UK folks who care for trans people - NHS folks who care for trans people. Please notice what is happening right now.
Powerful NHS figures are key speakers at a wildly anti-trans event. Alongside some of the leading figures in harms to trans people worldwide. Short thread. 1/
The event (SEGM) is happening right now in Greece.
Its organisers & lead figures include very active campaigners against trans rights, & leaders of organisations campaigning to make life impossible for trans people, especially for trans children
I wouldn't feel safe to attend.
Listed speakers include:
Key advisor to the Cass studies.
Key author of Cass systematic reviews.
Deputy head of NHS puberty blocker trial.
Trainer to NHS children's gender services.
Person tasked with setting up new Southern NHS Children's Gender Service.
@ZJemptv There is a very active & concerted effort to ensure anti-trans figures are in positions of authority across the NHS, especially in trans children's care.
This is an acute & powerful threat to trans children's healthcare rights, with risk of abuse & conversive practices.
@ZJemptv How can we have an NHS health service where those holding extreme prejudice about trans people are in such powerful positions of authority.
Zero trans positive clinicians with even an iota of knowledge about trans healthcare would be willing to speak at SEGM.
SEGM is not even pretending to be one of the good guys.
Key watcher of hate groups the SPLC designated them a "key hub of anti-LGBTQ+ pseudoscience".
"The Society For Evidence-Based Gender Medicine (SEGM) is a non-profit organization that is known for its opposition to gender-affirming care for transgender youth and for engaging in political lobbying. The group routinely cites unproven concept(s)."
Wikipedia continues:
"SEGM is often cited in anti-transgender legislation and court cases, sometimes filing court briefs. It is not recognized as a scientific organization by the international medical community".
Key figures in the NHS with power over trans children's healthcare are speaking at the conference of a designated hate group that is not recognised as a scientific organisation by the international medical community.
No one with a key role in the NHS for trans children attended last week's WPATH, the World Professional Association for Transgender Health.
This recognised professional trans healthcare event was attended by 1400 people.
WPATH was attended by scores of professionals leading trans healthcare from USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand + many other countries. Tons of important heads of service. But no-one in positions of authority over trans children's care from the NHS.
They go to SEGM instead.
If powerful folks in the NHS had gone to WPATH they would have seen how terribly far the UK is behind all comparable countries. We are a world behind. The UK is so far an outlier it is beyond belief. And trans children in the UK are the ones being harmed.
The way in which professionals holding anti-trans prejudice have taken up positions of establishment power over trans children's healthcare in the NHS should be seen as a national scandal.
btw WPATH, which these NHS folks didn't attend, is a conservative mainstream medical organisation. It is not a trans led radical organisation, but the mainstream, often somewhat anti-trans medical consensus. I did a blog on my experience there. growinguptransgender.com/2024/10/01/wpa…
Even in that conservative mainstream medical organisation, the ideas & policies being currently rolled out in the UK for trans children are seen as outside of acceptable practice, entirely unscientific & driven by prejudice.
NHS folks have to go to a hate group to find support.
I've written a lot about the impact of prejudice on healthcare.
Fun fact - medicines for depression and anxiety have not been through blinded control trials specifically for 'treating' gender dysphoria. There is no evidence at all for this specific treatment goal.
Can we even imagine trans kids growing up without depression and anxiety? What if there was a way to avoid that?
THERE IS.
Social transition + affirmative healthcare + supportive families + protective schools + welcoming societies = happy trans children and young people.
The Cass approach:
1. Denied social transition - everyone will reject you and make you feel broken & ashamed through early childhood. 2. Denied affirmative healthcare - forced through a puberty that worsens your mental health, confidence and enjoyment of your adolescence
New government guidance is rumoured to include barriers to social transition at school.
As a researcher with multiple evidence-based peer reviewed publications on childhood social transition, here’s what you need to know: 1/
Existing published evidence is overwhelming that social transition is critical for trans children’s mental health, well-being, confidence and happiness.
There is literally zero published research indicating any harm. 2/
A study with 73 socially transitioned trans children aged 3 to 12 years found they had high levels of mental health, with levels of depression similar to cis children (Olson et al., 2016). 3/
The second article examines the stress that trans children experience in UK schools.
It highlights trans inclusion as an essential component of a school's duty of care. Schools have a responsibility to safeguard the mental health of trans children. 3/6
It's also an unaccountable & inflexible source of delay & denial.
'We've got approval for a 1st study on NT "early onset" binary kids with no complexities who hit full criteria for GD in childhood (tiny fraction of pop)
Everyone else = back luck, no study protocol for you yet
Kids get denied healthcare not cos there is a 'ban', no of course not, but because they are sadly not eligible for entry into the only study the NHS has chosen to prioritise.
This is laid out in black and white in the equality impact statement. In the annex in the small print.
Someone else just said something that gave me chills.
How many kids who are enrolled will end up in the 'control group'? This isn't stated anywhere in this weeks documents.
But the whole point of the NICE reviews was to argue for RCTs and control groups.
I've published two peer reviewed articles on trans children and social transition. A third article is due out shortly, centring trans children's views & experiences
I would like to call attention to alleged comments made this week by Dr Hillary Cass on this topic. (short thread)
Supposedly Dr Cass said "Social transition is a powerful intervention. Whether it’s the right outcome for any one child is a complex decision to make". Supposedly she proposed schools should not affirm trans children without parental permission. I did not hear this first hand.
I want to challenge this (alleged) comment on a three fronts.
Firstly, social transition is NOT an intervention.
Denying a child's identity. Ignoring them, rejecting their self-knowledge, is a FAR BIGGER intervention than simply following their lead.