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[–]GConly 12 insightful - 1 fun12 insightful - 0 fun13 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

I said, two years ago when this transing kids crap came into focus, in a couple of years one or more of these kids would have a successful legal action and it would all start collapsing like a house of cards.

Schools need therefore to consider adopting a “watch and wait” approach, which neither affirms the child as the opposite sex, nor attempts to force them to conform to sex stereotypes.

Wasn't that the exact thing Zucker was doing before the false allegations got his clinic shit down?

The ruling in the Keira Bell case opens the way for medical negligence claims against the NHS for prescribing puberty blockers to children. It’s not impossible that schools encouraging children on to a path leading to medical intervention will also find themselves on the receiving end of litigation.

Incoming civil suits for medical negligence in three, two, one...

And then that will be the point doctors, way more afraid of medical negligence suits than being called a transphobe, will stop pushing the kids through this.

[–][deleted] 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

It's exactly what Ken was doing.

[–]Femaleisnthateful 9 insightful - 1 fun9 insightful - 0 fun10 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Paywalled, dammit.

This case has been a blessing. The media is now empowered to discuss the legal and medical implications of transition, rather than just deferring to lobbyist talking points. I think the tide is turning.

[–][deleted] 11 insightful - 1 fun11 insightful - 0 fun12 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Following last week's High Court case Keira Bell v NHS, the way puberty blockers may be given to under 18s has changed. This will affect the way these hormone-blocking drugs are discussed in schools, too. Here are some of the questions that parents and teachers may want to ask.

Who is Keira Bell – and what was her case about?

Keira Bell is a 23-year old woman who, as a teenager, felt uncomfortable with her female body and thought she might be transgender. At the age of 16, she saw a psychologist at the NHS Tavistock Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS), and was prescribed puberty-blocking drugs, which delay or halt puberty.

A year later, Bell was prescribed testosterone, and at 20, had a double mastectomy. The realisation that she’d made a terrible mistake led her to de-transition. She made a claim for judicial review against the Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust, where GIDS is based, arguing that, at 16, she was not competent to consent to taking puberty blockers.

What did the ruling say?

The three high court judges found in favour of Bell. They said that children under-16 were unlikely to be able to understand the consequences of taking puberty blockers, which in the vast majority of cases lead to children taking cross-sex hormones, the effects of which are not reversible. In Bell’s case, for example, the testosterone may have rendered her infertile. For children aged between 16 and 18, the judges said that clinicians might consider seeking the authorisation of the court before proceeding with administering puberty blockers.

This is what the NHS then decided:

An NHS spokesperson said: "We welcome the clarity which the court's decision brings. The Tavistock have immediately suspended new referrals for puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones for the under-16s, which in future will only be permitted where a court specifically authorises it."

Schools don’t give out puberty blockers, so how does this ruling affect them?

Although schools don’t prescribe puberty blockers, the ruling affects them in two ways. Many schools have pupils who identify as trans, and they will have to re-think the way they support those pupils. The new relationships and sex curriculum requires schools to teach about trans identities, so they will need to do so in a way that doesn’t contradict the High Court ruling.

How will it affect how schools support pupils identifying as trans?

The steep rise in the past five years of the number of pupils identifying as trans has been challenging for schools, and many have turned to external agencies, such as charities and lobby groups, for advice and support. These agencies usually advocate an ‘affirmation’ approach, which means automatically accepting the pupil’s new gender identity. This could include using their new name and pronouns and allowing female pupils to use breast binders. But affirming the new identity is the first part of a journey that could lead to a pupil taking puberty blockers, and then to irreversible cross-sex hormones. As the judges noted, once a child is on the first stage of the clinical pathway, it is “extremely rare for a child to get off it.”

Schools need therefore to consider adopting a “watch and wait” approach, which neither affirms the child as the opposite sex, nor attempts to force them to conform to sex stereotypes. So they could allow a boy to wear a skirt, for example, but not to use the girls’ changing-rooms.

They will also need to review their use of external resources, many of which appear to tacitly or openly endorse the use of puberty blockers. Typical examples are the Trans Inclusion School Toolkit produced by the charity Allsorts Youth Project and the Cornwall Schools Transgender Guidance, both of which have been adopted, with minor variations, by some local authorities and schools. Widely-used guidelines from Stonewall and the PSHE Association (an organisation for teachers of personal, social, health and economic education) similarly discuss the use of puberty blockers. Trans charities Gires and Mermaids have provided training to teachers that talks about puberty blockers, with one Mermaids trainer describing them as “completely reversible” and providing “immense relief from the dysphoria”.

How will it affect how schools teach trans issues?

This term has seen the introduction of a new relationships and sex curriculum in England, which requires schools to teach about sexual orientation and gender reassignment. Guidance issued by the Department for Education (DfE) in September has already warned schools not to use external providers who suggest that non-conformity to gender stereotypes is synonymous with having a different gender identity. They will now have to scrutinise externally-provided resources even more closely for suggestions that taking puberty blockers is an easy or appropriate route for gender-questioning children. Many schools will have the book Can I Tell You About Gender Diversity? in their libraries, or will have shown the CBBC programme I am Leo, both of which offer sympathetic accounts of trans-identifying children taking puberty blockers.

How will this affect schools’ relationship with parents and pupils?

Schools may find themselves in conflict with parents and pupils who believe that the school should automatically affirm a child’s preferred gender identity. This will need to be handled sensitively.

What happens if schools don’t change their approach?

Ofsted will be alert to schools that breach good safeguarding practice, and may give schools an Inadequate rating if their approach to gender identity is considered inappropriate.

The ruling in the Keira Bell case opens the way for medical negligence claims against the NHS for prescribing puberty blockers to children. It’s not impossible that schools encouraging children on to a path leading to medical intervention will also find themselves on the receiving end of litigation.

[–]jet199 5 insightful - 2 fun5 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)