1./ What's the best care for young people who think they're trans? A noisy lobby insists we must affirm their gender identity, give puberty blockers to under 16s and surgery as soon as they want it. To do otherwise is "hateful". Here's why Jolyon is wrong. vice.com/en/article/qjp…
2./ The lobby argue if these young people aren't affirmed they'll be suicidal. The evidence for this is extremely weak, unscientific and contested. It doesn't stop parents like the mom of Jazz Jennings saying she'd rather have "a living daughter than a dead son". Who wouldn't?👇
3./ But how could Jennings know her 4 year old child would grow up to feel suicidal? And where DID this mawkish suicide narrative come from? The most surprising and convincing explanation I've yet heard comes from an unlikely source: at the heart of the trans movement itself.
4./ Jack Halberstam is one of the canonical trans authors. In Female Masculinity he pioneered the debate about gendered bathrooms. Recently when Queer Theory students asked for recommended authors Jack was right up there with Butler and Kosofsky Sedgwick. 👇 
5./ I respect Halberstam's work. It's quirky, funny and insightful. Maybe that's why I was pleasantly surprised by this Q+A from 2017 in which he said he was startled when watching a TV doc about "young trans" people to see how much they were influenced by social media. Me too!👇
6./ Halberstam then expresses concern about how social media and young people's peers popularise a narrative that there's one failsafe way to get the treatment these young people believe they must have: to say they are suicidal. Parents and doctors cannot resist it, he says.👇
7./ Halberstam argues trans people "have always known how to manipulate doctors" using the suicide narrative. What's worse, he argues, the medical profession now amplifies this narrative churning out poor research that backs the claim. All this is pretty explosive stuff. 👇
8./ But as Jack brilliantly points out when heterosexual so-called "cis" girls feel suicidal no one says it's because they're straight. ALL girls face a litany of issues from eating disorders to shaming so why has our society concluded "trans teens" are most at risk?👇
9./ The emphasis on a suicide narrative, Jack says, is dangerous for trans people too. It means transition is sometimes embarked on too early. He asks how can a young person really know their own body if they haven't even had sex? "You have to know what works or doesn't"👇
10./ I'm with Jack. There's something strange about adults who encourage teenagers never to grow up; to cease the maturing of their body (and mind) with puberty blocker drugs. Surely every child has the right to experience the miracle of puberty, problems and all?
11./ Halberstam cites a friend who decided not to have top surgery. They'd grown to love their breasts. A 17 year old or even a 20 year old might not know that yet. Slow down, he argues, don't change bodies dramatically until people are really sure. Isn't this common sense?👇
12./ Given how fast the gender debate changes Halberstam may now have disavowed the insights he expressed just 4 years ago. I hope not. It accords with an intriguing clue in his book Trans* about the enthusiastic embrace of trans identity by middle class "designer" parents.👇
13./ If it was true in 2017 when Trans* was published that some parents view a "trans child" as a trophy it must be more so now. Whatever @GoodLawProject claim, some parents don't know what's best. Otherwise social services depts wouldn't exist. inews.co.uk/news/uk/transg…
14./ If Halberstam is right decisions about young people and transition should not be made under a looming suicide narrative. It's not accurate. It leads to panic and it prevents doctors and therapists doing their work honestly. It also deprives trans people of genuine agency.
15./ If you want to watch more of Jack Halberstam's lecture on Gender Variance here's the link. You don't have to agree with everything to think there may be some common ground on which dialogue could be built.Wouldn't that be the thing?👇
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