Category: Transgenderism

At the request of the English National Health Service, the senior pediatrician Hilary Cass has completed the most thorough consideration yet of this field, and her report calmly and carefully demolishes many common activist tropes. Puberty blockers do have side effects, Cass found. The evidence base for widely used treatments is “shaky.” Their safety and effectiveness are not settled science.

The report drew on extensive interviews with doctors, parents, and young people, as well as on a series of new, systematic literature reviews. Its publication marks a decisive turn away from the affirmative model of treatment, in line with similar moves in other European countries.

What Cass does feel confident in saying is this: When it comes to alleviating gender-related distress, “for the majority of young people, a medical pathway may not be the best way to achieve this.”

The Cass report’s findings also contradict the prevailing wisdom at many media outlets, some of which have uncritically repeated advocacy groups’ talking points.

Source: Britain Confronts the Shaky Evidence for Youth Gender Medicine – The Atlantic

Alissa Kamholz said that prison was once her “safe place” away from male rapists who abused her throughout her childhood… until the women’s prison forced her to live with a man. #cruelandunusual @IWF

Source: Alissa’s Story | Cruel & Unusual Punishment | Independent Women’s Forum

Death or surgery? It’s a capital offence to be gay in Iran. But gender-change surgery is legal. Now, 4000 Iranians are undergoing the life-changing procedure every year. And many of them are children.

[F]or thousands of “in the closet” Iranian homosexuals and lesbians – an unwanted and unnecessary surgical procedure may save their lives.

The religious government in Tehran insists homosexuality represents ‘Western barbarism’ and is a ‘virus’ that people should ‘kill.’

But a rare quirk of theology and history has combined for a formal – if not willing – acceptance of gender dysphoria.

In a 2022 UN report, Iran Rehman, the UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran wrote that members of Iran’s LGBT community “are often advised that their gender nonconformity or same-sex attraction represents so-called gender identity disorder, which necessitates ‘reparative’ therapies or sex reassignment surgeries, to ‘cure’ them.”

Iran has become an international hub for gender reassignment surgery. Up to 4000 procedures are carried out every year. However, some reports state the actual number is much higher as there is no requirement for doctors to be qualified.

Source: Iran’s vile way of trying to eradicate homosexuality, gay people | news.com.au — Australia’s leading news site

Critical thinking and open debate are pillars of scientific and medical research. Yet experienced professionals are increasingly scared to openly discuss their views on the treatment of children questioning their gender identity.

This was the conclusion drawn by Hilary Cass in her review of gender identity services for children this week, which warned that a toxic debate had resulted in a culture of fear.

Her conclusion was echoed by doctors, academic researchers and scientists, who have said this climate has had a chilling effect on research in an area that is in desperate need of better evidence.

Some said they had been deterred from pursuing what they believed to be crucial studies, saying that merely entering the arena would put their reputation at risk. Others spoke of abuse on social media, academic conferences being shut down, biases in publishing and the personal cost of speaking out.

Sallie Baxendale, a professor of clinical neuropsychology at UCL’s Institute of Neurology, received abuse after publishing a systematic review of studies that investigated the impact of puberty blockers on brain development. Her review found that “critical questions” remained around the nature, extent and permanence of any arrested development of cognitive function linked to the treatment.

The lack of high-quality research, highlighted by Cass, has been a subject of growing unease among doctors, according to Dr Juliet Singer, a consultant child and adolescent psychiatrist and former governor of the Tavistock and Portman NHS foundation trust.

In 2020, Singer conducted a survey of specialist child psychiatry trainees, which highlighted concerns about the lack of explanation for the exponential growth in referrals to adolescent gender services, the lack of long-term outcome studies on treatments, and insufficient evidence on the long-term effects of hormone blockers.

“There’s been a shutting down of anybody who has suggested we need to think about a deeper understanding of why these young people are in such distress,” she said. “It’s been remarkable the difference from other ordinary clinical practice.”

Another senior researcher in endocrinology, who wished to remain anonymous, said medical professionals had resorted to sharing concerns and views on anonymous WhatsApp groups.

Source: ‘This isn’t how good scientific debate happens’: academics on culture of fear in gender medicine research | Transgender | The Guardian

BERLIN (AP) — German lawmakers on Friday approved legislation that will make it easier for transgender, intersex and nonbinary people to change their name and gender in official records.

The “self-determination law,” one of several social reforms that Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s liberal-leaning coalition government pledged when it took office in late 2021, is set to take effect on Nov. 1.

Germany, the European Union’s most populous nation, follows several other countries in making the change. Parliament’s lower house, the Bundestag, approved it by 374 votes to 251 with 11 abstentions.

The German legislation will allow adults to change their first name and legal gender at registry offices without further formalities. They will have to notify the office three months before making the change.

The existing “transsexual law,” which dates back four decades, requires individuals who want to change gender on official documents to first obtain assessments from two experts “sufficiently familiar with the particular problems of transsexualism” and then a court decision.

Source: German parliament votes to make it easier for people to legally change their name and gender