The End Of Gender Affirming Care?
Update 325 WPATH Files Special
No 9 in the Leading Female Season is, in effect, another action hero, namely Carey Mulligan in Suffragette. The film obviously has a resonance for the Terf Resistance. I don’t need to tell you the plot.
The WPATH Files
Maybe we are really beginning to win when you look at this amazing report. I was reading stuff rather late last night after my wife stumbled upon this from Michael Shellenberger.
https://twitter.com/shellenberger/status/1764800595473686865
The long awaited investigation by Michael Shellenberger and Mia Hughes into the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) has been published. I have only had a glance through this so far - the report is 242 pages long. I will leave Michael to summarise - he wrote last night on Twitter/X:
Advocates of gender-affirming care say it’s evidence-based.
But now, newly released internal files from the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) prove that the practice of transgender medicine is neither scientific nor medical.
American Medical Association, The Endocrine Society, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and thousands of doctors worldwide rely on WPATH. It is considered the leading global authority on gender medicine.
And yet WPATH’s internal files, which include written discussions and a video, reveal that its members know they are creating victims and not getting “informed consent.”
Victims include a 10-year-old girl, a 13-year-old developmentally delayed adolescent, and individuals suffering from schizophrenia and other serious mental illnesses.
The injuries described in the WPATH Files include sterilization, loss of sexual function, liver tumors, and death.
WPATH members indicate repeatedly that they know that many children and their parents don’t understand the effects that puberty blockers, hormones, and surgeries will have on their bodies. And yet, they continue to perform and advocate for gender medicine.
The WPATH Files prove that gender medicine is comprised of unregulated and pseudoscientific experiments on children, adolescents, and vulnerable adults. It will go down as one of the worst medical scandals in history. ( my emphasis).
This really should blow ‘gender affirming care’ out of the water! Hopefully it might destroy the sly attempt by the World Health Organisation to write their own guidance.
Glinner has already picked this up this morning on his substack:
https://grahamlinehan.substack.com/p/the-wpath-files
So has Andrew Doyle on his substack:
EDI Jester has just picked it up:
My breath is totally taken away. This is so major! What an amazing piece of work by Michael and Mia.
I have more to add on the Irish Referenda ( just one piece below) but I will come back with that later today - I want to get this out to you all first.
Schools Guidance - Urgent
Here is an important message from Sex Matters
Will you help us let the Department of Education know that its new schools guidance is a big step in the right direction?
Our new action page includes our suggestions for how to respond, including what to say if you have only five minutes to spare. The deadline for feedback is Tuesday 12th March.
Please add your voice to ours, and help the government get policy on this vital topic right.
A lot of work has been done to steer the DfE towards new draft guidance for schools in England on gender-questioning children that says that schools must work with parents to safeguard children, and recognises the need to respect other children’s rights and have clear school rules.
It’s important to give positive feedback about that change of direction, and to counteract the negative response from activist groups, which have already started encouraging schools to ignore the guidance.
We’ve sent our own response but we’re asking you to send yours, too – especially if you have direct experience as a parent or teacher of harm caused by the widespread adoption of gender ideology in schools.
THE COUNTESS VOTE NO NO CAMPAIGN HUB
March 3, 2024
Welcome to our referendum campaign page on the March 8th referendums on The Family and Care. We are campaigning for a No No vote. We have produced two easy-read information leaflets on the referendums, please read, download & share. We aim to give you clear, accessible understandable information so that you can make an informed decision on how to vote.
For eight weeks our Countess canvassers have been on the on the streets of towns, cities and villages the length and breath of Ireland speaking to people about our Vote No No campaign, in that time polls have shown a marked increase in those who say they will vote No No. Check out our YouTube videos below for more in-depth information from our Spokespeople. #VoteNoNo #VoteNoRef24
Please support our Vote No No campaign by donating to our GoFundMe: https://www.gofundme.com/f/fnt8m-the-countess
The full piece including videos and full explanation of the proposed amendments to the Constitution is here:
https://thecountess.ie/the-countess-vote-no-no-campaign-hub/
Glinner
Excellent interview by Glinner on RTE Radio 1
https://grahamlinehan.substack.com/p/the-wikipedia-interview
The Party of Women
They are finally up and running. HOORAY!!
Reem Alsalem
Thanks to wonderful Feminist Legal Clinic for this piece via The New Statesman.
Reem Alsalem on the biggest obstacles to ending violence against women – New Statesman (03 March).
Reem Alsalem isn’t frightened of controversy. Central to fulfilling her brief as the UN’s special rapporteur on violence against women and girls is her insistence that sex and gender must not be conflated, and should be recorded in data. She also acknowledges that rights can clash – for example, those of women and of transgender people, both of whom are protected under the UK’s Equality Act.
Alsalem has made several high-profile interventions in this space, most recently branding the World Health Organisation’s attempt to draft guidelines on trans healthcare “one-sided”. She has also voiced deep concern over the detrimental impact that the changes put forward in Scotland’s Gender Recognition Reform Bill could have on women and girls.
A Jordanian national, Reem Alsalem was born in Cairo, Egypt. She studied at the city’s American University before graduating from Oxford with a master’s in human rights law. She speaks five languages. A career civil servant, for 17 years Alsalem worked around the globe with UNHCR, the UN refugee agency. Since 2016 she has been an independent consultant on gender issues and the rights of refugees and migrants.
It is perhaps because of this work that she recognises the importance of acknowledging biological sex.
“It’s clear that there’s very little reference to male violence against women and girls as a concept [in the UK],” Alsalem told me. “I think that is problematic because we continuously then dilute the phenomenon.” We must remember, she said, that the majority of the victims of sex-based violence are females and that its perpetrators are primarily male.
Her visit to the UK was filled with meetings with a variety of actors. In the Family Court, for instance, she wished to see the urgent prohibition of the use of “parental alienation” allegations in child custody cases (when one parent claims the other has deliberately “alienated” their children from them, an argument campaigners fear is often used by fathers accused of abuse to silence victims) and the end of the promotion of “contact at all costs”.
Alsalem’s insistence on recognising the difference between sex and gender has landed her in trouble. She has been on the receiving end of two open letters signed by NGOs and women’s groups, accusing of her being “anti-trans”, an allegation she forcefully rejects. “Why is it so problematic for women, girls, and also men, to say, ‘This is important; many of our needs emanate from being female, or male, and there are certain instances where it’s proportionate, legitimate and perfectly necessary to keep a space single sex’?” While “that doesn’t apply to everything in life”, it is important, Alsalem believes, for prisons, women’s shelters and sport.
Reem Alsalem is not afraid of involving herself in controversial subjects, including the gender transition process and conversion therapy. In her statement issued to the government after we met, she took the opportunity to warn policymakers that any law banning conversion therapy should be drafted extremely carefully. It “must take account of the fact that many young women who express a desire to ‘transition’ socially and/or medically may in fact be same-sex attracted, or experiencing other issues, such as neurodiversity or dealing with past trauma,” she wrote. “Legislation should never prevent these young women being supported holistically and should ensure transition does not become the only option it is acceptable to discuss with them.” As the UK and other countries continue to make legislation in this thorny territory, it will be fascinating to see what Alsalem says next.
Source: Reem Alsalem on the biggest obstacles to ending violence against women – New Statesman
Women’s Rights Network
The latest excellent newsletter from WRN is now out and I am just picking one item from there. This links in to my recent analyses of two tribunal cases about women’s toilets.
East Anglia Leisure Centre (02 March).
A woman who was distressed by her experience in the University of East Anglia’s Sports Park reported to staff that there was a naked man in areas where women and girls were undressing. She said that staff told her that it would be discriminatory to query the person.
As a result, WRN asked the University of East Anglia specific questions about males using the women’s changing facilities at their Sports Park facility. The University told us they would share a ‘revised statement’ very soon. A year later they released a statement without substance.
Sports Park claims to have ‘designated male and female changing spaces’ and to ‘fully recognise the complexities and sensitivities of balancing the rights and needs of different groups accessing public spaces, together with our legal responsibilities when providing appropriate facilities. We continue to review our obligations in this respect to ensure compliance with legal and regulatory requirements.’
However, the 'sensitivities’ of and legal responsibility to women seems lacking with their request, ‘We would ask all Sportspark users to be respectful of others and sensitive to different personal circumstances when using our facilities.’ This is clearly a demand for women to #BeKind!
We call it a huge #SafeguardingFail. UEA invites women to report their concerns to sportspark@uea.ac.uk and claim to ‘greatly value’ feedback. Please let them know your views if you use, have used, or are avoiding use of this facility.
Free Speech Union
I would encourage people to join the wonderful FSU.
Their latest newsletter contains a link to a new book called Bad Therapy by Abigail Shrier ( author of Irreversible Damage, a book about girls with rapid onset gender dysphoria):
Girls’ Football
Thanks to a wonderful reader for bringing this piece to my attention and more evidence of the misogyny of the Football Association.
Daisy Graham-Brown in The Mail Online ( Top girls' football league faces being shut down by the Football Association for refusing to allow a boy to play in its matches 03 March) reports:
One of the biggest girls' football leagues in the country faces being shut down by the Football Association for refusing to allow a boy to play in its matches.
The Mail on Sunday can reveal that a row has broken out between the FA and officials running a female league in Yorkshire after parents complained their son had not been allowed to join.
It is understood the FA has threatened the West Riding Girls Football League with sanctions and a possible suspension if it does not agree to let boys on the pitch, a scenario officials have branded 'a massive threat to the girls' game'.
Last week an emergency meeting was held by organisers of the league – which has at least 6,000 under-18 girls playing across more than 300 teams – where managers voiced their concerns that allowing boys to play would 'open the floodgates'.
The FA's gender policy states that any under-16 teams must allow both boys and girls to play, despite admitting that 'physical strength, stamina or physique' can put one sex at the disadvantage of the other.
At the end of October last year the boy's parents asked the West Riding Girls League if their son could join due to him not wanting to play with other boys, and also because of his ability level.
But after the league declined their request, the parents launched an appeal with the West Riding County Football Association – overseen by the national FA – which allegedly told the organisers they were 'in no position to refuse the application' and would face sanctions for doing so.
An email from the league's secretary to its members last week said: 'This is a massive threat to the girls game and we should be mindful that this could be a long struggle should we fight this head on.
'To all intents and purposes we would not just be fighting for the integrity of our girls' league but all girls' leagues in the country.'
Furious team coaches pointed out there were mixed sex leagues the boy could join.
One female club manager said: 'We've spoken to parents and the girls themselves, a number of them we've 'rescued' from mixed sex leagues where they have been excluded from having the ball passed to them, where they have been tackled and had bones broken.
'I have also been informed by parents that they would be looking to take their daughters out of the league and the girls themselves saying they would just give it up if boys joined.'
Fiona McAnena
A male coach said when he asked the girls on his team for their opinion on allowing boys to join they all said 'they wouldn't be happy and then four said they would give up playing football'.
Fiona McAnena, at sex-based rights group Sex Matters, said: 'A boy on the pitch changes everything. The law is clear that female-only sport is allowed. It's sex discrimination for the FA to tell girls they must accept a male player.'
The full article is here:
Conversion Therapy and Alicia Kearns
I mentioned the outrageous contribution from Alicia Kearns to the debate about Lloyd Russell-Moyle’s Bill here;
https://dustymasterson.substack.com/p/in-space
Excellent piece about that ‘contribution’ on his substack by Malcolm Clark and very interesting (and entertaining) history of the separate development of the T as opposed to the LBG:
https://malcolmrichardclark.substack.com/p/the-unbearable-ignorance-of-alicia
Endpiece
No endpiece here since I am rushing to get this out. The next update will have an endpiece 😎
Dear readers
This post is doing very well in terms of viewing figures but I am trying to get it to my own personal record 😎
So if you are able to push it around that would be much appreciated 👍
Dusty
Dear readers
If you see any reports on the WPATH Files ( not just in the UK) please send me a link and I will do a list of links in my Irish Referenda update tonight 😊
So far I have a link to The Telegraph and The Mail.
Thanks in anticipation
Dusty