1/ A bit about WPATH. #IStandWithKeiraBell From an affidavit by Dr Stephen B Levine, who has worked with dysphoric ppl since 1974, chaired the 5th Standards of Care of WPATH, then known as HBIGDA.
It's become 'dominated by politics & ideology'
2/ It's open to non-professionals (despite being called 'World Professional...')
It takes a decided view on issues as to which there is a wide range of opinion among professionals.
3/
4/ It represents a self-selected subset of the profession with its many non-professional members. It claims to speak for the profession, but it does not welcome skepticism and therefore, deviates from the philosophical core of medical science.
The reason I am now gender critical (or, as many of my fellow Irish lefties would have it, a monster) is that I started listening carefully to what was being claimed by the trans side.
Before I did that, I was trotting along with the crowd, blissfully woke.
1/
2/ I saw women on Twitter being threatened and bullied. I knew the first time I read the word 'terf' (aimed at a woman by a man I knew, or thought I knew) that it was a threat, not just an objective term. And even though I thought that woman was not only wrong but unkind,
3/ I didn't believe his venom was going to change her mind, and nor did I think *anyone* deserved to be spoken to that way.
People shouting at me wouldn't have changed my mind, so I decided to try to change GC women's minds by engaging in proper discussion.
1/ I think about the gender debate more than I'd like. But I know why I keep coming back to it.
I grew up surrounded by a religion. Almost everyone I knew was supposed to believe in it. It affected our laws. It led people to make bad decisions. The bulk of the harm this religion
2/ did, was to women and children. Symphisiotomies, the Magdalen laundries, the Eighth amendment.
I didn't know about them when I started questioning it.
But I remember being made to say things I didn't believe, and I remember how people didn't like it if you asked questions.
3/ Often, if you asked questions you got a sneer. After a while I realised this was because there were no answers.
It felt humiliating to be forced to say things that I did not believe.
Years later, my husband & I would sometimes talk about religion. If you could, would you
1/ For people who've known me a while, before I crossed over to The Dark Side & became gender critical, and who are possibly shocked & think that I now hate trans people, here is a hopefully short thread summing up what I think.
2/ I believe some people have gender dysphoria. I care about access to well-evidenced treatment for people with dysphoria. For those dysphoric ppl who decide to transition, I care that they have the means to thrive in our society.
3/ I think that Woman = Adult Female Human. I don't think there is another definition possible, that is not either circular & therefore meaningless, or based on sex stereotypes.