The following article appeared in The Evening Telegraph. I am beginning to wonder if the tide is turning a bit. The journalist was very fair in her reporting. Note the astonishing remark from Gregor Murray, the former SNP Education convenor for Dundee, who lost his job – changing gender and putting chemicals into your body is just like a cream for acne! Crazy and dangerous.
One sad thing about this article – and others I have been involved with – is that I had to speak at all. Why phone me? Journalists have told me that they know of plenty people who think the same thing but such is the intimidation they are unwilling to speak out. I recall another time when a journalist did a story and told me privately that whilst they agreed with me, they would run the risk of losing their job if they reported me favourably – pressure was on from the top (I assume they meant their editor).
Today is April the 1st – anytime before this decade anyone suggesting that we would be discussing children putting harmful chemicals into their bodies because they did not feel they were who they are, would have been regarded as an April fool. Sadly this is no joke.
Note also the comment that ‘some people know before they can walk or talk what their gender is”. No they don’t! They have no concept of gender. It’s a mad world….
Anyway here is the article.
Seven youngsters in Dundee – all under the age of 16 – are taking medicines to delay the onset of puberty while they question their gender.
The figure was revealed to the Tele through a freedom of information request, which showed the majority of patients receiving these drugs were female.Given there are only eight high schools in the city, that’s almost one child in every Dundee secondary school taking the drugs.
Alex Muir, a transgender man, described puberty suppressors as “buying time” for the patient, to help them decide if they want to go down the road of transition – changing their gender identity with or without medical assistance. Alex, 23, from Dundee’s West End, said: “These drugs buy a young person who is questioning their gender a bit of time before they have to make any permanent decisions.
“Some people know before they can walk or talk what their gender is, but not everyone does – some have to work it out.”
However, there are risks associated with using these drugs, designed to override natural hormonal changes in puberty. Research has shown they slow down the growth of sexual organs, can compromise fertility and bone development and can affect brain development.
Across the country, there has been around 800 children who have been prescribed the medication, with around 230 under 14 and the youngest just 10 years old. Scotland’s only centre specialising in gender issues in under-18s is based in Glasgow, with the main UK specialists at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust, based in London and Leeds.
Rev David Robertson, of St Peters Free Church, Dundee, who’s been an outspoken critic of such medicines, believes that latest trends on the internet have made children question their gender, when most of them would not necessary have considered it.
He said: “Adults are so scared of being accused of being transphobic that they won’t speak out about it.
“It’s being driven by political correctness rather than the welfare of children, but it crosses the line when children are being given drugs to chemically change their body. It’s deeply harmful to children who are already suffering and it doesn’t relieve their suffering – it will make it worse.”
There are currently 14 children in Tayside and Fife receiving puberty blocking drugs – seven in Dundee, five in Angus, five in Perth and five in Fife.
All of the children are aged between five and 15, and fewer than five of them are male. Last year there were a total of 18 children in Tayside taking these drugs and in 2017 there were 11.
Councillor Gregor Murray, who identifies as non-binary, said: “Puberty blockers support young trans people through a really tough time in their life – by preventing the mental trauma of going through the wrong puberty.
“They delay making any long-term decisions until the child is old enough to make those decisions for themselves.
“We wouldn’t have a public discussion over the pros and cons of a new cancer drug, or a new cream for acne.
“We must let the NHS make the right decisions for all young people in conjunction with the young people and their parents.”
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, which holds the country’s only under-18s transgender medical clinic, was asked to comment but failed to respond in time for publication.
Well, I suppose there is nothing like theology to decide whether a particular drug should be taken or not – especially when not even meeting the patients. Since medically qualified people have decided on a particular problem, maybe theology could be used to pray for the problems to be eliminated for surely prayer works … doesn’t it?
A snarky, superior and illogical remark. This is not primarily a medical problem. And yes I have met several of the people involved – including those whose lives have been ruined by this ideology. Have you? Or are you just pontificating from your ideological bunker?
For goodness sake David, it’s perfectly clear from the contents of your blog that you like getting your name in the paper. Your “why phone me?” is more than a little disingenuous – the press know exactly what they can expect when they ring you & you are willing to provide it.
Your attempt to judge me and my motives is wrong. To be honest I hate getting my name in the papers on this issue – the hate mail and hassle is horrendous. I NEVER contact the papers they contact me – in this case on my hospital bed.
Goodness, that is a change in tone from the papers. Actually balanced.
We are often being told that 2+2=5 these days but also that “There are currently 14 children in Tayside and Fife receiving puberty blocking drugs – seven in Dundee, five in Angus, five in Perth and five in Fife.” That’s 22!
As young as FIVE?! And why so many females? Thinking back to when I was five I’m glad this nonsense wasn’t around.
The “wrong” puberty? Can the less enlightened among us enquire as to what biological markers there are indicating that the puberty is “wrong”?
“We wouldn’t have a public discussion over the pros and cons of a new cancer drug, or a new cream for acne.” Wouldn’t we? Shouldn’t we? Thank goodness we are!
Kids can be given blockers because they’re trans or because of precious puberty. They only start them after there are signs that puberty has started or is starting. If a kid has started puberty at five, which does happen rarely, they should be given medication to stop that because their body is not physically ready for it.
As for what makes it ‘wrong’, it might not be causing physical damage but it goes against what they think their body should look like in their minds. You can probably imagine the discomfort you would feel if your body started suddenly producing high levels of the hormones of the opposite sex and you started to look like a member of the opposite sex. That’s what trans people feel.
I agree that precocious puberty needs addressing, I hadn’t considered that until Donald brought it up.
I understand that trans identifying children are in discomfort, but not what that feels like. Same as I can’t tell you what it feels like to have an eating disorder, or to be male. If my body had started to produce the levels of testosterone of a bloke and I started to look like a bloke, yes I would be in great discomfort – because I have a female body and I don’t have a problem with that. Something would be out of sync biologically. That doesn’t seem to be the case with a trans identifying person.
The puberty that is to be suppressed is the biologically right one for their sex. There is, as you point out, an issue with the mind, the perception. I don’t mean that in any derogatory “it’s all in their head” way. When I said I was glad this nonsense wasn’t around when I was a kid, I’m not referring to the young people’s experiences as nonsense. I don’t believe they have the wrong body, but that they perceive it, and reject it, as being wrong.
The sudden, natural surge of hormones at that stage can unsettle any young person, so it is very concerning that life-altering interventions can be glibly touted on a par with spot cream when it probably isn’t so uncommon not to “feel” or identify with the sex you actually are when your hormones are running riot. And I wonder if females are a bit more affected in this way.
Thanks for your thoughtful response Braden. Always good to have a civil exchange on this topic.
Hi David,
Yes it is sad that you are contacted for a comment, rather than doctors. However there is increasing concern in the medical profession about this, as evidenced by a good editorial in the recent British Journal of General Practice. The authors outline the lack of evidence and the need for good research as to why there has been a surge in referrals (mainly teenage girls) to the gender clinics, the lack of robust outcome data, the lack of desistance data etc. I will forward this to you separately.
This also is a good article published by transgender trend questioning the “research” published by the Tavistock Clinic. If this article is accurate (and I have no reason to believe otherwise) then I think it raises serious ethical questions, verging on malpractice.
https://www.transgendertrend.com/tavistock-experiment-puberty-blockers/
I am in contact with Transgender Trend and I will try wit them to find a way to highlight the medical agenda. This ideological child abuse is going to cause utter devastation in many lives if not challenged.
But why has the government and other public bodies swallowed the queer theory ideology so unquestioningly? Is our culture so deeply steeped in ideological (neo) Marxism that we have lost all sense of proportion?
I guess that many of those under the age of 10 or 11 will be on puberty blockers for early puberty, a condition that is much more common in girls.