Sat. March 12 and Sun. March 13, 2022
Current news and opinion from a Gender Critical perspective
This day in Herstory: Born March 13, 1954, Valerie Ann Amos, Baroness Amos, LG, CH, PC is a British Labour Party politician and diplomat who served as the eighth UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator. Since September 2020, Amos has been Master of University College, Oxford, succeeding Sir Ivor Crewe and becoming the first-ever black head of an Oxford college, as well as the first female appointed to the post. In September 2015, Amos was appointed Director of SOAS, University of London, becoming the first black woman to lead a university school in the United Kingdom. (more)
JK Rowling rounds on Keir Starmer over gender
The author has accused Sir Keir Starmer of misrepresenting equalities law as he called for reform of gender recognition rules
From The Times (UK)
By Caroline Wheeler
March 13, 2022
The author JK Rowling has heavily criticised the Labour leader after he waded into the debate about how his party defines what a woman is.
Sir Keir Starmer went further than his frontbench colleagues Yvette Cooper and Anneliese Dodds by insisting “trans women are women” and called for a “respectful” debate on the issue.
Asked to define a woman, the Labour leader told The Times: “A woman is a female adult, and in addition to that trans women are women, and that is not just my view — that is actually the law.”
The Harry Potter author condemned his comments on Twitter, claiming the party could “no longer be counted on to defend women’s rights”. She also criticised him for “publicly misrepresenting” the 2010 Equality Act, which legally protects people from discrimination in the workplace and in wider society, and said women’s anger was “growing”.
Rowling, 56, wrote: “I don’t think our politicians have the slightest idea how much anger is building among women from all walks of life at the attempts to threaten and intimidate them out of speaking publicly about their own rights, their own bodies and their own lives.
“Among the thousands of letters and emails I’ve received are disillusioned members of Labour, the Greens, the Lib Dems and the SNP. Women are scared, outraged and angry at the deaf ear turned to their well-founded concerns. But women are organising.
“Now Keir Starmer publicly misrepresents equalities law, in yet another indication that the Labour Party can no longer be counted on to defend women’s rights. But I repeat: women are organising across party lines, and their resolve and their anger are growing.” Rowling claimed she has been inundated with messages from women and said lesbians were also coming under attack for “not wishing to be redefined”. … read full article (web page archive)
NHS-funded clinic is promoting prostitution as a way for trans people to pay for their treatment
CliniQ said sex work can be useful and 'empowering' when done by trans men
The booked was part-funded by King's College NHS Trust and three councils
It also suggests that transgender men can hide the fact that they are trans when visiting gay sex parties
From Daily Mail (UK)
By Michael Powell
March 12, 2022
A clinic which receives NHS funding has been promoting prostitution as a way for transgender people to pay for their transition treatment, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.
Being a sex worker ‘can be useful and sometimes empowering’, according to a guide produced by CliniQ, a sexual counselling service for transgender people at King’s College Hospital in London. It adds: ‘It can help us pay for parts of our transition.’
The booklet by CliniQ, which is part-funded by King’s College NHS Trust and three London local authorities, also suggests that transgender men – people born in female bodies but transitioning to male – can hide the fact that they are trans when visiting gay sex parties.
Entitled Cruising: A Trans Guy’s Guide To The Gay Sex Scene, it advises readers to circumvent men-only restrictions at gay saunas by only performing sex acts ‘without others seeing your genitals’. Experts warned doing so would be committing the crime of sex by deception. … read full article
Detransitioners slam trans and mental health industry for urging them into transition
There are many people who were sucked into believing they were meant to be born in the body of the opposite sex and were ushered into medical transition only to find that they are still their natal sex.
From The PostMillennial (USA)
By Libby Emmons
March 13, 2022
Gender transition is not all unicorns puking rainbows and glitter hurricanes of affirmation, euphoria, and Pride parades. There are many people who were sucked into believing they were meant to be born in the body of the opposite sex, were ushered into medical transition including cross-sex hormones and genital, reproductive, and breast surgery, only to find that they are still their natal sex.
Detrans Awareness Day saw UK-based Genspect bring the stories of detransitioners to light. For many of these individuals, the idea of gender transition was meant to be an answer to thousands of questions, a solution to many problems. They believed that by not being their sex they would no longer suffer so many of the feelings of being disassociated from self and society.
A really important collection of detransitioners views has just been released on @detrans_voices
Please share widely for #DetransAwarenessDay https://t.co/qSZkPrh7fx— Stella O'Malley (@stellaomalley3) March 12, 2022
What they found, in many cases, was that the concept of gender transition is actually a lie. One cannot actually become the opposite sex, and their feelings of confusion, of not belonging, often persisted despite their best efforts to be something they were not.
Keira Bell, who underwent gender transition from female to male before detransitioning and suing the gender clinic that did not provide adequate mental health care prior to giving her cross-sex hormones and surgery, was at Genspect's Detrans Awareness Day as well. "Trans healthcare," she says, needs to be "evidence based and safe," and testifies that "transgenderism/gender identity" is a "social contagion." This concept has received intensive backlash from the mental health community, despite evidence, from Lisa Littman and others, that being trans is trendy.
#DetransAwarenessDay wouldn't exist if "trans healthcare" was evidence based and safe, if transgenderism/gender identity wasn't a social contagion and if fear around gender nonconformity wasn't so ingrained into society https://t.co/cq6sMSxVak
— Keira Bell (@KLBfax) March 12, 2022
Bell also points out that detransitioning does not mean a reversal. Hormones, surgery, are "irreversible," she says, and "There is no going back."
#DetransAwarenessDay I want people to know that 'Detransition' rarely means reversal to us. The hormones (definitely surgery) is irreversible and it will vary in 'severity' depending on how far one has gone. There is no going back. Some continue with regret, some find a new path. https://t.co/uIueRqgmai
— Keira Bell (@KLBfax)March 13, 2022
Genspect founder Stella O'Malley hosted the conference, where listeners heard from women and men who had detransitioned after taking cross-sex hormones and undergoing surgeries, the consequences of which were irreverersvible. Detransitioner Sinead has a permanently lower voice, and those who removed their breasts can never get that back. … read full article
Scottish government’s Gender Recognition Reform: Why gender identity is a disaster for our children
We should tell children that it is not true that boys can be girls or that men can be women, or vice versa
From The Times (UK)
By Maggie Mellon
March 13, 2022
Much of the criticism of the Scottish government’s determination to legislate to allow people to choose their own sex has focused on the threat to women’s rights.
However, consequences for children of enforced belief in gender identity are also serious. Children in schools across Scotland are now being taught that whatever their parents may tell them, boys can be girls and girls can be boys, and that only children can “know” whether they are a boy or a girl.
Children are told that being “trans” is special and brave, something to be celebrated. They are being encouraged to unquestioningly accept that children and adults can be any sex they believe that they are.
Parents and children are not the only ones to suffer in this full-on assault on reality. Teachers too, like many others in health, education and social work, are afraid to question or to oppose the claims of the prophets of this new religion.
The national curriculum demands that schools teach that “gender identity” exists and trumps sex. This is not progressive. It is not in any way akin to teaching children that their biological sex does not define them. … read full article (web page archive)
Keir Starmer’s gender identity muddle
From The Spectator (UK)
By Debbie Hayton
March 13, 2022
If you needed any sign that the Labour party is still deeply confused about gender identity and sex, look no further than the Labour leader Keir Starmer’s comments this week. Asked by the Times to define a woman, Starmer replied that:
A woman is a female adult, and in addition to that trans women are women, and that is not just my view — that is actually the law. It has been the law through the combined effects of the 2004 [Gender Recognition] Act and the 2010 [Equality] Act. So that’s my view. It also happens to be the law in the United Kingdom.
If Keir Starmer thinks that I am a woman, I am delighted to tell him the truth. Transwomen (like me) are male, while women (like my wife) are female. Biology does not lie, male is not female, and therefore transwomen are not women. Shocking that might sound to some ears, the logic is inescapable and the sky does not fall in when you admit it.
He’s wrong about the law too. The Equality Act does not change anyone’s sex – legal or otherwise. The Equality and Human Rights Commission was clear about that back in 2018:
In UK law, 'sex' is understood as binary, with a person’s legal sex being determined by what is recorded on their birth certificate.
And the Gender Recognition Act draws a very clear line between the sexes. Specifically, with regard to peerages. According to Section 16, ‘The fact that a person’s gender has become the acquired gender under this Act does not affect the descent of any peerage or dignity or title of honour.’
In a nutshell, this means that a man will not be disinherited should his older sister transition from female to male. And he keeps his inheritance if he transitions the other way. The law does not mess about when men’s sex-based rights are at stake.
What the Equality Act does do is protect ‘transsexual people’ against less favourable treatment if we have undergone (or propose to undergo) a process of gender reassignment, and rightly so. … read full article
Forget witches, let’s sort today’s toil and trouble in Scotland
We need a strong economy, better education and women who will speak
From The Times (UK)
By Gillian Bowditch
March 13, 2022
Maybe it was Covid. Maybe it was the woman with the perfectly manicured nails staring out from the front page of The Times, her face a mixture of antiseptic greens, vivid crimsons and dull yellows, one eye an empty socket. A victim of the bombing in Ukraine, her portrait looked like something from a Francis Bacon retrospective.
Whatever it was, something snapped when Nicola Sturgeon used International Women’s Day to offer a formal apology on behalf of the Scottish government to 4,000 people persecuted as witches between 1563 and 1736 under the Witchcraft Act 1563. To be fair to the first minister the announcement has been some time in the making. It follows a campaign by Claire Mitchell and Zoe Venditozzi, the duo behind the Witches of Scotland podcast, who are campaigning for a legal pardon, an apology and a national monument to the women accused of witchcraft centuries ago.
More than 1,000 people have signed a petition. A bill is moving through Holyrood to offer a blanket pardon. Sturgeon told the Scottish parliament that the injustice the victims suffered was “driven by misogyny”. However, the entire world, up to and including 16th-century Scotland, was driven by misogyny.
Sorry used to be the hardest word to say, particularly in a political context. Globally, though, there has been a profound shift towards confessional politics. The trendsetter was President Clinton, dubbed “the Great Apologiser” by the journalist Joe Klein.
There were few things that Clinton wasn’t publicly sorry for. What he understood was that the baring of his soul, irrespective of other parts of his anatomy, forged a visceral connection with a disaffected and disconnected electorate. … read full article (web page archive)
Analysis of Reddit detrans survey
From Genspect (UK)
By Genspect
March 12, 2022
The recent explosion in the numbers of children and young people referred to clinics for medical treatments related to gender dysphoria has outpaced the research on this new cohort of patients. Most concerning are the numbers of young people who are beginning to speak out about how they have discontinued medical and social measures and re-identified with their natal sex. This is commonly referred to as detransition. Many of them have related that they have been profoundly harmed by the treatments that were provided to them.
Little is known about this phenomenon beyond the increasing numbers of young people who are making videos and talking about their experiences online. Lisa Littman’s recent peer-reviewed publication on detransitioned people revealed that the vast majority have not notified their healthcare providers that they have detransitioned. There is no quantifiable data on the number of detransitioned people, their experiences, or the reasons they have decided to detransition.
A recent survey hosted on the r/detrans Subreddit yielded some interesting results and comments. We do realize of course that a convenience sample was used (just as such samples are used by the Trevor Project and many other relied-upon studies about trans-identified people). Because so little is known about detransitioners, the Subreddit survey is useful to help start building a picture of what is going on with this population.
Two-hundred forty-seven participants contributed information and comments. The results underscore the need for rigorous and unbiased research and concern regarding transition regret.
The majority of participants in the survey socially transitioned before the age of 18:
A full quarter of the socially transitioned medically transitioned in fewer than six months, and more than 50% in less than two years:
Participants gave the following reasons for detransition:
It is interesting that discrimination, lack of support, and financial concerns were the least frequently given reasons for detransitioning. The majority of respondents said that they realized their gender dysphoria was related to other issues, that they had health concerns, and that they were unhappy with the physical results of transition.
… read full article (and DONATE to Genspect!)
Competition regulator ignores demands to quit Stonewall diversity scheme
Ministers have raised questions about the value for money of the equality charity’s ‘diversity champions’ programme
From The Telegraph (UK)
By Edward Malnick
March 12, 2022
The competition regulator has rebuffed pressure from ministers to join a growing number of government bodies quitting Stonewall's diversity scheme - despite admitting that some staff were "concerned" by comments made by the charity's chief executive.
The Competition and Markets Authority is understood to have insisted on continuing its membership of the equality charity’s “diversity champions” programme in the face of political pressure to quit the scheme over its value for money.
Following the intervention of Lord Callanan, the business minister, The Telegraph understands that the Insolvency Service and the Coal Authority have joined bodies such as the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS), BBC, Cabinet Office and Ministry of Justice in ending their subscriptions.
Their decisions came after the Cabinet Office said that departments should not routinely use “external assurance and benchmarking organisations”.
‘Stonewall offered valuable advice’
But Andrea Coscelli, the CMA's chief executive, has insisted that the regulator will retain its subscription to the scheme, for which it pays £3,000 per year.
Dr Coscelli is understood to have insisted that Stonewall has provided the body with valuable advice and said the decision to remain signed up to the programme was signed off by the CMA's board.
But he admitted to BEIS that remarks by Nancy Kelley, Stonewall's chief executive, in June 2021 had offended Jewish and disabled staff.
Ms Kelley was accused of effectively likening “gender-critical beliefs” - that sex is biological and cannot be changed - to anti-Semitism and discrimination against disabled people. … read full article (web page archive)
How Badly Have We Failed Gender-Questioning People?
So Badly That We Need a Detrans Awareness Day
From The 21st Century Salon (USA)
By The 21st Century Salonnière
March 13, 2022
Detrans Awareness Day was March 12. If you’re not already immersed in this topic, here’s a succinct summary to get you up to speed:
That pretty much sums it up. If you’re interested, you can also check out TikTok Tics and Mass Sociogenic Illness to better understand the phenomenon.
A 4000% increase in transgender identification among children and adolescents in less than a decade, followed by a new and exploding group of detransitioners, does not resemble “progress.” It does not resemble a phenomenon of “organic increased acceptance.” It resembles a mass sociogenic illness that we collectively enabled to medically and emotionally harm many thousands of people.
If you’re familiar with detransition Twitter, you already know how similar a lot of the history and experiences of detransitioners are. Here are some of the things I’ve noticed after years of listening:
Not Fitting In
Whether with their peer group, school, family, church, or the general zeitgeist, detransitioners often describe their pre-transition lives as being someone who just didn’t fit in.
Some observers have wondered why, with “increased acceptance,” we’ve had such an explosion in transgender identification among adolescents but not, say, middle-aged or elderly people. I would reply that “not fitting in” used to be a commonly accepted normal feeling for adolescents as they made their way through life, coming to terms with who they are and who they want to be.
Now a kid who wonders about “not fitting in” —especially a kid who really doesn’t fit in — will often encounter a narrative that he or she might be trans.
From there, of course, people are told that questioning your gender at all is proof that you’re not “cis.” It’s very circular. The most casual google search leads to the notion that not fitting in might mean you’re trans, and if you pause to consider that, it’s proof that you are. … read full article (and SUBSCRIBE to The 21st Century Salon!)
Dear Detransitioners
A personal letter of support from some therapist on Detransitioner Awareness Day
From Some Kind of Therapist (USA)
By Stephanie Winn
March 12, 2022
Dear Detransitioners of 2022,
You’re early, and we all know it. You are the beginning of many more to come.
You are already vulnerable in so many ways. When you share your stories with us, you become even more vulnerable. Along with your supporters like me, many of you hope that it’s ultimately worthwhile for you to put yourselves out there. We know your stories are one of the most important tools - arguably, the most important - to help turn this trend around. And we all want to see that happen…
But it sucks to have your pain and suffering be a tool. For anything.
I can imagine that at times you might feel like a sacrificial lamb… or a guinea pig… or a witch on trial… in addition to also feeling like a survivor of a cult, or of an abusive relationship. And many of you did experience abuse prior to your transition, and you wish someone had f*cking noticed that, just like you wish they had noticed a thousand other things hiding behind the convenient and simplistic explanation of “I’m trans.” Things perhaps you didn’t have words for, or understand at the time yourself. Or, for that matter, things you did try to express… and no one heard you.
It’s not fair that this happened to you.
It’s not my fault and this isn’t about me but as a therapist can I just say I feel embarrassed and apologetic on behalf of my profession?
Just as much as your stories might be the most important tool we have in responding to this crisis… My profession might be the worst culprit in creating it. Maybe this is hyperbolic, but maybe it’s not. … read full article (and SUBSCRIBE to Some Kind of Therapist!)
Equalities watchdog launches study aiming to ‘reduce distress’ in trans debate
New research for Equality and Human Rights Commission seeks to ‘foster good relations and respect’
From The Telegraph (UK)
By Ewan Somerville
March 12, 2022
The equalities watchdog has launched a study into the sex versus gender row amid fears that the abuse of feminist academics by trans activists is harming freedom of expression.
The new research, for the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), aims to find ways to "reduce distress" and "foster good relations and respect" between the opposing sides in the debate.
It has awarded the £18,000 contract to London’s City University to carry out qualitative interviews with academics over the next two months.
The regulator has found itself at the centre of a vicious debate between those who believe biological sex cannot be changed, known as "gender-critical" views, and trans activists who argue that men who identify as women should be legally recognised as female.
It comes after Prof Kathleen Stock quit the University of Sussex when students put up posters calling for her to be fired, labelling her “transphobic” for arguing that single-sex spaces such as changing rooms must be preserved for women.
Jo Phoenix, a criminology professor, also quit the Open University last year and launched a legal action against it for failing to protect her from what she described as harassment.
This came months after a barrister’s landmark report found that she and Prof Rosa Freedman, a human rights expert at Reading University, had their free speech breached when they were no-platformed at Essex University.
And Oxford University assigned security guards to Prof Selina Todd in 2020 to accompany the leading women’s historian to lectures after threats from activists.
The EHRC said it "has a duty to review and collect evidence about the nine protected characteristics in the Equality Act". These include biological sex and gender reassignment but not gender identity. … read full article (web page archive)
A letter to Detransitioners
2022 Detransition Awareness Day
From Analyse This! (Australia)
By Tania A. Marshall, M.Sc.
March 12, 2022
Dear Detransitioners,
Today is Detransitioner Awareness Day. An important day for you and those of us who work with you, support you and/or saw this coming. You are telling your stories and they are important. Really important. I will tell you why. The adults should be listening but some of them don’t want to, don’t care or cannot comprehend that someone can change their mind. This is unacceptable. You come from all over the world. You are a rapidly growing group of individuals who have been taken advantage of. The tide is slowly turning.
Many of you are autistic, have ADHD or other Neurodevelopmental conditions and have never received an appropriate diagnosis, may be searching for a diagnosis or were misdiagnosed. Your odds of receiving the appropriate therapy are low. Typical therapy doesn’t work well with Neurodiverse clients. You need modified therapy. You probably have social communication challenges. You may be socially naive, gullible or have a tendency to believe what others tell you. At times, you may have trouble understanding whether someone is joking or serious. You need direct communication with no room for interpretation. You need certainty and in life there is rarely certainty. Many of you have been encouraged to be boys or girls, men or women, rather than work on your ‘identity’, and core sense of self, completely separate from a group identity and separate from others. You are ‘non-conforming’ to much more than Gender, by the nature of your Autism. Autism means you are more likely to be non-conforming to the world, the systems and the rules because they are ‘ill logic’ to you and they don’t make sense. You need rules, structure, boundaries and to know what is going to happen next. Uncertainty is hell. Many of society’s rules don’t make sense. Now, enter a political, pharmaceutical and ideological sociological agenda.
Many of you were politicised and sexualised as very young girls (or boys). Your social naivity, black and white thinking, stubbornness, fragmented sense of self, disconnection from your peers, social communication challenges, intense desire for the meaning of life and who you are, likely led to you feeling ‘different’ from other kids and caused a ‘need to know’ why? You desperately wanted friends and have likely always felt the ‘odd one out’, the ‘black sheep’ of the family or the ‘dissenter’. It hurts being left out, not understanding what others are saying, not understanding others intentions and/or feeling disconnected from people or from humanity. Feeling like an ‘alien’ is a challenging place to be in. Many undiagnosed individuals are traumatised by years of social confusion and social interactions that somehow fail, despite their intentions. Many children and youth have been failed by the ‘system’.
Now you’re older, and especially if you’re intelligent, your brain is maturing and at 16-25, you’re engaging in critical thinking and now asking your parents or mentors or family members for more help and/or requesting assistance with obtaining your Autism assessments. I’m proud of you all. You have been through so much trauma. You should of received your comprehensive assessments years ago. Your Gender Dysphoria is a symptom of your Autism, ADHD, OCD, eating disorders and/or co-occurring issues. The sexual abuse, trauma, mental health issues, a lack of identity and core self, a lack of assessment and diagnosis, bullying, being misunderstood, feeling different from your peers, being intellectually gifted with learning disabilities, have all contributed. Being different, not accepted and bullied can lead to a dislike, jealousy, or contempt for other people and depression. There is no one factor. Living a life with an internal ‘social dictator’ monologuing your entire social behaviours all day long, is also hell. … … read full article (and SUBSCRIBE to Analyse This!)
March 12 in Herstory: Anne Summers AO, born 12 March 1945, is an Australian writer and columnist, best known as a leading feminist, editor and publisher. She was formerly First Assistant Secretary of the Office of the Status of Women in the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. (more)