(Mark Kerrison/In Pictures/Getty)
Group belonging is important for human beings. We are tribal mammals and evolution has left some of us as terrified of social exclusion as we are of physical death. But as always, you can have too much of a good thing, and when social cohesion becomes restrictive, when the rules of belonging to a society become rigid, then many despair they can ever fit in.
War tends to increase social cohesion, leaving those statistically at the edge, exposed. And in the aftermath of World War Two , discrimination against gay people reached its zenith. “Homosexuals” were thought too different to be tolerated: they were criminalised and given a psychiatric diagnosis and “treatment”. Considered relatively benign, the so-called “conversion therapy” was deemed a way for troubled people to avoid worse fates and social rejection. Some gay men and women requested the “therapies”, presumably with the hope of passing through life more easily and being socially affirmed as “acceptable”.
Today, conversion therapy is at the heart of another war, as the Government attempts to ban it. Again it involves a marginalised cohort, who despair of fitting in. But this time, “conversion therapy”, which was always ill-defined, has taken on several different meanings.
The term is used to describe a range of medical and psychotherapeutic interventions, early versions of which were offered to gay men and women on the NHS during the Fifties — although these were focused on aversion more than conversion. Pavlovian attempts were made to disrupt any association between (same-sex) sexual stimuli and sexual responses, with electric shocks or medically induced vomiting. Later therapists attempted to actively re-orientate people’s sexuality towards heterosexual stimuli. Methods also included religious counselling, talking therapies, and finally, for some gay men, hormonal treatments.
These attempts to either avert homosexuality or convert lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) people to heterosexuality didn’t work — and even killed people. Alan Turing committed suicide two years after opting for “chemical castration”, rather than imprisonment. Eventually, though, society started to shift. In 1967, homosexuality was decriminalised in England. In 1973, the term was removed from the 2nd version of the Diagnostic Statistical Manual (DSM-II), a handbook used by healthcare professionals to guide the diagnosis of mental disorders. Outside of LGBT communities, the concept of conversion therapy may have comfortably drifted out of consciousness for a while.
The collective amnesia did not last long. In 2011, The Guardian reported that some religious therapists were still trying to convert gay men. This forced therapy organisations in the UK to confront their history, and in 2015 the first Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on Conversion Therapy was signed by 16 organisations. All agreed that it was unethical for a therapist to try to change someone’s sexual orientation via any means. Two years later, a second memorandum — the MOU2 — was announced. This one had expanded the concept of conversion therapy to include any “therapeutic approach, or any model or individual viewpoint that demonstrates an assumption that any sexual orientation or gender identity is inherently preferable to any other”. The inclusion of “gender identity” is significant.
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Subscribe“… the number of adolescents and young adults questioning their gender and sexuality has increased exponentially in recent years in particular among young women.”
The idea of the “gendered soul” is being introduced in many schools as factual and pupils are encouraged to embrace it as an achievement. In some schools the teacher leads the class in a round of applause for the kid who announces their “new gender identity.” The kid doesn’t have to work at being good at anything – they just make an announcement – in order to get positive attention.
Throw in social media contagion, idiot parents who brag about having “No boring CIS kids,” society’s current hostility toward scientific rationalism, the media & political establishment’s terror of being honest about it, and it’s no wonder kids get confused.
Yes, its fine if the NHS moves toward psychotherapy as a default but that will be a wasted initiative if the schools keep adopting a hardline Stonewall position. Stonewall needs to be tamed before any sensible therapeutic approach can work, and ‘tamed’ means banning in civil service, kwangos, and schools.
“No one yet knows why”
Really. When I was growing up no one was confused as to which sex they were so the proportion of the population with this issue must have been vanishingly small. The problem is people, and particularly young people, are infinitely malleable especially in uncertain times. Provide them with an option that gives them the attention and affirmation they crave and they will by straight over the cliff like lemmings.
The corollary is that that the people behind this are either evil (know what they are doing and get some kind of perverted satisfaction out of it, or they are amoral and swayed by the own self-interest (financial, reputational or otherwise) or psychotherapy is a sham profession with less scientific basis than phrenology
all of the above
all of the above
Yes, its fine if the NHS moves toward psychotherapy as a default but that will be a wasted initiative if the schools keep adopting a hardline Stonewall position. Stonewall needs to be tamed before any sensible therapeutic approach can work, and ‘tamed’ means banning in civil service, kwangos, and schools.
“No one yet knows why”
Really. When I was growing up no one was confused as to which sex they were so the proportion of the population with this issue must have been vanishingly small. The problem is people, and particularly young people, are infinitely malleable especially in uncertain times. Provide them with an option that gives them the attention and affirmation they crave and they will by straight over the cliff like lemmings.
The corollary is that that the people behind this are either evil (know what they are doing and get some kind of perverted satisfaction out of it, or they are amoral and swayed by the own self-interest (financial, reputational or otherwise) or psychotherapy is a sham profession with less scientific basis than phrenology
“… the number of adolescents and young adults questioning their gender and sexuality has increased exponentially in recent years in particular among young women.”
The idea of the “gendered soul” is being introduced in many schools as factual and pupils are encouraged to embrace it as an achievement. In some schools the teacher leads the class in a round of applause for the kid who announces their “new gender identity.” The kid doesn’t have to work at being good at anything – they just make an announcement – in order to get positive attention.
Throw in social media contagion, idiot parents who brag about having “No boring CIS kids,” society’s current hostility toward scientific rationalism, the media & political establishment’s terror of being honest about it, and it’s no wonder kids get confused.
The trans ideologues are promoters and suppliers of the most evil and brutal conversion therapy of all.
Studies show that when confused children and young people do not receive affirmation of their “gender identity” and are not put on puberty blockers, hormones or have their bodies disfigured by surgery, 80-90% grow out of their supposed trans confusion by their early twenties. The majority determine that they are gay.
The trans ideologues, then, are encouraging children and young adults, nine out of ten of whom would have grown out of their gender identity dysmorphia, to undertake a conversion therapy of drugs and surgical amputation in order to “affirm” their “gender identity”. And as the majority of confused children and young adults are really just homosexuals, it is primarily an obscene gay conversion therapy.
Which is exactly why those trans ideologues (including Stonewall, Mermaids, etc) are, in effect, homophobes.
Lesbians who don’t relish the notion of sex with a “transwoman-with-d**k-testicles-male sexual behaviours” are told to reconsider their prejudices. That is, the trans enthusiasts want to convert lesbians. They do it by exhortation, social pressure, punishment by banishing. Conversion practices are alive and well in the trans “community”.
Lesbians who don’t relish the notion of sex with a “transwoman-with-d**k-testicles-male sexual behaviours” are told to reconsider their prejudices. That is, the trans enthusiasts want to convert lesbians. They do it by exhortation, social pressure, punishment by banishing. Conversion practices are alive and well in the trans “community”.
Which is exactly why those trans ideologues (including Stonewall, Mermaids, etc) are, in effect, homophobes.
The trans ideologues are promoters and suppliers of the most evil and brutal conversion therapy of all.
Studies show that when confused children and young people do not receive affirmation of their “gender identity” and are not put on puberty blockers, hormones or have their bodies disfigured by surgery, 80-90% grow out of their supposed trans confusion by their early twenties. The majority determine that they are gay.
The trans ideologues, then, are encouraging children and young adults, nine out of ten of whom would have grown out of their gender identity dysmorphia, to undertake a conversion therapy of drugs and surgical amputation in order to “affirm” their “gender identity”. And as the majority of confused children and young adults are really just homosexuals, it is primarily an obscene gay conversion therapy.
‘Alan Turing committed suicide two years after opting for “chemical castration”, rather than imprisonment.’
It is ‘chemical castration’ when people are against it.
It is ‘puberty blockers’ when people want to chemically castrate boys.
It is strange that these drugs caused Alan Turing to kill himself, while the people pushing them declare ‘The drugs have a good track record, with 30 years of follow-up data showing them to be safe and effective.’
I believe Turing’s family strongly dispute the idea that he committed suicide by reason of the chemical castration treatment.
I believe Turing’s family strongly dispute the idea that he committed suicide by reason of the chemical castration treatment.
‘Alan Turing committed suicide two years after opting for “chemical castration”, rather than imprisonment.’
It is ‘chemical castration’ when people are against it.
It is ‘puberty blockers’ when people want to chemically castrate boys.
It is strange that these drugs caused Alan Turing to kill himself, while the people pushing them declare ‘The drugs have a good track record, with 30 years of follow-up data showing them to be safe and effective.’
I enjoyed this piece other than when the author used the unfortunate formulation ‘LGBT communities’. There is no such thing. The conflation of lesbians, gay men and bisexuals with trans is an act of forced teaming that is causing distress and anger among LGB people who find themselves hitched to an imagined state of being which actively denies the materiality of sex – the very foundation of homosexuality and heterosexuality. The conflation of trans with LGB people in the minds of much of the general population is also beginning to roll back the acceptance of homosexuals and our relationships. At least we may take some solace that the author didn’t include the Q for ‘queer’ and other letters in the unbreakable WiFi password that we’ve been consigned to by, let’s be honest, a minority of heterosexual fetishists who’ve colonised gay lives like cuckoos in the nest.
TQ+ imagineers and cosplayers: get out of LGB lives. They are antithetical to our interests and we have nothing in common with them.
Good point. The word “community” does a lot of heavy lifting these days in many areas. It’s really just short-hand for putting sometimes disparate individuals into a box when it seems useful.
As soon as you say ‘community’ you have created an Us and Them situation. Surely, one of the great successes of the past 50 years is that LGB people are now fully integrated with heteros in the same society. It’s the T people who knowingly use the term ‘community’ to make the rest of us feel they are marginalised.
Well said.
Good point. The word “community” does a lot of heavy lifting these days in many areas. It’s really just short-hand for putting sometimes disparate individuals into a box when it seems useful.
As soon as you say ‘community’ you have created an Us and Them situation. Surely, one of the great successes of the past 50 years is that LGB people are now fully integrated with heteros in the same society. It’s the T people who knowingly use the term ‘community’ to make the rest of us feel they are marginalised.
Well said.
I enjoyed this piece other than when the author used the unfortunate formulation ‘LGBT communities’. There is no such thing. The conflation of lesbians, gay men and bisexuals with trans is an act of forced teaming that is causing distress and anger among LGB people who find themselves hitched to an imagined state of being which actively denies the materiality of sex – the very foundation of homosexuality and heterosexuality. The conflation of trans with LGB people in the minds of much of the general population is also beginning to roll back the acceptance of homosexuals and our relationships. At least we may take some solace that the author didn’t include the Q for ‘queer’ and other letters in the unbreakable WiFi password that we’ve been consigned to by, let’s be honest, a minority of heterosexual fetishists who’ve colonised gay lives like cuckoos in the nest.
TQ+ imagineers and cosplayers: get out of LGB lives. They are antithetical to our interests and we have nothing in common with them.
What a mess. If an adult wants conversion therapy, they should be allowed to take it. It shouldn’t matter if they are trying to convert from homosexuality to heterosexuality, or if they are trying to covert from one gender to another. The state has no business policing this.
Children are different. No child should be allowed to undergo medical interventions. They simply aren’t mature enough to make these decisions. I don’t necessarily have an issue with children transitioning socially, as long as I’m confident they aren’t being pushed into it. And with the explosion of children seeking gender affirming care, especially girls converting to boys, I suspect there’s some kind of social contagion taking place.
If you are old enough to choose whether or not to buy cigarettes, you are old enough to decide to have your breasts cut off.
What’s that junk women are injecting into their lips these days? Isn’t it some kind of toxin?
Yes, the age threshold in both cases should be 25 or thereabouts.
FolX? Might this be irony? Hope so, Steve.
Why?
cigarettes do long term harm, but the harm is cumulative not instant. The harm is reversible to some degree. Give up, and eventually your risk of lung cancer returns to normal levels. Change your mind, and you can simply give up smoking.
now compare with having your breasts cut off.
your comment is just silly.
Like several others – think I missed the irony.
What’s that junk women are injecting into their lips these days? Isn’t it some kind of toxin?
Yes, the age threshold in both cases should be 25 or thereabouts.
FolX? Might this be irony? Hope so, Steve.
Why?
cigarettes do long term harm, but the harm is cumulative not instant. The harm is reversible to some degree. Give up, and eventually your risk of lung cancer returns to normal levels. Change your mind, and you can simply give up smoking.
now compare with having your breasts cut off.
your comment is just silly.
Like several others – think I missed the irony.
I agree. It seems the very opposite of choice to not allow conversion therapy for those who want it. I am writing of conversion therapy relating to sexual orientation. It is not possible to change the genetic code of every cell in the body.
However, it should not be available for children – Steven mentions below that if they are old enough to buy cigarettes, they are old enough to have their breasts cut off. The entitlement to make one unwise choice does not automatically give the right to make further unwise choices.
I do find it surprising that transactivists want children to make life-changing decisions, while they would be horrified at the idea of the child being allowed to choose whether or not to smoke.
I do find it surprising that transactivists want children to make life-changing decisions, while they would be horrified at the idea of the child being allowed to choose whether or not to smoke.
If you are old enough to choose whether or not to buy cigarettes, you are old enough to decide to have your breasts cut off.
I agree. It seems the very opposite of choice to not allow conversion therapy for those who want it. I am writing of conversion therapy relating to sexual orientation. It is not possible to change the genetic code of every cell in the body.
However, it should not be available for children – Steven mentions below that if they are old enough to buy cigarettes, they are old enough to have their breasts cut off. The entitlement to make one unwise choice does not automatically give the right to make further unwise choices.
What a mess. If an adult wants conversion therapy, they should be allowed to take it. It shouldn’t matter if they are trying to convert from homosexuality to heterosexuality, or if they are trying to covert from one gender to another. The state has no business policing this.
Children are different. No child should be allowed to undergo medical interventions. They simply aren’t mature enough to make these decisions. I don’t necessarily have an issue with children transitioning socially, as long as I’m confident they aren’t being pushed into it. And with the explosion of children seeking gender affirming care, especially girls converting to boys, I suspect there’s some kind of social contagion taking place.
You can’t change your sex. If sex dysphoria persists into adulthood (80% of the time it does not) surgeries and hormones can sometimes help psychologically but they don’t change your sex. Therapies need to be grounded in these facts and should never entail ‘affirming’ a delusion.
This goes to the heart of the problem. Parliament needs to pass some intelligent laws, including one that makes psychotherapy the mandatory standard approach, but as soon as therapists adhere to the truth of what you say there will be a huge outcry from the trans ideologues for whom the ability to change sex is utterly central. Unfortunately I see no spine of determination in parliament and pass laws affirming the immutability of a person’s sex. So long as it does not all psychotherapists are under a massive disadvantage.
This goes to the heart of the problem. Parliament needs to pass some intelligent laws, including one that makes psychotherapy the mandatory standard approach, but as soon as therapists adhere to the truth of what you say there will be a huge outcry from the trans ideologues for whom the ability to change sex is utterly central. Unfortunately I see no spine of determination in parliament and pass laws affirming the immutability of a person’s sex. So long as it does not all psychotherapists are under a massive disadvantage.
You can’t change your sex. If sex dysphoria persists into adulthood (80% of the time it does not) surgeries and hormones can sometimes help psychologically but they don’t change your sex. Therapies need to be grounded in these facts and should never entail ‘affirming’ a delusion.
The damage this insanity is doing to children and women in the West is obvious. What’s less obvious is the damage this is doing to gay communities in non Western societies. I’d guess this nonsense is putting gay right back a century in the developing world.
I think the forced teaming of LGB and TQ+ is damaging acceptance in the West as well. I’ve seen more openly homophobic comments in the last year than I have in the last 20. It’s not helped by the fact that a lot of people are still really confused and think the majority of trans identifying men are gay.
I think the forced teaming of LGB and TQ+ is damaging acceptance in the West as well. I’ve seen more openly homophobic comments in the last year than I have in the last 20. It’s not helped by the fact that a lot of people are still really confused and think the majority of trans identifying men are gay.
The damage this insanity is doing to children and women in the West is obvious. What’s less obvious is the damage this is doing to gay communities in non Western societies. I’d guess this nonsense is putting gay right back a century in the developing world.
Male-bodied men in heterosexual relationships are transvestites. The idiotic conflation of the “trans” prefix on selected words to mean “woman” (or man) has made a complete nonsense of the whole debate. This is deliberate and must continue to be resisted by us all.
Yes, and in particular the early enforcement of ‘transwoman’ as the label for a transitioned man. It should always have been the more truthful ‘trans man’. Stonewall again.
TIM – Trans Identifying Man
TIF – Trans Identifying Woman
I think both are extremely clear and deal effectively with the sensible idea that “men who say they are literally women” are accurately described.
TIM – Trans Identifying Man
TIF – Trans Identifying Woman
I think both are extremely clear and deal effectively with the sensible idea that “men who say they are literally women” are accurately described.
As I’ve said before, just mentally replace ‘trans-‘ with ‘fake-‘. Works every time.
Much simpler too.
Much simpler too.
Yes, and in particular the early enforcement of ‘transwoman’ as the label for a transitioned man. It should always have been the more truthful ‘trans man’. Stonewall again.
As I’ve said before, just mentally replace ‘trans-‘ with ‘fake-‘. Works every time.
Male-bodied men in heterosexual relationships are transvestites. The idiotic conflation of the “trans” prefix on selected words to mean “woman” (or man) has made a complete nonsense of the whole debate. This is deliberate and must continue to be resisted by us all.
The role of the Therapist in all this seems to be lacking both in this article and wider discussion.
A good, honest therapist should have the goal of helping the client to experience life in a calmer, quieter more stable way. What this future life actually looks like really isn’t the province of the Therapist.
But with the two areas outlined in the article it does appear that the Therapist has a personal goal. With gay conversion (stereotypically offered by a religious person) the goal is not a happy life of the client but a conforming client who “changes” to an acceptance of being heterosexual. Similarly with the Therapist in front of someone questioning their gender it does appear that the Therapist who simply tries to help the client to work through strange thoughts whether this ends up with a formal diagnosis of gender dysphoria , an acceptance of same sex attraction or something else ends up with the label of “conversion therapist” unless total affirmation of “in the wrong body” is there right from the start.
I have no idea how any legislation or guidelines can navigate through all this. And I say this as a retired therapist.
The role of the Therapist in all this seems to be lacking both in this article and wider discussion.
A good, honest therapist should have the goal of helping the client to experience life in a calmer, quieter more stable way. What this future life actually looks like really isn’t the province of the Therapist.
But with the two areas outlined in the article it does appear that the Therapist has a personal goal. With gay conversion (stereotypically offered by a religious person) the goal is not a happy life of the client but a conforming client who “changes” to an acceptance of being heterosexual. Similarly with the Therapist in front of someone questioning their gender it does appear that the Therapist who simply tries to help the client to work through strange thoughts whether this ends up with a formal diagnosis of gender dysphoria , an acceptance of same sex attraction or something else ends up with the label of “conversion therapist” unless total affirmation of “in the wrong body” is there right from the start.
I have no idea how any legislation or guidelines can navigate through all this. And I say this as a retired therapist.
Like many other things in this country, we are no longer prepared to do the hard, critial thinking up front. This meme thinking, combined with semi-violent (no debate) minority activism, is leading us to run the experiment live, and facing the consequences post trial. I believe we’re going to have to wait for the wave of de-transitioning and lawsuits until this particular issue is correctly assessd. Likewise, climate change rejecting technologies like nuclear in favour of windmills, solar, and hypothermia. Likewise, the sexualisation of young children with its opportunities for the “minor attracted” and other vested players. This is the kind of article that reminds me that being a serious prepper isn’t a product of an over active imagination, but a response to institutions which can no longer be trusted at an alarmingly low level of Maslow’s hierarchy.
Like many other things in this country, we are no longer prepared to do the hard, critial thinking up front. This meme thinking, combined with semi-violent (no debate) minority activism, is leading us to run the experiment live, and facing the consequences post trial. I believe we’re going to have to wait for the wave of de-transitioning and lawsuits until this particular issue is correctly assessd. Likewise, climate change rejecting technologies like nuclear in favour of windmills, solar, and hypothermia. Likewise, the sexualisation of young children with its opportunities for the “minor attracted” and other vested players. This is the kind of article that reminds me that being a serious prepper isn’t a product of an over active imagination, but a response to institutions which can no longer be trusted at an alarmingly low level of Maslow’s hierarchy.
Thank you Dr Hutchinson for this clear and compassionate overview of the minefield that is ‘conversion therapy’. With no clear definitions of ‘trans’ or ‘conversion therapy’ it is impossible to legislate in this area. This should be required reading for any parliamentarians attempting to do so. Only fools rush in where angels fear to tread. One has to wonder what on earth the signatories of the MOU2 are thinking.
No mention of the minefield involved in any new conversion therapy law when challenged as a breach of the Euripean Convention on Human Rights and its Articles (9 and 10) on freedom of expression and freedom of religion. I confidently predict it will never reach the statute book short of a Starmer government.
We’ve got them in some states of Australia and NSW has a bill before parliament. Our governments are trans-captured.
We’ve got them in some states of Australia and NSW has a bill before parliament. Our governments are trans-captured.
No mention of the minefield involved in any new conversion therapy law when challenged as a breach of the Euripean Convention on Human Rights and its Articles (9 and 10) on freedom of expression and freedom of religion. I confidently predict it will never reach the statute book short of a Starmer government.
Thank you Dr Hutchinson for this clear and compassionate overview of the minefield that is ‘conversion therapy’. With no clear definitions of ‘trans’ or ‘conversion therapy’ it is impossible to legislate in this area. This should be required reading for any parliamentarians attempting to do so. Only fools rush in where angels fear to tread. One has to wonder what on earth the signatories of the MOU2 are thinking.
The conflation of sexual orientation & ‘gender identity’ continues apace. Gay people were not trying to deny the physical reality of their bodies, they simply wanted to be able to have sex with the people they chose to have sex with – a private affair that affects no one else.
The appended ‘T’ to the LGB movement is a very different thing. Quite apart from the fact that we can all be ‘transgender’ now without doing much more than wearing trousers or growing our hair. That was all done & dusted in the 60s & 70s. It’s transexualism that’s being posited now. The suggestion that we actually can change sex. This has repercussions right across society, as we are seeing in the debacle over males in women’s toilets, prisons, sports etc. it affects women’s rights directly when it comes to ‘trans’ identifying males. So it’s not just an issue of the individual, it’s a societal issue.
So where is ‘conversation’ therapy in all this? The denial of the reality of one’s physical & biological body has no relation whatsoever to someone declaring that they are same-sex attracted. That we realised some decades ago that to be gay was an individual’s right, freeing homosexuality from prejudice, is to be celebrated as a human rights victory. Attempting to ‘convert’ or ‘avert’ that tendency was the act of prurient little busybodies who thought they had a right to dictate what people did in their bedrooms.
‘Trans’ ideology on the other hand tries to force other people to accept falsehoods about the nature of truth, biology, reality. Humans cannot change sex. They can tinker about with hormones, chop bits off, add bits on, use stereotypical clothing etc, but they will always remain the sex they were born (observed to be, at birth). To affirm them in a mental dysphoria by offering what is euphemistically called ‘gender affirming care’ is actually ‘conversion surgery’. How this better than offering people the chance to take time to look at themselves in reality & accept that their mindset needs to come into reality with their bodies? Bodies which can’t be forced into line with a disordered mental picture, because surgery can only offer an illusion. Which would be fine if it was accepted by its subjects as such, but it’s not. They are pretending that they have actually changed -‘transitioned’ – into the opposite sex.
This is at its most dangerous when taught to children. Young minds are gullible & fragile. We don’t let children drive cars, get married, operate complex machinery, run a business, vote. How can we possibly think they’d be able to understand the complexities of their own undeveloped brains? Most of us, however mature our thinking, however long we live, will never in our lifetimes be able to do that, let alone children.
When it comes to sex, you can change the packaging but the contents will always remain the same. All humans need to learn to accept that.
The conflation of sexual orientation & ‘gender identity’ continues apace. Gay people were not trying to deny the physical reality of their bodies, they simply wanted to be able to have sex with the people they chose to have sex with – a private affair that affects no one else.
The appended ‘T’ to the LGB movement is a very different thing. Quite apart from the fact that we can all be ‘transgender’ now without doing much more than wearing trousers or growing our hair. That was all done & dusted in the 60s & 70s. It’s transexualism that’s being posited now. The suggestion that we actually can change sex. This has repercussions right across society, as we are seeing in the debacle over males in women’s toilets, prisons, sports etc. it affects women’s rights directly when it comes to ‘trans’ identifying males. So it’s not just an issue of the individual, it’s a societal issue.
So where is ‘conversation’ therapy in all this? The denial of the reality of one’s physical & biological body has no relation whatsoever to someone declaring that they are same-sex attracted. That we realised some decades ago that to be gay was an individual’s right, freeing homosexuality from prejudice, is to be celebrated as a human rights victory. Attempting to ‘convert’ or ‘avert’ that tendency was the act of prurient little busybodies who thought they had a right to dictate what people did in their bedrooms.
‘Trans’ ideology on the other hand tries to force other people to accept falsehoods about the nature of truth, biology, reality. Humans cannot change sex. They can tinker about with hormones, chop bits off, add bits on, use stereotypical clothing etc, but they will always remain the sex they were born (observed to be, at birth). To affirm them in a mental dysphoria by offering what is euphemistically called ‘gender affirming care’ is actually ‘conversion surgery’. How this better than offering people the chance to take time to look at themselves in reality & accept that their mindset needs to come into reality with their bodies? Bodies which can’t be forced into line with a disordered mental picture, because surgery can only offer an illusion. Which would be fine if it was accepted by its subjects as such, but it’s not. They are pretending that they have actually changed -‘transitioned’ – into the opposite sex.
This is at its most dangerous when taught to children. Young minds are gullible & fragile. We don’t let children drive cars, get married, operate complex machinery, run a business, vote. How can we possibly think they’d be able to understand the complexities of their own undeveloped brains? Most of us, however mature our thinking, however long we live, will never in our lifetimes be able to do that, let alone children.
When it comes to sex, you can change the packaging but the contents will always remain the same. All humans need to learn to accept that.
It has struck me that “conversion therapy” is a name that logically would be used to describe the process of adults helping convince minors that they are “born in the wrong body”, and then using cross-sex hormones and surgeries to alter their bodies. Only in an Orwellian world does it mean trying to stop this process from happening by confirming their sex at birth is “correct”. ie: conversion therapy actually means stopping conversion therapy.
The tortuous linguistic cartwheels they are forced to describe to keep up the pretence that it makes any sense at all would be funny (a bit like a Two Ronnies mispronounciation sketch) were the consequences not so disturbing.
The tortuous linguistic cartwheels they are forced to describe to keep up the pretence that it makes any sense at all would be funny (a bit like a Two Ronnies mispronounciation sketch) were the consequences not so disturbing.
It has struck me that “conversion therapy” is a name that logically would be used to describe the process of adults helping convince minors that they are “born in the wrong body”, and then using cross-sex hormones and surgeries to alter their bodies. Only in an Orwellian world does it mean trying to stop this process from happening by confirming their sex at birth is “correct”. ie: conversion therapy actually means stopping conversion therapy.
“… the number of adolescents and young adults questioning their gender and sexuality has increased exponentially in recent years in particular among young women.”
Because identifying as trans has become more fashionable than being anorexic, which has suddenly become much less prevalent.
“… the number of adolescents and young adults questioning their gender and sexuality has increased exponentially in recent years in particular among young women.”
Because identifying as trans has become more fashionable than being anorexic, which has suddenly become much less prevalent.
Many thanks to Dr Hutchinson for this piece. I have never been clear about the various usages of “conversion therapy”, but this article has helped me a lot.
I realise that this is not central to the intention of the article, but I would like to understand more about the recent “exponential” increase in young people questioning their gender and sexuality. In particular, is this increase just a fad, as some suggest, or is it the result of young people now feeling that they can constructively question their gender?
Up until a couple years ago, a large majority of transitioners were male to female. This has totally flipped now with children, suggesting there is some kind of social contagion taking place.
I agree there is probably social contagion, but also there will be a number of young females who don’t want to grow up to be adult women, that is very different to actually wanting to be men but trans is falsely offered to them as the solution – it isn’t.
I agree there is probably social contagion, but also there will be a number of young females who don’t want to grow up to be adult women, that is very different to actually wanting to be men but trans is falsely offered to them as the solution – it isn’t.
Read J Michael Bailey’s unherd piece published today.
Abigail Shrier has written about the social contagion aspect re teenage girls.
Dr Lisa Littman is worth investigating – I think she was the one who coined the phrase Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria (ROGD) in order to distinguish the adolescent girl phenomena from the traditional presentation of prepubertal males.
Up until a couple years ago, a large majority of transitioners were male to female. This has totally flipped now with children, suggesting there is some kind of social contagion taking place.
Read J Michael Bailey’s unherd piece published today.
Abigail Shrier has written about the social contagion aspect re teenage girls.
Dr Lisa Littman is worth investigating – I think she was the one who coined the phrase Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria (ROGD) in order to distinguish the adolescent girl phenomena from the traditional presentation of prepubertal males.
Many thanks to Dr Hutchinson for this piece. I have never been clear about the various usages of “conversion therapy”, but this article has helped me a lot.
I realise that this is not central to the intention of the article, but I would like to understand more about the recent “exponential” increase in young people questioning their gender and sexuality. In particular, is this increase just a fad, as some suggest, or is it the result of young people now feeling that they can constructively question their gender?
“Medical gender affirmation aims to help reduce an individual’s suffering by trying to better align their physical body with their felt gender identity.” It’s quite telling to think that this sequence of events may sometimes be considered as preferable to the reverse, and that “changing one’s body” can be seen as a better option than “changing one’s mind”. Perhaps affirming that our bodies are not some kind of “prison for the mind” or a category “ascribed to us” at birth by some jobsworth official, but actually represent the “real us” might offer an alternative form of alignment.
“Medical gender affirmation aims to help reduce an individual’s suffering by trying to better align their physical body with their felt gender identity.” It’s quite telling to think that this sequence of events may sometimes be considered as preferable to the reverse, and that “changing one’s body” can be seen as a better option than “changing one’s mind”. Perhaps affirming that our bodies are not some kind of “prison for the mind” or a category “ascribed to us” at birth by some jobsworth official, but actually represent the “real us” might offer an alternative form of alignment.
The gender militants are adamant that gender concerns neither sex nor sexuality. It is the primary performance of a true, liberated identity that requires full validation by the law and then the medical establishment.
What they are instead doing is converting vulnerable young people into members of a transhuman cult. While other cults do this with sex, drugs and mysticism, aside from the afore-mentioned Internet ideologues middle-class professionals are performing this same function in school education, therapy and general medical practice.
The Republican National Committee is about to take up gender-affirming ‘care’ as one of its key campaigning causes. There may not be a more popular issue with independent voters who lean towards the centre-right.
The gender militants are adamant that gender concerns neither sex nor sexuality. It is the primary performance of a true, liberated identity that requires full validation by the law and then the medical establishment.
What they are instead doing is converting vulnerable young people into members of a transhuman cult. While other cults do this with sex, drugs and mysticism, aside from the afore-mentioned Internet ideologues middle-class professionals are performing this same function in school education, therapy and general medical practice.
The Republican National Committee is about to take up gender-affirming ‘care’ as one of its key campaigning causes. There may not be a more popular issue with independent voters who lean towards the centre-right.
Among the many absurdities of the topsy-turvey world of Identitarianism is how many its proponents are adamant that having a p***s/breasts does not make you a man/woman, while at the same time being equally adamant that cutting off your p***s/breasts will affirm you as a woman/man.
Still, I couldn’t personally care less how many body parts adults choose to cut off themselves or what they think that affirms. Its the rest of us being compelled to play along, to the detriment of womens rights especially, which bothers me.
But what really disturbs is how the medical establishment, and other authorities, has stood by whilst unproven, invasive and life-changing interventions carried out on children have exploded. Whatever happened to “first do no harm”?
Among the many absurdities of the topsy-turvey world of Identitarianism is how many its proponents are adamant that having a p***s/breasts does not make you a man/woman, while at the same time being equally adamant that cutting off your p***s/breasts will affirm you as a woman/man.
Still, I couldn’t personally care less how many body parts adults choose to cut off themselves or what they think that affirms. Its the rest of us being compelled to play along, to the detriment of womens rights especially, which bothers me.
But what really disturbs is how the medical establishment, and other authorities, has stood by whilst unproven, invasive and life-changing interventions carried out on children have exploded. Whatever happened to “first do no harm”?
Gay: I prefer beer to milk. You can’t argue with that.
Trans: this glass of beer is actually a glass of milk. Now that is arguable.
Huge difference and too easily conflated
A trans therapist-someone was says change your sex-can go ahead, but those opposed can’t. This doesn’t seem very consistent.
A trans therapist-someone was says change your sex-can go ahead, but those opposed can’t. This doesn’t seem very consistent.
A friend ‘suffered’ from SSA and indulged it. He wanted to overcome it and was ‘converted’ from it by loving counseling, prayer, and support. Why outlaw acces to such? What about his ‘human rights’? They want a blanket prohibition because they want to give in to their feelings and fantasies, and those who have come out of their lifestyle represent a threat to their self-indulgence. Talk about unfair, one sided, and a denial of truth and the facts! No problem with them indulging themselves, just their denial of freedom of choice to others.
I do like the line about history rhyming rather than repeating.
What seems odd to me, an American, is that your parliament would be involved in codifying in law what therapies a patient and doctor can decide to participate in. Partly this must be because we don’t have an NHS, and I am beginning to think that may be a good thing. Health insurance in America, including government subsidized care can decide what it will pay for, but it can’t prohibit or approve what care a consenting adult can have, that is between the doctor and the patient. Even when children are involved, healthcare decisions should be made by parents, doctors and patients. The state should stay out of it. It is the responsibility of the patient to be informed about his condition and therapy. The state can’t prevent harm. If the patient feels they were harmed, then they can sue. This is how bad medical practices eventually disappear.
I know at present in the US, states are passing laws that prohibit both gender affirming care and conversion therapy, but these laws are unconstitutional and will soon be deemed so by the courts.
The problem with today’s politics is that principles change with the issues at hand. You can’t be free to choose conversion therapy and not free to choose gender affirming care. You’re either free or you aren’t.
The NHS actually saves us from some of the worst excesses of trans-affirming medicine. We do not allow/fund double mastectomies for 13yr old girls in the UK. In the US, transitioning children has become a lucrative business, with surgeons advertising their butchery on Instagram.
The NHS has massive problems, but the US model is worse. If you can pay (or get your insurance to cover) some medic will provide – why shockingly late term abortions are allowed. Because the taxpayer funds medical treatments here (including psychological and psychiatric care), there is at least some oversight and accountability.
The British public was alarmed to discover that it was funding ‘gender affirming’ treatments, including puberty blockers, for children. And when the NHS is sued, the taxpayer coughs up again. So we pay attention.
No one should be ‘free’ to access taxpayer funded harm ie taxpayers should not be funding therapies or medicine that are harmful (or of dubious benefit). This is especially true where children are concerned, because they are unable to give informed consent.
The principle here is whether you want to be free to decide what is good for you, even if many will get it wrong or be bamboozled or whether you want the state to decide what is good for you. No country will get the balance right all the time.
The principle here is whether you want to be free to decide what is good for you, even if many will get it wrong or be bamboozled or whether you want the state to decide what is good for you. No country will get the balance right all the time.
The NHS actually saves us from some of the worst excesses of trans-affirming medicine. We do not allow/fund double mastectomies for 13yr old girls in the UK. In the US, transitioning children has become a lucrative business, with surgeons advertising their butchery on Instagram.
The NHS has massive problems, but the US model is worse. If you can pay (or get your insurance to cover) some medic will provide – why shockingly late term abortions are allowed. Because the taxpayer funds medical treatments here (including psychological and psychiatric care), there is at least some oversight and accountability.
The British public was alarmed to discover that it was funding ‘gender affirming’ treatments, including puberty blockers, for children. And when the NHS is sued, the taxpayer coughs up again. So we pay attention.
No one should be ‘free’ to access taxpayer funded harm ie taxpayers should not be funding therapies or medicine that are harmful (or of dubious benefit). This is especially true where children are concerned, because they are unable to give informed consent.
What seems odd to me, an American, is that your parliament would be involved in codifying in law what therapies a patient and doctor can decide to participate in. Partly this must be because we don’t have an NHS, and I am beginning to think that may be a good thing. Health insurance in America, including government subsidized care can decide what it will pay for, but it can’t prohibit or approve what care a consenting adult can have, that is between the doctor and the patient. Even when children are involved, healthcare decisions should be made by parents, doctors and patients. The state should stay out of it. It is the responsibility of the patient to be informed about his condition and therapy. The state can’t prevent harm. If the patient feels they were harmed, then they can sue. This is how bad medical practices eventually disappear.
I know at present in the US, states are passing laws that prohibit both gender affirming care and conversion therapy, but these laws are unconstitutional and will soon be deemed so by the courts.
The problem with today’s politics is that principles change with the issues at hand. You can’t be free to choose conversion therapy and not free to choose gender affirming care. You’re either free or you aren’t.