🇨🇦 You can follow the progress of #billc6 to ban 'conversion therapy' at this link. parl.ca/LegisInfo/Bill…
The bill is the same wording as Bill C8 from the last session with all the multiple drafting flaws. While Minister of Justice @MinJusticeEn David Lametti has been /2
that the bill is not intended to criminalize private conversations or expressions of opinions, he has not been very clear on what it does ban. Everyone is agreeing that certain forms of conversion therapy' very band and should be banned but nobody can say what they are. /3
This is not acceptable when you are talking about criminal laws which carry a maximum penalty of give years in prison. Is there anyone in the government who can give a concrete example of a practice that the bill will ban or an example of a practice that is permitted? /4
For example, would it be acceptable for a therapist to recommend that a teenager for cross sex hormones because he or she had autism spectrum issues which had not been explored. What about a blood condition that might make hormone treatment dangerous? genderreport.ca/gender-dysphor…
/5
Some of the drafting is just thoughtless. There is a blanket ban on any attempt to reduce or repress non-heterosexual attraction or sexual behavior. The plain meaning of these words would ban therapy for minor attracted person or someone with a harmful sexual fetish. /6
The bill defines conversion therapy as changing gender identity to "cisgender." How do non-binary, agender, gender fluid or any of the hundreds of other possible gender identities fit into this wording? How will this language impact therapy for detransitioners who want to /7
re-identify which their natal sex? Did anyone in the government consider these issues? Will anyone in Parliament consider them before the bill is passed?
Please note that I do not equate being LGBT with pedophilia. The bill fails to make this distinction. At minimum, it needs to be amended to permit therapy to repress or reduce sexual behaviuor which is harmful or unlawful.
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🧵The Cass Review and reviews in Sweden and Finland have recommended that puberty blockers only be used in a research setting. However, Cass was clear that any research studies would need ethical approval and the case for further research on children is not there. 1/
Before any more children are put at risk, the existing data on puberty blockers needs to be studied properly. A first step should be publishing the data from the Joanna Olson-Kennedy study which have been withheld for political reasons. 2/cnn.com/2024/10/25/hea…
The first children treated with puberty blockers for gender dysphoria are now young adults and we should have data on their health.The data linkage study the Cass Review proposed should be completed before any new clinical trials are authorized. 3/transgendertrend.com/adult-gender-c…
1/ The US Supreme Court decision on gender affirming care for minors will probably have less impact on gender medicine in general than anticipated. The bans only affect about half the states and only apply up to are 18. There are two other factors that will be more important.
2/ The first is litigation, which is starting against some of the biggest names in medicine. There are also investigations by state governments and congressional investigations will follow.
3/ Don't expect many doctors to be bankrupted; they have insurance to cover damages and legal costs. But insurance premiums will go up and more time in court and before congressional committees means less time seeing patients.
1/ Here's what Trump has said about stopping medical transition of minors. Some of it makes sense but other parts are questionable and probably unconstitutional.
2/ "I will sign and executive order instructing every federal agency to cease all programs that promote the concept of sex and gender transition at any age." Easy to do, and will make it easier to work for reform at the state and local level. Note that it includes adults.
3/ "I will then ask Congress to permanently stop federal tax dollars being used to promote or pay for these procedures ...."
Easily done and would cut off support for gender medicine under Medicare, Medicaid, prisons and military health plans.
1/ Some thoughts from Canada on how the US election will impact the gender debate. Rachel Levine will be fired and most of Biden's executive orders on the application of Title IX to sports and trans health care will be repealed.
2/ The Supreme Court will hear the Skremetti case on state bans on youth gender medicine before Trump takes office. If the case goes as expected, the result will be to leave the issue of youth gender medicine to the states.
3/ This will create a situation where half the states ban medical gender transition of minors and in the other half parents who won't consent to medical transition risk losing custody of their children. Neither side is likely to provide adequate mental health support.
1/ The authors of the Canadian Paediatric Society position statement on gender affirming care have now published a response to the recent letter to the editor calling for a review of the position statement in light of the Cass Review. academic.oup.com/pch/advance-ar…
2/ The response repeats falsehoods such as the claim that the systematic reviews commissioned by the Cass Review excluded studies which were not randomized control trials when in fact the systematic reviews considered and evaluated all types of studies. cass.independent-review.uk/home/publicati…
3/ The response relies heavily on a critique of the Cass Review by Dr. Meredithe McNamara et al. distributed by the "Yale Integrity Project." The first peer reviewed rebuttal to this paper has just been published. adc.bmj.com/content/early/…
1/ The proposals by @ABDanielleSmith to protect gender-questioning youth in schools and healthcare are generally consistent with best international practice and evidence but there are still a few problem areas. .
@ABDanielleSmith 2/ Banning gender reassignment surgery on minors should be a non-issue. Activists claim it never happens but it does. Someone too young to get a tattoo shouldn't be able to get an elective double mastectomy. nationalpost.com/news/young-det…
@ABDanielleSmith 3/ The proposal to restrict puberty blockers and cross sex hormones to children over 16 is close the the current policies in England, Sweden and Finland. These countries do make an exemption for patients enrolled in a research program.segm.org/Swedish-2022-t…