I was a nurse working on a team that recklessly prescribed puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to kids. I blew the whistle in 2005. Now the government is finally listening.
Hooray for Common Sense publishing this article by a woman who showed an extraordinary amount of courage and has made a difference. My fingers are firmly crossed that the tide is indeed turning in the UK.
Hopefully the tide will begin to turn in the US as well.
So, this is not at all like tattoos. Often times the surgeon who castrates the boy is a transexual himself, like Marc/Marci Bowers who has written about how fake vaginas (which take a lot of work to maintain) smell different from real ones. Yet, we are told that this Gender Identity thing has nothing to do with sexuality... Is this healthy? Is it healthy for our society to be fine with it? Remember Jeffrey Dauhmer? Is everything ok now as long as someone is enjoying it? Why are we ok with teen girls (or even 20 year old ones) getting their healthy breasts chopped off just like that? If you went to a doctor and told him that you had an evil hand and wanted it chopped off do you think he would see the $$ and just comply without trying to find out what was really wrong (could he get away with it)? Was it made glamorous at school? Did you have a need to be a victim?
I mentioned Jeffrey Dauhmer but the man I was really trying to recall is German citizen Armin Meiwes who ate his gay lover "with his permission". Some sexual urges should not be normalized. They are paraphilias that hurt others. Men like "Marci" who cut the male parts off of boys are not ok. Yet, they are making $$$$ instead of sitting in prison because of the widespread acceptance of "Gender" Ideology. Of course, this is not an exact match - but are these children really able to "give permission"? No.
"German cannibal who ate his gay lover describes his gruesome meal of human ‘rump steak with sprouts’
WARNING: Disturbing content. Notorious cannibal Armin Meiwes ate his gay lover “with his permission”. He’s shared grisly details of his gruesome act."
It is good to think that it doesn't matter and to a large extent it doesn't. I don't care what adults do to their lives as long as it is within the law.
You can't change your sex -- it is in every cell of your body. Bikini medicine, the assumption that men and women are alike except for those parts covered a bikini has been shown to be false. Most medicine has been male as a default because males don't suffer from as many hormone changes and can't fall pregnant and endanger the next generation. This has resulted in females suffering from more side effects from drugs than men. Some of the side effects have been truly debilitating. I won't bore you with the details but can provide them if you wish -- heart disease, asthma, certain cancers, dementia all have a biological sex component rather than a gender component. The research has only really been happening since 2016. In 2014 the NIH coughed to the fact that they had not bother requiring Big Pharma to test on females and thus didn't know a lot. Since 2018 sex must be taken as a variable in biological research.
The Tavistock scandal is about children who made irrevocable decisions based on faulty science and a specific ideology which says children know from birth which gender they are and are able to accurately articulate that gender at any age. Gender is the social construct rather than the biological reality. The Affirmation Approach says that perceived gender was more important than looking at the child's situation -- had they suffered sexual trauma, did they have autism, had they self-harmed? And that it didn't matter if it was Rapid Onset -- namely did it suddenly manifest at puberty, three weeks ago when the child read something on the internet or had they always referred to themselves as the opposite sex, what matter was the feeling. These children who were suffering from atypical gender or gender dysphoria were put on a medical pathway which does have life altering consequences rather than using the Watchful Waiting approach which uses talking therapy until the child reaches maturity. Under Watchful Waiting, 80 -90% of the children desisted and became happy in their own bodies. Under the Affirmation approach with puberty blockers, it was more than reversed and close 100% went on to take cross sex hormones from an early age. Studies have shown that the brain does not reach maturity until 25 -30. They also did not keep appropriate records and the data showing that this was the right approach and did not cause children to suffer from debilitating side effects was not there. They also did not follow the so Dutch protocol which had specific safeguards including dealing with co-morbidities first, no social transition before 12 and no social transition unless under the supervision of a qualified Mental Health Professional, preferably in conjunction with an endocrinologist etc. The big excuse was suicide rate (better a live boy than a dead girl was one of the mantras). However if you actually look at the longest real life study -- people who take cross sex hormones are more likely to commit suicide rather than less likely. Big Pharma makes a lot of money off putting healthy children on a lifelong pathway to medicalized future.
It is also about parents' rights. Do parents have the right to know if a school has decided to socially transition a child based on a child's sudden whim? Should the state intervene to take the child away if the parent objects?
Today's PITT suggests we might be experiencing a Chinese Cultural Revolution sort of event. It does not address how many doctors have forgotten about "Do No Harm".
"Why is this happening to my family?
A viral tweet suggests a new theory of race-based social identity threat and identity exit"
Yes I've read that substack. Also the substack on bubbles and how a bubble is developing with gender id. I do think that particular PITT misses the factor of marketing to children and how its rigid pursuit of the almighty dollar has led to this very genderized (for wont of a better phrase) positioning of goods and services to children. It is telling that in the mid 1970s -- only 2 % of toys were marketed as gendered in the Sears Roebuck catalogue. This slowly increased (really picking up steam in the 1990s) until 2012 when 100% of toys in the Disney store were gendered and this has continued. The non binary represents a third marketing strand. Also it does not allow for nuance.
The current college generation is the Disney princess generation if you will.
The suppression of debate and coerced silencing of anyone who speaks out against is definitely totalitarian in its nature.
yes, and it doesn't discuss the influence of early exposure to porn. But, I liked the discussion of CRT leading to identity exit/softening the kids up for GI.
And if you can get ahold of it -- Terry Gilliam is in the Times talking about cancel culture " On the trans issue he blames the lobby group Stonewall — which he used to support — for organisations and politicians feeling under pressure to put trans inclusivity above concerns for women. “As somebody said, movements start with a genuine sense of wrong, and if successful become businesses, and if the businesses keep growing they become rackets.” The BBC and a number of government departments have recently severed some links with Stonewall, he notes, adding: “Maybe common sense is rising again.”
I ask if he has changed his mind about #MeToo being a witch-hunt. “It was. Despite the monstrousness of Harvey Weinstein — yes, victims were there — but there were also people who benefited. Hollywood is full of adults who are ambitious. That’s all I said; I’m not saying crimes have not been committed.” He points to the former senator Al Franken (now back with a podcast and a touring comedy show) and Pixar’s John Lasseter (now with a film, Luck, with Apple) as men unfairly felled by #MeToo. “John was accused of hugging too much!” Gilliam says. “There are people who are victims on both sides. But when the crimes are so minor, let’s be careful about the punishment.”
Often, though, I say, victims had no power. “People say they have no power when they assume they have no power,” he responds, telling me of an actress friend who escaped Weinstein’s clutches. “She talked her way out. She was a tough lady. [But] I can see a young actress being frightened and not knowing what to do because ‘is this going to ruin my career?’” https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/terry-gilliam-how-i-was-squished-by-cancel-culture-m0mqmj303
TYTY again. I just now saw this one, too. Yeah, I read the Quillette piece. And I'd gotten a sub for the Times, on the theory I'd look into what's going on across the pond. Bad theory, but useful on occasion.
TY for both tips, as well as Your TGIF. Now "Back to the novel-writing desk, SLAVE!" (har)
You're funny. Come at You with 5 or 6 points? You're reading something that isn't there. There's one point:
"You have no excuse for Your indifference, other that [sic] more indifference."
Me? I take this to be a common misunderstanding between two people communicating in writing. Not sure how they come about.
As far as personal attacks go, You don't do too bad Yourself: "i don't have an hour to read and decode your book". I just reread what M. Styles wrote. I dunno. Mebbe a five minute read. A few typos require You to supply a word here or there. But, no. It doesn't require "decoding." So why insult her? You worry about personal attacks? Worry about making them, too.
You have an indifference to *children* using hormone treatment that generally leads to them mutilating their genitalia. That's Your choice. You cover it up by slamming M. Styles, right? What she wrote wasn't worth Your time. Okay. It was indecipherable, when it was well-written. Clear as a bell, actually. That's just more indifference.
Perhaps You read into what I wrote that I was angry with You. That might explain why, to me anyway, You appear angry in Your reply. Or at least corn-fused. Of course, ICBW about that. (I Could Be Wrong.)
I'm not upset You've taken the position You have. I can't understand it, but it's Your choice. I was more quote unquote "offensive" because of Your retort to M. Styles. What I'd *thought* i was doing was just making a statement of fact. Up above, You said You were indifferent. Fact. And I said..
Ah.
I said "the only excuse You have for indifference..." I stand corrected. You don't need an excuse to be indifferent, if that's Your choice. Like You "said" in Your reply. What I mebbe should-a "said" to begin with:
"Why insult M. Styles? And it appears the only way You can justify Your indifference is by ignoring what she wrote. Displaying more indifference. Not that You need to justify it. It's just hard to comprehend."
Better? I should-a worried about making a "personal attack," too.
BTW (By The Way). You talk about personal attacks? Show me where I called You an "arsehole." On the "Attack Olympics," that rates pretty high up there. And at least my so-called personal attack was unintentional, when I used the word "excuse."
Now, in all that above, there *is* mebbe a handful of points.
Lemme sum it up. It was a unfortunate choice of words between You and I. In any event, I hope You now know that what M. Styles wrote was neither very long, nor hard to understand.
And it's not a case, at *all,* of her view having *anything* to do with a view a leftist would have. It's diametrically the *opposite* of the views of leftists, as a matter of fact. Just in case You were interested, is all.
Policy and govt have a purpose. Public problems can originate in endless ways, and they require varying public responses. We have lots of laws and govt intervention meant to protect children, including laws that protect children from themselves and from profiteering or toxic adults. Gender has become big business. Our job as responsible adults is to ensure policies keep up with the times and that there are safeguards for children. If I didn't have four friends whose kids transitioned in the past year (one of whom had radical surgery so far) to none of my friends in the previous 40 odd years, and if I felt the parents could have some say in how things were handled, I might think ok maybe once in awhile this sort of thing makes sense. But it's a huge business and - sorry - a huge fad with an enormous internet presence. Some guardrails are a good thing.
Hi, Do you have any kids in high school? Grandkids? It's like hs has become a recruiting center for NXIVM.
Does it bother you if this administration replaces "sex" with the make pretend "gender identity" so that "woman/girl" is meaningless? I have no patience for "conservative" politicians who cannot conserve women & girls; who are willing to call male fetishists ( who call themselves "lesbians") "she" and refer to the mutilation of children and young adults as "gender affirming medicine" like the WSJ did in reporting on DeSantis
This was a Soros backed AG who did not want to enforce the laws of FL.
And, it is not possible for anyone to "change their sex". We might at least call these fellas "transexuals" again. Do we give fetishists a pass and let them lie & change education and medicine & language so that it is no longer recognizable? This concept of the "existence of the trans child" only gives them cover. Fetished up men like Richard/Rachael Levine have more power than children and are happy to throw them under the bus so they can run around in wigs and pearls to get their sexual jollies. If they could only do it in private and not be placed in positions of authority in Health.
I too believe adults should do whatever the hell they like with their bodies. I don’t care if a woman wants to give herself bowling-ball sized breast implants or a guy wants to plaster his entire body with lizard-skin tattoos and bifurcate his tongue for a more realistic effect…ever see pictures of this guy? It leaves you speechless, and him too, probably, but hey, it’s his tongue.
Adults who reconfigure their genitalia and take opposite sex hormones are, in principle, none of my business. If they feel better at the end of the day, I say go for it. However, when one of these grown men in a dress, who often do not remove the male bits but still call themselves women, think it’s their right to invade women’s toilets, locker rooms, sporting competitions, and even prisons, we have a problem. Or more accurately, they have a problem, but they make it our problem.
Even worse, what was happening at Tavistock and continues to happen all over the United States (yes, literally all over…every state in the Union has gender clinics for adolescents) is a medically sanctioned campaign, supported by the public schools, to mutilate the bodies and minds of children. The indoctrination campaign includes explicitly encouraging kids to divorce their parents; in other words, if mom and dad don’t think you should cut off your breasts, they don’t love you and you should get your emotional support here at school, we’ll lie for you, we’ll be your shiny new Queer family. Families are being devastated as a result.
If you transition as an adult, you more or less know yourself and you have the mental bandwidth to make an objective decision. But transition as a teenager, your brain is years away from being competent to decide whether removing your testicles is going to make you happy for the rest of your life. Sir, I do not exaggerate. It is much worse than you realize. Bari and others who care about the well-being of kids cover this issue because it is a national emergency and many good people, such as yourself, don’t know it’s going on, or how ubiquitous it is. I read a recent survey that put the number of adolescents now identifying as some form of trans at 10%.
For your edification, below is a link to one of many gender ed curricula circulating through our nation’s public schools. Whistleblower teachers anonymously send these documents to Christopher Rufo, who publishes them. (They have to blow the whistle anonymously because they would be fired for objecting publicly.) The link is embedded in paragraph 2 of Rufo’s synopsis of what’s going on in the San Diego Unified school district. And no, it’s not a joke.
You don’t think this issue is a big deal, you think it’s some kind of exaggerated leftist blather. Ho hum. You believe in freedom. (Me too.). But it is a big deal, and leftists overwhelmingly support the transitioning of children. It’s baked into their platform.
If I misunderstood you, try harder next time, because I read pretty well. But I’ve said my piece. Over and out.
Golfer, I disagree. This is a topic that is quite reasonably the concern of people of the right. Currently, the left in the US, including our beloved president, is pushing hard here.
First, the right often stands against "good ideas" from the left that throw out centuries of law and custom. People on the right often hold to the idea of Chesterton's Fence. That is, you don't tear something down unless you know why is it there and you are sure it will not cause harm to remove.
Second, in many jurisdictions this is a free speech issue. In Canada it is a matter of civil law that you must call people by the preferred pronouns or you will be punished. In California and many other states family law as worked out in the courts has multiple precedents that ensure that mothers and fathers will lose parental rights if they don't support the social and medical transitions of their sons and daughters.
In many public school districts parents are not informed of their sons' and daughters' intentions and actions regarding social transitioning. Some schools will refer the children to clinics where children will be given cross-sex hormones without parental consent.
In over 20 states physicians and mental health practitioners must follow the affirmative care model or lose their licenses.
Many commenters have people they care about in these jurisdictions or recognize that they are one election away from seeing these policies implemented where they live. I am happy that you are not personally affected. But this is fair game for political discussion by people of the right.
Thank you for spelling this out, John. No one has ever said I was a leftist before :-) Politically I was an independent prior to "Sanctuary Cities" - voting sometimes R and sometimes D depending on the candidate. I voted for Obama the first time and then had "voter's remorse". After "gender" became a thing and we had this problem with our teen daughter's school I became a passionate one issue voter and that means being a Republican. But, it also means I have no patience at all for mealy mouthed Republicans who will call men "she" and who will not protect the meaning of "woman" and who will not conserve our nation's daughters (and all children).
It is really shocking that we have the likes of fetishist Richard Levine (First Female Four Star Admiral US Assistant Health Secretary) in a position of power in health/government. It's bad enough that he is a pediatrician at all but now he can set policy that actively harms people. And everything is turned upside down: Title IX which was meant to help girls is a weapon, in medicine and therapy help = harm and harm = help, a young person's real name = a dead name, talk therapy = conversion therapy, etc. The tiny few men who actually have a disorder of the mind do not even get proper mental health help.
Ah, I see. I feel that the left has stuck it's nose into the lives of families because radical queer theory/gender ideology is taught/promoted at school as if it were science rather than more of a cult religion. The government & the teachers unions push/require it. I can supply links but understand it's not your interest to read such. Names & pronouns are changed at school so that school works against parenting. Once the teen /young adult minds are turned the hormonal/medical stuff is out there for them before their minds are matured. A scandal.
A point I tried to make is that we have normalized sexual paraphilias for the young at school under the kindness/understanding/acceptance umbrella. This is a movement lead by men with such paraphilias. Some things shouldn't be normalized and it is not mere "pearl clutching" to say so as some have suggested. And, some of the men performing the operations are sick as can be seen in Matt Walsh's "What is a Woman" for instance. Now, we have "MAPS". Since I am a mother and an aunt and I hope to be a grandma one day I care very much.
Hi Golfer, I thought today's PITT might interest you because it suggests a Chinese Cultural Revolution sort of explanation, but I also understand if it doesn't interest you:
"Why is this happening to my family?
A viral tweet suggests a new theory of race-based social identity threat and identity exit"
You have an interesting background. The thing is, it is not even science fiction/a possible future/or "now" to "change one's sex". It is a fantasy - not something that is scientifically possible. Your body is XX or XY (for the most part - there are defects) and wants to follow a blueprint. There are surgeons who will cosmetically alter a person so that they resemble the other sex but there are unhealthy downsides, like "T" for women and maintaining plastic rings in a fake vagina for men. (Not that the fetish types do that. They remain "intact" and are the real problem.) Anyhow, since it is not a particular subject you follow you might not be aware of the great number of young regretters who were swept along by Gender Ideology promoted in schools like science.
I thought the article was interesting for trying to address why such a great number of young people, especially girls are seeking to exit their identities - suggesting that CRT is a trigger. James Lindsay has discussed this issue in a more academic manner than this article. Thx for writing.
One can only hope, but the various enablers such as Mermaids UK still exist and still are trying to peddle their version of events as are Stonewall.
No Labour minister has condemned what happened to these children and the scandal.
For example, UK state schools are still able to make up their own rules about social transition, including not informing parents, even though Cass has condemned the practice. The Department of Education is apparently waiting for the new minister (Fingers crossed for Badenoch).
Sue and her husband Marcus Evans have been truly brave and I sincerely hope that the NHS will listen to them and to Dr Cass when setting up the regional clinics rather than importing GIDS mentality wholesale.
The tide is turning in the UK but it isn't over yet.
This is my concern too. The problem is not solved. Closing Tavistock was a necessary first step, but there are still sharks in the waters. The people who make their livings promoting transition for children are true believers. They haven't disappeared, and now they may be even more emboldened because the process will be decentralized. Who knows what kind of mischief and obfuscation will go on once the regional centers are established? Why, I wonder, do we need regional centers for gender transition in the first place? Unless there is stringent government oversight, it could end up being just as bad as before, if not worse. Now a kid won't have to travel to Tavistock to get their hormones, they'll just ride over on their bicycle. What mechanisms are in place to prevent the wholesale mutilation of bodies all over again, this time at the local level?
You shouldn't try to make this a partisan issue, because that's not helpful. Maybe no Labour minister hasn't condemned these things yet, but they also happened under the watch of a conservative government in Westminister. But that shouldn't really matter. These appalling crimes (Yes, I call it criminal!) must stop and I don't care who will put an end to it, what party affiliation or what views on religion someone has. We do need all the help we can get to break up the cartel which is trying to force its ideology on health services. Pure science should prevail in the end and there is no conservative science and no Labour science, but only one science and that science should tell us to be much more careful with administering life altering "therapies" as has been the case at tavistock and quite likely still is at other places.
It would be nice if this wasn't a partisan issue, but the Left has made it so. It is the Left that supports this insanity. It is the Left that will attack you if you object to allowing children to have their bodies mutilated on the basis of the Wokes' "The Science." California wants to be a haven for minors having sex changes despite their parents' objections BECAUSE California is dominated by the Left.
There's only one way for it to stop being partisan, and that's for sane people on the Left to say NO. And we've already seen how sane people on the Left get treated if they do that--they get loudly denounced as "Far-Right Nazis" and canceled as "transphobic" for saying NO.
There are people on both sides of the political divide who wanna make it partisan. We should rebuke them all and try to find reasonable people in every political camp to help us stop this madness. This is not about Labour or conservatives, this is about kids getting their lives destroyed and that should concern every decent human being.
I don't want it to be a partisan issue. I think it is an open goal. Wes Streetling should have condemned it. I know he is former Stonewall but he has a brain and some very excellent Spads.
It did happen under the Conservatives. 2010 -2022 was ample opportunity to change things.
The fact remains no Labour shadow cabinet member has condemned a clear and utter failing of a service which was meant to protect very vulnerable children. They should.
Labour has been told this time and time again. Yet the silence is deafening with Rosie Duffield being the honourable exception.
California has been turned into a garbage pit run by irrational morons. Morons elected by morons. Gavin Newson a limousine liberal elitist is being seriously considered by the Democrat/Communist Party as their next candidate for President. I guess the Dems want to turn the US, under Newson's guidance into a California cesspool. I'm sure he will setup free gender reassignment clinics throughout the US.
I have and that has federal lawsuit written all over it as it raises so many questions about state law and equivalence etc etc. This is particularly important for divorced parents.
I cannot wait for the avalanche of lawsuits which will follow. Also the stripping of medical licences from doctors who fully supported the butchering of children's bodies just to appease a mob of transgender extremists. Well done to this woman and all other staff who stood up for what they knew was right and truthful. Hopefully the crazed, extremist trans lobbies in Western Europe and North America will soon have the same fate as the Tavistock clinic.
Yes, that is the worst part because once the teen's mind is won over - that they believe in Gender Ideology/Queer Theory and that unbelievers like parents are bad/jerks/"pearl clutchers" (who are concerned about them) then they are primed for hormones, etc.& are easy targets for predatory types. Many teachers think this stuff is great and about "acceptance" but even the ones who do not will go along with it or are forced to teach it because of instruction from the unions both at the state (often), national, and from the National Association of Independent Schools. They in turn, get it from government.
Don't hold your breathe. Too many very powerful people got sucked into this cult. They'll delete their tweets and cover their asses faster than a bunch of generals fleeing Afghanistan did. And they'll have every major media institution in the Western world helping them do it.
There may be a big class action settlement, insurance will pay it, and all will be forgotten.
There will be no revoked medical licenses.
There will be no doctors bankrupted in lawsuits.
There will be no medical activists imprisoned for their failure to their patients.
Secondly, as pleased as I am that it will be harder for teenagers to permanently alter their bodies in England before they've even developed those bodies, closing one clinic (even one as big as Tavistock) doesn't solve the "what is a woman" problem at all. Self identification and the erradication of sexual biology is part of a very long train of liberalism promoting maximal individual autonomy". It's not going away just because the British NHS finally pulled its head out of its ass for a few minutes.
To be clear, this nurse is amazingly courageous and deserves immense respect. No one should take my comments as impugning her at all. I'm just not optimistic in the long term trajectory.
Brian, you see through to the reality most cannot face. To those who think this is a non-partisan issue, simply examine who is demanding children be allowed to follow their immature demands and transition. This comes from one side of the aisle, the left woke leaders. Yes, many cowardly conservative leaders do not speak up, but the reasons are obvious, they will be trashed by the overwhelming power of the woke media and institutions. In the US, only brave conservatives like DeSantis go to battle. I know of zero conservatives, leaders or lay, including conservative gays and lesbians, who back the woke's gender dystopic movement.
Too many conservatives care what major media (who hate them) write about them.
Too many liberals are too scared of major media treating them like conservatives.
Too many successful people of both sides are scared of losing their status and wealth.
Since this lunacy came from the left though, and they watched it grow for decades in the universities they control, I'm with you: the bulk of the blame lies with the silent liberals.
Bravo for DeSantis. He's taking the issue right where it belongs: directly to the so-called experts -- the doctors -- who took a vow to do no harm. I hope he succeeds and that the rest of the country follows suit. It won't happen overnight, but we have to start somewhere.
By the way, the current Texas model, in which parents as well as doctors are held liable when their kids transition, is shockingly ignorant. The parents are victims too, and they need the State's support, not blame. What an appallingly dumb policy.
Sometimes the parents are victims of people telling them that they need to put their kid on puberty blockers or their kid will commit suicide. Those parents need support to resist the trans ideology.
But sometimes we're looking at Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy--parents who see trans kids as a way to get oppression points, as a way to virtue signal their devotion to Woke ideology. THOSE parents absolutely ought to go to jail.
I'm aware of the distinction between these two types of parents. Most parents are in the first category, i.e., well-meaning victims of the suicide threat blackmail strategy, while the other type exploit their children for their own narcissistic reasons.
I agree with you that the latter type is guilty as hell, but from a legal standpoint, how to make that distinction in a court of law? It would require a kind of prying into people's lives that would be very difficult. How do you prove intent in such cases? I'm not even sure how such a law would be written. All parents will present themselves as sympathetic, and if we're going to prosecute only the "bad" ones, the "good" ones are also going to be subject to a kind of scrutiny that would probably be experienced as invasive and even cruel.
It strikes me as untenable, but obviously I'm not a legal scholar.
I think teachers and doctors and sometimes even the children themselves might be able to testify as to the difference. I'm not sure it's that hard, in most cases, to distinguish between hesitant parents going along with what what the child demands and gung-ho parents pushing hard to get their child medicalized.
The teachers are the worst - next doctors and counselors.
I am aware from what I read that there are parents who are convinced that puberty blockers are a good idea - or they have this Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy. But what I see all around me as the mother of teen/young adult kids - is that girls with no prior history declare trans identity - often in high school after being taught all about Gender Identity under the kindness & understanding DEI umbrella and usually with either online grooming or grooming from a student leader or other kid going on simultaneously. Next, the girl tentatively experiments with "pronouns" at school which the staff are eager to "support". Then, the girl gets a new name. By the time the parents get wind of anything they are playing catch up and reeling. Some parents are demented enough to be convinced about GI. Most often the mother is convinced and the father is not (the child will do a lot of insisting and has all the key things to say and mothers find their children hard to resisit). Fathers are normally less moved by "feelings" of the moment but then they can get blindsided and often a divorce ensues. Even where both parents are not crazy plenty of girls just slow walk it until they can legally start taking hormones on their own through Planned Destruction (Planned Parenthood) and maybe they have their breasts removed on college insurance. Surprise! Then, regret sets in within about 5 years. None of this is ethical. These girls cannot truly give informed consent. And, they just scribbled a signature at the bottom of a form, anyway. Even if the girls "just" take the cutely termed "T" that is immediately permanently destructive.
Sooooo - what I am saying is that the teachers are some of the very worst actors in this bad play. I do not think they truly understand what they are doing. "Oh, she/he can experiment freely in high school where it is "safe" and then change back later..." But, once the mind is taken in with this very serious psychological intervention where all these adults are taking a delusion seriously - the major part of the damage is done prior to anything physical which appear as the next natural steps.
Many parents on PITT are afraid to even speak publicly for fear of CPS knocking on the door or for fear of losing connection to the kid who they hope to influence for the better.
I think the ones who ought to be in legal trouble are the people making decisions for school systems to promote GI and any doctors proscribing these off label cancer drugs for children. Even if a parent is deranged and we feel angry with them, they cannot get those drugs on their own. If someone went to a doctor with some other crazy idea that they'd read demanding prescription medications that maybe they think will do something or other, the doctor still has to agree and give the Rx. I am sure it is very common for a person to go in and demand a drug and the doctor says "No". I think anyone giving out Testosterone to confused girls and young women ought to also be in trouble. In this and only this issue medicine has decided that a 15-16 year old girl is a mature decision maker.
I just googled de santis and picked an article from the WSJ, about suspending the prosecutor due to his stance on the state’s abortion ban and gender affirming cases.
Only in the 5th paragraph did I read that FL “bans abortion” after 15 weeks.
How is that banning abortion? Sorry I know this is about the gender part but that is BS reporting.
Probably nothing with really change in UK until there is a national law passed. But with post brexit, Ukraine, inflation, I assume it’s not the top issue.
Right, the guy is a George Soros backed Attorney General who doesn't want to uphold laws he doesn't like. But, his job is to uphold the laws. After the Supreme Court ruling states are free to draw the line where they like regarding abortion. FL set it at 15 weeks. It is crazy that the WSJ is woke on these issues, even calling child mutilation "gender affirming surgery" which is outlawed in FL after they did a study and found no evidence of it helping kids (what a shocker). But, what is the good of any law if it is not enforced? Plus, our society would recoil from a thing such as "female circumcision".
I am in the US. That sounds about right about the UK. I think here we are getting close to seeing some major lawsuits. I am also really encouraged by DeSantis. I hope he will be our next president.
Cancelled during COVID pandemics. It will take years, if ever, for everyone to realize the harm doctors caused refusing to treat sick by any means possible and with any medications available and instead either hooking them to ventilators or sending home to die. The oath repeated by those dedicated to medical profession thousand of years suddenly was given up in lieu of political and partisan stance. So many doctors turned out to be conformists and cowards. I am not surprised that many physicians engage in gender change procedures. Lucrative and in line with the ruling party’s line
An excellent account of a travesty in process. In Canada, none of the major news outlets have reported on the closing of Tavistock. The media blackout and related politicization of the media on issues like this is appalling, unethical and even criminal, or would be if media were held accountable for suppressing stories of great harm to children. I hate to say it, but we need a Keira Bell of our own to get the ball rolling, though I wonder if a story like hers would get reported.
Agreed, but at the same time this is minutia compared to the traumas inflicted on children by our COVID policies. That's a far bigger issue and gets even less attention.
That's how I know they don't regret it and would do it again.
Maybe "justice for the children" needs to be a new political battle cry, before that generation grows up thinking government abuse is normal and justified. In my opinion, raising a wounded, dependent, subservient generation is largely the purpose behind all this.
People who enabled it do care. They're true believers who thought they were helping children. Just like the activist elementary school teachers who are telling ever younger kids that boys and girls are not real. They genuinely believe it.
Reeducation needs to start at the top, but it won't happen with the current administration.
But how can anyone with two functioning brain cells believe this rubbish? Things seem to have spun completely out of control within a very short time. How can anyone think that mutilating kids is a good thing?
It all shows the effectiveness of brainwashing. If you frame this mutilation as "allowing children to be their authentic selves", it can appear as a good thing. True believers are the most dangerous people in the world.
Amen. Thank you for reminding us how true believers’ minds can be overtaken by Illogical garbage. The intellectualy blind are those who cannot see what is clear.
The same people that believe our planet is on fire and we would not survive another moment; that socialism did not bring suffering to millions of people; those who tell you that mental health professional and social workers will protect you from a violent armed criminal; and that skin color is the most important defining characteristic of a human being. Should I go on? And it is not just a few who are brainwashed, that’s the problem. Will we ever be able to return to normal? Or the normal has changed irrevocably and we just have to get with the program?
I'm in one hundred percent agreement with you and devoutly hope that we can end this madness soon, before the whole country goes completely off the rails.
These trans people are celebrated by the mainstream media. Look at the fuss made when “Amy” Schneider won big bucks on Jeopardy. He/she was feted at the White House for his/her accomplishments. And then there is Will “Lia” Thomas, who couldn’t make it as a male swimmer so he/she decided to pretend to be a female swimmer. He/she towered over his/her teammates. And since he/she had already undergone puberty, his/her body was stronger than any of the female swimmers on the Penn Team. He/she was permitted to change in the female locker room where he no doubt had erections for all the females to see. The university did zero to protect its female swimmers and went along with this fantasy. Penn even nominated Will/Lia for female athlete of the year! Unbelievable!
I agree. To begin the push back I think we all need to use real language, not the "1984" newspeak. "Amy's" real name is actually Thomas. I am not going to call any men "she".
True. I am trying to figure out why we have this phenomenon of a new belief system. I am hesitant to call it a new religion. But it is troublesome how many are unable to apply science, history, statistics, logic. Why all of a sudden we have fanatics who cancel you if you don’t use the pronoun they want you to use or don’t like the idea of gender fluidity? But that’s what progressive woke cultists are - worshippers. And because they are fanatics, the absurdity of their beliefs is not obvious to them. And theese warriors will not stop until you disappear- fired, silenced, sanctioned, fined, lost parental rights, jailed They would not understand that they are hurting children. They are well skilled in using social media, writing petitions, collecting votes, all with proper PC jargon. Sometimes I think they are humanoids.
I have a simple explanation. Religion is necessary. It serves human needs on a large scale and without it, or in the case of a society transitioning away from it's foundational religion, people go crazy seeking purpose, meaning and direction.
Very few craft their beliefs for themselves. Far more want the comfort and certainty of collective identity.
I agree with you. It’s the single greatest challenge of modernity. People are born into a society that is stabilized by a moral structure grounded in religious beliefs. Then they go to school and learn that Darwin discovered that human value systems are based on no reality that is independent of the social interactions of humans as an evolved species. The implicit logic of this is indeed that all cultural norms are relative, which devolves into the nihilism of Critical Theory that we are all living through at the moment.
I think that the only way forward is to embrace first principles, such as the Enlightenment values underlying constitutional democracies. I don’t see us going back to religious mythologies.
A lot of them may think that, but they do so in a narcissistic way. They do it so they can pat themselves on the back, and win acclaim from their like-minded friends. They obviously have no concern for the actual outcomes of the children that they are forcing these treatments on.
Agreed. There’s little thought or evidence and a lot of slogans and jargon coming from the trans cultists. It feels like the kids are just tools for the adults’ agenda.
I think most of those "true believers" we only trying to alleviate their own internal conflict by trying to reach a critical mass of similar individuals to then claim "normalcy".
If someone is truly trying to help, they provide options and allow choice; they don't force their choices on others.
It’s actually exactly the same group psychology as the Salem witch trials. Humans have such a strong survival instinct to be accepted into coalitions that there is a “hive-mind” phenomenon, where decisions are made by the group dynamic. There are lots of examples of human behaviors that can only be explained as a group level adaptive dynamic,--- altruistic cooperation, altruistic punishment, moralizing perceived threat.
While things might be smartening up in England, it appears that here in the US we are going the other way, deeper into madness. It’s totally inexplicable to me. I guess innumerable lives must be ruined forever before people wake up.
Like I said, I don’t get it. I don’t get how supposedly intelligent people advocate for this junk. I don’t get how our government led by this utter maladministration is starting to codify the madness. And maybe it’s not madness. Maybe there really is walking evil in this world that used to be held back but is now ascendant.
And every time I see someONE describe themselves as a they, I always have to stop and try and figure out who the other person is.
The demise of organized religion seems to go hand in hand with so much of this madness. People need something to believe in and/or someone/thing to worship. Instead of God, we now have wokeness.
Very true. Just as science has become the new religion during pandemic. They even preached to “believe in scene”. While the science is the opposite of religion and is never based on belief but on research and facts known at the time. They really wanted you to believe in and follow their political postulates, power craving behind it all.
The only sense I can make of this lunacy is that almost all other virtue signaling arenas have been "used up" and this one hasn't - yet. The desire for creating a virtuous appearance must be hiding something - lack of meaning?
I've thought along the same lines. Kids need to rebel a bit to form separate identities from their parents' generation. We've done sex drugs and rock and roll, Goth, preppy, tattoos, piercings. There's not much left for kids to do.
It’s a madness similar to the COVID response and its impact on children. The health czars (and radicalized teachers) said they were saving children’s lives when they masked children and closed schools while they were really destroying them. These are not rational, thoughtful people. I could go on with their belief that illegal immigration is humanitarian despite the obvious suffering - same with their insistence that allowing drug-addicted homeless people to live on the streets in gravely unsanitary conditions is humanitarian. How did our country and our culture become so weak so quickly? How did people become so deceived?
Britain is so far over the deep end that this one event is probably more of an anomaly than the sign of a trend.
The police in England now spend more time arresting people for "hate crimes" such as online postings that hurt someone's feelings, than they do going after actual criminals committing actual crimes like burglaries and car break-ins. There's no end in sight here.
Here's an anecdote that supports your conclusion. I was flabbergasted...
I was in London on a business trip taking a walk around at the end of the day. I saw some police and a squad car, with lights flashing, at a gas/petrol station. On the way back they were gone, so I walked in to get a soda and asked what happened. You'll never believe this, but it is true.
Apparently, a car pulled in front of another car that was trying to exit after filling up so the driver of the blocking car could run in and grab something to drink. The driver of the blocked car honked at the driver of the blocking car as that driver exited the vehicle and went into the store. The driver who was honked at called the police to complain about a hate crime. The police came out to investigate. No one was arrested because the "honker" was a little old lady, while the "honkee" was a young woman, but I'll leave it to you to figure out the races involved.
It's depressing to see that this Woke racist ideology has infiltrated the UK.
When we lived Cedar Rapids, this kind of thinking led people to habitually walk in the middle of the street, as well as walking out in front of cars when crossing even the busiest of streets. The idea seems to be that they can do ANYTHING and not suffer the natural consequences. Particularly if the person who has to yield to them is white.
The US overall is going deeper into this madness lead by our current White House, the media, and tech. However, Gov DeSantis in FL is fighting back!
"This week, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis came out swinging at doctors who happily line their pockets by carving up kids who believe they are “transgender.” The left refers to it as “gender-affirming healthcare.” Everyone else calls it what it is: butchering confused and/or attention-hungry kids who are too young to make such life-altering choices."
"Despite the Florida surgeon general’s findings, some people are still denying science and fighting for a kid’s right to part with his penis or have a double mastectomy. President Biden is A-OK with kids getting surgically mutilated over what is likely a whim.
Dr. Debra Soh is one of the preeminent voices regarding the LGBT fad going on worldwide (the number of trans kids in the U.S. has almost doubled since 2017). You can watch her below."
"In a news conference aired live on Rumble, Facebook, and Twitter, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced the immediate suspension of Hillsborough County state attorney Andrew Warren for consistent refusal to enforce certain laws. Accompanied by county sheriffs and law enforcment officers, DeSantis said Warren has publicly put himself above the law by signing letters saying he would not enforce riot laws, laws prohibiting sex changes for minors, or laws limiting abortion"
Tavistock closed its gender clinic not because they recognized they were mistreating patients, but to evade liability and dodge lawsuits. They have merely shifted the problem to smaller clinics, where likely the same kind of abuse of children will take place.
This won't be over until those responsible for this abuse are held responsible -- the cowardly administrators, lawyers, and the few medical practitioners who prescribe this crap. They should be defrocked and, in some cases, serve prison time for criminal offenses against children. Perhaps then we will begin to see pushback on these odious practices by bureaucrats who are more fearful of prison time than of being called out by the lunatic transgender activist groups.
That's a good point about the smaller clinics, especially since (I'm guessing) a lot of them probably don't have any expertise in treating gender dysphoria. They will be easier targets for the activists, and harder to oversee.
That's what I'm concerned about. There seems to be nothing that would prevent the activists from placing the same pressures on the smaller clinics, or prevent the staff who had been promoting these practices from going to work at those clinics. Unless there is to be oversight of ALL clinics offering care for gender issues, this is a Pyrrhic victory.
This is a story about bullying. Medical management, doctors, staff and social media used the tried and true activist tactic of labeling a dissenter with a prejudicial term - in this case “transphobic/bigot.” Thankfully it didn’t work in the end, but in the meantime, thousands of teens were irreversibly altered with unknown long term consequences. Is there anything worse than activists?
It depends. I believe many found the “abolitionists” to be an extreme, annoying group but they were right(at least we believe that now). There are other examples in history.
Thank you Common Sense for this article. I work with the autism community I am very concerned about this approach for autistic community. Especially if professionals that have limited experience with autism.
I’ve read so many of these stories and I cannot believe how many of these kids are diagnosed autistic. Why are these autistic kids being allowed this treatment? It’s senseless.
Children on spectrum take longer to develop emotionally and socially there should be no rush in their self-awareness and self-concept. The professional should have extensive knowledge of the developmental process of the nuerodivergent.
Trans healthcare organizations are also targeting autistic groups with marketing materials since they know that a higher percentage of autistic folks ID as gender questioning. i don't know how that can be ethical.
Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, Ms Evans. You are a hero. Maybe because of you the tide will gradually turn back here in the USA, too.
I’m a gay woman and as a child of about 7 I went through a phase of insisting I was a boy. If I were growing up today I would get carved up and have my life destroyed instead of living a full life, married with a wife. I know 3 different relatives or friends with teenage daughters who insist they are boys. It’s heartbreaking to watch these vulnerable young girls and their parents be led along the path to unnecessary mutilation by a medical profession that has gone mad.
I went through a similar phase around that same time. Was always a tomboy but around 9 started insisting I was a boy and the doctors must have made a mistake in declaring my sex as a baby. I wore boys clothes, cut my hair short, and started dreaming of name changes for two years. The phase passed as quickly as it started and I am now a married, lipstick and dress wearing, heterosexual feminine mother of three. I think I just related and enjoyed more “boy” things and had no context for a female fitting into those preferences. Thank god my parents paid no attention and it occurred 25 years ago. Kids need space to explore different likes and aspects of themselves without adult insistence that something that may be just a phase is actually indicative of something wrong requiring invasive medical interference . Lots of kids try on different looks or obsessions only to drop them when they realize it doesn’t fit.
Same here. I wore my older brother's hand-me-down clothes and people who didn't know our family well actually thought my brother had a younger brother, not a sister. My name is Katherine but I got nick-named Kenny when I was a baby because that's how my brother pronounced my name. I wanted to be a horse and it could be said I identified strongly with being a horse.
But by 13 or so I started outgrowing it. I'm married with kids, go by Kate, still horse crazy but otherwise completely normal.
I was a boy who liked Barbies and wanted to be a girl, desperately. That feeling passed when I hit puberty and discovered that I liked my body, and being a boy. Puberty changes everything. We need to let kids experience it. It’s natural and good and right. All this mad scientist stuff has to stop! FFS.
The thought that someone might have convinced my parents to give me puberty blockers until I was old enough to have my penis removed is chilling. All of this is so obviously wrong.
So, an honest question here, not an invitation for people to vent their disgust at various government officials: how do we get high ranking officials in the US Federal Government and in State departments of health to listen to this story, consider this evidence and redirect their policies? It seems the capture of the medical societies and the government agencies is almost complete.
Excellent question! No good answer that I can think of. Administrators are not elected. The activists are plain nuts. As one Rabbi said, the woke are a religion in search of a god. How do you get rid of a “religion”?
PL, I don’t think you can get rid of it. I think you need to have better competition from better religions.
That means: 1) practitioners of the sane religions behaving according to their professed beliefs. 2) having conversations with the woke, asking them to explain their beliefs and then saying “.... and you believe this?” Just leave it for them to consider, do they actually believe what they are saying.
Most are probably just following their friends, saying what they have heard.
An article or podcast would be a nice start, but the study of why people are leaving traditional religions (leaving them vulnerable to wokeness and other ideologies/ religions) and how to convince them to return/remain is huge.
Bishop Robert Barron has put out good information about this from a Catholic perspective. There is likely a lot of commonality with other religions, especially Abrahamic religions.
Nobody voted for RICHARD Levine. HE was appointed by Biden, who is clearly being brainwashed and manipulated by radical civil servants and lobbyists. Even after Biden is voted out, it will take some time to clear out the gender Marxists.
This is exactly why I subscribe here. Absolutely important piece. You indirectly honor my mother(served 1962-2006) and the rest of the nurse corps around the world with your service and duty. Thank you.
Standing up in the face of a monolithic system is heroic and it is a quality greatly lacking in our society today. I hope people like you and your husband will start to stand up against the same type of systems in the US as well.
100% agree. And they say they are doing it all to help the gays. In point of fact they are doing nearly as much to mutilate and destroy gays and lesbians as Hitler or the commies. And these miseducated alphabet soupers are being led like sheep to the slaughter.
Hooray for Common Sense publishing this article by a woman who showed an extraordinary amount of courage and has made a difference. My fingers are firmly crossed that the tide is indeed turning in the UK.
Hopefully the tide will begin to turn in the US as well.
Great article regarding the US:
"Echoes of Eugenics: What the Doctors Trial at Nuremberg Means for Us in the US
On the 75th anniversary of the trial of Nazi doctors at Nuremberg we examine Nazi medicine and gender-affirming care"
https://pitt.substack.com/p/echoes-of-eugenics-what-the-doctors
Have you seen this one: https://www.lesbians-united.org/organizationMaterials/Puberty%20Suppression%20Medicine%20or%20Malpractice.pdf?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email or this letter to the British Medical Journal https://www.bmj.com/content/378/bmj.o2016/rr . It was announced yesterday in the Bookseller thatHannah Barnes the well respected BBC journalist who helped to break the Tavistock story will be writing a book on the scandal. It will be published by the independent Swift Press.
I had not. Thank you. - LM
So, this is not at all like tattoos. Often times the surgeon who castrates the boy is a transexual himself, like Marc/Marci Bowers who has written about how fake vaginas (which take a lot of work to maintain) smell different from real ones. Yet, we are told that this Gender Identity thing has nothing to do with sexuality... Is this healthy? Is it healthy for our society to be fine with it? Remember Jeffrey Dauhmer? Is everything ok now as long as someone is enjoying it? Why are we ok with teen girls (or even 20 year old ones) getting their healthy breasts chopped off just like that? If you went to a doctor and told him that you had an evil hand and wanted it chopped off do you think he would see the $$ and just comply without trying to find out what was really wrong (could he get away with it)? Was it made glamorous at school? Did you have a need to be a victim?
I mentioned Jeffrey Dauhmer but the man I was really trying to recall is German citizen Armin Meiwes who ate his gay lover "with his permission". Some sexual urges should not be normalized. They are paraphilias that hurt others. Men like "Marci" who cut the male parts off of boys are not ok. Yet, they are making $$$$ instead of sitting in prison because of the widespread acceptance of "Gender" Ideology. Of course, this is not an exact match - but are these children really able to "give permission"? No.
"German cannibal who ate his gay lover describes his gruesome meal of human ‘rump steak with sprouts’
WARNING: Disturbing content. Notorious cannibal Armin Meiwes ate his gay lover “with his permission”. He’s shared grisly details of his gruesome act."
https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/real-life/true-stories/german-cannibal-who-ate-his-gay-lover-describes-his-gruesome-meal-of-human-rump-steak-with-sprouts/news-story/8cb1790b4390a6c99526bed049f09f8e
Translation I don't have a counter argument
About child abuse. That's clear
It is good to think that it doesn't matter and to a large extent it doesn't. I don't care what adults do to their lives as long as it is within the law.
You can't change your sex -- it is in every cell of your body. Bikini medicine, the assumption that men and women are alike except for those parts covered a bikini has been shown to be false. Most medicine has been male as a default because males don't suffer from as many hormone changes and can't fall pregnant and endanger the next generation. This has resulted in females suffering from more side effects from drugs than men. Some of the side effects have been truly debilitating. I won't bore you with the details but can provide them if you wish -- heart disease, asthma, certain cancers, dementia all have a biological sex component rather than a gender component. The research has only really been happening since 2016. In 2014 the NIH coughed to the fact that they had not bother requiring Big Pharma to test on females and thus didn't know a lot. Since 2018 sex must be taken as a variable in biological research.
The Tavistock scandal is about children who made irrevocable decisions based on faulty science and a specific ideology which says children know from birth which gender they are and are able to accurately articulate that gender at any age. Gender is the social construct rather than the biological reality. The Affirmation Approach says that perceived gender was more important than looking at the child's situation -- had they suffered sexual trauma, did they have autism, had they self-harmed? And that it didn't matter if it was Rapid Onset -- namely did it suddenly manifest at puberty, three weeks ago when the child read something on the internet or had they always referred to themselves as the opposite sex, what matter was the feeling. These children who were suffering from atypical gender or gender dysphoria were put on a medical pathway which does have life altering consequences rather than using the Watchful Waiting approach which uses talking therapy until the child reaches maturity. Under Watchful Waiting, 80 -90% of the children desisted and became happy in their own bodies. Under the Affirmation approach with puberty blockers, it was more than reversed and close 100% went on to take cross sex hormones from an early age. Studies have shown that the brain does not reach maturity until 25 -30. They also did not keep appropriate records and the data showing that this was the right approach and did not cause children to suffer from debilitating side effects was not there. They also did not follow the so Dutch protocol which had specific safeguards including dealing with co-morbidities first, no social transition before 12 and no social transition unless under the supervision of a qualified Mental Health Professional, preferably in conjunction with an endocrinologist etc. The big excuse was suicide rate (better a live boy than a dead girl was one of the mantras). However if you actually look at the longest real life study -- people who take cross sex hormones are more likely to commit suicide rather than less likely. Big Pharma makes a lot of money off putting healthy children on a lifelong pathway to medicalized future.
It is also about parents' rights. Do parents have the right to know if a school has decided to socially transition a child based on a child's sudden whim? Should the state intervene to take the child away if the parent objects?
Today's PITT suggests we might be experiencing a Chinese Cultural Revolution sort of event. It does not address how many doctors have forgotten about "Do No Harm".
"Why is this happening to my family?
A viral tweet suggests a new theory of race-based social identity threat and identity exit"
https://pitt.substack.com/p/why-is-this-happening-to-my-family
Yes I've read that substack. Also the substack on bubbles and how a bubble is developing with gender id. I do think that particular PITT misses the factor of marketing to children and how its rigid pursuit of the almighty dollar has led to this very genderized (for wont of a better phrase) positioning of goods and services to children. It is telling that in the mid 1970s -- only 2 % of toys were marketed as gendered in the Sears Roebuck catalogue. This slowly increased (really picking up steam in the 1990s) until 2012 when 100% of toys in the Disney store were gendered and this has continued. The non binary represents a third marketing strand. Also it does not allow for nuance.
The current college generation is the Disney princess generation if you will.
The suppression of debate and coerced silencing of anyone who speaks out against is definitely totalitarian in its nature.
yes, and it doesn't discuss the influence of early exposure to porn. But, I liked the discussion of CRT leading to identity exit/softening the kids up for GI.
You told 'em, Ma'am!
Also because this was just published -- you might enjoy Bernard Lane on the Tavistock shuttering https://quillette.com/2022/08/05/closing-the-tavistock-is-an-important-step/.
And if you can get ahold of it -- Terry Gilliam is in the Times talking about cancel culture " On the trans issue he blames the lobby group Stonewall — which he used to support — for organisations and politicians feeling under pressure to put trans inclusivity above concerns for women. “As somebody said, movements start with a genuine sense of wrong, and if successful become businesses, and if the businesses keep growing they become rackets.” The BBC and a number of government departments have recently severed some links with Stonewall, he notes, adding: “Maybe common sense is rising again.”
I ask if he has changed his mind about #MeToo being a witch-hunt. “It was. Despite the monstrousness of Harvey Weinstein — yes, victims were there — but there were also people who benefited. Hollywood is full of adults who are ambitious. That’s all I said; I’m not saying crimes have not been committed.” He points to the former senator Al Franken (now back with a podcast and a touring comedy show) and Pixar’s John Lasseter (now with a film, Luck, with Apple) as men unfairly felled by #MeToo. “John was accused of hugging too much!” Gilliam says. “There are people who are victims on both sides. But when the crimes are so minor, let’s be careful about the punishment.”
Often, though, I say, victims had no power. “People say they have no power when they assume they have no power,” he responds, telling me of an actress friend who escaped Weinstein’s clutches. “She talked her way out. She was a tough lady. [But] I can see a young actress being frightened and not knowing what to do because ‘is this going to ruin my career?’” https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/terry-gilliam-how-i-was-squished-by-cancel-culture-m0mqmj303
TYTY again. I just now saw this one, too. Yeah, I read the Quillette piece. And I'd gotten a sub for the Times, on the theory I'd look into what's going on across the pond. Bad theory, but useful on occasion.
TY for both tips, as well as Your TGIF. Now "Back to the novel-writing desk, SLAVE!" (har)
For some reason we can't comment on TGIF, anyway I put my TGIF on my substack so you can get some UK news.
Oh! Just saw this. Yeah, I noticed. That was strange, wasn't it?
Nobody reads that slow. That makes it easy to draw a different conclusion: You have no excuse for Your indifference, other that more indifference.
You're funny. Come at You with 5 or 6 points? You're reading something that isn't there. There's one point:
"You have no excuse for Your indifference, other that [sic] more indifference."
Me? I take this to be a common misunderstanding between two people communicating in writing. Not sure how they come about.
As far as personal attacks go, You don't do too bad Yourself: "i don't have an hour to read and decode your book". I just reread what M. Styles wrote. I dunno. Mebbe a five minute read. A few typos require You to supply a word here or there. But, no. It doesn't require "decoding." So why insult her? You worry about personal attacks? Worry about making them, too.
You have an indifference to *children* using hormone treatment that generally leads to them mutilating their genitalia. That's Your choice. You cover it up by slamming M. Styles, right? What she wrote wasn't worth Your time. Okay. It was indecipherable, when it was well-written. Clear as a bell, actually. That's just more indifference.
Perhaps You read into what I wrote that I was angry with You. That might explain why, to me anyway, You appear angry in Your reply. Or at least corn-fused. Of course, ICBW about that. (I Could Be Wrong.)
I'm not upset You've taken the position You have. I can't understand it, but it's Your choice. I was more quote unquote "offensive" because of Your retort to M. Styles. What I'd *thought* i was doing was just making a statement of fact. Up above, You said You were indifferent. Fact. And I said..
Ah.
I said "the only excuse You have for indifference..." I stand corrected. You don't need an excuse to be indifferent, if that's Your choice. Like You "said" in Your reply. What I mebbe should-a "said" to begin with:
"Why insult M. Styles? And it appears the only way You can justify Your indifference is by ignoring what she wrote. Displaying more indifference. Not that You need to justify it. It's just hard to comprehend."
Better? I should-a worried about making a "personal attack," too.
BTW (By The Way). You talk about personal attacks? Show me where I called You an "arsehole." On the "Attack Olympics," that rates pretty high up there. And at least my so-called personal attack was unintentional, when I used the word "excuse."
Now, in all that above, there *is* mebbe a handful of points.
Lemme sum it up. It was a unfortunate choice of words between You and I. In any event, I hope You now know that what M. Styles wrote was neither very long, nor hard to understand.
And it's not a case, at *all,* of her view having *anything* to do with a view a leftist would have. It's diametrically the *opposite* of the views of leftists, as a matter of fact. Just in case You were interested, is all.
Children under 18 can't consent to this. It's child abuse
Policy and govt have a purpose. Public problems can originate in endless ways, and they require varying public responses. We have lots of laws and govt intervention meant to protect children, including laws that protect children from themselves and from profiteering or toxic adults. Gender has become big business. Our job as responsible adults is to ensure policies keep up with the times and that there are safeguards for children. If I didn't have four friends whose kids transitioned in the past year (one of whom had radical surgery so far) to none of my friends in the previous 40 odd years, and if I felt the parents could have some say in how things were handled, I might think ok maybe once in awhile this sort of thing makes sense. But it's a huge business and - sorry - a huge fad with an enormous internet presence. Some guardrails are a good thing.
So testy, for a person who doesn't care and all. :)
Hi, Do you have any kids in high school? Grandkids? It's like hs has become a recruiting center for NXIVM.
Does it bother you if this administration replaces "sex" with the make pretend "gender identity" so that "woman/girl" is meaningless? I have no patience for "conservative" politicians who cannot conserve women & girls; who are willing to call male fetishists ( who call themselves "lesbians") "she" and refer to the mutilation of children and young adults as "gender affirming medicine" like the WSJ did in reporting on DeSantis
https://www.wsj.com/articles/florida-ron-desantis-suspends-prosecutor-andrew-warren-abortion-gender-transition-cases-11659629739?mod=Searchresults_pos1&page=1
This was a Soros backed AG who did not want to enforce the laws of FL.
And, it is not possible for anyone to "change their sex". We might at least call these fellas "transexuals" again. Do we give fetishists a pass and let them lie & change education and medicine & language so that it is no longer recognizable? This concept of the "existence of the trans child" only gives them cover. Fetished up men like Richard/Rachael Levine have more power than children and are happy to throw them under the bus so they can run around in wigs and pearls to get their sexual jollies. If they could only do it in private and not be placed in positions of authority in Health.
I too believe adults should do whatever the hell they like with their bodies. I don’t care if a woman wants to give herself bowling-ball sized breast implants or a guy wants to plaster his entire body with lizard-skin tattoos and bifurcate his tongue for a more realistic effect…ever see pictures of this guy? It leaves you speechless, and him too, probably, but hey, it’s his tongue.
Adults who reconfigure their genitalia and take opposite sex hormones are, in principle, none of my business. If they feel better at the end of the day, I say go for it. However, when one of these grown men in a dress, who often do not remove the male bits but still call themselves women, think it’s their right to invade women’s toilets, locker rooms, sporting competitions, and even prisons, we have a problem. Or more accurately, they have a problem, but they make it our problem.
Even worse, what was happening at Tavistock and continues to happen all over the United States (yes, literally all over…every state in the Union has gender clinics for adolescents) is a medically sanctioned campaign, supported by the public schools, to mutilate the bodies and minds of children. The indoctrination campaign includes explicitly encouraging kids to divorce their parents; in other words, if mom and dad don’t think you should cut off your breasts, they don’t love you and you should get your emotional support here at school, we’ll lie for you, we’ll be your shiny new Queer family. Families are being devastated as a result.
If you transition as an adult, you more or less know yourself and you have the mental bandwidth to make an objective decision. But transition as a teenager, your brain is years away from being competent to decide whether removing your testicles is going to make you happy for the rest of your life. Sir, I do not exaggerate. It is much worse than you realize. Bari and others who care about the well-being of kids cover this issue because it is a national emergency and many good people, such as yourself, don’t know it’s going on, or how ubiquitous it is. I read a recent survey that put the number of adolescents now identifying as some form of trans at 10%.
For your edification, below is a link to one of many gender ed curricula circulating through our nation’s public schools. Whistleblower teachers anonymously send these documents to Christopher Rufo, who publishes them. (They have to blow the whistle anonymously because they would be fired for objecting publicly.) The link is embedded in paragraph 2 of Rufo’s synopsis of what’s going on in the San Diego Unified school district. And no, it’s not a joke.
https://www.city-journal.org/san-diego-schools-gender-extremism
You don’t think this issue is a big deal, you think it’s some kind of exaggerated leftist blather. Ho hum. You believe in freedom. (Me too.). But it is a big deal, and leftists overwhelmingly support the transitioning of children. It’s baked into their platform.
If I misunderstood you, try harder next time, because I read pretty well. But I’ve said my piece. Over and out.
Golfer, I disagree. This is a topic that is quite reasonably the concern of people of the right. Currently, the left in the US, including our beloved president, is pushing hard here.
First, the right often stands against "good ideas" from the left that throw out centuries of law and custom. People on the right often hold to the idea of Chesterton's Fence. That is, you don't tear something down unless you know why is it there and you are sure it will not cause harm to remove.
Second, in many jurisdictions this is a free speech issue. In Canada it is a matter of civil law that you must call people by the preferred pronouns or you will be punished. In California and many other states family law as worked out in the courts has multiple precedents that ensure that mothers and fathers will lose parental rights if they don't support the social and medical transitions of their sons and daughters.
In many public school districts parents are not informed of their sons' and daughters' intentions and actions regarding social transitioning. Some schools will refer the children to clinics where children will be given cross-sex hormones without parental consent.
In over 20 states physicians and mental health practitioners must follow the affirmative care model or lose their licenses.
Many commenters have people they care about in these jurisdictions or recognize that they are one election away from seeing these policies implemented where they live. I am happy that you are not personally affected. But this is fair game for political discussion by people of the right.
Thank you for spelling this out, John. No one has ever said I was a leftist before :-) Politically I was an independent prior to "Sanctuary Cities" - voting sometimes R and sometimes D depending on the candidate. I voted for Obama the first time and then had "voter's remorse". After "gender" became a thing and we had this problem with our teen daughter's school I became a passionate one issue voter and that means being a Republican. But, it also means I have no patience at all for mealy mouthed Republicans who will call men "she" and who will not protect the meaning of "woman" and who will not conserve our nation's daughters (and all children).
It is really shocking that we have the likes of fetishist Richard Levine (First Female Four Star Admiral US Assistant Health Secretary) in a position of power in health/government. It's bad enough that he is a pediatrician at all but now he can set policy that actively harms people. And everything is turned upside down: Title IX which was meant to help girls is a weapon, in medicine and therapy help = harm and harm = help, a young person's real name = a dead name, talk therapy = conversion therapy, etc. The tiny few men who actually have a disorder of the mind do not even get proper mental health help.
Ah, I see. I feel that the left has stuck it's nose into the lives of families because radical queer theory/gender ideology is taught/promoted at school as if it were science rather than more of a cult religion. The government & the teachers unions push/require it. I can supply links but understand it's not your interest to read such. Names & pronouns are changed at school so that school works against parenting. Once the teen /young adult minds are turned the hormonal/medical stuff is out there for them before their minds are matured. A scandal.
A point I tried to make is that we have normalized sexual paraphilias for the young at school under the kindness/understanding/acceptance umbrella. This is a movement lead by men with such paraphilias. Some things shouldn't be normalized and it is not mere "pearl clutching" to say so as some have suggested. And, some of the men performing the operations are sick as can be seen in Matt Walsh's "What is a Woman" for instance. Now, we have "MAPS". Since I am a mother and an aunt and I hope to be a grandma one day I care very much.
Hi Golfer, I thought today's PITT might interest you because it suggests a Chinese Cultural Revolution sort of explanation, but I also understand if it doesn't interest you:
"Why is this happening to my family?
A viral tweet suggests a new theory of race-based social identity threat and identity exit"
https://pitt.substack.com/p/why-is-this-happening-to-my-family
haha
P.S. I think the assertions are footnoted and linked.
You have an interesting background. The thing is, it is not even science fiction/a possible future/or "now" to "change one's sex". It is a fantasy - not something that is scientifically possible. Your body is XX or XY (for the most part - there are defects) and wants to follow a blueprint. There are surgeons who will cosmetically alter a person so that they resemble the other sex but there are unhealthy downsides, like "T" for women and maintaining plastic rings in a fake vagina for men. (Not that the fetish types do that. They remain "intact" and are the real problem.) Anyhow, since it is not a particular subject you follow you might not be aware of the great number of young regretters who were swept along by Gender Ideology promoted in schools like science.
I thought the article was interesting for trying to address why such a great number of young people, especially girls are seeking to exit their identities - suggesting that CRT is a trigger. James Lindsay has discussed this issue in a more academic manner than this article. Thx for writing.
sorry for repeats. I'm having trouble posting and now deleting...
One can only hope, but the various enablers such as Mermaids UK still exist and still are trying to peddle their version of events as are Stonewall.
No Labour minister has condemned what happened to these children and the scandal.
For example, UK state schools are still able to make up their own rules about social transition, including not informing parents, even though Cass has condemned the practice. The Department of Education is apparently waiting for the new minister (Fingers crossed for Badenoch).
Sue and her husband Marcus Evans have been truly brave and I sincerely hope that the NHS will listen to them and to Dr Cass when setting up the regional clinics rather than importing GIDS mentality wholesale.
The tide is turning in the UK but it isn't over yet.
This is my concern too. The problem is not solved. Closing Tavistock was a necessary first step, but there are still sharks in the waters. The people who make their livings promoting transition for children are true believers. They haven't disappeared, and now they may be even more emboldened because the process will be decentralized. Who knows what kind of mischief and obfuscation will go on once the regional centers are established? Why, I wonder, do we need regional centers for gender transition in the first place? Unless there is stringent government oversight, it could end up being just as bad as before, if not worse. Now a kid won't have to travel to Tavistock to get their hormones, they'll just ride over on their bicycle. What mechanisms are in place to prevent the wholesale mutilation of bodies all over again, this time at the local level?
agreed. spreading it thinner just makes a case for more abuse of the system with less oversight
Exactly. When will we learn?
You shouldn't try to make this a partisan issue, because that's not helpful. Maybe no Labour minister hasn't condemned these things yet, but they also happened under the watch of a conservative government in Westminister. But that shouldn't really matter. These appalling crimes (Yes, I call it criminal!) must stop and I don't care who will put an end to it, what party affiliation or what views on religion someone has. We do need all the help we can get to break up the cartel which is trying to force its ideology on health services. Pure science should prevail in the end and there is no conservative science and no Labour science, but only one science and that science should tell us to be much more careful with administering life altering "therapies" as has been the case at tavistock and quite likely still is at other places.
It would be nice if this wasn't a partisan issue, but the Left has made it so. It is the Left that supports this insanity. It is the Left that will attack you if you object to allowing children to have their bodies mutilated on the basis of the Wokes' "The Science." California wants to be a haven for minors having sex changes despite their parents' objections BECAUSE California is dominated by the Left.
There's only one way for it to stop being partisan, and that's for sane people on the Left to say NO. And we've already seen how sane people on the Left get treated if they do that--they get loudly denounced as "Far-Right Nazis" and canceled as "transphobic" for saying NO.
Look to your house, sir.
There are people on both sides of the political divide who wanna make it partisan. We should rebuke them all and try to find reasonable people in every political camp to help us stop this madness. This is not about Labour or conservatives, this is about kids getting their lives destroyed and that should concern every decent human being.
I don't want it to be a partisan issue. I think it is an open goal. Wes Streetling should have condemned it. I know he is former Stonewall but he has a brain and some very excellent Spads.
It did happen under the Conservatives. 2010 -2022 was ample opportunity to change things.
The fact remains no Labour shadow cabinet member has condemned a clear and utter failing of a service which was meant to protect very vulnerable children. They should.
Labour has been told this time and time again. Yet the silence is deafening with Rosie Duffield being the honourable exception.
not so fast plenty in the UK getting Stonewalled BBC leading the way
Not by a long way
California has been turned into a garbage pit run by irrational morons. Morons elected by morons. Gavin Newson a limousine liberal elitist is being seriously considered by the Democrat/Communist Party as their next candidate for President. I guess the Dems want to turn the US, under Newson's guidance into a California cesspool. I'm sure he will setup free gender reassignment clinics throughout the US.
I have and that has federal lawsuit written all over it as it raises so many questions about state law and equivalence etc etc. This is particularly important for divorced parents.
In the UK today, the Telegraph are reporting that under 40, females who go through menopause (this also includes trans-men whose cross sex hormones make them go into menopause btw), are more likely to have heart failure. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/08/04/early-menopause-raises-risk-heart-failure/
It is going to take lawsuits and a long time.
I cannot wait for the avalanche of lawsuits which will follow. Also the stripping of medical licences from doctors who fully supported the butchering of children's bodies just to appease a mob of transgender extremists. Well done to this woman and all other staff who stood up for what they knew was right and truthful. Hopefully the crazed, extremist trans lobbies in Western Europe and North America will soon have the same fate as the Tavistock clinic.
Doctors who butcher kids' bodies should be arrested and sent to prison. They are psychotic members of the trans cult.
What about the teachers which groomed them into believing this warped reality of feelings over anything else?
Yes, that is the worst part because once the teen's mind is won over - that they believe in Gender Ideology/Queer Theory and that unbelievers like parents are bad/jerks/"pearl clutchers" (who are concerned about them) then they are primed for hormones, etc.& are easy targets for predatory types. Many teachers think this stuff is great and about "acceptance" but even the ones who do not will go along with it or are forced to teach it because of instruction from the unions both at the state (often), national, and from the National Association of Independent Schools. They in turn, get it from government.
Chairman Mao used the same technique to create his red guard.
Exactly right. Many parents on the PITT substack have made the same observation.
yes
Don't hold your breathe. Too many very powerful people got sucked into this cult. They'll delete their tweets and cover their asses faster than a bunch of generals fleeing Afghanistan did. And they'll have every major media institution in the Western world helping them do it.
There may be a big class action settlement, insurance will pay it, and all will be forgotten.
There will be no revoked medical licenses.
There will be no doctors bankrupted in lawsuits.
There will be no medical activists imprisoned for their failure to their patients.
Secondly, as pleased as I am that it will be harder for teenagers to permanently alter their bodies in England before they've even developed those bodies, closing one clinic (even one as big as Tavistock) doesn't solve the "what is a woman" problem at all. Self identification and the erradication of sexual biology is part of a very long train of liberalism promoting maximal individual autonomy". It's not going away just because the British NHS finally pulled its head out of its ass for a few minutes.
To be clear, this nurse is amazingly courageous and deserves immense respect. No one should take my comments as impugning her at all. I'm just not optimistic in the long term trajectory.
Brian, you see through to the reality most cannot face. To those who think this is a non-partisan issue, simply examine who is demanding children be allowed to follow their immature demands and transition. This comes from one side of the aisle, the left woke leaders. Yes, many cowardly conservative leaders do not speak up, but the reasons are obvious, they will be trashed by the overwhelming power of the woke media and institutions. In the US, only brave conservatives like DeSantis go to battle. I know of zero conservatives, leaders or lay, including conservative gays and lesbians, who back the woke's gender dystopic movement.
Too many conservatives care what major media (who hate them) write about them.
Too many liberals are too scared of major media treating them like conservatives.
Too many successful people of both sides are scared of losing their status and wealth.
Since this lunacy came from the left though, and they watched it grow for decades in the universities they control, I'm with you: the bulk of the blame lies with the silent liberals.
"They'll delete their tweets and cover their asses faster than a bunch of generals fleeing Afghanistan did."
That may be sufficient, Sir Brian. If it happened, it would stop the damage in its tracks.
Granted, this is but one *step* on the road that goes away from the abyss.
Maybe beginning in FL:
https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/kevindowneyjr/2022/08/03/woke-wednesday-desantis-wants-to-sue-doctors-who-butcher-trans-kids-for-profit-n1617996
Bravo for DeSantis. He's taking the issue right where it belongs: directly to the so-called experts -- the doctors -- who took a vow to do no harm. I hope he succeeds and that the rest of the country follows suit. It won't happen overnight, but we have to start somewhere.
By the way, the current Texas model, in which parents as well as doctors are held liable when their kids transition, is shockingly ignorant. The parents are victims too, and they need the State's support, not blame. What an appallingly dumb policy.
Sometimes the parents are victims of people telling them that they need to put their kid on puberty blockers or their kid will commit suicide. Those parents need support to resist the trans ideology.
But sometimes we're looking at Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy--parents who see trans kids as a way to get oppression points, as a way to virtue signal their devotion to Woke ideology. THOSE parents absolutely ought to go to jail.
I'm aware of the distinction between these two types of parents. Most parents are in the first category, i.e., well-meaning victims of the suicide threat blackmail strategy, while the other type exploit their children for their own narcissistic reasons.
I agree with you that the latter type is guilty as hell, but from a legal standpoint, how to make that distinction in a court of law? It would require a kind of prying into people's lives that would be very difficult. How do you prove intent in such cases? I'm not even sure how such a law would be written. All parents will present themselves as sympathetic, and if we're going to prosecute only the "bad" ones, the "good" ones are also going to be subject to a kind of scrutiny that would probably be experienced as invasive and even cruel.
It strikes me as untenable, but obviously I'm not a legal scholar.
I think teachers and doctors and sometimes even the children themselves might be able to testify as to the difference. I'm not sure it's that hard, in most cases, to distinguish between hesitant parents going along with what what the child demands and gung-ho parents pushing hard to get their child medicalized.
The teachers are the worst - next doctors and counselors.
I am aware from what I read that there are parents who are convinced that puberty blockers are a good idea - or they have this Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy. But what I see all around me as the mother of teen/young adult kids - is that girls with no prior history declare trans identity - often in high school after being taught all about Gender Identity under the kindness & understanding DEI umbrella and usually with either online grooming or grooming from a student leader or other kid going on simultaneously. Next, the girl tentatively experiments with "pronouns" at school which the staff are eager to "support". Then, the girl gets a new name. By the time the parents get wind of anything they are playing catch up and reeling. Some parents are demented enough to be convinced about GI. Most often the mother is convinced and the father is not (the child will do a lot of insisting and has all the key things to say and mothers find their children hard to resisit). Fathers are normally less moved by "feelings" of the moment but then they can get blindsided and often a divorce ensues. Even where both parents are not crazy plenty of girls just slow walk it until they can legally start taking hormones on their own through Planned Destruction (Planned Parenthood) and maybe they have their breasts removed on college insurance. Surprise! Then, regret sets in within about 5 years. None of this is ethical. These girls cannot truly give informed consent. And, they just scribbled a signature at the bottom of a form, anyway. Even if the girls "just" take the cutely termed "T" that is immediately permanently destructive.
Sooooo - what I am saying is that the teachers are some of the very worst actors in this bad play. I do not think they truly understand what they are doing. "Oh, she/he can experiment freely in high school where it is "safe" and then change back later..." But, once the mind is taken in with this very serious psychological intervention where all these adults are taking a delusion seriously - the major part of the damage is done prior to anything physical which appear as the next natural steps.
Many parents on PITT are afraid to even speak publicly for fear of CPS knocking on the door or for fear of losing connection to the kid who they hope to influence for the better.
I think the ones who ought to be in legal trouble are the people making decisions for school systems to promote GI and any doctors proscribing these off label cancer drugs for children. Even if a parent is deranged and we feel angry with them, they cannot get those drugs on their own. If someone went to a doctor with some other crazy idea that they'd read demanding prescription medications that maybe they think will do something or other, the doctor still has to agree and give the Rx. I am sure it is very common for a person to go in and demand a drug and the doctor says "No". I think anyone giving out Testosterone to confused girls and young women ought to also be in trouble. In this and only this issue medicine has decided that a 15-16 year old girl is a mature decision maker.
Yes, but TX is still ahead of places like CA, OR, WA... all of Canada...
Bravo for DeSantis! Lets have more of that. :-)
That's true.
I just googled de santis and picked an article from the WSJ, about suspending the prosecutor due to his stance on the state’s abortion ban and gender affirming cases.
Only in the 5th paragraph did I read that FL “bans abortion” after 15 weeks.
How is that banning abortion? Sorry I know this is about the gender part but that is BS reporting.
Probably nothing with really change in UK until there is a national law passed. But with post brexit, Ukraine, inflation, I assume it’s not the top issue.
Right, the guy is a George Soros backed Attorney General who doesn't want to uphold laws he doesn't like. But, his job is to uphold the laws. After the Supreme Court ruling states are free to draw the line where they like regarding abortion. FL set it at 15 weeks. It is crazy that the WSJ is woke on these issues, even calling child mutilation "gender affirming surgery" which is outlawed in FL after they did a study and found no evidence of it helping kids (what a shocker). But, what is the good of any law if it is not enforced? Plus, our society would recoil from a thing such as "female circumcision".
I am in the US. That sounds about right about the UK. I think here we are getting close to seeing some major lawsuits. I am also really encouraged by DeSantis. I hope he will be our next president.
First, do no harm. Whatever happened to that oath?
When you belong to a cult, nothing matters except what the Cult leader says.
Cancelled during COVID pandemics. It will take years, if ever, for everyone to realize the harm doctors caused refusing to treat sick by any means possible and with any medications available and instead either hooking them to ventilators or sending home to die. The oath repeated by those dedicated to medical profession thousand of years suddenly was given up in lieu of political and partisan stance. So many doctors turned out to be conformists and cowards. I am not surprised that many physicians engage in gender change procedures. Lucrative and in line with the ruling party’s line
Meaningless words that are forgotten after a resident's first 24-hour shift.
Money and job security come first once they enter the REAL world in many not ALL cases
An excellent account of a travesty in process. In Canada, none of the major news outlets have reported on the closing of Tavistock. The media blackout and related politicization of the media on issues like this is appalling, unethical and even criminal, or would be if media were held accountable for suppressing stories of great harm to children. I hate to say it, but we need a Keira Bell of our own to get the ball rolling, though I wonder if a story like hers would get reported.
Agreed, but at the same time this is minutia compared to the traumas inflicted on children by our COVID policies. That's a far bigger issue and gets even less attention.
That's how I know they don't regret it and would do it again.
Maybe "justice for the children" needs to be a new political battle cry, before that generation grows up thinking government abuse is normal and justified. In my opinion, raising a wounded, dependent, subservient generation is largely the purpose behind all this.
This sentence from the article stood out to me -
"children could not give fully informed consent to an experimental treatment with lifelong, as yet unknown consequences"
This is the exact same thinking that has lead many to question the covid vax.
Trust the science, even if the science hasn't seen the consequences and won't for another twenty years!
Just trust literally anything your bureaucratic healthcare authorities say, because you don't have a degree, you conspiracy theorist!
It would not when you have the likes of CNN, social media etc the cancer knows no limits.
The institutional capture highlighted in this article is the path that enabled this destruction.
This is not science — it’s modern day witchcraft.
God help the children whose lives have been ruined. And the people who enabled it simply don’t care. They got what they wanted.
Deeply disturbing….
People who enabled it do care. They're true believers who thought they were helping children. Just like the activist elementary school teachers who are telling ever younger kids that boys and girls are not real. They genuinely believe it.
Reeducation needs to start at the top, but it won't happen with the current administration.
But how can anyone with two functioning brain cells believe this rubbish? Things seem to have spun completely out of control within a very short time. How can anyone think that mutilating kids is a good thing?
It all shows the effectiveness of brainwashing. If you frame this mutilation as "allowing children to be their authentic selves", it can appear as a good thing. True believers are the most dangerous people in the world.
Dogma has always been the death of reason.
Amen. Thank you for reminding us how true believers’ minds can be overtaken by Illogical garbage. The intellectualy blind are those who cannot see what is clear.
The same people that believe our planet is on fire and we would not survive another moment; that socialism did not bring suffering to millions of people; those who tell you that mental health professional and social workers will protect you from a violent armed criminal; and that skin color is the most important defining characteristic of a human being. Should I go on? And it is not just a few who are brainwashed, that’s the problem. Will we ever be able to return to normal? Or the normal has changed irrevocably and we just have to get with the program?
I'm in one hundred percent agreement with you and devoutly hope that we can end this madness soon, before the whole country goes completely off the rails.
These trans people are celebrated by the mainstream media. Look at the fuss made when “Amy” Schneider won big bucks on Jeopardy. He/she was feted at the White House for his/her accomplishments. And then there is Will “Lia” Thomas, who couldn’t make it as a male swimmer so he/she decided to pretend to be a female swimmer. He/she towered over his/her teammates. And since he/she had already undergone puberty, his/her body was stronger than any of the female swimmers on the Penn Team. He/she was permitted to change in the female locker room where he no doubt had erections for all the females to see. The university did zero to protect its female swimmers and went along with this fantasy. Penn even nominated Will/Lia for female athlete of the year! Unbelievable!
I agree. To begin the push back I think we all need to use real language, not the "1984" newspeak. "Amy's" real name is actually Thomas. I am not going to call any men "she".
To be fair, I've never found a belief system that didn't embrace at least one absurd idea.
True. I am trying to figure out why we have this phenomenon of a new belief system. I am hesitant to call it a new religion. But it is troublesome how many are unable to apply science, history, statistics, logic. Why all of a sudden we have fanatics who cancel you if you don’t use the pronoun they want you to use or don’t like the idea of gender fluidity? But that’s what progressive woke cultists are - worshippers. And because they are fanatics, the absurdity of their beliefs is not obvious to them. And theese warriors will not stop until you disappear- fired, silenced, sanctioned, fined, lost parental rights, jailed They would not understand that they are hurting children. They are well skilled in using social media, writing petitions, collecting votes, all with proper PC jargon. Sometimes I think they are humanoids.
I have a simple explanation. Religion is necessary. It serves human needs on a large scale and without it, or in the case of a society transitioning away from it's foundational religion, people go crazy seeking purpose, meaning and direction.
Very few craft their beliefs for themselves. Far more want the comfort and certainty of collective identity.
I agree with you. It’s the single greatest challenge of modernity. People are born into a society that is stabilized by a moral structure grounded in religious beliefs. Then they go to school and learn that Darwin discovered that human value systems are based on no reality that is independent of the social interactions of humans as an evolved species. The implicit logic of this is indeed that all cultural norms are relative, which devolves into the nihilism of Critical Theory that we are all living through at the moment.
I think that the only way forward is to embrace first principles, such as the Enlightenment values underlying constitutional democracies. I don’t see us going back to religious mythologies.
A lot of them may think that, but they do so in a narcissistic way. They do it so they can pat themselves on the back, and win acclaim from their like-minded friends. They obviously have no concern for the actual outcomes of the children that they are forcing these treatments on.
Agreed. There’s little thought or evidence and a lot of slogans and jargon coming from the trans cultists. It feels like the kids are just tools for the adults’ agenda.
You might like Rob Henderson’s writing on “Luxury Beliefs.” Just google or look up his Substack.
I think most of those "true believers" we only trying to alleviate their own internal conflict by trying to reach a critical mass of similar individuals to then claim "normalcy".
If someone is truly trying to help, they provide options and allow choice; they don't force their choices on others.
It’s actually exactly the same group psychology as the Salem witch trials. Humans have such a strong survival instinct to be accepted into coalitions that there is a “hive-mind” phenomenon, where decisions are made by the group dynamic. There are lots of examples of human behaviors that can only be explained as a group level adaptive dynamic,--- altruistic cooperation, altruistic punishment, moralizing perceived threat.
While things might be smartening up in England, it appears that here in the US we are going the other way, deeper into madness. It’s totally inexplicable to me. I guess innumerable lives must be ruined forever before people wake up.
Like I said, I don’t get it. I don’t get how supposedly intelligent people advocate for this junk. I don’t get how our government led by this utter maladministration is starting to codify the madness. And maybe it’s not madness. Maybe there really is walking evil in this world that used to be held back but is now ascendant.
And every time I see someONE describe themselves as a they, I always have to stop and try and figure out who the other person is.
The demise of organized religion seems to go hand in hand with so much of this madness. People need something to believe in and/or someone/thing to worship. Instead of God, we now have wokeness.
Very true. Just as science has become the new religion during pandemic. They even preached to “believe in scene”. While the science is the opposite of religion and is never based on belief but on research and facts known at the time. They really wanted you to believe in and follow their political postulates, power craving behind it all.
I should have read ahead before I posted my comment. This is true.
The only sense I can make of this lunacy is that almost all other virtue signaling arenas have been "used up" and this one hasn't - yet. The desire for creating a virtuous appearance must be hiding something - lack of meaning?
I've thought along the same lines. Kids need to rebel a bit to form separate identities from their parents' generation. We've done sex drugs and rock and roll, Goth, preppy, tattoos, piercings. There's not much left for kids to do.
Bingo!
It’s a madness similar to the COVID response and its impact on children. The health czars (and radicalized teachers) said they were saving children’s lives when they masked children and closed schools while they were really destroying them. These are not rational, thoughtful people. I could go on with their belief that illegal immigration is humanitarian despite the obvious suffering - same with their insistence that allowing drug-addicted homeless people to live on the streets in gravely unsanitary conditions is humanitarian. How did our country and our culture become so weak so quickly? How did people become so deceived?
A lot of parallels with mandating the miracle jabs.
Britain is so far over the deep end that this one event is probably more of an anomaly than the sign of a trend.
The police in England now spend more time arresting people for "hate crimes" such as online postings that hurt someone's feelings, than they do going after actual criminals committing actual crimes like burglaries and car break-ins. There's no end in sight here.
Here's an anecdote that supports your conclusion. I was flabbergasted...
I was in London on a business trip taking a walk around at the end of the day. I saw some police and a squad car, with lights flashing, at a gas/petrol station. On the way back they were gone, so I walked in to get a soda and asked what happened. You'll never believe this, but it is true.
Apparently, a car pulled in front of another car that was trying to exit after filling up so the driver of the blocking car could run in and grab something to drink. The driver of the blocked car honked at the driver of the blocking car as that driver exited the vehicle and went into the store. The driver who was honked at called the police to complain about a hate crime. The police came out to investigate. No one was arrested because the "honker" was a little old lady, while the "honkee" was a young woman, but I'll leave it to you to figure out the races involved.
so the honker was a honky?
It's depressing to see that this Woke racist ideology has infiltrated the UK.
When we lived Cedar Rapids, this kind of thinking led people to habitually walk in the middle of the street, as well as walking out in front of cars when crossing even the busiest of streets. The idea seems to be that they can do ANYTHING and not suffer the natural consequences. Particularly if the person who has to yield to them is white.
It's happening everywhere. Eventually will lead to an increase in racial violence from both sides.
I was wondering if anyone was going to "go there"!
Neil...welp, i see the very same flinging empty motions, on a differing level, with our Jan. 6th committee...double standard.
Terry...that is a big one, i.e. hurt feelings
The US overall is going deeper into this madness lead by our current White House, the media, and tech. However, Gov DeSantis in FL is fighting back!
"This week, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis came out swinging at doctors who happily line their pockets by carving up kids who believe they are “transgender.” The left refers to it as “gender-affirming healthcare.” Everyone else calls it what it is: butchering confused and/or attention-hungry kids who are too young to make such life-altering choices."
"Despite the Florida surgeon general’s findings, some people are still denying science and fighting for a kid’s right to part with his penis or have a double mastectomy. President Biden is A-OK with kids getting surgically mutilated over what is likely a whim.
Dr. Debra Soh is one of the preeminent voices regarding the LGBT fad going on worldwide (the number of trans kids in the U.S. has almost doubled since 2017). You can watch her below."
https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/kevindowneyjr/2022/08/03/woke-wednesday-desantis-wants-to-sue-doctors-who-butcher-trans-kids-for-profit-n1617996
"In a news conference aired live on Rumble, Facebook, and Twitter, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced the immediate suspension of Hillsborough County state attorney Andrew Warren for consistent refusal to enforce certain laws. Accompanied by county sheriffs and law enforcment officers, DeSantis said Warren has publicly put himself above the law by signing letters saying he would not enforce riot laws, laws prohibiting sex changes for minors, or laws limiting abortion"
https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/jeff-reynolds/2022/08/04/florida-gov-desantis-suspends-state-attorney-andrew-warren-for-failure-to-prosecute-n1618320?utm_source=breakingemail
Tavistock closed its gender clinic not because they recognized they were mistreating patients, but to evade liability and dodge lawsuits. They have merely shifted the problem to smaller clinics, where likely the same kind of abuse of children will take place.
This won't be over until those responsible for this abuse are held responsible -- the cowardly administrators, lawyers, and the few medical practitioners who prescribe this crap. They should be defrocked and, in some cases, serve prison time for criminal offenses against children. Perhaps then we will begin to see pushback on these odious practices by bureaucrats who are more fearful of prison time than of being called out by the lunatic transgender activist groups.
That's a good point about the smaller clinics, especially since (I'm guessing) a lot of them probably don't have any expertise in treating gender dysphoria. They will be easier targets for the activists, and harder to oversee.
That's what I'm concerned about. There seems to be nothing that would prevent the activists from placing the same pressures on the smaller clinics, or prevent the staff who had been promoting these practices from going to work at those clinics. Unless there is to be oversight of ALL clinics offering care for gender issues, this is a Pyrrhic victory.
Thank you, Sue for your courage and hard work. And thank you, Bari for publishing on this dangerous topic.
Thank you, Sue, for this piece, and once again thank you, Bari, for publishing it.
This is a story about bullying. Medical management, doctors, staff and social media used the tried and true activist tactic of labeling a dissenter with a prejudicial term - in this case “transphobic/bigot.” Thankfully it didn’t work in the end, but in the meantime, thousands of teens were irreversibly altered with unknown long term consequences. Is there anything worse than activists?
It depends. I believe many found the “abolitionists” to be an extreme, annoying group but they were right(at least we believe that now). There are other examples in history.
gender activists are really quite different from abolitionists who were trying to end what they saw as bad practices (slavery, alcoholism).
Gender activists are trying to pervert humanity to their twisted, deviant sexual vision.
Agreed. I was only pointing out that there are some positive activists historically
Thank you Common Sense for this article. I work with the autism community I am very concerned about this approach for autistic community. Especially if professionals that have limited experience with autism.
I’ve read so many of these stories and I cannot believe how many of these kids are diagnosed autistic. Why are these autistic kids being allowed this treatment? It’s senseless.
Children on spectrum take longer to develop emotionally and socially there should be no rush in their self-awareness and self-concept. The professional should have extensive knowledge of the developmental process of the nuerodivergent.
Trans healthcare organizations are also targeting autistic groups with marketing materials since they know that a higher percentage of autistic folks ID as gender questioning. i don't know how that can be ethical.
Awful 😢
Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, Ms Evans. You are a hero. Maybe because of you the tide will gradually turn back here in the USA, too.
I’m a gay woman and as a child of about 7 I went through a phase of insisting I was a boy. If I were growing up today I would get carved up and have my life destroyed instead of living a full life, married with a wife. I know 3 different relatives or friends with teenage daughters who insist they are boys. It’s heartbreaking to watch these vulnerable young girls and their parents be led along the path to unnecessary mutilation by a medical profession that has gone mad.
I went through a similar phase around that same time. Was always a tomboy but around 9 started insisting I was a boy and the doctors must have made a mistake in declaring my sex as a baby. I wore boys clothes, cut my hair short, and started dreaming of name changes for two years. The phase passed as quickly as it started and I am now a married, lipstick and dress wearing, heterosexual feminine mother of three. I think I just related and enjoyed more “boy” things and had no context for a female fitting into those preferences. Thank god my parents paid no attention and it occurred 25 years ago. Kids need space to explore different likes and aspects of themselves without adult insistence that something that may be just a phase is actually indicative of something wrong requiring invasive medical interference . Lots of kids try on different looks or obsessions only to drop them when they realize it doesn’t fit.
Same here. I wore my older brother's hand-me-down clothes and people who didn't know our family well actually thought my brother had a younger brother, not a sister. My name is Katherine but I got nick-named Kenny when I was a baby because that's how my brother pronounced my name. I wanted to be a horse and it could be said I identified strongly with being a horse.
But by 13 or so I started outgrowing it. I'm married with kids, go by Kate, still horse crazy but otherwise completely normal.
Thanks for sharing…I know there are countless stories like ours. I wonder how to get these stories out?
I was a boy who liked Barbies and wanted to be a girl, desperately. That feeling passed when I hit puberty and discovered that I liked my body, and being a boy. Puberty changes everything. We need to let kids experience it. It’s natural and good and right. All this mad scientist stuff has to stop! FFS.
The thought that someone might have convinced my parents to give me puberty blockers until I was old enough to have my penis removed is chilling. All of this is so obviously wrong.
Thanks for sharing that. Your story, and other's similar stories, have to be shared widely with the young girls caught up in this social contagion.
So, an honest question here, not an invitation for people to vent their disgust at various government officials: how do we get high ranking officials in the US Federal Government and in State departments of health to listen to this story, consider this evidence and redirect their policies? It seems the capture of the medical societies and the government agencies is almost complete.
Excellent question! No good answer that I can think of. Administrators are not elected. The activists are plain nuts. As one Rabbi said, the woke are a religion in search of a god. How do you get rid of a “religion”?
PL, I don’t think you can get rid of it. I think you need to have better competition from better religions.
That means: 1) practitioners of the sane religions behaving according to their professed beliefs. 2) having conversations with the woke, asking them to explain their beliefs and then saying “.... and you believe this?” Just leave it for them to consider, do they actually believe what they are saying.
Most are probably just following their friends, saying what they have heard.
John, point well taken. Your #1 is especially true. That’s a whole article/podcast of its own!
An article or podcast would be a nice start, but the study of why people are leaving traditional religions (leaving them vulnerable to wokeness and other ideologies/ religions) and how to convince them to return/remain is huge.
Bishop Robert Barron has put out good information about this from a Catholic perspective. There is likely a lot of commonality with other religions, especially Abrahamic religions.
The guillotine?
That's what Robespierre thought the solution was. Look how that turned out for him.
Votes are what gets in the way.
But We The People can vote them out.
Nobody voted for RICHARD Levine. HE was appointed by Biden, who is clearly being brainwashed and manipulated by radical civil servants and lobbyists. Even after Biden is voted out, it will take some time to clear out the gender Marxists.
Agree. Almost his whole administration was appointed based on identity politics including Vice President Harris: black woman. It’s all disgraceful.
Maybe in this case it will be easier to (ex)change people than to change people - so to speak.
This is exactly why I subscribe here. Absolutely important piece. You indirectly honor my mother(served 1962-2006) and the rest of the nurse corps around the world with your service and duty. Thank you.
Standing up in the face of a monolithic system is heroic and it is a quality greatly lacking in our society today. I hope people like you and your husband will start to stand up against the same type of systems in the US as well.
Bravo!
The tragedy is no one apparently has told these children they can be fully actualized people without taking puberty blockers and hormones.
What has been done to them will go down in history as child abuse and evil.
A lot of this has been foisted on kids by psychologists, the same 'experts' who gave us the Self Esteem movement.
100% agree. And they say they are doing it all to help the gays. In point of fact they are doing nearly as much to mutilate and destroy gays and lesbians as Hitler or the commies. And these miseducated alphabet soupers are being led like sheep to the slaughter.