I had the honour and opportunity to take part in a TEDx event this year, hosted by TEDx Bath in conjunction with Bath Spa University.
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You may have heard the term “Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria” in the press or media, usually with regards to transgender young people, and in particularly AFAB (Assigned Female At Birth) trans masculine young people.
In this short article we will take a look at what ROGD is, and why it should be disregarded.
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There is an often quoted “statistic” thrown around that around 80% of transgender young people “grow out of” being transgender. It’s also called “desistance”, and sometimes erroneously stated as “detransition”.
It’s a figure that is persistently used by trans hostile people and groups to deny trans identities and trans related healthcare to young people, and is often cited as “evidence” that being transgender is just a fad, phase or something trendy.
It’s also highly contested, poorly researched, and , speaking as a trans person - complete and total rubbish.
Here’s a brief explanation why.
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Human rights organisation Amnesty International released its Annual Report 20/21 this week - which examines progress on human rights issues by country.
The UK was heavily criticised for failures in multiple areas, including health, racism, immigration, domestic abuse, policing and protest, and LGBT+ rights.
In relation to transgender people, it said :
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We have recently updated our Resources page to include the following:
Terminology Guide - A list of some of the more common terms & meanings that you may come across in relation to transgender people.
Glossary of Gender Identities - A list of some of the more common gender identities and definitions that you may encounter.
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This year the theme for International Women’s Day is #ChooseToChallenge.
I was recently asked by the School for Social Entrepreneurs to contribute to an article in Good Finance, and I feel honoured to stand with the other social entrepreneur’s featured.
It is incredibly important to challenge gender equality issues. All women are affected, no matter their background, origin or experience, and those same issues often lead to other negative social effects and outcomes.
By Choosing to Challenge inequalities we can introduce positive change that benefit everyone.
My contribution can be read on the Good Finance Blog here : https://www.goodfinance.org.uk/latest/post/choose-challenge-5-female-leaders-share-lessons-advice
Read MoreI intended to write a few articles throughout LGBT+ History Month, however the mental toll of dealing with the current state of anti-hostile hysteria in the UK has been too much to deal with, resulting in a mini-break to recentre myself.
Instead, I’m going to close out LGBT+ History month with a look at Magnus Hirschfeld & the Institut für Sexualwissenschaft - an early LGBT+ clinic and research institute, and some of the disturbing parallels with the current situation in the UK.
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Today we have a cross-posted guest article by the wonderful Steph at Steph’s Place.
It addresses some of the many misconceptions about trans people, and particularly trans women in sport.
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You might be surprised to learn there is an “opposite” term to Transgender.
And that term is “Cisgender”.
Cisgender is a term used as a way to distinguish non-transgender people from transgender people, and has been in use since the 1990’s throughout academia and the scientific community.
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Transgender is one of those words that has a number of different meanings, depending on the context it’s being used in and who you ask.
This is the result of trying to explore and explain concepts of gender that are relatively new to western civilisation due to the imposition of the gender binary, but concepts that have roots going back to the dawn of mankind.
In this article we will look at the origins, contexts and correct usage of the word, common mistakes and assumptions, and how the term is twisted by trans hostile parties.
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Today we have a “guest post” by Michelle Snow from the What the Trans!? Podcast, which charts the events of the UK’s descent into anti-trans hatred and bigotry, and some of the key players involved.
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Yesterday, every professional transgender healthcare organisation released a joint statement which roundly condemned the removal of treatment using hormone suppressants (often known as puberty blockers) for gender dysphoric young people by the NHS Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS).
GIDS opted to fully remove this treatment option following the farcical Kiera Bell legal case, despite it not actually being a requirement of the judgement. That GIDS did so with such rapidity and lack of concern for those young people under it’s remit shows the service is not fit for purpose, a claim that service users have been making for a number of years.
The full statement can be found here: www.wpath.org/policies
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Feeling a little lazy today what with Christmas coming up, so rather than a big article this week I thought I would put a free resource out there.
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In today’s article we are going to look at how Anti-Trans Activists (ATAs) manipulate words, phrases and meanings in order to spread lies about the transgender community.
Unfortunately there are so many different tactics those opposed to the existence of transgender people use that it would take a book to detail them all, so instead, we are going to look at one example, and pick that apart to show you the methodology used.
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Welcome news today, as the outcome of the Keira Bell vs Tavistock & Portman Gender Clinic case has been announced.
The case was brought to try and stop the use of puberty blocking drugs for trans young people in the UK, by attacking a legal ruling known as Gillick Competency, where a young person under the age of 18 must show that they understand the results and consequences of medical treatment they consent to.
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November 20th is Transgender Day of Remembrance.
We remember those of us who have been lost or taken from us through anti-transgender hate and bigotry, just because they were transgender.
In the last 12 months, 350 trans and gender diverse people were reported killed worldwide.
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Today we will be looking at the state of transgender specific healthcare in the UK - or rather the lack of it and the difficulty in accessing it.
This article provides a very high level overview of the current process and issues but is not particularly in depth.
There are currently seven Gender Identity Clinics (GIC) across the UK, and each is run as a separate entity. Earlier this year, as part of the whole Gender Recognition Act Reform debacle, the government announced three new clinics would be provided - however this was untrue. The “new clinics” are pilot programmes which had already been announced some time previously by the previous government.
While very welcome, access to these is very limited.
The average wait time for a first appointment at a GIC is now in excess of 3 1/2 years (180 weeks +), and four years ago it was already 2 years.
Read MoreToday, we are delving back into UK Hate Crime, as Galop, the LGBT+ anti-violence charity have just released their Transphobic Hate Crime Report for 2020.
Once again this makes for sobering reading.
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