Category: Transgenderism

Blind to autism – by Bernard Lane – Gender Clinic News

England’s Cass review has revealed that the fast-growing gender clinic of an Australian children’s hospital does not screen new patients for autism.

In an international survey commissioned by the British paediatrician Dr Hilary Cass, one of five unnamed Australian clinics reported that it does not screen for autism because it claims such screening is “not accurate in [the] trans population.”

Clues in survey responses suggest this is the gender clinic at the Queensland Children’s Hospital in Brisbane, which also has the quickest fast-track to puberty blockers for children as young as age 8-9.

Patient numbers there reportedly rose from 190 in 2017 to 922 in 2022. In 2019, the Queensland clinic had more than 200 minors on puberty blockers1. Also in 2019, a concerned member of the public asked the clinic how many girls with autism were on blockers and was told no such data was kept.

Source: Blind to autism – by Bernard Lane – Gender Clinic News

La Leche League International is “a great enemy of the truth” |Lucy Leader

There is no such thing as a “lactating family”

I don’t know about you, but when I was breastfeeding my children, I was the only one doing any lactating in our family.

But of course, this is what you get when, instead of following your own Mission Statement, you choose to go down the dead-end road of gender ideology. Despite the twin facts that every person on the planet now and in the past emerged from the body of a natal woman and the only bodies who automatically morph physiologically into lactation are those same women who gave birth, LLL has joined the legions of others who bend the knee to those who believe that synthetic sex identities are just as valid as reality. (How one can only live their “authentic life” is after they endure mutilating medical procedures remains a mystery to me.)

Everyone who lives in the real world and not some fantasy island knows that only the female sex has the ability to have babies and to feed them from their breasts and that identity is irrelevant in biological processes. But as is the LLLI Board modus operandi, they chose to ignore this because when the six newly elected Leaders failed to collapse in acquiescence and fall into line, they were immediately suspended and removed from all LLLGB social media outlets.

How is it “inclusive” to deliberately exclude Leaders who all signed up to the Mission Statement, but who are not willing to violate their strongly held beliefs that only natal women should be breastfeeding? Why is this not considered to be a disrespectful slap in the face, not only for them, but for every woman who has ever been a mother?

If you think that those brave Leaders who are endeavoring to hold LLLGB to its stated purpose should be celebrated, rather than persecuted, feel free to email the LLLI Board at board@llli.org

Source: (19) La Leche League International is “a great enemy of the truth”

Mission Gallop – Women’s Cooee

 

Does Grandstand organise cricket matches? Does ABC News organise bus crashes or bombings in Gaza? Of course not! In February Aunty took it into her collective head to organise – not just film and broadcast, but actually organise – a drag queen story time event.

Not so much ABC mission creep as mission gallop!

The Rockdale Library incident took the ABC’s allegiance to gender-identity ideology quite a few leagues beyond its usual manifestations of membership of ACON’s AWEI scheme,  allowing/encouraging its employees to moonlight at ACON events, having a drag queen in costume as a panellist on current affairs shows, suppressing news that might be disquieting for gender-identity zealots, and blatantly endorsing puberty blockers etc.

Was this proposed event impartial? Certainly not. Drag queen story time events are massively controversial . . .

Finally, does the Rockdale Library fiasco show that the ABC’s under the influence of powerful outside lobbyists? It sure does. And we mean ACON, whose extensive interference in the ABC’s workplace culture and content has been irrefutably demonstrated.

The new ABC Chair, Kim Williams, said on 24 March: ‘If you don’t want to reflect a view that aspires to impartiality, don’t work at the ABC’ and inveighed against an ‘addictive focus’ at the ABC that ‘enables small cohorts to … have an exaggerated influence over the process of decision-making’.

Honestly, Mr Willams, that sounds to us like pompous twaddle – to use a term you yourself once employed – as long as ABCQueer is permitted to rampage unchecked and the organisation dismisses wholesale the very valid criticisms brought to bear upon it by members of the public. Good luck dealing with the ‘small cohorts’, though!

Source: Mission Gallop – Women’s Cooee

Council’s trans rights cover-up | The Australian

Emails showing a forum critical of transgender rights was “blocked” by Hobart City Council staff were withheld from release under right to information, in conduct the council concedes may be criminal.

Two senior staff whose emails were caught up in an RTI request by councillor and transgender rights critic Louise Elliot have in recent weeks either resigned or been placed on “extended leave”.

The Weekend Australian can reveal emails to and from the council’s creative city manager, Jamie Smith, were withheld from the RTI disclosure to Ms Elliot and only emerged later thanks to a whistleblower.

Source: Subscribe to The Australian | Newspaper home delivery, website, iPad, iPhone & Android apps

Breastfeeding charity suspends trustees who want to ban trans women from its services | The Telegraph | UK

Six trustees of a nationwide breastfeeding support group have been suspended for demanding that biological men be excluded from their services.
The British wing of La Leche League (LLL), which gives mother-to-mother support to those finding it hard to breastfeed, has been told by its US-based board of directors that the service cannot be single sex and they must support “male lactation”.
They were also told that the use of the term “mother” could be a “roadblock”, and that questioning gender ideology was “harmful”.
The suspended trustees have now complained to the Charity Commission, saying the charity’s demand that trans women were admitted was against UK law because single-sex places are protected.
A Charity Commission spokeswoman said: “We have received correspondence from groups of trustees, alerting us to a disagreement among the charity’s board about the way in which the charity delivers its services. We are assessing the information to determine whether this is a matter for the Commission as regulator to become involved in.”

Source: Breastfeeding charity suspends trustees who want to ban trans women from its services

Canadian detransitioner who had breasts and womb removed sues doctors | National Post

An Ontario detransitioning woman who had her breasts and womb removed to change her gender to male is suing medical and health practitioners for failing to consider other treatments during her mental health crisis before ushering her on an irreversible journey she regrets.

“Michelle’s stated desire to become transgender was never challenged and it was treated to the exclusion of her other serious mental health issues, closing the door to alternative treatment options,” her statement of claim says.

The claim says the defendants “permitted Michelle to self-diagnose as transgender and prescribe her own treatment without providing a differential diagnosis or proposing alternative treatments.”

In her statement of claim filed in court in November, Zacchigna says she had difficulty forming relationships with classmates in elementary school and was often bullied.

By the time she was 11, she engaged in self-harming behaviour, including cutting her arm with a knife. This continued into early adulthood.

When she was 20, she tried to kill herself and she was referred by her family doctor for psychotherapy, where she was treated for social anxiety and clinical depression.

About a year into therapy, she engaged with an online community around gender nonconformity.

“Michelle came to believe that her biological sex of female did not match her true gender identity of male,” her claim says.

At a Toronto health centre, Zacchigna was prescribed testosterone hormone therapy in 2010 after three appointments. The doctor there became her family physician.

The claim said neither her mental health nor counselling records were consulted and there was no screening “for any other mental health diagnoses or developmental disabilities,” her claim says.

n detransitioner who had breasts and womb removed sues doctors | National Post

Medscape Registration

Some European countries are changing how they approach gender care in children and young adolescents experiencing gender incongruence/dysphoria. There is a move away from medicalized care to placing more emphasis on providing psychosocial support for this younger age group.

England’s Cass Review Said Evidence Is Weak

On April 10, 2024, the final report of the Cass Review was published following 4 years of meta-analyses of the available literature. The review, carried out by pediatrician Dr Hilary Cass, was prompted by a soaring rise in demand for gender identity treatments, such as puberty blockers, among children and teens in the UK. It found “remarkably weak evidence” to support gender treatments for children. “For most young people,” the review said, “a medical pathway will not be the best way forward to manage gender-related distress.”

In March, England’s National Health Service said it will no longer prescribe puberty blockers to children at gender identity clinics owing to a lack of evidence to support their safety or effectiveness. Instead, they will only be available as part of clinical research trials.

On April 18, Scotland’s only gender clinic announced that it had also paused prescribing puberty blockers to persons younger than 18 years, and new patients who are minors will no longer receive other hormone treatments.

Some Changing Practices in Europe

The Netherlands

In the Netherlands, where the Dutch Protocol originated, practice guidelines have not yet been revised. However, on February 15, 2024, the Dutch Parliament ordered that an investigation be conducted into the physical and mental health outcomes of children prescribed puberty blockers.

Norway

Norway’s Healthcare Investigation Board (Ukom) recommended in 2023 that the Ministry of Health and Care task the Directorate of Health to revise the national professional guideline for gender incongruence in a way that is based on a systematic summary of knowledge. The Ukom report recommended that puberty blockers and hormonal and surgical gender confirmation treatment for children and young people should be defined as experimental treatment. Explicit new guidance from the country has not yet been issued.

France

France’s National Academy of Medicine recommended in 2022 that the “greatest reserve” is required regarding the use of puberty blockers and/or transitioning hormones in children and adolescents. However, their prescription continues to be possible with parental authorization at any age.

Sweden

Sweden’s National Board of Health and Welfare said in 2022 that the risks of puberty blockers and gender-affirming hormone treatments for persons younger than 18 years currently outweigh the potential benefits for the group as a whole. It added that treatment with hormones should continue to be given, but only within a research framework to further understand its impact on gender dysphoria, mental health, and quality of life in this age group. Hormones can also be given to this age group in exceptional cases, the board said.

Finland

Finland’s Council for Choices in Health Care revised its guidelines in 2020 to prioritize psychosocial support over medical intervention but confirmed that initiation of hormonal interventions may be considered in a person before the age of 18 “if it can be ascertained that their identity as the other sex is of a permanent nature and causes severe dysphoria.”

More Data From Europe

One of the studies that informed the Cass Review conducted a survey of European gender services for children and adolescents between September 2022 and April 2023.

It found that Greece, Luxembourg, and Ireland do not have gender services for children and adolescents.

Source: Medscape Registration

Pelvic Floor Dysfunction in Transgender Men on Gender-affirming Hormone Therapy: A Descriptive Cross-sectional Study | International Urogynecology Journal

The objective of this research is to explore the effects of hormone therapy using testosterone on pelvic floor dysfunction (PFD) in transgender men. We hypothesize that PFD might be prevalent among transgender men undergoing hormone therapy. Therefore, this study was aimed at verifying the frequency of these dysfunctions.

Results

A total of 68 transgender men were included. Most participants had storage symptoms (69.1%), sexual dysfunction (52.9%), anorectal symptoms (45.6%), and flatal incontinence (39.7%). Participants with UI symptoms reported moderate severity of the condition.

Conclusions

Transgender men on hormone therapy have a high incidence of PFD (94.1%) and experience a greater occurrence of urinary symptoms (86.7%).

Source: Pelvic Floor Dysfunction in Transgender Men on Gender-affirming Hormone Therapy: A Descriptive Cross-sectional Study | International Urogynecology Journal

ABC Reporting Aged Like Vinegar, Not Wine – Women’s Cooee

Back in 2021, we wrote about Media Watch’s apparent bias in reporting on the medicalisation of trans-identified minors. At the time, Dr Michelle Telfer was the head of the Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne’s Children’s Gender Clinic. She had made a 42-page complaint to the Australian Press Council about reporting on gender clinics by Bernard Lane in The Australian newspaper. Only 5 out of 12 alleged breaches were upheld, with Media Watch preferring to focus on the viewpoints of Dr Telfer than explore the issues evenly.

On 15 August 2022, Media Watch noted that the “ABC Skips Tavistock” closure in the UK, Paul Barry accuses the ABC of being “one-sided” and “ignoring legitimate debate”. On 17 October 2022, Paul Barry fronted an episode of Media Watch criticising the ABC’s relationship with lobby group ACON.

In light of the Cass Review, ABC’s activist reporting of gender issues has aged like vinegar, not like a fine wine.

Paul Barry, we’d like to suggest that you revisit your earlier remarks about the reporting in The Australian now that the Cass Review has exposed the lack of a global evidence base for, and acknowledged the risks and harms of children’s gender medicine.

Source: ABC Reporting Aged Like Vinegar, Not Wine – Women’s Cooee