal government [in the United States] had also adopted a gender identity–affirming stance, albeit for their own personal and political purposes. At the time, I was unaware that, in some instances, parents had been reported to child protective services just for refusing to address a child by his or her chosen name and preferred pronouns. In a way, though, I’m glad for my ignorance, because I believe my forceful early pushback saved my child’s life. I would not take any of it back.

With an abundance of unconditional love, real psychotherapy, solid psychiatric care, and some long-overdue changes in her personal and social life, my daughter is coming into her own as a quirky, witty, gender-nonconforming young adult. She is grieving as she sheds her preoccupation with chemically and surgically transforming her body into something that would never result in her being male. She will not have to live out her life in a Frankenbody. No dry and shriveling vagina. No beard or male-pattern baldness. No irreversibly thickened vocal cords. And no enlarged and exposed clitoris. You called it a phallus, but she would never pee or ejaculate from her clitoris. It is anatomically impossible.

‘So close to being stolen’

A critically important thing that we learned along the way is that my daughter, like many other young people who declare a transgender identity in adolescence, is on the autism spectrum. She was diagnosed by an experienced child and adolescent psychiatrist and is now coming to understand how certain aspects of her autism resulted in collapsing and narrowing her focus into gender identity as a way of explaining and coping with what made life so difficult for her during her middle and high school years. She is learning to reconcile being socially awkward and having idiosyncratic interests and will be better for it, as she inhabits her full adult self at some time in her late twenties. She is a brilliant and beautiful human being whose entire future came so close to being stolen from her by the gender-transition industry. It is alarming that a generation of gifted children who may be on the autism spectrum is being sterilized in what amounts to a eugenics experiment with the participation of big-name medical and professional institutions and to the benefit of a novel category of mental health practitioners: gender therapists like you.

Had my daughter continued on the path she was on when you were her therapist, she would be well into a regimen of weekly testosterone injections and eventual surgeries that would not have resolved her gender dysphoria. That diagnostic category was included in the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) as a way of validating the experiences of a very small percentage of the population who suffer with lifelong feelings of discomfort and disconnection with their biological sex, all while creating billable codes for gender clinics and mental health professionals. (See psychiatrist Jack Drescher’s 2014 article “Controversies in Gender Diagnoses”, in which he remarks that “it is difficult to find reconciling language that removes the stigma of having a mental disorder diagnosis while maintaining access to medical care.”)

I know this because one of the experts on the DSM-5 workforce on gender dysphoria is a long-time friend who is, himself, appalled at what has come from this diagnostic category that he, no doubt with the most compassionate of intentions, helped forge. It is disappointing that he is hesitant to come out on the side of best and safe practice and to publicly state that gender exploratory therapy is NOT conversion therapy—that, in fact, putting so many young LGB people on a fast-moving conveyor belt to medical transition is the latest iteration of gay conversion practices.

Our daughter was not “assigned female at birth.” She was born with the full complement of normal female sex organs and all the eggs that her ovaries will release over the course of her fertile years, regardless of whether or not she ever chooses to become a mother. We expected as much because prenatal DNA testing let us know unequivocally at ten weeks of gestation that we were having a baby with XX sex chromosomes in every cell of her body. And no, she isn’t “intersex.” Her phenotypic features reflect her Southwest Asian genetic heritage, and she is fine and healthy just as she is. Nothing about her body is or has ever been out of place. If the gender-transition industry is anything, it is profoundly racist and disturbingly sexist.

I believe that the medical fast-tracking of children and young adults who self-identify as trans is a contemporary twist on American individualism taken to its point of absurdity. We are now in a situation where corporate wolves are passing effortlessly as progressive sheep. The needs of institutions for staying relevant and projecting themselves into the future trump any fidelity to stated guiding principles. And a parent’s need to protect her child’s mind and body trumps any and all political affiliations. Our wallets and our votes will speak for us.

* * *

It is now September, and my daughter and I have been living in a city in the former Soviet Union since mid-August. She is connecting to her roots, her land, and her cultural heritage—to rich and lasting sources of identity that synthetic hormones and manufactured gender ideology were threatening to undermine and replace. She recognizes that going down the path of medical transition would have made her into a lifelong patient and held her back from so much joy and freedom that she now has access to. She is coming to terms with the inevitable losses that growing up brings and discovering facets of herself that she would never have had if we had taken your advice and initiated medicalization. Gender ideology would have had to become the central focus of her intellect and creativity for the rest of her life.

It helps that the local language, which my daughter is quickly absorbing and starting to speak, is devoid of gendered grammatical markers. I think she is relieved to not have to ask or answer questions about “preferred pronouns” and such. Here, no one is compelled to participate in a mass delusion that requires thought control and speech policing. They had more than enough of that during seven long decades under Soviet rule. Simply put, people have more pressing daily challenges and live highly interconnected social lives as a result. When you fall, passersby stop to help you up and dust you off. As do other young people, my daughter feels confident walking around the city on her own at all hours. She increasingly feels safe and at home in this city and in her body. And I grow more hopeful every day that removing her from a culture that would pathologize normal developmental struggles and push costly and irreversible medical treatments will enable and reinforce long-term remission of gender dysphoria and trans ideation from her life.

I took the unpopular risk of holding my child’s ambivalence and keeping it alive rather than surrendering her to a process that would make her the docile object of bogus “affirmation” and “celebration.” Affirming and facilitating social and medical transition, by far the less conflictual path for parents who have the financial means, would have gained me temporary status as the heroic mother. And while I became the target of so much hatred and rage for many exhausting months, she never lost sight of the fact that her father and I were the ones who truly had her back; that approval from social-media groomers, “glitter families,” and gender clinicians could never be a replacement for her own self-esteem and her family’s unwavering love.

Let me close by saying that things are changing in parts of Europe and in the United Kingdom. In the U.S., a growing movement of parents and ethical clinicians, most of whom are lifelong progressives and active supporters of LGBTQ people and causes, are organizing and becoming vocal with their outrage and rejection of gender ideology and the unsupported diagnostic claims and harmful treatment practices it has given rise to. When the lawsuits start coming, this will be exposed as one of the biggest medical scandals in history.

It is only a matter of time.

Autism Spectrum Disorder and Gender Dysphoria/Incongruence. A systematic Literature Review and Meta-Analysis - PubMed

The suggested overlap between autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and gender dysphoria/incongruence (GD/GI) has been much disputed. This review s

PubMed

How Autistic Traits Can Be Mistaken For Gender Dysphoria

As many as 80% of girls with autism are not diagnosed until they reach adulthood, which can cause significant mental health problems and inc

buttonslives.news

Out of the 48 detransitioners whom I’ve come into contact with, 42 (32 females and 10 males) have confirmed autism or suspected autism (identification with autistic traits). Although the remaining 6 were confident they were not autistic, they believe their perceived gender dysphoria was due to a variety of other reasons, including other psychiatric disorders.   Among the 42 detransitioners who have confirmed or suspected autism, only 5 had been diagnosed before or during their transition. All 5 told me that if they had fully understood what being autistic entailed and how it could manifest in their lives, they probably would not have believed they had gender dysphoria. They also said that “gender identity” and transgender issues became their “special interest” for a period of time. 

As for the remaining 37 detransitioners, about half obtained an official diagnosis after they detransitioned and said that an earlier autism diagnosis could have prevented them from seeking medical transition services they now regret. Some detransitioners have written about these revelations. The other half are either in the process of seeking a diagnostic evaluation or are not interested, but found that they identify with autistic traits. Some of the reasons for not actively seeking an evaluation include long wait times and a general skepticism of mental health professionals who had previously failed to properly assess them.

• In recent years, the significance of gender dysphoria as a meaningful diagnosis has been deemphasized in favor of a broader definition of what it means to be transgender, or “gender diverse,” which includes mere nonconformity to sex-based stereotypes. Autistic people could easily interpret this definition to mean they are transgender.
• Autistic people may prefer simple explanations, and be prone to black and white thinking. When they come across overly simplistic views about gender, it can provide them with a quick explanation for their troubles (they are transgender) and a ready-made solution (transition) to achieve what they hope will be a sense of normalcy and comfort in their bodies.
• Sometimes girls who are more gender nonconforming will feel they cannot compete with girls they perceive as more feminine, popular, and attractive. Because autistic girls can easily get locked into black and white thinking, this may cause them to reject femininity and embrace masculinity.
• Autistic people have an aversion to inauthenticity. Once introduced to the concept of “gender identity,” they may reexamine their life history through this lens, looking for signs they may be transgender. Through a process of confirmation bias, they may find traits and life events that conform to a transgender narrative. 
• Autistic people have difficulty with flexible thinking and are less likely to change their minds once convinced something is true. They may become deeply attached to their beliefs and find it difficult to consider alternatives. If they become convinced they are transgender, it can be difficult to dissuade them.
• Autistic people also tend to be very literal and so when they come across statements meant to be figurative and promote inclusivity like “trans women are women” and “trans men are men,” they may take it literally. They may come to believe they can actually change their sex.
• Their naivety may also play out in their expectations of social and medical transition, and they can become extremely frustrated if their expectations are not met. 
• Their tendency towards rigidity in thinking can make it challenging to adapt to changes in gender norms or expectations. This rigidity may be misinterpreted as a strong identification with one sex and discomfort with another.

• Autistic people have a strong sense of justice and fairness, and may become interested in topics of "social justice" they come across in online communities on social media. 
• Autistic people may find themselves fascinated with the transgender community and its cultural significance, with its many charismatic transgender influencers and frequent relevance in the news. With the transgender community’s growing popularity, there are endless ways to interact with this special interest. 
• “Gender identity” ideology comes from a postmodern social theory developed in college Humanities departments called “Queer Theory,” which has been written about and lectured on extensively. It can provide endless hours of learning for anyone interested in the subject.
• “Consistent, persistent, insistent” are the words used by medical providers as strong indicators that someone has gender dysphoria, but they could easily also describe a autistic person’s relationship to their special interest. 

• A 2014 study found that children with ASD were 7.59 times more likely to be gender non-conforming or “express gender variance.”
• A 2021 study found that gender nonconformity is substantially elevated in the autistic population.
• Several studies have suggested that autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and gender nonconformity co-occur more often than by chance in adolescents.
• Sexuality also appears to be more varied among people with autism than among those who do not have the condition. Only 30% of autistic people in a 2018 study identified as heterosexual, compared with 70% of neurotypical participants. And although half of 247 autistic women in a 2020 study identified as “cisgender,” just 8% reported being exclusively heterosexual.
• Gay males may also not be well-detected by standard diagnostic criteria, as some may have more female-typical traits.
• Because of the expanding definition of what it means to be transgender, now defined by major institutions as an “umbrella term” which encompasses mere gender nonconformity, autistic people might believe that because they don’t conform to sex-based stereotypes, they could be transgender.
• Autistic people may socially gravitate towards the opposite sex. They may find it easier to communicate with and have more in common with the opposite sex. This may lead them to believe they actually are, or should become, the opposite sex.

• Difficulty with social communication: Individuals with autism may have difficulty with social communication and understanding social cues, which can make it challenging to navigate gender norms and expectations. These experiences can be frustrating and cause them to reject the norms associated with their sex. 
• Repetitive behaviors: Individuals with autism may engage in repetitive behaviors, or “stims,” that can sometimes be misinterpreted as sex-atypical behaviors. 
• For girls, repetitive or disruptive movements may be viewed as unfeminine and may lead to social rejection from peer groups. 
• Difficulty with social imagination: Individuals with autism may have difficulty with social imagination, which can make it challenging to envision oneself in different roles or identities. This difficulty may be misinterpreted as a lack of identification with one's biological sex.
• Difficulty with perspective-taking: Individuals with autism may have difficulty understanding other people's perspectives or social expectations, which can make it challenging to navigate gender roles and expectations.
• Difficulty with emotional regulation: Individuals with autism may have difficulty with emotional regulation, which can lead to intense and distressing emotional responses to certain situations or social expectations related to gender roles.
• Autistic people often learn to adopt alternative personas to cope with and blend in with different social settings, which may make it easier for them to adopt a cross-sex identity.

• Autistic people lack an understanding of social behavior and may be prone to mimicking what they see online. Social media algorithms may feed them a steady stream of content from the online transgender community that may lead them to believe that it is how they are “supposed” to act to fit in.
• They may discover a transgender influencer who is popular as “socially successful” and try to mimic their behavior, clothing, body language, and interests to assimilate. They may desire to create “content” like other transgender influencers.
• Autistic people typically like rules, as they provide a sense of structure and predictability. They may like that the social rules enforced by online Social Justice communities are made explicitly clear in shareable Instagram infographics.
• Some autistic people have a particular talent for visual-spatial skills, which could lead to an aptitude for creative fields such as art or design and some are creative musically or with writing. Creative autistic types may be influenced by “gender expressions” they see online, which include making up your own “neopronouns.” They may want to express their own creativity through their understanding of “gender.” 
• Many autistic people feel socially awkward, have difficulty making friends, and are lonely. The growing population of the transgender community that embraces people who are different may seem welcoming and a built-in network of friends and support may be appealing.
• In the online world, people are encouraged to create their “brand.” They may want to find an online persona in a niche community.
• They may be influenced by others to reject the people in their life who do not “accept” them, join “glitter families” or go “no contact” with their real families. With fewer people offline to keep them tethered to reality and provide different points of view, they may further succumb to the echo chambers of online communities. 

• Individuals with autism may experience tactical sensory sensitivity, which can make it uncomfortable to wear certain types of clothing or accessories associated with their biological sex. 
• For example, girls on the spectrum may prefer clothing that is more typical for boys because it is loose-fitting and more comfortable. They may mistakenly attribute this to being more “boy-like.”
• Especially for adolescent girls, not adhering to the latest fashions of their peers may make them feel like an outcast.  
• Individuals with autism may also experience sensory issues with grooming activities, which can make it challenging to adhere to gender norms and expectations. 
• Girls may find that makeup feels uncomfortable. 
• Girls may prefer to keep their hair short, or in a ponytail everyday because letting their hair down feels irritating on their skin. 
• Young boys may want to grow their hair long because they hate the experience of going to the barber.  
• Autistic people often struggle with proprioception, which may manifest as having difficulty understanding where their body is in space. This can result in challenges with coordination, balance, and fine motor skills, which may lead to feelings of frustration or disconnection from their physical body.
• Adolescents with developing bodies that don’t feel like they meet stereotypical ideals for their sex may reject their bodies and hyperfocus on their perceived flaws, leading to body image disorders.
• For adolescents, discussions of gender dysphoria in the classroom may be the first time that “discomfort of the body” is introduced and articulated to them, which they may find they can relate to and begin to associate their own bodily discomfort with gender dysphoria.
• The succession of steps involved in social transition and then in medical transition may make them feel that they are on the path towards finally feeling “right” in their body.

• A 2022 study found people diagnosed with autism in adulthood are nearly three times as likely as their childhood-diagnosed counterparts to report having psychiatric conditions.
• A 2021 study shows that receiving an autism diagnosis in adulthood rather than childhood can lead to lower quality of life, more severe mental health symptoms, and higher autistic trait levels.

• A meta-analysis found that one in four autistic youth experience suicidal ideation and almost one in ten attempt suicide.
• A Danish study found that autistic individuals had 3 times higher rates of both attempted and completed suicide.
• A 2022 UK study found a significant number of people who died by suicide were likely autistic, but undiagnosed.

• One study found 17% of autistic people may have OCD. 
• An even larger proportion of people with OCD may also have undiagnosed autism, according to one 2017 study.
• It might be helpful to view gender dysphoria as a form of OCD, in which the individual attributes their biological sex as a source of distress and obsesses over the desire to become the opposite sex. Alternatively, some OCD clinics have attempted to distinguish between gender dysphoria and what they termed as “Trans OCD,” which is “an obsession over gender identity.”

• Roughly 20% of people with anorexia are autistic. 
• Body dysmorphia is a disorder in which one develops a fixation on perceived flaws on the body that become exaggerated in the mind. It is part of a new category of “obsessive-compulsive and related disorders” that autistic people are over-represented in. 

• Research suggests that up to 40-50% of autistic individuals may experience clinically significant anxiety symptoms at some point in their lives. 
• One study found that up to 84% of autistic people have some form of anxiety.

• Some studies have suggested that up to 90% of individuals with autism may experience GI symptoms, such as abdominal pain, constipation, diarrhea, and reflux. 
• A comprehensive meta-analysis revealed that children with ASD were more than 4x more likely to develop GI problems than those without ASD.

• One study found autistic women in the UK have an almost two-fold increase in the risk for PCOS.
• A 2012 study found that women with PCOS have ”problems with psychological gender identification. Duration and severity of PCOS can negatively affect the self-image of patients, lead to a disturbed identification with the female-gender scheme and, associated with it, social roles.”

• Autistic girls are at heightened risk of sexual abuse.
• Research has shown that individuals with autism who have experienced sexual abuse may be more likely to experience internalizing symptoms such as depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) compared to non-autistic individuals who have experienced sexual abuse.
• One reason for this may be that autistic individuals may have difficulty communicating their experiences and feelings about the abuse, which can lead to a sense of isolation and helplessness. 
• Autistic individuals may also struggle with processing and regulating their emotions, which can make it more difficult to cope with the trauma of sexual abuse.

• The Pandemic: When non-emergency clinics were closed, many young people were socially isolated and depressed, turning towards online mental health communities and self-diagnosing. We saw this happen with the emergence of “TikTok tics” and the resurgence of the once-extremely rare Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID).
• Puberty: Puberty is a time of significant changes in the body and brain, which can affect individuals with autism in different ways. During this window, they may experience worsening mental health, bodily discomfort and social difficulties. Without a diagnosis, autistic adolescents may not understand why they are experiencing these difficulties and may feel isolated and confused.
• Stressful life events: Stressful life events can be particularly challenging for autistic individuals due to difficulties in coping with changes, uncertainties, and unpredictability. Autistic individuals may struggle with changes in routine, unexpected events, and situations that require flexibility and adaptability.
• Loss of Asperger’s as a diagnosis: The diagnosis of Asperger’s Syndrome was merged into an umbrella diagnosis called Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in the DSM-V update in 2013, which may contribute to a lack of diagnosis in those who appear to have less visible symptoms. The general population associates autism with severe disability, and those without an intellectual disability may be less likely to get diagnosed.
• Misdiagnosis: The difficulty that autistic people face in regulating emotions and the trouble they have in relationships can be misinterpreted and is often misdiagnosed as Borderline Personality Disorder, Bipolar Disorder and more.

GIF by gold--gucciempress

So many potentially gay children were being sent down the pathway to change gender, two of the clinicians said there was a dark joke among staff that “there would be no gay people left”.

“It feels like conversion therapy for gay children,” one male clinician said. “I frequently had cases where people started identifying as trans after months of horrendous bullying for being gay,” he told The Times.

Morgan had always been exceedingly bright, curious and outgoing. She was an extraordinarily hard worker and excelled at art. But in third grade, when her period arrived so early, she became anxious and withdrawn from her schoolmates. She started cutting her forearms. Her parents, who live in Spring, Texas, sent her to a small, private school and to a therapist, and she improved. She made friends. She stopped cutting. She was still navigating ADHD and social anxiety, and they suspected she was on the autism spectrum, but she was stable.

In sixth grade, she got into Discord, Reddit and TikTok. Her mental health seemed to be deteriorating again. Her friends started coming out as pansexual and trans. At age 13, Morgan announced that she, too, had gender dysphoria. She needed a new name and pronouns. Her parents took her to a gender specialist.

“The doctor was agreeing with everything she said and telling her we could give her puberty blockers,” said Morgan’s mother. “There was never any talk about medical history, mental history, family history.”

Wary of their daughter’s emotional fragility, and appalled both at the lack of curiosity about anything else that could be at play, and the insistence that the parents affirm with no questions asked, the family never returned. The parents felt she needed real help for the source of her struggles, not a fad cure for depression and anxiety discovered on social media.

Less than a month later, after they’d informed the school and the doctor that they wouldn’t be allowing their daughter to socially or medically transition, a social worker from the Department of Family and Protective Services showed up at their door to tell them they were being investigated for abuse and neglect.

Texas policy around trans kids has caused quite a kerfuffle in the past few months, whipping people into a frenzy whatever side of the debate they’re on. Attorney General Ken Paxton and Gov. Greg Abbott have declared medical interventions for gender dysphoria to be child abuse and authorized child protection agencies to investigate parents for engaging it, despite the fact that multiple medical organizations endorse puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and sometimes surgeries like double mastectomies for children under 18. Many families believe what advocacy organizations like the ACLU state: that these interventions are literally “life-saving.”

News organizations like The New York Times have reported on families with affirmed trans kids being subject to DFPS investigations, and the terror they feel not just at the prospect of not having access to puberty blockers or hormones, but of being forcibly separated from children during a difficult time. Such actions are truly cruel, and counterproductive to a child’s mental health.

But families in multiple states, including Texas, have also been investigated when they refuse to socially or medically transition their children. The heat is turned all the way up on both sides, and families are getting burned. But there’s no scientific reason for this madness. Despite what groups like the American Academy of Pediatrics or the Trevor Project — or even Assistant Secretary for Health Rachel Levine — say, there is no solid evidence that these interventions should be categorized as life-saving.

To understand why requires a deeper look at the science. There are indeed studies that show short-term improvement in mental health after kids receive puberty blockers and/or cross-sex hormones. One study, a retroactive survey of adults, asserted that those who got puberty blockers when younger had fewer suicidal thoughts and attempts. But a published critique noted that puberty blockers weren’t even available in the U.S. when some respondents said they’d taken them, and some were over 18 (they are generally prescribed under the age of 16), which means respondents didn’t understand or answer truthfully.

There are similar problems with studies about suicidality — flawed and biased survey science that doesn’t help us know how best to respond to the 4000 to 5000 percent increase in gender dysphoric youth seen in much of the Western world. The high rate of suicidal ideation or attempts among kids with gender dysphoria is similar to the rates of kids with other mental health conditions, especially autism, and there is overlap between autism and gender dysphoria. We may be looking at the wrong thing, assuming dysphoria is the source of the problem instead of a symptom.

Many parents have heard that they can either have a dead cisgender or a living trans child. But in one long-term prospective study, the suicide rate increased after transition. There is no solid evidence that transition is the panacea so many prominent people and groups in the U.S. are making it out to be.

Multiple evidence reviews in other countries have determined that these studies are deeply problematic and of such low quality and low certainty that they shouldn’t be extrapolated from. They exhibit too much bias and flawed methodology to apply to the larger population.

“There are no definite conclusions about the effect and safety of the treatments,” reported Sweden’s National Board of Health and Welfare, the same week Paxton and Abbott made their declarations. (Sweden, of course, didn’t go after parents for partaking of the treatments; rather, they simply shifted policy and recommendations).

Meanwhile, though there are not robust, long-term data to consult, it does appear that this protocol may lead to infertility, and causing infertility in children satisfies the definition of child abuse in Texas. That is, the science on which Paxton based his opinion seems accurate, even if the policy and opinion created from it is wrong.

Should you persecute parents for partaking of these medical interventions? No. They’re doing what they think is best. They can’t be faulted if they don’t have the skills to navigate the science on their own, and instead follow the instructions of many trusted sources.

Should parents be separated from their children if they refuse these interventions? No, because the science doesn’t support that they are life-saving or that they’re endangering their children for choosing a different therapeutic path.

We should take the focus off the parents and put it on the professional organizations, the practitioners, the government officials, demanding evidence reviews and the best evidence-based care for our kids. And we should stop making unsupported and unscientific claims about gender-affirming care for minors.

Morgan’s parents were cleared of all wrongdoing, but the investigation did turn up a lot of information. It was discovered that Morgan had been sexually assaulted by a boy in her school, leaving her with serious PTSD. That’s why she was so tight-lipped. The boy was eventually convicted. Morgan will need therapy, time, attention and, most of all, her parents’ love and support, to heal. But being investigated and accused causes trauma to a family.

“There was a lot of shock and a lot of concern that our family was about to fall apart on us,” Morgan’s father said. Morgan still won’t talk about gender issues. “When she’s ready,” her mother said, “we’re here for her.”

To My Daughter's Therapist: You Were Wrong

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To my daughter’s gender therapist: you were wrong.

It has been some months since you and my daughter had the last of four sessions. In the third session I was invited to sit in on a discussion of the effects of T, testosterone, on a human female body. You smiled calmly as you led us through a series of Powerpoint slides, explaining that my daughter’s reproductive organs would atrophy, that she would grow a beard, that her voice would deepen, and that “the phallus” would become enlarged. I sat listening, summoning all of my own skills as a clinical psychologist to not let a tirade loose at you in front of my brittle and fragile 17 year old.

Between your third and fourth (and final) sessions with my daughter you and I had a one-on-one conversation wherein I believe you recognized that this mother and this family were not going to easily or willingly surrender this child to whatever gender transition services you were prepared to refer her for after just three forty-five-minute meetings.

I asked what it was specifically about my daughter that convinced you that medical transition would be the right course of action to relieve her distress. You said, “He has Gender Dysphoria.” I said, “She has an eating disorder, body dysmorphia, and ADHD, all of which seem to have some overlapping features with Gender Dysphoria. Why wouldn’t you assess for and treat those before triggering any kind of medical intervention?”

I asked you what happens if my daughter, upon taking T and going through the changes you described, is not relieved of her dysphoria. What if her feelings and symptoms of self-loathing, dissociation, anxiety, depression, and self harm become exacerbated? You visibly cringed at my questions and responded that most people who transition are satisfied with their results and don’t regret their decision. I asked where I might find peer-reviewed longitudinal studies that suggest that affirming and facilitating social and medical gender transition produce happy, well-adjusted teens and young adults. You said you would gladly send me links to those studies. The links never came.

I was clear, perhaps brutally so, that affirmation of male gender identity would not be the focus of your subsequent sessions and that you would instead help her explore her discomfort with her now almost fully developed, curvy female body. You would talk with her about her anxiety, her depression, her giftedness, her sense of alienation from her peers at a highly competitive suburban high school, and the impact of the pandemic at such a pivotal point in her life. In other words, you would work to slow the transition train way down.

Thinking back to that conversation I feel a delayed sense of dread as that was before I knew that major medical and mental health associations, the law, and key players in our state and federal government had also adopted a gender identity affirming stance, albeit for their own personal and political purposes. At the time I was unaware that in some instances parents had been reported to Child Protective Services just for refusing to address a child with his or her chosen name and preferred pronouns. In a way, though, I’m glad for my ignorance because I believe my forceful early pushback saved my child’s life. I would not take any of it back.

With an abundance of unconditional love, real psychotherapy, solid psychiatric care, and some long-overdue changes in her personal and social life, my daughter is coming into her own as a quirky, witty, gender non-conforming young adult. She is grieving as she sheds her preoccupation with chemically and surgically transforming her body into something that would never result in her being male. She will not have to live out her life in a Frankenbody. No dry and shriveling vagina. No beard or male-pattern baldness. No irreversibly thickened vocal chords. And no enlarged and exposed clitoris. You called it a phallus, but she would never pee or ejaculate from her clitoris. It is anatomically impossible.

A critically important thing that we learned along the way is that my daughter, as many other young people who declare transgender identity in adolescence, is on the autism spectrum. She was diagnosed by an experienced child and adolescent psychiatrist and is now coming to understand how certain aspects of her autism resulted in collapsing and narrowing her focus into gender identity as a way of explaining and coping with what made life so difficult for her during her middle and high school years. She is learning to reconcile with being socially awkward and having idiosyncratic interests and will be better for it as she inhabits her full adult self sometime in her late 20’s. She is a brilliant and beautiful human being whose entire future came so close to being stolen from her by the gender transition industry. It is alarming that an entire generation of gifted children who may be on the autism spectrum is being sterilized in what amounts to a eugenics experiment with the participation of big-name medical and professional institutions, and to the benefit of a novel category of mental health practitioners: gender therapists like you.

Had my daughter continued on the path she was on when you were her therapist, she would be well into a regimen of weekly testosterone injections and eventual surgeries that would not have resolved her Gender Dysphoria, a diagnostic category that was included in the DSM-5 (APA, 2013) as a way of validating the experiences of a very small percentage of the population who suffer with lifelong feelings of discomfort and disconnection with their biological sex, all while creating billable codes for gender clinics and mental health professionals (see Drescher, 2013: “…it is difficult to find reconciling language that removes the stigma of having a mental disorder diagnosis while maintaining access to medical care”). I know this because one of the experts on the DSM-5 workforce on Gender Dysphoria is a long-time friend who is, himself, appalled at what has come from this diagnostic category that he, no doubt with the most compassionate of intentions, helped forge. It is disappointing that he is hesitant to come out on the side of best and safe practice and to publicly state that gender exploratory therapy is NOT conversion therapy; that, in fact, putting so many young LGB people on a fast-moving conveyer belt to medical transition is the latest iteration of gay conversion practices.

Our daughter was not “assigned female at birth”. She was born with the full complement of normal female sex organs and all the eggs that her ovaries will release over the course of her fertile years, regardless of whether or not she ever chooses to become a mother. We expected as much because prenatal DNA testing let us know unequivocally at ten weeks’ gestation that we were having a baby with XX sex chromosomes in every cell of her body. And no, she isn’t “intersex”. Her phenotypical features reflect her Southwest Asian genetic heritage and she is fine and healthy just as she is. Nothing about her body is or has ever been out of place. If the gender transition industry is anything it is profoundly racist and disturbingly sexist.

I believe that the medical fast tracking of trans-self-identifying children and young adults is a contemporary twist on American individualism taken to its point of absurdity. We are now in a situation where corporate wolves are passing effortlessly as progressive sheep. Even Planned Parenthood, perhaps seeing the writing on the wall that was confirmed with the recent Texas abortion ruling, may be hedging its bets by offering “Gender Affirming Hormone Therapy”. Institutions’ needs for staying relevant and projecting themselves into the future trump any fidelity to stated guiding principles. And a parent’s need to protect her child’s mind and body trumps any and all political affiliations. Our wallets and our votes will speak for us.

*   *   *

It is now September and my daughter and and I have been living in a city in the former Soviet Union as of mid August. She is connecting to her roots, her land, and her cultural heritage; to rich and lasting sources of identity that synthetic hormones and manufactured gender ideology were threatening to undermine and replace. She recognizes that going down the path of medical transition would have made her into a lifelong patient as well as holding her back from so much joy and freedom that she now has access to. She is coming to terms with the inevitable losses that growing up brings and discovering facets of herself that she never would have if we had taken your advice and initiated medicalization. Gender ideology would have had to become the central focus of her intellect and creativity for the rest of her life.

It helps that the local language, which my daughter is quickly absorbing and starting to speak, is devoid of gendered grammatical markers. I think she is relieved to not have to ask or answer questions about “preferred pronouns” and such. Here, no one is compelled to participate in a mass delusion that requires thought control and speech policing. They had more than enough of that during seven long decades under Soviet rule. Simply put, people have more pressing daily challenges and live highly interconnected social lives as a result. When you fall passers-by stop to help you up and dust you off. As other young people my daughter feels confident walking around the city on her own at all hours. She increasingly feels safe and at home in this city and in her body. And I grow more hopeful every day that removing her from a culture that would pathologize normal developmental struggles and push costly and irreversible medical treatments, will enable and reinforce long-term remission of gender dysphoria and trans ideation from her life.

I took the unpopular risk of holding my child’s ambivalence and keeping it alive rather than surrendering her to a process that would make her the docile object of bogus “affirmation” and “celebration”. And while I became the target of so much hatred and rage for many exhausting months (affirming and facilitating social and medical transition, by far the less conflictual path for parents who have the financial means, would have gained me temporary status as the heroic mother), she never lost sight of the fact that her father and I were the ones who truly had her back; that social-media groomers’, glitter families’, and gender clinicians’ approval could never be a replacement for her own self esteem and her family’s unwavering love.

Let me close by saying that things are changing in parts of Europe and in the UK. In the US a growing movement of parents and ethical clinicians, most of whom are lifelong progressives and active supporters of LGBTQ people and causes, are organizing and becoming vocal with their outrage and rejection of gender ideology and the unsupported diagnostic claims and harmful treatment practices it has given rise to. When the lawsuits start coming this will be exposed as one of the biggest medical scandals in history.

It is only a matter of time.

The rise of gender identity ideology is one of the most significant cultural shifts we've experienced in recent years.

It isn't just about accepting people for how they want to dress, what they want to call themselves, or how they want to live their lives - none of which anyone has a problem with - but rather that we should reorganize society around the concept of "gender" rather than sex.

And this has major implications for women's rights, because single sex spaces such as domestic violence refuge centers, hospitals and prisons depend first and foremost on biology. It also has major implications for gay rights which were secured through a recognition that will always be a minority of people who are attracted to members of their own sex. When you disregard biology, in other words, you disregard gay rights.

Now I've said all this before, but why does it bear repeating?

Well I'll tell you. It's because GB News is the only news channel that does so. And this isn't meant to sound triumphalist, it's just a fact and so I feel it's important to return to this issue on a regular basis. Because that media near silence most definitely needs to be broken.

There have been serious consequences to this negligence in the media. If you ask the average person what they think about the prospect of male rapists identifying as women, and then being transferred to female prisons, they mostly won't know what you're talking about. They probably won't believe it has ever happened. But it has, and in a few cases those prisoners have gone on to commit further sexual assaults.

And consider the implications for the sporting world. For a long time a small group of courageous athletes, people such as Martina Navratilova, Mara Yamauchi and Sharon Davis, have been trying to draw attention to the problem of biological males in women's sports. And they were ignored by the media, and called bigots by activists.

Kathleen stock wrote a brilliant book about how women's rights depend upon a recognition of biological sex differences, but it was only when activists hounded her out of her job at the University of Sussex that it made the news. Helen Joyce wrote a best-selling book about this issue and when I interviewed her on this program at the time of its publication, she said to me that no other news channel had invited her on to speak.

Why not? Well the truth is that most media outlets have been captured by the new quasi-religion of gender identity, and they have been unwilling to platform voices who might question this belief system. It's like the world of news media has suddenly been taken over by fanatical priests and all of a sudden we don't hear from the atheists anymore.

And this is largely down to the influence of Stonewall, a charity that used to support gay people rather than demonize them as sexual racists, as its CEO now does, and Stonewall has a policy of "no debate." Well they may as well call it "no heresy," and so it's hardly surprising that we should get radio silence from those media outlets that are under its thumb.

And although GB news is a relatively new channel, a small fish in a big pond, I can at least say that we've done our utmost to draw attention to these issues and offer a platform for those people who are speaking out.

And this week we are seeing that this silence, this journalistic negligence, this failure to enable a public discussion, has had some serious repercussions.

The trans youth charity, Mermaids, has finally come under a degree of media scrutiny this week. Better late than never, I suppose. You'll remember that Mermaids is a group that recently took LGB Alliance to court in an attempt to have it stripped of its charity status. And why? Because Mermaids takes the view that a charity that defends the interests of gay people is somehow transphobic. This isn't true of course, but gay people and feminists too have become accustomed to these kinds of slurs.

Many years ago mermaids used to offer sensible advice to the parents of children who were struggling with their gender. It would suggest a more hands-off approach, and pointed out in its literature that in most cases these feelings of gender dysphoria in childhood would be resolved naturally through puberty.

But in recent years, it has adopted the gender affirmative approach which has resulted in children being fast-tracked onto harmful medication. The majority of these children will have other issues that account for the dysphoria, as I pointed out on the show many times. The studies are absolutely clear that there is a strong correlation between gender non-conformity in youth and homosexuality in later life. So mermaids has been complicit in an ideology that seeks to fix gender non-conforming children according to heterosexual norms.

It is claimed that puberty blockers are harmless and reversible, even though evidence is clear that this is not the case. A recent investigation by The Telegraph revealed that Mermaids had encouraged breast binding for young girls without parental consent. This is a harmful practice that can lead to all sorts of medical problems, including breathing difficulties and broken ribs.

Well, the Charity Commission is now investigating Mermaids and all hell is breaking loose. This charity has been supported by major corporations. Starbucks and Wagamama have previously run campaigns in association with Mermaids, and celebrities have been falling over themselves to declare their approval.

But now tweets are being deleted, evidence erased, because it's becoming increasingly clear that Mermaids, for all that it has been perceived as being progressive, inclusive and "on the right side of history," is in fact regressive, reactionary and a danger to the very people it purports to help.

And it doesn't stop there. Over the past few days it has been revealed that one of Mermaids' trustees is an academic with a long history of writing in support of pedophilic desire. Now even the most ardent free speech absolutist must surely concede that these kind of writings should disqualify him from being a trustee of a children's charity. It's clear that Mermaids wasn't undertaking due diligence, but diligence was never the priority here. It was all about the ideology.

In the court hearing with LGB Alliance, a representative for Mermaids admitted to having not read the Cass Review. Now this was the report into The Tavistock, this is the gender pediatric clinic run by the NHS, which was found to be unsafe for vulnerable children and was shut down.

And the chair of Mermaids said in court that the Cass Review was, quote "not Mermaids' field." Not mermaid's field? The Cass Review is one of the most significant reports on the healthcare of children with gender dysphoria that has ever been produced. If this isn't Mermaids' field then perhaps they should stop sending breastbinders to kids.

Of course, many of those who supported Mermaids in the past have been conspicuously silent this week. Others have doubled down and declared that Mermaids is being targeted by anti-trans activists. But this isn't true. I've spoken to numerous critics of Mermaids and gender identity ideology more broadly, and not one of them is anti-trans.

But of course there's a lot at stake here. People eventually are going to have to admit that they supported the sterilization of children, many of whom were simply autistic or were likely to grow up gay. Many decent people have been hoodwinked into supporting this dangerous ideology and so of course they're going to find this difficult to come to terms with.

But sooner or later they're going to have to face up to reality. Too many people know about it now and the truth is getting out there. This is what JK Rowling wrote in August 2020:

"An ethical and medical scandal is brewing. I believe the time is coming when those organisations and individuals who have uncritically embraced fashionable dogma, and demonised those urging caution will have to answer for the harm they've enabled."

Just like the myth of Cassandra, these words were powerfully expressed but largely unheeded. Rowling in fact was monstered and smeared as a bigot for pointing this out, and now, two years later, people are starting to see that she was exactly right.

After the events of this week it feels like the tide is turning, but this really isn't a time for complacency. Activists aren't going to give this one up without a fight. They're too invested in their fantasies. They have convinced themselves that they have been doing good, even though the evidence now shows that they've been doing harm. They've convinced themselves that they are fighting armies of transphobic hate groups, even though these are mostly just specters of their imagination.

Their actual critics are just women, gay people and their supporters who are concerned about the erosion of their rights and the safeguarding of children. So yes, at the risk of repetition, I'm going to keep talking about this subject, because too many in the media are still silent on this issue. And believe me, this is far from over.

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@heterodorx: Children who are medically transitioned become attached to a medical leash. 🧵 Nearly all of us are born with healthy and functioning endocrine systems. The cells in our bodies depend on both testosteron...…

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Children who are medically transitioned become attached to a medical leash.

Nearly all of us are born with healthy and functioning endocrine systems. The cells in our bodies depend on both testosterone and estrogen to some degree. Of course, men's bodies depend more on the former and women's on the latter.

When a child is put on to puberty blockers, also called gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonist (GnRH), the child's natural endocrine system is supplanted. It is stopped. For a child about to enter puberty, this causes an indefinite delay.

According to WPATH SOC8, gender clinicians may exercise the judgment to start hormone blockers in children at Tanner Stage 2 in their development. For girls, this may be age 9. For boys, age 11.

Most children who start puberty blockers then go on to be prescribed cross-sex hormones, also called gender-affirming hormone therapy (GAHT). This whole protocol works in contradiction to the child's natural endocrine system. At this point, irreversible changes have happened.

If hormone replacement continues, permanent changes occur. Girls masculinize. Her body will grow more hair, her voice will deepen, and she will accumulate more muscle. Boys will have their skin soften and they will begin to grow breasts.

Even with hormone replacement, a body that is meant to follow a female sexual developmental pattern will not become male. And males will not become female. At this point, the body's natural endocrine system is suppressed and smothered by prescription drugs.

Let's talk about the drugs. The most common GnRH (puberty blocker) is Lupron. Lupron is not designed for children who identify as transgender—it's more commonly used to treat cancer. It costs at least hundreds of dollars a month, but I've normally heard it costing thousands.

Lupon can have devastating side effects, and even the gender clinicians are aware of this, and some have talked about rushing children off puberty blockers and on to cross-sex hormones as quickly as possible.

Girls who are put on this path inject testosterone. Testosterone can act as a mild anti-depressant. Girls taking testosterone report having more energy. Testosterone is also expensive.

Boys on this path take estrogen. Estrogen is sometimes used to treat sex offenders to reduce their sex drive. From my own experience, I was not ready to handle male puberty, and estrogen acted like a governor on my sex drive. It helped me avoid learning about my body.

Boys are expected to follow a path that includes castration and the construction of a vagina-like orifice using the penis as material. At this point, the boy will become dependent on external hormones for the rest of his life.

Girls on this path will experience vaginal atrophy from testosterone, and eventually her other sex organs will be destroyed by the testosterone. After hysterectomy, the girl will become dependent on external hormones for the rest of her life.

For boys and girls in this situation, and for people like me, our health is wholly dependent on the medical system. We must have regular blood tests (at least once a year), and we must report in to our providers to get renewals for our external hormones. We have no gonads.

These hormone treatments are not optional. Without them, our bones will become frail, and we will experience other physical symptoms, including mental health problems—hormones regulate our entire bodies.

I am leashed to a medical provider. The best I can do is pick who holds the leash. The children who are being transitioned are being put on to a leash. They are typically starting the process with healthy bodies. But then our bodies are deliberately damaged. Why? For aesthetics.

I'm unusual in that I'm vocal about my criticism of the system. I have heard from SO MANY "TRANS" PEOPLE that they would like to say something, but they are terrified that the people who hold their leashes will jerk on the reins.

Planned Parenthood is one of the most generous of the leash-holders. They will essentially let anyone sign up to get a leash, and they don't ask for very much from their pets. How does this sound? Maybe not so bad?

What is the medical discipline that understands the endocrine system? It's endocrinology! And yet, nobody writing prescriptions at Planned Parenthood is an endocrinologist. My local gender clinic, which sees perhaps 1000 patients, has no endocrinologist on staff.

Not only are we on medical leashes, but the people who hold the leashes aren't even experts in the field. They are learning about best practices and then experimenting on us.

However, as someone once pointed out to me, it's not an experiment. In an experiment, someone is collecting data.

It should never be considered normal or preferable to treat problems like autism spectrum disorder, anxiety, traumas, depression, or other social disorders by placing children on puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones. It is not a treatment path. It is a collar and a chain.