Thread by @TwisterFilm

1./ A thread on gay erasure and the dangers of a ban on conversion therapy. This wonderful interview by @MsRachelCooke in @ObserverUK captures the gentleness and quiet determination of Dr David Bell who became appalled by homophobia at the @TaviAndPort theguardian.com/society/2021/m…

2./ Dr Bell was alarmed at how homophobic parents often seemed keener on their kids transitioning than the kids themselves. Why would a homophobic dad want a "straight" daughter rather than a gay son? Yep, I think we know the answer. Worse, staff went along with this outrage.

3./ The Tavistock had carelessly and incompetently moved to an "affirmation model" where any kid's suspicion they were trans had to be affirmed. Anyone who questioned this poorly researched approach found themselves bullied, silenced or accused of transphobia. Sound familiar?

4./ The tragedy is the govt looks set to do to the medical profession and indeed the nation what the wide-eyed extremists who run the Tavistock do to its staff. A ban on conversion therapy could be in the Queens Speech. Its advocates claim it's about protecting gays. It's not.

5./ Gay conversion therapy is vanishingly rare in the UK. No licensed therapist would be allowed to try to convert someone gay. The few sob stories got up by its advocates are ludicrously recherché involving weird religious sects and....err...exorcisms!

https://twitter.com/TwisterFilm/status/1372667658521415687

6./ As so often before in the last decade since the gay movement was taken over by people whose minds were scrambled by Queer Theory...a seemingly pro-gay bill is actually a Trojan horse for dangerous nonsense that -irony of ironies- is powerfully and irredeemably anti-gay.

7./ The point of this ban is really to enforce affirmation on kids who say (or are encouraged to say by their parents or social media) they are trans. Advocates claim therapists will still be able to do their job of gently exploring the views of a child. But it's just not true.

8./ That's exactly what the Tavistock said when it introduced its affirmation model. It soon spiralled out of control. Bell points out the ban will criminalise normal therapeutic care. You can already see the way this debate has been skewed in the US to prevent any challenge.

9./ It was troubling to see the BBC churn out this propaganda by @shraipopat. In years to come we'll look back at what he celebrates as "gender affirming care" as the medicalising of thousands of young people who would have otherwise grown up to be gay.

https://twitter.com/shraipopat/status/1379471155640274953

10./ Imagine if 20 years ago journalists had effectively defended the sterilisation of thousands of adolescent gays? We'd be outraged. You know the piece has to be badly researched since it quotes Jack Turban. Turban's own paper on puberty blockers doesn't even support his case.

11./ Turban's paper was greeted by news organisations and (the morons at Pink News) as "proof" puberty blockers lower suicidality but none bothered to read the actual paper just Turban's misleading press release. People who did ....found huge flaws.

https://twitter.com/TwisterFilm/status/1222662489911058432

12./ They discovered that kids put on puberty blockers had to be screened beforehand for mental health issues so duhhh....of course they should have better mental health outcomes. Yet despite this even in this self-selected group the outcomes weren't as good as Turban claimed.

13./ His own data showed those who took puberty blockers were more often hospitalised after suicide attempts than those who hadn't. The whole paper was a disagrace and part of a campaign by activists like Turban against ethical psychotherapy.
quillette.com/2020/11/01/jac…

14./ We're blessed in the UK that the wayward activists and deluded politicians who promote gender identity ideology are opposed by individuals with the scientific rigour, integrity and sheer dignity of the likes of David Bell. He refused to be bullied and silenced. So should we.