The few days since the publication of the Cass report – the probe into ‘gender identity’ services for young people – have been a revelation. The report, compiled by Dr. Hilary Cass, has at long last, and thus publicly it wasn’t get ignored, blown some of the gold off the transgender cookies, confirming that medical interventions on adolescents weren’t backed up by solid study. This has awakened some of the great and the good, who have now realized that parroting the proverbs like “trans women are women” might not have been a smart move.
It must be galling for Rutherford, the primary scientific speaker, to include missed such a major health incident
Education Secretary Gillian Keegan was one of those who used those four comments, which are adored by protesters. Keegan asserted that trans women are women at the Chichester LGBT Forum again in 2020. For that stance, PinkNews praised Keegan as a ‘rare LGBTQ+ ally in Rishi Sunak’s cabinet’. However, the Tory minister made a more cautious statement after the publication of the report, saying, “We must not allow the gender ideology of a tiny but vocal lobby to advance their goals at the expense of young people.” I couldn’t agree more – but it’s a pity it took Keegan so long to wise up to what unfolded under a government of which she is a part. At a new find commission on the subject, Keegan seemed wonderfully lightly-informed, indifferent, and apparently thinking eagerly of knocking off and getting the coach house. ‘Damn, now I’ve definitely missed the 15:35 – but I could still catch the 16:02 …’
Then there’s music research rent-a-sceptic and the leader of UK Humanists Adam Rutherford. Rutherford meekly responded, “I know little about it, but I did hear from a tweet from Maya Forstater, a woman’s rights activist, suggesting that he could use his responsibility to educate those who disagree with the Cass report’s strategy. It must be galling for Rutherford to have apparently missed the great medical/scientific incident history of the era, as the most influential speaker for research and a critique of subpar research and quackery.
Keegan and Rutherford aren’t the most severe examples of people who appear to have been woken up by the interference of Cass. Under the direction of Ruth Hunt, Stonewall evolved from a queer rights organization to one that promoted “trans inclusion.” Gay and gay people’s concerns were put off in doing so. For her struggles, Hunt was made a living gaze by Theresa May in 2019. Then, from her seat in the House of Lords, Hunt insists she is ‘absolutely someone who has always been working in the middle earth, trying to build consensus’.
Actually? That attitude comes as a shock to queer folk who felt excluded by Stonewall’s near fascination with the T in LGBT. Additionally, it is difficult to reconcile Stonewall’s position as a group seeking ‘consensus’ with what Hunt said in a plea asking Stonewall to recognize there was a fight between sex-based women’s rights and transgender rights. She wrote again next: ‘We do not and will not appreciate this. Doing so would suggest that we don’t think trans people are entitled to the same rights as other people. We will always debate issues that advance equality, but we won’t debate transgender people’s right to exist.’
Hunt now seems to be trying every tactic in the ‘wriggling on the hook’ book; I believe there was a duty [regarding puberty blockers, etc.] on the NHS, institutions, and social service. So it wasn’t in my donation to either make this better or worse… I trusted the authorities, and I think we all did that. And that is something we regret.’ But Miss, everyone else was doing it, Miss!
The donation tried to suppress earlier warnings to institutions about the shaky evidence base for clinical moves for babies, according to Stonewall’s former boss, who should come clean about what actually transpired under her view. Campaigners distributed resource packages to schools warning teachers that there was little clinical evidence to support puberty blockers again in 2018. Stonewall’s response was to brand the pack ‘dangerous’ material, ‘masquerading as a professional, ‘evidence-based’ advice’.
Fortunately, there is no longer a time when NHS England distributes cross-sex hormones and puberty blockers to children.
Hunt has refuted Stonewall’s claim that it stifled discussion about transgender care. But someone doesn’t really add up. We might be able to applaud Hunt’s response to the Cass statement. After all, this person claimed in 2020 that “bad-faith stigmatisation manifests itself by presuming that transgender women are inherently out to confuse, and that transgender women are men.” I am skeptical of declaring that this conflict is over even if Hunt has changed her rhythm.
If Cass is at least the start of this lunacy, then fear is what we need to talk about and learn from. I strongly believe that these three, and many others, were frightened, and moderately so. They were terrified of what was happening to those who did speak up, including the harassment and career/financial destroy Allison Bailey, Rosie Kay, Christian Henson, and Graham Linehan, and I believe they saw it. They then accepted a terrible situation.
Unlike Hunt, Linehan, Bailey, and the other critics of the transgender movement haven’t landed a cushy seat in the Lords. And what about those younger people who chose to pursue medicine in the false promise that it would lessen their plight due to gender-related suffering?
Fortunately, there is no longer a time when NHS England distributes cross-sex hormones and puberty blockers to children.. But in order for any proper lessons to be learned from this gender scandal, those who failed to call out the trans mob – or even ended up parroting their words – should take some time to properly consider where they went wrong.
