1./ A Conversion Therapy Ban would be a paedophiles' charter and here's why. One reason is it would undermine parental rights. This may be no accident. For the idea at the heart of the Ban campaign - gender identity - emerged out of horrific research used to justify child abuse.
2./ When Emma Roddick said, "everyone has some kind of gender identity, even if it is none" she wasn't just being incoherent. She was promoting an idea she wouldn't touch with a bargepole if she knew its origins. Many think John Money was the father of gender identity. He wasn't.
3./ Money popularised the idea but it was the psychiatrist Robert Stoller who invented 'gender identity' and first developed the theory suggesting a child's biological sex could be in conflict with its "core gender identity". It was an idea rooted in misogyny from the start.
4./ Stoller argued it was a healthy sign when a male patient began to fantasise about abusing and raping women. For him a masculine gender identity was bound up with loathing of women. Trans identity he saw as a response to "too much mother, too little father" in early infancy.
5./ Stoller obsessed about all things trans. In his book Perversion he said heterosexual transvestites used a parody of womanhood as revenge, adopting femininity to express hatred and prove their genital superiority. In other words, Suck my ladydick! He didn't think this was bad.
6./ Stoller based his ideas on consultations with trans people and met Virginia Prince twice a month for 27 years. Prince set up the first trans group, and coined both the word 'transgender' and the slogan, "sex is between your legs, gender between your ears".
7./ Trans wasn't all Stoller was interested in. After he died his book Sweet Dreams was published. It contained a chapter on Kiddie Porn much of which was devoted to a lengthy examination of a pornographic image of a boy being sexually humiliated and treated like a dog.
8./ Stoller's circle was steeped in paedo-apologia. Richard Green who published his final book argued for decriminalisation. Regular correspondent, Kinsey researcher Simon Weston dismissed the trauma of child abuse. Then there was his collaborator, Gilbert Herdt. Who he?👉
9./ If the name is familiar it's because Herdt was cited by Peter Tatchell in his letter to the Guardian in 1997 arguing child abuse could be "beneficial and enjoyable" for old and young alike. Stoller began working with Herdt in 1975 on some of the darkest research imaginable.
10./ Stoller was working on a book about Sexual Excitement when he heard about Herdt's research in Papua New Guinea studying a tribe in which men routinely and ritually abused boys sexually. The Sambia believed they had to force feed boys their semen to make them into men.
11./ The abuse involved beating, starving and threatening to castrate boys as young as 7. The genius that is Tatchell later cited all this as a shining example of healthy sexual and social development. Stoller agreed to supervise Herdt's research. Then the story gets weirder.
12./ In 1979 the man who invented gender identity and developed the theory behind it decided to visit the tribe to observe the child abuse for himself. Stoller flew 7000 miles. There was a state of emergency in PNG at the time. He was so keen to visit he even caught malaria.
13./ Stoller then argued this child abusing tribe had confirmed his theories about gender identity. The Sambia rituals aimed at cleansing the toxic effect on boys of love for and identification with their mothers, or "too much mother, too little father". Talk about misogyny....
14./ Stoller cited the Sambia as evidence humans can't rely on the simple biology of male and female. Every society has expectations of masculinity and femininity and works hard to help children achieve them. It never occurred to him that male and female could be value-free.
15./ Arguments about gender identity have evolved since Stoller but they've never lost this presumption. When anyone claims a child has a gender identity different from their sex they just mean the boy or girl behaves in a way that doesn't fit social stereotypes. Let them be.
16./ Stoller, Herdt and the abusive warriors of the Sambia instead believed it was legitimate to abuse children to make them fit their stereoypes. How is that any different from medically abusing children today to make them fit our stereotypes of masculinity and femininity?
17./ Stoller's work in the rainforest of Papua New Guinea ignored the psychological damage ritual abuse had on the children. It was worth it, he said, to help them achieve their authentic selves. Isn't that the claim of the LGBTQ+ lobby about puberty blockers and medicalisation?
18./ The truth is the stance of the trans lobby and the child abusing warriors of the Sambia are remarkably similar. Both see children as collateral victims in service of their social goals. And then there's that tricky problem of their mutual complacence about paedophilia.
19./ Proponents of a Conversion Therapy Ban argue a child can consent to life-changing experiences which parents have no right to over-rule. If you think affirming a child's capacity to consent won't open a Pandora's Box let me remind you about the origins of gender identity.
20./ In his book Third Sex Gilbert Herdt claimed the sex binary was old hat and used the child-abusing Sambia as confirmation no child is male or female. They are hermaphroditic, "a mixture of both masculine and feminine". Mmm. Are we sure of his and his colleagues motives?
21./ Gender identity is an idea invented by a man- Robert Stoller- who had a life-long and intense interest in transvestite fetishism. He also suggested perversion "does for the psyche in human life" what heat does for the body and argued perversion was rooted in hate. 😵💫
22./ John Money who then popularised gender identity, forced little boys to play naked "sex games" while photographing them. Like Money, Gilbert Herdt was interviewed by the pro-paedophile magazin, Paidika. They both looked forward to its normalisation. Herdt went further...
23./ He said paedophiles would only succeed if they changed the language around childhood. He didn't like the words "child or childhood". The word "child" he said was a rhetorical device. "What we are discussing is desire, and the desire is for a person who is not yet an adult."
24./ The idea of 'gender identity' has scandalous origins and was championed by men who defended child abuse. Yet it is now being used to justify a policy which would place state-enforced barriers between children and their parents. Why might someone want to do that?
25./ Gender identity tells children their bodies and identities are disconnected creating dissociation. A Conversion Therapy Ban then enforces medical treatments such as puberty blockers that keep children's bodies and minds child-like. Are you seeing where this is going?
26./ The vast majority of people advocating for a Conversion Therapy Ban are doing it out of the best intentions. That doesn't change the fact the idea at the centre of their campaign -gender identity- emerged out of rank misogyny and paedophilia. The Ban will enable both.
27./ If you want to read a more forensic examination of Stoller and Herdt's dubious expedition to "study" a child-abusing tribe, subscribe to the link in my bio. If only the mainstream media could be bothered to explore the bizarre roots of the ideas our politicians promote.
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