My response to a request from @BBCRadio4 for an interview. It was just after an atrocious BBC documentary, an accompanying @BBCNewsnight special & a Moral Maze which included a speaker who stated that parents of trans children were 'child abusers'. Could be today. It was 2017.
All of my suggestions for areas of focus that aren't stigmatising, invasive or harmful still apply, with the caveat that the waiting list for GIDS has since nearly doubled from 14 months to 27 (with no current access to Endocrine service due to Covid). #BBCTransphobia
Thinking about it, that may have been the last time I was asked to appear on Radio 4...
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There is a bad science story in Today's Daily Mail. Where an anti Trans academic has published a new study - the headline claiming Puberty Blockers lowers IQ in Trans youth. It took me 5 mins to find the study.
Here's some quick fact checking on this research: 1/
1) The study 'The Impact of Suppressing Puberty on Neuropsychological Function' Baxindale S. is pre-print & has not been peer reviewed. It is not clear where or when it will be published. A quick review sees some common factors in anti Trans studies such as 'cherry picking' 2/
2) The 'Study' presents no new data, it is a literature review, front ended with common anti Trans talking points. Many of these look familiar to simliar outputs from the author including on anti Trans lobby group Transgender Trend's website. 3/
BREAKING: WPATH release statement on NHS Trans health interim service specification for children & young people "An unconscionable degree of state intusion into personal & family medical decision making" with "serious flaws...likely to cause enormous harm" #TransHealthCrisis
WPATH, ASIAPATH, EPATH, PATHA, and USPATH Response to NHS England Statement regarding the Interim Service Specification for the Specialist Service for Children and Young People with Gender Dysphoria (Phase 1 Providers) by NHS England* listloop.com/wpath/mail.cgi…
This is one of the best crafted, and referenced critiques I have ever read. To be issued by the deeply conservative WPATH & by all major international Trans health organisations, demonstrates just how far the NHS has strayed into moral panic over evidenced based Trans healthcare.
If a post adolescent Trans young person can give consent, has both support at home and from their medical team, then there should be a route to gender surgeries where that young person wants and understands the treatments involved. I'm very glad WPATH SoC8 gives space for this.
For those who criticise this opinion, I'd reply that other people's medical care is none of your business. That these are personal decisions which are carefully considered by the people best placed to make them. Body autonomy is a human right.
There is a lot of evidence that Trans people delay their education, relationships, jobs. Those who are able to receive the appropriate healthcare for them & at the appropriate time, are able to more quickly reach their transition goals & stop delaying important life milestones.
Reminder that Puberty blockers were first used for trans health in 1988. The adolescents who received them, in the Netherlands, are now in their late 40's & doing great according to decades of follow up studies. This treatment is not experimental it is evidenced best practice.
I've made an effort to build a curated list of research in the last 5 years that supports a Trans affirmative approach to healthcare & education. There are over 100 studies referenced here
"We need more research about Transgender children" is the claim (by those who argue against Trans healthcare).
Well, here's just some of the research that's been carried out in the last 5 years supporting the finding that Trans healthcare is healthcare THREAD: 1/
Mental health and self-worth in socially transitioned transgender youth. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Durwood, L., McLaughlin, K. A., & Olson, K. R. (2017) doi.org/10.1016/j.jaac… 2/
Prepubertal social gender transitions: What we know; what we can learn—A view from a gender affirmative lens. International Journal of Transgender Studies Ehrensaft, D., Giammattei, S. V., Storck, K., Tishelman, A. C., & Keo-Meier, C. (2018). doi.org/10.1080/155327… 3/
The Equality Act 2010 is the main reason why you have heard of Trans children. Before it was in place, there were no protections to allow children who were Transgender to be recognised or protected at school & in society. 1/
While there were legal protections for adults for example in employment & in healthcare, for Trans children & young people, only from 2011 onwards (when the act came into force) were they recognised in the protected characteristic of gender reassignment & legally protected 2/
While there have always been Trans kids, The EA provided a solid foundation of legal protection to recognise the rights & freedoms of Trans children. They could point to statute & say, this is me, you have an obligation & duty not to discriminate against me. 3/