It's Friday April 19th, 10 days since the Final Report of the Cass Review was published. I list, for posterity and without comment (for now) the following major NZ responses and media coverage.
Don't you also think, though, that focusing on this issue alone seems to give short shrift to burning issues that we probably do agree on? For example, I wish western rainbow communities would do more to stop the hideous toll of anti-lesbian 'honor killings,' rape and homicides that occur all too often in Africa, the Middle East and Southern Asia. I strongly support making femicide a criminal offence in this country and it's excellent to see this government finally doing something about stalking, given that it's so heavily implicated in violence against women. There's the criminalisation of lesbianism to be concerned about in several fundamentalist conservative religious dominated countries. I would gladly work alongside anyone else in this country who wants to end these destructive, brutal, anti-lesbian and misogynist practices overseas. I don't seem to see any energy expended in that context and it worries me.
All the people I rate in this conversation are in it because like me they have worked on or do work on other issues. The insight we gain from our work on other issues is what makes it blindingly obvious to us that extreme gender ideology is anti-kid, anti-reality, anti-gay and anti-women. All the rape and femicide and criminalisation of lesbianism in conservative countries are of course grievous violations of women's rights are boundaries.
But under the guise of "human rights" Australian courts have ruled that lesbians meeting as women are illegal. Wellington Pride has deemed old school lesbian feminists, who have campaigned on many of the issues you discuss here, are not welcome at Pride because they advocate a biological definition of woman even if they don't bring that definition to Pride gatherings. Their very presence is considered damaging. This is homophobia and a violation of women's rights and a shaming of lesbianism reminiscent of conservative religion.
And I swear to you, there are now growing number of gay kids saying they were pushed into transition because of homophobic bullying. I do of course continue to support those campaigning in other countries to stop misogyny, homophobia and genital mutilation there.
But here in my country, the work I have to do in my own patch, is to stop the new form of morality policy. The gender extremists who slander critics as bigots (read heretics and immoral) and are trying to stop people reading proper evidence, who are shutting down good debates. Those who like those who do genital mutilation overseas justify giving kids drugs that damage them, amputating body parts and cutting off breasts and other body parts because they are declaring kids/girls/boys are born wrong, this is mad. And here, conversations and analysis is impaired about things like the cause of violence. Reality-based language is being made meaningless because it's considered harmful.
If a man here went on a femicide rampage because of religious conservative beliefs and then decided to transition courts would force survivors or victim's families to call him her. This is already happening to rape and abuse survivors. Can you not see how incredibly damaging and anti-women this distortion of reality is?
Gender extremists like religious zealots are absolutely convinced that they hold the one true version of the truth, they are fundamentalist by nature, declaring dissidents as immoral (TERFs, bigots, hateful). Declaring drugs and amputation a form of spiritual transcendence. I work in my patch on these issues. In doing so I work in solidarity with those overseas.
Funny, so do I, and I've noted there are a considerable number of mainstream medical practitioner's organisations that support the right to transition medically and the use of puberty blockers in the case of trans children and adolescents. And frankly, your 'transing the gays away' remarks are unsubstantiated by any such medical evidence, so please don't start with that cliche.
I was wondering when you'd raise Hilary Cass' credentials. For all her theoretical expertise in other areas of pediatrics, she did not consult with actual trans children or adolescents beforehand in a professional capacity, so she had no clinical expertise in that field of pediatrics before she was selected to head the Review. As for the York University research projects, many of the critics have noted that the research methods utilised in that segment of the reports were badly and inconsistently applied. They were illegitimately used to censor the majority of peer-reviewed research from pediatrics, developmental psychology and endocrinology that supported the use of puberty blockers and adolescent access to them. Most of the criticism of the Cass Report comes from senior academics in North America, Ireland, Canada and Australia in the aforementioned fields. Sorry, but nothing is as straightforward about that review as you claim.
Hi Craig, I totally get why you believe what you believe. NZ media and NGOs (like their big brothers overseas) have been extremely one-sided in what they're saying and yes you're quite right, NZ mainstream institutions have followed the advice of lobby groups and so standard practice is for gender affirmation now. That doesn't mean it's right. Lobotomies for pesky women and chemical castration of gay people was also mainstream once (puberty blockers are the same drugs used in chemical castration of gay people by the way, it's powerful medication). Although there may have been a really firm belief that puberty blockers helped kids, Cass and other studies showed that this was wrong.
There are multiple detransitioners who are gay or lesbian who have reported they were pushed into transition who now consider that they have mutilated bodies and would have been perfectly happy as gay adults and wish someone had talked to them about that. Sue Green who started the trans youth group Mermaid, gave a ted talk about how her husband didn't want a gay son and so they decided to transition their child (though she keeps trying to take the video down). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dci9rhN9dOY
Gender non-conformity is getting medicalised. This is wrong. Why should those who don't conform to 1950s stereotypes be told they're in the wrong body. It's a homophobic, regressive and sexist movement. It's so weird to me that those who ID as left are pushing it.
I know it's very convincing to believe that absolutely everybody who raises concerns is a transphobic bigot and leave it at that, but if you're genuinely interested in the science I recommend you go deeper than the received wisdom.
Same! And the advice of actual medical people not Rainbow lobby groups who have a spiritual belief that kids can be in the wrong body and that honesty about biological sex is bigoted and want to ignore the fact that gay kids with homophobic parents or internalised homophobia is driving transition.
Have you looked up the credentials of Hilary Cass? Of University of York who did the systematic reviews of evidence? Almost every British medical institution supports the findings. France, Ireland, England some of the Scandinavian countries have all pulled back on puberty blockers as Cass was doing her review or shortly after because the evidence shows kids are not helped by gender-affirming care.
Don't you also think, though, that focusing on this issue alone seems to give short shrift to burning issues that we probably do agree on? For example, I wish western rainbow communities would do more to stop the hideous toll of anti-lesbian 'honor killings,' rape and homicides that occur all too often in Africa, the Middle East and Southern Asia. I strongly support making femicide a criminal offence in this country and it's excellent to see this government finally doing something about stalking, given that it's so heavily implicated in violence against women. There's the criminalisation of lesbianism to be concerned about in several fundamentalist conservative religious dominated countries. I would gladly work alongside anyone else in this country who wants to end these destructive, brutal, anti-lesbian and misogynist practices overseas. I don't seem to see any energy expended in that context and it worries me.
All the people I rate in this conversation are in it because like me they have worked on or do work on other issues. The insight we gain from our work on other issues is what makes it blindingly obvious to us that extreme gender ideology is anti-kid, anti-reality, anti-gay and anti-women. All the rape and femicide and criminalisation of lesbianism in conservative countries are of course grievous violations of women's rights are boundaries.
But under the guise of "human rights" Australian courts have ruled that lesbians meeting as women are illegal. Wellington Pride has deemed old school lesbian feminists, who have campaigned on many of the issues you discuss here, are not welcome at Pride because they advocate a biological definition of woman even if they don't bring that definition to Pride gatherings. Their very presence is considered damaging. This is homophobia and a violation of women's rights and a shaming of lesbianism reminiscent of conservative religion.
And I swear to you, there are now growing number of gay kids saying they were pushed into transition because of homophobic bullying. I do of course continue to support those campaigning in other countries to stop misogyny, homophobia and genital mutilation there.
But here in my country, the work I have to do in my own patch, is to stop the new form of morality policy. The gender extremists who slander critics as bigots (read heretics and immoral) and are trying to stop people reading proper evidence, who are shutting down good debates. Those who like those who do genital mutilation overseas justify giving kids drugs that damage them, amputating body parts and cutting off breasts and other body parts because they are declaring kids/girls/boys are born wrong, this is mad. And here, conversations and analysis is impaired about things like the cause of violence. Reality-based language is being made meaningless because it's considered harmful.
If a man here went on a femicide rampage because of religious conservative beliefs and then decided to transition courts would force survivors or victim's families to call him her. This is already happening to rape and abuse survivors. Can you not see how incredibly damaging and anti-women this distortion of reality is?
Gender extremists like religious zealots are absolutely convinced that they hold the one true version of the truth, they are fundamentalist by nature, declaring dissidents as immoral (TERFs, bigots, hateful). Declaring drugs and amputation a form of spiritual transcendence. I work in my patch on these issues. In doing so I work in solidarity with those overseas.
Funny, so do I, and I've noted there are a considerable number of mainstream medical practitioner's organisations that support the right to transition medically and the use of puberty blockers in the case of trans children and adolescents. And frankly, your 'transing the gays away' remarks are unsubstantiated by any such medical evidence, so please don't start with that cliche.
I was wondering when you'd raise Hilary Cass' credentials. For all her theoretical expertise in other areas of pediatrics, she did not consult with actual trans children or adolescents beforehand in a professional capacity, so she had no clinical expertise in that field of pediatrics before she was selected to head the Review. As for the York University research projects, many of the critics have noted that the research methods utilised in that segment of the reports were badly and inconsistently applied. They were illegitimately used to censor the majority of peer-reviewed research from pediatrics, developmental psychology and endocrinology that supported the use of puberty blockers and adolescent access to them. Most of the criticism of the Cass Report comes from senior academics in North America, Ireland, Canada and Australia in the aforementioned fields. Sorry, but nothing is as straightforward about that review as you claim.
Hi Craig, I totally get why you believe what you believe. NZ media and NGOs (like their big brothers overseas) have been extremely one-sided in what they're saying and yes you're quite right, NZ mainstream institutions have followed the advice of lobby groups and so standard practice is for gender affirmation now. That doesn't mean it's right. Lobotomies for pesky women and chemical castration of gay people was also mainstream once (puberty blockers are the same drugs used in chemical castration of gay people by the way, it's powerful medication). Although there may have been a really firm belief that puberty blockers helped kids, Cass and other studies showed that this was wrong.
If you are genuinely interested in evidence a few things I suggest you check out: Cass's response to all the points you raise, they're part of a smear campaign to discredit her work: https://cass.independent-review.uk/home/publications/final-report/final-report-faqs/
And while the point of this article was simply to report on media coverage I raise more concerns in this recent article: https://theministryhasfallen.substack.com/p/the-oliphant-in-the-room?
I am a bit perplexed by your insistence that transing away the gay is an unsubstantiated cliche. There have been multiple reports from whistleblowers at the UK youth gender clinic the Tavistock, saying exactly that. Do you think they lied? Why would they do that? Doesn't that worry you? https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/mar/31/why-the-tavistock-gender-identity-clinic-was-forced-to-shut-and-what-happens-next
There are multiple detransitioners who are gay or lesbian who have reported they were pushed into transition who now consider that they have mutilated bodies and would have been perfectly happy as gay adults and wish someone had talked to them about that. Sue Green who started the trans youth group Mermaid, gave a ted talk about how her husband didn't want a gay son and so they decided to transition their child (though she keeps trying to take the video down). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dci9rhN9dOY
Gender non-conformity is getting medicalised. This is wrong. Why should those who don't conform to 1950s stereotypes be told they're in the wrong body. It's a homophobic, regressive and sexist movement. It's so weird to me that those who ID as left are pushing it.
I know it's very convincing to believe that absolutely everybody who raises concerns is a transphobic bigot and leave it at that, but if you're genuinely interested in the science I recommend you go deeper than the received wisdom.
Thanks for engaging.
I'm inclined to take the advice of actual medical people not Christian Right pressure groups.
Same! And the advice of actual medical people not Rainbow lobby groups who have a spiritual belief that kids can be in the wrong body and that honesty about biological sex is bigoted and want to ignore the fact that gay kids with homophobic parents or internalised homophobia is driving transition.
Have you looked up the credentials of Hilary Cass? Of University of York who did the systematic reviews of evidence? Almost every British medical institution supports the findings. France, Ireland, England some of the Scandinavian countries have all pulled back on puberty blockers as Cass was doing her review or shortly after because the evidence shows kids are not helped by gender-affirming care.
I am inclined to take the advice of actual medical people not LGBTQ organisations.
If you don't know what the word 'biased' means, you will after reading this response in the Sydney Star Observer. https://www.starobserver.com.au/news/how-cass-review-affect-aussie-trans-youth/230011?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
Oh and a statement from NZ's Resist Gender Education: https://substack.com/home/post/p-143592691?source=queue
inside out are a disgrace.
They're OUTside your child but want to be INside them. I'm a cynical bastard, mind.
not cynical. just realistic.
a well-paid one at that.
which is the ultimate slap in the face
Just published a comment from New Zealand's Women's Rights Party: https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/GE2404/S00047/health-ministry-should-ban-puberty-blockers-womens-rights-party-says.htm