Two women – Kemi Badenoch and Kellie-Jay Keen – made a splash across the pond on Terf Island this week. First up was the UK Equalities Minister and President of the Board of Trade Kemi Badenoch.
She quotes a former clinician at the NHS Tavistock child gender identity clinic who had said that in helping children change gender, they were in fact “making them straight” and quoting another that this was in effect “conversion therapy for gay kids”.
Badenoch wrote:
I committed to providing further details on the evidence that children likely to grow up to be gay (same sex attracted) might be subjected to conversion practices on the basis of gender identity rather than their sexual orientation.
Both prospective and retrospective studies have found a link between gender non-conformity in childhood and someone later coming out as gay.
A young person and their family may notice that they are gender non- conforming earlier than they are aware of their developing sexual orientation. If gender non-conformity is misinterpreted as evidence of being transgender and a child is medically affirmed the child may not have had a chance to identify, come to terms with or explore a same-sex orientation.
The strong link between same sex attraction and a transgender identity has been discussed in the relevant academic literature for many years. – Kemi Badenoch, https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/43255/documents/215243/default/
This of course is not news to anyone attentive to the issues. What is news is that a prominent politician has cared to immerse herself in the issues and then dared to tell the truth about the so-called gender-affirming care for minors.
Bev Jackson, co-founder of the LGB Alliance, commented: “The evidence is clear. The vast majority of young people being put onto irreversible medical pathways are attracted to their sex.
“We are literally ‘transing the gay away’ when we should be helping them to understand and accept their sexuality and grow up to live happy, healthy lives as lesbians, gay men or bisexuals.
Helen Joyce, from Sex Matters, commented: “It has been well-established for decades that children destined to grow up gay are far more likely than other children to be highly gender non-conforming in early youth.
“Such children need to be allowed to grow up in a safe, supportive environment, and to be allowed to discover their sexuality on their timescale.
“Instead, trans ideology interprets gender non-conformity as a potential sign of a trans identity. This tragically misguided framing is today’s version of the historic atrocities of gay conversion therapy.”
While other politicians and poltroons posture, pander, thunder and ooze with weasel words and equivocation on this issue, Badenoch speaks directly. She immersed herself in the subject and forged a thorough understanding of the evidence about the impact of radical transactivism on vulnerable children. What is refreshing is the clarity with which she speaks.
Many, including me, may find Badenoch’s views and policies on a range of other topics reprehensible (aka views I disagree with). She is a Tory after all! But Badenoch’s letter has all the research references needed to back up her assertions and conclusions. Check them yourself.
To mix a few metaphors, Badenoch has grasped the thorny hot potato of the third rail and said the unsayable truth – this practice is modern conversion therapy. So-called “gender affirmative care” for minors is an assault on our same-sex attracted (and autistic) children. It’s time for schools and educators to stop with the excuses, examine the evidence, and start standing up for children.
In the UK, the formerly useful organization Stonewall (now no longer fit for purpose) and others are calling for a ban on what they deceptively call “conversion therapy” This is intended to intimidate clinicians, educators, and others into an “only affirm” model of care for distressed children and young people who think they were born in the wrong body.
What we need is a ban on this Modern Conversion Therapy – aka the transing of non-conforming young people who, allowed to grow up naturally, would most likely be gay or lesbian in adulthood. As Sex Matters explains, this is urgent.
Will you choose to stay ignorant of the damage done under the guise of inclusion or diversity or whatever weasel words are now in vogue? Will you still pay dumb? Do you care enough to at least look at the work that Badenoch and others have done for you and that you should have done for yourself? Do you?
Or will you airily cast it all away with: “Well she’s a Conservative and therefore an extreme right-wing fascistic Nazi transphobic bigot (or whatever)?”
Or say – “Well this was written up in the Telegraph, the Times, and the Daily Mail therefore it has no credibility.”
Or will you choose to use your capacity for independent critical thinking, take a look at the evidence, and respond accordingly on behalf of children and young people currently in danger? Will it be too hard to say – “Oops – looks like we didn’t have all the information. Our good intentions have led us astray. We need to talk about this. Time for a course correction based on the evidence.”
To take a T.S.Eliot question out of context but still apt:
“After such knowledge, what forgiveness? Think now.”
And Kellie-Jay- Keen? What about her? She’s up next.
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Update on Badenoch: https://www.petertatchellfoundation.org/uk-equality-minister-says-no-to-meeting-lgbt-groups-2/
Badenoch gets even better! Not only is she protecting LGB, she's tackling corporate waste.
Who ever would have imagined such good sense from a Tory.
“The new report shows that, while millions are being spent on these initiatives, many popular EDI practices – such as diversity training – have little to no tangible impact in increasing diversity or reducing prejudice.
“In fact, many practices have not only been proven to be ineffective, they have also been counterproductive.”
She adds: “No group should ever be worse off because of companies’ diversity policies – whether that be black women, or white men ... Performative gestures such as compulsory pronouns and rainbow lanyards are often a sign that organisations are struggling to demonstrate how they are being inclusive.”
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/03/20/kemi-badenoch-britain-diversity-drive-backfired/
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/03/20/kemi-badenoch-clumsy-diversity-drives-no-substitute/
Do you live in the UK - do you have an idea what Badenoch's real agenda is? Does she? The Telegraph and Mail have long since failed to be reliable carriers of information. The Guardian is slanted, but still home, by and large, to decent journalism. This is only an opinion piece, but it underlines the confusion: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/mar/22/kemi-badenoch-diversity-schemes-career-equalities-minister-tory
IMO her agenda is playing to the bigots, while trying not to seem to be doing so. Believe me, there's not a Tory in the present government toeing a trustworthy line. Even Theresa May turned out relatively honourable, but she's stepping down.
Just keeping you up to date on what kind of person Badenoch is (and yes, you may have taken from her something that was fundamentally right, but we know why she said it. And I don't accept Sue's remark that you were under discourteous attack. I respect you, I loathe this apology for a human being).
From today's Guardian, re the one asylum seeker who took £3000 to go to Rwanda - the one and only (and we'll make sure no-one gets sent their against their will.
'Kemi Badenoch, the business and trade secretary, welcomed the development this morning. In an interview with LBC, she said it disproved the “myth” that Rwanda is not a safe country. She said:
' "This is somebody who has actually volunteered to go to Rwanda, which puts to bed this nonsensical myth that Rwanda was not a safe place.
' "It is. People go on holiday there. I know somebody who’s having a very lovely gap year there. We need to move past a lot of those myths, which are actually just disparaging about an African country.
' "This scheme was set up as a deterrence. It is working. Somebody has volunteered to go. Obviously, the easiest cases will be the first but there will be many more.
' "And if you look at what the Irish government has been saying recently, it looks like it is already working. They’re complaining that they’re getting people, failed asylum seekers, coming over there because they didn’t want to go to Rwanda." '
It's not easy to put yourself out there as Josie does. She spends an enormous amount of time reading, writing, and discussing these issues and addresses with respect and care the wide variety of viewpoints her posts often engender. It's extremely important to be able to have robust, open discussion on difficult issues like these. She, and almost everyone responding here, exemplifies how this can be done. I do know that, sometimes, it's really hard to do, as these issues can be very upsetting. Particularly then, it's important to follow the old adage "count to ten before you send."
Oh, come on. We all know what Badenoch's agenda/s is/are. She'll soon be gone, and amen to that.
Hi David. it's good to hear from you. Yes - Badenoch is a Tory. But - rather on the theory of the stopped clock perhaps - she is right on this one. Unlike the Committee to which she was responding, Badenoch did her homework, studied the research, read and understood the interim Cass Review, and based her opinions on the facts. I have done the same thing and arrived at the same conclusions.
I don't know whether you've read Hannah Barnes's "Time to Think" - a meticulously well-researched and fair-minded account of the downfall of the Tavistock Clinic. As I wrote elsewhere: "It’s a sobering story of the harm done to hundreds of children. It’s about distressed adolescents, desperate parents, over-stressed professionals, and out-of-control activist organizations. Barnes shows us just who these children are and what conditions they presented in addition to gender dysphoria. Some of the patients report being happy with their treatment and Barnes tells their stories too. But for many of the children, treatment led to severe depression, sexual dysfunction, stunted growth, and osteoporosis. Almost all of them presented with other—and sometimes multiple—social and emotional problems that were simply ignored.
"Time to Think" is essential reading for any educator who wants to understand the issues. Many of the children who presented for care were autistic and struggling with a sense of being different and socially awkward. Many were children—some with homophobic parents—who, if left alone, would grow up to be gay or lesbian." - https://intrepidednews.com/gender-identity-ideology/
This is not a left-right issue. There are people, pundits, and politicians across the political spectrum who have deep concerns about what is happening - the irreversible harm - to young LGB people. The voices of many detransitioners add to that chorus. Badenoch just happens to be the one currently in a position to do anything about it. I have no reason to think she is being insincere on this topic. I for one am glad for all the voices being raised about this growing medical scandal.
Yes, I am totally against gender reassignment before the early 20s. But Badenoch, I repeat, doesn't care much for her chosen field. Try this: https://www.petertatchellfoundation.org/equalities-minister-kemi-badenoch-has-received-an-invitation-to-meet-with-leading-lgbt-advocacy-groups/
Even after reading your thoughtful post twice, I confess I have trouble making the leap from trans to homophobic.
Maybe because here in South Carolina we still have people shooting trans women. Not much call for discussion of their homophobia when trans have to run for their lives.
Location, location, location.
Hi Sheila - I've been thinking about how best to respond to your thought. First of all - people shooting anybody is abhorrent. And transphobic hate of any kind is abhorrent.
The "leap" is in the evidence that Badenoch references. Her sources are solid. I have checked them. Unfortunately, she is correct and I am pleased to see someone at her level - a government minister - speaking out on behalf of kids who, if left alone to grow up, are likely to become LGB adults. The "leap" is the push to regard such children as transgender and put them on the route to irreversible medicalization before they have matured.
I read Hannah Barne's meticulous and well-researched account of the downfall of the Tavistock (the UK adolescent gender treatment clinic) "Time to Think". She tells the stories of the people who worked there and the patients and their parents. It was clear that some of the clinicians knew that many of their patients were same-sex attracted. They also reported that some parents wanted their children treated because they did not want or gay or lesbian child while having a trans child was acceptable. All kinds of distressed kids with a range of morbidities including social anxiety, self-harm, autism, and neglect were swept up into the treatment protocols.
Many of the children who presented for care were autistic and struggling with a sense of being different and socially awkward. Some were children—some with homophobic parents—who, if left alone, would grow up to be gay or lesbian. This is a theme borne out by stories of many detransitioners who realize too late that they were same-sex attracted. That's the first level where the homophobia shows up.
The second is unfortunately with some of the formerly useful advocacy groups who now promote medical interventions for confused young people and who want to ban what they falsely call "conversion therapy". I don't mean the old-style "pray away the gay" or aversion treatments. There is no place for that. But now swept up in that definition is exploratory and supportive therapy - the sort that allows patients the time to know and understand themselves and make wiser decisions. What Badenoch points out - and it is amazing to see a prominent politician do this so intelligently - is that treating a potentially LGB teen as if they are transgender (and setting them on a treatment path) is a new form of conversion therapy. And deeply homophobic.
Thanks, Josie, for once again diverting my attention away from comfortable retirement and the fantasy worlds of my own science fiction jottings (my wife calls them, in her native tongue, 'макулатура' ... waste paper) to consider the emergence of one more Hydra's head in the real world, far scarier than any of my manufactured monsters.
I don't want to get in the middle of a dispute between you and your wife, but has she considered that -rather than waste paper - these are зур иҗтимагый-тарихи кыйммәтнең әдәби асылташлары һәм эштә зур акыл күрсәткечләре?
Cheers to you both!
No harm done ... I carelessly omitted a word from the sentence: 'my wife calls them, affectionately, in her native tongue ... '. She's my greatest, in fact only fan, even though, as a MSc in chemistry, she gets a bit tight lipped when reading my woo woo theories about how reality is created from chaos by the combined dreams of intelligent life forms. She tells me that a feature of her school life in the USSR was the gathering of waste paper into 10Kg bundles which could be exchanged for a voucher allowing her to buy otherwise forbidden goods such as fiction books published in the west ... even the works of Isaac Asimov!
Phew! I was a bit anxious there for a moment.
Great story about the waste paper.
I am interested in what people say not the party they belong to. So well done Kemi.
Good for you!
Complex times don't lend themselves to knee-jerk responses. Kemi is 100% correct on this issue and she has done her homework. The ghastly euphemism of "gender-affirming care" for minors is transing/ medicalising the gay away. And deeply homophobic.
And where are the autism charities? They should be all over this shouting from the housetops about this abuse of kids and especially girls on the spectrum.
And informed clarity and courage are rare in any politician of any stripe so that is always refreshing!
Check the agenda. It's part of the anti-woke hate drive and simply encourages intolerance. Really shameful.
Yes, it's very sad to see the first person commenting on the post just dismissing Badenoch for an assumed 'agenda'. Her agenda is the truth, and cutting through the crap of transactivisim and indoctrination. It has been stated that staff at the now discredited Tavistock openly joked 'There won't be any gays left at this rate', because of transgenderism.
And now we have the WPATH Files and the NHS coming to its senses about puberty blockers. And then we saw the shameful MPs talking about ferrets and pet names rather then reading and discussing a bill to prevent private clinics from making profits by pushing these drugs the NHS has banned as quack medicine. Why is Labour so keen to push experimental drugs that stop kids growing up healthy and why do they support private clinics? What happened to Labour who used to support and protect kids? Who is behind all this? There has to be big money somewhere.
It's not 'assumed' - it's proven. Badenoch is part of the hateful anti-woke brigade - she of all people - and her agenda is to stir up hatred and division. Anyway, good riddance to the lot of them. There isn't a decent Tory in government - all the good or half-ones left or were kicked out before Johnson became PM.
Hi Jeremy - I think many gay people remember the Margaret Thatcher era and the notorious Section 28 that prohibited what it called "the promotion of homosexuality". Those days are long gone. What is happening now bears no relation to that appalling piece of homophobic legislation.
This is not a right-left political issue and - although the Labour leadership seems more prone to be captured by the ideology - there are many voices across the political spectrum raising the alarm about the dangers to women's rights, gays and lesbians, and the safeguarding of children.
Many of the most vocal opponents of gender ideology are on the Left, some of them now feeling politically homeless. Legendary gay pioneers like Simon Fanshawe (a founder of Stonewall) and Bev Jackson (a member of the GLF back in the day and co-founder of the LGBAlliance) have voiced their strong opposition to what is happening to LGB youth. Just last week Shahrah Ali won his case against the Green Party for unlawful discrimination because of his gender-critical beliefs.
And yes - clinicians at the Tavistock did 'joke' about transing away the gay - aka modern conversion therapy.
As always it is important to do our critical thinking. Most will be appalled at what they discover if and when people do that.
Thanks for the comment, Jeremy.
This is a very important essagy about the dangers of wiping out gay identification which, as who like music, go to the theater, read books and like to cook is one of the most productive and important gender ID's a society can have. Think of the Greeks!!!
Hi Carol - What if there is no such thing as "gender"? Just two sexes, three sexual orientations, and infinite personalities?
It doesn't say much for society that homosexuality so terrifies parents that they would rather have their child morphed into the opposite sex. I say "morphed" but I can only imagine the trauma this involves. How did such a practice come to be in the first place? It is only in recent years that these same issues have come to light here, unless I had my head buried. Having no offspring I admit I don't stay up to date with child-rearing problems and I can't really say what sort of parent I would have been but I hope I would have encouraged my child to be whatever it developed into.
Just when it seemed that homophobia was truly fading (circa 2015) back it came and roaring with a vengeance. Like misogyny, it seems it is always with us. And currently, both are in a particularly virulent phase.
Some people are so homophobic (this is documented) that they would rather see their children endure extreme treatments and surgeries than be gay. And children, of course, internalize this and can easily be led to believe that “God made a mistake’ or that they were “born into the wrong body”.