Why the puberty blockers trial on 'trans' children is unethical and most be stopped
Arguments in favour of treatment are not based in science but are a consequence of damaging ideology
The first formal legal attempt to stop the Pathways Trial has failed. This experiment will soon see puberty blocking drugs administered to over 200 children aged 11 to 16, to assess how much harm or benefit may result from halting a vital stage of their human development.
In a case brought by detransitioner Keira Bell, psychotherapist James Esses, and the Bayswater Group - a parent support group for those with trans-identifying children - Justice Carmichael ruled last Friday they had no “realistic prospect” of winning their desired Judicial Review into the ethics of the trial.
The group’s simple argument is enough young people – including Bell - have been given puberty blockers this past decade to determine their lack of safety and efficacy already. Why risk harming more children when harm has already been confirmed?
While the group weigh up whether to appeal the ruling, Dr Hilary Cass, who recommended the trial, told the BBC Today programme she’s pleased “the science can continue.”
This exemplifies the irrationality at the heart of this: desire for puberty blockers isn’t based in science. It’s but one consequence of a wildly successful global ideology that has caused extensive social, cultural, and political harm.
As ever, following a topsy-turvy decision in the fractious ‘gender wars’, many people new to this have asked ‘how in hell did we get here?’ It’s the correct question, but the answer is complex.
Once upon a time, in a long-forgotten world - circa two decades ago - most people weren’t aware some believed in the existence of ‘transsexual children.’
That’s because nobody did.
Shouting the slogan ‘protect trans kids’ would’ve been met with bafflement. A girl saying, ‘Mum, I’m really a boy,’ would’ve been met with ‘Don’t be daft.’
If such insistence persisted, a recognition of confusion would’ve been any parent’s first instinct; a careful process of detangling such thoughts encouraged.
This wouldn’t have been deemed intolerance, or ‘conversion therapy’. Said girl, nearly 100 per cent of the time, would desist from these thoughts while going through puberty.
In our old, pre-digital world, we’d had much success chucking idiotic gender stereotypes in the bin where they belong.
No child becomes convinced they are - to use the Pathway Trial’s invented phrase – ‘gender incongruent’, without three crucial things being in place. And, unfortunately, all three now are.
First, a culture scooping those stereotypes from the bin, reifying them, and hammering home that everyone has a ‘gender identity’ separate from, and vastly more important than, their sex.
Second, activists insisting kids can be transsexuals if their ‘gender identity’ (read: personality, tastes, interests) isn’t ‘congruent’ with their sex, based on these formerly binned stereotypes. Any discomfort with one’s changing body during adolescence is taken as a sign of said ‘incongruence.’
And finally, doctors and other adults affirming ‘transition’ of a child via social, medical, and sometimes surgical methods.
The last part of this grimmest of fairy-tales has only been attempted relatively recently. But nothing has, does, or ever will change someone’s sex.
Back in our forgotten world, outside of occasional films or TV dramas, we’d maybe encounter the odd individual – usually a man like the late travel writer Jan Morris – adopting a persona they considered ‘feminine’ in older age.
Most would treat such people politely, if with curiosity. As this was before ‘trans women are LITERALLY women!’ was an idea made mandatory, questioning this felt less urgent.
It was also before the circa 5000 per cent increase in the numbers of teen girls identifying as trans and being referred to the Tavistock GIDS service between 2009 – 2019.
Fast forward through the utterly bizarre past decade of intense, widespread radicalisation on this issue; of men trying – on taxpayer funds – to breastfeed babies, of double-rapists being referred to as ‘she’ by supposedly competent first ministers, men belting women in contact sports, lesbians being told they’re bigots for being same-sex attracted, and here we are.
Activists claim we were simply ignorant in the foreign country of the past. Everyone has always been ‘cisgender’ or ‘transgender’, we’d simply needed educated.
Adult male trans activists who transitioned in middle-age have long regaled us with tales of secretly wearing their sister’s or mother’s clothing – including underwear - as children.
Identical stories of having ‘always felt this way’ have been repeated endlessly, to justify the ‘need’ to transition children.
They’d have been ecstatic to never have experienced ‘the wrong puberty’, these men say. It would’ve made them prettier, more able to ‘pass’ as adult ‘trans women.’
This, despite many having married women and fathered children pre-transition – something it’s unlikely any male child who goes through the Pathways trial will ever experience.
Teen girls with trans identities tell markedly different stories. Via hundreds of YouTube influencer videos, they’ve recorded their ‘T’ (testosterone) journeys, talking about crippling self-hatred and body dysmorphia leading to embracing a ‘trans man’ identity.
In a culture steeped in misogyny, woman-hating pornography; where gender stereotypes are back in serious vogue, it’s an abject failure of adult responsibility not to recognise the potential links here.
But failing to affirm, adult activists scream, means you’re ‘questioning their existence.’
There’s no doubt these young people are in genuine distress – even crisis. For 15 years, they’ve been told puberty blockers are life-saving ‘care’ for ‘trans kids’ by adults with sometimes good, but often malign motivations. All around them, the ‘gender identity’ narrative scaffolded. Some have never known anything different; some have fanatical parents.
Treating kids as a science experiment, given how the notion of ‘trans kids’ originated, is a devastatingly unethical response to what is psychological distress.
The harm must end. This trial must be stopped. I don’t question the existence of kids who identify as trans. But I do question whether those backing the Pathways trial have lost their moral compass.
Comments
Want to join the conversation? Please or to comment on this article.