Debate and Sunlight
Our June Newsletter briefly mentioned the furore from believers of gender ideology around some tweets made by JK Rowling before concentrating on the Newsnight documentary about safeguarding concerns at The Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust.
This month, in almost a mirror image, our report can briefly mention that Newsnight documentary before concentrating on JK Rowling.
The Newsnight documentary implied practices at The Tavistock were tantamount to gay conversion therapy, a widely condemned pseudoscience in which homosexual people undergo “treatment” to change their sexual orientation,
On July 5th, JK Rowling suggested that hormone therapy for transgender people was comparable to gay conversion therapy.
She wrote:
“Many, myself included, believe we are watching a new kind of conversion therapy for young gay people, who are being set on a lifelong path of medicalisation that may result in the loss of their fertility and/or full sexual function.”
“As I’ve said many times, transition may be the answer for some. For others, it won’t – witness the accounts of detransitioners.”
All the parents we support were thrilled that JK Rowling had recognised the issue which we at Our Duty all face. Many of our children are already on this harmful medical pathway. Others show signs of wanting to be on it and have parents who are petrified that this is a possibility.
While the issues we face have just started to be debated in ‘mainstream’ media – JK Rowling’s intervention has taken our cold cloudy dawn and turned it into a glorious sunrise. The harm of medicating young people who might not really be transgender is now a mainstream topic.
Well, almost mainstream.
There are prominent media companies which still refuse to discuss the issues created by gender ideology in a balanced and rational manner. Instead, these companies behave, to all intents and purposes, as if they are very much part of the “Church of Gender”.
Letters from No One
A number of organisations, including Our Duty, are supporting a letter writing campaign to encourage these media companies to be more balanced in their coverage of gender issues.
JK Rowling shares a birthday with Harry Potter – July 31. Harry Potter fans will recall that the boy wizard receives his first Hogwarts’ acceptance letter a week before his 11th birthday. When his Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon refuse to let him see the letter, more and more “letters from no one” begin to arrive, finally inundating his aunt and uncle.
We thought we would show our support for Joanne on her birthday by sending “letters from no one” to The Guardian, the BBC, and The New York Times. Have you sent yours? Find out more here.
ROGD Week
This year ROGD Week runs from 20-26 July
#ROGDWeek is an opportunity to raise the profile of Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria (ROGD) on social media. It is now two years since Lisa Littman published her paper exploring the phenomenon of post-pubertal gender transition in young people and called for more research. Two years on, that research is still missing. The massive increase in numbers of adolescents seeking gender transition is clearly a separate cohort for whom there is no evidence-based treatment pathway. We need this research; we need the evidence. Until there is sound science, the current ‘Gender Affirmative Model of Treatment’ (GAMT) is an unethical medical experiment is being conducted on young people.
Throughout this week we can:
- Raise awareness of the phenomenon called ROGD
- Promote the safeguarding of vulnerable young people.
- Call for more research into adolescent gender dysphoria
- Highlight lack of evidence
- Champion good therapy (oppose attempts to label such care as ‘conversion therapy)
- Highlight failures of the Gender Affirming Model of Treatment
- Highlight conflicts of interest and false statements from WPATH, and others who promote medical transition for this cohort.
Use the hashtag #ROGDWeek when commenting on social media
Around The World
USA – Launch of TREVoices
Scott Newgent is a transman who has organised a group of other rational (i.e. they accept reality including biology) trans people. The group is called: TreVoices – Trans Rational Educational Voices – visit their website. Listen to Scott’s passion on the video. Scott will be visiting the UK in November for a speaking tour. TREVoices is fundraising for this tour here.
Scott wrote an article for our website which you can read here.
UK – The Tavistock under pressure
One reason that The Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust does not provide decent psychotherapy for adolescents caught up in the transgender craze is that NHS England has signed up to The Memorandum of Understanding on Conversion Therapy Version 2. This memorandum labels attempts to help people resolve their gender identity issues and reconnect with their physical sex as ‘conversion therapy’. Keira Bell, who is already seeking a judicial review in the High Court to challenge the legality of the treatment she received at the Tavistock is now also challenging NHS England over their adoption of MOU2. We wish her every success. Her crowdfunding page is here. If you are on social media we are using the hashtag #ScrapMOU2
In another development, Sonia Appleby, the lead person responsible for safeguarding at The Tavistock is taking her employer to Employment Tribunal for preventing her from doing her job. Sonia claims she was not able to safeguard young patients at The Tavistock properly. Sonia provides more details and has a crowdfunder for her case here.
Coming Soon
Articles on MOU2, Conversion Therapy and a review of Abigail Shrier’s new book Irreversible Damage
Parental Support
A mum attended one of our support meetings and wrote of her experience for Transgender Trend. That article resulted in another family finding us, and we hope, therefore, the support they need.
We are keeping a close eye on the Covid-19 restrictions and will be resuming in person meetings as soon as possible.
And finally…
Stopping your kids from getting on the “trans train” is a job called safeguarding.
We are encouraging everyone commenting on safeguarding issues on social media to use this emoji 🛡 or graphic (cut and paste either):
