A Week in the War on Women: Monday 17th October - Sunday 23rd October GOOD NEWS SUPPLEMENT
Another bumper edition bulging with good news from the gender beat this week. Enjoy!
NHS New Broom
Surely the biggest and best news of the week is the proposed overhaul of the NHS gender services.
NHS England has produced draft guidelines for the treatment of gender confused children.
According to these guidelines, clinicians will no longer encourage ‘social transitioning’ in children with gender issues. Instead, their treatment will be evidence based and focus on psychological support and intervention. Furthermore, puberty blockers will only be provided via an NHS research programme and there are to be safeguarding processes for children found obtaining such drugs online.
Transgender Trend:
“We welcome the new interim service specification released by NHS England for the regional gender services that will replace the Tavistock Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) next year. This is a massive departure from the previous NHS service specification. Gone is the ideological language, replaced by proper clinical considerations and a normal standard of care consistent with other child and adolescent services. This is what we have campaigned for…
Overall, the new service specification recommends a watchful, careful exploratory approach tailored to the needs of each individual child/adolescent.”
ACP Leading The Way
On a similar theme, the Association of Clinical Psychologists has produced a document detailing the implications of the Cass Review for the profession with regard to the treatment of gender dysphoric children.
“It is the view of ACP-UK that all interventions for this very vulnerable group be grounded in evidence-based practice. Accountability, data collection, evaluation and routine clinical best practice will be vital if the new services for gender dysphoric young people are to be fit for purpose.”
Standing Up To WPATH
A new declaration has been launched in opposition to the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) over concerns about ethics, child safeguarding and misrepresentation of scientific data.
Beyond WPATH is a group of ‘mental health professionals, public health scientists and allied organisations & individuals’ who have public denounced WPATH.
“In recent years since the affirmative model has come to dominate health care for gender- distressed youth, various professional groups have formed to advocate for alternative, evidence-based approaches. While these groups and their members support one another and have occasionally cooperated, they have by and large operated independently. With the release of WPATH’s latest, deeply flawed Standards of Care, we have rallied to sound the alarm, calling upon all concerned medical and mental health professionals, advocates for sex-based rights, members of parent support groups, and concerned individuals around the world to sign on. A single unified message carries more weight than many disparate voices speaking out, and so we come together now to declare: WPATH HAS DISCREDITED ITSELF.”
Hundreds of medical professionals and concerned parents have already signed the declaration condemning WPATH. You can add your signature here.
The Scales Keep Falling
Thanks the to the sterling work of the borough’s Women’s Rights Network, Calderdale Council has erased all mention of Mermaids from its website.
“In a statement, Calderdale Council told the Halifax Courier, ‘The reference to the Mermaids charity has been removed from the Council’s website and promotion of this charity is suspended until any official investigation is complete.’”
The Spanish Rebellion
Spain’s medical professionals are speaking out in opposition to the government’s proposed ‘la ley trans’ [the trans law].
This is such an important story that El Mundo, one of Spain’s leading newspapers, put it on the front page.
“Psychiatrists explode against the Trans Law: ‘It can bring a lot of pain and regret to many people’. For the first time, the main mental health societies in Spain, in addition to the Endocrinology Society and even the Madrid College of Physicians, publicly criticize Irene Montero's law.”
Mexican Wave
The Mexican Triathlon Federation is challenging World Triathlon’s recent decision to continue allowing trans-identified males to compete in women’s events.
The organisation has sent a resolution to World Triathlon to annul the policy approved in August by the Executive Committee and to propose a new one that is ‘safer and fairer’.
Our Bodies, Our Choice
UK MPs voted in favour of an amendment to the Public Order Bill which will protect women from harassment by activists campaigning outside abortion service providers.
The bill will introduce buffer zones areas around clinics in which anti-abortion campaigning will be illegal.
Adult Human Females Onscreen
A group called Reality Matters has produced the first UK documentary feature to examine the clash between women’s rights and trans ideology.
The director says the film, “Centres the voices of women” and will “Show that raising concerns about this clash is motivated by reason, evidence, science and logic.”
The film is to receive its premiere screening in London on 12th November in London. The screening will be followed by a discussion with directors Deirdre O'Neill and Mike Wayne and cast members Julie Bindel, Lucy Masoud and Joan Smith.
If you’d like to attend, you can buy your ticket here.
Posie On Tour
Kellie-Jay Keen has taken Standing For Women to the US, hosting Let Women Speak events across the country.
Despite a few bumps in the road, women have been and will be speaking in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Austin, Chicago, Laudon County, Miami, Washington, Philadelphia and New York.
Conference Cool
The second annual LGB Alliance conference was held this week. It was a huge and resounding success with over 600 people in attendance.
Speakers included Helen Joyce, Shereen Benjamin, Julie Bindel, Kathleen Stock, Rosie Duffield, Simon Fanshawe, Rhona Hotchkiss, Eileen Gallagher, Ritchie Herron, Sinead Watson, Faika El-Nagashi, Isaac Mugisha, Vaishnavi Sundar, Derek Turner, James Esses, Malcolm Clark, Michael Biggs, Dr Az Hakeem, Steve Mastin, Dermot Kehoe, Shahrar Ali, Joanna Cherry, Baroness Sarah Ludford, Sir Peter Bottomley, Shay Woulahan, Hannah Berrelli, Alison Dowling…
And these two legends, of course! Huge thanks and many congratulations to Kate and Bev and everyone involved.
Women In The House
Well isn’t this marvellous?! Female politicians of various political hues are joining forces to fight the harms of gender identity ideology.
“Female politicians are launching a biology policy unit to stop gender identity ideology ‘compromising’ women’s and children’s rights.
Labour MP Rosie Duffield, SNP MP Joanna Cherry, and Conservative peer Baroness Jenkin of Kennington have joined forces to help ensure policies across the public sector that are based on gender identity theory are documented and scrutinised.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhAlvw_kAHs
Above, link to filmmaker Vaishnavi Sundar's trailer for upcoming feature length documentary (a first!) on trans widows. You'll hear my voice, "I'm 65" in the age range statements. Behind the Looking Glass will be released on Lime Soda Films YT channel in January of 2023. As with the 4 part series, Dysphoria, Sundar's work is stellar, evocative and inspiringly beautiful.
Ute Heggen, author, In the Curated Woods, True Tales from a Grass Widow (iuniverse, 2022)
uteheggengrasswidow.wordpress.com (commentary on Behind the Looking Glass interviews)
Kemi Badenoch just laid into Ben Cohen and PN this pm in the HofC.