From Mumsnet: Several of us have spent over a year trying to get local NHS policy to consider the needs of women, not just males who identify as women, in setting policy about wards, recommending puberty blockers and breast binding to teenage girls etc.
"EIA Version: V1.2, para 5: The estimate of the number of Trans people, offered by GIRES and Stonewall, is almost certainly grossly inflated. GIRES and Stonewall are campaign groups who lobby for their beneficiaries using Gov grants. The more authoritative reference is "6,000 had undergone transition". It is in fact 5597 as of end March 2020. But the next sentence is: "80% were assigned as boys at birth and 20% as girls". As the Consultant Dr Lucy Griffin points out in her letter, sex is of course DETERMINED at conception and OBSERVED at birth (or before by ultrasound). The Trans guidance should be careful not to use "gender identity" ideology, with "captured" terminology.
The correct protected characteristics have been properly evaluated in this EIA analysis, version 1.2.
But the EIA may well need to be reconsidered in the next 1-2 years as the treatment of Trans issues is undergoing rapid change in the NHS and the wider world, including in the Courts."
And Q2: comment about the document "Supporting Trans people: Best practice guidance for health and wellbeing practitioners"?
"It adopts the language of "gender identity" ideology which is not familiar to most people, and which is detrimental to the interests of women and girls, because it does not acknowledge that, in general, it is because of the characteristics of their female sex that they need protection: they are smaller, weaker and less fleet of foot. Women and girls need single-sex wards and intimate care from clinicians of the same sex when they specifically ask for this. When the Trans doc acknowledges these basic truths, then the interests of women and girls will no longer be in doubt."
Please read the EIA analysis, appendix, letter from 10 doctors to Bristol and Somerset CCG, and records of meetings carefully. The letter from Consultant psychiatrist Dr Lucy Griffin is wonderful and should be kept as an examplary challenge to this and similar trans "guidance" adopted by other CCGs. I noted that she quotes the 2011 Swedish study which says that post-surgery ADULT trans patients have poor mental health outcomes.
The AMENDED EIA raises the women's issues as far as possible. It has been checked by Bevan Brittan, a national law firm who work for the NHS in numerous fields including "guidance".
A lot of work has gone into this document. It is the best that can be achieved in the present circumstances, but I am sure that the women campaigners will want to revisit it in 1-2 years when we have had other court cases, especially Ann Sinnott's challenge to EHRC and GEO guidance, which informs this version and, potentially, medical negligence suits. I want to see an adult detransitioner like Richard Hoskins take the NHS to court for negligence: he became confused as a result of emotional trauma when, after his twin sons had died, his third and last child died and his second marriage broke down. He had been a victim of child sexual abuse which led to imprisonment of the abuser. It is a horrific story (Daily Mail).
I will mention that the only figures for the number of trans people come from GIRES and Stonewall who inflate the number of their "beneficiaries" in order to obtain Gov funding.
I am going to say that I live in Bristol and endorse the new version.
I think anyone can comment. The consultation asks where you live, and after "Bristol", "Gloucestershire" and "Somerset" it includes "none of the above". OK if you live abroad.
They have THAT impact assessment and they still want to forge on!?
There are 2 questions:
I have replied to Q1 about the EIA:
"EIA Version: V1.2, para 5: The estimate of the number of Trans people, offered by GIRES and Stonewall, is almost certainly grossly inflated. GIRES and Stonewall are campaign groups who lobby for their beneficiaries using Gov grants. The more authoritative reference is "6,000 had undergone transition". It is in fact 5597 as of end March 2020. But the next sentence is: "80% were assigned as boys at birth and 20% as girls". As the Consultant Dr Lucy Griffin points out in her letter, sex is of course DETERMINED at conception and OBSERVED at birth (or before by ultrasound). The Trans guidance should be careful not to use "gender identity" ideology, with "captured" terminology.
The correct protected characteristics have been properly evaluated in this EIA analysis, version 1.2.
But the EIA may well need to be reconsidered in the next 1-2 years as the treatment of Trans issues is undergoing rapid change in the NHS and the wider world, including in the Courts."
And Q2: comment about the document "Supporting Trans people: Best practice guidance for health and wellbeing practitioners"?
"It adopts the language of "gender identity" ideology which is not familiar to most people, and which is detrimental to the interests of women and girls, because it does not acknowledge that, in general, it is because of the characteristics of their female sex that they need protection: they are smaller, weaker and less fleet of foot. Women and girls need single-sex wards and intimate care from clinicians of the same sex when they specifically ask for this. When the Trans doc acknowledges these basic truths, then the interests of women and girls will no longer be in doubt."
Please read the EIA analysis, appendix, letter from 10 doctors to Bristol and Somerset CCG, and records of meetings carefully. The letter from Consultant psychiatrist Dr Lucy Griffin is wonderful and should be kept as an examplary challenge to this and similar trans "guidance" adopted by other CCGs. I noted that she quotes the 2011 Swedish study which says that post-surgery ADULT trans patients have poor mental health outcomes.
The AMENDED EIA raises the women's issues as far as possible. It has been checked by Bevan Brittan, a national law firm who work for the NHS in numerous fields including "guidance".
A lot of work has gone into this document. It is the best that can be achieved in the present circumstances, but I am sure that the women campaigners will want to revisit it in 1-2 years when we have had other court cases, especially Ann Sinnott's challenge to EHRC and GEO guidance, which informs this version and, potentially, medical negligence suits. I want to see an adult detransitioner like Richard Hoskins take the NHS to court for negligence: he became confused as a result of emotional trauma when, after his twin sons had died, his third and last child died and his second marriage broke down. He had been a victim of child sexual abuse which led to imprisonment of the abuser. It is a horrific story (Daily Mail).
I will mention that the only figures for the number of trans people come from GIRES and Stonewall who inflate the number of their "beneficiaries" in order to obtain Gov funding.
I am going to say that I live in Bristol and endorse the new version.
is this for UK residents only?
i'm not sure. ask on Mumsnet! x
I think anyone can comment. The consultation asks where you live, and after "Bristol", "Gloucestershire" and "Somerset" it includes "none of the above". OK if you live abroad.