Tuesday, September 27, 2022
"Chest binding is potential child abuse, the Metropolitan Police has said ... Scotland Yard has said that if police receive reports of a child using a breast binder, ... officers will investigate it"
This day in Herstory: Stephanie Diana Wilson, born September 27, 1966, is an American engineer and a NASA astronaut. She flew to space onboard three Space Shuttle missions, and is the second African American woman to go into space, after Mae Jemison. As of 2021, her 42 days in space are the most of any female African American astronaut. (more)
UK - Chest binding could be child abuse, say police amid ‘mounting horror’ at Mermaids trans charity
Met says it will investigate reports of chest binding as concerns grow following Telegraph investigation into Mermaids
From The Telegraph (UK)
By Hayley Dixon
September 27, 2022
Chest binding is potential child abuse, the Metropolitan Police has said, as concerns are raised over the actions of a trans charity.
Scotland Yard has said that if police receive reports of a child using a breast binder, which is used to flatten the chest, officers will investigate it along with social services.
It comes after an investigation by The Telegraph found that Mermaids has been discreetly sending binders to children as young as 13 and 14 whose parents will not let them use one. … read full article
UK - It’s not transphobic to question child chest binding
The old-fashioned concept of safeguarding has now been transitioned away to some amorphous ‘be kind’ nonsense
From The Telegraph (UK)
By Suzanne Moore
September 27, 2022
A couple of weeks ago, Dr Belinda Bell – not a medical doctor, she holds a PhD in public works – gave evidence at a tribunal brought about by the charity that she chairs: Mermaids. It supports transgender youths and their families. It is hugely influential and supported by taxpayers and the National Lottery.
It was appealing the LGB Alliances’ (Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Alliance) status as a charity. Both Mermaids and Stonewall have the trans market cornered in terms of corporate and institutional capture. They train teachers, police forces, NHS staff.
… read full article
US - Miami surgeon performs 'top surgery' for 15-year-old transgender kids, report says
From The National Desk (USA)
By ALEC SCHEMMEL
September 26, 2022
NEW YORK (TND) — Healthcare professionals who have been criticized for allegedly providing life-altering "gender-affirming" surgeries to minors claim information about their services to youth are frequently misconstrued and misrepresented by right-wing media.
But one doctor in Florida providing "gender-affirming" pediatric services, Dr. Sidhbh Gallagher, has decided not to mince words when it comes to what she offers her minor patients. A recent article in The New York Times indicated Dr. Gallagher provides "top surgeries," or a procedure in which a child's breasts are removed, to multiple trans youth around the age of 15 every month, despite it being a clear violation of state health department guidelines where she practices. … read full article
US - The Travesty of Transgender Surgery for Kids
We should allow children to become who they are destined to become, not what adults believe they should become.
From Wall Street Journal (USA)
Letters
September 27, 2022
I applaud the thorough explanation of transgenderism by Colin Wright in “Every Tomboy Is Tagged ‘Transgender’” (op-ed, Sept 23). As a psychiatrist who works with children, adolescents, young adults and families, this is the most tragic medical trend I have encountered in my four decades of practice. Frontal lobotomies and thalidomide come to mind.
We know that brain development isn’t complete at age 16, 18, or even 21. Development is often not complete until 25 years of age. … read full article
US - Brief reflections on Azeen Ghorayshi’s piece in The New York Times on "top surgery" (a thread)
From Twitter (USA)
By Leor Sapir
September 26, 2022
1. While the piece could have been more balanced and accurate, it continues NYT's welcome trend of acknowledging that "gender affirming care" is controversial among experts. Ghorayshi and the NYT deserve credit for that.
2. It's unclear how, at this point, a prominent journalist at one of the world's leading newspapers can omit *any* mention of what has been going on in Sweden, Finland, and the U.K. Or the overview of systematic evidence reviews they've done. Surely this is relevant context.
3. Ghorayshi uses ideologically loaded terms where plain, straightforward, and factual language is possible. Why use the term "transgender adolescents" (a term even trans theorists/activists in the academy recognize is inherently political) when you can use...
"teenager with gender dysphoria" or "gender-related distress"? The latter choices do not rule out "transgender adolescents," but leave readers to decide the complicated political/ideological issues for themselves. I can't help but think this expresses contempt for the reader.
For that matter, why use "top surgery"? It's clearly a euphemism. "Double mastectomy" is both more accurate and honest. Let the reader decide whether this procedure deserves a less clinical name.
4. Ghorayshi writes of "top surgery" in adults it has been shown to "relieve body-related distress, increase sexual satisfaction and improve overall quality of life," and that "a few small studies of transgender adolescents suggest similar benefits in the short term."
A quick glance at the two sources she cites: The first, a study by Joanna Olson-Kennedy (she of "if you want breasts at a later stage in your life, you can go and get them" notoriety), measured only the reduction in "chest dysphoria" as a result of surgery.
The second is a very small (n-14) convenience sample of post-op individuals, relied on self-report of symptoms, did not control for confounding psychotherapy, and performed the follow-up questionnaire (in most cases, it would seem) within 90 days of surgery!
Need it be said that 90 days is hardly enough to gauge the link between double mastectomies on adolescents and "quality of life"? Ghorayshi notes that these results are "short term," but even that, I think, is a vast understatement.
Why not mention the narrow focus and/or low quality of this research? Have Sweden, Finland, and the U.K., which all did systematic reviews of evidence, overlooked these studies? Why did they come to markedly different conclusions about the quality of evidence?
The authors of the second study cited by Ghorayshi also emphasize that their findings may not apply to "non-binary" teens, a group Ghorayshi mentions in her piece as seeking surgeries. Why not provide that crucial qualification?
5. On safeguarding ("gatekeeping"): Gorayshi: "Because teenagers in most states must be 18 before they can provide medical consent, surgeons require parental consent and approval letters from mental health care providers."
WPATH's new recommendation: "If written documentation or a letter is required to recommend gender-affirming medical and surgical treatment (GAMST) for an adolescent, only one letter of assessment from a member of the multidisciplinary team is needed." Letter, not letters.
6. The NYT should acknowledge that criticizing "gender affirming care," and gender identity ideologically more generally, is not exclusively a "right wing" phenomenon. Many people left-of-center, including feminists and gay rights advocates, are vocal and prominent critics.
Republished with the kind permission of the author, Leor Sapir.
US - Cardinals Cupich, Dolan blast HHS plan to require transgender procedures over religious objections
From The Washington Times (USA)
By Mark A. Kellner
September 27, 2022
Two of America’s most prominent Roman Catholic leaders — Chicago’s Cardinal Blase Cupich and New York’s Cardinal Timothy Dolan — said Tuesday that a Biden administration proposal to require Catholic hospitals to perform “gender transition” procedures would pose a challenge to those institutions, where the clerics say 1 in 7 Americans receive hospital care.
In an op-ed published Tuesday in America magazine, a Jesuit publication, the cardinals said all patients at Catholic hospitals including those “who identify as transgender … receive the same treatment as any other patient.” … read full article
US - US transgender health guidelines leave age of treatment initiation open to clinical judgment
From The BMJ (UK)
By Jennifer Block
September 27, 2022
New clinical guidelines that will influence the care of transgender people in the US and internationally have removed recommendations on the minimum age for treatment, including hormones and surgery, and left decisions in the hands of clinicians.
The World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) released its “Standards of Care for the Health of Transgender and Gender Diverse People, Version 8” (SOC8) on 15 September. The omission of minimum age recommendations for treatment was unexpected because they had been included in a draft version last spring. … read full article
US - Most Americans Less Likely To Vote For Candidates Who Let Biological Males Compete In Women’s Sports
From Daily Caller (USA)
By Reagan Reese
September 27, 2022
More than 60% of voters are less likely to back candidates who support allowing biological men to compete in women’s sports, according to a September CRC Research poll obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Approximately 49% of voters are “much less likely” and 13% of voters are “somewhat less likely” to choose a candidate who is in favor of permitting biological men to compete in women’s athletics, according to the poll. About 86% of Republicans, 65% of Independents and 37% of Democrats said they were less likely to vote for a candidate who support transgender athletes. … read full article
UK - Sussex Police Scold Women on Twitter for “Hateful” Comments About Serial Pedophile’s Gender Identity
From Reduxx (Canada)
By Anna Slatz
September 27, 2022
Sussex Police have come out in defense of a recently-sentenced serial pedophile following “hateful” comments about his gender identity on Twitter, prompting widespread mockery and frustration from onlookers.
On September 26, Sussex Police issued a status update on a case from earlier this month. The update was related to the sentencing of a serial pedophile on September 6. As Reduxx previously reported, John Robert Dixon was sentenced to a minimum of 12 years in prison following a conviction on 30 charges related to the sexual abuse of multiple children. … read full article
UK - Sussex Police apologises after row over transgender sex offender’s status
The force said it recognised the ‘rights of the public to express themselves freely within the boundaries of the law’.
From Independent (UK)
By Jemma Crew
September 27, 2022
A police force has apologised after the Home Secretary accused it of “playing identity politics and denying biology” around sexual offences committed by a transgender woman years before transitioning.
Sussex Police had insisted it would not “tolerate any hateful comments” about gender identity “regardless of crimes committed” and advised a Twitter user who said she was exercising her gender critical views to familiarise herself with what is regarded as hate on its website.
Some hours later the force said a comment made on its official Twitter account had been “inconsistent with our usual style of engagement”, and that it had since been deleted. … read full article
UK - Women's rights campaigner demands probe after Sussex Police warn it is 'hateful' to say trans paedophile was a man when they sexually abused seven children
Women's rights campaigner Maya Forstater said urgent review was needed
Police force was savaged for defending legally male paedophile over gender
Sally Ann Dixon, 58, was found guilty on 30 charges relating to child sex abuse
Offender was jailed for two consecutive nine-year sentences with a licence
Dixon will serve a minimum term of 12 years at women's prison HMP Bronzefield
This is despite the offender not having a Gender Recognition Certificate of sex
From Daily Mail (UK)
By Dan Sales
September 27, 2022
A women's rights campaigner has called for a review into the justice system after Sussex Police defended a legally male transgender paedophile by declaring it would not 'tolerate any hateful comments about gender'.
The constabulary made the extraordinary statement online after it was criticised for referring to serial sex offender Sally Ann Dixon, 58, as female.
It railed 'Sussex Police do not tolerate any hateful comments towards their gender identity regardless of crimes committed. This is irrelevant to the crime that has been committed and investigated. Sussex Police.' … read full article
UK - Sorry Sussex Police, but sex is relevant to sex crimes
We have lost another institution to transgender ideology
From The Post By UnHerd
By Julie Bindel
September 27, 2022
‘Woman convicted of historic offences against children in Sussex,’ reads the headline on Sussex Police’s website. But it was clear that the perpetrator was male, and not just because female child sex offenders are a relative rarity.
In fact, the press release itself stated that Sally Ann Dixon was known as John Stephen Dixon up until 2004. The children, seven in total aged from six to 15, were abused by Dixon between 1989 and 1996 in 30 separate assaults. When one of the victims, now an adult, came forward in 2019 and reported Dixon, several others followed suit. … read full article
UK - Time to check the police’s thinking
Have they forgotten what they are for?
From The Critic (UK)
By Richard Norrie
September 27, 2022
The quality of British policing has declined. In 2010–11, fifteen per cent of crimes recorded by the police resulted in a charge or summons, which has fallen to roughly six per cent today. There were cuts to funding and falls in staff numbers but charges and summons do not correlate cleanly with these. Funding and staff numbers have increased in recent years, but police performance has yet to follow suit.
Simultaneously, police have been encouraging radical politics. This has included expressing support for Black Lives Matter protests, allowing the statue of Colston to be destroyed and participating in the “LGBTQI+” movement. The police collectively have funded Stonewall by almost half a million pounds over seven years. Many chief constables plead poverty but forces spend thousands of pounds each year on Pride events and LGBT paraphernalia. … read full article
UK - Is it a crime to call a male paedophile a man?
Sussex Police claim it is ‘hateful’ to question this serial sex abuser’s gender identity.
From spiked (UK)
By Fraser Myers
September 27, 2022
‘This is a man, committing sexual offences against children.’ This bald statement of fact on Twitter – about a recently convicted male paedophile – is, according to Sussex Police, a potentially criminal statement of hatred.
The paedophile in question is Sally Ann Dixon, born John Stephen Dixon. He was sentenced to at least 12 years in prison earlier this month, after he was found guilty of 30 sexual offences against seven children in the 1980s and 1990s. … read full article
UK - The Casually Regressive Message of Drag Queen Story Hour
From Genspect (UK)
By Jo Bartosch
September 25, 2022
No tanks rolled in, and no shots were fired, but that there has been an invasion is indisputable. The signs are everywhere: the “progress pride” flags of the victors are hung from government buildings, and people have learned that if they say the “wrong thing” they risk arrest or losing their jobs. Nonetheless, resistance is growing.
And it is apt that today it is libraries which should find themselves in the frontline of the culture war. The public didn’t flinch when the corporate world fell, when banks and supermarkets began to routinely spew out asinine messages about inclusion and to cover themselves in rainbows. But the targeting of children in what were once bastions of learning has sent ordinary people rushing to the barricades. … read full article
UK - More grooming via the BBC
We're actually paying for this.
From The Glinner Update (UK)
By ripx4nutmeg
September 27, 2022
Doctors is a daytime BBC medical soap opera that’s been running for over 20 years and it’s just broadcast two back-to-back episodes which seem to reach the moral conclusion that child safeguarding should be abandoned if the potential predator is transgender.
The story begins with one of the doctors, who has a 14-year-old daughter, who invites her male friend, Taylor, for a sleepover - in what appears to be her bed. … read full article
US - The “T” Piggybacking on the “LGB”
Polls make clear that Americans across political persuasions have major reservations about “gender-affirming” care for minors and teaching gender-identity ideology in schools.
From City Journal (USA)
By Leor Sapir
September 27, 2022
Few issues these days inspire agreement among large swathes of voters from both parties, but one notable exception appears to be gender-identity policies.
Last April, a Marist poll commissioned by the organization Do No Harm asked 1,377 Americans about their views on the infiltration of “social justice” ideology into medicine. One question asked whether “minors who identify as transgender and want to undergo hormone treatment or gender transition surgery” should be able to do so “without parental consent,” “only with parental consent,” or not until adulthood (regardless of parental consent). Only 10 percent of all adults surveyed said that minors should be able to access these interventions without parental consent. Twenty-five percent said that parental consent should be required, and 60 percent said minors should never be subject to hormonal or surgical interventions in this context (5 percent were unsure). … read full article
UK - Misinform, Misdirect and Malign
Taking Liberties
From Julie Bindel's podcasts and writing (UK)
By Julie Bindel
September 27, 2022
Call me a liberal and I will be gravely insulted. The ‘live and let live’ brigade are often oblivious to institutionalised power and assume a level playing field. For example, the vast majority of liberals will instinctively defend the sex trade, arguing that if an adult consents to sell sex, so should another be allowed to pay for it without suffering any adverse consequences. The fact that (in most cases) the person (almost always male) doing the buying has the most choice compared to the seller (almost always female) has the least. What does consent, or its close relative, choice, mean in situations where desperation and coercion is bound to be a key driver for the prostituted person?
That said, I of course recognise that civil liberties are an entirely different matter, and the need to protect those we have in the UK has rarely been greater. … read full article
US - After Being Canceled, She Pivoted to Journalism
From The Daily Signal (USA)
By Jarrett Stepman
September 27, 2022
Can artistic expression thrive under heavy-handed ideology?
That’s the challenge facing artists, writers, and actors in Hollywood and elsewhere who must increasingly toe an extreme, rigid “woke” line to remain employed by culture-making institutions.
Libby Emmons, the editor-in-chief of The Post Millennial—a conservative news website based in Canada—explains how she was canceled in the theater industry for making even mild critiques of transgender ideology. … read full article