On 14 February 2024, The Australian Financial Review republished a piece from The New York Times, “As kids, they thought they were trans. They no longer do,” by Pamela Paul (2024b).

This piece has several problems.

Here are a few.

---

Headnotes

Paul’s piece was originally published in The New York Times (“The Times“) on 2 February (Paul, 2024a). I didn’t do a Several Problems of it then because I was exhausted and because United States-based subject matter experts like Erin Reed (2024), Assigned Media‘s Evan Urquhart (2024), and Whipping Girl author Julia Serano (2024) had already jumped on it and done a great job. However, Nine went out of their way to syndicate the piece into a local masthead and put it in front of Australian readers, and I felt like that made it my problem.

For my Australian readers, The New York Times has a consistent record of polite, “just asking questions”-style transphobic propaganda (Yang, 2023) which has already attracted fierce resistance from trans people, allies (Accountable for Equality et al., 2023), and its own contributors (Andrews et al., 2023). Paul is the hand they use to do it (Bibi, 2023). She was already The Times‘ book editor, but became a regular opinion columnist in April 2022, two weeks after The Times dropped its only trans regular columnist, Jennifer Finney Boylan (Hollar, 2022; GLAAD, 2023). The Times Company press release announcing her onboarding in the role (“Pamela Paul’s next chapter,” 2022) uses language like “her keen desire to write about what people really think and believe but are often too afraid to say” — skating, not for nothing, very close to a slogan by Senator Pauline Hanson (PHON–QLD) about “ha[ving] the guts to say what you’re thinking” (Harris, 2020).

For my foreign readers, Nine Entertainment Company, the publisher of The Australian Financial Review (“the Financial Review“), also have a record of this kind of bullshit. Offhand I think it is the biggest single Australian contributor to the Several Problems Special corpus, and that’s in Australia, the company that gave us News Corp and modern Fox. Nine’s newspapers, including the Financial Review, used to be published by John Fairfax and Sons, which Nine acquired in 2018; under Fairfax management, they accumulated a lot of prestige and became newspapers of record. Since Nine acquired them, the editorial orientation of the ex-Fairfax, now “Ninefax,” newspapers has taken a sharp right turn, but they still retain enough prestige that bad actors find them very attractive.

---

1

The narrative [Powell] had heard and absorbed was that if you don’t transition, you’ll kill yourself.

First, there is no such narrative. There is no “narrative,” because that implies someone put one together. What there is is the common understanding that access to gender-affirming care is associated with lower depression and suicidality. That understanding is based in solid empirical fact (Bauer et al., 2015; Turban et al., 2020; Green et al., 2021; Tordoff et al., 2022; etc.).

Second, there’s clearly no broad message that “no matter who you are, if you don’t transition, you’ll kill yourself,” because if there were, a hell of a lot more people would be transitioning. There may be a common understanding that “if trans people don’t transition, they’ll kill themselves,” because that would make sense as a simplification of the actual facts. If Powell heard that as “if you don’t transition, you’ll kill yourself,” then that reflects something material about her internal experience. It does not demonstrate the existence of a broad spray of pro-trans propaganda in all directions.

2

At 160cm, [Powell] felt she came across as a very effeminate gay man.

This is a cute little jab because this is clearly intended to play on trans men’s and transmascs’ dysphoria — “No matter what, Powell’s transition was doomed from the start! No italics real end italics man is that short!”

In reality, that’s approximately the 4th percentile for male height in the United States (U.S. National Center for Health Statistics, 2017). Does that sound extremely low? Yes, it does. But if you divide a very large number, like the number of people in the US, into 100 pieces, each of those 100 pieces is still going to be very large. Being at the 4th percentile means Powell is taller than about 7 or 8 million men in the United States alone; about 300 million in the world (Jelenkovic et al., 2016). Height dysphoria, or the attempt to inflame it, cannot be treated as neutral, objective fact.

3

At no point was [Powell] asked about her sexual orientation

Why would she have been? Queerness isn’t transness (Human Rights Campaign Foundation, “Sexual orientation and gender identity definitions,” n.d.). The only people who think it is are cisgender men who call queer women “men” for having the temerity to fuck women who those men consider to be theirs.

4

neither the therapists nor the doctors ever learned that she’d been sexually abused as a child

I’m going to take the mask of sarcastic, laconic criticism off for a moment and say this: Powell’s experience of child sexual abuse (CSA) victimisation is both horrifically broadly shared (Pereda et al., 2009; Mathews et al., 2023, Box 1) and, individually, simply horrific. I sincerely hope that she’s been able to get care and that she has some kind of peace.

With equal sincerity, I do not believe Pamela Paul cares a jot. She’s leveraging Powell’s trauma to restate an old homophobic canard, namely that queerness — or, in this updated form, transness — is caused by CSA (Schlatter & Steinback, 2011). At the time I wrote the Twitter version of this piece, there was a meme on the topic by fascist webcartoonist Stonetoss merrily doing numbers. Bluntly put, this is Nazi shit.

5

Many … well-meaning liberal … people … have been attacked … and intimidated into silencing their concerns.

Who? By whom? Given how potent a weapon this claim is for the article’s central ideological line of attack, it would be really helpful to back it up with a source.

6

Laura Edwards-Leeper, the founding psychologist of the first pediatric gender clinic in the United States

I have always found this kind of appeal to authority really interesting, because it sounds great if you’re not the patient. It sounds great because of certain beliefs we have about healthcare as a “caring” occupation and therefore about what personal qualities must be required to accrue medical authority. If you are the patient, at least if you’re the patient for long enough, it becomes more apparent that that the personality traits with which medical authority is associated are only those which are associated with authority everywhere else — the propensity to seek it and the competence to do so successfully. People may want medical authority for good reasons, like effectively assisting patients they care about, or they may not, but there is no way to know in advance. The proof of the pudding is in the eating.

Given the tone of the last paragraph it will probably therefore come to you as no shock that Laura Edwards-Leeper is not actually being quoted here for her genuine concern for the wellbeing of trans kids. She’s being quoted here because she’s a conservative clinician who has been a dial-a-quote for other conservative and anti-trans commentators since no later than 2018 (James, 2024a), and has done a little bit of anti-trans commentary herself (see, e.g., Edwards-Leeper & Anderson, 2021).

7

Others refer to this phenomenon, with some controversy, as rapid onset gender dysphoria

I would imagine that these references are controversial because rapid onset gender dysphoria (ROGD) doesn’t exist. By “it doesn’t exist,” I mean that there is no scientific evidence of its existence (Brandelli Costa, 2019; Kesslen, 2022; Littman, 2019); there is an increasing body of evidence against its existence (Bauer et al., 2021; Turban et al., 2023); and it has been decisively, emphatically rejected by every organisation which has the power to formally decide what constitutes a real condition (WPATH Global Board of Directors, 2018; Coalition for the Advancement & Application of Psychological Science, 2021).

8

Frequently, they have mental health issues unrelated to gender

The intentionally ambiguous wording, “mental health issues,” is supposed to imply that they have diminished capacity to give informed medical consent. Of course, they’re always just talking about stuff like anxiety and depression, using its commonness among trans people (Wanta et al., 2019) as a lever.

Of course, sometimes it’s stuff like autism, again because it’s common (Strang et al., 2018). In that case, the lever is that a lot of allistic people think that autistic people are too childish or eccentric to make decisions. There is no actual evidence to support this position. For instance, there is no evidence of increased transition regret among autistics (Gratton et al., 2023). The only material impact that autism has on transition is that allistic practitioners use it as a pretext to improperly deny care to autistic trans people based on vibes (Strang et al., 2016, p. 5).

And, of course, what all this is missing is that even disorders that do compromise decisional capacity — psychotic disorders, those that include delusion or hallucination — don’t automatically disqualify you as a medical decision maker, because it would be fucked up if they did. The direction given in the WPATH Standards of Care is that a patient who has such a condition should be assisted in stabilising it and then allowed to proceed with transition (Coleman et al., 2022, pp. S36–S37); this is consistent with the capacity standard in every other field which has to consider this scenario (Morris & Heinssen, 2014). I realise that it would be very convenient for the right if there were a category of people who they could use as precedent for a blanket permanent all-circumstances denial of healthcare that they don’t like, but there isn’t! The world doesn’t work that way!

9

several researchers have documented [rapid onset gender dysphoria]

There are several hyperlinks in The Times‘ source copy of this passage. Those links lead to, in order:

• the website of Lisa Littman, a professional anti-trans disinformation operator (Billard, 2023);
• a paper by two other such operators, J. Michael Bailey (on whom more later) and Suzanna Diaz, in its republication (Diaz & Bailey, 2023c) in the fringe Journal of Open Inquiry in the Behavioral Sciences, neatly concealing the fact that its first publication (Diaz & Bailey, 2023a) in the Archives of Sexual Behavior — on which more later (#25) — was retracted for research misconduct (Diaz & Bailey, 2023b);
• a paper by Littman (2021) which, as Lee Leveille (2021b) notes, relies heavily on extremely biased sampling for politically reliable subjects, leading questions, and p-hacking, and still fails to massage its data into supporting its conclusions, which have no obvious factual basis.

However, while I’m including these findings to illustrate the depth of Paul’s duplicity here, it’s actually not strictly relevant to my critique of the Financial Review‘s copy of the piece, because in the Financial Review‘s copy, those passages do not contain those links. More on this later (#66).

10

many healthcare practitioners have seen evidence of it in their practices

The plural of anecdote is not data.

11

Britain’s Tavistock gender clinic, which … until it was ordered to be shut down, was the country’s only health center dedicated to gender identity

This feels incidental compared to everything else, but fuck it, I’m a completionist: it’s not true. The Tavistock was the only paediatric gender clinic in England and Wales. Scotland, which geography enjoyers will remember is also in Great Britain, has the Sandyford paediatric gender clinic. The UK as a whole has the adult Gender Identity Clinic (GIC) system, which is still running, insofar as it has ever run at all. It wouldn’t suit Paul’s angle to note this, though, so she simply lies about it.

12

[The Cass Review’s Interim Report] noted that ‘primary and secondary care staff have told us that they feel under pressure to adopt an unquestioning affirmative approach’ …

From the way this is placed, you’re clearly supposed to think it’s a key finding. It’s not. It’s in there (The Cass Review, 2022, p. 17, clause 1.14) but it’s in there as evidence, without a judgement on its veracity. The finding would still be in the report, in the same place, even if, for example, the review’s chair Dr Hilary Cass and her team knew that it was false, because the existence of a false assertion of that nature would be relevant to the Review.

Can we assume it’s true? No, not really. While the NHS England Gender Identity Development Service (NHS GIDS) — the paediatric gender clinic at “the Tavistock,” which is a broader medical entity which provides non-gender-related care — was still operating, there was deep political division between evidence-based providers and anti-trans clinicians, broadly acknowledged by both (Moore, 2021a) sides (Brooks, 2023).

Paul obliquely admits to knowing this later in the article by way of her casual mention of Grace Powell’s therapist, who she describes as a non-gender-affirming practitioner from the Tavistock. Paul therefore knows about the political division at the Tavistock, and knows that the mere fact that someone at the Tavistock said this means nothing. But she lies about it anyway.

13

In 2021, [Stephanie Winn] spoke out in favour of approaching gender dysphoria in a more considered way

Did she, though? I had the temerity to click on the link that Paul provided and it looks like what Winn actually spoke out in favour of was forcing trans men onto estrogen:

Furthermore:

When a natal female tells us she feels unfeminine & dysphoric, & thinks this might mean she’s trans, shouldn’t a doctor first check her hormone levels? Could low estrogen/progesterone be the cause of both her depression, and her sense of being less feminine?

This is more likely to occur if she has experienced complex trauma, especially early sexual trauma, which would also correlate with feeling disconnected and unsafe in her body.

Could it be that women who want testosterone actually need estrogen instead?

Winn (2021a & 2021b)

That seems like a different thing from what Paul described! Actually a totally different thing! And also kind of evil!

14

Some threatened to send complaints to [Winn’s] licensing board, saying that she was trying to make trans kids change their minds through conversion therapy

Winn’s licensure is in Oregon, meaning she is banned from practicing conversion therapy on people under 18 under Oregon Revised Statutes (Or Rev Stat) § 675.850(1) per Or Rev Stat § 675.850(2)(b)(A)(v). The definition of “conversion therapy” in Oregon state law is in Or Rev Stat § 675.850(2)(a)(A): “attempting to change a person’s … gender identity, including behaviors or expressions of self”.

But who says Winn was “attempting to change [any] person’s … gender identity, including behaviors or expressions of self”? Well, Winn, for one thing, who as well as proposing to subject trans kids to the Alan Turing treatment (see Meyer, 2013) also, for example, advised parents to put them through acupuncture in the hopes of provoking a hatred of needles because “the child’s hatred of needles could also help spark desistence [sic]” (Winn, 2022).

Winn stated an intention to engage in conversion therapy, and, to my understanding, actually did so. Oregon law says this is the point where, at minimum, the Board should get involved. Call me crazy but I actually think it is good when people Pamela Paul doesn’t like and people she does are equally bound by the law.

15

which has left [detransitioners] open as attacks as hapless tools of the right

If they are choosing to allow themselves to be used to achieve the right’s broader strategic ends — which the detransitioners with the most media prominence verifiably are (Alfonseca, 2022; Doyle, 2023; Henry, 2024) — then they are, objectively, tools of the right, regardless of any other quality of the relationship.

Under those circumstances, assuming that they are simply hapless — unfortunate — is the charitable, reasonable thing to do. The alternative would be assuming that the very specific and by no means representative subset of detransitioned people who engage in this activism are actually intentionally complicit.

16

These are people who were once the trans-identified kids

To me, this is a revelatory phrase, because it really cuts to the heart of what Paul is trying to pull here.

Transness is an internal experience with no empirical test. The way you know if someone is trans is if they tell you — if they identify themself to you as trans — if they “trans-identify,” if you like. The hostile “trans-identified” (TransActual, n.d., 3(d)) and the neutral “trans” overlap 1:1.

Paul wants you to think that her angle is that it was wrong to treat these specific people, and that it was wrong ab initio, from the start, because sufficient care wasn’t taken to ensure that they were trans — which logically requires that there must be a level of care which would be sufficient for that purpose.

However, Paul also says that these people “were,” without condition or qualification, “trans-identified kids,” i.e., trans kids. So there is no distinction between these people when they were kids, and trans kids. There may be a standard which could be used to distinguish the two but that standard has in all of human experience so far failed to do so.

That’s interesting, because that leads us inescapably to another conclusion: that all actually existing trans kids, jointly and severally, can’t be distinguished from these people by any measure. Meaning that no trans kid has received sufficient assessment to make sure they are really trans. Meaning affirming any trans kid is wrong. This isn’t an argument for more careful care, this is an argument for total prohibition, now, everywhere.

17

that so many organisations say they’re trying to protect

I couldn’t help but roll my eyes at the “say” in this passage, dropped in with such pointed lightness and delicacy. Read: “But they’re lying! They’re filthy degenerates who have designs on your children! I tell you they’re lying!”

18

Several of those who questioned their child’s self-diagnosis …

Paul calls knowing you’re trans a “self-diagnosis” to make it sound complex and technical. Note that she could also have used this argument with homosexuality when it was in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) (American Psychiatric Association, 1952; American Psychiatric Association, 1974) and the International Classification of Diseases (World Health Organization, 1977). Note that in fact nobody left of say Nick Fuentes would now bother pretending that “mum, dad, I’m gay” is a “self-diagnosis”.

Paul can only get away with this kind of obfuscatory bullshit because she and people like her have, with significant funding and institutional backing, been able to present transness, including in kids (Gill-Peterson, 2021) — a phenomenon which has been present for literally all of human history (Daniels, 2021) — as “new”.

19

… say it has ruined their relationship

Yeah, telling your child they’re wrong about something only they’d know will have that effect, especially when you deny them medically necessary care as a result. A key element of love is trust. Parents are not exempt from having to act like they actually love their kids. I don’t know what these folks expected.

20

How would hormones help a child with obsessive-compulsive disorder or depression? she wondered

I mean I could argue against the easy version of this position: depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) can both be secondary to (caused by) dysphoria. They can also both be exacerbated by it; the mood state dysphoria, with which specific gender dysphoria intersects, is also a core symptom of depression (Morin, 2023), while as an anxiety disorder (Better Health Channel, 2022), OCD is susceptible to gender dysphoria’s anxiogenic effects (Dhejne et al., 2016). Hormones relieve dysphoria. Therefore, hormones can relieve depression and OCD — voila.

So the only way this position holds up any better than that is assuming that she means depression or OCD which is primary (of no other cause), or at least not secondary to dysphoria. So the immediate question obviously is why — as the framing implies — would you have expected this answer to come up in a group of people whose connecting element is that their kids experience dysphoria? Why would it be their job to know?

But more broadly, as someone with primary major depression and OCD, I can take this one: the answer to “how do hormones help with those things?” is they don’t; that’s not what they’re for, which doesn’t make them any less useful for what they are for. It’s like saying “How does ibuprofen help with ADHD?” It doesn’t! Why would it? Why would it have to?

21

Others say their child learned these ideas in the classroom … through curricula supplied by trans rights organisations

Okay, look, I’m sceptical about this given the furore that ensues every time the possibility of “curricula supplied by trans rights organisations” or anyone close to them comes up — anybody remember Safe Schools (Law, 2017; Louden, 2017; McKay, 2019)? — but since I don’t have the evidence to dismiss it out of hand I have to press on.

Which I will do like this: yeah it’s expected for school curricula to be informed by current knowledge from subject matter experts. It’s considered good even!

22

The meeting was brief and began on a shocking note. ‘In front of my son, the therapist said, “do you want a dead son or a live daughter?”‘

Strictly speaking I can’t dismiss this out of hand either because I wasn’t there but I have my limits. Let’s be real: this didn’t happen. I changed my pronouns to they/them in 2013, changed them again to she/her and started HRT in 2020, and started doing Several Problems-type work in or around 2021. In over a decade of being increasingly engaged with trans issues, I have never heard or read of this phrase being used in a clinical context except in pieces like this one. If I Google it, I don’t get results from providers or LGBTQ+ advocacy groups; I get them from Newsmax (Cacciatore, 2022), Ben Shapiro (2022), and Transgender Trend (Biggs, 2018) — people who share Paul’s views, to a one. To the extent that it intersects with reality at all, it’s parents describing their own thought processes (e.g., Hirt-Manheimer, 2021), not providers trying to coerce them.

As an aside, I actually disapprove of this formulation anyway. Like it’s fair but I also think it’s oversimplified and reductive. Your child is statistically more likely to die if you don’t let them access care, but it’s not a given. They might simply breathe their last in eighty years having never truly lived.

23

Parents are routinely warned that to pursue any path outside agreeing with a child’s … gender identity is to put a [trans] youth at risk of suicide

That’ll be because it’s objectively the truth (Bauer et al., 2015; Klein & Golub, 2016; Marquez-Velarde et al., 2023; etc.). Hope this helps.

24

which feels to many people like emotional blackmail

When someone tells you, with bulletproof evidence, “you are actively increasing your child’s risk of suicide,” the well-adjusted and normal thing to do is, obviously, to go “you know, the real problem here is that what you said made me feel bad”.

25

But those studies were found to have methodological flaws or have been deemed not entirely conclusive

In The Times‘ copy, this passage contains two citations. The second one goes to Edwards-Leeper & Anderson (op. cit.), which is an op-ed so I’m not fisking it here (get your own primary sources, Pamela!). The first one, ‘methodological flaws,’ however, goes to an apparently peer-reviewed paper, Abbruzzese et al. (2023) … which was published in a Clarke–Northwestern journal, and written by three members of the Society for Evidence-based Gender Medicine (SEGM). In a just world, citing this bullshit would get Paul’s article taken down and me paid $50,000 for the number of brain cells I lost reading it.

The Clarke–Northwestern clique is a group of anti-LGBTQ+ disinformation operators and pseudoscience extruders who coalesced at the Clarke Institute of Psychiatry (Toronto, Ontario, Canada) — which later became the core of the merger that formed the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) in Toronto — and Northwestern University (Evanston, Illinois, United States) in the early 1980s. Core members are considered to include (Abernathey, n.d.; James, 2019):

• J. Michael Bailey, on whom more later;
• Ray Blanchard, who formulated Blanchard’s transsexualism typology, which heavily pathologises trans women (Serano, 2020) and separates them into two groups, homosexual–transsexual (HSTS; in brief, “gay men so gay they want to be women to fuck more men”) and autogynaephilic¹ (AGP; “straight men with an all-consuming fetish for being women”);²
• Alice Dreger, an acolyte of Blanchard, and a major influence on the “irrational censorious trans activists vs. innocent scientists” media narrative which Paul leverages here (Jones, 2016; Serano, 2021);
• Dr Kenneth J. “Ken” Zucker, disgraced former director of the CAMH Gender Identity Service who used it to do conversion therapy (Zinck & Pignatiello, 2015, p. 21, clause 14), now a conversion therapy promoter and anti-trans dial-a-quote (James, 2024e).

The best-known Clarke–Northwestern-aligned journal is the Archives of Sexual Behavior, founded by fellow conversion therapist Richard Green (Ashley, 2019) and published by Springer Nature for the International Academy of Sex Research (IASR). Ken Zucker has been its editor since 2000 and uses it, according to veteran trans affairs analyst Andrea James (2024f), as a “bully pulpit” for his views. Zucker’s editorship has notably been characterised by a rather laissez-faire attitude to peer review for authors who share his political views (see, e.g., Carey, 2012).

The Archives is not the journal cited here. The journal cited here is the Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy (JSMT), another Clarke–Northwestern journal edited by trusted Zucker associate (Abernathey, n.d.) Robert Taylor Segraves (Taylor & Francis Online, n.d.). The editorial board under Segraves’ editorship includes (Taylor & Francis Online, op. cit.) Zucker himself, as well as Stephen Levine, an advisor to conversion therapy promotion group Genspect (Duval, 2021) also known for his work helping to deny trans prisoners medically necessary care (Stahl, 2021).

With regard to trans healthcare, JSMT serves as a nominally peer-reviewed platform for the Society for Evidence-based Gender Medicine (SEGM), an opaquely funded anti-trans disinformation operation (Moore, 2021b) with members on several continents, including Australia (Turner, 2023). The authors of the paper cited by Paul are

• Evgenia Abbruzzese, who discloses her affiliation with SEGM in the paper;
• Levine, mentioned above, who does not here disclose his affiliation with Genspect;
• Julia Mason, who does not here disclose her affiliation with SEGM.

The substance of the paper itself would take me another entire article to properly dissect; I have focused mostly on the context here because that context, unlike the specific contents of this paper, remains relevant throughout the article. In short, its three key criticisms are that

1. the study had uncontrolled confounding (it didn’t);
2. it didn’t report all relevant adverse outcomes (it did), and
3. it doesn’t count today for Secret Reasons (it does; this is discussed further below).

For anyone who’s bothered to actually read the article and follow up its citations it is a transparently specious and baseless critique. Not that that stops Paul.

26

Pediatricians, psychologists, and other clinicians … dissent from this orthodoxy, believing it is not based on reliable evidence

There are climatologists who say this about climate change (Benestad et al., 2015). That doesn’t change the fact that in both cases the scientific consensus is absolutely unequivocal (What We Know Project, 2018; Powell, 2019; Boerner, 2022; Turban, 2022).

27

In 2021, Aaron Kimberly, a 50-year-old trans man and registered nurse …

Paul forgets to note that Kimberly is also an advisor to Genspect (“Genspect advisor Aaron Kimberly,” 2022).

28

[Kimberly] subsequently founded the Gender Dysphoria Alliance and the LGBT Courage Coalition …

One man, two supposedly full-fledged advocacy groups. I personally think I’d be satisfied with one but that’s just me. I am familiar with the Gender Dysphoria Alliance — its membership consists largely of conservative trans men and transmasculine people who pursue a self-interested but broadly anti-trans politics founded in transmisogyny, the hatred of trans women. Their 2021 open letter Trans Men Fight Back (Kimberly et al., 2021) is particularly edifying reading on that subject.

I was not previously aware of the LGBT Courage Coalition, but upon review it appears to consist entirely of established, mostly cis, anti-trans activists, and conducts its activism entirely through two social media accounts, one on Substack and one on Twitter. Notably, it shares a significant noun with the Catholic Church’s ex-gay apostolate, Courage International — perhaps coincidental, but then again (#30), perhaps not.

29

and before sexual maturation

The fact that Pamela Paul and her allies believe it is obligatory for children to “sexually mature” in the way Paul and co. would like, even against any wishes the child themself might have on the matter, has implications I would prefer not to think about.

30

and that gender ideology can mask and even abet homophobia

For anyone not as in the weeds as I am, “gender ideology” is a flag. I would call it a dogwhistle but it gets used so often and with such obvious vitriol very quickly descending into the range of the human ear.

Specifically, it’s a snarl word originally developed for political work by the Roman Curia, the central administration of the Catholic Church. The actual origin is from the strain of Catholic social teaching expounded by Pope John Paul II starting with his Theology of the Body lecture series of 1979–1984, which treats men and women as different in an essential way, complementary (intended by God for different roles), and immutable.

The concept was developed and fleshed out by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, later Pope Benedict XVI, who was at that time the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Church’s senior doctrine officer and internal investigator. The catalyst for Ratzinger’s interest appears to have been the proceedings surrounding the Federal Republic of Germany’s Transsexuellengetz (Transsexual Act) of 1980, which ultimately passed and established Germany’s current legal gender recognition regime (Case, 2019).

“Gender ideology,” as used by the Holy See and other people who have picked it up — I’m not suggesting this is a solely Catholic conspiracy, I’m not Dan Brown — is an empty signifier (Reid, 2018). It has no fixed denotative (literal) meaning: if you ask “what is it?” or “show me an example of it,” the speaker can define it however they want. It does, however, have a connotative (felt/implied) meaning: that trans gender is an ideological project; that trans people say, act as if, believe they are trans because we have been convinced certain political propositions are true.

This doesn’t make any damn sense. Historically, practitioners who would be ultraconservative by modern standards have felt free to admit in the privacy of journals (see, e.g., Lebovitz, 1972, p. 105; Davenport, 1986, p. 515) that plenty of kids come out as trans practically the instant they can talk. If humans had the capacity to just pop out kids capable of that level of leftist political sophistication at that age right and left, this article would be in Russian. On the other hand, “gender ideology” is 2 words and so far I have spent 4 paragraphs explaining it; in the much less verbose Twitter version, I still needed 5 Tweets. You can see therefore how the term might be useful for its proponents.

Incidentally, like Paul’s accusation of trans “institutional capture,” the reas: in German academic use, the term “gender ideology” (Geschlechterideologie) has an established meaning that does not refer to trans people — namely “an ideology that regulates sex and gender” (see, e.g., Knapp, 1988, p. 12; Rohde-Dachser, 1991, p. 143; Kuhn, 1994, p. 6). The Catholic Church’s appropriation of the term “floods the zone” (see Stelter, 2021) of an entire strain of sociological discussion — one whose conclusions in the cold light of day look rather inconvenient for institutions like the Catholic Church. As with most right-wing canards, every accusation is a confession.

31

I transitioned because I didn’t want to be gay

According to Reisner et al. (2023), the proportion of respondents in a sample of United States trans people who described themselves as straight was 17.6% (versus 90.1% of cis controls), so I am forced to tactfully suggest that this may not have been a very clever idea.

32

says Kasey Emerick

I was surprised to discover that I know, or at least directly know of, Kasey Emerick. We are not acquainted, but she (I am following the article’s guidance on pronouns) is an established ideologically motivated detransitioned activist who was previously active on Twitter under the name “KC Miller”.

Because I was active at the same time as, and adjacent to, Emerick, I can’t help but notice that some of the particulars of her story appear to have changed. For instance, Emerick says she detransitioned because she realised she had been “living a lie”. She joined Twitter after her detransition, yet at that time, she said that she was “comfortable living as a man”:

She also mentioned at the time that she didn’t have any intention of stopping testosterone — which is why it’s somewhat surprising that Paul’s narrative now indicates Emerick had stopped testosterone around that time. Actually, Paul indicates that Emerick said that; there may be a reason Paul isn’t confident enough in the claim to put it in the authoritative editorial voice. But maybe not.

33

Raised in a conservative Christian church, she says ‘I believed homosexuality was a sin’

As someone who’s estranged from a birth family which (apart from a few escapee atheists) consists of several generations of Latter-day Saints and a handful of Pentecostals, I’m entertained by the suggestion that conservative Christianity doesn’t also teach that transgenderism is a sin. What about the Nashville Statement (2017, Art. VII) or the SBC’s 2014 Resolution on Transgender Identity (Burk, 2014)? What are they, a pork chop?

34

To the trans activist dictum …

The use of “dictum” here is intentional. Who issues dicta? Logically, a dictator. Paul is endeavouring to suggest that the filthy trans are attempting to assert a deeply unwholesome authority over your kids.

After I published the original version of this piece on Twitter, a friend suggested I might be giving Paul too much credit — it could quite simply be intended to evoke “dick,” which in context would be equally grim.

35

… says Sasha Ayad, a licensed professional counsellor based in Phoenix

Paul forgets, once again, to mention precisely who her subject is. Ayad is an anti-trans disinformation operator in the same small, tightly-bound network as the other such operators named in this article, and is a core member of it: she is a member not only of Genspect (n.d.) and SEGM (James, 2024c), but of a number of others, including the Gender Exploratory Therapy Association (GETA) (Murphy, 2024) and Sex Matters (James, 2024c). GETA’s stock in trade may be inferred from the fact that “gender exploratory therapy” was previously named “gender reparative therapy” (Countering Hate Speech Aotearoa, 2023) — a euphemism presumably abandoned when it became too well known that “reparative therapy” is simply another name for conversion therapy (Human Rights Campaign Foundation, “The lies and dangers of efforts,” n.d.). Of Sex Matters — more later (#61).

36

[Ayad is] a co-author of When Kids Say They’re Trans: A Guide for Thoughtful Parents

The other two co-authors, not named here, are Genspect founder Stella O’Malley and GETA cofounder Lisa Marchiano (Reed, 2023; Amazon Australia Services, 2023).

37

Studies show that around 8 in 10 cases of childhood gender dysphoria resolve themselves by puberty

Wrong! This is an old canard, and I, being a fool, am constantly surprised that it’s still in circulation, but I guess with mastheads as complicit as The Times (and the Financial Review) there was no need to come up with anything new.

The trail of citations here is indirect: Paul cites Kaltiala-Heino et al. (2018), who cite Ristori & Steensma (2015). The figure in question is indeed present in Ristori & Steensma (op. cit., p. 3) — actually 85.2%, by their reckoning. That does not mean it is true. In fact, it is manufactured through what I can only describe as scientific fraud.

Here is how. Gender dysphoria is a common experience that a lot of trans people have. “Gender dysphoria” (GD) is also the name of the clinical proxy for transness, i.e., the concept the medical and psychiatric professions use to understand and interact with transness. We’re going to call this second sense “construct gender dysphoria” (“construct GD”) for the purposes of this article. The strict definition of construct GD is given in the DSM-5 (American Psychiatric Association, 2013); any post-2013 academic work referring to “gender dysphoria” is assumed to be referring to the DSM-5 category.

Ristori & Steensma (op. cit.) present their work as a literature review on “gender dysphoria in childhood,” defining GD explicitly with reference to the DSM-5, i.e., defining it as construct GD. They include 11 studies in the review, claiming that those studies pertain to (construct) GD in children.

This is unambiguously not the truth. The studies used wildly recruitment criteria, some informally using the term “gender dysphoria,” but all using a rubric which was approximately or exactly the pre-DSM-5 construct which included transness in kids, gender identity disorder (GID).

This may not sound like a big deal. This is a huge deal. GID included trans kids, but it also included a far, far larger population of cis kids who were gender-nonconforming (GNC): “sissy” cis boys, tomboy cis girls, and any other kid who was GNC in a way considered troublesome, inconvenient, or annoying — and therefore of course obviously pathological — by the medical, psychiatric, and social authorities of the time.

The studies in the review were longitudinal, meaning they collected data on the same variables at one or more points after initial subject enrolment and data collection (Coggon et al., 2003, ch. 7); the studies in this review typically used a single later point (“follow-up”). They uniformly enrolled and collected initial data from participants recruited based on GID-like criteria. At follow-up, however, they investigated (in some cases among other things) how many participants met a set of criteria far more narrowly centred on what we would recognise as transness — typically “transsexualism,” the pre-DSM-5 construct for transness in teenagers and adults. They then determined what proportion of participants with GID were not trans at follow-up and declared that the rate of what, after later work by the VU University Medical Center clinical research group that included Steensma, came to be called “desistance”.

The problem here is obvious. The initial sample can be characterised as “cis and a little fruity with it, or trans”. There are far more cis people than there are trans people; there are still far more GNC cis people than there are trans people total. Studies that have attempted to ascertain what proportion of the general population are trans, even by the broadest possible definition(s) thereof, have not come anywhere close to 20% (Collin et al., 2016). The most likely reason a “GNC cis and trans” sample was still 85% cis at follow-up isn’t that a big chunk of it stopped being trans, it’s that it was circa 85% cis to begin with.

The authors of the studies reviewed perhaps may be forgiven — loath as I am to do so — because the way cis people understood transness at the time was still evolving. Ristori and Steensma, however, were, and remain, leading authorities in trans healthcare, including in paediatric trans healthcare, to the point that they were co-authors of the current WPATH Standards of Care (Coleman et al., op. cit.). Given that — and given that Steensma separately has a record of very interesting data analysis that “just happens” to boost the apparent desistance rate into the stratosphere (Brooks, 2018) — it is not plausible that this was unintentional. Nor is it plausible that Paul herself didn’t know, because she’s clearly au fait enough with this game that, at this point in the article, she’s about to try some statistical sleight of hand herself.

38

and 30 percent of people on hormone therapy discontinue its use within five years

What Paul is employing here is a different but equally time-honoured propagandistic device — incidentally, a trademark of Tom Steensma (Brooks, op. cit.). I’ve taken to calling it the “lost to follow-up” trick.

Here is how it works. Every longitudinal study which is big enough and runs for long enough has attrition. Attrition is when, at some point after initial enrollment and data collection, one or more participants becomes unavailable for further collection. The term of art is that they become “lost to follow-up”. Attrition can compromise the validity of the study (Bankhead et al., 2017).

One way it can do so is through nonresponse bias. This happens when the likelihood of participation has a direct causal link to a variable of interest in the study, i.e., when whether you are part of a certain subgroup of interest to the study is something, or is caused by something, that determines whether you can respond to the study at all (Turk et al., 2019). For a straightforward example of a survey consisting of a single question, “Do you have time to answer a survey? (Y/N)” is going to return a higher apparent “Yes” rate than exists in the general population, because only the people who would answer “Yes” are participating at all.

It is necessary to be aware of attrition and nonresponse bias. What you cannot do is arbitrarily assume that attrition entails the specific kind of nonresponse bias you want. So of course Paul is doing exactly this.

The study cited, Roberts et al. (2022), examined a sample of trans and gender-diverse patients who were getting hormones through Tricare, the United States military’s health insurance program, between 2009 and 2018 inclusive. It concluded that “>70% of TGD individuals who start gender-affirming hormones will continue use beyond 4 years”.

Paul asserts that this by definition means the other 30% stopped hormones altogether, implying that they did so because they realised they weren’t trans. That’s not how “lost to follow-up” works; the only thing you by definition know about people who are lost to follow-up is that they’re lost to follow-up.

It may be possible to determine why you lost who you lost, and who you never had in the first place. Erin Reed (2024), for instance, notes several reasons the study may have overestimated discontinuation rates or failed to capture all eligible trans people, based on the social and political context that existed during the study period (2009–2018);

• increasing movement of trans customers toward online pharmacies, which have grown more popular, as well as GoodRx plans, which offer more privacy;
• political pressure from the Trump administration (2017 onward), which had executive control over Tricare and which had begun pursuing trans service members, and other decisions by U.S. military leadership which may have forced study subjects off HRT other than voluntarily;
• Tricare’s notoriously poor trans health coverage even under ideal circumstances and without active political interference.

The study’s authors, meanwhile, note in their ‘Discussion’ section several limitations which are inherent to the study itself as designed:

• “We only collected information on medication refills obtained using a single insurance plan. If patients elected to pay out of pocket for hormones, accessed hormones through nonmedical channels, or used a different insurance plan to pay for treatment before and/or after obtaining gender-affirming hormones using TRICARE insurance, we did not capture this information”; and
• “We would miscategorize patients as terminations if patients elected to obtain their gender-affirming medications using alternative payment options while continuing to receive other medical care using TRICARE,”

and, significantly, conclude that “our findings are likely an underestimate [of] continuation rates among transgender patients”.

Paul could have done the same as either of these, drawing on the sociopolitical environment or the study design to contextualise the results. She simply asserts what is most advantageous to her, and then sails onward, knowing that the preconceptions of her mostly cis readership will carry her the rest of the way.

39

At the end of her freshman year of college, Powell, horrifically depressed, began dissociating, feeling detached from her body and from reality, which had never happened before

This is an interesting one because the framing is a variation of accusation in a mirror. Paul appears to be trying to dogwhistle toward the right-wing “body dissociation” theory about trans healthcare, which has been floating around for a while (Leveille, 2021b). This theory, in turn, appears to function as a mirror-propaganda-type response to the observation, made by both trans people — notably and rigorously by Gender Analysis’ Transgender Depersonalization Project (Jones, n.d.) — and to a lesser extent by the cis clinicians studying us (Fisher et al., 2014; Colizzi et al., 2015), that unmanaged dysphoria is attended by symptoms similar to depersonalisation/derealisation disorder (DP/DR).

The Project corpus and others like it reflect that the DP/DR aspect of dysphoria is relieved by access to medical transition. The conspiracy theory — the one in whose direction Paul is winking here — therefore holds that access to medical transition causes dissociation. But that accusation can’t work with this timeline: on the dates in the article, Powell started dissociating, seemingly quite abruptly based on the wording, more than a year after she started testosterone, and indeed more than a year after the last change of any kind in her regimen of gender-affirming care. It therefore does not make sense to assume that gender-affirming care caused it.

40

“I expected it to change everything, but I was just me, with a slightly deeper voice,” she adds.

Yes, that’s, uh, that’s the value proposition. T stands for “testosterone,” not “transsubstantiation”.

41

[Powell] tried in vain to find a therapist who would treat her underlying issues, but they kept asking her: how do you want to be seen? Do you want to be nonbinary?

This is interesting, because what this passage says and what it wants you to think it says are different. You’re supposed to read it fast enough that you take away the meaning that Powell’s therapists were trying, through intrusive, repeated questioning (“they kept asking her”), to push her into a specific, presumably begin rainbow text gender-ideological end rainbow text, way of thinking about herself.

What the words actually say, however, is that “she tried in vain to find a therapist … they kept asking her,” which means: she went to more than one therapist, and each one asked her at least one of these questions at least once. If these questions are asked repeatedly by the same therapist, of the same person, they sure do look like inappropriate browbeating, because just about any questions repeated in that way would be inappropriate browbeating in that context. But what Paul says is just as open to the interpretation that Powell’s therapists asked her basic framing questions or questions that logically followed from what she’d been through, and the issue is simply that the questions were trans-friendly at all.

42

Powell wanted to talk about her trauma, not her identity or her gender presentation

As a sometime adherent of feminist theory, I am intrigued by the contention that trauma, identity, and gender presentation can be separated with such surgical neatness. It seems inconsistent with the fact that, for instance, trans people are 4× as likely to be victims of violent crime, including sexual violence (Flores et al., 2021) — both typically fairly traumatic by nature.

Drawing even closer to the core of the issue, trans people are about twice as likely as cis people to have experienced sexually violent victimisation in childhood (Thoma et al., 2021) — the exact kind of victimisation of which Powell was a survivor. I am inclined to say it would have been very nearly a breach of due diligence for therapists not to at least have inquired about the subject.

43

The [ex-Tavistock] therapist asked questions like “Who is Grace? What do you want from your life?”

The thing is, these are substantially the same questions Powell’s other therapists were asking her, so the difference can’t be the questions. “Do you want to be nonbinary?” is extremely clearly a subset of “Who is Grace?”. Similarly, “How do you want to be seen?” is extremely clearly a subset — and not a small subset — of “What do you want from your life?”

What Powell, as Paul represents her, seems to want, is for therapists to simply completely avoid any conversation which might lead to mention of her transition. I am also of the view that your average psychiatroid should be kept on a leash, but given the outsized role that Powell’s transition played in her life — enough so that she is now speaking about it to The New York Times! — I do not see how that is a viable ask.

44

Many detransitioners say they face ostracism and silencing because of the toxic politics around transgender issues

Ah yes, the toxic politics. Not otherwise specified.

The thing is that when Paul says “detransitioners,” she’s talking about a very specific kind of detransitioned person. I know a number of detransitioners and retransitioners myself — they decided transition wasn’t for them after all, or that it was for them but they didn’t want it to develop any further, so they stopped HRT, or went onto different HRT, and/or changed their gender presentation, maybe back to the one they had before HRT, maybe to a different one.

Those aren’t the people Paul is talking about. It’s not particularly true that detransitioned people can’t get a platform in liberal media, but it is absolutely true that right-wing media both can, and are willing to, provide them a disproportionately large and loud platform. Consequently, the kind of detransitioners most represented in media narratives, with the complicity of people like Paul, are a very specific, in my experience politically nonrepresentative subset. When you know that, you can really see the classic conservative routine at work here. “They silenced me for my views!” “Which views?” “Oh, you know …” “On taxes?” “No …”

45

“It is extraordinarily frustrating to feel that something I am is inherently political,” Powell says.

And to think that the trans-exclusionary radical feminist (TERF) movement arose from second-wave feminism, she of “the personal is political”. We’ve come so far.

46

In a recent study in the Archives of Sexual Behavior, about 40 young detransitioners out of 78 surveyed said they had suffered from rapid onset gender dysphoria.

Oh, look, it’s the Archives. Even if that weren’t the case, though, simply knowing this study’s authors would give me an idea of its quality. Lisa Littman and Stella O’Malley I have already mentioned. Helena Kerschner is an advisor to Genspect (n.d.) — no surprise there at this point. J. Michael Bailey, for his part, is a disgraced ex-Northwestern psychologist, who Andrea James (2024g) calls, in an extensively researched entry for Transgender Map, “one of the most unethical sexologists in history,” which I think is laudably restrained given the account she then provides of his career.

Of course, this is all just ad hominem. Don’t worry, there are also huge glaring problems with both the study and its use in this context. To name three:

• Sampling was non-random. Of the three named recruitment sources, one was Pique Resilience Project, a since-dissolved “ex-transgender” organisation which worked with conservative politicians and media (James, 2024b), and /r/detrans, a large reddit community infamous for its anti-trans bent, which at and until some time after the time of the survey had an overwhelming majority of non-detransitioned subscribers, according to its own internal polling (DetransIS, 2022).
• A central part of the survey instrument was based on the proposal that “traumatic events can contribute to the occurrence of gender dysphoria” without any more evidence than that this is “[a] common belief among clinicians who favor ROGD theory”.
• Finally, as you might expect from all of the above, the study unquestioningly treated Littman’s ROGD — as well as Ray Blanchard’s autogynaephilia and autoandrophilia — as real conditions, despite the complete absence of evidence for their existence. The study does not prove the existence of ROGD because it did not set out to do so — it took the existence of ROGD as an unquestionable fundamental assumption.

(To be fair, “I assume things therefore they are real” appears to be Paul’s methodology, too.)

47

Trans activists have fought hard to suppress any discussion of rapid onset gender dysphoria

As Zinnia Jones has pointed out, this is not the case. I will append that it’s also another case of projection. Trans people are an underrepresented (Vyse, 2019), impoverished and economically marginalised (Carpenter et al., 2020) group. We do not either individually or collectively have the power to suppress anything.

What trans people have actually done is confront the pseudoscientific spectre of ROGD and show it to be completely baseless and without merit, time and time again (Duck-Chong, 2018; Restar, 2019; Ashley, 2020). We’re participating in the public discourse and, despite being constantly stomped on, we’re winning because we’re right. But this is inconvenient for Paul, so she decides to lie instead.

48

the activist organization GLAAD warns the media against using the term [ROGD] as it is not “a formal condition or diagnosis”

Given that this is true it seems like a good reason to me. Things do not become untrue simply because advocacy groups are saying them. Granted throughout this very piece I’ve cited Genspect and SEGM affiliation as the first line evidence that a source is biased, but in every single case I have then gone on to show that it is in fact biased. Paul is just citing the fact that GLAAD is an activist group as if that means something on its own. Should we, as a matter of principle, take the position that elephants don’t exist simply because the Republican Party has one in its logo?

49

a group of professional organisations put out a statement urging clinicians to eliminate the term from use

I’m familiar with the group in question, the Coalition for the Advancement & Application of Psychological Science (2021), and I must say that “a group of professional organisations” is masterful downplaying of “both APAs — the American Psychological Association and the American Psychiatric Association — and several of their major international peers”.

50

But those studies, which often rely on self-reported cases to gender clinics, probably understate the actual numbers. None of the seven detransitioners I interviewed even considered reporting back …

See? Paul knows very well what attrition and non-response bias are, and therefore, as above, knows full well she’s full of shit. But sure — let’s do this.

First, 7 people is a comically small sample size to be asserting anything at all. Even if this were a peer-reviewed paper instead of a hit piece in The Times, you couldn’t call it evidence of anything. With an extremely sympathetic funder you might be able to make the case that it was grounds to give you more money to do a pilot study for further research. But it is nowhere near a result on its own.

Second, the mere fact that attrition is present at all does not automatically invalidate a study, as Paul is implying. It is present in pretty much every study, including every randomised controlled trial, and they’re still considered the gold standard (Hariton & Locascio, 2018). Paul even goes on to advocate for them later in the argument. Attrition becomes a problem when it rises to an unsustainable level (Bankhead et al., op. cit.).

What Paul would have to be alleging for her position to make sense is that trans healthcare research has a systematic problem with attrition at an invalidating level. You cannot make this claim without pointing to some actual studies and their attrition rates. You need a more solid basis for alleging that a systematic problem is present than “it would be politically convenient for me if it were”.

Moreover, you could have a hundred detransitioners — which honestly I think is about as many as the right has managed to scrame up between them worldwide — and it still wouldn’t mean shit because their existence alone does not prove compromising attrition bias. If I’m running a longitudinal study at a gender clinic in Australia with a sample of 1,000 patients an attrition rate of, say, 3% — well within the “perfectly fine” zone (Bankhead et al., op. cit.) — then the fact that someone in Idaho stopped T and didn’t tell their doctor affects the validity of my findings not at all.

51

Unlike the current population of gender dysphoric youth, the Dutch study participants had no serious psychological conditions

This is a lie (of omission). Paul’s argument here is lifted directly from Abbruzzese et al. (op. cit.), the SEGM paper previously cited. The SEGM paper notes that the two Dutch studies to which Paul refers here (de Vries et al., 2011; de Vries et al., 2014) were carried out with a cohort of gender clinic patients who had previously been screened using criteria including the following:

Second, they must be psychologically stable (with the exception of depressed feelings, which often are a consequence of their living in the unwanted gender role) and function socially without problems (e.g., have a supportive family, do well at school).

Cohen-Kettenis & van Goozen (1997), p. 265

Personally I think this is a stupid set of criteria to gatekeep youth transition anyway but as I’m arguing against the strong form of Paul’s argument, which is the form made by Abbruzzese et al., let’s see what these new “serious psychological conditions” are that the Dutch team failed to consider:

… significant preexisting mental illness such as depression and anxiety or neurocognitive challenges such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD) or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) …

Abbruzzese et al. (op. cit.), p. 684

So, to recap: the “significant preexisting mental illness” that the SEGM paper refers to — which is the same as the “serious psychological conditions” to which Paul refers — consists in part of two neurodivergences that are not at all incompatible with the Dutch clinic screening criteria. The actual mental illnesses that Abbruzzese et al. contend makes modern trans kids meaningfully different from the Dutch gender clinic cohort are … depression and anxiety, i.e., the specific disorder cluster which the Dutch clinic explicitly, and for very good reason, considered OK.

In short, Paul’s argument here is directly and unambiguously false — “the current population of gender dysphoric youth” and “the Dutch study participants” are not different at all and there’s zero possibility that she doesn’t know that. She’s just relying on you not to look.

52

There was no evidence that any intervention was lifesaving

This argument is also lifted from the SEGM paper, which cloaks its point in the more comfortably detached language of “lack of research equipoise”. In both guises, this point is based on the contention that any and all research showing that trans healthcare is lifesaving is invalid because it doesn’t have a control group. That’s dark. Really dark. Like “at this point, maybe this person should be arrested” levels of dark.

Studies of new medical interventions typically have two groups of subjects, the experimental group and the control group. The experimental group receive the novel intervention. The controls are selected for statistical similarity to the experimental group, but don’t receive the intervention; they provide a “normal” baseline against which the performance of the novel intervention can be assessed.

The control and experimental groups are “blinded,” prevented from knowing who’s receiving the treatment and who’s not. The way this is typically achieved is with a placebo, a treatment which resembles the novel treatment but doesn’t do anything (Kendall, 2003). However, the principle of nonmaleficence in research stipulates that an experiment is unethical and therefore impermissible if it places subjects at risk of harm (Alele & Malau-Aduli, 2023). Where a placebo would do that, the control group must instead be provided with the existing standard treatment (Millum & Grady, 2013).

In this case, though, the treatment being disputed is the existing standard treatment, because decades of reactionary propaganda have been able to successfully present interventions that have been used, in one form or another, for over a century, as “novel”.

What Paul and SEGM are saying, consciously, with clear eyes and no regrets, is that every study showing that trans healthcare saves lives is invalid because they didn’t take an equal-sized, equally miserable and desperate control group, give them sugar pill “E₂” and saline “T,” and count the corpses at follow-up. Couched in technical language though it might be, I cannot help but regard this as hate speech. Use as many five-dollar words as you like, but this is incitement to murder.

53

There was no long-term follow-up with any of the [Dutch] study’s 55 participants

Both Dutch studies — Paul does not seem to have been paying close enough attention to remember that there were 2 — were longitudinal studies which took place over a set time period. Any rubric which invalidated them for having “no long-term follow-up” would also invalidate any other study that didn’t run literally forever. (Notably, Paul does not attempt to apply this standard to any of the studies she actually likes.)

54

or any of the 15 who dropped out

Per de Vries et al. (2014, p. 697), no one dropped out. 70 people were invited to participate. 15 didn’t: 1 had died, 1 had left that clinic, 4 were medically ineligible for various reasons, 2 didn’t reply, and 2 refused to participate. Post-enrolment attrition was 0.

There were a further 15 participants who did not contribute complete data. There was a set of 5 survey instruments which were not completed at initial collection by 8 participants because those instruments were added to the study after initial collection. There was 1 survey instrument for which 10 participants did not ultimately have complete data at initial collection due to unspecified “clinician error” (ibid., p. 699). None of those further 15 participants even temporarily “dropped out” in any sense of the term.

55

A British effort to replicate the study said that it ‘identified no changes in psychological function’ and that more studies were needed

Paul intentionally does not mention which of the Dutch studies was replicated because it would destroy her argument. de Vries et al. (2011) was concerned with puberty blockers; de Vries et al. (2014) was concerned with HRT. The British replication (Carmichael et al., 2021) is of the 2011 study.

The thing with puberty blockers is that they’re not supposed to cause changes in psychological functioning; they’re supposed to stop them where they are and give trans kids “time to decide”. (Editorially: The fact that circa 100% of trans kids decide to continue reveals that this is, more than anything, an artifact of cis people desperately hoping the trans kids in question can somehow be led to “decide otherwise”.)

Some of the participants in the British replication started blockers before Tanner stage III, i.e., the point where puberty de facto really kicks in. Most did not. The reason for no psychological change in the pre-Tanner III kids is that they went from “never really having experienced puberty” to … “still never really having experienced puberty”.

Carmichael et al. themselves give measured support to this position, saying that a situation where “[puberty blocker] treatment brought no measurable benefit nor harm to psychological function … is consonant with the action of [puberty blockade], which only stops further pubertal development and does not change the body to be more congruent with a young person’s gender identity” (Carmichael et al., op. cit., p. 20).

The reason for no psychological change in the post-Tanner III kids, meanwhile, is likely that puberty suppression has its own set of unpleasantnesses literally regardless of where you go from there. Sex hormone blockade without hormone replacement sucks — as Carmichael et al. (op. cit., p. 5) note, its “anticipated side-effects … includ[e] … headaches, hot flushes, fatigue, loss of libido and low mood”. It’s a compromise by trans people, not a concession to us.

56

Britain’s Tavistock was ordered to be shut down in March after a[n] investigation found deficiencies in service and “a lack of consensus … about the nature of … dysphoria and therefore about the appropriate clinical response”.

Oh, “after”, my old friend. Paul is trying to dog-walk her readers into inferring a causal link: “after, therefore because of”. Paul is leading the reader to believe that the Tavistock was seeing too many kids, some sensible and moderate individual pulled the fire alarm, credible authorities verified that this was the case, and the clinic has been shut down as a result.

But in this case, the truth is quite the opposite. The Tavistock was shut down because, according to the Interim Report:

It has become increasingly clear that that a single specialist provider model is not a safe or viable long-term option in view of concerns about lack of peer review and the ability to respond to the increasing demand.

Additionally, children and young people with gender-related distress have been inadvertently disadvantaged because local services have not felt adequately equipped to see them. It is essential that they can access the same level as psychological and social support as any other child or young person in distress, from their first encounter with the NHS and at every level within the service.

The Cass Review (2022), ss 1.33–1.34

In short: the Tavistock was shut down not because it was seeing too many kids, but because it was seeing too few. This admission is all the more remarkable because it comes from a Review which is now known to have been compromised throughout by Paul’s ideological allies (Jones, 2023; Ruuska et al., 2024³). The Review could not avoid admitting this much despite having a very clear interest in not doing so.

But, of course, Paul can’t mention any of this, and wouldn’t if she could. So she simply implies that things are as she wishes they were, and leaves the reader to fill in the blanks.

57

The American Academy of Pediatrics only recently agreed to conduct more research

None of these words are untrue and yet it is a lie anyway.

The lie is in the words “only recently” and “agreed”. “Agreed” implies the decision was made as a concession after being prevailed upon by another party. “Only recently” implies that the concession was secured through several years of such prevailing. The use of both terms falsely links the AAP agreement to several years of semi-publicised internal anti-trans agitation by clinicians such as, e.g., paediatrician and SEGM member Julia Mason (Block, 2023).

In reality, the “agreement” was a measure adopted by a vote of the AAP Board of Directors on its own initiative. In the measure, the AAP specifically reaffirmed its commitment to the principles Paul and her allies politically oppose, reiterating its “support [for] giving transgender adolescents access to the health care they need,” and indicating that the measures were a practical decision intended to address “restrictions on access to health care with bans on gender-affirming care” (Wyckoff, 2023).

Second, Paul makes the assertion that the AAP is “conduct[ing] more research” because it implies more primary (original) research, which in turn implies that the AAP is materially conceding the common anti-trans claim that the current evidence base is insufficient to support its position. This is incorrect. The AAP authorised a systematic review, a scholarly synthesis of the existing evidence. In effect, the AAP is reorganising the existing research for more efficient use.

58

in response to years-long efforts by dissenting experts including Dr Julia Mason, a self-described ‘bleeding-heart liberal’ …

As noted above, and as not noted by Paul, Julia Mason is, among other things, an advisor to Genspect (n.d.) and a co-founder of SEGM (Block, 2023).

59

politics should not influence medical practice, whether the issue is birth control, abortion or gender medicine

And yet, observably, they do. Politics determines how and what laws are made. Medical practice is subject to those laws. Politics therefore influences medical practice. It’s not a matter of “should” — the fact that it does so is both unavoidable and cannot be attenuated in any way, and Paul knows that.

This means this statement does not serve the ends it pretends to. Rather, when authors like Paul say, with an affectation of high-minded idealism, that certain matters bound by law should be ‘above politics,’ what they’re really saying is that those matters should be bound by only those politics that have already become embodied in the law prior to now, without right of appeal, in perpetuity.

60

Last year, The Economist published a thorough investigation into America’s approach to gender medicine. Zanny Minton Beddoes, the editor, put the issue into political context.

Ah yes, The Economist. That place where Helen Joyce used to hang out. For anyone not in the loop: for most of the two decades to 2023, The Economist employed and platformed columnist/editor Helen Joyce, who formally quit in 2023 to devote more time to her work as advocacy director at Sex Matters (“Helen Joyce joins Sex Matters,” 2022), an extremist anti-trans advocacy group (Trans Safety Network, 2023). She is on record with the following view of trans people:

… we have to try to limit the harm and that means reducing or keeping down the number of people who transition. That’s for two reasons — one of them is that every one of those people is a person who’s been damaged. But the second one is every one of those people is basically, you know, a huge problem to a sane world.

Joyce, in Prior (2022) and Kelleher (2022)

I am not overfamiliar with Zanny Minton Beddoes, who became editor of The Economist in 2015 (Kemp, 2015). However, Joyce has consistently said she was introduced to anti-trans politics by her editor (Jones, 2021; Joyce, 2022). Joyce herself joined The Economist‘s editorship in 2014 as international editor (Australian Broadcasting Corporation, n.d.), meaning that at the time she says this happened, in 2017 (Jones, 2021), there is only one person of whom I am aware who could credibly have been described as “her editor”.

61

Paul Garcia-Ryan is a psychotherapist in New York who cares for kids and families seeking holistic, exploratory care for gender dysphoria

(Pamela) Paul neglects to mention that Garcia-Ryan is a member of GETA (James, 2024d). There are no empirical claims here to disprove; since Garcia-Ryan’s contribution to the article consists solely of his personal and clinical opinion, the fact that he is a member of a conversion therapy promotion group discredits his entire contribution.

62

Instead of promoting unproven treatments for children, which surveys show many Americans are uncomfortable with, transgender activists would be more effective if they focused on a shared agenda

Read: Persuading people is good when I do it in The Times, but not when the troons do it on the internet and in the streets.

63

Most Americans across the political spectrum can agree on the need for legal protections for transgender adults

This claim is sourced to two different graphics from the same Pew Research Center poll (Parker et al., 2022). For the sake of argument, let’s put aside that this data, which is polling data and therefore by nature has a short shelf life, is two years old. The first source, which superficially appears to support Paul’s point, is a simplified, summarised version of the second, which doesn’t. Let’s look at the second.

This section of the poll is concerned with whether respondents favor or oppose particular types of laws being imposed on trans Americans across the country at the time of the poll. Paul is leaning on the headline figure, which shows that 64% of Americans Strongly favor/Favor laws that will “Protect transgender people from discrimination in jobs, housing and public spaces,” while only 10% of Americans Strongly oppose/Oppose them, a margin of 54%. (25% of Americans neither favoured nor opposed.)

Sounds good, right? Now let’s look at the other questions— oh.

• Require that trans athletes compete on teams that match the sex they were assigned at birth: Strongly favor/Favor (41% margin);
• Make it illegal for health care professionals to help someone under 18 with medical care for gender transition: Strongly favor/Favor (15% margin);
• Require trans individuals to use public bathrooms that match the sex they were assigned at birth: Strongly favor/Favor (10% margin);
• Make it illegal for public school districts to teach about gender identity in elementary schools: Strongly favor/Favor (3% margin);
• Investigate parents for child abuse if they help someone under 18 get medical care for gender transition: Strongly favor/Favor (1% margin).

As you may have noticed, the other laws which Pew respondents favour are not quite as benign in their effects as the one to which Paul was so keen to direct her readers’ attention. But this last one sounds nice, what about—

• Require health insurance companies to cover medical care for gender transitions: Strongly oppose/Oppose (17% margin).

—ah. So, to clarify, Americans think we should be protected from discrimination. They also want to ban us from sports — just for the hell of it, since there’s no actual evidence (Pérez Ortega, 2023). And make us out ourselves to anyone in sight if we need to piss in public. And schools shouldn’t be able to talk about us, and if parents support their trans kids and let them get medically necessary paediatric care then it’s child abuse. And if we want to transition when we’re adults then it should be made as expensive as possible to make sure we can’t. Does that sound like “protection” to you?

What this graph shows is that Americans are fine with anti-discrimination protections for trans people on general principle — no one wants to think of themselves as a bigot. But they resolutely oppose any measure that might actually ameliorate that discrimination in any way. In a way, they want trans people to have equal rights — they don’t want trans people to have any rights they can’t imagine wanting themselves.

This is ultimately about equality vs. equity. As a queer teenager in the 2000s, I often heard a particularly insufferable strain of right-winger say, in the most self-satisfied imaginable tone, “Gays already have equal rights — the right to marry the opposite sex” (see, e.g., Prell, 2009). Anatole France put the quandary slightly more elegantly:

… la majestueuse égalité des lois … interdit au riche comme au pauvre de coucher sous les ponts, de mendier dans les rues et de voler du pain.

… the majestic equality of laws … prevents rich and poor alike from sleeping under bridges, begging in the streets, and stealing bread.

France (1894, p. 118)

Vulgar equality, being as able as the majority to do only those things that are necessary for the majority, is no equality at all. What is required is equity — the ability to do those things that are necessary for one to live as well as the majority does without needing to do them. Trans people need rights that cis people don’t.⁴ There is no serious debate on the necessity of those rights, simply a political and media establishment which is implacably opposed to our getting them.

But enough about that, let’s get back to Paul. Paul pretends she believes she’s advocating a sensible moderate agenda focusing on a core demand. But she cited this graph herself, so she read it, and she therefore knows as well as I do that this poll says Americans are not up for any actual substantial relief of discrimination at all, no matter how minor. If that’s the case then the agenda that Paul proposes we should rally around is no more survivable than the “maximalist” agenda, of demanding the basic human rights and care we are owed, which she opposes. And she knows it. But she chooses to lie anyway.

64

They would also probably support additional research on the needs of young people reporting gender dysphoria so that kids could get the best treatment possible

As a former trans kid, I’d love that too! If only that was what Paul actually meant.

Unfortunately we are caught in a catch-22 where everyone wants more data, but any attempt to actually get it is immediately seized upon by the media as superficially plausible “proof” that the existing knowledge base is insufficient and all current care should therefore be stopped regardless of the consequences.

We’ve also seen what “research on trans kids” looks like under the aegis of current institutions: for instance NHS England (2023), which has advised “the intention that the NHS will only commission puberty supressing [sic] hormones as part of clinical research” and that “outside of a research setting, puberty suppressing hormones should not be routinely commissioned”. This means trans kids will be under constant surveillance for an excuse to forcibly detransition them and/or their peers. It also suggests that if NHS England feels it has enough data, or that at any rate it has no need for any more research, then your child can go jump off a bridge.

65

It would require rising above culture war politics and returning to reason

The intimation here is clearly that the burden of doing these things is on trans people. To that I am forced to say: asserting that trans people should “return to reason” is pretending we didn’t have a demonstrable monopoly on it in the first place. What Paul has is bias, junk science, and vibes.

As for “culture war” politics: the thing about trying to “rise above” a war is that if the other side haven’t stopped firing you just get shot down — and in this case it is very much Paul’s side which is doing the firing. I would say that for the war to stop Paul’s side needs to choose to stop it but that’s not quite true. It is a fact that the war will eventually end. Paul’s faction can choose to stop now, or be compelled later to stop on much worse terms, but one way or another, they are going to stop whether they want to or not, and on that day the “culture war” will have ended.

I’m done with my critique of Pamela Paul. Let’s move on to the Financial Review.

66

This piece was a flaming bag of shit that The Times should never have published, but they did. Nine decided to bring it here, so now it is just as much their flaming bag of shit.

When Nine acquired Fairfax Media, it reaffirmed the 1988 Charter of Editorial Independence, whose jurisdiction includes the Financial Review. The Charter stipulates

that editorial staff shall not be required to work other than in accordance with the Media, Entertainment and Alliance journalist code of ethics and in line with rulings of the Australian Press Council

Nine Publishing (2022), clause 3

Now, there is some controversy over whether the Charter of Editorial Independence actually applies — Anthony Klan (2020) alleges Nine never actually signed it and therefore it is not legally binding, which would not surprise me; as he notes in another article, it would be consistent with the state of affairs which has persisted since no later than 2006 (Klan, 2022). The synchronised right turn of the Ninefax mastheads suggests the question of the Charter‘s legal effect is moot: whether or not they are bound by it de jure they clearly do not treat it as binding de facto.

However, despite all of that, clause 3 of the Charter is automatically true. Editorial staff cannot be made to work other than in accordance with the MEAA Journalist Code of Ethics (2018) or the rulings of the Australian Press Council (“Press Council”) because they can simply quit. Given the importance and prominence of their job I would go so far as to say they are obliged to. There is a commonsense ceiling to the stringency of the ethical scrutiny that people are obliged to apply to their employers — Gerry Harvey is a repellent human being who uses the immense influence that his wealth gives him to advocate an actively anti-human politics (Evans, 2008; Godfrey & van den Broeke, 2014), but nobody is suggesting that Harvey Norman cashiers with no influence over corporate policy should quit their jobs and starve. This analogy, however, does not apply here. When you are a member of the editorial staff of a Nine masthead, what you do matters.

Now of course you could simply say that you meant well — you could say that this piece was syndicated from another paper, that you can’t expect every editor to be a world-leading expert in trans healthcare, paediatric psychology, paediatric endocrinology, and so on and so forth, etc. But the thing I noticed is that someone at Nine cleaned this up.

The day I first read this piece, 16 February, I took a snapshot of the Financial Review‘s copy at 01:55 AEST (Australian Eastern Standard Time, UTC+10; 15 February 15:55 UTC). I took a snapshot of The Times‘ copy at 02:32 AEST (15 February 16:32 UTC). Both are available through the “Archived copy” link in their reference list entries (Paul, 2024a & 2024b). No changes to either piece were made in the interim.

As discussed throughout this essay, Paul’s assertions are “substantiated” in The Times‘ copy with external links to various sources, however dubious those sources might be. In the Financial Review‘s copy, however, several of those links have been removed. It’s not, as you might expect, a case of accidentally purging all links during the syndication process — links have been selectively removed. Specifically and precisely those links, in fact, whose veracity has been identified as an issue.

Check out, for example, the passage referred to in #7. In The Times‘ copy, as I — and Erin Reed (2024) and Evan Urquhart (2024) — mentioned, two phrases are hyperlinked. The words “some controversy” link to Diaz & Bailey (2023a), which did not bother to solicit its participants’ “wr’tten informed consent to participate in scholarly research, … to have their responses published in a peer reviewed article, … [or] to have their data included in this article,” a consent violation sufficiently severe that publisher Springer Nature twisted the Archives‘ arm into retracting the paper (Diaz & Bailey, 2023b).⁵ To put in perspective how huge of a fuckup this is on Bailey’s part — and therefore how huge of a fuckup it is for Paul to cite him — the Archives never retracts anything. I mentioned above a study by Robert Spitzer which benefited from a laissez-faire approach to peer review on Zucker’s part; Zucker refused to retract that study even when, years later, Spitzer — having recognised the methodological unsoundness of the study (Arana, 2012) — personally asked him to (Dreger, 2012).

The words “tween and teenage girls” link to the article (Littman, 2018) that made Lisa Littman famous — because, as previously noted, it was forced, amid massive scandal (Heber, 2019), to correct out its major “finding”: that “rapid onset gender dysphoria” exists (Littman, 2019). This is the precise finding for which Paul is citing it as a source.

It is a truism that newspapers don’t care, and have cared less and less over at least the course of my life — born 1994, for reference — whether what they print is true. But fuckups this large have a great deal of potential to be converted into the kind of leverage that can force newspapers to care.

Someone at Nine clearly understood this. How do I know? Because those two hyperlinks have silently, without a printed correction, or any other editorial notation, been removed. The assertions they were sourcing, however, remain in the piece unaltered.

There were almost 2 weeks between The Times‘ publication (2 February) and the Financial Review‘s syndication (14 February). Maybe whoever changed it read Evan’s teardown, or Erin’s. Maybe they evaluated the sourcing themself. How they knew is immaterial. What matters is that they knew. Someone at Nine knew that this piece was a tissue of hate speech and lies, and they actively, consciously, decided to deal with that not by retracting it and apologising, not by correcting it, but by making it harder for Australian readers to realise what it was.

Nine is a member of the Australian Press Council. Running this piece, and actively helping to launder it, clearly violates General Principles 3 and 6, which are binding (Australian Press Council, n.d.). For all the good it will do, I have therefore initiated a complaint with the Press Council, and sent a similar but shorter editorial complaint to Nine directly. I have also judged that since someone at the Financial Review could read Paul’s 4,500-word piece closely enough to pick the sunflower seeds out of its teeth, they are therefore capable of reading this one too. Accordingly, I have publicly asked Nine and the editors of the Financial Review the following questions (Moreton, 2024):

Who made the decision to run this piece?

Who made the conscious decision to launder it?

Why?

What are you going to do about it?

---

If you found this piece useful or interesting in any way, please consider supporting me via Patreon, Ko-fi, or PayPal.

---

Footnotes

1 — In virtually all literature on the topic, including I believe Blanchard’s, the concept is spelled “autogynephilic,” but I’m Australian, so I spell it “autogynaephilic,” with an a.

2 — This is a long as hell article so here’s a fun little experiment to break it up: remember that Lana and Lilly Wachowski, creators of The Matrix, are both trans women. Look up The Architect (Helmut Bakaitis) from The Matrix Reloaded. Now look up Ray Blanchard. Go on, I dare you.

3 — The relevant part is the interest disclosure by Riittakerttu Kaltiala-Heino, uncharacteristically modestly credited as the fourth author, who gives “The Cass Review, member of advisory board” as one of her competing interests. h/t Zinnia Jones, who Tweeted about this about a day before I published this article.

4 — Cis people will of course get any rights that trans people get that cis people didn’t already have; that’s the nature of the game. But they still won’t need them.

5 — Bailey has form for violating research subjects’ consent, by the way, the same thing got him fired from Northwestern (Conway, 2004/2005).

References

Abernathey, M. (n.d.). Update on Zucker, Blanchard and the revision of the DSM. The TransAdvocate (Transgender Foundation of America). Retrieved 18 February 2024.

Abbruzzese, E., Levine, S.B., & Mason, J.W. (2023, January 2). The myth of “reliable research” in pediatric gender medicine: A critical evaluation of the Dutch studies—and research that has followed. Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy, 49(6), 673–699. doi: 10.1080/0092623X.2022.2150346. Retrieved 22 February 2024.

Accountable for Equality, Advocates for Youth, Alaskans Together For Equality, Caraballo, A., Ali Forney Center, … & Drucker, Z. (2023, February 15). New York Times sign on letter. GLAAD. Retrieved 20 February 2024.

Alele, F., & Malau-Aduli, B. (2023). 6.3: Principles of research ethics. In F. Alele & B. Malau-Aduli (Eds.), An introduction to research methods for undergraduate health profession students. James Cook University; Pressbooks. Retrieved 20 February 2024.

Alfonseca, K. (2022, November 23). Former ‘detransitioner’ fights anti-transgender movement she once backed. ABC News (The Walt Disney Company). Retrieved 18 February 2024.

Amazon Australia Services (2023, September 7). When kids say they’re trans: A guide for thoughtful parents — Kindle edition [Product entry]. Amazon.com.au (Amazon.com, Inc.); Archive Today. Retrieved 21 February 2024.

American Psychiatric Association (1952). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders.

American Psychiatric Association (1974). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (2nd ed.).

American Psychiatric Association (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.).

Andrews, A., Edwards, A., Nicolle, A., Bainbridge, A., Maida, A., … & Schlanger, Z. (2023, April 6). NYT letter. (Original letter published 15 February 2023.) Retrieved 20 February 2024.

Arana, G. (2012, April 11). My so-called ex-gay life. The American Prospect (The American Prospect, Inc.). Retrieved 22 February 2024.

Ashley, F. [@florence.ashley] (2019, May 10). Richard Green wasn’t an ally to trans communities: a controversial legacy. Medium (A Medium Corporation). Retrieved 18 February 2024.

Ashley, F. (2020, August 10). A critical commentary on ‘rapid-onset gender dysphoria’. The Sociological Review, 68(4), 779–799. doi: 10.1177/0038026120934693. Retrieved 21 February 2024.

Australian Broadcasting Corporation (n.d.). Q+A: Helen Joyce. Retrieved 22 February 2024.

Australian Press Council (n.d.). Statement of principles. Retrieved 20 February 2024.

Bankhead, C., Aronson, J.K., & Nunan, D. (2017). Attrition bias. Catalogue of Bias (Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine). Retrieved 20 February 2024.

Bauer, G.R., Scheim, A.I., Pyne, J., Travers, R., & Hammond, R. (2015, June 2). Intervenable factors associated with suicide risk in transgender persons: a respondent driven sampling study in Ontario, Canada. BMC Public Health, 15, 525. doi: 10.1186/s12889-015-1867-2. Retrieved 20 February 2024.

Bauer, G.R., Lawson, M.L., & Metzger, D.L. (2021, November 15). Do clinical data from transgender adolescents support the phenomenon of “rapid onset gender dysphoria”?. The Journal of Pediatrics, 243, 224–247.E2. doi: 10.1016/jpeds.2021.11.020. Retrieved 20 February 2024.

Benestad, R.E., Nuccitelli, D., Lewandowsky, S., Hayhoe, K., Hygen, H.O., … & Cook, J. (2015, August 20). Learning from mistakes in climate research. Theoretical and Applied Climatology, 126, 699–703. doi: 10.1007/s00704-015-1597-5. Retrieved 21 February 2024.

Better Health Channel (2022, November 8). Obsessive compulsive disorder. Victorian State Government. Retrieved 18 February 2024.

Bibi, E. (2023, February 16). Human Rights Campaign calls out New York Times for publishing transphobic column one day after an open letter condemning its anti-transgender coverage [Press release]. Human Rights Campaign. Retrieved 20 February 2024.

Biggs, M. (2018, October 9). Suicide by trans-identified children in England and Wales. Transgender Trend (); Archive Today. Retrieved 18 February 2024.

Billard, T.J. (2023, May 3). “Gender-critical” discourse as disinformation: Unpacking TERF strategies of political communication. Women’s Studies in Communication, 46(2), 235–243. doi: 10.1080/07491409.2023.2193545. Retrieved 20 February 2024.

Block, J. (2023, August 14). US paediatric leaders back gender affirming approach while also ordering evidence review. The BMJ, 382, p1877. doi: 10.1136/bmj.p1877. Retrieved 22 February 2024.

Boerner, H. (2022, May 12). What the science on gender-affirming care for transgender kids really shows. Scientific American (Springer Nature). Retrieved 18 February 2024.

Brandelli Costa, A. (2019, March 19). Formal comment on: Parent reports of adolescents and young adults perceived to show signs of a rapid onset of gender dysphoria (D. Romer, Ed.). PLOS ONE, 14(3), e0212578. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0212578. Retrieved 18 February 2024.

Brooks, L. (2023, January 20). ‘A contentious place’: the inside story of Tavistock’s NHS gender identity clinic. The Guardian (The Scott Trust). Retrieved 18 February 2024.

Burk, D. (2014, June 10). Southern Baptists pass resolution on transgender. Retrieved 22 February 2024.

Cacciatore, L. (2022, June 14). Megyn Kelly to Newsmax: Fox News trans kid story ‘irresponsible’ to air. Newsmax (Newsmax Media, Inc.). Retrieved 18 February 2024.

Carey, B. (2012, May 18). Psychiatry giant sorry for backing gay ‘cure’. The New York Times (The New York Times Company). Retrieved 18 February 2024.

Carmichael, P., Butler, G., Masic, U., Cole, T.J., De Stavola, B.L., … & Viner, R.M. (2021, February 2). Short-term outcomes of pubertal suppression in a selected cohort of 12 to 15 year old young people with persistent gender dysphoria in the UK. PLOS ONE, 16(2), e0243894. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0243894. Retrieved 20 February 2024.

Carpenter, C.S., Eppink, S.T., & Gonzales, G. (2020, February 11). Transgender status, gender identity, and socioeconomic outcomes in the United States. ILR Review, 73(3), 573–599. doi: 10.1177/0019793920902776. Retrieved 20 February 2024.

Case, M.A. (2019, Spring). Trans formations in the Vatican’s war on “gender ideology”. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 44(3). doi: 10.1086/701498. Retrieved 18 February 2024.

The Cass Review (2022, February). Independent review of gender identity services for children and young people: Interim report. Retrieved 18 February 2024.

Coalition for the Advancement & Application of Psychological Science (2021). CAAPS position statement on rapid onset gender dysphoria (ROGD). Retrieved 18 February 2024.

Collin, L., Reisner, S.L., Tangpricha, V., & Goodman, M. (2016, April). Prevalence of transgender depends on the “case” definition: A systematic review. The Journal of Sexual Medicine, 13(4), 613–626. doi: 10.1016/j.jsxm.2016.02.001. Retrieved 21 February 2024.

Coggon, D., Rose, G., & Barker, D.J.P. (2003). Epidemiology for the uninitiated (4th ed.). British Medical Association. Retrieved 21 February 2024.

Cohen-Kettenis, P.T., & van Goozen, S.H.M. (1997, February). Sex reassignment of adolescent transsexuals: A follow-up study. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 36(2), 263–271. doi: 10.1097/00004583-199702000-00017. Retrieved 20 February 2024.

Coleman, E., Radix, A.E., Bouman, W.P., Brown, G.R., de Vries, A.L.C., … & Arcelus, J. (2022, September 15). Standards of care for the health of transgender and gender diverse people, version 8. International Journal of Transgender Health, 23(sup1), S1–S259. doi: 10.1080/26895269.2022.2100644. Retrieved 18 February 2024.

Colizzi, M., Costa, R., & Todarello, O. (2015, March 30). Dissociative symptoms in individuals with gender dysphoria: Is the elevated prevalence real?. Psychiatry Research, 226(1), 173–180. doi: 10.1016/j.psychres.2014.12.045. Retrieved 21 February 2024.

Conway, L. (2005, March 17). A quiet victory: J. Michael Bailey is forced to resign as chair of psychology at Northwestern University. University of Michigan. (Original article published 19 December 2004.) Retrieved 20 February 2024.

Countering Hate Speech Aotearoa (2023, December 27). CHSA applauds RANZCP new position statement on “The role of psychiatrists in working with trans & gender diverse people” [Media release]. Scoop Regional (Scoop Media). Retrieved 20 February 2024.

Daniels, M. (2021, June 30). Ancient Mesopotamian transgender and non-binary identities. Academus Education (University College London). Retrieved 20 February 2024.

Davenport, C.W. (1986, December). A follow-up study of 10 feminine boys. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 15, 511–517. doi: 10.1007/BF01542316. Retrieved 22 February 2024.

DetransIS (2021, July 17). An interesting experiment/poll — What trans circles were you in while you identified as trans? [Poll]. Reddit (Reddit, Inc.). Retrieved 21 February 2024.

de Vries, A.L.C., Steensma, T.D., Doreleijers, T.A.H., & Cohen-Kettenis, P.T. (2011, August). Puberty suppression in adolescents with gender identity disorder: A prospective follow-up study. The Journal of Sexual Medicine, 8(8), 2276–2283. doi: 10.1111/j.1743-6109.2010.01943.x. Retrieved 18 February 2024.

de Vries, A.L.C., McGuire, J.K., Steensma, T.D., Wagenaar, E.C.F., Doreleijers, T.A.H., & Cohen-Kettenis, P.T. (2014, October 1). Young adult psychological outcome after puberty suppression and gender reassignment. Pediatrics, 134(4), 696–704. doi: 10.1542/peds.2013-2958. Retrieved 18 February 2024.

Dhejne, C., Van Vlerken, R., Heylens, G., & Arcelus, J. (2016, February 2). Mental health and gender dysphoria: A review of the literature. International Review of Psychiatry, 28(1), 44–57. doi: 10.3109/09540261.2015.1115753. Retrieved 18 February 2024.

Diaz, S., & Bailey, J.M. (2023a, March 29). Retracted article: Rapid onset gender dysphoria: Parent reports on 1655 possible cases. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 52, 1031–1043. doi: 10.1007/s10508-023-02576-9. Retrieved 20 February 2024.

Diaz, S., & Bailey, J.M. (2023b, June 14). Retraction note: Rapid onset gender dysphoria: Parent reports on 1655 possible cases. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 52, 3577. doi: 10.1007/s10508-023-02635-1. Retrieved 20 February 2024.

Diaz, S., & Bailey, J.M. (2023c, October). Rapid-onset gender dysphoria: Parent reports on 1,655 possible cases. Journal of Open Inquiry in the Behavioral Sciences (Society for Open Inquiry in the Behavioral Sciences), online ahead(?) of print(?); Researchers.one. doi: 10.58408/issn.2992-9253.2023.01.01.00000012. Retrieved 18 February 2024.

Doyle, J.E.S. (2023, March 15). The making of a detransitioner. Xtra (Pink Triangle Press). Retrieved 18 February 2024.

Dreger, A. (2012, April 12). How to ex an “ex-gay” study. Psychology Today (Sussex Publishers). Retrieved 20 February 2024.

Duck-Chong, E. (2018, October 22). ‘Rapid-onset gender dysphoria’ is a poisonous lie used to discredit trans people. The Guardian (The Scott Trust). Retrieved 22 February 2024.

Duval, D. (2021, November 16). Q&A with Dr. Stephen Levine. Genspect; Archive Today. Retrieved 18 February 2024.

Flores, A.R., Meyer, I.H., Langton, L., & Herman, J.L. (2021, March 10). Gender identity disparities in criminal victimization: National Crime Victimization Survey, 2017–2018. American Journal of Public Health, 111(4), 726–729. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2020.306099. Retrieved 20 February 2024.

Edwards-Leeper, L., & Anderson, E. (2021, November 11). The mental health establishment is failing trans kids. The Washington Post (Nash Holdings, LLC). Retrieved 18 February 2024.

Evans, M. (2008, November 21). Charity a waste, says billionaire. Brisbane Times (Fairfax Media). Retrieved 20 February 2024.

Fisher, A.D., Castellini, G., Bandini, E., Casale, H., Fanni, E., & Benni, L. (2014, March). Cross-sex hormonal treatment and body uneasiness in individuals with gender dysphoria. The Journal of Sexual Medicine, 11(3), 709–719. doi: 10.1111/jsm.12413. Retrieved 21 February 2024.

France, A. (1894). Le lys rouge. Calmann-Lévy; Wikisource (Wikimedia Foundation). Retrieved 20 February 2024.

Genspect advisor Aaron Kimberly on the Unspeakable podcast (2022, January 27). Genspect; Archive Today. Retrieved 18 February 2024.

Genspect (n.d.). Meet the team. Archive Today. Retrieved 20 February 2024.

GLAAD (2023, May 24). GLAAD responds to New York Times hiring anti-LGBTQ attorney as opinion columnist [Media release]. Retrieved 20 February 2024.

Gill-Peterson, J. (2021, April 5). Transgender childhood is not a ‘trend’. The New York Times (The New York Times Company). Retrieved 20 February 2024.

Godfrey, M., & van den Broeke, L. (2016, July 3). Billionaire businessman Gerry Harvey says bring in dictator to govern. The Daily Telegraph (News Corp Australia). Retrieved 20 February 2024.

Gratton, F.V., Strang, J.F., Song, M., Cooper, K., Kallitsounaki, A., … & Wimms, H.E. (2023, June 13). The intersection of autism and transgender and nonbinary identities: Community and academic dialogue on research and advocacy. Autism in Adulthood, 5(2), 112–124. doi: 10.1089/aut.2023.0042. Retrieved 18 February 2024.

Green, A.E., DeChants, J.P., Price, M.N., & Davis, C.K. (2021, December 14). Association of gender-affirming hormone therapy with depression, thoughts of suicide, and attempted suicide among transgender and nonbinary youth. Journal of Adolescent Health, 70(4), 643–649. doi: 10.1016/j.jadohealth.2021.10.036. Retrieved 20 February 2024.

Hariton, E., & Locascio, J.J. (2018, June 19). Randomised controlled trials — the gold standard for effectiveness research. BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, 125(13), 1716. doi: 10.1111/1471-0528.15199. Retrieved 20 February 2024.

Harris, R. (2020, September 10). Australia Post, Pauline Hanson and the locked down public housing tower. The Sydney Morning Herald (Nine Entertainment Company). Retrieved 20 February 2024.

Heber, J. (2019, March 19). Correcting the scientific record on gender incongruence — and an apology. Public Library of Science. Retrieved 20 February 2024.

Henry, V. (2024, January 25). Right-wing media wield detransitioners to bolster anti-trans campaign ahead of 2024 election. Media Matters for America. Retrieved 18 February 2024.

Hirt-Manheimer, A. (2021, June 4). “A dead son or a living daughter:” A conversation with the mother of a transgender child. ReformJudaism.org (Union for Reform Judaism). Retrieved 22 February 2024.

Hollar, J. (2022, December 16). Pamela Paul’s gender agenda. Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting. Retrieved 20 February 2024.

Human Rights Campaign Foundation (n.d.). The lies and dangers of efforts to change sexual orientation or gender identity. Human Rights Campaign. 22 February 2024.

Human Rights Campaign Foundation (n.d.). Sexual orientation and gender identity definitions. Human Rights Campaign. Retrieved 18 February 2024.

James, A. (2019, October 16). Toronto’s Clarke Institute (now CAMH) and eugenics. Transgender Map (Deep Stealth Productions, Inc.). Retrieved 18 February 2024.

James, A. (2024a, January 14). Laura Edwards-Leeper and transgender people. Transgender Map (Deep Stealth Productions, Inc.). Retrieved 18 February 2024.

James, A. (2024b, January 17). Pique Resilience Project vs. transgender people. Transgender Map (Deep Stealth Productions, Inc.). Retrieved 21 February 2024.

James, A. (2024c, January 28). Sasha Ayad vs. transgender people. Transgender Map (Deep Stealth Productions, Inc.). Retrieved 18 February 2024.

James, A. (2024d, February 7). Paul Garcia-Ryan and transgender people. Transgender Map (Deep Stealth Productions, Inc.). Retrieved 18 February 2024.

James, A. (2024e, February 10). Kenneth Zucker vs. transgender people. Transgender Map (Deep Stealth Productions, Inc.). Retrieved 18 February 2024.

James, A. (2024f, February 11). Archives of Sexual Behavior vs. transgender people. Transgender Map (Deep Stealth Productions, Inc.). Retrieved 18 February 2024.

James, A. (2024g, February 18). J. Michael Bailey vs. transgender people. Transgender Map (Deep Stealth Productions, Inc.). Retrieved 20 February 2024.

Jelenkovic, A., Hur, Y.-M., Sund, R., Yokoyama, Y., Siribaddana, S., … & Silventoinen, K. (2016, December 14). Genetic and environmental infleunces on adult human height across birth cohorts from 1886 to 1994. eLife, 5, e20320. doi: 10.7554/eLife.20320. Retrieved 18 February 2024.

Jones, J.C. (2021, Summer). ‘Someone has to be the someone’: An interview with Helen Joyce. The Radical Notion, 4 (via Wayback Machine). Retrieved 22 February 2024.

Jones, Z. (n.d.). Depersonalization in gender dysphoria: The transgender depersonalization project. Gender Analysis with Zinnia Jones. Retrieved 21 February 2024.

Jones, Z. (2016, April 1). Alice Dreger, autogynephilia, and the misrepresentation of trans sexualities (Book review: Galileo’s Middle Finger). Gender Analysis with Zinnia Jones. Retrieved 18 February 2024.

Jones, Z. (2023, October 1). SEGM conference flier revealed: Invited speakers and schedule for October 9–12 New York City conference of the anti-trans Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine. Gender Analysis with Zinnia Jones. Retrieved 22 February 2024.

Joyce, H. (2022, October 25). Helen Joyce in conversation with Sir Partha Dasgupta, Caius College Cambridge, 25 October 2022 [YouTube video]. YouTube (Alphabet, Inc.). Retrieved 22 February 2024.

Kaltiala-Heino, R., Bergman, H., Tvöläjärvi, M., & Frisén, L. (2018, March 2). Gender dysphoria in adolescence: current perspectives. Adolescent Health, Medicine and Therapeutics, 9, 31–14. doi: 10.2147/AHMT.S135432. Retrieved 18 February 2024.

Kelleher, P. (2022, June 3). ‘Gender critical’ author Helen Joyce says she wants to ‘reduce’ number of trans people: ‘Chilling’. PinkNews (PinkNews Media Group Ltd). Retrieved 20 February 2024.

Kemp, S. (2015, January 23). Economist magazine appoints its first female editor. The Guardian (The Scott Trust). Retrieved 22 February 2024.

Kendall, J.M. (2003, March 1). Designing a research project: Randomised controlled trials and their principles. Emergency Medicine Journal, 20(2), 164–168. doi: 10.1136/emj.20.2.164. Retrieved 20 February 2024.

Kesslen, B. (2022, August 18). How the idea of a “transgender contagion” went viral—and caused untold harm. MIT Technology Review (Massachusetts Institute of Technology). Retrieved 18 February 2024.

Kimberly, A., Newgent, S., Angel, B., Terrell, A., & Pirie, K., “et al.” (2021, July 25). Trans men fight back. Gender Dysphoria Alliance Canada; Wayback Machine (Internet Archive). Retrieved 18 February 2024.

Klan, A. (2020, December 1). The Nine–Fairfax ‘independence’ myth. Independent Australia (Donovan Family Trust). Retrieved 20 February 2024.

Klan, A. (2022, February 21). Fairfax “Independence Charter” unsigned for over 15 years. The Klaxon (Anthony Klan). Retrieved 20 February 2024.

Klein, A., & Golub, S.A. (2016, May 25). Family rejection as a predictor of suicide attempts and substance misuse among transgender and gender nonconforming adults. LGBT Health, 3(3), 193–199. doi: 10.1089/lgbt.2015.0111. Retrieved 20 February 2024.

Knapp, Gudrun-Axeli (1988). Die vergessene Differenz. Feministische Studien, 6(1), 12–31. doi: 10.1515/fs-1988-0104. Retrieved 22 February 2024.

Kuhn, A. (1994). Die Täterschaft deutscher Frauen im NS-System — Traditionen, Dimensionen, Wandlungen. Polis, 7. Retrieved 21 February 2024.

Law, B. (2017, September). Moral panic 101 — Equality, acceptance and the Safe Schools scandal. Quarterly Essay (Schwartz Publishing), 67; Archive Today. Retrieved 18 February 2024.

Lebovitz, P.S. (1972). Feminine behavior in boys: Aspects of its outcome. American Journal of Psychiatry, 128(10), 1283–1289. doi: 10.1176/ajp.128.10.1283. Retrieved 21 February 2024.

Leveille, L. (2021a, July 5). The mechanisms of TAnon: Where it came from. Health Liberation Now!. Retrieved 20 February 2024.

Leveille, L. (2021b, October 21). Littman tries to prove ROGD by surveying detransitioners, fails spectacularly. Health Liberation Now!. Retrieved 18 February 2024.

Louden, B. (2017, November 22). FactCheck: does the Safe Schools progrma contain ‘highly explicit material’? (E. Rowe, Ed.). The Conversation (The Conversation Media Group Ltd). Retrieved 18 February 2024.

Littman, L. (2018, August 16). Parent reports of adolescents and young adults perceived to show signs of a rapid onset of gender dysphoria. PLOS ONE, 13(8), e0202330. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0202330. Retrieved 20 February 2024.

Littman, L. (2019, March 19). Correction: Parent reports of adolescents and young adults perceived to show signs of a rapid onset of gender dysphoria. PLOS ONE, 14(3), e0214157. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0214157. Retrieved 18 February 2024.

Littman, L. (2021, October 19). Individuals treated for gender dysphoria with medical and/or surgical transition who subsequently detransitioned: A survey of 100 detransitioners. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 50, 3353–3369. doi: 10.1007/s10508-021-02163-w. Retrieved 18 February 2024.

Marquez-Velarde, G., Miller, G.H., Shircliff, J.E., & Suárez, M.I. (2023, March 29). The impact of family support and rejection on suicide ideation and attempt among transgender adults in the U.S. LGBTQ+ Family: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 19(4), 275–287. doi:10.1080/27703371.2023.2192177. Retrieved 18 February 2024.

Mathews, B., Pacella, R., Scott, J.G., Finkelhor, D., Meinck, F., … & Dunne, M.P. (2023, April 2). The prevalence of child maltreatment in Australia: findings from a national study. Medical Journal of Australia, 218(S6), S13–S18. doi: 10.5694/mja.2.51873. Retrieved 18 February 2024.

McKay, R. (2019, July 14). What is Australia’s Safe Schools Program?. New Idea (Are Media Pty Ltd). Retrieved 18 February 2024.

MEAA journalist code of ethics (2018, November 14). Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance. Retrieved 20 February 2024.

Meyer, R. (2013, December 26). Alan Turing’s body. The Atlantic (Laurene Powell Jobs). Retrieved 22 February 2024.

Millum, J., & Grady, C. (2013, November). The ethics of placebo-controlled trials: Methodological justifications. Contemporary Clinical Trials, 36(2), 510–514. doi: 10.1016/j.cct.2013.09.003. Retrieved 20 February 2024.

Moore, M. (2021a, June 18). Conversion therapy downplayed and attacks on affirmative model at Tavistock whistleblowers’ book launch. Trans Safety Network (Trans Safety Network CIC). Retrieved 18 February 2024.

Moore, M. (2021b, August 26). SEGM uncovered: large anonymous payments funding dodgy science. Trans Safety Network (Trans Safety Network CIC). Retrieved 18 February 2024.

Moreton, I.C.B. [@epistemophagy] (2024, February 16). @MStutch, @fbuffy, @CosimaMarinner, @PhillipCoorey, @kchinneryAFR: Someone among you read Paul’s 4,500-word piece, so you can read this thread. Who … [Tweet]. Twitter (X Corp.). Retrieved 22 February 2024.

Morris, S.E., & Heinssen, R.K. (2014, November 18). Informed consent in the psychosis prodrome: ethical, procedural and cultural considerations. Philosophy, Ethics, and Humanities in Medicine, 9, 19. doi: 10.1186/1747-5341-9-19. Retrieved 20 February 2024.

Morin, A. (2023, November 15). What is dysphoria? A sense of unease that can happen with depression and other conditions (D.B. Block, Ed.). Verywell Mind (Dotdash Meredith). Retrieved 18 February 2024.

Murphy, M. (2024, January 8). Sasha Ayad: When kids say they’re trans. Feminist Current; Archive Today. Retrieved 21 February 2024.

Nashville statement (2017). Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood; Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (Southern Baptist Convention). Retrieved 18 February 2024.

NHS England (2023, June). Implementing advice from the Cass Review. Retrieved 20 February 2024.

Nine Publishing (2022, September). Charter of editorial independence. The Australian Financial Review (Nine Entertainment Company). Retrieved 20 February 2024.

Or Rev Stat §§ 675.070, 675.850.

Pamela Paul’s next chapter: Times opinion columnist [Press release] (2022, March 7). The New York Times Company. Retrieved 18 February 2024.

Parker, K., Horowitz, J.M., & Brown, A. (2022, June 28). Americans’ complex views on gender identity and transgender issues. Pew Research Center (The Pew Charitable Trusts, Inc.). Retrieved 22 February 2024.

Paul, P. (2024a, February 2). As kids, they thought they were trans. They no longer do. (Archived copy). The New York Times (The New York Times Company). Retrieved 18 February 2024.

Paul, P. (2024b, February 14). As kids, they thought they were trans. They no longer do. (Archived copy). The New York Times (The New York Times Company); The Australian Financial Review (Nine Entertainment Company). Retrieved 18 February 2024.

Pereda, N., Guilera, G., Forns, M., & Gómez-Benito, J. (2009, June). The prevalence of child sexual abuse in community and student samples: A meta-analysis. Clinical Psychology Review, 29(4), 328–338. doi: 10.1016/j.cpr.2009.02.007. Retrieved 18 February 2024.

Pérez Ortega, R. (2023, April 4). World Athletics banned transgender women from competing. Does science support the rule?. ScienceInsider (American Association for the Advancement of Science). doi: 10.1126/science.adi1230. Retrieved 22 February 2024.

Powell, J. (2019, November 20). Scientists reach 100% consensus on anthropogenic global warming. Bulletin of Science, Technology & Society, 37(4), 183–184. doi: 10.1177/0270467619886266. Retrieved 18 February 2024.

Prell, S. (2009, April 5). Prell: Defining marriage. Iowa State Daily (Iowa State University). Retrieved 20 February 2024.

Prior, J. [@joss_prior]. (2022, June 3). Subtitled version and a bit longer… [Twitter video]. Twitter (Twitter, Inc.). Retrieved 20 February 2024.

Reed, E. (2022, December 8). Political detransitioners are the new ex-gays. Erin In The Morning (Substack). Retrieved 18 February 2024.

Reed, E. (2023, January 13). Unpacking ‘gender exploratory therapy,’ a new form of conversion therapy. Xtra (Pink Triangle Press). Retrieved 21 February 2024.

Reed, E. (2024, February 3). Debunked: Misleading NYT anti-trans article by Pamela Paul relies on pseudoscience. Erin In The Morning (Substack). Retrieved 18 February 2024.

Reid, G. (2018, December 10). Breaking the buzzword: Fighting the “gender ideology” myth. Human Rights Watch. Retrieved 18 February 2024.

Reisner, S.L., Choi, S.K., Herman, J.L., Bockting, W., Krueger, E.A., & Meyer, I.H. (2023, September 15). Sexual orientation in transgender adults in the United States. BMC Public Health, 23, 1799. doi: 10.1186/s12889-023-16654-z. Retrieved 18 February 2024.

Restar, A.J. (2019, April 22). Methodological critique of Littman’s (2018) parental-respondents accounts of “rapid-onset gender dysphoria”. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 49, 61–66. doi: 10.1007/s10508-019-1453-2. Retrieved 22 February 2024.

Rohde-Dachser, C. (1991). Expedition in den dunklen Kontinent: Weiblichkeit im Diskurs der Psychoanalyse. Springer Berlin, Heidelberg.

Ristori, J., & Steensma, T.D. (2016, January 7). Gender dysphoria in childhood. International Review of Psychiatry, 28(1), 13–20. doi: 10.3109/09540261.2015.1115754. Retrieved 18 February 2024.

Roberts, C.M., Klein, D.A., Adiri, T.A., Schvey, N.A., & Hisle-Gorman, E. (2022, April 22). Continuation of gender-affirming hormones among transgender adolescents and adults. The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, 107(9), e3937–e3943. doi: 10.1210/clinem/dgac251. Retrieved 18 February 2024.

Ruuska, S.-M., Tuisku, K., Holttinen, T., & Kaltiala, R. (2024, February 17). All-cause and suicide mortalities among adolescents and young adults who contacted specialised gender identity services in Finland in 1996–2019: a register study. BMJ Mental Health, 27(1), e300940. doi: 10.1136/bmjment-2023-300940. Retrieved 22 February 2024.

Schlatter, E., & Steinback, R. (2011, February 27). 10 anti-gay myths debunked. Intelligence Report (Southern Poverty Law Center). Retrieved 18 February 2024.

Serano, J. (2020, August 10). Autogynephilia: A scientific review, feminist analysis, and alternative ’embodiment fantasies’ model. The Sociological Review, 68(4), 763–778. doi: 10.1177/0038026120934690. Retrieved 18 February 2024.

Serano. J. (2021, March 30). The Dregerian narrative (or why “trans activists” vs. “scientists” framings are lazy, inaccurate, and incendiary). Medium (A Medium Corporation). Retrieved 18 February 2024.

Serano, J. [@JuliaSerano] (2024, February 3). 1) yet again, the @nytimes has published a lengthy “raising concerns about trans” article based largely on anecdotal stories & … [Tweet]. Twitter (X Corp.). Retrieved 18 February 2024.

Sex Matters (2021, April 22). Helen Joyce joins Sex Matters as director of advocacy. Sex Matters (Sex Matters for Everyone Ltd); Archive Today. Retrieved 22 February 2024.

Shapiro, B.A. [@benshapiro] (2022, June 11). “I’d rather have a living son than a dead daughter” is, again, propagandistic sloganeering. There is no credible evidence that … [Tweet]. Twitter (X Corp.); Archive Today. Retrieved 18 February 2024.

Stahl, A. (2021, July 8). Prisoners, doctors, and the battle over trans medical care. Wired (Condé Nast). Retrieved 18 February 2024.

Stelter, B. (2021, November 16). This infamous Steve Bannon quote is key to understanding America’s crazy politics. CNN Business (Warner Bros. Discovery). Retrieved 22 February 2024.

Strang, J.F., Meagher, H., Kenworthy, L., de Vries, A.L.C., Menvielle, E., … & Anthony, L.G. (2016, October 23). Initial clinical guidelines for co-occurring autism spectrum disorder and gender dysphoria or incongruence in adolescents. Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology, 47(1), 105–115. doi: 10.1080/15374416.2016.1228462. Retrieved 22 February 2024.

Strang, J.F., Powers, M.D., Knauss, M., Sibarium, E., Leibowitz, S.F., … & Anthony, L.G. (2018, August 23). “They thought it was an obsession”: Trajectories and perspectives of autistic transgender and gender-diverse adolescents. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 48, 4039–4055. doi: 10.1007/s10803-018-3723-6. Retrieved 18 February 2024.

Taylor & Francis Online (n.d.). Editorial board. Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy (Informa plc); Archive Today. Retrieved 18 February 2024.

Thoma, B.C., Rezeppa, T.L., Choukas-Bradley, S., Salk, R.H., & Marshal, M.P. (2021, August 1). Disparities in childhood abuse between transgender and cisgender adolescents. Pediatrics, 148(2), e2020016907. Retrieved 20 February 2024.

Tordoff, D.M., Wanta, J.W., Collin, A., Stepney, C., Inwards-Breland, D.J., & Ahrens, K. (2022, February 25). Mental health outcomes in transgender and nonbinary youths receiving gender-affirming care. JAMA Network Open, 5(2), e220978. doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.0978. Retrieved 18 February 2024.

TransActual (n.d.). Transphobia. Retrieved 18 February 2024.

Trans Safety Network (2023, April 18). Parent guidance by anti-trans campaign group promotes conversion practices. TransSafety.network (Trans Safety Network CIC). Retrieved 22 February 2024.

Turban, J. (2022, January 24). The evidence for trans youth gender-affirming medical care (A. Fagan, Ed.). Psychology Today (Sussex Publishers). Retrieved 18 February 2024.

Turban, J.L., Dolotina, B., Freitag, T.M., King, D., & Keuroghlian, A.S. (2023, March 17). Age of realization and disclosure of gender identity among transgender adults. Journal of Adolescent Health, 72(6), 852–859. doi: 10.1016/j.jadohealth.2023.01.023. Retrieved 22 February 2024.

Turban, J.L., King, D., Carswell, J.M., & Keuroghlian, A.S. (2020, February 1). Pubertal suppression for transgender youth and risk of suicidal ideation. Pediatrics, 145(2), e20191725. doi: 10.1542/peds.2019-1725. Retrieved 20 February 2024.

Turk, A., Heneghan, C., & Nunan, D. (2019). Non-response bias. Catalogue of Bias (Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine). Retrieved 21 February 2024.

Turner, J. (2023, March 10). Anti-trans disinformation is rife in Australia — and it’s being spread by a small group of organisations. Crikey (Private Media Pty Ltd). Retrieved 20 February 2024.

Urquhart, E. (2023, May 16). The NYT asks: Why are there so few detrans activists?. Assigned Media. Retrieved 18 February 2024.

Urquhart, E. (2024, February 2). Pamela Paul shows NYT Opinion’s lack of accountability to the truth. Assigned Media. Retrieved 18 February 2024.

U.S. National Center for Health Statistics (2017, September). National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey: Body measures, 2015–2016 [Data set]. U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Retrieved 18 February 2024.

Vyse, G. (2019, June 25). Despite historic high, LGBTQ still underrepresented in elected office. Governing (e.Republic, LLC). Retrieved 20 February 2024.

Wanta, J.W., Niforatos, J.D., Durbak, E., Viguera, A., & Altinay, M. (2019, November 1). Mental health diagnoses among transgender patients in the clinical setting: An all-payer electronic health record study. Transgender Health, 4(1), 313–315. doi: 10.1089/trgh.2019.0029. Retrieved 20 February 2024.

What We Know Project (2018). What does the scholarly research say about the effect of gender transition on transgender wellbeing? [Online literature review]. Cornell University. Retrieved 18 February 2024.

Winn, S. [@sometherapist] (2021a, December 25). Furthermore: When a natal female tells us she feels unfeminine & dysphoric, & thinks this might mean she’s trans, shouldn’t … [Tweet]. Twitter (X Corp.); Archive Today. Retrieved 18 February 2024.

Winn, S. [@sometherapist] (2021b, December 25). This is more likely to occur if she has experienced complex trauma, especially early sexual trauma, which would also correlate … [Tweet]. Twitter (X Corp.); Archive Today. Retrieved 18 February 2024.

Winn, S. (2022, April 13). So your kid wants to live as the opposite sex … [Blog post]. You Must Be Some Kind of Therapist (Stephanie Winn); Wayback Machine (Internet Archive). Retrieved 18 February 2024.

World Health Organization (1977). International classification of diseases (version 9). United Nations.

WPATH Global Board of Directors (2018, September 4). WPATH position on “rapid-onset gender dysphoria (ROGD)”. World Professional Association for Transgender Health. Retrieved 18 February 2024.

Wyckoff, A.S. (2023, August 4). AAP reaffirms gender-affirming care policy, authorizes systematic review of evidence to guide update. AAP News (American Academy of Pediatrics). Retrieved 20 February 2024.

Yang, M. (2023, February 15). ‘New York Times’ stories on trans youth slammed by writers — including some of its own. NPR.org (National Public Radio, Inc.). Retrieved 20 February 2024.

Zinck, S., & Pignatiello, A. (2015, November 6). External review of the Gender Identity Clinic of the Child, Youth and Family Services in the Underserved Population Program at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. The TransAdvocate. Retrieved 18 February 2024.

On 21 March 2023, Green Ideas, a Substack adjacent to the Victorian Greens and curated by Andrew Conley, published an article, “A short history of Nazi enabling in the Party,” by Linda Gale (2023).

The article has several problems.

I am climbing out of my well to name a few.

---

Contents

1. “if predatory men were able to enter women’s spaces“
2. “if … ‘Trans Women are Women’ is given its literal meaning“
3. “Women’s rights can conflict with those of … trans men“
4. “the right of women to discuss certain issues“
5. “‘affirmation only’ is a problematic therapeutic approach“
6. “significant psychological factors leading to body dysmorphia“
7. “a medical pathway with irreversible consequences“
8. “‘transing away the gay’“
9. “same-sex attraction in a rampantly homophobic society“
10. “Questioning … was shouted down“
11. “making a low key Facebook post simply raising the concern“
12. “it was said to be transphobic to ask questions“
13. “the Greens have adopted a position of ‘no debate’“
14. “Even asking questions … is described as ‘genocidal’“
15. “merely knowing … would lead to deaths“
16. “on the claimed basis that … any discussion … is inherently hateful“
17. “The science, we are told, is settled“
18. “The politics is settled“
19. “Anyone who questions that is a dinosaur“
20. “a witting or unwitting agent of far-right extremists“
21. “said to be ‘dog whistles’ for transphobia“
22. “Where … do people go to discuss ideas?“
23. “Perhaps the hope is that people will just shut up“
24. “Silence will be consent“
25. “they will start having those conversations outside the Greens“
26. “Not all of those spaces are confined to people of good will“
27. “Not all of those spaces are … sensitive to the feelings of others“
28. “Progressive people looked for space … but were rebuffed“
29. “That doesn’t mean they abandon their politics“
30. “nor that they fail to challenge … reactionary … views“
31. “Nor do they embrace the views of religious fundamentalism“
32. “Nor do they embrace the views of social conservatism“
33. “Nor do they embrace the views of … the far right“
34. “These are Greens members we are talking about“
35. “conservative MPs and firebrands … far from Greens-friendly“
36. “she argues that all women should be allowed to speak“
37. “The Party does not allow them … to speak“
38. “This is hardly surprising“
39. “given the pluralist and inclusive nature of the format“
40. “Nor … does … that … imply their personal endorsement“
41. “My personal history includes … death threats … by Neo-Nazis“
42. “strategically confronting progressive groups“
43. “They have been emboldened by … social media“
44. “Presumably, they intended to gain maximum publicity“
45. “posts decrying the … event for ‘standing with Nazis’“
46. “being ‘on the side of Nazis’“
47. “and being ‘protected by’ Nazis“
48. “described the women protesting … as … linked to the Nazis“
49. “This has been echoed by the other parties“
50. “vilification … as being … Nazis, Nazi allies and Nazi enablers“
51. “all parties … are declaring them to have broad community support“
52. “asserting that they ae supported by … the women present“
53. “The opportunist effort of the trans lobby“
54. “concerned feminists“
55. “You know those women are not Nazis“
56. “You know they hate Nazis“
57. “You know they are arguing for ideas Nazis hate“
58. “you know they are not standing with Nazis“
59. “they are standing with women, for women“
60. “the public response … actively enables … the Neo-Nazis“
61. “Neo-Nazis … should be treated with the contempt they deserve“
62. “the Greens should not elevate them“
63. “Women … concerned with women’s rights should be engaged with“

• P.S.
• Footnotes
• References

---

#1

Where would the safe spaces be if predatory men were able to enter women’s spaces simply by asserting that they were women?

Gale (op. cit.)

Banning trans women from women’s spaces on the basis that they might be predatory men would not actually stop predatory men. It would not stop them because when predatory men enter women’s spaces, they universally do so without asserting that they are women first (Barnett et al., 2018).

In a strange coincidence, however, such a ban would effectively keep trans women out of public life. I’m sure this was unintentional.

#2

Similarly, some women questioned what the term ‘woman’ means if the Party’s policy position that ‘Trans Women are Women’ is given its literal meaning.

Gale (op. cit.)

If trans women aren’t literally women, then what are they? Go on, Linda. Share with the class.

#3

Women’s rights can conflict with those of men, including trans men, for example by excluding men from eligibility for certain spaces or opportunities.

Gale (op. cit.)

Hang on a second. There are three propositions here and they can’t all be true. Linda asserts:

1. that trans men are men (I agree!);
2. that men and women have separate rights;
3. that the scenario described represents a conflict of rights.

But, given that trans men are men, if rights are assigned based on whether one is a man or a woman, then no conflict of rights can exist — trans men, being men, don’t have a woman’s right to women’s “spaces and opportunities” in the first place.

The most obvious answer here is that Linda didn’t notice this because she was evaluating a version of the argument in which (i.e., she actually believes that) one of these assertions is not true. Which one Linda believes is not true (in this hypothetical scenario) is left as an exercise for the reader.

#4

the right of trans people to have their gender identity accepted and affirmed in all circumstances can conflict with the right of women to discuss certain issues.

Gale (op. cit.)

Yes, this is normal. Society and its institutions already limit “discuss[ion]” which interferes with the civil rights of others. I would be interested to know if Gale opposes all such limitations on discussion, or just this one.

#5

This despite growing international evidence that ‘affirmation only’ is a problematic therapeutic approach.

Gale (op. cit.)

Citation needed.

#6

One way it is problematic is that it can result in the under-diagnosis of, and failure to address, significant psychological factors leading to body dysmorphia.

Gale (op. cit.)

See #5.

#7

Another is that it can encourage people down a medical pathway with irreversible consequences

Gale (op. cit.)

This is just the argument of Bell’s Christian Right (Trans Safety Network, 2021) legal team in R (Bell) v Tavistock all over again. That’s been rebutted enough times, most notably by HM Court of Appeal in England overturning it. I’m not going to bother to rebut it again.

#8

At the Tavistock Gender Identity Development Service in the UK, this was referred to as ‘transing away the gay’”

Gale (op. cit.)

Actually, the origin of the phrase “transing away the gay” is UK anti-trans astroturf group LGB Alliance in circa February 2022. The earliest mention of it I could find was from English poet Jay Hulme mentioning an email blast to Church of England clergy:

Dear, all the clergy following me — the organisation emailing you about “transing away the gay” is an anti trans hate group that is not representative of the Queer community and their ONLY concern is stopping trans people existing. Please ignore their nonsense.

Hulme (2022)

The next item I found was September 2022 coverage of LGB Alliance in The Telegraph, a Press Holdings paper which is sympathetic to them, which repeatedly frames “transing away the gay” as a belief originating from and held by LGB Alliance and their representative Akua Reinsdorf:

LGB Alliance believes that treatment at the NHS’s Tavistock Clinic is “transing the gay away”. …

The consequence of “transing away the gay” at the NHS Tavistock is “possible sterilisation and loss of sexual function of a disproportionate number of lesbian children”, she said.

Dixon (2022)

We are not presently able to deny LGB Alliance the ability to promote whichever narrative they wish. What Gale is doing here is attempting to extend them final authority on the objective facts.

#9

even if the underlying reason for questioning their own gender identity is the challenge in coming to terms with same-sex attraction in a rampantly homophobic society

Gale (op. cit.)

This doesn’t really make sense, since, as has been known for some time (e.g., LGBT Youth Scotland & Green Light, 2009, p. 37), cis people just assume trans people are some sort of Ultra Gay anyway.

#10

Questioning of this policy amendment within the Greens … was shouted down

Gale (op. cit.)

I hope it will not be taken amiss if I point out that, yes, people will usually get sick of you repeatedly asking the same question because your prejudices didn’t agree with the actual answer.

#11

or, as one local government representative did, making a low key Facebook post simply raising the concern that this might lead to unintended negative consequences

Gale (op. cit.)

That’s not quite what Cr Rohan Leppert did, is it. In remarks he made on a public Facebook post (Moreton, 2022), Leppert

• argued against Victoria’s conversion therapy on the grounds that it “may have been constructed in a way that will result in an excessive diagnosis of gender dysphoria and prescription of puberty blockers, HRT and surgery”
• said that “Women are identifying out of lesbianism in significant numbers, while trans women are identifying in, and there are consequences for that”;
• framed “a transition pathway” as something you “escape”;
• defended “women who raise concerns” about the existence of trans lesbians as not being “hateful”.

Of course, it would not be to Gale’s political advantage to mention exactly what Leppert said, or indeed even mention his name — one doesn’t want to make it easy to verify or disprove one’s claims against sources if one knows one is lying — so it’s no surprise that she doesn’t.

#12

Once again, it was said to be transphobic to ask questions

Gale (op. cit.)

I am reminded of an excellent TikTok by Last Week Tonight writer Ryan Ken (2022):

Look: You cannot say that trans people are gross. Not anymore! But shouldn’t we be saying it? I dunno. I’m just asking questions. […] Just need to know what someone’s genitals look like so you know how to treat them! It’s not weird! You’re weird! … I’m just asking questions.

Ken (op. cit.)

#13

Instead of engaging with these concerns and allowing room for respectful discussion within the membership, the Greens have adopted a position of ‘no debate’

Gale (op. cit.)

See #5.

#14

Even asking questions or raising concerns is described as ‘genocidal’

Gale (op. cit.)

See #5.

#15

on the claimed basis that some trans people have suicidal ideation and that merely knowing that the Greens allowed such questions to be asked would lead to deaths.

Gale (op. cit.)

See #5.

#16

It is described as ‘hate speech’ on the claimed basis that, because trans people are subject to discrimination and vilification in daily life, any discussion of any issue that touches on the position of trans people is inherently hateful.

Gale (op. cit.)

Wow. Any discussion? At all? So do I understand correctly that the orthodoxy within the AGV is that it’s not okay to, e.g., speak out against conversion therapy, or support trans people interstate in their efforts to have surgery requirements for legal change of gender removed, or whatever, because it’s hateful? That would be very concerning if that were the case. I’m shocked I somehow haven’t heard about it.

Or is it actually the case that it’s only certain ways of discussing certain issues? Because that could be very different.

#17

The science, we are told, is settled.

Gale (op. cit.)

Objectively it is (Padula et al., 2015; Schmidt & Levine, 2015; Bar et al., 2016; Cardoso da Silva et al., 2016; Glynn et al., 2016; van de Grift et al., 2017; Bauer et al., 2021; What We Know Project, 2018; Coalition for the Advancement & Application of Psychological Science et al., n.d.; etc.).

#18

The politics is settled.

Gale (op. cit.)

Unlike the sciences being called upon here, politics isn’t a field of empirical investigation; it’s the interaction of different sets of subjective personal values. Politics can’t be “settled” any more than art or music. That having been said, it’s certainly true that the available data about the world define the range of stances that are progressive with respect to that world. If you want to position yourself against those stances and still be considered progressive, that honestly seems like a you problem.

#19

Anyone who questions that is a dinosaur

Gale (op. cit.)

What does “dinosaur” connote here? It seems to me that it could connote one of two things: “age,” or “being ill-adapted to the conditions that currently exist”.

If people are attacking these “questions” with nothing more than “these views are old” and that was treated as legitimate critique, then, as someone whose decision to transition was clinched by the Gospel according to Matthew, I’d be very upset. Is that what’s happening?

Alternatively, if people were attacking these “questioning” views with “these views are ill-adapted to the existing conditions,” then … isn’t that actually fair enough? Or would you prefer a party that belonged in a museum?

#20

a witting or unwitting agent of far-right extremists

Gale (op. cit.)

The far-right extremists certainly consider the anti-trans activists, whatever their nominal political affiliation, to be their “witting or unwitting” agents, as the media statement by NSN leader Thomas Sewell makes clear:

Today in Melbourne, the National Socialist Network acted as a vanguard for a protest against the constant paedophilic agenda being forced upon our children and our people.

Sewell, via Hiscox (2023)

Further, the perception that anti-trans activists have common purpose with Nazis is certainly shared and positively regarded by a number of nominally “non-Nazi” or “anti-Nazi” anti-trans activists, for example Angie Jones:

Nazis and women want to get rid of paedo filth. Why don’t you?

Jones (2023)

So what ought we to believe?

#21

The questions themselves are said to be ‘dog whistles’ for transphobia.

Gale (op. cit.)

Someone who wasn’t dogwhistling transphobia would deny it and be offended by the very idea. Of course, someone who was dogwhistling transphobia would act the same way. It is therefore not really meaningful that Gale implicitly denies the questions are dogwhistles here — of course she does.

#22

Where, then, do people go to discuss ideas?

Gale (op. cit.)

The obvious answer here is that Gale seems to be having no trouble.

#23

Perhaps the hope is that people will just shut up.

Gale (op. cit.)

The hope is certainly that the the discussion will eventually subside. The hoped-for path to that point is that people will assess the actual solid, peer-reviewed evidence and ensure that they only make objections which are based on the evidence, as opposed to their current policy of making shit up.

#24

Silence will be consent.

Gale (op. cit.)

This is a pretty obvious attempt to associate trans allyship, advocacy, and indeed existence, with the pro-rape fascist position against the ethical and legal fact that sex requires affirmative consent (Pullar, 2022). Weren’t we just discussing dogwhistles a moment ago?

#25

Instead, they will start having those conversations outside the Greens.

Gale (op. cit.)

Good! Let them!

#26

Not all of those spaces are confined to people of good will.

Gale (op. cit.)

If Gale chooses people not “of good will” over trans “people of good will” because she would be obliged to show basic respect to the latter, that seems to me like her problem, not mine.

#27

Not all of those spaces are particularly sensitive to the feelings of others.

Gale (op. cit.)

Isn’t the whole point of this article that the level of politeness and sensitivity that Gale is expected to show to trans people in the AGV is too high? In that case, how is this a legitimate complaint? “Sensitivity for me, not for thee”?

#28

Progressive people looked for space for respectful and sensitive discussion within the Greens, but were rebuffed.

Gale (op. cit.)

The AGV State Council couldn’t pass a motion against transphobia the day after Nazis showed up to support transphobes on the steps of the Parliament of Victoria. I have a suspicion that Gale and friends will be fine (although see “P.S.,” below).

#29

That doesn’t mean they abandon their politic

Gale (op. cit.)

No, it doesn’t, does it? I rather suspect that it means they simply keep having the politics they’ve always had.

#30

nor that they fail to challenge the reactionary aspects of the views they encounter

Gale (op. cit.)

Absolutely true! They challenge them by standing — per one member of the Let Women Speak (LWS) contingent, Holly Lawford-Smith — “ten metres” (Lawford-Smith, 2023a) away from them and do nothing.

#31

Nor do they embrace the views of religious fundamentalism

Gale (op. cit.)

This is absolutely extraordinary for two reasons. The first is that, as mentioned earlier, Gale’s canard about a “medical pathway” is identical in substantive content and a close paraphrase in wording to the argument made by the claimants’ legal team in R (Bell), who were literal, actual, credentialed, professional members of the institutional Christian far right (Trans Safety Network, op. cit.).

The second is that the following passage appears in Gale’s article:

The right of some trans women to unfettered access to women’s spaces can conflict with the right of some religiously observant women to not share intimate spaces (such as changing rooms) with those they consider to be male.

Gale (op. cit., p. 3)

So Gale has literally just suggested that individual religious observance is valid grounds for secular authorities to restrict other, trans individuals’ civil rights, and now she says this. What exactly does she believe religious fundamentalism to be?

#32

Nor do they embrace the views of social conservatism

Gale (op. cit.)

Then how is it that social conservatives have the same views (Laco, 2022; Martin & McGowan, 2022; Walker et al., 2022)?

#33

Nor do they embrace the views of … the far right

Gale (op. cit.)

Then how is it that the far right have the same views (Factora, 2021; Amery & Mondon, 2023; Karp, 2023)?

Oh wait, I get it — is this like: the views aren’t far-right unless the people who have them identify as such? What would you call that, some sort of … self-ID?

#34

These are Greens members we are talking about: basically progressive people of conscience and good intention.

Gale (op. cit.)

I am a former Queensland Greens member. I consider myself a basically progressive person of conscience and good intention. The thing is, the Greens didn’t make me that way; I joined the Greens because I was that way already. Unless the Party plans to subject its members to mandatory courses in ethics, party affiliation does not and cannot confer moral character.

#35

On her Australian tour, she has associated with conservative MPs and firebrands, about as far from Greens-friendly as you can get.

Gale (op. cit.)

I will certainly have to recalibrate some aspects of my leftism if it is to be understood that “firebrands” and “conservative MPs” are equallly “far from Greens-friendly”.

#36

Nonetheless, she argues that all women should be allowed to speak, including women she doesn’t agree with on many issues.

Gale (op. cit.)

Actually, Keen-Minshull is on record saying, “Each and every one of you women who stand in my way will be annihilated” (Chudy, 2023). Hope this helps.

#37

The Party does not allow them any opportunity to speak about their genuine and deeply-held concerns,

Gale (op. cit.)

I am reminded of this excellent contribution from Barry Deutsch (2019):

Seriously though, the Party clearly does allow such speech. The article itself is literally Gale engaging in such speech and, given that that speech is directed to an audience — per Green Ideas‘ landing page/login wall — of “members of The Australian Greens Victoria,” she clearly doesn’t believe the Party will impose consequences on her for it (although see “P.S.,” below).

What she is stating is the expectation that her speech will be prioritised — that even though these shapeless fears (I will charitably pretend that they are fears) can’t be shown to correspond to reality, they should still take priority over things which verifiably do.

#38

so they take the opportunity presented by Keen. This is hardly surprising.

Gale (op. cit.)

It’s actually very surprising to me. Keen-Minshull has suggested that men with guns should station themselves in women’s spaces on the pretext of “defending” those spaces from trans women (Milton, 2021). Wasn’t predatory men coming into women’s spaces for the purpose of hurting women supposed to be the kind of thing Gale, Keen-Minshull and their co-ideologists were against?

#39

given the pluralist and inclusive nature of the format

Gale (op. cit.)

Pluralist and inclusive how? Is this just in the sense that it included a grammatically plural number of speakers, i.e., greater than 1?

#40

Nor … does taking that opportunity imply their personal endorsement either of Keen’s views or of the views of other speakers.

Gale (op. cit.)

This is untrue. If you sign up to speak at an event you know to feature multiple speakers, you accept that any audience you attract to the event will see the others, too. You are stating that you consider it acceptable that your presence will attract people to see the other speakers. You are endorsing them.

#41

My personal history includes having car tyres slashed and death threats made to my immediate family by Neo-Nazis.

Gale (op .cit.)

Ideological alignment with fascism and individual or group enmity with specific fascists are compatible, as Ernst Röhm, Gregor Strasser, Ferdinand von Bredow, and a number of other individuals discovered on the Night of the Long Knives.

#42

They have recently stepped up their public activities, including strategically confronting progressive groups in public demonstrations.

Gale (op. cit.)

And yet when it came to the “feminist progressives” in the LWS contingent, the Nazis didn’t show up to confront them. In fact, they showed up as a “vanguard” to protect them (Hiscox, op. cit.). They did attack the Campaign Against Racism & Fascism (CARF)/Trans Queer Solidarity Naarm (TQS Naarm) contingent, though (Melbourne Activist Legal Support, 2023). Wonder why?

#43

They have been emboldened by the way social media will spread their image and magnify their activities, making them look bigger and more impressive than they are.

Gale (op. cit.)

Great hypothesis!

One slight problem: the platform on which I wrote the original version of this piece, Twitter, was a decade and a half old (15 on the date of publication, 21 March, actually — feliz quinceañera, hellsite). If the proximate cause of this incident was social media, then why was the incident newsworthy? Shouldn’t we have seen a gradual building to this incident, and thus shouldn’t we have seen plenty of similar but smaller incidents before now?

#44

Presumably, they intended to gain maximum publicity by inserting themselves into the mix.

Gale (op. cit.)

We don’t have to “presume” their intentions; they stated them.

While we know fascists lie, we also know that they lie instrumentally to gain power and avoid punishment — the meaning captured by the colloquialism “hide your power level,” which is heavily embedded in the vocabulary of the alt-right (Know Your Meme, 2015/2019).

We also know that when fascists do lie, they often incorporate twisted, warped versions of the truth as essential elements. For example: During and after the First World War, the Ottoman Empire and its successor, the Republic of Turkey, carried out the Armenian genocide, the systematic obliteration of the Armenian people, including the outright murder of circa 1 million Armenians.

The international academic consensus is now that the Armenian genocide took place (Suny, 2009; Smith, 2015; Kasbarian, 2016; etc.), but only a minority of sovereign states have acknowledged it, owing to concerns about their relations with the Republic of Turkey (Öktem, 2011). However, Hitler as German chancellor referred accurately to the Armenian genocide as fact in his Obersalzberg speech of 22 August 1939 — and framed it as a positive precedent for his program of, in his words, unbarmherzig und mitleidslos Mann, Weib und Kind polnischer Abstammung und Sprache in den Tod zu schicken — “send[ing] to death mercilessly and without compassion, men, women, and children of Polish derivation and language” (Lochner, 1942, p. 12).

Whether fascists outright lie and fabricate, or selectively tell and twist the truth, is a matter of political convenience. It is necessary to assess fascist claims of fact against the current and historical consensus reality compiled by actually reliable and good-faith witnesses. In this case, the claim by the National Socialist Network (NSN) regarding their motives for showing up to the Melbourne protest is consistent with core fascist ideology and the historically attested actions of the Nazi Party (Cohen, 2018; Joaquina, 2022; Jordans, 2023) and other fascist groups (Megaloudi, 2013; Rouner, 2021; Deutschen Presse-Agentur, 2022) worldwide.

There is no evidence-based reason to suggest that the Nazis claiming to be transphobic, which is usual and normal for Nazis, are lying. Certainly they probably intended to get publicity, which they did, but suggesting their sole motive was publicity is an obvious desperate attempt by Gale to extract herself from the essential problem that Nazis approve of, agree with, and materially support her ideas.

#45

I have seen Twitter and Facebook posts decrying the Let Women Speak event for ‘standing with Nazis’

Gale (op. cit.)

They literally did.

#46

being ‘on the side of Nazis’

Gale (op. cit.)

See #45.

#47

and being ‘protected by’ Nazis.

Gale (op. cit.)

See #19, #44.

#48

Our Greens parliamentary leaders have described the women protesting as dangerous and linked to the Nazis

Gale (op. cit.)

Given the wording, this is likely referring specifically to a statement by one specific Greens parliamentary leader, Samantha Ratnam MLC, leader of the AGV in the Parliament of Victoria:

To see neo nazis join the anti-trans rights hate rally at Parliament in Victoria today tells us everything about these movements.

They are dangerous and they are linked to each other.

Both are intolerant and hateful and have no place here.

Ratnam (2023), emphasis mine

Of course, Gale’s position here would be slightly more defensible if not for Jones (2023). Angie really let the cat out of the bag on that one.

#49

This has been echoed by the other parties … there has been a lazy and unjustified vilification of women

Gale (op. cit.)

Gale suggests here that the other parties “echoed” Ratnam’s statement (Ratnam, op. cit.), i.e., that the other parties voiced similar sentiments because Ratnam voiced them first, and therefore it’s Ratnam’s “fault”. From available evidence the pretext for doing this appears to be that Ratnam’s Tweet was the first major party statement to be published, on 18 March at 17:15 AEDT (16:15 AEST).

Suggesting that the other parties are taking their discursive cues from the AGV implies a power relationship between the media, the other parties, and the AGV (a party with 4 of 40 seats in the Legislative Council and 4 of 88 in the Legislative Assembly) that does not exist. As someone who has previously acted (albeit illegitimately) as AGV Convenor and appears to serve as an eminence grise donor for Rohan Leppert and possibly other politicians aligned with her views, Gale would be among the best placed people to know this in the whole AGV. It is therefore not plausible that she doesn’t in fact know it.

In reality, plenty of other, non-party sources with greater media influence made the link, including an Australian Associated Press wire piece by Tara Cosoleto carried by multiple outlets owned by Australian Community Media, McPherson Media Group, and Seven West Media (Cosoleto, 2023a, 2023b, 2023c & 2023d; AAP Newswire, 2023a & 2023b; etc.), published at 5:25 pm, preceding Labor’s statement linking the two (Andrews, 2023),¹ as well as a News Corp Australia (NCA) NewsWire piece published by multiple NCA outlets on 19 March starting at 3:51 pm AEST (Anderson & Brennan, 2023a & 2023b; etc.).

They made the link because it was extremely obviously there to make. Unless Gale is suggesting that the AGV and the Australian mass media are in cahoots — a proposition whose probability Gale should have a fairly good idea of — Ratnam cannot be blamed (at least, not without intentionally lying) for simply acknowledging what everybody could clearly see.

#50

… a lazy and unjustified vilification of women protesting for women’s rights as being themselves Nazis, Nazi allies and Nazi enablers.

Gale (op. cit.)

Enabling is “seeking to avoid confrontation and conflict by absorbing … abuse without challenging it or setting boundaries” (Davis, 2019). If a group of people is standing “ten metres” (Lawford-Smith, 2023a) away from the Nazis, not visibly objecting to their presence, not moving away, and later explicitly agreeing with them on certain points (Jones, op. cit.), is that enabling? Or is it outright intentional collaboration? Those are the options.

#51

now all major parties, including the Greens, are declaring them to have broad community support

Gale (op. cit.)

I could not find any statement from any major party federal or Victorian state leader (or any other state leader, for that matter) declaring this or anything similar to it.

#52

asserting that they are supported by and linked to the women present on the same day who were speaking about women’s rights

Gale (op. cit.)

If this is meant to support the clause in #51, which immediately precedes it, then it does a very poor job. To the best of my ability to determine, no party has asserted that Nazis have “broad community support”. What those parties who have mentioned the link have asserted is that Nazis have support from a small segment of the community on the basis of views they have in common. Gale appears to have taken exception to this primarily because that segment includes her.

The “broad community support” contention may be a reflexive ad lib — it isn’t unusual for comfortable members of the Australian professional managerial class to assume that of course everyone shares their views. What Gale should take away from the fact that the only “everyone” who shares her views are the National Socialist Network is, of course, not for me to determine.

#53

The opportunist effort of the trans lobby

Gale (op. cit.)

This is a pretty common trick, of the same variety as calling any trans person who doesn’t enjoy being the target of transphobia a “trans rights activist” (TRA).

In this case, Gale is framing literally any mobilised trans people as the “trans lobby” likely for the same reason her ideological ally Michael Bachelard would do the same in The Age a couple of days later² — to suggest wealthy hired guns of no fixed principles with privileged access and power, making marginalised trans people into the corrupt status quo institutionalists, and their opponents (the LWS contingent, and, covertly, the NSN contingent) into the plucky underdogs.

Of course, using the word “lobby” to describe the demographic who object to you because you want to squash them also serves another purpose — it reframes them as a political faction, which means your visceral antipathy toward them is no longer bigotry, but a principled, reasonable, legitimate form of politics.

#54

concerned feminists

Gale (op. cit.)

See #12.

#55

You know those women are not Nazis.

Gale (op. cit.)

Do I? I know that even aside from the NSN contingent, the LWS audience included, for example, Felicity Sharpe (Alternate Media Watchers, 2023), self-professed fascist and open neo-Nazi (Fleming, 2015). I know that Gale was spruiking the politically “pluralist and inclusive” format of the LWS event as a key strength only a moment ago (#39).

If I am to believe Gale’s own words, the fact that the rally included people of every political persuasion — which would include Nazis — is a core part of the appeal.

#56

You know they hate Nazis.

Gale (op. cit.)

They don’t quite hate them enough to move more than “ten metres” (Lawford-Smith, 2023a) away from them.

#57

You know they are arguing for ideas Nazis hate.

Gale (op. cit.)

And yet despite this fact, the rally attendees “were safe … the threat to our physical safety was from the trans activists” (Lawford-Smith, 2023b). This is odd given that Nazis’ response to ideas they hate is typically to attempt to maim or kill the people expressing them.

It could be argued that the neo-Nazis weren’t free to engage in violence because of the presence of Victoria Police — which is dubious at best, as the legal observers’ report (Melbourne Activist Legal Support, op. cit.) indicates — but they still chose to engage in “highly distressing, provocative, prejudice-motivated behaviors and messaging” toward the CARF/TQS Naarm contingent (ibid.). I could not find any record that they paid the LWS/NSN contingent any negative attention at all.

Nazis respond to ideas they hate with murder. What is it that Gale believes made her and her friends’ idea different?

#58

You might not agree with those women, but you know they are not standing with Nazis.

Gale (op. cit.)

First, they were quite literally standing with Nazis (#45).

Second, I’ve had this kind of repetitive, rhythmic verbal beating over the head before — it’s a pretty common feature of seething, desperate attempts at gaslighting (Hanlon, 2023) — and the thing is, no matter how many times Gale says “you know …,” it’s not actually possible to make people “know” things that aren’t true.

#59

They are standing with women, for women, and the fact that some thugs playing at being Nazis turned up and tried to hijack their event doesn’t change that fact.

Gale (op. cit.)

First, interesting choice by Gale to downplay the Nazis by calling them “thugs playing at being Nazis”. In part, her decision to distinguish “thugs” and “Nazis” suggests she sees them as separate groups. In part, the words “playing at” suggests she sees the “real” Nazis — the National-Socialist German Worker’s Party and so on — as the more prestigious of the two. Personally I try not to afford Nazis any prestige at all, but I can’t do anything about whatever beliefs Gale might have.

Secondly, you can make “standing with women, for women” and palling around with Nazis perfectly compatible if only you define “women” and “standing for” in just the right way.

Annette Kuhn points out “that in 1933 the majority of the female population showed no resistance to the Nazi takeover of power” (daß es 1933 von Seiten der Mehrzahl der weiblichen Bevölkerung keinen Widerstand gegenüber der NS-Machtübernahme gegeben hat; Kuhn, 1993, p. 5). This was effected because, with “the willingness to cooperate … highlighted by the leaders of the middle-class women’s movement” (die Kooperationsbereitschaft mit dem NS-Staat von den Führerinnen der bürgerlichen Frauenbewegung hervorgehoben; ibid., p. 6), the Nazis were able to redefine “women” as “the non-persecuted, German, ‘Aryan’ women who did not place themselves in recognisable opposition to the unreasonable demands of the NS [National-Socialist] system” (die nicht-verfolgten, deutschen, ‘arischen’ Frauen, die sich in keinen erkennbaren Gegensatz zu den Zumutungen des NS-Systems brachen; ibid., p. 4).

And after all, all they were really asking for was the preservation of spaces for the dominant group of women — and it only meant that it was necessary, for example, that “the meetings of individual traditional women’s associations opened with the words: ‘Now we ask the Jewish members to leave the premises’” (die Sitzungen einzelner traditioneller Frauenvereine mit dem Worten eröffnet: “Nun bitten wir die jüdischen Mitgleider das Lokal zu verlassen”; ibid., p. 6). Such a small thing — and so charmingly and politely asked (!)

And after all — as we know courtesy of Eva Sternheim-Peters, psychologist and repentant member, as a child, of the NS-Frauenschaft, the women’s wing of the Nazi Party — it was possible to have “experienced the Nazi years as a youth revolution — and female liberation” (erlebt die Nazijahre als Revolution der Jugend — und weiblichen Befreiung; Hasel, 2015).

Nazi women were “standing with women, for women,” and Gale’s enraged desperation to erase the fact that the Nazis of today agree wholeheartedly with her movement’s ideology — and that, as vision from the rally shows, the feeling is clearly mutual — doesn’t change that fact.

#60

But the public response of the party and the trans lobby actively enables and emboldens the Neo-Nazis. … It rewards them … It encourages them …

Gale (op. cit.)

The standard TERF routine (Faolain, 2021): DARVO — deny, attack, reverse victim and offender (Scott, 2020). Every time. It’s not me doing it that made it happen, it’s the fact that you pointed out that I did it! That means that actually you did it!

#61

Neo-Nazis are abhorrent and should be treated with the contempt they deserve

Gale (op. cit.)

Presumably by standing quietly “ten metres” (Lawford-Smith, 2023a) away from them while your mates pat them on the back.

#62

the Greens should not elevate them in the way that it is

Gale (op. cit.)

See #60.

#63

Women who are concerned with women’s rights should be engaged with and listened to

Gale (op. cit.)

They were! It just happens that the group of women who are in fact concerned with women’s rights didn’t include any of Gale’s mates, or, for that matter, Gale herself.

P.S.

The Australian Greens Victoria By-laws in the version current at 18 August 2022 include the following provisions:

s 3(b) — A member must not bring, or seriously risk bringing the AGV into disrepute in a manner contrary to the charter of the AGV;

s 3(j) — A member must not make an intentionally misleading or deceptive, or recklessly false and damaging, statement about another member, a volunteer, or the AGV, its policies or its decision;

The Australian Greens Victoria (2022, p. 4)

Gale’s choice to describe the Party as “actively enabl[ing] and embolden[ing] the neo-Nazis” is a pretty obvious and glaring breach of both provisions.

In the original publication of this piece, the passage following here was an attack on the AGV for taking no action. However, earlier today, 25 March, the AGV released a statement, Victorian Greens condemn anti-trans and Nazi rally. The statement calls out Gale by name and details a number of actions the AGV says it is taking, which should all have been completed by the end of June 2023. Should circumstances change significantly I will come back and amend this piece to reflect.

Footnotes

1 — The Victorian Liberals’ statement (Southwick & Battin, 2023) mentions the Nazis, but carefully avoids linking them to the LWS contingent or, indeed, mentioning the LWS contingent at all.

2 — This is in reference to another Several Problems piece which has been published to Twitter but not here yet. This footnote will be removed when it is.

---

^{As usual, if you got any use out of this article, please consider helping me eat by donating to my Ko-fi or joining my Patreon.}

---

References

AAP Newswire (2023a, March 18). Protesters clash in Melbourne over transgender rights. Country News. Retrieved 25 March 2023.

AAP Newswire (2023b, March 18). Protesters clash in Melbourne over transgender rights. Shepparton News. Retrieved 25 March 2023.

Alternate Media Watchers [@altmediawatch] (2023, March 21). Hey mate, just some advice when you cut to a clip of the women while trying to distance them from … [Tweet] (archived 25 March 2023). Twitter. Retrieved 25 March 2023.

Amery, F., & Mondon, A. (2023, March 13). How transphobic moral panics fuel authoritarian politics. Jacobin. Retrieved 25 March 2023.

Anderson, A., & Brennan, A. (2023a, March 19). ‘Not welcome’: Dan Andrews slams neo-Nazi protesters after violent Melbourne clash. The Australian. Retrieved 25 March 2023.

Anderson, A., & Brennan, A. (2023b, March 19). ‘Not welcome’: Dan Andrews slams neo-Nazi protesters after violent Melbourne clash. news.com.au. Retrieved 25 March 2023.

Andrews, D.M. [@DanielAndrewsMP] (2023, March 19). I won’t share a photo because they simply don’t deserve the attention. But yesterday, anti-trans activists gathered to spread hate. … [Tweet] (archived 19 March 2023). Twitter. Retrieved 25 March 2023.

The Australian Greens Victoria (2022, August 18). Australian Greens Victoria by-laws. Retrieved 25 March 2023.

Bar, M.A., Jarus, T., Wada, M., Rechtman, L., & Noy, E. (2016, February 22). Male-to-female transitions: Implications for occupational performance, health, and life satisfaction / Les transitions homme-femme : Conséquences en matière de rendement occupationnel, de santé et de satisfaction face à la vie. Canadian Journal of Occupational Therapy, 83(2), 72–82. doi:10.1177/0008417416635346. Retrieved 24 March 2023.

Barnett, B.S., Nesbit, A.E., & Sorrentino, R.M. (2018, June). The transgender bathroom debate at the intersection of politics, law, ethics, and science. Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law Online, 46(2), 232–241. doi:10.29158/JAAPL.003761-18. Retrieved 24 March 2023.

Bauer, G.R., Lawson, M.L., & Metzger, D.L. (2021, November 15). Do clinical data from transgender adolescents support the phenomenon of “rapid onset gender dysphoria”?. The Journal of Pediatrics, 243, 224–227.E2. doi:10.1016/j.jpeds.2021.11.020. Retrieved 24 March 2023.

Bell v Tavistock [2021] EWCA Civ 1363, [64].

R (Bell) v Tavistock [2020] EWHC 3274 (Admin), [68], [136], [138].

Cardoso da Silva, D., Schwarz, K., Fontanari, A.M.V., Costa, A.B., Massuda, R., … & Rodrigues Lobato, M.I. (2016, June). WHOQOL-100 before and after sex reassignment surgery in Brazilian male-to-female transsexual individuals. The Journal of Sexual Medicine, 13(6), 988–993. doi:10.1016/j.jsxm.2016.03.370. Retrieved 24 March 2023.

Chudy, E. (2023, February 4). Anti-trans activist Posie Parker says women who stand in her way will be ‘annihilated’. PinkNews. Retrieved 24 March 2023.

Coalition for the Advancement & Application of Psychological Science (n.d.). CAAPS position statement on rapid onset gender dysphoria. Retrieved 24 March 2023.

Cohen, J.A. (2018, December 19). The eradication of “Talmudic abstractions”: Antisemitism, transmisogyny, and the National Socialist project. Verso. Retrieved 24 March 2023.

Cosoleto, T. (2023a, March 18). Protesters clash in Melbourne over transgender rights. The Canberra Times. Retrieved 25 March 2023.

Cosoleto, T. (2023b, March 18). Protesters clash in Melbourne over transgender rights. The Daily Advertiser. Retrieved 25 March 2023.

Cosoleto, T. (2023c, March 18). Protesters clash in Melbourne over transgender rights. PerthNow. Retrieved 25 March 2023.

Cosoleto, T. (2023d, March 18). Protesters clash in Melbourne over transgender rights. The West Australian. Retrieved 25 March 2023.

Davis, S. (2019, September 9). Glossary of terms for complex PTSD (CPTSD). CPTSD Foundation. Retrieved 24 March 2023.

Deutsch, B. (2019, November 29). Silenced!. The Nib. Retrieved 25 March 2023.

Deutschen Presse-Agentur (2022, February 17). Beatrix von Storch empört mit Aussagen über Transgender. Zeit Online. Retrieved 25 March 2023.

Dixon, H. (2022, September 12). Tavistock clinic ‘putting young gay people at risk by treating them as trans’ (archived 12 September 2022). The Telegraph. Retrieved 24 March 2023.

Factora, J. (2021, October 25). Judith Butler correctly says TERFs are fascists, angering TERFs. Them. Retrieved 25 March 2023.

Faolain, C. (2021, July 23). The DARVO of TERFism. tranosaurus.net. Retrieved 25 March 2023.

Fleming, A. (2015, June 22). Felicity Sharpe, neo-Nazism, United Patriots Front … and xyz.net.au. slackbastard. Retrieved 25 March 2023.

Gale, L. (2023, March 21). A short history of Nazi enabling in the Party (archived 21 March 2023). Green Ideas. Retrieved 24 March 2023.

Glynn, T.R., Gamarel, K.E., Kahler, C.W., Iwamoto, M., Operario, D., & Nemoto, T. (2016). The role of gender affirmation in psychological well-being among transgender women. Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity, 3(3), 366–344. doi:10.1037/sgd0000171. Retrieved 24 March 2023.

Hanlon, R. (2023, February 7). 35 common gaslighting phrases in relationships and how to respond, according to therapists. Parade. Retrieved 25 March 2023.

Hasel, V.F. (2015, April 30). Eva Sternheim-Peters über die Nazizeit: “Ich bin nicht mitgelaufen, ich bin begeistert mitgestürmt”. Tagesspiegel. Retrieved 25 March 2023.

Hiscox, D. (2023, March 18). Australia says no to groomers. XYZ (via Archive Today). Retrieved 25 March 2023.

Hulme, J. [@JayHulmePoet] (2022, February 8). Dear, all the clergy following me — the organisation emailing you about “transing away the gay” is an anti trans hate … [Tweet] (archived 24 March 2023). Twitter. Retrieved 24 March 2023.

Joaquina (2022, September 19). Analysis: Transphobic social terror and its Nazi origins. Trans Safety Network. Retrieved 25 March 2023.

Jones, A. [@angijones] (2023, March 18). Nazis and women want to get rid of paedo filth. Why don’t you? [Tweet] (archived 18 March 2023). Twitter. Retrieved 24 March 2023.

Jordans, F. (2023, January 28). Germany recalls overlooked LGBT victims of Nazi persecution. AP News. Retrieved 25 March 2023.

Karp, P. (2023, March 23). Senator Lidia Thorpe knocked to ground in struggle with police at anti-trans rally in Canberra. Guardian Australia. Retrieved 25 March 2023.

Kasbarian, S. (2016, October 4). One hundred years later: the personal, the political, and the historical in four new books on the Armenian Genocide. Caucasus Survey, 4(1), 92–104. doi:10.1080/23761199.2015.1129787. Retrieved 24 March 2023.

Ken, R. [@ryan_ken_acts] (2022, December 6). The New York Times covering trans issues (parody) . TikTok. Retrieved 25 March 2023.

Know Your Meme (2019, September 3). Hide your power level. (Original work published 23 May 2015.) Retrieved 24 March 2023.

Kuhn, A. (1993). Die Täterschaft deutscher Frauen in NS-System — Traditionen, Dimensionen, Wandlungen. Polis, 7, 2–19. Retrieved 24 March 2023.

Laco, K. (2022, May 19). Republicans introduce ‘Women’s Bill of Rights’ to protect accomplishments, ensure safety of biological females. Fox News Digital. Retrieved 25 March 2023.

Lawford-Smith, H. [@aytchellesse] (2023a, March 19). you’re trading on an ambiguity in “stand with”. we were standing about ten metres away, having a separate event. [Tweet] (archived 25 March 2023). Twitter. Retrieved 25 March 2023.

Lawford-Smith, H. [@aytchellesse] (2023b, March 19). we were safe though. that’s the point. the threat to our physical safety was from the trans activists. the police … [Tweet] (archived 25 March 2023). Twitter. Retrieved 25 March 2023.

Lenton, P. [@PatrickLenton] (2023, March 19). I’d say the police created the dividing line of “distance” here: one side terfs and Nazis, the other side the … [Tweet] (archived 25 March 2023). Twitter. Retrieved 25 March 2023.

Leveille, L. (2021, September 26). When ex-trans worlds collide. Health Liberation Now!. Retrieved 25 March 2023.

LGBT Youth Scotland & Green Light (2009). Coming out: A coming out guide for trans young people. Retrieved 24 March 2023.

Lochner, L.P. (1942). What about Germany?. Dodd, Mead & Company.

Martin, S., & McGowan, M. (2022, April 19). Katherine Deves claims key role in controversial bill to ban trans women from women’s sport. Guardian Australia. Retrieved 25 March 2023.

Megaloudi, F. (2013, January 25). Gay people living in fear in Greece. HuffPost. (Original article published 25 November 2012.) Retrieved 25 March 2023.

Melbourne Activist Legal Support (2023, March 20). Statement of concern: Policing of opposing anti-trans & trans rights rallies. Retrieved 25 March 2023.

Milton, J. (2021, January 30). ‘Gender critical feminist’ Posie Parker wants men with guns to start using women’s toilets. PinkNews. Retrieved 24 March 2023.

Moreton, I.C.B. [@epistemophagy] (2022, April 2). “Greens councillor Rohan Leppert’s comments on gay-conversion therapy laws,” referenced in talking point 1, are available here. To ensure access, … [Tweet]. Twitter. Retrieved 25 March 2023.

Öktem, E. (2011). Turkey: Successor or continuing state of the Ottoman Empire?. Leiden Journal of International Law, 24(3), 561–583. doi:10.1017/S0922156511000252. Retrieved 24 March 2023.

Padula, W.V., Heru, S., & Campbell, J.D. (2015, October 19). Societal implications of health insurance coverage for medically necessary services in the U.S. transgender population: A cost-effectiveness analysis. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 31, 394–401. doi:10.1007/s11606-015-3529-6. Retrieved 24 March 2023.

Pullar, J. (2022, September 1). A guide to the new affirmative consent laws in Australia. Elle Australia. Retrieved 25 March 2023.

Ratnam, S.S. [@SamanthaRatnam] (2023, March 18). To see neo nazis join the anti-trans rights hate rally at Parliament in Victoria today tells us everything about these … [Tweet] (archived 25 March 2023). Twitter. Retrieved 25 March 2023.

Rouner, J. (2021, September 20). Opinion: The time-tested practice of using transphobia to seize power. Houston Press. Retrieved 25 March 2023.

Schmidt, L., & Levine, R. (2015, December). Psychological outcomes and reproductive issues among gender dysphoric individuals. Endocrinology and Metabolism Clinics of North America, 44(4), 773–785. doi:10.1016/j.ecl.2015.08.001. Retrieved 24 March 2023.

Scott, E. (2020, June 13). A guide to DARVO, the gaslighting response people give when they’re called out for bad behaviour. Metro. Retrieved 25 March 2023.

Smith, R.W. (2015, Spring). Introduction: The Ottoman genocides of Armenians, Assyrians, and Greeks. Genocide Studies International, 9(1), 1–9. doi:10.3138/gsi.9.1.01. Retrieved 25 March 2023.

Southwick, D., & Battin, B. (2023, March 18). Joint statement on neo-Nazi incident. Liberal Party of Australia (Victorian Division). Retrieved 25 March 2023.

Suny, R.G. (2009, October). Truth in telling: Reconciling realities in the genocide of the Ottoman Armenians. The American Historical Review, 114(4), 930–946. doi:10.1086/ahr.114.4.930. Retrieved 25 March 2023.

Trans Safety Network (2021, January 16). Religious right linked law firm receives £314k from “gender critical” causes. Retrieved 25 March 2023.

van de Grift, T.C., Elaut, E., Cerwenka, S.C., Cohen-Kettenis, P.T., & Kreukels, B.P.C. (2017, June 12). Surgical satisfaction, quality of life, and their association after gender-affirming surgery: A follow-up study. Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy, 44(2), 138–148. doi:10.1080/0092623X.2017.1326190. Retrieved 24 March 2023.

Walker, P., Stacey, K., & Brooks, L. (2022, December 24). Rishi Sunak confirms UK could block Scotland’s gender recognition bill. The Guardian. Retrieved 25 March 2023.

What We Know Project (2018). What does the scholarly research say about the effect of gender transition on transgender well-being?. Cornell University. Retrieved 24 March 2023.

On 16 January 2023, Green Ideas on Substack published an article, “How ‘gender identity theory’ is harming children: one party member’s research journey,” by Marian Smedley.

The piece has several problems. Here are a few.

---

Contents

1. “outraged by … the use of social media …“
2. “what I now know is called ‘gender identity theory’“
3. “acknowledged by evolutionary biologists“
4. “medicine and the law“
5. “intersex … the numbers are tiny“
6. “the existence of additional sexes“
7. “other chromosomal variations … are not different sexes either“
8. “GIT holds that babies are merely ‘assigned’ a biological sex“
9. “if you feel uncomfortable with … stereotypes then you are in the wrong body“
10. “lifelong dependence“
11. “on high impact medication“
12. “I have not yet seen“
13. “humanities disciplines, not scientists“
14. “When I was young, I too rebelled“
15. “children are told by those who follow GIT“
16. “children will … adopt a trans identity“
17. “acceptance of this ideology“
18. “leads to real world consequences which are harmful“
19. “There are legitimate questions … this is a debate“
20. “following a damning review” (emphasis mine)
21. “the exploration of other psychological problems“
22. “rare conditions such as precocious puberty“
23. “or to chemically castrate sex offenders“
24. “The Cass Review expressed concerns“
25. “recent research (catalogued here)“
26. “They may … lead to health problems“
27. “countries noted for their progressive attitude“
28. “research into whether there is any benefit“
29. “the risks are becoming clearer“
30. “Here in Australia, however“
31. “These … may lead to infertility“
32. “surgery … is largely irreversible“
33. “referrals for gender treatment increased by 45 times“
34. “over the 8 years to 2021“
35. “Some … are now concerned … about … ‘social contagion’“
36. “the precautionary principle should be followed“
37. “over 1,000 … claims against … GIDS“
38. “a detransitioner against her psychiatrist“
39. “This is not the case“
40. “those labelled ‘gender critical’” / “acceptance of … science”
41. “anyone who criticises GIT is improperly grouped with them“
42. “important that we hear voices from the left“
43. “I fully support anyone who has transitioned“
44. “trans activists“
45. “is it transphobic to … ?“

---

#1

I was outraged by the public nature of these attacks and the use of social media to make them

Smedley (2023)

In a development which is paradoxically both shocking and completely unsurprising, Marian does not seem to be similarly concerned about Gale’s choice to publicly attack the Australian Greens Victoria in the pages of The Age concerning her short and not particularly legitimate service as the party’s convenor (Gale, 2022).

#2

These events launched me on a research journey about what I now know is called ‘gender identity theory’ (GIT), which is what party policy supports and promotes.

Smedley (op. cit.)

Interested to note that I cannot locate significant use of the term “gender identity theory” in modern academic literature. For example, Bentler (1976) uses “gender identity theory” to describe a form of what became better known as Ray Blanchard’s transsexualism typology, now long since discredited (Serano, 2010 & 2020; Bettcher, 2014).

Where the term “gender identity theory” appears in trans-neutral literature, it is often disconnected from its use here. For instance, Vantieghem et al. (2014), writing in Social Psychology of Education, assert the existence of a “gender identity theory,” but use the term to collect a number of different sociological theories and concepts related to gender; what Marian means by “gender identity theory,” i.e. the existence of gender identity, they accept as established fact (ibid., p. 363).

A place where I can find the term “gender identity theory” in abundance is modern trans-hostile popular writing, such as one letter writer to The Irish Times complaining that being transphobic (in her case, calling trans people’s genders “religious beliefs” on national radio) got her called transphobic (Colfer, 2022). I can think of at least two very good reasons for this distribution:

1. “Gender identity theory,” not being an actual theory, is an empty signifier, a conceptual ghost: since it has no substance, it can’t be attacked. If an anti-trans activist sees an opportunity to combine concepts to open a line of attack on trans people, then, even if those concepts come from separate and mutually incompatible actual theories, “gender identity theory” can be used to link them together in the fashion of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia‘s famous wall. On the other hand, if a trans person quite correctly points out that the theories from which those concepts are drawn are mutually incompatible, the anti-trans attacker can simply loftily redefine “gender identity theory” as “having incorporated elements of both”.
2. The name “gender identity theory” is a restatement of an old argument intimately familiar to anyone who’s had the misfortune to encounter creationists: “It’s just a theory!” This line of attack pivots on intentionally confusing the vernacular and scientific meanings of ‘theory’. In everyday speech, a theory is just a guess; in scientific usage, a theory is a scientific explanation for a broad range of observations which has been strongly supported by multiple lines of evidence and shown to have power to both explain observations that are available and to predict observations before they are made (Ghose, 2013; Understanding Science, 2022).

“It’s just a theory!” has no value in illustrating the strength of the evidence for gender identity as a scientific concept. It does, however, have considerable value in illustrating who anti-trans activists choose to hang out with.

#3

This is a scientific fact acknowledged by evolutionary biologists (see here and here)

Smedley (op. cit.)

The first ‘here’ is a citation to a Substack piece by Colin Wright (2021), who is indeed an evolutionary biologist. His Google Scholar profile notes two pieces on gender to which he has contributed: an opinion article in The Wall Street Journal (Wright & Hilton, 2020) and a letter to the editor of the Irish Journal of Medical Science (Hilton et al., 2021); neither are peer-reviewed.

Wright’s actual scientific output is concerned predominantly with the collective behaviour of insects (Wright et al., 2015; Wright et al., 2017; Wright et al., 2020; etc.), which I sincerely think is scientifically valuable, but the relevance of which in this context is not entirely clear. I suspect it’s probably more relevant that Wright is a contributing editor for Quillette (Quillette Pty Ltd, n.d.), a right-wing outlet best known for its consistent support of unambiguous scientific racism and eugenics (Minkowitz, 2019). In his capacity there, Wright has published a number of pieces sharing his colourful opinions on trans people (Wright, 2020a; Wright, 2020b; Wright, 2022). It’s not difficult to see how these could make him an attractive source if empirical truth and scientific rigour happened not to be a primary concern.

The second ‘here’ is a citation to the Paradox Institute, which appears to functionally consist entirely of the author of the cited article, Zachary Elliott (2022). Elliott isn’t an evolutionary biologist; according to his own website (Elliott, n.d.), he’s an architect. He does not, in fact, assert any relevant qualifications besides “an interest in understanding the complexity of the human condition”. The cited article is Elliott’s five-dollar-word-backed speculation in a field in which he has no relevant expertise whatsoever.

#4

medicine and the law

Smedley (op. cit.)

[citation needed]

#5

There are indeed some people born as intersex, but the numbers are tiny (0.018%)

Smedley (op. cit.)

The number could be 1 and our existence would still be fatal to the insistence that sex is a strict binary.

#6

and in any event do not give rise to the existence of additional sexes

Smedley (op. cit.)

To my knowledge, no one is asserting that we do. The assertion isn’t that there is a specific number of discrete sexes and it is greater than two; the assertion is that sex is a continuous variable, not two wholly separate bins.

#7

(There are also a number of other chromosomal variations which can result in medical conditions but these are not different sexes either.)

Smedley (op. cit.)

This is another strawman. No one is asserting that people with unusual numbers of autosomes (non-sex chromosomes), such as monosomy 15 (Angelman syndrome, Prader–Willi syndrome) or trisomy 23 (Down syndrome), actually have different sexes. The chromosomes which are relevant to sex are the sex chromosomes, that’s why they’re called that. However, since Marian and her fellow travellers can’t rebut the arguments that scientists and trans people are actually making, they have to rebut this one instead.

#8

GIT holds that babies are merely ‘assigned’ a biological sex at birth by their doctor or parents based on what their ‘observed’ genitals are.

Smedley (op. cit.)

This is literally what happens and is not in any meaningful dispute (Reiner, 2002; Witchel, 2018). The reason it’s not in any meaningful dispute is because attempting to claim that birth sex assignment is an objective “observation” would quickly become absurd.

For instance, one group of people with the intersex trait 5α-reductase deficiency are known to be assigned female at birth and to then start clinically visibly developing a penis and testes at around 12 years of age (Imperato-McGinley et al., 1974; Jong, 2003).

If biological sex is “observed” at birth then presumably these people must be biologically female. If on the other hand these people having a penis and testes makes them male — a proposition with which the original formulation of the prominent TERF thought-terminating cliché the “Staniland question” seems to agree (Gellman, 2021) — then clearly biological sex cannot be “observed” at birth; a best guess is made, and it is, would you look at that, assigned.

#9

GIT states that if you feel uncomfortable with aspects of traditional gender stereotypes then you are in the wrong body and need to ‘align’ your body with how you feel.

Smedley (op. cit.)

This is, as often happens throughout this piece, a happy byproduct of the luxury of arguing against a “gender identity theory” that exists entirely within one’s own head. Even other transphobes don’t believe this; TERFs have suggested many reasons I should give up and detransition “back to being a cis man”, but the fact that I’m not overfond of skirts isn’t one of them. If they actually thought that being trans was about “traditional gender stereotypes” then it would logically follow that they would consider that argument to be a slam dunk.

#10

lifelong dependence

Smedley (op. cit.)

Funnily enough, I never see the argument that “lifelong dependence” is inherently bad applied to any of the other medication I take. Lifelong “dependence” on oestrogen and progesterone? Bad, apparently. Lifelong dependence on candesartan (for blood pressure), salbutamol (for asthma), in the near future probably also ivabradine (for postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome)? Apparently fine.

Shit, I don’t even hear this argument this often about the prescription amphetamines I take, which at doses far above the level used in medicine do actually induce dependence you didn’t previously have (Nestler, 2022) — as opposed to oestrogen, progesterone, and all the other medications on this list, which you become “dependent” on only in the sense that they treat a health condition that, if they were withdrawn or never prescribed, you would continue to have.

#11

on high impact medication

Smedley (op. cit.)

Much like “gender identity theory,” as far as I can determine this is not actually a real thing, although I am less certain of this one and will therefore stand corrected if evidence is shown to me. Either way, it sure does sound scary, which is presumably the reason it’s used here.

#12

I have not yet seen any scientific evidence to support GIT,

Smedley (op. cit.)

If I were going to make a statement this load-bearing about a topic x, I would make sure I could put it in the form “the balance of scientific evidence seems to be against x“. I would do that because one way to have “not yet seen any scientific evidence to support” x is to deliberately avoided it. What I should infer from Marian’s use of this wording here, I can only speculate.

#13

which has been developed by academics from the humanities disciplines, not scientists.

Smedley (op. cit.)

This argument doesn’t hold water even from the STEMbro perspective which is inherent to making it. Now, the linked article (Morgenroth & Ryan, 2018) doesn’t engage with “gender identity theory,” because that isn’t actually a real thing. It engages primarily with queer theory, which is.

The article specifically engages with Butler’s work in philosophy (which is one of the humanities — a humanity?) in the context of applying it to social psychology. Social psychology is a social science (Biswas-Diener, 2023). Social science is science — the proof is in the name. It’s also in the pudding, given the immense amount of social-scientific work — anthropology, communication science, linguistics, political science — which certainly went into devising and precisely formulating the trans-hostile canards that Marian now simply repeats.

^{N.B. STEM supremacy is a pretty sizeable, big, large fucking call coming from someone whose most advanced qualification is, to my knowledge, a Bachelor of Business in Management — which as a former undergraduate student in business I can confirm is, of all academic disciplines, objectively the least real.}

#14

There is no problem with anyone expressing how they feel and behaving in ways that do not fit gender stereotypes. When I was young, I too rebelled against gender stereotypes.

Smedley (op. cit.)

Oh yeah, the old “they would have transed me too” line in its implicit form. Who’d you pick that up from, your mate Jo (Wakefield, 2020)?

#15

These days, I have discovered, many gender non-conforming children are told by those who follow GIT that they may not be the sex they were ‘assigned’ and that any distress they feel about their bodies may be explained by a trans identity.

Smedley (op. cit.)

“Those who follow GIT,” leading your three-year-olds into a life of unbiblical sin, depravity, and back-alley horse-needle hormone injections. Not any specific, identifiable people, of course, even though we want to avoid this sort of thing and even though naming the people being referred to would help us avoid it. But they’re definitely real. For sure.

Tangentially, I copped a version of this argument at 25, when I was told I’d been peer-pressured into transitioning — by the 15-to-18-year-old students I was teaching. That was wild. If nothing else, I will always remember it for the comedy value.

#16

In some cases, these children will indeed adopt a trans identity …

Smedley (op. cit.)

How are they going to “adopt a trans identity” when to the best of our knowledge, gender identity is fixed by age 3 (Bukatko & Daehler, 2004, p. 495) and “there do not seem to be external forces that genuinely cause individuals to change gender identity” (Endocrine Society & Pediatric Endocrine Society, 2020)?

#17

acceptance of this ideology

Smedley (op. cit.)

Are you critiquing a scientific theory or railing against a political ideology? You’ll need to make your mind up, Marian, you’re starting to sound a bit Catholic (Graff, 2016).

#18

leads to real world consequences which are harmful

Smedley (op. cit.)

Such as?

#19

There are legitimate questions around single-sex spaces for biological women being infringed upon and there is a debate to be had around this.

Smedley (op. cit.)

The usual — when people are focusing on claiming that “there are legitimate questions” or “there is a debate” rather than asking them or having it, it’s because they know there are no actual grounds to do so.

#20

A recent development is that the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) has decided to close the Tavistock Gender Identity Development Service (Tavistock GIDS) in London following a damning review of its practices by a leading paediatrician.

Smedley (op. cit.)

Post hoc ergo propter hoc, an old friend (Moreton, 2022a). As I have repeatedly had to point out in the past, “after” does not mean “because of”. To be blunt and crude, the Tavistock was shut down because it was, so to speak, “transing” fewer kids than needed it, not, as implied here, too many. This is not seriously disputed even at that crown jewel of British transphobia (Strudwick, 2020), The Guardian (Brooks, 2022).

#21

The affirmation model assumes the individual has ‘discovered their true gender identity’ and too often excludes the exploration of other psychological problems or factors that may have contributed to the child’s distress.

Smedley (op. cit.)

Ah yeah, so basically you want to do “gender exploratory therapy” (Ashley, 2022)? You know, that thing which commentators much more accomplished than me have pointed out is obvious conversion therapy, without even any extra bits stuck on (Reed, 2023)?

#22

These powerful drugs were previously only used to treat rare conditions such as precocious puberty

Smedley (op. cit.)

You’re telling me puberty blockers were used to prevent unwanted puberty? And they’re now being used to prevent unwanted puberty again? Personally I am shocked.

#23

or to chemically castrate sex offenders

Smedley (op. cit.)

Ah well, by the logic used here, I can show that managing your child’s precocious puberty will turn them into a sex offender. Also if you have bipolar disorder and take antipsychotics they’ll make you autistic (welcome to the club!). Pack it up, entire field of pharmacology, we’re done here.

#24

The Cass Review expressed concerns about the use of puberty blockers

Smedley (op. cit.)

By this point I assume whoever is reading this will be unsurprised to know that the Cass Review did not do that and indeed specifically refrained from doing it (Independent Review of Gender Identity Services for Children and Young People, 2022, p. 15). Amusingly, this is the most damning outcome that could be secured by a UK government so bent on eliminating trans people that, at date, it may just have destroyed the Union for it (Parker, 2023).

#25

recent research (catalogued here) indicates that they are not reversible

Smedley (op. cit.)

That’s not a catalogue of research, it’s a New York Times opinion piece (Twohey & Jewett, 2022). Easy mistake, I know, they look so alike.

Again, unsurprisingly, The New York Times does not — and, surprisingly, does not even claim to — show anything of the sort. It does contain several anecdotes, which I have no specific objection to but which apart from one parent’s vaguely similar passing remark also don’t even claim to show anything of the sort (even if they had: as we’ve just now seen, the plural of “anecdote” is not “data”).

#26

They may disrupt brain development and bone density growth, and lead to health problems like osteoporosis.

Smedley (op. cit.)

Yeah, that’ll happen when you keep kids on medications that block all hormones for way longer than recommended or safe because you don’t want to give them hormones.

#27

This treatment has now been suspended or paused in many countries — including Sweden and Finland, countries noted for their progressive attitude towards transgender people

Smedley (op. cit.)

Noted by who? Whom? Whomst?

#28

pending further research into whether there is any benefit to taking them.

Smedley (op. cit.)

The answer to that question is unambiguously yes (Rew et al., 2020; Turban et al., 2020), including in works published by NHS GIDS itself (Carmichael et al., 2021). Repeatedly re-asking the question won’t actually change that.

#29

Meanwhile, the risks are becoming clearer.

Smedley (op. cit.)

This cites Bernard Lane (2022), (lately?) of The Australian. Since Marian is a Greens member I would expect that she is fully apprised of the level of journalistic integrity which can be expected from The Oz — you really can’t miss it (Taylor & Collins, 2012; Simons, 2014; Buckell, 2015).

I get it, though: when you could be doing something fun like shitting on trans people with all your friends, little things like principles and existing knowledge have to be put aside.

#30

The NHS … is pausing the use of puberty blockers and recommending psychological assessment and care instead. … Here in Australia, however, puberty blockers are still being used by gender clinics like the Royal Children’s Hospital Gender Service

Smedley (op. cit.)

I see, so because our old best friend has released a draft proposal to jump off a cliff that means we are obliged to do so as well and at once. What was the Statute of Westminster Adoption Act 1942 (Cth) even for?

#31

These can also have lasting health effects and may lead to infertility.

Smedley (op. cit.)

The source cited relates specifically to the infertility claim and hey, guess what, yeah, some medical treatments cause infertility, most notably antipsychotics and chemotherapy (NHS England, 2020). In most such cases, we are able to acknowledge that it’s preferable to the alternative. When we have to service transphobes’ obsessive collective interest in whether kids can get pregnant, however, apparently our critical thinking goes out the window.

#32

The last stage is surgery which is largely irreversible.

Smedley (op. cit.)

Yeah that’ll be why the World Professional Association for Transgender Health’s Standards of care for the health of transgender and gender diverse people (WPATH SOC; Coleman et al., 2022) refer to it as irreversible 17 times. Sorry, was this supposed to be something the trannies were maliciously conspiring not to tell you about?

#33

In the UK, over the decade to 2018, referrals for gender treatment increased by 45 times for girls and 12.5 times for boys.

Smedley (op. cit.)

As the WPATH SOC (Coleman et al., op. cit., p. 26) patiently explains, the significant rise is accounted for by “sociopolitical advances … increased access to health care and to medical information, less pronounced cultural stigma, and other changes that have a differential impact across generations”. As John Oliver points out, we saw the same effect, for the same reasons, when society finally backed off a bit on punishing people for being left-handed (Last Week Tonight, 2022).

Meanwhile, the (assigned) gender differential is, as bioethicist Florence Ashley has exhaustively explained, less likely to reflect “a real change in ratios in the overall trans youth population” and more likely to reflect “sociocultural factors impacting referral patterns” (Ashley, 2019).

#34

In Australia, over the 8 years to 2021, children being treated in public adolescent gender clinics increased by 9.8 times.

Smedley (op. cit.)

Oh you mean since 2013? Yeah, that’ll probably be because “there were virtually no treatment facilities for children with gender dysphoria in Australia prior to 2014,” which, as you can see from the quote marks, are not my words — what they are is an admission by prominent Australian anti-trans activist Dianna Kenny (2019). Come on! Get your ducks in a row!

^{If anyone’s wondering why 2013, it’s because that was the year the Full Court of the Family Court of Australia decided Re Jamie [2013] FamCAFC 110, in which they established the binding precedent that court authorisation is not required for “stage one treatment” (puberty blockers). Before Re Jamie, there was no way for kids to access medical transition without going to court, and anyone who had the money to go to court had the money to go to a decent private endocrinologist, so they didn’t need a clinic.}

#35

Some of those treating children wishing to transition are now concerned about the influence of social media and ‘social contagion’.

Smedley (op. cit.)

I imagine they are. I personally am very concerned that trans children are being put in the care of people who are able to maintain such concerns despite the overwhelming scientific consensus that they have no basis (see, e.g., Bauer et al., 2021; Turban et al., 2022; etc.).

#36

In my view, the precautionary principle should be followed.

Smedley (op. cit.)

The precautionary principle asks us “to pause and to review before leaping headling into innovations that might prove disastrous” (Read & O’Riordan, 2017). The current approach to trans kids is based on literally decades of evidence. Marian and her fellow travellers are demanding we leap into new innovations on the strength of no evidence at all, and ignore the considerable evidence against.

I guess what we’ve learned here is before you cite the precautionary principle, you should really take the time to know what it is, otherwise it’s really obvious you’re just repeating something you heard from a more confident friend.

#37

In the UK, there is speculation that there may be over 1,000 medical negligence claims against the Tavistock GIDS.

Smedley (op. cit.)

This claim is traceable back to Hayward (2022), a single-source story run by The Times as stealth advertising for a law firm who want to lead the case. As noted by a statement from GIDS reported by Duggan & Wood (2022), only about 1,000 patients have been referred to paediatric endocrine services — the first stage of any medical intervention at all — over the last decade.

For a class of 1,000 patients, literally everyone who went on puberty blockers over the last decade would have had to have regretted it. Even assuming GIDS had referred approximately the same number of patients to endocrinology in each of the two previous decades of its operation — which it very certainly didn’t; nowhere near (Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust, 2019) — that would require a regret rate of greater than 30%.

In reality, the highest regret rate figure which has yet been generated came from the exceptionally conservative VUmc team in Amsterdam. Of the 4 co-authors of that study, Peggy Cohen-Kettenis and Tom Steensma later co-authored another study (Steensma et al., 2013) of trans kids’ rate of “desistance” (i.e., rate of allegedly ceasing to be trans) which in reporting the rate fairly overtly put its thumb on the scale to maximise it (Brooks, 2018). Meanwhile, Annelou de Vries has since written a commentary for Pediatrics (de Vries, 2020) in which she suggested kids who hadn’t been exceptionally vocal about being trans in childhood shouldn’t be allowed to transition.

The highest rate of regret this team of bold, fearless, heterodox, maverick, champions of unfettered science could generate was … 2% (de Vries et al., 2011). Not 100%, not 33%. 2%. Really makes you think.

#38

In Australia, a court case has been launched by a detransitioner against her psychiatrist alleging negligence in not assessing her case properly and rushing her into cross-sex hormones and surgery including a double mastectomy and the removal of her ovaries, fallopian tubes and uterus. She is now unable to have children.

Smedley (op. cit.)

I’ve already taken apart the Jay Langadinos narrative elsewhere (Moreton, 2022b) and I have now been writing this piece for close to six consecutive hours (and these parentheses were added on my second pass, nine hours in) so with the consent of members present I’m just going to move right along.

#39

At present, any attempts to have such discussion are immediately shut down with cries of ‘transphobia’ or ‘bigotry’, and the plea that it is too upsetting for transgender members who feel their existence is being denied. This is not the case.

Smedley (op. cit.)

This is grammatically ambiguous. Is Marian asserting that it’s “not the case” that it’s “too upsetting for transgender members”? She is cis, and therefore not qualified to decide that.

On the other hand, is Marian asserting that the existence of trans members isn’t being denied? She’s spent this whole piece trying to deny it — implying trans kids’ medically necessary care is malpractice (which could not be the case if they are in fact trans), treating trans kids’ genders as something imposed on them by others, and even referring to gender identity, whose relation to assigned sex is what makes trans people a group distinct from cis people, as a “theory”.

It’s pretty clear that any assertion by Marian that trans members’ existence isn’t being denied is founded more in self-interest than actual fact.

#40

Language always matters, and it is important to understand that those labelled ‘gender critical’ and called transphobic and anti-trans are primarily stating their acceptance of the dimorphic nature of biological sex as supported by science.

Smedley (op. cit.)

Those “labelled” gender-critical? Are you serious? It’s literally a label you gave yourselves (Lawford-Smith, 2021; Rowling, 2022; Siddique, 2022), specifically because you had to start pretending you thought TERF was a slur (Compton, 2019), something you also don’t believe given that one of Australian TERFs’ attempts to make something that people are interested in is a YouTube series called TERF Talk Down Under.

Anyway, despite Marian’s remarkably inexpert attempt at sleight of hand here (clearly a beginner’s effort — sorry Maz, you’ll have to get a bit of practice!), it is obviously incorrect to state that transphobes are “primarily stating” any view on “biological sex” (this whole screed was about “gender identity theory”!), much less that science supports the views on sex they actually have.

#41

One of the most unfortunate aspects of this debate has been that most people reported as opposing GIT publicly have been from the right-wing or conservative side of politics. Some of those critics do use harmful and abusive language, and indeed some are bigots. But now anyone who criticises GIT is improperly grouped with them.

Smedley (op. cit.)

Here’s an analogy. I’m doubtful about broad access to assisted dying, because I think the world leader in that area, Canada, is using it to eliminate those of us who are in the “surplus population” and then blame us for it (Alexiou, 2022; Hopper, 2022). The Catholic Church is also famously doubtful about broad access to assisted dying because it considers euthanasia to be a “violation of the divine law, an offense against the dignity of the human person, a crime against life, and an attack on humanity” (Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, 1980).

I think this is the first time I’ve had to bring this up in at least a year of being vocal about my doubts online, because despite the fact that both I and the Church believe throwing access to assistance in dying completely open is not a good idea — positions even more materially identical than those purportedly held by “left-wing” TERFs and those held by their more honest openly fascist peers — people have not confused us.

This is because we have clearly different beliefs and arguments — unlike the Church, I actually think people should not be subjected to prolonged suffering, and I think that the use of assisted dying for institutional murder is a factor of material conditions which can be changed. Another factor is that, in contrast to TERFs’ complaints about trans people, if something like Canada’s MAiD program were implemented here, I can actually name and substantiate a material harm I would experience as a result.

The reason TERFs are being grouped with people who are actually willing to admit being fascists is because not only do you want the same material end, you want it for the same reasons. You barely change the words. If you want to not be called a right-winger, you can just stop being one.

#42

it is even more important that we hear voices from the left … who are prepared to raise the scientific facts around biological sex as a starting point to discussion

Smedley (op. cit.)

You’re already hearing those. Oh wait, those weren’t the facts you wanted? Sorry, regardless of what you might have been told, there’s not actually any such thing as alternative facts.

#43

I fully support anyone who has transitioned or any adult who wishes to do so.

Smedley (op. cit.)

I see (!)

#44

We can no longer accept statements from trans activists and certain members who hold public office that this issue is ‘not up for debate’, and that anyone who does not completely agree with them is a hateful, transphobic bigot.

Smedley (op. cit.)

Ah yes, “trans activists,” the thing TERFs call any trans person who does silly things like posting online or speaking out loud while being trans.

Look, the reason that people who “[do] not completely agree with” trans people and allies are often described as “hateful, transphobic bigots” is because trans people and allies are extremely used to being disagreed with and consequently have an extremely numbed perception of what constitutes disagreement.

For your lack of “complete[…] agree[ment]” to even register with trans people in general, you have to be really far off the beaten track of civil, evidence-based debate — far enough, in fact, that the “hateful, transphobic bigot” characterisation is invariably accurate beyond a reasonable doubt.

#45

First, is it transphobic to accept the scientific basis for two biological sexes? Secondly, is it transphobic to raise concerns about the medical care provided to children? I think that the answers are clearly ‘no’ and ‘no’.

Smedley (op. cit.)

No! But then neither of those things are what you did.

---

^{As usual, if you got any use out of this article, please consider helping me eat by donating to my Ko-fi or joining my Patreon. Either are good, in the sense that they keep me alive, which is conventionally considered good.}

---

References

Alexiou, G. (2022, August 15). Canada’s new euthanasia laws carry upsetting Nazi-era echoes, warns expert. Forbes. Retrieved 16 January 2023.

Appel, J. (2023, January 8). The problems with Canada’s medical assistance in dying policy. Jacobin. Retrieved 16 January 2023.

Ashley, F. (2019, June). Shifts in assigned sex ratios at gender identity clinics likely reflect changes in referral patterns. Journal of Sexual Medicine, 16(6), 948–949. doi:10.1016/j.jsxm.2019.03.407. Retrieved 16 January 2023.

Ashley, F. (2022, September 6). Interrogating gender-exploratory therapy. Perspectives on Psychological Science. doi:10.1177/17456916221102325. Retrieved 16 January 2023.

Autumn, P., Smedley, M., & Moreton, I.C.B. (2022, July 9). Linda Gale is making her pitch for the position she gained without facing democratic scrutiny. Weird she’s mad about people … [Tweet]. Twitter; Internet Archive. Retrieved 16 January 2023.

Bauer, G.R., Lawson, M.L., & Metzger, D.L. (2021, November 15). Do clinical data from transgender adolescents support the phenomenon of “rapid onset gender dysphoria”?. Journal of Pediatrics, 243, 224–227.E2. doi:10.1016/j.jpeds.2021.11.020. Retrieved 16 January 2023.

Bentler, P.M. (1976, November). A typology of transsexualism: Gender identity theory and data. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 5, 567–584. doi:10.1007/BF01541220. Retrieved 16 January 2023.

Bettcher, T.M. (2014, April 9). When selves have sex: What the phenomenology of trans sexuality can teach about sexual orientation. Journal of Homosexuality, 61(5), 605–620. doi:10.1080/00918369.2014.865472. Retrieved 16 January 2023.

Biswas-Diener, R. (2023). An introduction to the science of social psychology. In R. Biswas-Diener & E. Diener (Eds.), Noba textbook series: Psychology. DEF Publishers. Retrieved 16 January 2023.

Brooks, J. (2018, May 23). The controversial research on ‘desistance’ in transgender youth. KQED. Retrieved 16 January 2023.

Brooks, L. (2022, July 29). Tavistock gender identity clinic is closing: what happens next?. The Guardian. Retrieved 16 January 2023.

Buckell, J. (2015, December 7). Ideology runs rampant at Rupert Murdoch’s Australian newspaper. The Guardian. Retrieved 16 January 2023.

Bukatko, D., & Daehler, M.W. (2004). Child development: A thematic approach (5th ed.). Houghton Mifflin; Internet Archive. Retrieved 16 January 2023.

Carmichael, P., Butler, G., Masic, U., Cole, T.J., De Stavola, B.L., … Viner, R.M. (2021, February 2). Short-term outcomes of pubertal suppression in a selected cohort of 12 to 15 year old young people with persistent gender dysphoria in the UK (G. Lima Santana, Ed.). PLoS ONE, 16(2), e0243894. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0243894. Retrieved 16 January 2023.

Coleman, E., Radix, A.E., Bouman, W.P., Brown, G.R., de Vries, A.L.C., … & Arcelus, J. (2022, September 15). Standards of care for the health of transgender and gender diverse people, version 8. International Journal of Transgender Health, 23(sup1), S1–S59. doi:10.1080/26895269.2022.2100644. Retrieved 16 January 2023.

Compton, J. (2019, January 15). ‘Pro-lesbian’ or ‘trans-exclusionary’? Old animosities boil into public view. NBC News. Retrieved 16 January 2023.

Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (1980, July 5). Declaration on euthanasia. Roman Curia. Retrieved 16 January 2023.

de Vries, A.L.C. (2020, October 1). Challenges in timing puberty suppression for gender-nonconforming adolescents. Pediatrics, 146(4), e2020010611. doi:10.1542/peds.2020-010611. Retrieved 16 January 2023.

de Vries, A.L.C., Steensma, T.D., Doreleijers, T.A.H., & Cohen-Kettenis, P.T. (2011, August 1). Puberty suppression in adolescents with gender identity disorder: A prospective follow-up study. Journal of Sexual Medicine, 8(8), 2276–2283. doi:10.1111/j.1743-6109.2010.01943.x. Retrieved 16 January 2023.

Duggan, J., & Wood, P. (2022, August 11). Tavistock Centre: NHS gender clinic faces mass legal action after children prescribed puberty blockers. i. Retrieved 16 January 2023.

Elliott, Z.A. (n.d.). More about me. Zach Elliott (via Archive Today). Retrieved 16 January 2023.

Elliott, Z.A. (2022, April 10). Evolutionary biology: What are sexes?. The Paradox Institute (via Wayback Machine). Retrieved 16 January 2023.

Endocrine Society & Pediatric Endocrine Society (2020, December 16). Transgender health: An Endocrine Society position statement. Endocrine Society. Retrieved 16 January 2023.

Gale, L. (2022, June 23). The Greens party is too important to abandon it to social media mobs. The Age. Retrieved 16 January 2023.

Gellman, R. (2021, January 31). Answering the Staniland question. Medium. Retrieved 16 January 2023.

Ghose, T. (2013, April 2). “Just a theory”: 7 misused science words. Scientific American. Retrieved 16 January 2023.

Graff, A. (2016, February 19). ‘Gender ideology’: Weak concepts, powerful politics. Religion and Gender, 6(2), 268–272. doi:10.18352/rg.10177. Retrieved 16 January 2023.

Hayward, E. (2022, August 11). Tavistock gender clinic ‘to be sued by 1,000 families’. The Times (via Archive Today). Retrieved 16 January 2023.

Hilton, E., Thompson, P., Wright, C., & Curtis, D. (2021, January 15). The reality of sex. Irish Journal of Medical Science, 190, 1647. doi:10.1007/s11845-020-02464-4.

Hopper, T. (2022, August 15). First reading: Canada is getting real comfortable with killing its disabled. National Post. Retrieved 16 January 2023.

Imperato-McGinley, J., Guerrero, L., Gautier, T., & Peterson, R.E. (1974, December 27). Steroid 5α-reductase deficiency in Man: An inherited form of male pseudohermaphoroditism. Science, 186(4170), 1213–1215. doi:10.1126/science.186.4170.1213. Retrieved 16 January 2023.

Independent Review of Gender Identity Services for Children and Young People (2022, February). Interim report. Retrieved 16 January 2023.

Jong, D.M., Pulungan, A.B., Tridjaja, B., & Batubara, J.R.L. (2003, November). 5-alpha-reductase deficiency: A case report. Paediatrica Indonesiana, 43(6), 234. doi:10.14238/pi43.6.2003.234-40. Retrieved 16 January 2023.

Kenny, D.T. (2019, September 16). Is gender dysphoria socially contagious?. DiannaKenny.com.au (via Internet Archive). Retrieved 16 January 2023.

Lane, B. (2022, November 1). Going Dutch: The small study that launched a big experiment in gender change. Gender Clinic News (Substack, via Internet Archive). Retrieved 16 January 2023.

Lawford-Smith, H. (2021, November 24). What is gender critical feminism (and why is everyone so mad about it)? [transcript]. HollyLawford-Smith.org. (Original work published 20 August 2020.) Retrieved 16 January 2023.

Last Week Tonight [@LastWeekTonight] (2022, October 17). Transgender rights II: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO) [YouTube video]. YouTube. Retrieved 16 January 2023.

Minkowitz, D. (2019, December 5). Why racists (and liberals!) keep writing for ‘Quillette’. The Nation. Retrieved 16 January 2023.

Moreton, I.C.B. [@epistemophagy] (2022a, August 26). On 24 August 2022, @smh published an article, “‘Absolutely devastating’: woman sues psychiatrist over gender transition,” by Julie Szego. To … [Twitter thread]. Twitter. Retrieved 16 January 2023.

Moreton, I.C.B. [@epistemophagy] (2022b, August 26). In this paragraph, Szego is arrowing down with timeless elegance into the human psyche’s key defensive weakness of post hoc … [Tweet]. Twitter. Retrieved 16 January 2023.

Morgenroth, T., & Ryan, M.K. (2018, July 27). Gender Trouble in social psychology: How can Butler’s work inform experimental social psychologists’ conceptualization of gender?. Frontiers in Psychology. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01320. Retrieved 16 January 2023.

Nestler, E.J. (2013). Cellular basis of memory for addiction / Bases celulares de la memoria en las adicciones / Les bases cellulaires de la mémoire dans les addictions. Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience, 15(4), 431–443. doi:10.31887/DCNS.2013.15.4/enestler. Retrieved 16 January 2023.

NHS England (2020, February 18). Causes: Infertility. Retrieved 16 January 2023.

Parker, G. (2023, January 15). Sunak to block Scottish transgender bill using constitutional ‘nuclear option’. Financial Times. Retrieved 16 January 2023.

Quillette Pty Ltd (n.d.). Colin Wright. Quillette (via Achive Today). Retrieved 16 January 2023.

Read, R., & O’Riordan, T. (2017, August 18). The precautionary principle under fire. Environment: Science and Policy for Sustainable Development, 59(5), 4–15. doi:10.1080/00139157.2017.1350005. Retrieved 16 January 2023.

Reed, E. (2023, January 13). Unpacking ‘gender exploratory therapy,’ a new form of conversion therapy. Xtra. Retrieved 16 January 2023.

Reiner, W.G. (2002). Gender identity and sex assignment: A reappraisal for the 21st century. In S.A. Zderic, D.A. Canning, M.C. Carr, & H.M. Snyder (Eds.), Advances in experimental medicine and biology (vol. 511): Pediatric gender assignment — A critical reappraisal (pp. 175–197). Springer. doi:10.1007/978-1-4615-0621-8_11. Retrieved 16 January 2023.

Rew, L., Young, C.C., Monge, M., & Bogucka, R. (2020, December 15). Review: Puberty blockers for transgender and gender diverse youth—a critical review of the literature. Child and Adolescent Mental Health, 26(1), 3–14. doi:10.1111/camh.12437. Retrieved 16 January 2023.

Rowling, J. [@jk_rowling] (2022, July 6). Every woman who’s been harassed, silenced, bullied or lost employment because of her gender critical beliefs is freer and safer … [Tweet]. Twitter. Retrieved 16 January 2023.

Siddique, H. (2022, July 7). Maya Forstater was discriminated against over gender-critical beliefs, tribunal rules. The Guardian (via Archive Today). Retrieved 16 January 2023.

Serano, J.M. (2010, October 9). The case against autogynephilia. International Journal of Transgenderism, 12(3), 176–187. doi:10.1080/15532739.2010.514223. Retrieved 16 January 2023.

Serano, J.M. (2020, August 10). Autogynephilia: A scientific review, feminist analysis, and alternative ’embodiment fantasies’ model. The Sociological Review, 68(4). doi:10.1177/0038026120934690. Retrieved 16 January 2023.

Simons, M. (2014, July). The decline of the ‘Australian’. The Monthly (via Archive Today). Retrieved 16 January 2023.

Steensma, T.D., McGuire, J.K., Kreukels, B.P.C., Beekman, A.J., … & Cohen-Kettenis, P.T. (2013, April 3). Factors associated with desistance and persistence of childhood gender dysphoria: A quantitative follow-up study. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 52(6), 582–590. doi:10.1016/j.jaac.2013.03.016. Retrieved 16 January 2023.

Strudwick, P. (2020, March 7). Hundreds of staff at The Guardian have signed a letter to the editor criticising its “transphobic content”. BuzzFeed News. Retrieved 16 January 2023.

Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust (2019, June 28). Referrals to the Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) level off in 2018–19. NHS England. Retrieved 16 January 2023.

Taylor, T., & Collins, S. (2012, December 1). The politics are personal: The Australian vs the Australian curriculum in history. The Curriculum Journal, 23(4), 531–552. doi:10.1080/09585176.2012.731015. Retrieved 16 January 2023.

Turban, J.L., King, D., Carswell, J.M., & Keuroghlian, A.S. (2020, February 1). Pubertal suppression for transgender youth and risk of suicidal ideation. Pediatrics, 145(2), e20191725. doi:10.1542/peds.2019-1725. Retrieved 16 January 2023.

Turban, J.L., Dolotina, B., King, D., Keuroghlian, A.S. (2022, August 3). Sex assigned at birth ratio among transgender and gender diverse adolescents in the United States. Pediatrics, 150(3), e2022056567. Retrieved 16 January 2023.

Twohey, M., & Jewett, C. (2022, November 14). They paused puberty, but is there a cost?. The New York Times (via Wayback Machine). Retrieved 16 January 2023.

Understanding Science (2022, September 9). Science at multiple levels. University of California, Berkeley. Retrieved 16 January 2023.

Vantieghem, W., Vermeersch, H., & Van Houtte, M. (2014, May 7). Why “gender” disappeared from the gender gap: (Re-)introducing gender identity theory to educational gender gap research. Social Psychology of Education, 17, 357–381. doi:10.1007/s11218-014-9248-8. Retrieved 16 January 2023.

Wakefield, L. (2020, June 10). JK Rowling suggests she ‘might have transitioned’ if given the option when younger, wrongly linking gender identity with mental health. PinkNews. Retrieved 16 January 2023.

Witchel, S.F. (2018, April). Disorders of sex development. Best Practice & Research: Clinical Obstetrics & Gynaecology, 48, 90–102. doi:10.1016/j.bpobgyn.2017.11.005. Retrieved 16 January 2023.

Wright, C. (2020a, June 7). JK Rowling is right—sex is real and it is not a “spectrum”. Quillette (via Wayback Machine). Retrieved 16 January 2023.

Wright, C. (2020b, December 23). On sex and gender, the New England Journal of Medicine has abandoned its scientific mission. Quillette (via Wayback Machine). Retrieved 16 January 2023.

Wright, C. (2021, February 2). Sex is not a spectrum. Reality’s Last Stand (Substack via Wayback Machine). Retrieved 16 January 2023.

Wright, C. (2022, June 23). I got thrown off Etsy and PayPal for expressing my belief in biological reality. Quillette (via Wayback Machine). Retrieved 16 January 2023.

Wright, C.M., & Hilton, E.N. (2020, February 13). The dangerous denial of sex. The Wall Street Journal (via Archive Today). Retrieved 16 January 2023.

Wright, C.M., Keiser, C.N., & Pruitt, J.N. (2015, July). Personality and morphology shape task participation, collective foraging and escape behaviour in the social spider Stegodyphus dumicola. Animal Behaviour, 105, 47–54. doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2015.04.001. Retrieved 16 January 2023.

Wright, C.M., Lichtenstein, J.L.L., Montgomery, G.A., Luscuskie, L.P., Pinter-Wollman, N., & Pruitt, J.N. (2017, July 25). Exposure to predators reduces collective foraging aggressiveness and eliminates its relationship with colony personality composition. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 71, 126. doi:10.1007/s00265-017-2356-7. Retrieved 16 January 2023.

Wright, C.M., Lichtenstein, J.L.L., Luscuskie, L.P., Montgomery, G.A., Geary, S., … & Keiser, C.N. (2020, December 19). Spatial proximity and prey vibratory cues influence collective hunting in social spiders. Israel Journal of Ecology and Evolution, 66(1–2), 26–31. doi:10.1163/22244662-20191062. Retrieved 16 January 2023.

On 27 November 2022, The Sunday Mail, the Sunday edition of The Courier-Mail, published an article, “Aussie doc: ‘I see 300 trans patients a year’,” by Julie Cross (2022).

The article has several problems. Here are a few.

---

Table of contents

• Headnotes

1. “… make them look more like the opposite sex …“
2. “open to prescribing … quickly“
3. “prescribed ‘gender affirming’ drugs“
4. “… being shared on government platforms“
5. “News Corp is not suggesting …“
6. “The government’s own website … states that it is wrong …“
7. “… other countries around the world …“
8. “TransHub … promotes the informed consent model as best practice“
9. “… just two or three appointments“
10. “… no mental health professional needs to be involved“
11. “For trans children …“
12. “… psychologist Dr Roberto D’Angelo said …“
13. “His own assessment of the evidence …“
14. “… almost all … have autism or … ADHD“
15. “‘wise’ rather than ‘irreversible decisions‘”
16. “transition as an adult female to a male“
17. “‘If you don’t feel comfortable … then don’t’“
18. “months or years of therapy“
19. “transitioning can sometimes seem like the explanation“
20. “‘regret can take up to 10 years’“
21. “… one identified as male …“
22. “… adults and children wishing to change their gender …“
23. “… the vast majority … have little understanding in this space“
24. “… happy to prescribe … in just two sessions“
25. “… new national guidelines … carefully exploring …“
26. “… almost all of his patients … are neurodivergent“
27. “a group of health professionals working with trans people“
28. “it’s a grey area … should be able to consent“
29. “the rates of people regretting … is ‘almost zero’“
30. “He warned … it could result in people taking their own lives“

• Closing
• Postscript
• Footnotes
• References

---

Headnotes

Up to now, the standard format for this series included publishing in the first instance as a Twitter thread. Since I no longer have the constraints (or advantages) of Twitter shaping my work, the format might unintentionally slightly shift. Please let me know if it’s changed for the worse.

If you click on a footnote or inline citation, you’ll jump to the footnote or reference list entry to which it points; simply click the ‘Back’ button in your browser to go back to where you were.

---

#1

Trans patients are swapping tips online on where to find ‘friendly’ doctors who are willing to prescribe hormones to make them look more like the opposite sex.

Cross (op. cit.)

First of all, may I say how delightful it is to see Cross taking part in News Corp’s long corporate tradition of suggesting that hormones are simply a skin-deep intervention which allow perverted, predatory, subhuman transgenderists to deceive their well-meaning, normal, fully human cisgender peers.

Now, the word “friendly” implies bias, like having a “friendly” judge. It might be possible to superficially get away with the use of the word “friendly” here if it were a direct quote with this meaning in context. However, the only online source which we know Cross actually consulted is a single reddit thread in which the word ‘friendly’ is not used in the OP¹ (u/camxeli, 2022), and is only used in one comment, which describes a Brisbane-based trans health provider as having a “very comforting and friendly manner” (u/CafeCodeBunny, 2022).

The construction of the paragraph suggests that it’s decisive proof of bias to prescribe gender-affirming hormones at all. In fact, where they’re clinically justified, to not prescribe them would be medical negligence — because it would fall short of the relevant standard of care (Armstrong Legal, n.d.).

#2

Reddit is one go to site where the trans community shares information on which doctors are open to prescribing cross sex hormones quickly.

Cross (op. cit.)

In the one reddit thread we know Cross actually consulted (u/camxeli, op. cit.), the OP was asking where to find informed consent model (ICM) care, because the first appointment he could secure at the Brisbane Gender Clinic was 11 months away.

Note that this would have been a particularly time-sensitive and urgent matter because the first appointment would have been the OP’s first opportunity to receive any gender-affirming medical care at all. He doesn’t say this; what he does say is that he’s 15. Forcing him through 11 more months of the wrong puberty could do significant damage which would be permanently impossible to reverse.

Cross is trying to make timely care look shady by asserting trans people are trying to get “friendly” doctors who will prescribe hormones “quickly”. “Less than 11 months for medical intervention on a matter of life-altering urgency whose time sensitivity is immediate,” however, is an objectively reasonable expectation by any metric.

#3

One person [u/JamieRoseCleverly, 2022 — Ed.] wrote on Reddit how they were prescribed ‘gender affirming’ drugs at a walk-in clinic in Queensland, after waiting about “’30 minutes for the informed consent and prescription, and another 15-20 minutes for the pharmacy next door to fill it”.

Cross (op. cit.)

“Gender affirming” appears in quote marks, as if there were some debate about the wording. In the literature, gender-affirming therapies are referred to as such even by their most ardent opponents (e.g., D’Angelo, 2018; Malone & Roman, 2020; Clayton, 2022; etc.). “Gender-affirming” is standard terminology; News Corp is putting it in quote marks to convey a suggestion that it doesn’t have either the authority or the guts to make out loud.

While we’re on the topic of conveying suggestions, while the word “drugs” is perfectly clinically accurate here and often used in the technical literature, that’s not why News Corp uses it; it’s used because compared to “hormones” or “medication” it is much scarier, and therefore, for News Corp’s purposes, ideal.

It also ties into a common anti-trans narrative theme: namely, projecting artificiality onto trans people, portraying them as somehow unnatural and fake. Calling hormones “hormones” runs the risk of someone pointing out that hey the human body produces those too.² Even “hormone blockers” sounds too close to something natural and real. “Drugs”? Now those could be anything. That’s the ticket.

Honestly the weirdest part of this paragraph is how Cross leaves in “and another 15-20 minutes for the pharmacy next door to fill it,” as if it were suggestive of something nasty. My pharmacy takes about 2 minutes to fill my prescription for estrogen; 5 on a slow day. Should they artificially take longer because I’m trans? What’s the objective here?

#4

There are lists of “gender affirming” doctors, who all approach patient care differently, being shared on government platforms.

Cross (op. cit.)

The use of the word “platforms” here is slightly confusing, because it feels like it’s suggesting Australian governments are running public Mastodon instances or something (are they? I haven’t heard), but actually I think this is referring to, at least, the “gender incongruence” page on the Australian Government’s Healthdirect service (mentioned by Cross shortly afterward), which says:

You can find a list of gender affirming clinicians at TransHub [“Gender affirming doctor list,” n.d. —Ed] and AusPATH [“Providers,” n.d. —Ed].

Healthdirect Australia (2022); links in source

This seems like another version of the narrative also favoured by the ABC’s Media Watch (Moreton, 2022),³ to the effect that “it’s wrong for government to cite or consult external experts in any way”. I personally have only ever seen journalists try that one when attacking trans people, and I expect other marginalised groups, because in any context other than discrediting authorities who defend marginalised people, it would be correctly recognised as blatantly absurd.

#5

News Corp is not suggesting doctors on these lists are doing anything wrong.

Cross (op. cit.)

News Corp is in fact doing precisely that. Simply saying that they’re not doesn’t actually change it.

#6

The government’s own website HealthDirect promotes ‘gender affirming care’ and states that it is wrong for any health professional to try to change someone’s gender or identity.

Cross (op. cit.)

Healthdirect does indeed “promote[…] ‘gender affirming care’,” for example by saying:

People with gender dysphoria need to get gender affirming care.

Healthdirect Australia (op. cit.)

It seems pretty obvious and straightforward to say PEOPLE_WITH_CONDITION need to get TREATMENT_FOR_CONDITION. Not seeing a lot of objections to “People with muscle aches need to get Nurofen.”

Healthdirect does indeed also state that

It is wrong for any health professional to try to change your gender or identity in any way.

(ibid.)

This is also very obviously unassailably true. Part of the impetus for banning conversion therapy was the strength of the argument that trying to change someone’s identity is wrong even without considering direct observable material harm, because people have other human rights like autonomy and freedom of conscience, of which they would be deprived by an attempt to forcibly psychologically modify them, even if they weren’t otherwise harmed.

However, conversion therapy does do harm; it consistently leaves its subjects with lifelong psychological trauma (Blosnich et al., 2020; Forsythe et al., 2022). Then again, many other therapies which are widely accepted in clinical practice also inflict harms, which are accepted because the benefits outweigh them; anyone who’s been through chemo, or knows someone who’s been through it, has witnessed this principle in action.

If we accept for some dickhead reason that changing someone else’s gender is actually a clinically beneficial thing to do, then are the harms of conversion therapy worth it to achieve that end? No, because conversion therapy doesn’t actually do that. It has no demonstrated effectiveness (Higbee et al., 2020). Even in the terms in which its advocates claim to believe, conversion therapy can’t be justified because it doesn’t work.

News Corp’s careful framing implies that Healthdirect calling conversion therapy “wrong” is emotive and debatable. In reality, not only does conversion therapy have shitty ends, it can’t achieve them; Healthdirect calling it “wrong” is as close to objectively correct as any statement about science can get.

#7

However, it comes as a growing body of mental health professionals believe the government’s current advice is out of step with other countries around the world that have started taking a more cautious approach to medical and surgical intervention.

Cross (op. cit.)

Oooh, which countries? I assume one of the usual suspects, so is it Britain (Moore et al., 2022)? Is it Sweden (Jaeger, 2022)? Please, go on, tell me more, I’m enthralled.

#8

TransHub, which provides resources for trans people and health professionals, promotes the informed consent model as best practice for GPs — which is when the doctor takes the patient’s lead and accepts their new gender identity.

Cross (op. cit.)

I was unable to verify this claim. The summary of the informed consent model (ICM) is close enough that I’m not gonna argue with it here. However, the strongest assertions I could find by TransHub about the ICM, which are in its guidance for clinicians on the ICM (TransHub, “Clinicians: Informed consent,” n.d.), are subjectively very positive but don’t actually appear to amount to an endorsement as a single best practice (i.e., superior to other alternatives), simply a discussion of one option among many.

The strongest assertion I could find by TransHub that was relevant to the ICM was in the guidance for clinicians regarding diagnoses (TransHub, “Clinicians: Diagnoses,” n.d.), which asserted that “the requirement of diagnosis [of gender dysphoria] is no longer considered best practice”. This doesn’t actually enthrone the ICM instead, however. It simply — and correctly — places the traditionalist “gatekept” model which it discusses as one option among many.

#9

In some cases a prescription for cross sex hormones can be handed over in just two or three appointments.

Cross (op. cit.)

This is pretty clearly trying to tap into the unspoken and inarticulable feeling that many cis people have that there’s some minimum number of appointments it should take. In reality, like anyone else, trans people are entitled to have medical care no later than they need it.

#10

In many cases, no mental health professional needs to be involved.

Cross (op. cit.)

The suggestion here is that it’s somehow weird or even dangerous that the ICM doesn’t ordinarily require medical transition to receive signoff from a mental health professional (MHP).

Of course, what News Corp is relying on here is cis people’s, again, unspoken and perhaps inarticulable assumption (cis assumption) (cissumption?) that being trans inherently means you’re fucked in the head — or more specifically that you’re fucked in the head such that you can’t give informed consent (shuster, 2019). In reality, no aspect of transness impairs competence to consent in any way.

#11

For trans children, the parents need to agree to any medical intervention before drugs are prescribed and they need to be assessed by mental health specialists in what can be a significantly longer process.

Cross (op. cit.)

The movement from the previous paragraph to this one gives this the effect of suggesting that trans kids can also be sloppily and quickly ‘rushed’ into ICM care.

In reality, the fact that parents and MHPs have to be involved means the kids are by definition not receiving ICM care, so even if ICM care were reckless and negligent the way News Corp needs it to be, the implication would still be a lie.

#12

However, psychologist Dr Roberto D’Angelo said some kids are still only having up to half a dozen sessions before being prescribed drugs.

Cross (op. cit.)

News Corp somehow forgot to mention that Roberto D’Angelo is a clinical advisor to the Society for Evidence-based Gender Medicine (SEGM), a pseudoscientific anti-trans pressure group (Stahl, 2021; Kuper et al., 2022; Ring, 2022) which pretends to be supported by crowdfunding while actually being supported by large donations of opaque origin (Moore, 2021).

News Corp knew this, of course, but even if they hadn’t, D’Angelo isn’t exactly subtle about his views. His interaction with the public discourse is primarily through contributions to academic journals; on his profile on the academic social network ResearchGate (D’Angelo, n.d.), on the list of publications which he authored or co-authored, every publication since May 2018 (Clayton et al., 2021; Clayton et al., 2022; d’Abrera et al., 2020; D’Angelo, 2018, 2020a, 2020b, & 2020c; D’Angelo et al., 2020; D’Angelo et al., 2022; Malone et al., 2021) has been open advocacy for trans-hostile views. That’s 10 of his 13 listed publications, incidentally; talk about Riley’s law!⁴

#13

[D’Angelo’s] own assessment of the evidence for the benefits and harms of puberty blockers is that it is too weak and inconclusive for him to support prescribing them to children, even though ‘in some cases they can have positive effects’.

Cross (op. cit.)

It’s unclear in what way D’Angelo’s opinion of “the evidence for the benefits and harms of puberty blockers” would be at all relevant even if he weren’t being paid to hold it. The nature of the alleged harms is such that the specialists qualified to professionally evaluate them are endocrinologists, neurologists, and rheumatologists. D’Angelo doesn’t appear to be qualified in any of those areas, nor does it appear he’s talked to anyone who is. His judgement is no more relevant than mine.

#14

[Charlotte Hespe] said that a lot of the kids are “troubled” and almost all of the ones she has seen have autism or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and so “it’s tricky to navigate safely”.

Cross (op. cit.)

In the first place, the current global standard for trans healthcare — the World Professional Association for Transgender Health’s Standards of care, version 8 (SoC 8) have something to say on this topic and they’re pretty clear about it:

There is no evidence to suggest a benefit of withholding GAMSTs^[5] from TGD^[6] people who have gender incongruence simply on the basis that they have a mental health or neurodevelopmental condition.

Coleman et al. (2022), Statement 5.3.c, pp. S36–S37

In the second place, how the hell were “almost all” of Hespe’s patients either autistic or ADHD? It’s certainly been observed that trans people seem to have higher rates of autism and ADHD — respectively 3–6× (Warrier et al., 2020; Warrier & Baron-Cohen, 2020) and 3–7× (Becerra-Culqui et al., 2018) more common. However, the population prevalences of autism and ADHD are 1–1.5% (Warrier & Baron-Cohen, op. cit.) and ~4.1% respectively (Deloitte Access Economics, 2019), so in trans people they should be, at most, 9% and 28.7%.

Even if those populations were completely separate — which they’re not, lmao (Rusting, 2018) — they should make up fewer than 4 patients in 10. Does Glebe Family Medical Practice only accept referrals from the local fidget spinner and model train emporium?⁷ What’s the story?

#15

[Hespe] said she tries to make sure her patients make “wise” rather than “irreversible decisions”.

Cross (op. cit.)

The location of the quotation marks here strongly suggests this statement has been creatively chopped and screwed a bit. Whoever’s responsible for it, though, the intention is clearly to suggest that in this area, irreversible decisions and wise ones are mutually exclusive.

The reasons why this is a bad take and the reasons why someone would advance it anyway are both clear enough at this point that I don’t feel like I need to waste my breath further.

#16

Out of more than 100 patients [Hespe] has seen in 22 years, she said only one person, who wanted to transition as an adult female to a male, regretted the effects of being on testosterone and surgery. They now identify as gender neutral.

“She had three lots of surgery,” Dr Hespe said. “Had breasts off, had breasts put back on, had breasts taken off again.”

Cross (op. cit.)

In the first place, are this person’s pronouns “they,” or “she,” or both?

In the second place, I’m wondering whether this is a permissible disclosure by Dr Hespe. This seems like it would make it exceptionally easy to identify the individual described, which seems — note that I am not a lawyer — as if it might be questionable under the medical privacy provisions of the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth).

In the third place, I think it’s significant that News Corp has chosen to report this part. Previously they’ve largely focused on the suggestion that trans kids are too young to decide to transition (or to stop puberty) and that they’ll regret it later. This seems to mark a further advancement along the narrative line established by e.g. Robinson (2022) — beginning to suggest that “they’ll regret it later, so they have to be stopped,” applies not only to kids, but adults, too.

This is a logical advancement to push for. After all, if you can bring yourself to levy immense suffering, permanent damage and possible death on kids simply because they were unlucky enough to exist around you while being trans, doing it to adults should be a piece of cake.

#17

Dr Hespe said the doctors need to make sure they “cross every single ‘t’ and dot every single ‘i’.” “If you don’t feel comfortable prescribing then don’t.”

Cross (op. cit.)

This seems self-contradictory. You should “cross every single ‘t’ and dot every single ‘i’” — a saying which typically means being meticulous in your fulfilment of an established requirement, such as a standard of care — but also you can make a vibes-based choice not to?

I feel like there has to be an implied conditional statement here — if you want to prescribe, you need to make sure you cross every single t and dot every single i, but if you don’t, simply not “feel[ing] comfortable” is more than enough.

#18

Meanwhile, Dr D’Angelo believes it can take months or years of therapy for some people to work through all their problems. He said many kids questioning their gender are also struggling with social anxiety, making friends or there’s family dysfunction, and think changing their identity will help.

Cross (op. cit.)

I mean even if this wasn’t Roberto D’Angelo, wow, no way, a therapist thinks people might need “months to years of therapy”? Colour me absolutely shocked. Seriously though, this is such a blatant attempt to deprive trans people of capacity. “Months to years”? That’s “indefinitely”. That’s “never”.

Moreover, “changing their identity” is, as I’m sure D’Angelo knows very well, a blatantly malicious misrepresentation of what it’s describing. There’s a reason it’s called “gender-affirming” and not “gender-changing” — it simply supports and upholds what’s already there.

#19

“Everyone now looks online when they are not feeling good about themselves,” Dr D’Angelo said. “Many of these young people feel desperate and are looking for a way to feel better. There’s a huge amount of material online which encourages transition which vulnerable, struggling and troubled teenagers may feel offers them a way out of their difficulties. Gender dysphoria and transitioning can sometimes seem like the explanation for their problems.”

Cross (op. cit.)

Have we considered that “these young people feel desperate and are looking for a way to feel better” because they’re experiencing dysphoria, the condition literally defined as a clinically significant degree of feeling bad?

Have we considered that “vulnerable, struggling and troubled teenagers may feel” that “material online which encourages transition” “offers them a way out of their difficulties” because it actually does?

Have we considered that “gender dysphoria and transitioning can sometimes seem like the explanation for their problems” because they actually are?

#20

He said he’s worked with several people who have transitioned when they were young but regretted it, saying “regret can take up to 10 years”.

Cross (op. cit.)

Convenient. I don’t know if I’ve ever met a single person who was confident enough to say they knew exactly where their life would lead them in ten years’ time. If any possible regret is waiting so far into the tall grasses of the future that you can’t possibly see it when you’re standing out on the fringe, the only rational decision is not to venture in at all. In fact, the decision to go anyway might very well be considered insane …

Anyway, isn’t probability fun? Two other doctors quoted in this article report having patient populations in which the rate of autism and ADHD is near 100%, when all the other data we have suggests that the most impossibly high upper bound conceivable should be less than 4 in 10. D’Angelo, a single therapist in private practice — in fact a psychoanalyst, not a specialty known for treating gender-diverse people with acceptance and kindness (Evzonas, 2020; Saketopoulou, 2022; etc.) — seems well on his way to including among his clients not only every detransitioner but every detransitioner-to-be on the east coast. I wonder how he fares with Scratch-its.

#21

He said one identified as male and had a mastectomy, a hysterectomy and ovaries removed. “When she came to see me she was identifying as male and very depressed,” Dr D’Angelo said. “She could not understand why as she had done everything she thought that could help (surgery), but she felt worse. It took two years to try and understand her history.

“She came to the conclusion she was not a man and that other things had led her to take these steps. It was eye opening. It was alarming. She only had a handful of appointments with a psychiatrist before transitioning. There were other more complicated issues that had not been adequately diagnosed and had never been addressed. She is now identifying as a woman. She is happy with her gender now but is dealing with enormous grief and is struggling to rebuild her life.”

Cross (op. cit.)

While she’s not named, this has to be about Jay Langadinos — it’s a very specific backstory and the probability that D’Angelo has two patients who share it is realistically zero.

In that case, it seems apropos to introduce the facts that D’Angelo is leaving out; as Langadinos filed suit against her psychiatrist, Dr Patrick Toohey, and The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald reported on it (Szego, 2022), we’re lucky enough to have those facts on hand.

In short, the only “complicated issue” which Langadinos has alleged was unaddressed was social phobia, better known as social anxiety disorder (American Psychiatric Association, 1994). SAD

• is not a contraindication to transition
• does not impair capacity to give informed consent (Cundill, 2020),
• is — like everything else — not known to generate an illusory or transient sense of gender incongruence, and
• is known to be relieved by transition (Butler et al., 2019).

Moreover, Toohey urged Langadinos to seek treatment for it and she refused. By Langadinos’ own account filed with the New South Wales Supreme Court, which Szego (op. cit.) cites, not only was her phobia clearly and concretely diagnosed, but the reason it wasn’t addressed was because she didn’t want it to be.

D’Angelo is clearly trying to suggest that Langadinos was failed by the system, but Langadinos made her own choices. No one had even the hint of a justification to intervene to stop her.

#22

A GP who prescribes cross sex hormones and puberty blockers to adults and children wishing to change their gender said they have to search for doctors like him that accept “patients are the experts in their own body”.

Cross (op. cit.)

Once again, News Corp presents this as a matter of people “changing their gender,” rather than matching their bodies to the gender they have. At this point, it’s pretty safe to say it’s not accidental.

#23

[Matt Barber] said the vast majority of GPs in Australia have little understanding in this space, which is why people seek out “gender affirming” doctors.

Cross (op. cit.)

This seems like it’s supposed to at least allow the interpretation that Barber is an arrogant egotist, but it’s actually just uncontroversially true. While actual useful data regarding practitioner competence in trans care is thinner on the ground than I would like, the little that exists isn’t promising.

By way of example,

• Davidge-Pitts et al. (2017) found that in a sample of 411 United States practitioners who were members of the Endocrine Society, the proportion who said they’d never received training in trans healthcare was c. 81%.
• Christopherson et al. (2022) found that of a sample of 188 GPs and nurse practitioners working with trans patients in Saskatchewan, Canada, in 2019, the proportion who felt comfortable providing transition-related medical care was 30%.
• Irwig (2016) found that among endocrinologists attending an American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists conference, the fraction able to answer a fairly basic knowledge question about trans endocrine care was an eye-watering 5% (!!). You’ve got to hope things have improved.

#24

He said in straightforward cases he is happy to prescribe hormones in just two sessions.

Cross (op. cit.)

… I mean I already know the answer but is this supposed to be in some way wrong or bad?

#25

In Australia “doctors are free to operate under their own opinions and beliefs”, Dr Barber said.

In the UK doctors have to follow new national guidelines for children with gender dysphoria, including carefully exploring any mental ill health issues.

Cross (op. cit.)

In the first place, this framing makes it sound like it’s complete open slather in Australia, which is not the case at all. As the article later admits, in an extremely minimising fashion and with clear reluctance, there are set standards of care and doctors risk legal action by violating them. Given that doctors’ chain of command usually ends with their clinic, however, practitioners across Australia have broadly varying levels of independence in interpreting and implementing those standards as they see fit, depending on what their employer permits.

This is not the case in the United Kingdom. The status quo — which is currently in the process of changing, but toward an unclear end — is that there is only one paediatric gender clinic in the whole of the United Kingdom, the NHS Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS). “National guidelines” sound rather less impressive when you realise that they currently apply to a total of one clinic, which also contributes most of the data that underpin them, and which, in large part, directly writes them.

In the second place, UK doctors don’t yet “have to follow” any “new national guidelines” at all. The guidelines in question, which are the NHS Interim service specification for specialist gender dysphoria services for children and young people, are still in consultation and will be until 4 December (NHS England Specialised Commissioning, 2022). They have also been the subject of absolutely blistering criticism from every peak body that has at least one keyboard and internet connection (e.g., World Professional Association for Transgender Health et al., 2022).

The intention here is clearly that UK paediatric trans health practices should be understood as disciplined and careful, when they’re nothing of the sort — they’re an act of gleeful sadism motivated by the barely concealed inadequacy and resentment of an increasingly ailing UK government and increasingly openly reactionary British state.

#26

[Barber] said almost all of his patients, both adults and children, are neurodivergent — meaning they have autism or ADHD.

Cross (op. cit.)

In the first place, “neurodivergent” doesn’t just mean “has autism or ADHD,” as much as I and other autistics and people with ADHD sometimes act as if it did.

In the second place, this claim is no less improbable coming from Barber than it was from Hespe. Then again — Barber’s home clinic Stonewall is only 500 metres from Windsor traino.

#27

[Barber] said he follows Australian guidelines promoted by AusPath — a group of health professionals working with trans people — that says gender affirming care is evidence-based and saves lives.

Cross (op. cit.)

What an absolutely delightful paragraph. For relatively few words, there is so much going on.

AusPATH are the Australian Professional Association for Transgender Health, the Australian affiliate of WPATH, and the peak body for trans health in Australia. AusPATH are “a group of health professionals working with trans people” in much the same way that the Australian Army are “a group of people in green clothes who like guns”.

Being the peak body, AusPATH don’t “promote” guidelines; they set them. Nor is their setting of guidelines simply a matter of ineffectually wringing their hands and saying “well, doctors should do this, pretty please”. As noted above, civil action for medical malpractice rests largely on whether the defendant provided the standard of care which would be reasonably expected from a medical practitioner of that kind acting under those circumstances (Armstrong Legal, op. cit.). Those standards of care are precisely what AusPATH (and WPATH) define.

AusPATH can literally “promote” guidelines in the alternative common meaning to the one used here, i.e., raising them up: endorsing a protocol used by an individual clinic or in a small area, and distributing it under AusPATH’s aegis. That just effectively makes it another standard they set, though, not some other thing they’re shilling for.

Finally, the fact that gender-affirming care is evidence-based and saves lives isn’t a matter of what either Barber or AusPATH “says”. It’s simply true (Huckins, 2022; Matouk & Wald, 2022; Oliver, 2022; etc.).

#28

[Barber] said for kids aged 14 to 16 years it’s a grey area, as they need parental consent while those aged 16 to 18 should be able to consent.

Cross (op. cit.)

This also isn’t a matter of Barber’s opinion. “He said … those aged 16 to 18 should be able to consent” makes it sound like he’s winging it: “Oh well, they should be able to consent, it’s fine, she’ll be right”. That framing suggests his practice is endangering children left and right.

In reality, he’s simply accurately, and perhaps even slightly conservatively, summarising Australian and Queensland law. People under 16 have to either get parental consent, or actively prove they’re Gillick competent.⁸ People over 16 are assumed competent by default (Legal Aid Queensland, 2022).

#29

But he said the rates of people regretting going on gender affirming drugs is ‘almost zero’ and those taking it see an upswing in their mental health.

Cross (op. cit.)

Again, this is not simply something Barber “said”. Not only is it true that regret rates are close to zero, they have remained stable or dropped over time.

• Smith et al. (2004) found that in a sample of 162 trans adults at 2 gender clinics in the Netherlands, the number who “expressed regrets” was 2 (1.4%).
• Davies et al. (2019) found that of 3,398 British trans adults, the number who experienced transition-related regret was 16 (0.47%) or fewer.⁹
• Turban et al. (2021) found that, among respondents to the 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey, of the 2,242 who reported a history of detransition, 54 (2.4%) endorsed “uncertainty or doubt around gender” as a factor.

The usual argument at this point is “oh but even one is too much!” which is obviously bullshit both on principle and in practice. For instance, Wilson et al. (2017), reviewing patient decisional regret around surgery — all surgery, of any kind — found that in the studies reviewed, the “average prevalence” of “self-reported patient regret,” which they described as “relatively uncommon,” was 14.4%.

Moreover, the fact that “gender affirming drugs” cause “an upswing in [trans people’s] mental health” is not realistically in any doubt.

• St Amand et al. (2011) found “clear evidence that HRT is associated with improved mental health outcomes”.
• Colizzi et al. (2014) found that “psychiatric distress and functional impairment were present” in a significantly lower percentage of subjects after 12 months of HRT.
• Bouman et al. (2016) found that “the use of cross-sex hormones … appears to be associated with psychological benefits”.

I have about 40 more studies here on this topic and I could go on but 3 is enough because we all already know this. Only News Corp is pretending it’s news — I can’t imagine this is the first time someone’s said that sentence.

#30

[Barber] warned that if Australia followed the UK route and more barriers were put in the way of people seeking to transition it could result in people taking their own lives.

Cross (op. cit.)

Yet again, this is clearly supposed to be at least open to being interpreted as an activist doctor intentionally overselling the politically correct narrative, and again, it’s simply objectively true.

As noted in the withering WPATH-led joint statement in response which was published 25 November (World Professional Association for Transgender Health et al., op. cit.), virtually every change made by the NHS draft service specification (NHS England Specialised Commissioning, op. cit.) is in a direction comprehensively demonstrated to increase the risk of suicide.¹⁰ Among the more significant such changes are:

• “discourag[ing] social transition in pre-pubertal children” (WPATH et al., op. cit., s 6), even though denial of social transition is known to increase suicidal ideation (Pariseau et al., 2019);
• “severely limit[ing] access to puberty suppression” (WPATH et al., op. cit., s 7), even though denial of access to puberty suppression is known to increase suicidal ideation (Rew et al., 2020; Turban et al., 2020);
• refusing to “describe any process for provision of estrogen or testosterone therapies for older adolescents” (WPATH et al., op. cit., s 7), even though denial of access to HRT in adolescence is known to increase suicidal ideation over the remainder of the patient’s life (Turban et al., 2022);
• a “‘psychotherapeutic’ approach, which was used for decades before being superseded by evidence-based gender-affirming care, [and] has not been shown to be effective” (WPATH et al., op. cit., s 9), even though the approach “is tantamount to ‘conversion’ or ‘reparative’ therapy” (ibid.), a form of torture (International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims, 2020) which is known to be linked to increased incidence of suicidal ideation and suicide attempt (Turban et al., 2019; Green et al., 2020).

Once again, Barber’s statement is not a matter of opinion — scientific investigation has repeatedly and exhaustively shown it to be thoroughly factual in every way. News Corp’s decision to present it as simply a personal warning from one source spun heavily as dubious does not reflect a commitment to informing readers of the truth — but then again, that won’t be news to anyone.

Closing

I usually don’t bother wasting the effort required for a Several Problems on any News Corp outlet; “Never wrestle with a pig,” etc. (Quote Investigator, 2017). There’s basically no overlap between people who read my work and people who think News Corp is credible. This particular masthead is so well known for being toilet paper that there’s a local proverb (e.g., Page, 2016) and multiple songs about it: “Is it true, or did you read it in The Courier-Mail?” (e.g., Future Primitive, 2020; The Mangroves, 2022).

However, I think it’s occasionally useful to check in on them and see how everything is going over there on the other side – see what shape the hate campaign is taking today. News Corp is suggesting trans people are fake, artificial, predatory, a danger to kids, backed by a doctors’ plot and a captured state. It’s not good news, nor is it surprising., but keeping track of the tropes can be useful in determining where fires are being set, why, how — and, ideally, for whom.

Postscript

If you thought this article was good or in any way useful — I’m honoured! I hope you will consider supporting my work via Ko-fi, Patreon, or PayPal so I can continue to sustain the absolutely obscene and unremitting expenses of remaining alive.

If you thought this article was bad, please feel free to contact me at either of my two email addresses or any of my four million social media and messaging accounts. Annihilate me so that it will finally be over and I can finally rest.

(You can also contact me if you thought it was good, or if you’d like to say hi.)

---

Footnotes

1 — “Original poster,” or “original post,” depending on context (e.g., the OP said in the OP …).

2 — It really does! All exogenous hormones (i.e., hormones from outside the body — “hormone drugs,” if you will) currently standardised and widely used in gender-affirming care are bioidentical (i.e., exactly chemically identical to those produced by the body).

3 — Self cite lmao, cringe

4 — The maxim that “once you post transphobia you will never post normally again,” popularised by Alice Caldwell-Kelly (2020) of Trashfuture, who may have been quoting or summarising a remark by Trashfuture colleague Riley Quinn.

5 — Gender-affirming medical or surgical treatments.

6 — Transgender and gender-diverse.

7 — I have both of these conditions and am therefore allowed to make this joke.

8 — Competent according to the test stipulated in the UK House of Lords case Gillick v West Norfolk and Wisbech Area Health Authority [1986] AC 112, which was adopted into Australian law by Secretary, Department of Health and Community Services v JWB and SMB (1992) 175 CLR 2018 (“Marion’s case”).

9 — 16 subjects “expressed transition-related regret or detransitioned,” which are, while intuitively clearly associated, not mutually inclusive.

10 — Trans-eliminationists often claim that the data means nothing because it’s based on proxy parameters, typically suicide attempt and/or suicidal ideation. In doing so they’re seemingly relying on their audience not to realise that they’re saying “data about suicide doesn’t count unless you get it by interviewing people who are dead”.

---

References

American Psychiatric Association (1994). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed.).

Armstrong Legal (n.d.). Medical negligence (Qld). Retrieved 28 November 2022.

Australian Professional Association for Transgender Health (n.d.). Providers. Retrieved 28 November 2022.

Becerra-Culqui, T.A., Liu, Y., Nash, R., Cromwell, L., Flanders, W.D., … & Goodman, M. (2018, May 1). Mental health of transgender and gender nonconforming youth compared with their peers. Pediatrics, 141(5), e20173845. doi:10.1542/peds.2017-3845. Retrieved 28 November 2022.

Blosnich, J.R., Henderson, E.R., Coulter, R.W.S., Goldbach, J.T., & Meyer, I.H. (2020, June 10). Sexual orientation change efforts, adverse childhood experiences, and suicide ideation and attempt among sexual minority adults, United States, 2016–2018. American Journal of Public Health, 110(7), 1024–1030. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2020.305637. Retrieved 28 November 2022.

Bouman, W.P., Claes, L., Marshall, E., Pinner, G.T., Longworth, J., … & Arcelus, J. (2016, February 18). Sociodemographic variables, clinical features, and the role of preassessment cross-sex hormones on older trans people. Journal of Sexual Medicine, 13(4), 711–719. doi:10.1016/j.jsxm.2016.01.009. Retrieved 28 November 2022.

Butler, R.M., Horenstein, A., Gitlin, M., Testa, R.J., Kaplan, S.C., … & Heimberg, R.G. (2019). Social anxiety among transgender and gender nonconforming individuals: The role of gender-affirming medical interventions. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 128(1), 25–31. doi:10.1037/abn0000399. Retrieved 29 November 2022.

Caldwell-Kelly, A. [@AliceAvizandum] (2020, December 17). Riley’s Law. Once you start posting transphobia you will never post normal again [Tweet]. Twitter (via Archive Today). Retrieved 28 November 2022.

Christopherson, L., McLaren, K., Schramm, L., Holinaty, C., Ruddy, G., … & Clark, M. (2022, October 7). Assessment of knowledge, comfort, and skills working with transgender clients of Saskatchewan family physicians, family medicine residents, and nurse practitioners. Transgender Health, 7(5), 468–472. doi:10.1089/trgh.2020.0181. Retrieved 28 November 2022.

Clayton, A., D’Angelo, R., Clarke, P. (2022, July 7). Parental consent and the treatment of transgender youth: the impact of Re Imogen. Medical Journal of Australia, 217(3), 167. doi:10.5694/mja2.51643. Retrieved 27 November 2022.

Clayton, A., Malone, W.J., Clarke, P., Mason, J., & D’Angelo, R. (2021, December 22). Commentary: The signal and the noise—questioning the benefits of puberty blockers for youth with gender dysphoria—a commentary on Rew et al. (2021). Child and Adolescent Mental Health, 27(3), 259–262. doi:10.1111/camh.12533. Retrieved 27 November 2022.

Clayton, A. (2022, November 14). Gender-affirming treatment of gender dysphoria in youth: A perfect storm environment for the placebo effect—the implications for research and clinical practice. Archives of Sexual Behavior, online. doi:10.1007/s10508-022-02472-8. Retrieved 28 November 2022.

Coleman, E., Radix, A.E., Bouman, W.P., Brown, G.R., de Vries, A.L.C., … & Arcelus, J. (2022, September 15). Standards of care for the health of transgender and gender diverse people, version 8. International Journal of Transgender Health, 23(sup1), S1–S259. doi:10.1080/26895269.2022.2100644. Retrieved 28 November 2022.

Colizzi, M., Costa, R., & Todarello, O. (2014, January). Transsexual patients’ psychiatric comorbidity and positive effect of cross-sex hormonal treatment on mental health: Results from a longitudinal study. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 39, 65–73. doi:10.1016/j.psyneuen.2013.09.029. Retrieved 28 November 2022.

Cross, J. (2022, November 27). Transgender: Australian patients look for doctors that will accept their new gender identity. The Courier-Mail (via Archive Today). Retrieved 28 November 2022.

Cundill, P. (2020, July). Hormone therapy for trans and gender diverse patients in the general practice setting. Australian Journal of General Practice, 49(7), 385–390. doi:10.31128/AJGP-01-20-5197. Retrieved 29 November 2022.

d’Abrera, J.C., D’Angelo, R., Halasz, G., Prager, S., & Morris, P. (2020, May 29). Informed consent and childhood gender dysphoria: emerging complexities in diagnosis and treatment. Australasian Psychiatry, 28(5), 536–538. doi:10.1177/1039856220928863. Retrieved 27 November 2022.

D’Angelo, R. (n.d.). Roberto D’Angelo [profile]. ResearchGate. Retrieved 28 November 2022.

D’Angelo, R. (2018, May 21). Psychiatry’s ethical involvement in gender-affirming care. Australasian Psychiatry, 26(5), 460–463. doi:10.1177/1039856218775216. Retrieved 27 November 2022.

D’Angelo, R. (2020a, May 29). The complexity of childhood gender dysphoria. Australasian Psychiatry, 28(5), 530–532. doi:10.1177/1039856220917076. Retrieved 27 November 2022.

D’Angelo, R. (2020b, September 9). The man I am trying to be is not me. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 101(5), 951–970. doi:10.1080/00207578.2020.1810049. Retrieved 27 November 2022.

D’Angelo, R. (2020c, October 28). Who is Phoenix? [Commentary]. Journal of Medical Ethics, 46(11), 753–754. doi:10.1136/medethics-2020-106822. Retrieved 27 November 2022.

D’Angelo, R., Marchiano, L., & Gorin, S. (2022, November 8). Response to book review essay “Trying to pass off transphobia as psychoanalysis and cruelty as ‘clinical logic.’” by Avi Saketopolou. Psychoanal. Q., 91:177–190. The Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 91(3), 591–594. doi:10.1080/00332828.2022.2124080. Retrieved 27 November 2022.

D’Angelo, R., Syrulnik, E., Ayad, S., Marchiano, L., Kenny, D.T., & Clarke, P. (2020, October 21). One size does not fit all: In support of psychotherapy for gender dysphoria. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 50, 7–16. doi:10.1007/s10508-020-01844-2. Retrieved 27 November 2022.

Davidge-Pitts, C., Nippoldt, T.B., Danoff, A., Radziejewski, L., & Natt, N. (2017, January 10). Transgender health in endocrinology: Current status of endocrinology fellowship programs and practicing clinicians. Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, 102(4), 1286–1290. doi:10.1210/jc.2016-3007. Retrieved 28 November 2022.

Davies, S., McIntyre, S., & Rypma, C. (2019, April 11–13). Detransition rates in a national UK gender identity clinic [Poster session]. 3rd European Professional Association for Transgender Health biennial conference: Inside matters — On law, ethics, and religion. Rome, Italian Republic. Retrieved 28 November 2022.

Deloitte Access Economics (2019, July). The social and economic costs of ADHD in Australia. Retrieved 28 November 2022.

Expósito-Campos, P., & D’Angelo, R. (2021, November). Letter to the editor: Regret after gender-affirmation surgery: A systematic review and meta-analysis of prevalence. Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery — Global Open, 9(11), e3951. doi:10.1097/GOX.0000000000003951. Retrieved 27 November 2022.

Evzonas, N. (2020, July). Psychoanalytic transphobia or a generalized gender trauma. Research in Psychoanalysis, 30(2), 103–112. Retrieved 28 November 2022.

Forsythe, A., Pick, C., Tremblay, G., Malaviya, S., Green, A., & Sandman, K. (2022, March 7). Humanistic and economic burden of conversion therapy among LGBTQ youths in the United States. JAMA Pediatrics, 176(5), 493–501. doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2022.0042. Retrieved 28 November 2022.

Future Primitive (2020, January 6). Is it true? (Or did you read it in The Courier Mail?) [Song]. On BW40: Going rouge. Best Wishes Records. Retrieved 28 November 2022.

Green, A.E., Price-Feeney, M., Dorison, S.H., & Pick, C.J. (2020, August). Self-reported conversion efforts and suicidality among US LGBTQ youths and young adults, 2018. American Journal of Public Health, 110(8), 1221–1227. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2020.305701. Retrieved 27 November 2022.

Healthdirect Australia (2022, June). Gender incongruence. Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care. Retrieved 28 November 2022.

Higbee, M., Wright, E.R., & Roemerman, R.M. (2020, November 18). Conversion therapy in the Southern United States: Prevalence and experiences of the survivors. Journal of Homosexuality, 69(4), 612–631. doi:10.1080/00918369.2020.1840213. Retrieved 28 November 2022.

Huckins, G. (2022, July 19). Gender–affirming care improves mental health — and may save lives. Wired. Retrieved 28 November 2022.

International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims (2020). It’s torture not therapy — A global overview of conversion therapy: Practices, perpetrators, and the role of states. Retrieved 29 November 2022.

Irwig, M.S. (2016, July 1). Transgender care by endocrinologists in the United States. Endocrine Practice, 22(7), 832–836. doi:10.4158/EP151185.OR. Retrieved 28 November 2022.

Jaeger, E. (2022, February 27). New guidelines at Swedish health service. Trans Safety Network. Retrieved 28 November 2022.

Kumar, N. (2022, May 31). Gender affirming healthcare is under attack — this is what’s at stake (F. Kuehnle, Ed.). Healthline. Retrieved 28 November 2022.

Kuper, L.E., Cooper, M.B., & Mooney, M.A. (2022). Supporting and advocating for transgender and gender diverse youth and their families within the sociopolitical context of widespread discriminatory legislation and policies. Clinical Practice in Pediatric Psychology, 10(3), 336–345. doi:10.1037/cpp0000456. Retrieved 28 November 2022.

Legal Aid Queensland (2022, November 10). Medical consent. Queensland Government. Retrieved 28 November 2022.

Malone, W., D’Angelo, R., Beck, S., Mason, J., & Evans, M. (2021, September). Puberty blockers for gender dysphoria: the science is far from settled. The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health, 5(9), E33-E34. doi:10.1016/S2352-4642(21)00235-2. Retrieved 27 November 2022.

Malone, W.J., & Roman, S. (2020, August 1). Calling into question whether gender-affirming surgery relieves psychological distress. American Journal of Psychiatry, 177(8), 766–767. doi:10.1176/appi.ajp.2020.19111149. Retrieved 28 November 2022.

The Mangroves (2022, June 16). Is it true? Or did you read it in The Courier Mail? [Song]. DC2F Records. Retrieved 28 November 2022.

Matouk, K.M., & Wald, M. (2022, March 30). Gender-affirming care saves lives [News release]. Columbia University Department of Psychiatry. Retrieved 28 November 2022.

Moore, M. (2021, August 26). SEGM uncovered: large anonymous payments funding dodgy science. Trans Safety Network. Retrieved 28 November 2022.

Moore, M., Links, M., & Clarke, S. (2022, January 27). EHRC asserts protections for religious and trans conversion therapy, calls for pausing GRA reform. Trans Safety Network. Retrieved 28 November 2022.

Moreton, I.C.B. (2022, October 21). Several problems: “ACON & the ABC”. Several Problems Press. Retrieved 28 November 2022.

NHS England Specialised Commissioning (2022, October 20). Interim service specification for specialist gender dysphoria services for children and young people — public consultation. NHS England. Retrieved 28 November 2022.

Oliver, D. (2022, October 23). What to know about gender-affirming care for transgender and nonbinary communities. USA Today. Retrieved 28 November 2022.

Page, S. [@stephenpagelaw] (2016, August 25). Hilarious! “Is it true or did you read it in the Courier-Mail?” CFMEU sign opposite the Courier-Mail‘s building. [Tweet]. Twitter (via Archive Today). Retrieved 28 November 2022.

Pariseau, E.M., Chevalier, L., Long, K.A., Clapham, R., Edwards-Leeper, L., & Tishelman, A.C. (2019). The relationship between family acceptance-rejection and transgender youth psychosocial functioning. Clinical Practice in Pediatric Psychology, 7(3), 267–277. doi:10.1037/cpp0000291. Retrieved 28 November 2022.

Quote Investigator (2017, July 8). Never wrestle with a pig. You both get dirty and the pig likes it. Retrieved 28 November 2022.

Rew, L., Young, C.C., Monge, M., & Bogucka, R. (2020, December 15). Review: Puberty blockers for transgender and gender diverse youth—a critical review of the literature. Child and Adolescent Mental Health, 26(1), 3–14. doi:10.1111/camh.12437. Retrieved 28 November 2022.

Ring, T. (2022, May 5). ‘Science’ behind Texas/Alabama anti-trans policy is ‘full of errors’. Advocate. Retrieved 28 November 2022.

Robinson, N. (2022, August 19). Gender change agents: When pressure from outside complicates the pressures within. The Australian (via Archive Today). Retrieved 28 November 2022.

Rusting, R. (2018, February 7). Decoding the overlap between autism and ADHD. Spectrum News. Retrieved 29 November 2022.

Saketopoulou, A. (2022, April 28). On trying to pass off transphobia as psychoanalysis and cruelty as “clinical logic”. The Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 91(1), 177–190. doi:10.1080/00332828.2022.2056378. Retrieved 28 November 2022.

shuster, s.m. (2019, April). Performing informed consent in transgender medicine. Social Science & Medicine, 226, 190–197. doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2019.02.053. Retrieved 28 November 2022.

Smith, Y.L.S., van Goozen, S.H.M., Kuiper, A.J., & Cohen-Kettenis, P.T. (2004, December 21). Sex reassignment: outcomes and predictors of treatment for adolescent and adult transsexuals. Psychological Medicine, 35(1), 89–99. doi:10.1017/S0033291704002776. Retrieved 29 November 2022.

Stahl, A. (2021, April 17). Meet the “fringe extremists” pushing flawed science to target trans kids. BuzzFeed News. Retrieved 28 November 2022.

St Amand, C., Fitzgerald, K.M., Pardo, S.T., & Babcock, J. (2011, July 5). The effects of hormonal gender affirmation treatment on mental health in female-to-male transsexuals. Journal of Gay & Lesbian Mental Health, 15(3), 281–299. doi:10.1080/19359705.2011.581195. Retrieved 28 November 2022.

Szego, J. (2022, August 24). ‘Absolutely devastating’: woman sues psychiatrist over gender transition. The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 28 November 2022.

TransHub (n.d.). Clinicians: Diagnoses. ACON. Retrieved 28 November 2022.

TransHub (n.d.). Gender affirming doctor list. ACON. Retrieved 28 November 2022.

TransHub (n.d.). Clinicians: Informed consent. ACON. Retrieved 28 November 2022.

Turban, J.L., Beckwith, N., Reisner, S.L., & Keuroghlian, A.S. (2019, September 11). Association between recalled exposure to gender identity conversion efforts and psychological distress and suicide attempts among transgender adults. JAMA Psychiatry, 77(1), 68–76. doi:10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2019.2285. Retrieved 28 November 2022.

Turban, J.L., King, D., Carswell, J.M., & Keuroghlian, A.S. (2020, February 1). Pubertal suppression for transgender youth and risk of suicidal ideation. Pediatrics, 145(2), e20191725. doi:10.1542/peds.2019-1725. Retrieved 28 November 2022.

Turban, J.L., Loo, S.S., Almazan, A.N., & Keuroghlian, A.S. (2021, March 31). Factors leading to “detransition” among transgender and gender diverse people in the United States: A mixed-methods analysis. LGBT Health, 8(4), 273–280. doi:10.1089/lgbt.2020.0437. Retrieved 29 November 2022.

Turban, J.L,, King, D., Kobe, J., Reisner, S.L., & Keuroghlian, A.S. (2022, January 12). Access to gender-affirming hormones during adolescence and mental health outcomes among transgender adults (A.E. Radix, Ed.). PLoS ONE, 17(1), e0261039. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0261039. Retrieved 28 November 2022.

u/CafeCodeBunny (2022, August 16). I recommend Holdsworth House if you are in or close to Brisbane. They are excellent and can refer you to … [reddit comment]. r/transgenderau on reddit. Retrieved 28 November 2022.

u/camxeli (2022, August 15). Any good websites on informed consent clinics/doctors in Queensland? [reddit thread]. r/transgenderau on reddit. Retrieved 28 November 2022.

u/JamieRoseCleverly (2022, August 15). If you can make it to Cairns, I did a walk-in as a local at the Cairns Sexual Health Clinic … [reddit comment]. r/transgenderau on reddit. Retrieved 28 November 2022.

Warrier, V., & Baron-Cohen, S. (2020, August 7). Transgender and gender diverse people up to six times more likely to be autistic — new study. The Conversation. Retrieved 28 November 2022.

Warrier, V., Greenberg, D.M., Weir, E., Buckingham, C., Smith, P., … & Baron-Cohen, S. (2020, August 7). Elevated rates of autism, other neurodevelopmental and psychiatric diagnoses, and autistic traits in transgender and gender-diverse individuals. Nature Communications, 11, 3959. doi:10.1038/s41467-020-17794-1. Retrieved 28 November 2022.

Wilson. A., Ronnekleiv-Kelly, S.M., & Pawlik, T.M. (2017, February 27). Regret in surgical decision making: A systematic review of patient and physician perspectives. World Journal of Surgery, 41, 1454–1465. doi:10.1007/s00268-017-3895-9. Retrieved 28 November 2022.

World Professional Association for Transgender Health, Asian Professional Association for Transgender Health, European Professional Association for Transgender Health, Professional Association for Transgender Health Aotearoa, & United States Professional Association for Transgender Health (2022, November 25). WPATH, AsiaPATH, EPATH, PATHA, and USPATH response to NHS England in the United Kingdom (UK): Statement regarding the interim service specification for the specialist service for children and young people with gender dysphoria (Phase 1 providers) by NHS England. WPATH.org.

Originally published 17 July 2022; migrated to website 24 November 2022.

On or around 30 January 2019, in the Australian Greens Victoria, a paper titled Response to the paper circulated for the Workshop on Trans-Exclusionary Rhetoric (Gale & Vallins, 2019), was circulated by two members of the AGV State Council, Nina Vallins and Linda Gale. The paper is now typically referred to by a shorter title, Contending Views, of unknown provenance (that phrase never appears in the text).

Contending Views has several problems. Here are a few.

---

Content warning

This article includes two direct quotations from allegations of sexual assault.

---

Prologue

Contending Views was a response to discussion and proposals surrounding a motion (“Proposal,” n.d.) which was moved at the AGV State Council that month, which called for a firmer stance against transphobia within the AGV.

The core flaw of Contending Views — not particularly surprisingly, in hindsight — is that while it pays lip service to trans inclusion, at one point saying “women (including trans women),” it makes several assertions which are incomprehensible in that context.

In particular, Contending Views‘ philosophical framework requires that:

1. trans women are not women;
2. trans women are men, or are, at the very least, not presumed innocent of — so to speak — the sins of men.

I will highlight this in instances where it is clear and relevant.

---

#1

… the paper raises these issues [concerning trans-exclusionary rhetoric —Ed.] in a way which will inevitably provoke a vigorous internal debate which might be better addressed after the next¹ Federal Election.

Gale & Vallins (op. cit.)

Off to a running start with this one.

Contending Views does very pointedly make a show of objecting on the grounds of trans-agnostic issues like electoral tactics, State Council protocol, etc. However, most of its content is, in fact, engaging in the very debate that the authors claim to want to have not now, but later.

Consequently, it reads less as, “I am concerned that this debate might genuinely impair the performance of the party at the election,” and more “let’s end this debate— which we’ll do by us having the last word,” and then responding to any objections with “No I WIN! I WIN! I WIN! I WIN—“

#2

If ‘woman’ is a category predicated entirely on a person’s subjective self-identification rather than on an objective, identifiable fact such as biology, what are the policy and practical implications for these hard-won sex-segregated spaces or sex-specific affirmative actions?

Gale & Vallins (op. cit.)

The issue here seems pretty obvious: “woman” (and for that matter, “man”) is already a “category predicated entirely on” subjective identification — just generally by others, not the self. For all practical social intents and purposes, biology does not come into it.

Sure, a man might want to know whether the woman he wants to sleep with has a penis or a vagina. Nowadays, though, society generall and quite rightlyy avoids the thinking that Is she the right kind of woman for me to desire? and Is she the right kind of woman to be a woman? are the same question.

A woman can use gendered amenities, like a women’s toilet, because she says she is a woman and no one disagrees. If her gender is contested, the most invasive verification which is widely considered permitted is asking her to produce ID — which itself is a statement by the government saying they consider her to be a woman.

More invasive means of sex verification — such as groping someone, a violation to which both cis men and cis women regularly subject trans people — would be rightly considered sick and wrong if done to a cis person. It is telling that they only emerge where transphobia exists.

Even in modern history, the fact that your gender is what you say it is has been, verifiably, broadly uncontroversial. “Chicks with dicks” was never a polite, respectful, or — for lack of a better word — politically correct term, but it conceptualised the people it described as chicks, dicks notwithstanding.

This is also the paper’s first instance of “trans women aren’t women”. After all, if the authors believe trans women are women then they should have no problem admitting them to facilities which are for women; it wouldn’t be considered right to deny such admission to a cis woman. As the authors quickly make apparent, they are quite willing to fall down at that first hurdle.

#3

It raises serious practical social policy questions if any person who asserts ‘I am a woman’ is then without question to be granted access to women’s domestic violence shelters, women’s scholarships, and women’s change rooms.

Gale & Vallins (op. cit.)

Well, it might, if anyone were proposing that. Even cis women aren’t let into domestic violence (DV) shelters “without question” based on gender alone — not least because, while it isn’t known to happen anywhere near as often as cis men’s DV against cis women, it’s still entirely possible for a cis woman’s DV assailant to be a cis woman (DVConnect, n.d.).

Admission to DV shelters has always been a matter of judgement by whoever controls admission. The proposition is that since women generally are admitted, women who are trans, being women, should be admitted under the same circumstances under which a cis woman would be admitted.

Scholarships are comparable in that

• they are also access-controlled by an authority with the ability to assess and determine good faith, and that
• trans women, being women, should be able to access them under the same conditions as other women — not “without question”.

The mention of change rooms is a different matter — not factually, but rhetorically. The reference to change rooms conventionally implies physical presence, nudity, and sexual vulnerability — but, of course, cis women are already vulnerable to sexual violence by other cis women in such places. For instance, relevant allegations have been levelled against vocal trans-exterminationist Lily Cade:

Lily Cade assaulted me at my very first Xbiz awards in a bathroom stall directly after assaulting another girl in another bathroom stall.

Summers (2017)

[Cade] assaulted me on a party bus in front of a bunch of porn people. I went along with it so it would stop sooner and be less embarrassing. But she ruined my first exxxotica and i cringe every time i see her

Hill (2017)

It cannot “raise serious practical social policy questions” to admit women to a space for women. If the authors believe that admitting trans women raises such questions then the authors cannot believe that trans women are women. The question is what they believe them to be.

The choice to invoke sexual vulnerability makes the answer pretty clear. Current dominant culture promotes an instinctive understanding that sexual violence is characteristic of men. By implying that allowing trans women in a space puts cis women at risk of sexual violence, the authors imply that trans women are men.

Incidentally, while the other venues mentioned here haven’t been studied, there is no evidence that acknowledging that trans people can use the correct amenities for their gender makes anyone less safe (Barnett et al., 2018). There is, however, plenty of evidence that not acknowledging trans people’s right to use the correct amenities subjects them to more harassment and, indeed, sexual violence (e.g., National Center for Transgender Equality, 2015); this predates Contending Views but I can only assume it didn’t reach the authors.

#4

What does it mean for evidence-based policy if we record acts of violence committed by trans women as violence perpetrated by a female person?

Gale & Vallins (op. cit.)

It means our policy can be based on more accurate evidence, because we acknowledge violence by women as violence by women.

I admittedly find it a bit ironic that I’m reviewing this one, as the daughter of an entirely cis woman with a propensity for domestic battery, violent home invasion, and attempted murder. Women, cis and trans, are morally and often physically equally able to do harm.

This is incidentally obviously another case of “trans women are men”. Violence generally, like sexual violence, is the subject of a (not inaccurate!) dominant-culture understanding that it is usually male. Trans women could only affect “evidence-based policy” by contaminating women’s “evidence base” with a residual male propensity to do harm.

As with the other implications here, I am not aware of any evidence that trans women are more violent than cis women — but I am aware that they are vastly more likely to be made victims (UCLA Williams Institute, 2021).

#5

Should a man who has been convicted and incarcerated for sexual crimes against women be able, by asserting that they are now a woman, to therefore be housed in a female prison?

Gale & Vallins (op. cit.)

This is obviously another case of “trans women are men,” which the use of singular “they” does nothing to blunt — “they” is a word which cis people of all stripes are liable to abruptly discover if the alternative is calling a trans woman “she”.

In this case, the “trans women are men” isn’t entirely in the choice to invoke the (again, for this purpose, characteristically male) “sexual crimes” — it’s also in the deliberate construction of the hypothetical trans woman as simply “a man … asserting that they are now a woman,” reducing her womanhood to nothing more than a series of words.

The answer to the underlying question is, of course — accepting for the sake of argument, and wrongly, that prisons should exist — that prisons that confine women confine cis women even if they committed “sexual crimes”; trans women being women, they should confine them too.

There is incidentally an inline citation in the document at this point to a “prison review” by UK trans-eliminationist group Fair Play for Women (FPFW). The review (Fair Play For Women, 2018) is, to put not too fine a point on it, bullshit, and it doesn’t make any particularly careful attempt to appear not to be.

The short version is that the review asserts trans women are much more violent, and to make its claim, it exploits a quirk in British Ministry of Justice (MoJ) administration meaning that the only trans women whose genders are recorded are those convicted of particularly severe crimes (Harris, 2016).

To be crudely reductive: it’s much as if the MoJ had limited the registration of trans womanhood to prisoners convicted of murder and rape, and then FPFW had claimed 100% of all transfem prisoners were murderers or rapists. What the MoJ actually did, and what FPFW actually claimed, are only slightly diluted versions of this.

#6

Is it OK for lesbian women to prefer that their sexual partners have female anatomy, or is this transphobic and should they be encouraged to welcome sexual relationships with people with penises who identify as women?

Gale & Vallins (op. cit.)

Hoo boy.

Now, to start with, this rather unkindly assumes that cis women can’t get phalloplasty. Personally I think they should be able to if they want.

More seriously, what’s actually going on here is an intentional misrepresentation of the concept of the cotton ceiling. The core of the cotton ceiling concept is: If you find someone romantically and sexually attractive, but then you immediately stop finding them attractive because you found out they were trans, then there may be a degree of prejudice there that you need to examine.

The assertion has never been “… so therefore cis women are obliged to sleep with trans women”. You can’t litigate someone into having to fuck you, and if anyone genuinely thinks you can, then that person is not a safe person in any place, at any time.

Moreover, the fact that the core proposition of the “cotton ceiling” concept is true is immediately clear. For example, I might refuse to sleep with neurodivergent (ND) people on the grounds that they’re all speds² who can’t consent (I’m ND and have been called a sped for it, hence why I picked this example).

If I were this bizarrely ableist person, then nobody would be entitled to force me to sleep with an ND person. However, even if I treated ND people with perfect civility in other ways, my position on romance and sexuality would still clearly be bizarrely ableist. “Cotton ceiling” means no more and no less than this.

Tangentially, TERFs like to claim “cotton” refers to cis women’s panties that trans women are unable to break into. The truth is, as usual with TERFs, the opposite — “cotton” refers to trans women’s panties and the fact that what’s stereotypically in them causes trans women to be defined in ways they are unable to break out of. This becomes really obvious when you consider that the “x ceiling” snowclone describes something which people unsuccessfully try to break through from beneath it, i.e., inside it — compare “service ceiling,” the highest altitude at which a given aircraft is usable. Nobody is trying to get to the glass ceiling from the emergency door on the roof.

The framing here also neatly erases the fact that plenty of lesbian cis women do have sexual and romantic relationships with trans women, who, as women, fall within the normal scope of their attractions. Much as with the few (the proud?) cis women who are violent assailants, the authors require the nonexistence of: those cis lesbians; their relationships; the girlness of their girlfriends.

And, of course, there’s another round of “trans women are not women” — this paragraph describes them as simply “people with penises who identify as women,” which in this case is not just reducing them to words but (that old TERF favourite) reducing them to reproductive organs. Isn’t it ironic, don’t you think (Morissette, 1996)?

#7

Should a beautician be able to specify that she serves a female clientele only, and then be forced to wax the testicles of a person who now identifies as a woman [GenderTrender, 2018]?

Gale & Vallins (op. cit.); citation in source

As the inline citation makes clear, this is a reference to Canadian woman Jessica Yaniv.

Through 2018 and 2019 — relatively recent at the time of Contending Views — Yaniv filed 15 complaints of anti-trans discrimination with the Human Rights Tribunal of the Canadian province of British Columbia, naming various beauty practitioners who, or whose staff, were not trained to wax her testicles, and accordingly refused (Larsen, 2019).

The issue is, of course, that Yaniv cannot be legitimately treated as representative for one very simple reason: she didn’t actually want her genitals waxed. The tribunal found — in my opinion credibly — that Yaniv was looking for an excuse to litigate, for cruel amusement and financial gain (Little, 2019; Macnab, 2019; Stueck, 2019).

Moreover, Yaniv, as well as a manipulative sadist, was a racist and arguably a fascist; her targets were all of Indian origin. This appears to be because she agreed with a variant form of the Great Replacement conspiracy theory; while the Anglophone classical form of Great Replacement theory blames Jews (Jones D., 2022), Yaniv appeared to blame Indian people as well, or instead (Wakefield, 2019).

Beyond all of our laws and conventions, society unavoidably operates on a degree of good faith. There is no way to construct a hard-and-fast rule such that someone who wanted to abuse it could never find a way to do so. Yaniv wanted to do so.

We are going to eventually need to hammer out a solid logic allowing trans women with penises to get genital waxing services under the same circumstances where it is allowable for other women (e.g., cis women, and trans women with vaginas) and other people with penises (e.g., cis men and some nonbinary people). It’s not priority 1 on the trans agenda, but it’s in there.

In the meantime, however, if a sadistic racist trans women decides to harm racialised people, the problem is not that she’s a trans woman, it’s that she’s a sadistic racist. Fair enough though — the curse of being a TERF is, as many have observed (Clifton, 2021; Lavin, 2021; Doyle, 2022; etc.), you’re not allowed to condemn sadistic racists because they make up too many of your core constituents.

#8

Should doctors refrain from inquiring as to a person’s sex, even though we know that people experience some diseases differently depending on their biological sex, and respond differently to some pharmaceuticals?

Gale & Vallins (op. cit.)

This is my wheelhouse, so I’m gonna help myself to the wheel.

“Biological sex” insofar as it is relevant to disease experiences and drug response is not a monolith. For instance, an archetypal trans woman has an endocrine system in which the dominant sex hormone(s) are estrogen and possibly progesterone with minimal testosterone (e.g., Hembree et al., 2017; Cheung et al., 2019), one result of which is that she likely has relatively prominent breasts. For all but an infinitesimal proportion of cis men (Shulman et al., 2008; Shozu et al., 2014), these things are not both (or all) true.

For these reasons, trans women broadly have a lifetime risk of breast cancer which is closer to that of cis women than cis men — for every 10 cis women who develop breast cancer, about 4 trans women will develop it, but for every 1 cis man who develops breast cancer, about 46 trans women will develop it (de Blok et al., 2019). Indeed, this specific fact is currently used as an excuse to deny trans women progesterone (Prior, 2019), and has historically been used as an excuse to deny them any hormones at all — for a broader discussion of this kind of thinking and its impact, see Nelson (2019).

On the other hand, a trans woman has a prostate and therefore has a vanishingly small (but non-zero!) chance of developing cancer in it (Ingham et al., 2018). This would seem to be a slam-dunk in favour of the Trans Women as Essentially Men thesis … except that cis women also have prostates — historically euphemistically referred to as the Skene’s gland — and are fully capable of developing cancer in them (Dodson et al., 1994).

Similarly, there are many congenital disorders which have a much higher clinically visible prevalence (i.e., are much more often severe enough for you to know they’re there) in one assigned-sex group (typically, they are much more often clinically observable in cis women than cis men).

The thing is that trans people switch over as they transition. For example, sex hormones including estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone are known to influence the symptomatic severity of Ehlers–Danlos syndrome/s (EDS), by causing changes in ligament laxity, chance of and healing of muscle injuries, etc. (Gensemer et al., 2021).

The nature of the influence is such that people with estrogen/progesterone-dominant endocrine systems seemingly tend to have worse EDS, and, accordingly, among cis people, cis women are more frequently diagnosed with it at a ratio of about 4 cis women to every 1 cis man (Castori et al., 2010; Hermanns-Lê et al., 2016; etc.).

One small case series (Boris et al., 2019) and a mountain of community-sourced anecdotal evidence indicates that HRT does indeed worsen or improve EDS and related complex chronic illnesses, depending on which HRT is taken; the evidence (ibid.) and community reports suggest that masculinising HRT makes it better, and community reports suggest that feminising HRT makes it worse.

Along the same lines, migraine is sex-linked; thus, as Jones Z. (2021) notes, as the “sex-determining” characteristics of trans women’s bodies change — in effect, as their sex changes — they develop a correspondingly greater propensity to migraine.

I can personally verify that both of these things are true because the hypothetical overly flexible transmigraineuse of the previous two paragraphs is me, which is why I picked those conditions to examine here. I’m definitely not the only one; at least one study (n = 1,363) suggests that the prevalence of EDS among trans people is more than 100× (!!!) that in the general population (Najafian et al., 2022). In the end, the reality is obviously that:

1. doctors do need to know about a trans person’s traditionally “sexed” characteristics;
2. the trans person is going to tell them that because it’s necessary to do so in order to get well, and suffering fucking sucks;
3. this has zero impact on whether that trans person is the man, woman, etc., that they in fact are.

#9

It is essential that we support trans women to have safe spaces which address the violence they experience while still allowing women to have their own safe spaces.

Gale & Vallins (op. cit.)

Which trans women will also be allowed into, right, because the authors recognise that trans women are women, right? … What’s that chirping noise?

This is separate-but-equal rhetoric, which, as hegemonic white supremacy made clear at Black people’s expense throughout the first half of the 20th century, is nothing more than a way to force marginalised people into facilities which are nowhere near equal, if they exist at all.

Being trans is not comparable to being Black. However, similarly-motivated and similarly-structured anti-minoritarian thinking, from many of the same authorities, underpins the authors’ rhetoric. It also underpins actions like the FINA, British Triathlon, etc., “open” category push which was current at the initial publication of this article (Evans, 2022; Ingle, 2022; George, 2022): it’s a way to force trans people to fuck off out of public life, while finding a convenient pretext to avoid accepting any blame for having forced that.

#10

Both trans women and women deserve to be safe; but in a world in which women’s concerns have been designated inferior to men’s for many centuries, we should not easily give up sex-specific spaces and opportunities for women.

Gale & Vallins (op. cit.)

And as the authors recognise that trans women are women, they shouldn’t have to give up sex-specific spaces and opportunities for women either, right?

Of course, in appealing implicitly to the scarcity of “sex-specific spaces and opportunities,” the authors also conveniently elide the fact that trans men exist, and about as many of them in absolute terms want to transition as do trans women (Leinung & Joseph, 2020), which should neatly balance out any transfem-related addition to demand.

There’s no really viable argument here that trans women being able to access these facilities somehow makes cis women less able to do so. However much digging one does, the only throughline here that one can dig up is that trans women have a “male essence” that means they deserve those opportunities less.

#11

If women are now no longer able to publicly acknowledge that an adult human male is a man, …

Yardley (2018), quoted in Gale & Vallins (op. cit.)

Oh well, so much for “women (including trans women),” mask predictably all the way off,⁴ yada yada (I don’t have enough energy right now to feign surprise).

#12

… this takes away from women the ability to describe their own lived lives:

Yardley (op. cit.), quoted in Gale & Vallins (op. cit.)

It’s not clear how a cis woman is less able to describe her own life if she is expected to acknowledge that another woman is a woman.

#13

… they can no longer use meaningful language to describe their interactions with members of the dominant sex class:

Yardley (op. cit.), quoted in Gale & Vallins (op. cit.)

This is interesting. Obviously the argument here is that:

• “man” and “woman” are “sex classes” (we’ll go with it);
• “man” is the dominant sex class;
• trans women are men;
• thus, including trans women in the class “woman” prevents that class from being rigorously defined and makes it meaningless.

We do know men are given dominance in society, but the question here is why. Is it their physiology? Is it their testosterone, their muscle mass? If so, it’s difficult to see how trans women can inherit that dominance when they generally have the same amount of testosterone as cis women (Hembree et al., op. cit.), and cis-female-range proportions of lean and fat mass and muscle when controlling for height (Nokoff et al., 2019).

The other obvious possibility is that it’s socioeconomic dominance, but it’s difficult to see how. Cis women are famously paid almost 20% less than cis men (Vandenbroek, 2020) — but trans people are paid even less than that, with trans women paid least of all (Wareham, 2021).

Cis women are discriminated against in employment. Statistically they appear to be less discriminated against than trans people, and there are laws against discriminating against women — there was a whole movie about this! — whose applicability to cis women has never been contested since their enactment.

Meanwhile, trans people can often legally be fired specifically for being trans; as Gillespie (2022) notes, the Anti-Discrimination Act 1991 (Qld) s 28(1)(b) explicitly allows employment discrimination against trans people engaged in “the care or instruction of minors” because the “physical, psychological or emotional wellbeing of [those] minors” might be endangered by the mere fact that the person is trans.

The only way this societal “dominance” can somehow attach to trans women is by making a magical, metaphysical claim about their essence. Sure, they might be socioeconomically subordinate in every respect that cis women are, and some extra ones for the road, but they have an indelibly dominant inborn magical sex spirit, so dominant they must be.

#14

Women lose the language and ability to describe themselves even as women;

Yardley (op. cit.), quoted in Gale & Vallins (op. cit.)

This would be slightly more effective in context if Gale & Vallins, who included this quote, hadn’t described themselves as women in literally the paragraph prior to the beginning of the quote. After all, you can only give up something you have possession of, and:

… we should not easily give up sex-specific spaces and opportunities for women.

Gale & Vallins (op. cit.)

It seems pretty clear that there is no case here to answer.

#15

Women lose the language, right and ability to describe the perpetrators and acts of sexual violence;

Yardley (op. cit), quoted in Gale & Vallins (op. cit.)

It’s unclear how having to describe a sexually violent trans woman as a woman takes away the ability to describe her — unless you believe that being a woman and being sexually violent are fundamentally incompatible, i.e., you believe that women cannot commit sexual violence.

While sexual violence by cis women, as a category of acts, happens nowhere near as often and is nowhere near as systematic as the patriarchal sexual violence enacted by cis men, it demonstrably does happen (Stemple & Meyer, 2017). This line of argument needs it to be existentially impossible: to have never happened, not once, ever. This is clearly untrue and therefore unviable.

#16

Women lose the right to challenge the sexual enslavement and exploitation of members of their own sex class.

Yardley (op. cit.), quoted in Gale & Vallins (op. cit.)

Oh, cool, trans exclusion and vaguely coded sex worker exclusion in the same strike. Spinifex Press would be proud.

Sex work is work, and continues to exist despite millennia of attempts to squash it. It’s criminalised and therefore marginalised work, but all that that actually achieves is denying safeguards, options, and justice to those engaged in it (Global Network of Sex Work Projects, 2017). Sex work can become enslavement and exploitation because its being pushed to the margins means society can pretend not to see it, and therefore pretend they don’t notice what happens to those engaged in it (Vanwesenbeeck, 2017).

The fact is that regardless of their own views on the morality of the abstract concept of sex work, or of how it exists in reality, many people end up having to do sex work anyway. Due to their economic marginalisation, trans people — very much including trans women (Mock, 2014; Logie et al., 2017; Fisher et al., 2021)! — are among those people. If, by quoting Yardley, the authors are indicating they won’t advocate for sex workers because the ranks of sex workers include trans women … well, that’s on them.

#17

We are in a world of proscribed truth and compelled thought. Whatever your political stance, this should strike you cold with terror.

Yardley (op. cit.), quoted in Gale & Vallins (op. cit.)

This is transparently not even vaguely true. Trans advocacy doesn’t make claims on “truth” or “thought”; it seeks material action. The fact that trans men are men and trans women are men, which has been validated by every test science has applied, justifies trans advocacy. However, the point of that advocacy isn’t to impose belief in that fact; it’s to get you to stop being a horrible little bastard to trans people.

This was, however, 2019, and this argument was new in this country back then so I suppose I can’t fault the authors for being fashion forward. Before them, the most recent people to argue it were Katter’s Australian Party (Hirst, 2018), who very obviously got it from Jordan Peterson (Beauchamp, 2018). Nominal eco-liberals and social-democrats borrowing from the open Christofascists of the KAP — does this prove horseshoe theory correct at last … ?

#18

Further, it is a central tenet of much feminist theory that the very concept of gender is harmful and should be rejected in its entirety.

Gale & Vallins (op. cit.)

This is a neat little bit of sleight-of-hand designed to slip past the theoretical knowledge of the informed feminist reader.

The “feminist theory” to which the authors refer is the mainline second-wave radical feminism of which TERFism is a mutation, in which gender is what the authors call “assumptions about … gender characteristics attributed to [one’s] … sex”.

The authors, however — and the TERF tendency in general — perform a magic trick by pretending that this is the same thing that trans people mean when they discuss gender, when what trans people mean is approximately “the state of being a man, a woman, or of another gender”.

In short, the authors are pretending that when a trans woman says she’s a woman, she’s actually expressing the view that all women are housewives or supermodels or what have you, and asserting that she’s one of those — when she is in fact just pointing out that she’s a woman. Trans readers may very well be particularly nettled by this, since they know that when a trans woman isn’t a supermodel housewife, these same TERFs use precisely that to pretend she’s not a woman.

#19

In this context, we should be able to challenge the choices of many women (including trans women) to present themselves in highly ‘feminised’ (gendered) ways.

Gale & Vallins (op. cit.)

In the first place, this is blatantly just leveraging stereotypes about trans women, namely that they’re all unconvincing patriarchal caricatures of traditionalist hyperfemininity — think Emily Howard from Little Britain (Plowman & Moore, 2003–2006): “I’m a lady!”.

In reality, trans women just present themselves like other women. There is, however, a kernel of truth here, albeit a distorted and mirrored one: trans women are subjected to an enforced expectation of hyperfemininity, but the people enforcing that expectation are those who ideologically agree with the authors of this letter.

In the second place, this is directly antithetical to the bodily autonomy which is an essential underpinning of feminist and leftist politics (Perry, 2017; Letzing, 2022). Why should Gale & Vallins be able to “challenge the choices of” any woman “to present [herself]” in any way? It’s not their fucking body.

#20

If the purpose of this workshop is to develop a proposal for a Sate Council decree that statements such as ‘There are two sexes,’ ‘The science is not conclusive,’ ‘This is an active debate in feminism,’ ‘Shutting down debate is censorship,’ or ‘Trans women aren’t the same as biological women,’ are banned within the Greens and would constitute behaviour worthy of censure, suspension or expulsion, this is totally contrary to a Greens ethos which encourages robust debate and the development of policy based on real evidence.

Gale & Vallins (op. cit.)

“There are two sexes” is not “based on real evidence”. Sex is a bimodal distribution; it has two peaks that it slopes up to. The fact that most people fit on the slopes of one of those peaks isn’t contested. This doesn’t mean — as the proposition “there are two sexes” requires — that every other contour on the map is flattened out (Novella, 2022).

Even if trans people didn’t exist, if you think that sex is a clean binary, and that intersex people are deviations from that binary, then you can’t adequately serve intersex people who know themselves to be complete and not deviating from anything at all; you can’t respect them for who they actually are (McDonough, 2022).

There’s no good reason to say “the science is not conclusive,” because good science can never be completely, eternally, invincibly conclusive; it always has to be open to change. The function of saying “the science is not conclusive” is to say that action can’t be taken because a specific point does not have literal 100% agreement, knowing full well that it is bound to never rise above 99.999…%.

In reality, action is justified if a consensus exists that it should be taken. Given that the authors were AGV State Councillors at the time, I — a former Queensland Greens State Council delegate myself — suspect they were very familiar with that principle indeed; Greens decision-making is extremely heavily consensus-based.

Despite attempts to rig it, such as Lisa Littman’s 2018 paper which spuriously proposed a “rapid-onset gender dysphoria” that was essentially “transgender because it’s cool” (Littman, 2018) — later shown at length to be complete bullshit (Bauer et al., 2021; Turban et al., 2022) — consensus exists on the proper treatment and accommodation of trans people to a degree which almost no other topic enjoys, with 93% of primary research publications between 1991 and June 2017 finding that transition improves well-being, and 0% finding that it causes harm (What We Know Project, 2018). The scientific consensus on human-caused climate change, which is a couple of points ahead at >99% (Lynas et al., 2021), is the only other well-known field of scientific endeavour whose core question has been so firmly answered.

In asserting that it’s valuable to say “the science is not conclusive” and it should not be a forbidden thing to say, here is what the authors are communicating: you must defer action which is supported by all of the evidence, because at some point in the future, an additional piece of evidence might be added that would cause the sum of human knowledge to pull a 180°. This is clearly ludicrous and not worth bothering with.

“This is an active debate in feminism”? Objectively it is not. TERFism is a residue of the second wave of feminism. Modern third- and fourth-wave feminism have consistently considered trans liberation to be integral to the feminist movement (Grady, 2018).

There could not be a more telling sign of this than that the very same “feminists” who represent the authors’ views have opted to cling onto existence by selling any legitimacy to groups like the Australian Christian Lobby (“Radical feminists … ?”, 2017) and the Heritage Foundation (Fitzsimons, 2019), which make absolutely no bones about considering the whole feminist movement their enemy (Shields, 2014; Whitehall, 2018; Iles, 2020; Hafera, 2021).

“Shutting down debate is censorship” is an old chestnut, the only purpose of which is to make it okay to incessantly and in bad faith invite someone to engage in debate and make free inferences if they refuse. It’s designed to normalise bombarding people, talking over them, and wearing them down; it’s not designed to make it any easier to seek the truth.

“Trans women aren’t the same as biological women” … well, trans women are biological women, so jot that down. Trans women aren’t the same as cis women, though, and nobody’s ever asserted that they are; simply that they are women, which they are.

This, more than anything else, illustrates that the authors both have no genuine commitment to debate and are fully aware that they don’t. This is noticeable because it’s a response to an element in the original motion: “Trans women aren’t the same as cis women”. We’ll come back to this in a sec.

When discussing legitimate debate, insofar as that’s a thing, we talk about “the terms of the debate,” like “the terms of an agreement,” because any actual debate has to be conducted on a common set of terms. Any debate not conducted in that way is posturing followed eventually by random noise.

The term “cis women” acknowledges cis women and trans women on an equal footing, and thus equally entitled to negotiate the terms on which debate should take place. This enables the debate to be a dialectic: a dialogue with the objective of finding truth.

The term “biological woman” is an appeal to a subset of essentialism known as biologism. Essentialism asserts that entities, usually people, are different from each other because of a difference in what they fundamentally, metaphysically, essentially are — a difference in their essences. Gender essentialism is the assertion of such a difference between, typically, (all) men and (all) women (Abrams, 2020).

Historically, while belief in a physically existing soul remained widespread — up to and even after the development of the modern scientific method in its basic form — scientists and other professionals charged with truth-seeking tried to find the physical soul, e.g., by looking for changes in body mass on death (MacDougall, 1907). They also tried to find its seat, the physical place in the body where it resided; for instance, Leonardo da Vinci hypothesised, quite sensibly given what was known, that it was in the optic chiasm, the junction of the optic nerves (Santoro et al., 2009).

One school of essentialist claims amounts to “finding the seat of the soul,” but for “soul” substitute the “essence” of whatever difference is at issue. Biologism is the faction of that school which locates the essence in the “biology” (typically not more specifically defined, at least not in any rigorous way). Gender-essentialist biologism asserts that cis women have the Female Biology, they carry the Female Essence, and that makes them the Real Women (Grosz, 1989). It establishes a hierarchy of womanhood legitimacy, with trans women all the way at the bottom.

This makes it impossible to have a debate which seeks truth, because Alice can’t advance or refine her position through “legitimate debate” with Bob when Bob believes that the mere fact that Alice holds that position means that Alice by definition does not have a legitimate right to debate.

A second ago we noted that the authors were responding to a line in the original motion. However, they also changed it, deleting the original “cis women” and substituting “biological women”. Their belief that their opponents had no legitimate standing to debate them was so strong that they felt free to literally reword a direct quote — they considered themselves legitimately able to define what their opponents’ position was, to the point of overriding those opponents themselves.

There is no reason to believe that truth-seeking debate would ever have been possible here — and none to believe that Gale or Vallins wanted it.

Closing

This article took me hours to write as a Twitter thread, and a couple of days to redraft as a WordPress post. It was one of the longer pieces I’d written, because it was one of the more conceptually dense works I’d had to analyse. Conceptual density is fine here — the authors were writing in the context of party internal politics, meaning they knew that baseline knowledge and acceptance of certain concepts was a given and that their audience spoke or at least understood their language.

The conceptual density and specialised language gives the impression, however, that this is somehow intellectually, discursively, of a better or higher quality than any of the News Corp or Ninefax op-eds which even at that time had already reared their ugly heads. It didn’t. It made it more of a pain in the arse to pull apart, but it didn’t make it any closer to being right.

---

Footnotes

1. The 2019 federal election, the date of which hadn’t been confirmed when Contending Views was written (see Fernando & Palin, 2019).
2. An insulting term for neurodivergent people, a portmanteau of “special education”.
3. “An excuse” because it’s spurious — “limited epidemiologic data generally do not show an association of circulating progesterone levels with risk” (Trabert et al., 2019).
4. This was early 2019 so, on further reflection, it may not be fair to criticise their less-than-ideal mask discipline.

---

If this article was in any way useful to you, please consider supporting me on Ko-fi, on Patreon, or by PayPal.

---

References

Abrams, M. (2020, January 27). Gender essentialism is flawed — here’s why (J. Brito, Ed.). Healthline. Retrieed 24 November 2022.

Barnhart, T. (2021, February 11). Anti-transgender activist quoted by BBC calls for trans women to be ‘lynched’. Newsweek. Retrieved 12 November 2022.

Barnett, B.S., Nesbit, A.E., & Sorrentino, R.M. (2018, June). The transgender bathroom debate at the intersection of politics, law, ethics, and science. Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, 46(2), 232–241. doi:10.29158/JAAPL.003761-18. Retrieved 12 November 2022.

Bauer, G.R., Lawson, M.L., & Metzger, D.L. (2021, November 15). Do clinical data from transgender adolescents support the phenomenon of “rapid onset gender dysphoria”?. The Journal of Pediatrics, 243, 224–227.e2. doi:10.1016/j.jpeds.2021.11.020. Retrieved 24 November 2022.

Beauchamp, Z. (2018, May 21). Jordan Peterson, the obscure Canadian psychologist turned right-wing celebrity, explained. Vox. Retrieved 24 November 2022.

Boris, J.R., McClain, Z.B.R., & Bernadzikowski, T. (2019, November 20). Clinical course of transgender adolescents with complicated postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome undergoing hormonal therapy in gender transition: A case series. Transgender Health, 4(1), 331–334. doi:10.1089/trgh.2019.0041. Retrieved 24 November 2022.

Castori, M., Camerota, F., Celletti, C., Grammatico, P., & Padua, L. (2010, August 3). Ehlers–Danlos syndrome hypermobility type and the excess of affected females: Possible mechanisms and perspectives. American Journal of Medical Genetics Part A, 152A(9), 2406–2408. doi:10.1002/ajmg.a.33585. Retrieved 24 November 2022.

Cheung, A.S., Wynne, K., Erasmus, J., Murray, S., & Zajac, J.D. (2019, July 4). Position statement on the hormonal management of adult transgender and gender diverse individuals. Medical Journal of Australia, 211(3), 127–133. doi:10.5694/mja2.50259. Retrieved 24 November 2022.

Clifton, D. (2021, March 31). Anti-trans sports bills aren’t just transphobic — they’re racist, too. them. Retrieved 24 November 2022.

de Blok, C.J.M., Wiepjes, C.M., Nota, N.M., van Engelen, K., Adank, M.A., … & den Heijer, M. (2019, March 27). Breast cancer risk in transgender people receiving hormone treatment: nationwide cohort study in the Netherlands. BMJ, 365, l1652. doi:10.1136/bmj.l1652. Retrieved 24 November 2022.

Dodson, M.K., Cliby, W.A., Keeney, G.L., Peterson, M.F., & Podritz, K.C. (1994, November 1). Skene’s gland adenocarcinoma with increased serum level of prostate-specific antigen. Gynecologic Oncology, 55(2), 304–307. doi:10.1006/gyno.1994.1294. Retrieved 12 November 2022.

Doyle, J.E.S. (2022, April 1). How the far-right is turning feminists into fascists. Xtra. Retrieved 24 November 2022.

DVConnect (n.d.). About women’s shelters. Retrieved 12 November 2022.

Evans, S. (2022, June 23). ‘Open category’ proposal faces questions over fairness and viability. Reuters. Retrieved 24 November 2022.

Fair Play For Women (2018, December 13). After Karen White: What is the government doing to make sure women in prison never get attacked by a male inmate ever again?. Retrieved 23 November 2022.

Fernando, G., & Palin, M. (2019, April 15). Federal election 2019: Prime Minister Scott Morrison confirms May 18 election date. news.com.au. Retrieved 12 November 2022.

Fisher, M.R., Turner, C., McFarland, W., Breslow, A.S., Wilson, E.C., & Arayasirikul, S. (2021, December 14). Through a different lens: Occupational health of sex-working young trans women. Transgender Health, ahead of print. doi:10.1089/trgh.2021.0109. Retrieved 24 November 2022.

Fitzgerald, E., Patterson, S.E., Hickey, D., Biko, C., & Tobin, H.J. (2015, December). Meaningful work: Transgender experiences in the sex trade — With new analysis from the National Transgender Discrimination Survey. Best Practices Policy Project; National Center for Transgender Equality; Red Umbrella Project. Retrieved 12 November 2022.

Fitzsimons, T. (2019, January 30). Conservative group hosts anti-transgender panel of feminists ‘from the left’. NBC News. Retrieved 24 November 2022.

Gale, L., & Vallins, N. (2019, January 30). Response to the paper circulated for the Workshop on Trans-Exclusionary Rhetoric. Retrieved 12 November 2022.

GenderTrender (2018, November 8). Can’t take no for an answer: [Jessica] Yaniv files 16 Human Rights complaints against women who don’t want to wax [her] balls. Archive Today. Retrieved 23 November 2022.

Gensemer, C., Burks, R., Kautz, S., Judge, D.P., Lavallee, M., & Norris, R.A. (2021, March 2). Hypermobile Ehlers–Danlos syndromes: Complex phenotypes, challenging diagnoses, and poorly understood causes. Developmental Dynamics, 250(3), 318–344. doi:10.1002/dvdy.220. Retrieved 24 November 2022.

George, Z. (2022, July 31). Transgender participation in sport: Are ‘open’ categories a solution?. Stuff. Retrieved 24 November 2022.

Gillespie, E. (2022, June 3). Working with children: discrimination against trans people in Queensland must end, advocates say. The Guardian. Retrieved 12 November 2022.

Global Network of Sex Work Projects (2017, November 30). Policy brief: The impact of criminalisation on sex workers’ vulnerability to HIV and violence. Retrieved 24 November 2022.

Grady, C. (2018, July 20). The waves of feminism, and why people keep fighting over them, explained. Vox. Retrieved 24 November 2022.

Grosz, E. (1989). Sexual difference and the problem of essentialism. In J. Clifford & V. Dhareshwar (Eds.), Inscriptions, vol. 5: Traveling theories, traveling theorists. Center for Cultural Studies, University of California, Santa Cruz.

Hafera, B. (2021, October 20). Feminism: An elite ideology. The Heritage Foundation (via Archive Today). Retrieved 24 November 2022.

Harris, M. (2016, November 17). British prisons must now recognise gender fluid and non-binary inmates. The Conversation. Retrieved 23 November 2022.

Hermanns-Lê, T., Piérard, G.E., Manicourt, D., & Piérard-Franchimont, C. (2016, March 24). Clinical and ultrastructural skin alterations in the Ehlers–Danlos syndrome, hypermobility type. Dermatology Open Journal, 1(1), 22–26. doi:10.17140/DRMTOJ-1-107. Retrieved 24 November 2022.

Hembree, W.C., Cohen-Kettenis, P.T., Gooren, L., Hannema, S.E., Meyer, W.J., … & T’Sjoen, G.G. (2017, September 13). Endocrine treatment of gender-dysphoric/gender-incongruent persons: An Endocrine Society clinical practice guideline. The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, 102(11), 3869–3903. doi:10.1210/jc.2017-01658. Retrieved 24 November 2022.

Hill, M. [@xxxmaren] (2017, November 21). She assaulted me on a party bus in front of a bunch of porn people. I went along with it … [Tweet]. Twitter (via Archive Today). Retrieved 23 November 2022.

Hirst, J. (2018, December 4). Rob Katter’s gender bill ‘would put trans Queenslanders at risk’. QNews. Retrieved 24 November 2022.

Iles, M. (2020, February 18). The Today show mocks mothers … . Australian Christian Lobby (via Archive Today).

Ingham, M.D., Lee, R.J., MacDermed, D., & Olumi, A.F. (2018, December). Prostate cancer in transgender women. Urologic Oncology: Seminars and Original Investigations, 36(12), 518–525. doi:10.1016/j.urolonc.2018.09.011. Retrieved 24 November 2022.

Ingle, S. (2022, July 6). British Triathlon creates ‘open’ category for transgender athletes to compete at all levels. The Guardian. Retrieved 24 November 2022.

Jones, D. (2022, May 16). What is the ‘great replacement’ and how is it tied to the Buffalo shooting suspect?. NPR. Retrieved 24 November 2022.

Jones, O. [@OwenJones84] (2021a, November 3). This is a genuinely major journalistic scandal. One of the main sources in the BBC article portraying trans women as potential … [Tweet]. Twitter (via Archive Today). Retrieved 12 November 2022.

Jones, O. [@OwenJones84] (2021b, November 3). It gets worse. The BBC article claimed other trans women didn’t want to speak to them – but not only did … [Tweet]. Twitter (via Archive Today). Retrieved 12 November 2022.

Jones, O. [@OwenJones84] (2021c, November 3). It gets worse and worse / Lily Cade is the only named source in a BBC article promoting the idea trans … [Tweet]. Twitter (via Archive Today). Retrieved 12 November 2022.

Jones, Z. (2021, March 31). Additional details on the connection between transgender HRT and migraine headache patterns. Gender Analysis with Zinnia Jones. Retrieved 12 November 2022.

Larsen, K. (2019, October 22). Estheticians don’t have to wax male genitalia against their will, B.C. tribunal rules. CBC News. Retrieved 23 November 2022.

Lavin, T. (2021, August 18). Why transphobia is at the heart of the white power movement. The Nation. Retrieved 24 November 2022.

Leinung, M.C., & Joseph, J. (2020, December 11). Changing demographics in transgender individuals seeking hormonal therapy: Are trans women more common than trans men?. Transgender Health, 5(4), 241–245. doi:10.1089/trgh.2019.0070. Retrieved 24 November 2022.

Letzing, J. (2022, March 10). What is women’s ‘bodily autonomy’ and why does it matter for everyone?. World Economic Forum. Retrieved 24 November 2022.

Little, S. (2019, October 22). Transgender woman denied waxing of male genitals wasn’t discriminated against: Tribunal. Global News. Retrieved 23 November 2022.

Littman, L. (2018, August 16). Parent reports of adolescents and young adults perceived to show signs of a rapid onset of gender dysphoria (D. Romer, Ed.). PLoS ONE, 13(8), e0202330. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0202330.

Logie, C.H., Wang, Y., Lacombe-Duncan, A., Jones, N., Ahmed, U., … & Newman, P.A. (2017, January 1). Factors associated with sex work involvement among transgender women in Jamaica: a cross-sectional study. Journal of the International AIDS Society, 20(1), 21422. doi:10.7448/IAS.20.01/21422. Retrieved 24 November 2022.

Lynas, M., Houlton, B.Z., & Perry, S. (2021, October 19). Greater than 99% consensus on human caused climate change in the peer-reviewed scientific literature. Environmental Research Letters, 16(11), 114005. doi:10.1088/1748-9326/ac2966. Retrieved 24 November 2022.

MacDougall, D. (1907, April). Hypothesis concerning soul substance together with experimental evidence of the existence of such substance. American Medicine, 2(4), 240–243. Retrieved 24 November 2022.

Macnab, A. (2019, November 5). B.C. Brazilian waxing case a step backward for trans human rights cases, says lawyer. Canadian Lawyer. Retrieved 23 November 2022.

McDonough, M. (2022, August 24). How medicine’s fixation on the sex binary harms intersex people. Scientific American. Retrieved 24 November 2022.

Mock, J. (2014, January 30). Sex workers matter: Sharing my own complicated experience. Retrieved 24 November 2022.

Morisette, A.N. (1996, February 27). Ironic [Song]. On Jagged little pill. Maverick; Warner Bros. Records, Inc.

Najafian, A., Cylinder, I., Jedrzejewski, B., Sineath, C., Sikora, Z., … & Berli, J.U. (2022, May 13). Ehlers–Danlos syndrome: prevalence and outcomes in gender affirming surgery — a single institution experience. Plastic and Aesthetic Research, 9, 35. doi:10.20517/2347-9264.2021.89. Retrieved 24 November 2022.

National Center for Transgender Equality (2016, December). The report of the 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey: Executive summary. Retrieved 12 November 2022.

Nelson, B. (2019, August 7). Troubling blind spots in understanding cancer risks among transgender patients. Cancer Cytopathology, 127(8), 487–488. doi:10.1002/cncy.22168. Retrieved 24 November 2022.

Nokoff, N.J., Scarbro, S.L., Moreau, K.L., Zeitler, P., Nadeau, K.J., … & Kelsey, M.M. (2019, September 23). Body composition and markers of cardiometabolic health in transgender youth compared with cisgender youth. The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, 105(3), e704–e714. doi:10.1210/clinem/dgz029. Retrieved 24 November 2022.

Novella, S. (2022, July 13). The science of biological sex. Science-Based Medicine. Retrieved 24 November 2022.

Perry, D.M. (2017, September 13). My body, my choice: Why the principle of bodily autonomy can unite the left. The Nation. Retrieved 24 November 2022.

Plowman, J., & Moore, M. (Executive producers). (2003–2006). Little Britain [TV series]. British Broadcasting Corporation.

Prior, J.C. (2019, January 3). Progesterone is important for transgender women’s therapy—applying evidence for the benefits of progesterone in ciswomen. The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, Volume 104(4), 1181–1186. doi:10.1210/jc.2018-01777. Retrieved 24 November 2022.

Proposal [Australian Greens Victoria State Council motion] (n.d.). Retrieved 12 November 2022.

Radical feminists for the Australian Christian Lobby? (2017, February 3). Crikey. Retrieved 24 November 2022.

Santoro, G., Wood, M.D., Merlo, L., Anastasi, G.P., Tomasello, F., & Germanò, A. (2009, October). The anatomic location of the soul from the heart, through the brain, to the whole body, and beyond: A journey through Western history, science, and philosophy. Neurosurgery, 65(4), 633–643. doi:10.1227/01.NEU.0000349750.22332.6A. Retrieved 24 November 2022.

Shields, M. (2014, April 7). Women from Heritage Foundation have wrong argument against feminism, women’s happiness. The Daily Orange. Retrieved 24 November 2022.

Shozu, M., Fukami, M., & Ogata, T. (2014, June 9). Understanding the pathological manifestations of aromatase excess syndrome: lessons for clinical diagnosis. Expert Review of Endocrinology & Metabolism, 9(4), 397–409. doi:10.1586/17446651.2014.926810. Retrieved 24 November 2022.

Shulman, D.I., Francis, G.L., Palmert, M.R., & Eugster, E.A. (2008, April 1). Use of aromatase inhibitors in children and adolescents with disorders of growth and adolescent development. Pediatrics, 121(4), e975–e983. doi:10.1542/peds.2007-2081. Retrieved 24 November 2022.

Stemple, L., & Meyer, I.H. (2017, October 10). Sexual victimization by women is more common than previously known. Scientific American. Retrieved 24 November 2022.

Stueck, W. (2019, October 22). B.C. Human Rights Tribunal rejects transgender woman’s discrimination claim over waxing services. The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 23 November 2022.

Summers, J. [@JustJasminexxx] (2017, November 20). Lily Cade assaulted me at my very first Xbiz awards in a bathroom stall directly after assaulting another girl in … [Tweet]. Twitter (via Archive Today). Retrieved 23 November 2022.

Trabert, B., Sherman, E., Kannan, N., & Stanczyk, F.Z. (2019, May 2). Progesterone and breast cancer. Endocrine Reviews, 41(2), 320–344. doi:10.1210/endrev/bnz001. Retrieved 24 November 2022.

Turban, J.L., Dolotina, B., King, D., & Keuroghlian, A.S. (2022, August 3). Sex assigned at birth ratio among transgender and gender diverse adolescents in the United States. Pediatrics, 150(3), e2022056567. doi:10.1542/peds.2022-056567. Retrieved 24 November 2022.

UCLA Williams Institute on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Law and Public Policy (2021, March 23). Transgender people over four times more likely than cisgender people to be victims of violent crime [Press release]. University of California, Los Angeles. Retrieved 12 November 2022.

Vandenbroek, P. (2020, November 16). Gender wage gap statistics: A quick guide. Statistics and Mapping Section, Parliamentary Library of Australia. Retrieved 24 November 2022.

Vanwesenbeeck, I. (2017, June 5). Sex work criminalization is barking up the wrong tree. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 46, 1631–1640. doi:10.1007/s10508-017-1008-3. Retrieved 24 November 2022.

Wakefield, L. (2019, July 31). Trans woman denied ‘gender-affirming’ services files human rights complaints. PinkNews. Retrieved 23 November 2022.

Wareham, J. (2021, November 17). Transgender pay gap revealed: Cisgender people paid 32% more. Forbes. Retrieved 12 November 2022.

What We Know Project (2018). What does the scholarly research say about the effect of gender transition on transgender well-being? [online literature review]. Cornell University.

Whitehall, J. (2018, April 6). Book review: Ryan Anderson’s When Harry became Sally. Australian Christian Lobby (via Archive Today). Retrieved 24 November 2022.

Yardley, M. (2018, May 24). Why I am permanently banned from Twitter and why this should make you worry. #CounterCulturalGeek. Retrieved 23 November 2022.

Originally published 9 October 2022. Migrated to WordPress 6 November 2022.

On 9 October 2022, The Sydney Morning Herald published an article, “I was a protester — now a protest has been directed at me,” by Jon Faine (2022).

The article has several problems. Here are a few.

Headnotes

For context, the article is concerned primarily with matters pertaining to “Pride & prejudice in policy,” a panel discussion which took place at the University of Melbourne (UniMelb) on 4 October 2022. As the UniMelb event listing provides a lot of the material to which the original piece and this response refer, here’s an archive copy from the Wayback Machine (UniMelb School of Historical and Philosophical Studies, 2022).

For additional context, the author, Jon Faine, has a bit of a history, including suggesting that all Australian National Broadband Network technicians are from Southeast Asia (Supportah, 2018) and other discursive contributions which have led him to be characterised as an “shock jock” (ibid.) — fairly surprising for the ABC (!)

#1

The forum [trans ally protesters] interrupted — and tried to stop completely — was at the periphery of transgender issues …

Faine (op. cit.)

This is a curious assertion. Here’s the blurb from the University’s own event listing, in full:

On the face of it, a diversity and inclusion program and ranking index encouraging organizations to be more inclusive to gender and sexual minorities should not attract more attention or criticism than any other such initiatives (such as for race, or disability). Yet the UK’s Diversity Champions Programme and Workplace Equality Index, run by the LGBTQ+ charity Stonewall, has faced considerable scrutiny and censure, and many important public bodies have withdrawn from the initiatives.

Critics argue that the initiatives embed contested facts and values into policies, compromise public bodies’ independence and impartiality, and facilitate backdoor political lobbying.

Defenders counter that the program and index simply promote best practice in policy, and help employers to foster much-needed inclusion, support and understanding for LGBTQ+ employees. Some also see criticism of these initiatives as reflecting and reinforcing gender conservatism.

With many of our own public institutions signed up to similar initiatives — ACON’s Pride in Diversity employer support program and the Australian Workplace Equality Index — the aim of this event is to open-up a timely and balanced national conversation about the benefits, risks and tensions of these initiatives for Australia’s public institutions, and their employees.

UniMelb School of Historical and Philosophical Studies (op. cit.)

Now, I’m just a simple dickgirl, but it seems to me that this “conversation” revolves around one question: Does free speech permit observing that institutions, social groups, or spaces are transphobic, or trans-allied, when they are in fact the thing in question?

It doesn’t seem to me that that’s “at the periphery of transgender issues”. It seems to me, in fact, that it must be at the centre.

#2

It is a small example of a bigger problem. If you demand respect, then you have to give it.

Faine (op. cit.), emphasis mine

How delightful, this one is getting another outing:

Sometimes people use “respect” to mean “treating someone like a person” and sometimes they use “respect” to mean “treating someone like an authority”

and sometimes people who are used to being treated like an authority say “if you won’t respect me I won’t respect you” and they mean “if you won’t treat me like an authority I won’t treat you like a person”

tumblr user autisticabby (2015)

Because really, that’s very clearly what this is. The kind of respect which trans people “demand” is being called by their correct names and being recognised as their correct genders, as opposed to society pretending names are inborn and everyone was cis before May 2014.

Faine is suggesting here that it’s a fair exchange that to receive the respect they “demand,” trans people are also expected not to say boo when panels like the one at UniMelb discuss whether when they’re walking through a forest absolutely chock full of bear traps, they should be allowed to do so without a blindfold on.

#3

Until I started working at the ABC in 1989, I attended my share of protests. As a university student, I threw a few water bombs at the governor-general in the aftermath of the Dismissal (none of them got even remotely close), I raised my voice marching with many others over our national disgrace of race relations, and I joined in many other worthy and noble causes. I don’t mind a good protest — I consider it a signifier of a healthy democracy.

It therefore came as something of a shock this week to find myself being aggressively accused of transphobia, of creating a risk to other people’s health and safety, simply for wanting to have a discussion.

Faine (op. cit.), emphases mine

This seems like a non sequitur on a couple of levels.

Faine seems to be under the impression that because he protested at some point (the latest date he cites is 19 years before I was born) and he doesn’t mind when other people do it, it’s somehow more shocking or inappropriate that he might be protested himself? I don’t get it.

I’m in at least two demographics currently demonstrating for their own continued existence. I show up to our and others’ protests whenever my health allows. That doesn’t mean I have like … enough allyship tokens that picketing me for being, say, racist, would somehow be unfair.

#4

simply for wanting to have a discussion

Faine (op. cit.)

At the price of flagrantly violating Godwin’s law I will point out that the Wannsee Conference was also a discussion. So was the Last Supper, of course. The point is that “discussions” are perfectly capable of having consequences.

#5

The forum was called “Pride and Prejudice in Policy” and was hosted by the School of History and Philosophy of Science within the Arts Faculty of the University of Melbourne. Hardly a hotbed of reactionary or conservative thinking — quite the contrary.

Faine (op. cit.), emphasis mine

[stifled mirth]

The School of History and Philosophy of Science counts among its faculty Professor Cordelia Fine, who favoured us all with a particularly … er, piquant essay in The Monthly of October 2021 (Fine, 2021), about which I have bitched on this website before (Moreton, 2022c, s 2).

UniMelb’s faculty also includes Dr Holly Lawford-Smith, associate professor of political philosophy, known (Weinberg, 2021) for No Conflict, They Said, an exercise in activism theatre consisting of the functionally unmoderated gathering of fictional anti-transfeminine smears on the pretext of documenting “the impacts on [cis] women of [trans women] using women-only spaces”.

UniMelb includes among its student body Alison Clayton, a member of the Society for Evidence-based Gender Medicine (Clayton, 2022), the professional central committee of anti-trans mass organisation Genspect (Moore, 2021). Clayton has also been published in the Archives of Sexual Behavior, conversion therapist Kenneth Zucker’s occasionally-peer-reviewed journal and bully pulpit (Carey, 2012; James, n.d.), spinning 100%-evidence-backed gender-affirming top surgery as “dangerous medicine” (Clayton, 2021).

I don’t normally go “Oh, this institution has a problematic student, that reflects on the school as a whole, we’ve got them now, hohoho!”, except that, for whatever reason, Clayton seems to consider her activism to be something she does in her capacity at UniMelb. For instance, Clayton joined Fine and two others from UniMelb in signing a 2021 open letter in support of Kathleen Stock (herself discussed elsewhere in this piece) and did so specifically as an affiliate of the School (Kaufman, 2021/2022).

Finally, the School’s honorary staff include Professor Sheila Jeffreys, well-known among the trans community for what we will politely call her outspoken views, which are well-summarised by the abstract of one of her papers:

Feminist analysis of transsexualism … has seen it as a deeply conservative phenomenon in which surgical mutilation is employed to maintain the genders of male dominance and female subordination. Transsexualism has a new face … in “transgenderism” which employs queer and postmodern theory to render transsexualism progressive. … “transgenderism” is also deeply problematic from a feminist perspective and … transsexualism should be seen as a violation of human rights.

Jeffreys (2008)

Now, of course, if a veteran of Our ABC says that the University of Melbourne is not a hotbed of reactionary or conservative thinking then as a good citizen I really have no choice but to believe him, countervailing evidence be damned, but presumably one can see how a different understanding could have been arrived at.

#6

The forum was a discussion about how diversity benchmark programs work.

Faine (op. cit.)

And the Dismissal was a discussion between Malcolm Fraser, John Kerr, and Gough Whitlam about how the Australian Government worked, specifically about who would be prime minister of Australia. I can’t see how Faine could reasonably have objected to that.

Seriously — anything done solely through the use of words by one or more parties can be characterised as a discussion. That doesn’t mean that such a characterisation is honest or fair.

#7

Nobody was questioning gender dysphoria itself.

Faine (op. cit.)

This is the publisher blurb for Material Girls by Kathleen Stock, one of the video presenters enlisted for the panel:

Material Girls is a timely and trenchant critique of the influential theory that we all have an inner feeling about our sex, known as a gender identity, and that this feeling is more socially significant than our biological sex.

Professor Kathleen Stock surveys the philosophical ideas that led to this point, and closely interrogates each one, from De Beauvoir’s statement that, ‘One is not born, but rather becomes a woman’ (an assertion she contends has been misinterpreted and repurposed), to Judith Butler’s claim that language creates biological reality, rather than describing it. She looks at biological sex in a range of important contexts, including women-only spaces and resources, healthcare, epidemiology, political organization and data collection.

Hachette (n.d.)

I suppose we’d better not let Stock know that “nobody was questioning gender dysphoria”. She’d be heartbroken.

#8

But apparently some trans activists believe that even discussing benchmarking is to be equated with being transphobic.

Faine (op. cit.)

Anti-trans pressure groups seem to believe so, which is why they keep trying to “discuss benchmarking” explicitly as a vehicle to be transphobic. For example, the UK’s misleadingly-named Safe Schools Alliance, an anti-trans pressure group, are known for being absolutely fixated on the claim that being part of LGBTQ+ charity Stonewall’s Diversity Champions programme definitively meant the Crown Prosecution Service was biased. They were so fixated on it, in fact, that they escalated all the way to HM High Court of Justice for England and Wales, where they got thrown out on the grounds that their claim blatantly could not stand up to any judicial examination whatsoever (Parsons, 2021).

Of course, this is only one of multiple anti-trans legal actions which have targeted the Diversity Champions scheme for no clear reason beyond “it exists”. Around the same time, For Women Scotland, another anti-trans group of dubious provenance, started claiming that by pointing out that the Equality Act 2010 protects trans people, Stonewall was actually inciting people to violate it. We know this because their collaborators at The Sunday Times gleefully reported on it in autofellatingly extensive detail (Macaskill, 2021).

Weirdly, despite the fact that the legal rationale behind these efforts is shaky enough that they can’t survive the British equivalent of a district court, HM Government’s Equality and Human Rights Commission used them as an excuse to do what it had been under pressure to do for some time and exit the Diversity Champions scheme (McManus, 2021). Getting the human rights watchdog to decide it’s not actually all that interested in human rights — “just discussing” indeed!

#9

Not one word undermining the lived experience of transgender and gender-diverse people was uttered at the forum — nor was ever going to be.

Faine (op. cit.)

Understandable mistake, though, given who was on the panel.

Linda Gale is the former acting convenor of the Australian Greens Victoria, known for, uh … Well, let’s put it this way, at this point in the Twitter edition of this piece, I linked to a Junkee article headlined “The Victorian Greens have been hit with another transphobia scandal” (Baj, 2022). More about Linda in a second.

Professor Alan Davison of the University of Technology Sydney, for his part is a fervent opponent of “postmodern critical theory” — an opposition which, in the case of Davison’s specific ideological strand (Sun, 2019), as in those of his fellow travelers (Wallace-Wells, 2021), is not a coherent and principled philosophical position, as such. Instead, it’s a byword for cloaking entirely vibes-based conservatism in complex technical vocabulary and an academic veneer.

Naomi Cunningham, who contributed a video presentation, is the chair of Sex Matters, a British anti-trans pressure group. Sex Matters is best known because its more prominent executive director, Maya Forstater, believes conversion therapy should be legal as long as it’s anti-trans (Forstater & Joyce, 2021).

Dr Kathleen Stock, late of the University of Sussex, was described by an open letter signed by over 600 of her colleagues in academic philosophy as

best-known in recent years for her trans-exclusionary public and academic discourse on sex and gender, especially for opposition to [amendments to*] the UK Gender Recognition Act and the importance of self-identification to establish gender identity, and for advocating that trans women should be excluded from places like women’s locker rooms or shelters.

Bettcher et al. (2021)

Finally, the whole panel was organised, according to Times Higher Education, by the aforementioned Cordelia Fine (Ross, 2022). This might have led some people to believe there was a non-zero chance that at some point, at least one word undermining the lived experience of trans and gender-diverse people might be uttered.

But no, our bad, clearly. That’s on us.

#10

“the three-person panel”

Faine (op. cit.)

Good point, Jon. Why was it a three-person panel? I’m sure when I originally heard about it, a fortnight before it took place, there were more people than that. Maybe it had something to do with someone securing the participation of Professor Sally Hines by not being entirely upfront with her about the facts:

When I agreed to take part in this event, I was unaware that it was a ‘debate’ with, as [Dr Hannah McCann] says, extreme anti-trans activists, or that it had such a specific focus on trans inclusion in LGBT EDI [equality, diversity and inclusion] policy in HE [higher education]. I am no longer taking part.

Hines (2022)

As well as Hines, other withdrawals included Nicki Elkin from LGBTQ+ health promotion charity ACON, and the moderator, Paul Barclay, who was replaced by … you, Jon (Thomas, 2022). So you knew all of this already and didn’t mention it. Why was that, I wonder?

#11

To try to stop the forum from even being held, to yell at Peters that she is not allowed to discuss her lived experience — because doing so might be harmful to people who are not even there — is bordering on the absurd.

Faine (op. cit.)

lol.

Interesting that Faine pushes a woman in front of him to serve as a meat shield by claiming all of the criticism was actually directed at her. Bit unchivalrous, innit.

#12

[Linda Gale] was this year removed … after trans lobbyists objected

Faine (op. cit.)

I’ve noted before that Ninefax opinion writers really love the flexibility of the word after, and what it allows them to do (Moreton, 2022b*).

Given that what we know is actually when Linda Gale was removed, why was she able to be removed? — Oh yeah, it was because her election was mysteriously conducted in an irregular way which prevented anyone from finding out about her views:

Earlier this week, I took action under the party’s rules to have our recent election for convenor set aside, as the rules for the election weren’t followed correctly. Specifically, candidates weren’t given the opportunity to communicate with members about their candidacy. […]

Ratnam (2022)

#13

It’s hard to comprehend how a life-long feminist leftie … could be described as transphobic

Faine (op. cit.)

Oh, I don’t know, I think I have some idea (Moreton, 2022a*).

#14

But a respectful and sensitive discussion of issues that can be a major influence on our community must never be declared off limits.

Faine (op. cit.), emphasis mine

Damn right. When I want a respectful and sensitive discussion, I invite Linda Gale, Kathleen Stock, the Sex Matters lady, and Mr If-critical-theory-has-one-hater,-that-hater-is-me.

Trans people make up maybe half a percent of the population. It’d be a lot cooler if there were more of us, but the reality is that there is precisely one way our issues come to the attention of the broader community. Namely, as García & Badge (2021) prove in both bleak and vivid detail, it happens because the media moguls who believe they own the community hate the shit out of us, and they want the people they think they own to hate us too. Data from Islan (2022a–q), of the United Kingdom, demonstrates how absurdly hostile it is only a few more steps down the road we’re already on.

There certainly is a faction concerned with trans issues that wants more “influence over our community”. Naomi Cunningham, Cordelia Fine, Linda Gale, and Kathleen Stock are in that faction — and when it comes to getting that influence, they’ll climb over as many broken bodies as it takes.

#15

Attacking your friends does not help in the battle against real enemies.

Faine (op. cit.)

Which is why this article is not about Julie Peters, no matter how desperate Jon Faine is to use her as an ideological hostage.

#16

the champions of diversity must show they can embrace a diversity of opinion, too.

Faine (op. cit.)

Ah, the paradox of tolerance. It never gets old — which I suppose given how this decade has panned out so far is something it will have more and more in common with trans people.

---

* Denotes a citation to a Twitter thread I hadn’t migrated when I wrote this piece. To be removed later.

---

References

autisticabby (2015, April). Sometimes people use “respect” to mean “treating someone like a person” and sometimes they use “respect” to mean “treating someone” … [Tumblr post] (archived 27 April 2019). Tumblr (via Wayback Machine).

Baj, L. (2022, June 16). The Victorian Greens have been hit with another transphobia scandal. Junkee.

Bettcher, T.M., Brennan, S., Bright, L.K., Clarke, R., Colburn, B., … Yap, A. (2021, January). Open letter concerning transphobia in philosophy. Google Sites.

Carey, B. (2012, May 18). Psychiatry giant sorry for backing gay ‘cure’. The New York Times.

Clayton, A. (2021, November 22). The gender affirmative treatment model for youth with gender dysphoria: A medical advance or dangerous medicine?. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 51, 691–698. doi:10.1007/s10508-021-02232-0.

Clayton, A. (2022, May 9). Commentary on Levine et al.: A tale of two informed consent processes. Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy, online.

Davison, A. (2020, July 19). A Darwinian approach to postmodern critical theory: or, How did bad ideas colonise the academy?. Society, 57, 417–424. doi:10.1007/s12115-020-00505-3.

Fine, C. (2021, August). Agenda bender. The Monthly.

Forstater, M., & Joyce, H. (2022, April 21). Why gender identity should be left out of the ‘conversion therapy’ ban. The Guardian.

García, A., & Badge, J. (2021, June 9). Transgender people in the Australian press: “Bombarded by outright harassment”. Sydney Corpus Lab.

Hachette (n.d.). Books — Kathleen Stock — Material girls: Why reality matters for feminism [product listing]. Hachette Australia (via Archive Today).

Hines, S. [@sally_hines] (2022, September 27). When I agreed to take part in this event I was unaware that it was a ‘debate’ with, as @binarythis … [Tweet]. Twitter (via Archive Today).

Islan, H. [@mimmymum] (2022a, October 8). We know that the UK media has become really trans-hostile over the last decade, both in the quantity and quality … [Tweet]. Twitter (via Archive Today).

Islan, H. [@mimmymum] (2022b, October 8). At its highest point, 1,142 articles were published in the 30 days from 27/6/2022 [Tweet]. Twitter (via Archive Today).

Islan, H. [@mimmymum] (2022c, October 8). Note: The publications being captured are: The Times, Telegraph, Daily Mail, The Guardian, The Independent, Spiked, The I, BBC, Spectator, Breitbart, The Sun, Unheard, Daily … [Tweet]. Twitter (via Archive Today).

Islan, H. [@mimmymum] (2022d, October 8). If we exclude Pink News — the only consistently trans-positive publication — there have been 15,939 trans-neutral or trans-hostile articles published by … [Tweet]. Twitter (via Archive Today).

Islan, H. [@mimmymum] (2022e, October 8). At its highest point, in the 30 day period from the 27/6/2022 there were 1,004 trans-hostile/neutral articles … [Tweet]. Twitter (via Archive Today).

Islan, H. [@mimmymum] (2022f, October 8). So who is publishing all of those articles on trans topics? It’s interesting to note that in previous years it … [Tweet]. Twitter (via Archive Today).

Islan, H. [@mimmymum] (2022g, October 8). You can easily see the shift over time of coverage of mainstream UK media on trans topics when you track … [Tweet]. Twitter (via Archive Today).

Islan, H. [@mimmymum] (2022h, October 8). From 2015 – 2020 the UK news media masively increased the number of articles published on trans topics to 5,581 … [Tweet]. Twitter (via Archive Today).

Islan, H. [@mimmymum] (2022i, October 8). Since Jan 2020 there have been 10,101 articles published by the UK mainstream media on trans topics – that’s nearly TWICE … [Tweet]. Twitter (via Archive Today).

Islan, H. [@mimmymum] (2022j, October 8). Over 38% of all (10,101) articles on trans topics in the UK media over the last 33 months have been … [Tweet]. Twitter (via Archive Today).

Islan, H. [@mimmymum] (2022k, October 8). The Daily Mail, Times and Telegraph account for 3,902 articles published on trans topics over the last 33 months from … [Tweet]. Twitter (via Archive Today).

Islan, H. [@mimmymum] (2022l, October 8). We can see that in the week of 11/7/2022 that The Daily Mail, Times and Telegraph published 123 … [Tweet]. Twitter (via Archive Today).

Islan, H. [@mimmymum] (2022m, October 8). On the 15/7/2022, The Daily Mail, Times and Telegraph published 26 articles on trans topics – 11 of them … [Tweet]. Twitter (via Archive Today).

Islan, H. [@mimmymum] (2022n, October 8). An additional interesting piece of data – there have been 224 articles on trans topics that have also mentioned JK Rowling, … [Tweet]. Twitter (via Archive Today).

Islan, H. [@mimmymum] (2022o, October 8). Note: Data taken from bespoke @Dysphorum database, collecting, indexing and analysing written news media coverage of trans issues in the … [Tweet]. Twitter (via Archive Today).

Islan, H. [@mimmymum] (2022p, October 8). The publications and articles captured by the @Dysphorum project represents only a small selection of the entire media coverage on … [Tweet]. Twitter (via Archive Today).

Islan, H. [@mimmymum] (2022q, October 8). The Dysphorum Project intends to include additional publications over time, and to expand upon analysis functionality and depth. If you’re … [Tweet]. Twitter (via Archive Today).

James, A. (n.d.). Archives of Sexual Behavior. Transgender Map.

Jeffreys, S. (2008, October 22). Transgender activism: A lesbian feminist perspective. Journal of Lesbian Studies, 1(3–4), 55–74. doi:10.1300/J155v01n03_03.

Kaufman, D.A. (2021, January). Open letter concerning academic freedom (5 April 2022 republication). The Electric Agora.

Macaskill, M. (2021, May 23). Warnings that organisations’ policy could breach laws on trans rights. The Sunday Times (via Archive Today).

McManus, J. (2021, May 23). Human rights body leaves Stonewall diversity scheme. BBC News.

Moore, M. (2021, August 26). SEGM uncovered: large anonymous payments funding dodgy science. Trans Safety Network.

Moreton, I.C.B. [@epistemophagy] (2022a, July 17). On or around 30 January 2019, in the Australian Greens Victoria, what is now known as the Contending Views letter … [Tweet]. Twitter.

Moreton, I.C.B. [@epistemophagy] (2022b, August 26). In this paragraph, Szego is arrowing down with timeless elegance into the human psyche’s key defensive weakness of post hoc … [Tweet]. Twitter.

Moreton, I.C.B. (2022c, October 21). Several problems: “ACON & the ABC”. Several Problems Press.

Parsons, V. (2021, January 13). Judge throws out ‘unarguable’ case alleging Stonewall’s ‘pro-trans bias’ influenced Crown Prosecution Service. PinkNews.

Ross, J. (2022, October 4). Debate stonewalled as speakers desert ‘trans-exclusionary’ forum. Times Higher Education.

Sun, S.D. (2019, June 13). Stop using phony science to justify transphobia. Scientific American.

Supportah (2018, August 20). ABC shock jock refuses to apologise for racist comments. Thadilly Pty Ltd.

Thomas, S. (2022, October 4). Panelists pull out of University of Melbourne event over presence of anti-trans speakers. Star Observer.

UniMelb School of Historical and Philosophical Studies (2022, October 4). Pride & prejudice in policy: What can our public institutions learn from the UK’s Stonewall controversy? [event listing] (archived 9 October 2022). University of Melbourne.

Wallace-Wells, B. (2021, June 10). What do conservatives fear about critical race theory?. The New Yorker.

Weinberg, J. (2021, February 26). Philosopher launches anti-trans website; colleagues & others object. Daily Nous.

On 17 October 2022, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation program Media Watch broadcast a segment, “ACON and the ABC” (Adams J., 2022b).

The segment has several problems. Here are a few.¹

#1

Hello, I’m Paul Barry […]

Adams J. (2022b)

Well there’s yer problem! When it comes to problematic treatment of trans affairs, Doak (2022) informs us this isn’t Paul’s first rodeo. Sainty (2015) lets us know it’s not his second, either. That makes it at least his third, and as we learned in Goldfinger (Fleming, 1959): “Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action.”

#2

“PROF CORDELIA FINE”

Adams J. (2022b)

Interesting choice! I am familiar with Professor Fine, of the University of Melbourne, partly because of an essay by her, “Agenda bender” (Fine, 2021), published in The Monthly of August 2021. In that essay, Prof Fine:

• frames the “impressive[ly] succinct” proposition that “women don’t have penises” so as to suggest that trans women are (at least) faintly ridiculous;
• presents Dr Kathleen Stock, a British now-former philosophy professor and well-attested anti-trans activist (of whom more later), as a neutral or even trans-allied source, and falsely represents her as having been “smeared, defamed and deplatformed”;
• implies that “a change of pronouns” isn’t sufficient to ‘make’ someone a “woman” (eliding the reality that “a change of pronouns” reflects the reality that someone is a woman);
• claims that “gender identity theory” (i.e., trans existence and inclusion) is a “mandate that society divest itself of sex categories and rearrange itself psychologically, conceptually and practically around gender identities”;
• claims that trans existence and inclusion is a “wholesale redefinition of concepts,” rather than an acknowledgement and integration of thousands of years of history;
• dismisses out of hand any “claims that” the anti-trans ‘gender critical’ movement is anti-trans, and lies that gender critical activists “support trans people’s right to claim and express their gender identity and to live free from discrimination and abuse”;
• suggests that systematic misogyny is a “sex-segregated” oppression in such a way as to imply that trans women are too “male” to experience it;

etc., etc., there’s more but by this far down the article I got bored. The point at which I am aiming here is that it might not be the case that Prof Fine is fully committed to an impartial factual account of events.

#3

People engaged in contemporary debates about sex and gender identity have been harassed, intimidated, verbally abused, gratuitously offended, viciously smeared and forced from positions, roles or other professional opportunities. Some of our participants have been victims of these tactics

Fine, in Adams J. (2022b)

For context: as the Media Watch transcript makes clear, Prof Fine is speaking about one of the more recent flashpoints of this campaign — a panel discussion she organised (Ross, 2022), Pride & prejudice in policy: What can our public institutions learn from the UK’s Stonewall controversy?, which took place on 4 October at the University of Melbourne (UniMelb). Those featured at the discussion included both the live panel and presenters on pre-recorded video. In all, the final speakers’ list consisted of (UniMelb School of Historical and Philosophical Studies, 2022):

• Jon Faine AM, moderator
• Prof Alan Davison, panellist
• Linda Gale, panellist
• Dr Julie Peters, of Deakin University, panellist
• Naomi Cunningham, of Sex Matters, on video
• Dr Finn Mackay, of the University of Bristol, on video
• Dr Kathleen Stock OBE, late of the University of Sussex, on video

There were also a number of contributors who pulled out prior to the event:

• Paul Barclay, original moderator
• Nicki Elkin, of ACON, panellist
• Prof Sally Hines, of the University of Sheffield, video presenter

Of the claims Prof Fine made about the participants in the event, the one that seemed most likely to produce a paper trail and therefore be possible to verify was “forced from positions,” so I followed it up. The two panelists to whom I determined this claim could be referring were Linda Gale and Dr Kathleen Stock.

Gale recently made headlines because she was removed as Convenor of the Australian Greens Victoria (AGV), the Victorian state member party of the federal Australian Greens alliance. It seems likely that Gale’s “engage[ment] in contemporary debates about sex and gender identity” did play a role in her removal; as I explained in a previous Twitter thread (Moreton, 2022b),² Gale has a history of, how do you say, vocal and activist transphobia which likely motivated her opponents to search for an escape route.

While that explains why people wanted to find a reason to remove her, it is not, in and of itself, the reason she was able to be, and was, removed. We know that reason because AGV Leader Samantha Ratnam MLC explained it publicly:

Earlier this week, I took action under the party’s rules to have our recent election for convenor set aside, as the rules for the election weren’t followed correctly.

Specifically, candidates weren’t given the opportunity to communicate with members about their candidacy. […]

Ratnam (2022)

That is, Gale was removed because her election was inexplicably conducted in an irregular way which protected her from the possibility of AGV members finding out about her views. She wasn’t illegitimately turfed out for being a brave gendercrit; she was legitimately removed because she had not been legitimately elected. While her opponents were no doubt delighted to find that lever, if the election had been properly conducted, all they could have done was “float and sputter” (Staten et al., 2001).

Meanwhile, Dr Kathleen Stock, who presented by video, is often represented by sympathetic media (e.g., Kirkwood, 2022) as having been forced to resign her position at the University of Sussex. As I explained in a previous Twitter thread, however (Moreton, 2022c), that’s nowhere close to the truth.

To recap briefly: Dr Stock could absolutely have kept her position at the University of Sussex if she’d wanted, as senior University officials defended her with a spittle-flecked passion (see, e.g., University of Sussex, 2021a, 2021b & 2021c). The Guardian — a sympathetic platform for transphobes with an axe to grind if ever there was one (Strudwick, 2020) — relates that Stock resigned because of what they summarise as “a lack of support from her colleagues and the unions” (Adams R., 2021).

They also quote her own words from a BBC Woman’s Hour interview:

There’s a small group of people who are absolutely opposed to the sorts of things I say and instead of getting involved in arguing with me, using reason, evidence, the traditional university methods, they tell their students in lectures that I pose a harm to trans students, or they go on to Twitter and say that I’m a bigot.

Stock, in Barnett (2021)

The Guardian further quotes Stock saying that her “personal tipping point” came:

… when I saw my own union branch’s statement, which basically backed the protesters and implicitly made it obvious that they thought I was transphobic and accused Sussex University of institutional transphobia.

Stock, quoted in Adams R. (2021)

In short — according to The Guardian, literally a byword for trans-hostile journalism — Dr Stock wasn’t forced out. For lack of a more diplomatic accurate term, Dr Stock flounced because people disagreed with and disliked her. Between Ms Gale’s improper election and Dr Stock’s voluntary resignation, the case for “forcing out” looks pretty thin.

Moreover, Professor Fine refers to anti-trans activists being

harassed, intimidated, verbally abused, gratuitously offended, [and] viciously smeared.

Fine, quoted in Adams J. (2022b)

Now, as a trans woman on the internet, I can’t imagine what that must be like (!) (Collins & Tenbarge, 2022; #DropKiwiFarms, 2022; etc.). No, but really, it’s unfortunate that anti-trans activists are experiencing events they don’t like. The end goal of my activism and many others is for these folks to go away and leave us alone, and they won’t do it if they can’t be happy.

The reason I find the inclusion of this quote from Prof Fine interesting is because it illustrates that Media Watch considers these things to be newsworthy when they happen to cis people, whereas the destruction of trans people’s lives by the same tactics is commonplace, everyday, not worthy of note.

#4

a difficult conversation we need to have

Barry, in Adams J. (2022b)

Mm … not that difficult for Paul Barry, apparently, who as previously noted has been carrying it on without obvious interruption for the better part of eight years.

#5

Faine lamented in The Age

Barry, in Adams J. (2022b)

I was previously aware of this, and even wrote a Twitter thread about it (Moreton, 2022i).³ I am interested to note that Media Watch doesn’t write its own factual summary of events and instead quotes Faine, even though his article (which is clearly marked ‘Opinion’), omits and misleads in several places, including:

• characterising the UniMelb School of History and Philosophy of Science in such a way as to avoid mentioning its status as a hotbed of anti-trans activism;
• suggesting “[n]obody was questioning gender dysphoria itself” when, for example, Dr Stock’s trademark position is doing precisely that, as the Booktopia blurb for her book Material Girls (Stock, 2021) makes clear (Moreton, 2022k);
• suggesting it was ludicrous to expect that even “one word undermining the lived experience of transgender and gender-diverse people” “was ever going to be” “uttered at the forum,” without also mentioning that four panelists and the event organiser, Prof Fine, had either a record of activism in, or an outright formal involvement with, anti-trans organisations and related causes;
• suggesting, via post hoc ergo propter hoc, that Linda Gale’s removal as AGV Convenor was because “trans lobbyists objected,” which is inaccurate for reasons already given;
• suggesting it was “hard to comprehend” how “life-long feminist leftie” Gale could be transphobic, which was similarly inaccurate for reasons already discussed.

#6

simply for wanting to have a discussion

Faine (2022), in Adams J. (2022b)

I said this in my teardown of Faine’s piece (Moreton, 2022j), but I’m going to repeat it here: Anything done solely through the use of words by one or more parties can be characterised as a discussion. That doesn’t mean that such a characterisation is honest or fair.

#7

two trans activists had pulled out of the discussion, because they refused to share a platform

Barry, in Adams J. (2022b)

This is a tad libertine with the facts. I like a bit of libertinism, but not with the facts.

Prof Sally Hines, who withdrew, publicly explained why:

When I agreed to take part in this event I was unaware that it was a ‘debate’ with, as [Dr Hannah McCann] says, extreme anti-trans activists, or that it had such a specific focus on trans inclusion in LGBT EDI policy in HE. I am no longer taking part.

Hines (2022)

It looks rather unavoidably as if event organisers curiously failed to advise Prof Hines of a few materially relevant facts when they secured her participation. Under those circumstances, it’s a little puzzling that Media Watch chose to represent Prof Hines’ withdrawal as, in effect, a flounce. Apparently “this is not what I agreed to” is only a valid reason to withdraw if it wouldn’t deprive the Right Kind of Person of the opportunity to debate you.

It’s even more puzzling to represent the withdrawal of Nicki Elkin and ACON as a flounce, given that Elkin and ACON withdrew because, according to their statement which Media Watch published and therefore presumably read,

Following a reassessment of risk, we determined that our participation in the event could compromise the safety of our staff and people in our communities.

Parkhill (2022)

Given Media Watch‘s later approving reference to “caution and safeguards,” one might have thought that they would consider concern for other people’s safety to be a good thing. Apparently this is not always the case.

#8

with people they claimed were anti-trans activists

Barry, in Adams J. (2022b)

Realistically, there is no actual question: that claim is true. as I explained in a previous Twitter thread (Moreton, 2022l). Of the announced panel and complement of presenters,

• Naomi Cunningham is chair of Sex Matters. Sex Matters is best known because its executive director, Maya Forstater, believes conversion “therapy” — the practice of attempting to force someone to change their gender or sexuality — should be legal to force on trans people specifically (Forstater & Joyce, 2022).
• Linda Gale, already discussed, was sufficiently well-known for her transphobia that at least 6 Greens elected officials unequivocally backed the call for her to resign (Baj, 2022);
• Dr Kathleen Stock, already discussed, was sufficiently well-known for her transphobia that 600+ of her colleagues in academic philosophy signed an open letter protesting her OBE on the grounds that she was “best-known in recent years for her trans-exclusionary public and academic discourse” (Bettcher et al., 2021).

(Prof Alan Davison has his own problems, but we’ll talk about them later.)

Any debate about whether these people really were anti-trans activists was long past its best-before date by the time this Media Watch episode went to air.

#9

the ABC’s Paul Barclay had also stepped down from hosting the debate after getting slammed on Twitter

Adams J. (2022b)

This is when Mr Barclay stepped down. Despite what I suspect Media Watch would like us to see, it doesn’t actually tell us why. Now, I was not able to locate a public copy of Mr Barclay’s reason for withdrawing from the panel when I went looking on the morning of 18 October. As far as I know, at date, 20 October, it has not been made public.

As I have mentioned on Twitter before, however (Moreton, 2022e & 2022g), in this kind of journalism the simple and apparently innocuous word “after” has a surprisingly checkered history because it can so easily be used to facilitate post hoc ergo propter hoc (“after this, therefore because of this”), a particularly underhanded and probably fairly legally defensible way of leading people to your preferred false conclusion while all the while claiming you only ever told the truth. At this point, I question any usage of “after” that could possibly imply a causal link, as a matter of principle alone.

Incidentally, both of my excerpts I cited in the previous paragraph are with reference to articles about the closure of the UK paediatric gender service at the Tavistock Clinic, a subject which also comes up later in this very article. This may have something to do with Paul Barry’s apparent great interest in dealings there, e.g.:

#10

what exactly was the debate they wanted shut down?

Barry, in Adams J. (2022b)

It’s interesting that Media Watch tries to use its flimsy available excuse to force the framing of “wanting the debate shut down”; even at a first glance, it doesn’t quite fit.

The Media Watch piece earlier mentioned “eight or nine noisy trans activists” who wanted to shut down the debate. I’m hearing conflicting stories about them from trusted sources; I don’t know who they were, where they were, or what they did.

Luckily for me, Media Watch doesn’t seem to either, because it gives them no focus at all. Instead, it focuses on the 2 panellists who withdrew, and the 3 individuals quoted as a representative sample of Paul Barclay’s critics on Twitter.

The problem is that none of those individuals were agitating for the event to be shut down. Hines and Elkin chose not to participate because they felt they would be legitimising transphobia by doing so. Twitter users @EleanorEvenstar, @engagedpractx, and @nick_nobody expressed similar sentiments. Media Watch appears to have inflated this in order to help Faine victimise himself.

Anecdotally, this is representative of a broader pattern I’m witnessing in trans-hostile media coverage: if trans people or allies offer anything less than enthusiastic consent, journalists spin this as aggression justifying an overwhelming, full-spectrum counterattack.

#11

high-profile BBC radio host Stephen Nolan published a 10-part podcast

Barry, in Adams J. (2022b)

This is referring to Nolan Investigates: Stonewall (Nolan & Thompson, 2021). The reference is, naturally, uncritical. It does not mention, to take one example — and I do mean one; I can see at least seven, but I don’t want to get derailed — that Nolan Investigates heavily features Malcolm Clark, co-founder and a director of LGB Alliance, an anti-trans pressure group reported by openDemocracy in April to have intimate access to senior UK ministers (Ramsay & Bychawski, 2022), which among other factors has led some prominent UK-based analysts — such as Moore (2022b) of Trans Safety Network — to characterise it as state-backed.

Clark’s leadership role at LGB Alliance seems relevant given that LGB Alliance Australia, which to the best of my ability to determine is not autonomous from its UK parent, has been identified by the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (2022), a US-based team of analysts originating from the Southern Poverty Law Center, as a hate group. If I were recommended a podcast on Islamic theology, I’d like to know if they used Pauline Hanson as a primary source.

It also seems relevant because even among LGB Alliance directors — charitably a rather motley lot — Clark’s views are especially Uhhh Hmmm. For instance, he is on record saying the presence of LGBT+ clubs in schools is “unnecessary and potentially dangerous” because “the vast majority of children have not settled on a sexual orientation” and therefore LGBT+ clubs “would be an unnecessary encouragement” to “predatory gay teachers” (Parsons, 2020). Hell of a take from a guy whose mission is purportedly “asserting the rights of lesbians, bisexuals and gay men” (Hurst, 2019) against the onslaught of the tranny horde.

(Media Watch also doesn’t mention that Nolan Investigates‘ episode on British law heavily refers to Dr Kathleen Stock, but that’s understandable; it might give the correct impression that transphobes are not a popular mass movement founded on genuine concern but rather a small, malicious clique with unexplained power.)

#12

which topped the charts on Apple and Spotify

Barry, in Adams J. (2022b)

This statement is slightly over-egging, but don’t worry (!) — it’s for a purpose. The impression this seemingly inconsequential statement seeks to give is that there is a “trans debate,” and that investigations into that “debate” have an organic popularity reflecting real public concern. This doesn’t quite match up with the facts.

First, this claim appears to be linked to a specific reference date, 23 October 2021, on which Nolan Investigates was respectively #3 and #4 in its relevant charts, according to podcast aggregator Chartable (2021). However, the charts in question were for ‘news podcasts in Great Britain,’ which is a slightly less earth-shattering accomplishment than “topped the charts” might be seen to imply.

In ‘all podcasts in Great Britain’ for the same date, Nolan Investigates made it to #32 at Apple and #80 at Spotify. For perspective, on Spotify’s chart for today, the same position is next to Baker Terry’s TV retread of new-’10s internet esoterica classic Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared (Chartable, 2022b).⁴ This is particularly remarkable given that, as Media Watch knows very well given that it’s in the Variety article which at this point in the broadcast they’re just about to cite, Nolan Investigates‘ marketing was backed by the full weight of the British political and media class:

The podcast, which was the culmination of an eighteen month investigation, quickly rose to the top of the charts on both Apple and Spotify after its release last month and garnered numerous headlines as well as comments from members of parliament.

Yossman (2021); emphasis mine

More generally, claims in this genre (“best-seller,” “most-listened,” etc.) tend to float around any transphobic screed published by someone who knows the right people; I noted this last year (Moreton, 2021) at the release of Trans: When ideology meets reality (Joyce, 2021), by The Economist executive editor Helen Joyce. The thing about “best-seller,” for its part, is that it can mean, among other things:

• ‘book placed in the store in the position which will best sell it’ (Atkinson, 2022);
• ‘book the store is best paid to sell’ (Atkinson, op. cit.);
• ‘book bought in bulk by the author or their supporters with the intention of “hacking” the bestseller list’ (Barnett, 2020).

I have no specific reason to believe anything analogous happened with Nolan Investigates, but I will gently suggest that podcast listening figures might not mean quite as much when, as King (2021) reports, they’re faked often enough that Spotify has started cracking down on it (at least when the little people do it).

#13

This had reportedly turned up: ‘numerous instances of BBC internal policy and editorial output that appeared to breach the corporation’s own impartiality guidelines’

Barry, in Adams J. (2022b)

The Variety article in question is Yossman (2021). Under the circumstances I think this is a particularly interesting choice of pull quote. You see, when I watched the Media Watch episode, I saw this —

— which allows the viewer to take away the impression that Variety independently verified that those “instances” were indeed there.

However, I read the Variety article myself because I’m a pathologically suspicious and paranoid bitch, and I noted that the full paragraph reads as follows:

In the podcast, Nolan and Thompson questioned whether the BBC was too close to Stonewall, providing numerous instances of BBC internal policy and editorial output that appeared to breach the corporation’s own impartiality guidelines, as well as the Equality Act 2010, following communication with Stonewall in connection with these schemes.

Yossman (2021)

That is to say, it restates the original claim without comment, rather than — as Media Watch would seemingly like to convey — backing it up.

#14

These included Stonewall being consulted on the BBC’s style guide and recruitment language

Barry, in Adams J. (2022b)

Far be it from me to oppose Aunty’s brains trust, but as far as I can tell, engaging brand style consultants to develop your corporate style guide seems … pretty normal (Upwork Team, 2022).

Moreover, if I wanted to develop LGBTQ+-specific style guidance, literally my first port of call would be the largest and oldest LGBT rights organisation in Europe, which … wouldn’t you know it, appears to be Stonewall, as hostile source Churchill (2021) admits.

#15

they had appointed the first-ever LGBT+ news correspondent and first gender and identity correspondent in BBC News

Thompson, in Adams J. (2022b)

Based. That’s all.

#16

we’ve corporately adopted the term LGBTQ+, Stonewall’s term

Thompson, in Adams J. (2022b)

Oh, I didn’t realise it was Stonewall’s term; Ring (2016) says it was GLAAD’s term, and judging from Ring (op. cit.), GLAAD appears to think so too. I imagine they’ll be devastated, but I’ll let them know.

Seriously, though, the fact that an entity uses or recommends a term does not mean that term belongs to that entity. That would stress me out enought that I’d be curled up in my bedroom (Shakespeare, 1600/2020, 2.2.57), puking (Shakespeare, 1623/2020, 2.7.151).

#17

That they’re all issues that Stonewall have lobbied on and that BBC has moved on, so that is prima facie evidence of Stonewall having some success

Thompson, in Adams J. (2022b)

What are the rest of us fags and trannies, chopped liver? Anecdotally I was using LGBTQ+ years ago, when I’d never heard of Stonewall the charity and had barely heard of Stonewall the riot. Stonewall the charity are heroes in my book, but they are very much rowing with the current here; they are not the prime mover.

Cultural change cannot be mandated from a single privileged point in the command hierarchy, no matter how high, and I think both the BBC and the ABC are fully aware of that fact.

#18

Many will say those changes are good

Barry, in Adams J. (2022b)

To recap, the changes in question are:

1. “first-ever LGBTQ+ news correspondent”
2. “first gender and identity correspondent”
3. “corporately adopted the term LGBTQ+”
4. “raising awareness of the importance of gender pronouns”

… Y– yeah, actually. I do think they’re good. Is there some reason they’re not good? Has something changed? The memo hasn’t reached me.

#19

one BBC journalist, Samantha Smith … [said] the BBC’s absolute core principle … was impartiality

Barry, in Adams J. (2022b)

I am going to gently suggest that given the somewhat crude pronouns joke in her Twitter bio —

— Samantha Smith (@misssamsmith) may not be impartial on this topic.⁴

I am going to less gently observe that Paul Barry already knew this, because he was following her on Twitter — presumably related to him asking her to follow him only several days prior so he could send her a Direct Message.

Nobody was pulling wool over Paul’s eyes here.

#20

And paying money for Stonewall

Smith S., in Adams J. (2022b)

… One typically does pay money for consulting services, yes (?)

#21

and using Stonewall’s language

Smith S., in Adams J. (2022b)

I am tempted to remark that it’s Stonewall’s language; we’re just speaking in it. See #15 and #16, above.

#22

How is that independent? How is that impartial?

Smith S., in Adams J. (2022b)

I will be refraining from ordering Domino’s pizzas from now on, given the possibility that it might prevent me impartially reporting when they take an hour and a half to arrive.

#23

the AIDS Council of New South Wales, or ACON

Barry, in Adams J. (2022b)

This is a thorny one. This is indeed the original expansion of AOCN’s name, but that appears to be deprecated; its current legal name is ACON Health Ltd, and its current trading name is ACON (Australian Business Register, 2019/2022).

On the one hand, it does neatly explain why it’s called ACON. On the other hand, it is clearly not being quoted here in the context of its original purpose as an HIV/AIDS charity, and indeed it is unclear why that purpose is relevant. I would like to assume the best, but in an environment where transphobes often refer to trans people as a contagion (see, e.g., Bauer et al., 2021, p. 224), well …

#24

a women’s anti-trans group called ACON Exposed

Barry, in Adams J. (2022b)

This is an interesting claim. ACON: Exposed (n.d.) notes on its about page that feminists are members, but doesn’t appear to consider itself a women’s or feminist group; it refers to itself as “a loosely affiliated research group with no political links … [consisting of] ordinary individuals who believe that sex matters” (ibid.).

Of course, “anti-trans” is obvious — that’s the most symbolically loaded banana I’ve ever seen, and it’s not close.

By tacking on the descriptor “women’s,” Media Watch appears to be pursuing either or both of two goals:

1. adding legitimacy by presenting this as self-defence by an oppressed demographic, namely women;
2. galvanising support by allowing it to be understood that women are disproportionately or only on the side of which ACON: Exposed is part, from which viewers could very reasonably infer that the opposite side must be misogynistic and hostile.

Unfortunately for Media Watch, the numbers don’t stack up: the women-versus-trannies binary doesn’t actually exist. Even on “TERF Island” itself, cis women have voiced majority support for trans rights by a margin which if applied to an Australian election would be considered an obliterating win (Sonoma, 2020).

#25

ACON’s ABC relationship manager offered editorial tips, including adding a help number

Barry, in Adams J. (2022b)

This is fairly standard practice on stories about queer or trans issues which are potentially distressing or triggering, which these days seems to be most of them. Thomas (2022) provides an example published in August in the venerable Sydney Star Observer.

#26

regardless of how good or worthy these programs are … having them scored by a lobby group raises questions about ABC impartiality

Barry, in Adams J. (2022b)

First and extremely relevantly, as Switchboard Victoria CEO Joe Ball (2022) points out, ACON is not a lobby group; it is a health promotion charity. This is an important difference which I’ll get into in a second, but I am aware that it is true partly because up until all this bullshit I knew of ACON primarily for its health promotion efforts: ACON’s TransHub provides information about Australian trans healthcare to a quality and completeness which is, as far as I know, unparalleled.

What Media Watch is doing here is implying the existence of an improper relationship by relying on you to conflate “lobbyist” with “lobby group” and “state broadcaster” with “public service”. Here’s the shortest version I could get after a couple hours tearing my hair out. This is based on

• the Charities Act 2013 (Cth), hereafter in this section the Act, which governs ACON; and
• the Lobbying Code of Conduct, hereafter in this section the Code, which governs lobbyists and the Government.

The deal is this:

• Both “lobbyist” and “lobby group” are descended from an original common-language verb, “lobby” (“attempt to persuade public officials”).
• “Lobbyist” is a term of legal significance defined by the Code: it is an entity which communicates or engages people to communicate with Government representatives on behalf of a third-party client (Code ss 5(1), 5(2), 5(4)).
• “Lobby group” is a common-language term meaning “group participating in public discourse in order to influence policy”. To avoid confusion with actual lobbyists, such groups are often referred to as advocacy groups, campaign groups, or special interest groups.
• ACON is a charity (Australian Business Register, 2019/2022), so it is not permitted for it to be a lobbyist (Code ss 5(3)(a), 6(1)(a)) and it would get its ass kicked if it tried (Act s 11). It has specific nonpolitical charitable purposes (health promotion) and is permitted to engage in extremely specific advocacy about policy changes that would make its job easier or harder (Act s 12(1)(l)).
• However, this is irrelevant, because the “Government representatives” bound by the Code are ministerial staff, ADF personnel, and people employed or otherwise engaged by agencies which employ under the Public Service Act 1999 (Cth), i.e., public servants and public service contractors. ABC staff might work at the state broadcaster, but they aren’t public servants or public service contractors, so the Code does not govern them.

All this is of fundamental importance because, as this quote demonstrates in black and white, the bulk of Media Watch‘s argument is simply saying that ACON being “a lobby group” is prima facie evidence that its relationship with the ABC is improper, knowing that the viewer will assume the terms “lobby” and “ABC” have the meanings and implications necessary for that claim to be true.

Media Watch assumes it will get away with this based on a belief which it may or may not sincerely hold but which in either case it believes the Australian public to hold. The belief in question is, to paraphrase Vossen (2019), that there are two kinds of relations to gender: cis and “political,” i.e., that by existing, trans people are engaging in a political campaign, and thus that ACON’s advocacy for trans health makes it more likely to be true that any engagement with ACON is problematically political in and of itself.

Media Watch does all this to mask the fact that suggesting that an entity passing public comment on the ABC inherently compromises its impartiality is blatantly absurd; by that standard, I compromised the ABC’s impartiality with the thread this post is based on, and am compromising it further now by publishing the post. Guess I’m the Managing Editor now. That’s free speech for ya!

The obvious follow-up argument is “But it’s different because they’re paying,” to which the answer is apparently not actually. For instance, every company on US-based GLAAD’s Social Media Safety Index is rated fucking abysmal and doing fuck-all about it, despite the fact that they’re all paying to be there (Smith A., 2022). The fact is that you can’t make a corporate big boy do anything it doesn’t want to.

Media Watch knows this. This means that what Media Watch is objecting to is the fact that the ABC wants to be inclusive. That’s a significantly darker and more worrying discussion.

#27

Imagine … the ABC paying thousands of dollars to Greenpeace and winning prizes for running stories attacking the fossil fuel industry. Or paying money to the Australian Republican Movement and being rewarded for stories criticising the monarchy

Barry, in Adams J. (2022b)

Hold up.

Media Watch implicitly sketches out a purportedly problematic editorial approach at the ABC by drawing attention to the following 9 specific actions:

1. ABC News reporting “having ABC staff march in Mardi Gras”
2. “the series First Day [Isdale & Stradling, 2020–2022], about a trans child”
3. “the ABC podcast series, Innies and Outies [Schafter, 2021–present]”
4. “adding a help number”
5. “fail[ing] to cover the … closure of the … Tavistock gender clinic” (more on that later)
6. “scant coverage of the [UK] High Court case [Bell v Tavistock]” (more later)
7. “ignor[ing] legitimate medical debate about caution and safeguards” (more later)
8. an alleged “lack of balance” in a Q+A panel (more later)
9. not citing a specific study in a story in April (more later)

Of these, I am excluding #8 because there’s literally zero chance that anyone making that complaint was acting in good faith (more later). Of the remainder, each can be categorised as being, from the point of view of critics, either ‘positive trans programming’ or being overcautious about risk of harm to the trans community. I can very well imagine circumstances in which the latter could be a problem. That’s not the issue.

The issue is that the hypothetical examples given both imagine attacks on an identifiable entity — “the fossil fuel industry” and “the monarchy,” respectively — which, notwithstanding that they would be objectively based (I’m doing sedition on WordPress! Hi AFP!), could give that entity credible grounds to claim having been harmed. None of the actual actions taken by the ABC and cited by Media Watch are attacks.

The implication here seems to be that either promoting positive programming about trans lives or protecting trans people from harm is itself an attack on someone else.

#28

what if the ABC also steered clear of debate on contentious matters, as it arguably does on transgender issues?

Barry, in Adams J. (2022b)

… are we to believe that trans issues are not contentious? You’re contending about them right now, and not only that, you’re contending about other contention! I’m contending additional to my original contention your contention about their contention! The conclusion here seems pretty clear!

#29

the ABC had failed to cover the controversial closure of the UK’s famous Tavistock gender clinic

Barry, in Adams J. (2022b)

This raises two questions:

1. In what way was it controversial?
2. Why should it have been covered?

The process of closing the Tavistock Clinic was initiated pursuant to a May 2021 recommendation from the Cass Review (Cass, 2021). In short, Dr Cass recommended abandoning the overloaded single central clinic in favour of regionalised services. It’s not in any dispute, by the way, that this is why it was closed; even The Guardian, famously transphobia central, has no problem admitting it (Brooks, 2022).

Transphobes were, at least initially, overjoyed at the closure because “the Tavi” was their bête noire; they were led to believe they Got Our Asses and that the clinic was closed To Save The Children (I haven’t checked whether they have yet discovered that this wasn’t the case).

However, trans people were also pretty happy about this, because the Tavi sucked. It was factional, unreliable, chronically and deliberately underfunded, and kept many kids from receiving care until the wrong puberty they had been trying desperately to avert had already irreversibly hit them. Regionalised care, on the other hand, whips the llama’s ass. No one is unhappy about there being more care.

It seems like trans people not creating controversy is controversial itself, the same way when we don’t debate, we’re suppressing debate, and when we don’t say what we’re told to, we’re killing free speech. It’s like being a Millennial teenager all over again.

To the point, though: why would we have covered this? What the UK did was literally switch to our model. We already have regionalised care: the Royal Children’s Hospital Gender Service in Melbourne; the Queensland Children’s Hospital Gender Clinic and Queensland Children’s Gender Service; etc. There is no news for us here. There is nothing to learn.

#30

it had given scant coverage of the High Court case against the clinic from Keira Bell [i.e., Bell v Tavistock]

Barry, in Adams J. (2022b)

This whole passage is just relentlessly Interesting™ from start to finish. For instance, I am Interested™ by Media Watch‘s decision to use the term “High Court,” without clarifying. To any Australian, that has a specific association: the High Court of Australia, the Commonwealth’s highest (“apex”) court.

If that’s what a “High Court” is — as is often the case — then that must be newsworthy, without doubt. There was no question at all that, for instance, apex-level US cases like Obergefell v. Hodges were of significant material interest to Australian viewers.

The problem is that in this case, a “High Court” is … not that. The court which heard Bell v Tavistock is HM High Court of Justice in England and Wales (“EWHC” in the reference list), the highest trial court and second-highest appellate court for England and Wales. In practical terms, suggesting the ABC had a duty to cover any decision of the High Court of Justice is effectively equivalent to suggesting the BBC has a duty to cover decisions of the Supreme Court of New South Wales.

#31

who alleged she had been rushed into treatment with puberty blockers without due care

Barry, in Adams J. (2022b)

Bugger me, that seems pretty serious. Well, what did they find— oh, she lost.

Specifically, the High Court of Justice (“Divisional Court,” in legal jargon) found in Bell’s favour, but in Bell v Tavistock Appeal, the Court of Appeal (“EWCA” in the reference list) reversed, repeatedly asking the Divisional Court what the fuck they thought they were doing, not in those words (see the reference list entry for pinpoint citations). The UK Supreme Court has refused to hear an appeal. The case is resolved, and not in a way which left any questions unanswered.

The inorganic nature of Media Watch‘s concern is rather highlighted by the fact that none of this is news anymore. The High Court of Justice decision was in December 2020, and the Court of Appeal decision was in September 2021, over a year ago, yet only since this August has Media Watch seen fit to bring it up.

#32

We also noted that the ABC had ignored legitimate medical debate about caution and safeguards

Barry, in Adams J. (2022b)

The episode to which Media Watch is referring here is Adams J. (2022a). They may be characterising themselves a little bit charitably. (P.S.: “Safeguards”? We’ll come back to that.)

What Media Watch noted in that story is that a number of other media outlets were reporting on the story. They referred, and only obliquely, to one primary “medical” source: the Interim Report of the Cass Review (Cass, 2022).

The Interim Report identifies several points of disagreement. Rather inconveniently for Media Watch, however, despite the Interim Report‘s commitment to a non-judgemental, neutral tone, reading it quickly puts to bed any question of a “legitimate medical debate”.

Every point of disagreement identified in the Interim Report has a well-established, international-consensus-backed answer:

1. But what if they stop being trans? (s 1.7): They don’t.
2. But don’t we need a working definition of what being trans is? (s 1.24): We have one. Look in the DSM-5.
3. But are trans kids really trans? (s 2.15): Yes. See #1.
4. But what if they stop being trans? (s 4.15): See #1.

What the Interim Report does, grudgingly and more or less against its will, is confirm (e.g., s 2.15) the existence of a right-wing faction of white-ant clinicians who will simply keep re-asking the question until they get the answer they want.

What it does not do is present any basis for the ABC to report or comment. Neither its context nor its content are applicable here.

#33

Two days later, ABC Sydney’s Josh Szeps invited Dr Philip Morris, who urges caution, to talk about these matters

Barry, in Adams J. (2022b)

First of all, lol, a doctor named Philip Morris. Whoever’s the god of nominative determinism, they’re having a perverse little giggle about that one.

Like everyone else, Dr Morris is entitled to have an opinion on trans healthcare — God knows I can’t stop him — but there’s no obvious reason why that opinion should be promoted as authoritative. Recall again that this is about paediatric trans healthcare. According to his website, Dr Morris specialises in addiction medicine, dementia, forensic psychiatry, general adult psychiatry, geriatric psychiatry, medicolegal assessment, and memory disorders (Morris, n.d., “About Dr Morris”). It’s unclear where trans healthcare of any kind comes in.

Dr Morris is usually quoted in Australian mass media as president of the National Association of Practicing Psychiatrists (NAPP). This may have been avoided here because the ABC gets a bit more scrutiny than the publications usually associated with that trick, which are broadly acknowledged to be rags.

Since Media Watch doesn’t explicitly mention it, I won’t get too deep into NAPP, but I am intrigued to note that Dr Morris used NAPP to effectively self-publish a paediatric trans care “guide” (Morris et al., 2022) co-written with, among others, Dr Roberto D’Angelo, an affiliate of the Society for Evidence-based Gender Medicine (SEGM). I have written before on SEGM. To recap:

• they are effectively the executive politburo of a much broader-based anti-trans organisation, Genspect (Moore, 2022a);
• of their major characteristics, one is anti-trans activism in a professional context that could be described as intense, bordering on frantic (see e.g. D’Angelo et al., 2020);
• the other one is being funded by the internet equivalent of large suitcases full of unmarked bills (Moore, 2021).

Note that I am referring to Dr Morris as “effectively self-publishing” through NAPP on the assumption that they are fairly closely linked; as I noted in the original thread, the main contact number for NAPP is the same number given for Dr Morris’ mobile phone on his website:

#34

complaints from women about the lack of balance

Barry, in Adams J. (2022b)

One wonders if “women” was the most specific descriptor Media Watch felt they could get away with.

The first source quoted here is Angie Jones. I will settle for pointing out that Angie’s Twitter bio identifies her as co-host of a production (a YouTube vlog, as it happens) called TERF Talk Downunder (Jones, 2022) — wonder what that’s about (!)

The second source quoted is Astra Niedra, a wellness influencer who appears (Niedra, 2022a & 2022b) to be a fan of multiple anti-trans activists, including anti-trans dating app founder and failed scriptwriter Sall Grover (Grover, 2020; Runnels, 2020), British author Milli Hill (2021), and British author and failed scriptwriter J.K. Rowling (Rowling, 1997 & 2020; Miller & Erbland, 2018).

#35

A panel of MEN & one woman

Jones, in Adams J. (2022b)

This is a quote from Angie, but its significance here is that Media Watch doesn’t correct it, and indeed implicitly endorses it as correct by calling it a “concern” which the ABC went on to “meet”.

An Internet Archive snapshot (Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 2022a) reveals that the announced members of the 25 August Q+A panel at the time of Jones and Niedra’s complaints (22 August) were Kieren Perkins, Hannah Mouncey, Joe Williams, David Lakisa, and Catherine Ordway, all of whom had been announced 19 August. That includes two women: Hannah Mouncey and Catherine Ordway.

Angie’s Tweet obviously requires that one of the two women on the panel, Hannah Mouncey or Catherine Ordway, was a man. Dr Ordway is, to my knowledge, cis; Ms Mouncey, however, is trans (Zeigler, 2022). When the host of TERF Talk Downunder said one of them was a man, it’s pretty clear who she meant. Media Watch seems to think that’s fine.

#36

ABC then added a female athlete to its panel at the last minute

Barry, in Adams J. (2022b)

Once again, one wonders if “female athlete” was the most specific descriptor Media Watch felt they could get away with. According to the Q+A transcript, the new panelist was weightlifter Deborah Lovely-Acason (Grant, 2022).

Not just any female athlete, our Deb, as we are informed by Binary Australia (2021) — like LGB Alliance Australia, classified by the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (2022) as a hate group. As the cited press release from Binary attests, Lovely-Acason’s primary belief of current political note seems to be feeling wronged by the existence of trans woman athletes, most prominently her competitive rival Laurel Hubbard.

Of course, that’s current political note. Even Binary, normally so direct, is a little evasive on this one; in order to present the narrative that Deb was an apolitical professional radicalised by being screwed over, they don’t mention she was a failed Family First candidate at the 2012 Queensland state election (Electoral Commission Queensland, 2012).

N.B. I’ll be brutally honest, I didn’t have to do this research ex nihilo; I had the fortune of running into Deb when she was haunting Facebook comment sections last year. She doesn’t like transfem athletes at all, and she really wants everyone to know.

#37

campaigning Liberal senator Claire Chandler

Barry, in Adams J. (2022b)

Ah yes, Senator Chandler, who in February this year said “her ‘Save Women’s Sport’ bill would give clarity to sports clubs that want to exclude transgender women from competition in women’s sport” (McLennan, 2022). Did Media Watch think we’d forgotten so soon?

#38

a study showing transwomen in the US Air Force ran on average 12 per cent faster than biological women

The Daily Telegraph, in Adams J. (2022b)

I have to imagine Media Watch were drooling over the chance to fit the terms “transwomen” (no space) and “biological women” into this piece. (We know there’s no space because Media Watch displays pull quotes on screen; this one shows up at approximately 10m14s:)

The study in question is Roberts et al. (2020). As it happens, I am familiar with this study, but it took some frustrating digging to find because seemingly no source wanted to mention the name of the ABC article it was cited in.

As Kirsti Miller, former national sports star and trans woman, pointed out in April (Miller, 2022), the study isn’t as broadly applicable as it’s made out to be, because the trans women and cis women groups weren’t height-matched. Trans women might appear to have an athletic advantage simply because they are taller — a quality which cis women are actually not forbidden from having. How do we know that this might be the reason? Because the study says so (Roberts et al., op. cit., p. 5), and because the lead author firmly restated it to PolitiFact (Valverde, 2021).

Many sources for a popular audience will waffle about height not being an advantage, such as Fritscher (n.d.) for Gannett’s AZCentral, who notes that “the relative advantages of height are frequently offset by other factors”. However, based on Khosla (1985), Fritscher also noted that “In medium-distance running, height may become an advantage” — including in the 1,500m, the exact event length studied by Roberts et al. (op. cit.).

#39

the concern here is that it is not impartial but one-sided

Barry, in Adams J. (2022b)

No way. The ABC, one-sided (Moreton, 2022a)?

Really (Moreton, 2022f)?

… I suppose I can see it (Moreton, 2022h).

#40

does it accept that its partnership with a lobby group, ACON, could be a problem

Barry, in Adams J. (2022b)

Passing over the “lobby group” lie for a second, well, it depends. A problem for whom?

#41

insisting the newsroom remains in control of all content

Barry, in Adams J. (2022b)

I like this tactic because it’s a neat way of implying that the newsroom does not, in fact, retain control of all content, while evading the responsibility of actually making that case.

I am particularly tickled because the ABC FOI Disclosure Log (Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 2022d), which lists requests compelling the ABC to disclose information under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Cth) and provides the information that was disclosed, has an entry for the disclosure used for this story, #202223-003. That disclosure yielded 204 pages of documents and correspondence in 2 PDFs (Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 2022b & 2022c). You’d think if there was an impropriety there’d be a slam dunk about it in there somewhere, but apparently not.

#42

it’s worth noting their representative pulled out of that Melbourne debate, claiming it was unsafe to take part

Barry, in Adams J. (2022b)

Unsafe for whom? Here is the relevant part of ACON’s response to Media Watch‘s questions, which one would hope Media Watch had read.

[Q.] Why did ACON/Pride in Diversity withdraw from the Uni of Melbourne panel discussion, Pride and Prejudice in Policy?

[A.] The health and wellbeing of our staff and communities are paramount. Commentary on social media about the panel discussion in the lead up to the event had turned into a debate about trans people rather than our diversity and inclusion work.

It is harmful for our communities when their right to exist is debated in a public forum. Following a reassessment of risk, we determined that our participation in event could compromise the safety of our staff and people in our communities. Safeguarding the welfare of our people was our top priority.

It should be noted that other panelists also withdrew from this event.

Parkhill (2022)

The phrasing used by the Media Watch episode suggests that Elkin confected a tall tale of personal danger as a flimsy cover for pulling out from raw cowardice alone. However, ACON’s statement makes unambiguously clear that the actual concern was the wellbeing of others. In cis people, such concern would typically be considered not cowardly, but laudable.

Was the poor phrasing in the ABC’s report unintentional? If so, accidentally conflating “danger to trans people collectively” with “danger to Nicki Elkin,” and presenting both as cowardice, still implies that Media Watch considers trans people interchangeable and danger to them not worth avoiding.

#43

We also asked ACON if the ABC had ever lost points in the Australian Workplace Equality Index for critical or negative editorial coverage. And they told us:

“The manner in which the ABC covers LGBTQI issues editorially, or the tone or angle in which they are presented, does not impact their AWEI assessment.” (-Email, Nicolas Parkhill, ACON CEO, 14 October 2022)

However, the ABC has won points and awards for positive programming.

Barry, in Adams J. (2022b)

It’s not actually clear how these two things are supposed to be incompatible, which is the clear suggestion given the point vs. counterpoint phrasing here. The only example of points-winning positive programming cited by Media Watch was First Day (Isdale & Stradling, 2020–2022), which is a drama series. That means it’s fictional. That means it doesn’t interact with ABC journalists’ editorial approach in any way.

This whole quote is like saying that it’s incompatible for me both to be aware that the BBC is a viciously transphobic institution and to be delighted when Doctor Who (Strevens et al., 2005–present) does stuff which is extremely trans and cool as hell.

#44

emails … show an ABC journalist … receiving advice from ACON on the correct definition of the word family

Barry, in Adams J. (2022b)

Oh fuck, really? “They’re letting fags and trannies redefine the family?” I already sat through the Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey, I don’t think I can do this again.

#45

changing the language and internal culture of a media organisation may still influence editorial values and programs’ story selection

Barry, in Adams J. (2022b)

If you persuade people not to be arseholes, they’re less likely to do arsehole things. Wait one, new wire story coming in from the Associated Press: SKY SUBJECTIVELY BLUE, WATER WET.

#46

Professor Alan Davison of the University of Technology Sydney

Barry, in Adams J. (2022b)

For the sake of decorum we’ll pretend I assumed Prof Davison must have extensive relevant experience. After reviewing his résumé (University of Technology Sydney, n.d., “Prof Alan Davison: About”), however, I was unable to determine from which part of his accomplished academic career in, apparently, musicology, it was supposed to derive. (My degree is also in music, but as proud as I am of our shared field, it has limits.)

I therefore consulted UTS’ record of Prof Davison’s publications (University of Technology Sydney, n.d., “Prof Alan Davison: Research outputs”), whereupon things became somewhat clearer. I was enthralled to note that Prof Davison’s most recent publication had the short title “Multiculturalism, social distance and ‘Islamophobia’” (Davison, 2022); I thought the quote marks around ‘Islamophobia’ were a particularly spicy choice.

My eyes were drawn, however, to a somewhat less recent publication in the same journal: “A Darwinian approach to postmodern critical theory: or, How did bad ideas colonise the academy?” (Davison, 2020).

As Wallace-Wells (2021) illustrates in The New Yorker, in 2020s political discourse, the academic meaning of critical theory observed by its original theorists has been decisively overtaken both in popular and academic discourse by its status as a floating signifier — no fixed, uncontested strict, meaning, but only a string of connotations, “hostile, academic, divisive, race-obsessed, poisonous, [and] elitist,” making it “the perfect villain” (Rufo, quoted in Wallace-Wells, op. cit.). This is particularly true of the subject with which Wallace-Wells is concerned: critical race theory (CRT).

Trans people will already be familiar with such empty signifiers; most will have dealt with an absolutely mindnumbing onslaught of cries of “gender ideology,” a slogan invented by the Catholic Church in the early-to-mid-1980s and going strong ever since. With the rise of CRT, however, right-wing activists are explicitly trying to link the two (see, e.g., Kao, 2021).

Davison (2020), boldly going where no (well, probably almost no) musicologist has gone before, certainly had plenty to say about critical theory, specifically postmodern critical theory (PMCT), its application in the social sciences (Agger, 2012). In the abstract alone, he calls it

a peculiar set of misbeliefs

Davison (2020)

characterised by

prevailing antirational explanatory models

(ibid.)

and

religious-like performativity and self-validating arguments

(ibid.)

I strongly suspect a combination of the political moment and Prof Davison’s publishing record, more than any relevant specialist expertise, may be the primary factors explaining his presence on the panel.

#47

we’re not suggesting the ABC should abandon its commitment to diversity and inclusion

Barry, in Adams J. (2022b)

Fair enough. You are simply suggesting that everything it does ot implement that commitment is evidence of bias, or even institutional capture. That’s not the same thing at all.

#48

The problem here is a media group partnering with and being rewarded by a lobby group — any lobby group. And how that could lead to perceptions of bias in coverage or to bias itself

ibid.

… You know, I’ve changed my mind. I think I can see the problem now.

For anyone not sure what they’re seeing here: fuck, I wish I was you. No, but seriously … but I am being serious. No, but for real:

• This is a collection of receipts from the private Facebook discussion group for the Coalition for Biological Reality.
• The Coalition for Biological Reality (here “CBR”) are an anti-trans hate group. (see, e.g., Jones J., 2022).
• Nastassja Freischmidt (“Stassja Frei”) is CBR’s founder (Frei, 2022).
• Catherine Anderson-Karena (“Kat Karena”) is or was a community liaison for LGB Alliance Australia (see, e.g., Anderson-Karena, 2022).
• Rachael Wong is the CEO of Women’s Forum Australia, an explicitly anti-trans lobby group (see, e.g., Women’s Forum Australia, n.d.) which incidentally is named suspiciously closely to the rather more legitimate and reputable International Women’s Forum‘s Australian branch.
• Kit Kowalski is a conspiracy theorist who was as of Saturday 15 October — anecdotally as of Tuesday 18 October, but the 15th is the last archive snapshot — contending in her Twitter bio that “ACON controls [the] Aussie govt” (Kowalski, 2022a). As of 19 October she had changed it to the rather more innocuous “AMA about ACON and the ABC” (Kowalski, 2022b), possibly because I had rather inconsiderately pointed it out the previous day (Moreton, 2022n).

Between them, based on their remarks, Anderson-Karena, Freischmidt, Wong, and possibly a few others appear to have effectively ghostwritten the episode through Media Watch‘s “senior producer,” who they refer to with she/her pronouns — suggesting they probably mean supervising producer Gabrielle Clark (Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 2022e).

I cannot say this surprises me overmuch; as I mentioned earlier, I noticed the piece referred to “safeguards,” specifically “safeguards in treating gender dysphoria in children”. “Safeguard” is a common word, but in the context of “the trans debate,” and especially the “debate” around paediatric trans healthcare, it is a specifically British term of art (see, e.g., Care Quality Commission, 2022) meaning looking after the welfare of vulnerable people, particularly children.

“Safeguarding” is often used by the British government, via “think of the children,” as a way of illegitimately-to-outright-illegally blocking trans people from accessing medically necessary care (e.g., Topping, 2022). It doesn’t have an organic presence in specialised or general Australian English; it gets here exclusively through people whose brains have been marinating in British TERFism for a while.

To the point, however, this makes it a lot easier for me to agree with Media Watch. This case is open and shut: The ABC has indefensibly compromised its impartiality and balance by partnering with a lobby group and giving it wholesale editorial control! Just not the one Media Watch meant.

I can certainly see how this would lead to “perceptions of bias in coverage,” given that it clearly led to “bias itself”! Given that this clearly cannot continue, the question — with all due respect — is:

What the fuck does the ABC intend to do about it?

---

Footnotes

#1

I obviously set about reformatting this from a Twitter thread and therefore had to build a proper reference list and in-text citations.

Superscript numerals are for footnotes.

Most citations are in APA 7 style (the style given by the Publication manual of the American Psychological Association, 7th edition).

Per APA style, legal citations are in AGLC 4 style (the style given by the Australian Guide to Legal Citation, 4th edition).

#2

A few too many self-cites in this piece [gigantic jerking-off motion]. Sorry!

#3

I reported Faine’s piece as being in The Sydney Morning Herald. This has to do with a technical quirk in Nine Entertainment’s web presence; namely, they serve a central corpus including at least most of their op-eds separately under all of their mastheads, which include both the Herald and The Age, and the Herald version is the one that reached my inbox. Given Faine is in Melbourne, describing events that took place in Melbourne, The Age version (Faine, 2022) is presumably the canonical one. (They are identical.)

#4

I like steelmanning, so I would normally have used Apple’s chart here because, as noted, Nolan Investigates ranked much higher on that one. However, Spotify’s chart was the only one which contained a nearby “landmark” that I recognised. The nearest production I recognised in Apple’s chart (Chartable, 2022a) was Off Menu with Ed Gamble and James Caster (24 spots above, at #8).

#5

Since “Samantha Smith” and “Sam Smith” are common names, yes, I’m quite sure it’s the same one. @misssamsmith has previously noted having “used to edit politics programmes in one of the BBC regions”. Devaney (2017) writes in HuffPost concerning Inside Out South West, a newsmagazine program broadcast by BBC South West, one of the BBC English Regions, in the context of focusing on Samantha Smith, its editor.

Smith is quoted as saying “long experiences of … both reporting and presenting”. An archived 2014 webpage for Inside Out South West (British Broadcasting Corporation, 2014/2021) identifies an extremely similar-looking woman also named Sam Smith as its presenter.

Rather more prosaically — and infuriatingly after all that detective work — I found an Archive Today snapshot from close to nine years ago (Smith S., 2014) which establishes that at that time Samantha Smith @misssamsmith was the presenter of Inside Out South West. Oh well.

Interestingly, if Devaney (op. cit.) is an accurate representation then Ms Smith seems to have a newsworthy record of opinions about what her colleagues should look like, characterised by being conservative about skirt length and not overfond of “PC”.

---

P.S. If you wish to, you can financially support whatever it is I’m doing here through Ko-fi. However, please don’t feel obliged.

---

References

ACON: Exposed (n.d.). About. Retrieved 19 October 2022.

Adams, J. (Director) (2022a, August 15). Samsung junket; FitzSimons & Price; ABC skips Tavistock; Offshore wind (Season 2022, Episode 27) [TV series episode]. In T. Latham (Executive producer), Media watch. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 19 October 2022.

Adams, J. (Director) (2022b, October 17). ACON & the ABC (Season 2022, Episode 35) [TV series episode]. In T. Latham (Executive producer), Media watch. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 19 October 2022.

Adams, R. (2021, November 4). Kathleen Stock says she quit university post over ‘medieval’ ostracism. The Guardian. Retrieved 19 October 2022.

Agger, B. (2012). Ben Agger. In P.M. Nickel (Ed.), North American critical theory after postmodernism: Contemporary dialogues (pp. 128–154). Palgrave Macmillan. doi:10.1057/9781137262868_7. Retrieved 19 October 2022.

Anderson-Karena, C. (2021, January 5). A letter to APS from LGB Alliance Australia. In Defence of Children. Retrieved 20 October 2022.

Atkinson, C. (2022, September 12). When is a bestseller not necessarily a bestseller?. BBC News. Retrieved 19 October 2022.

Attorney-General’s Department (Cth), Lobbying code of conduct (28 February 2022). Retrieved 19 October 2022.

Australian Broadcasting Corporation (2022a, August 22). Q+A — Coming up: Thursday, August 25 | Live from Melbourne. Retrieved 19 October 2022.

Australian Broadcasting Corporation (2022c, September 19). FOI disclosure #202223-003: Documents 1–10. Retrieved 20 October 2022.

Australian Broadcasting Corporation (2022c, September 19). FOI disclosure #202223-007: Documents 11–12. Retrieved 20 October 2022.

Australian Broadcasting Corporation (2022d, September 29). FOI disclosure log. Retrieved 19 October 2022.

Australian Broadcasting Corporation (2022e, October 20). Media Watch: About. Retrieved 20 October 2022.

Australian Business Register (2022, October 20). Current details for ABN 38 136 883 915. Australian Government. (Current record version published 9 April 2019.) Retrieved 20 October 2022.

Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (2021, November 24). ACON Health Limited. Australian Government. Retrieved 20 October 2022.

Baj, L. (2022, June 16). The Victorian Greens have been hit with another transphobia scandal. Junkee. Retrieved 20 October 2022.

Ball, J. (2022, October 18). Re: @ABCmediawatch / It is a deliberate misrepresentation to state that @ACONhealth is a lobby group. They are a registered & … [Tweet]. Twitter. Retrieved 20 October 2022.

Barnett, D. (2020, July 21). An author bought his own book to get higher on bestseller lists. Is that fair?. The Guardian. Retrieved 19 October 2022.

Barnett, E. (2021, November 3). Professor Kathleen Stock; Royal Ballet principal Leanne Benjamin; Richard Ratcliffe [Audio podcast episode]. In Woman’s hour. BBC Sounds. Retrieved 20 October 2022.

Barry, P. [@TheRealPBarry] (2020, December 6). ‘Massive pause button’: UK case resets the rules on children’s gender transition [Tweet]. Twitter. Retrieved 20 October 2022.

Barry, P. [@TheRealPBarry] (2022, October 13). @misssamsmith can u follow me please for DM? Thanks. [Tweet]. Twitter. Retrieved 20 October 2022.

Bauer, G.R., Lawson, M.L., & Metzger, D.L. (2021, November 15). Do clinical data from transgender adolescents support the phenomenon of “rapid onset gender dysphoria”?. The Journal of Pediatrics, 243, 224–227.E2. doi:10.1016/j.jpeds.2021.11.020. Retrieved 19 October 2022.

Bell v The Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust [2021] EWCA Civ 1363 (‘Bell v Tavistock Appeal’), [63]–[65], [74], [79], [84]–[86], [88]–[89], [91], [94].

Bettcher, T.M., Brennan, S., Bright, L.K., Clarke, R., Colburn, B., … & Yap, A. (2021, January). Open letter concerning transphobia in philosophy. Retrieved 19 October 2022.

Binary Australia (2021, May 12). Former Olympian speaks out against trans in sport. Retrieved 19 October 2022.

British Broadcasting Corporation (2021, November 30). Inside Out — South West: Presenter profile. (Original work published 28 October 2014.) Retrieved 19 October 2022.

Care Quality Commission (2022, May 12). Safeguarding people. Retrieved 20 October 2022.

Cass, H. (2021, May 10). Letter to NHS England and NHS Improvement. The Cass Review. Retrieved 19 October 2022.

Cass, H. (2022, February). Independent review of gender identity services for children and young people: Interim report. The Cass Review. Retrieved 20 October 2022.

Chartable (2021, October 23). BBC Radio Ulster: Nolan investigates. Retrieved 19 October 2022.

Chartable (2022a, October 20). Podcast charts: Apple podcasts — Great Britain — All podcasts. Retrieved 20 October 2022.

Chartable (2022b, October 20). Podcast charts: Spotify — Great Britain — Top podcasts. Retrieved 20 October 2022.

Churchill, F. (2021, July 15). Why are employers leaving Stonewall’s diversity programme?. People Management. Retrieved 19 October 2022.

Collins, B., & Tenbarge, K. (2022, September 3). Anti-trans stalkers at Kiwi Farms are chasing one victim around the world. Their list of targets is growing. NBC News. Retrieved 19 October 2022.

D’Angelo, R., Syrulnik, E., Ayad, S., Marchiano, L., Kenny, D.T., & Clarke, P. (2020, October 21). One size does not fit all: In support of psychotherapy for gender dysphoria. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 50, 7–16. doi:10.1007/s10508-020-01844-2. Retrieved 19 October 2022.

Devaney, S. (2017, May 30). BBC editor’s leaked email lists an advised dress code for TV presenters — as skirt length can be ‘distracting’. HuffPost. Retrieved 19 October 2022.

Doak, K. [@katedoak] (2022, October 18). I’m not surprised by @TheRealPBarry and @ABCmediawatch actions last night. Paul once asked me “Does Twitter know that Kate Doak … [Quote Tweet]. Twitter. Retrieved 19 October 2022.

#DropKiwiFarms (2022, September 5). #DropKiwifarms. Retrieved 19 October 2022.

Electoral Commission Queensland (2012, April 12). 2012 state general election — Bundamba — District summary. Retrieved 19 October 2022.

Faine, J. (2022, October 9). I was a protester — now a protest has been directed at me. The Age. Retrieved 19 October 2022.

Fine, C. (2021, August). Agenda bender. The Monthly. Retrieved 19 October 2022.

Fleming, I.L. (1959). Goldfinger. Jonathan Cape.

Forstater, M., & Joyce, H. (2022, April 21). Why gender identity should be left out of the ‘conversion therapy’ ban. The Guardian. Retrieved 19 October 2022.

Frei, S. (2022, April 16). Is Deves right about children being harmed?. The Spectator Australia. Retrieved 19 October 2022.

Fritscher, L. (n.d.). Do taller people run faster?. AZCentral. Retrieved 19 October 2022.

Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (2022, October 5). Far-right hate and extremist groups: Australia. Retrieved 19 October 2022.

Grant. S. (Host) (2022, August 25). Sports, inclusion and redemption [TV series episode]. In E. Vincent (Executive producer), Q+A. Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Grover, S. (2020, June 10). I guess I’m a TERF then. Medium. Retrieved 20 October 2022.

Hill, M. (2021, July 10). I will not be silenced. Retrieved 19 October 2022.

Hines, S. [@sally_hines] (2022, September 27). When I agreed to take part in this event I was unaware that it was a ‘debate’ with, as @binarythis … [Tweet]. Twitter. Retrieved 19 October 2022.

Hurst, G. (2019, October 24). Transgender dispute splits Stonewall. The Times. Retrieved 19 October 2022.

Jones, A. (2022, October 20). Angie Jones [Twitter profile]. Twitter. Retrieved 20 October 2022.

Jones, J. (2022, February 27). Hobart vigil shows support for trans community. Pink Advocate. Retrieved 19 October 2022

Joyce, H. (2021). Trans: When ideology meets reality. Oneworld Publishing.

Kao, E. (2021, July 7). Woke gender. Heritage Foundation. Retrieved 19 October 2022.

Khosla, T. (1985, December). Age, height and weight of female Olympic finalists in running events. British Journal of Sports Medicine, 19(4), 214–216. doi:10.1136/bjsm.19.4.214. Retrieved 20 October 2022.

King, A. (2021, October 3). Spotify issues stern warning on fake streams — promises to withhold royalties and remove content. Digital Music News. Retrieved 19 October 2022.

Kirkwood, I. (2022, August 6). London’s influential Tavistock Centre ordered to close as ‘trans’ court cases and a UK investigation force an official rethink. Newcastle Herald. Retrieved 19 October 2022.

Kowalski, K. [@KowalskiKit] (2022a, October 15). 🦘Kit Kowalski [Twitter profile]. Twitter. Retrieved 19 October 2022.

Kowalski, K. [@KowalskiKit] (2022b, October 20). 🦘Kit Kowalski [Twitter profile]. Twitter. Retrieved 20 October 2022.

McLennan, A. (2022, February 23). Transgender advocates speak out against senator Claire Chandler’s proposal to “save” women’s sport. ABC News. Retrieved 19 October 2022.

Miller, K. [@KirstiMiller30] (2022, April 27). The airforce study that the TERFS all quote the 12% advantageis false. Roberts (2020) et al confirms the … [Tweet]. Twitter. Retrieved 19 October 2022.

Miller, L.S., & Erbland, K. (2018, November 21). ‘Fantastic Beasts’ reveals J.K. Rowling has the same problem George Lucas did — analysis. IndieWire. Retrieved 20 October 2022.

Moore, M. (2021, August 26). SEGM uncovered: large anonymous payments funding dodgy science. Trans Safety Network. Retrieved 20 October 2022.

Moore, M. (2022a, August 3). Genspect exploit confusion over UK trans health reviews to spread misinformation globally. Trans Safety Network. Retrieved 20 October 2022.

Moore, M. [@Chican3ry] (2022b, October 14). It would be more accurate to describe the LGB Alliance as an ANTI-RIGHTS group, specifically a REGIME BACKED anti-rights group. [Tweet]. Twitter. Retrieved 20 October 2022.

Moreton, I.C.B. [@epistemophagy] (2021, July 26). I had to suppress a little snort at this. To get to where Joyce is on the SUNDAY TIMES bestseller … [Quote Tweet]. Twitter. Retrieved 19 October 2022.

Moreton, I.C.B. [@epistemophagy] (2022a, April 25). You know, I’d be real interested to know why, precisely, the ABC and the SBS are flatly refusing to use … [Quote Tweet]. Twitter. Retrieved 19 October 2022.

Moreton, I.C.B. [@epistemophagy] (2022b, July 17). On or around 30 January 2019, in the Australian Greens Victoria, what is now known as the CONTENDING VIEWS letter … [Tweet]. Twitter. Retrieved 19 October 2022.

Moreton, I.C.B. [@epistemophagy] (2022c, August 14). Kathleen Stock was not ‘forced’ to resign; she could have kept her post if she had wanted, since Sussex University … [Tweet]. Twitter. Retrieved 19 October 2022.

Moreton, I.C.B. [@epistemophagy] (2022d, August 16). Oh cool, @ABCmediawatch is now helping to manufacture consent for the anti-trans hate campaign! Very nice! [Tweet]. Twitter. Retrieved 19 October 2022.

Moreton, I.C.B. [@epistemophagy] (2022e, August 26). In this paragraph, Szego is arrowing down with timeless elegance into the human psyche’s key defensive weakness of post hoc … [Tweet]. Twitter. Retrieved 19 October 2022.

Moreton, I.C.B. [@epistemophagy] (2022f, September 13). On 13 September 2022, @abcnews published an article, originally titled “Newcastle clinic for trans and gender diverse children under fire … [Tweet]. Twitter. Retrieved 19 October 2022.

Moreton, I.C.B. [@epistemophagy] (2022g, September 13). 9. “The controversial Tavistock Clinic recently closed after families argued their children were rushed into treatment and given puberty-blocking drugs … [Tweet]. Twitter. Retrieved 19 October 2022.

Moreton, I.C.B. [@epistemophagy] (2022h, September 20). On 15 September 2022, @abcnews published an article, “Queer community defends gender-affirming clinic Maple Leaf House after MP’s puberty-blocking criticism,” … [Tweet]. Twitter. Retrieved 19 October 2022.

Moreton, I.C.B. [@epistemophagy] (2022i, October 9). On 9 October 2022, @smh published an article, “I was a protester — now a protest has been directed at me,” … [Tweet]. Twitter. Retrieved 19 October 2022.

Moreton, I.C.B. [@epistemophagy] (2022j, October 9). Anything done solely through the use of words by one or more parties can be characterised as a discussion. That … [Tweet]. Twitter. Retrieved 19 October 2022.

Moreton, I.C.B. [@epistemophagy] (2022k, October 9). 7. “Nobody was questioning gender dysphoria itself” I imagine Professor Kathleen Stock, who contributed a video presentation for the panel … [Tweet]. Twitter. Retrieved 19 October 2022.

Moreton, I.C.B. [@epistemophagy] (2022l, October 9). You see, the fact that the announced panel and complement of presenters included Naomi Cunningham, chair of UK anti-trans hate … [Tweet]. Twitter. Retrieved 19 October 2022.

Moreton, I.C.B. [@epistemophagy] (2022m, October 9). … and the fact that, according to TIMES HIGHER EDUCATION, the entire panel was organised (or co-organised) by the aforementioned Cordelia … [Tweet]. Twitter. Retrieved 19 October 2022.

Moreton, I.C.B. [@epistemophagy] (2022n, October 19). Kit Kowalski is not particularly well-known to me but is an anti-trans activist and apparent conspiracy theorist who contends in … [Tweet]. Twitter. Retrieved 19 October 2022.

Morris, P., Elton, V., Kenny, D., D’Angelo, R., Halasz, G., & Breakey, C. (2022, September 8). Managing gender dysphoria/incongruence in young people: A guide for health practitioners. National Association of Practising Psychiatrists. Retrieved 19 October 2022.

Morris, P. (n.d.). About Dr Morris. Retrieved 19 October 2022.

Morris, P. (n.d.). Home. Retrieved 19 October 2022.

National Association of Practicing Psychiatrists (n.d.). Home. Retrieved 19 October 2022.

Niedra, A. [@AstraNiedra] (2022a, May 6). It’s that time of year when I promote my book EnlightenmentThroughMotherhood. Can be a gift for yourself or … [Tweet]. Twitter. Retrieved 19 October 2022.

Niedra, A. [@AstraNiedra] (2022b, May 13). Are you a mother? Do you want to know a secret about your awesomeness? You can get my book Enlightenment … [Tweet]. Twitter. Retrieved 19 October 2022.

Nolan, S.R., & Thompson, D. (2021). Nolan investigates: Stonewall [Podcast]. BBC Sounds. Retrieved 20 October 2022.

Obergefell v Hodges, 576 US 644 (2015).

Parkhill, N. (2022, October 14). ACON response to Media Watch. ACON Health Ltd. Retrieved 19 October 2022.

Parsons, V. (2020, January 23). LGB Alliance founder says there shouldn’t be LGBT clubs in schools because of ‘predatory gay teachers’. PinkNews. Retrieved 19 October 2022.

[@Peggysknapsack] (2022, October 18). In what should be a surprise to no one, it looks like the #mediawatch “expose” of editorial influence was … [Tweet]. Twitter. Retrieved 19 October 2022.

Perfors, A. [@AndyPerfors] (2022, October 4). Terfs having a stupid “debate” in my workplace tonight was a great occasion to get together with a bunch of … [Tweet]. Twitter. Retrieved 19 October 2022.

Perfors, A. [@AndyPerfors] (2022, October 4). For anybody about to freak out about “freedom of speech” — we didn’t do anything to or about them. No protests … [Tweet]. Twitter. Retrieved 19 October 2022.

Ramsay, A., & Bychawski, A. (2022, April 1). Minister met lobbyists ahead of conversion therapy U-turn, documents reveal. openDemocracy. Retrieved 20 October 2022.

Ratnam, S.S. [@SamanthaRatnam] (2022, June 17). Earlier this week, I took action under the party’s rules to have our recent election for convenor set aside, as … [Tweet]. Twitter. Retrieved 20 October 2022.

R (Bell) v The Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust [2020] EWHC 3274 (Admin) (‘Bell v Tavistock‘).

Ring, T. (2016, October 26). Expanding the acronym: GLAAD adds the Q to LGBT. Advocate. Retrieved 19 October 2022.

Roberts, T.A., Smalley, J., & Ahrendt, D. (2020, December 7). Effect of gender affirming hormones on athletic performance in transwomen and transmen: implications for sporting organisations and legislators. British Journal of Sports Medicine, 55(11), 577–583. doi:10.1136/bjsports-2020-102329. Retrieved 19 October 2022.

Rowling, J.K. (1997). Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. Bloomsbury Publishing plc.

Rowling, J.K. (2020, June 10). J.K. Rowling writes about her reasons for speaking out on sex and gender issues. Retrieved 20 October 2022.

Runnels, C. (2020, August 3). Sall Grover: Founder of Giggle. imensch. Retrieved 20 October 2022.

Sainty, L. (2015, June 3). Media Watch host slammed after misgendering Caitlyn Jenner. BuzzFeed. Retrieved 19 October 2022.

Shakespeare, W. (2020). A midsummer night’s dream (B.A. Mowat & P. Werstine, Eds.). Folger Shakespeare Library. (Original work published 1600.) Retrieved 20 October 2022.

Shakespeare, W. (2020). As you like it (B.A. Mowat & P. Werstine, Eds.). Folger Shakespeare Library. (Original work published 1623.) Retrieved 20 October 2022.

Smith, A. (2022, July 15). Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and others are ‘inadequate’ in protecting LGBTQ users, GLAAD says. The Independent. Retrieved 19 October 2022.

Smith, S. (2014, February 10). Samantha Smith [Twitter profile]. Twitter. Retrieved 20 October 2022.

Smith, S. (2022, October 20). Samantha Smith [Twitter profile]. Twitter. Retrieved 20 October 2022.

Sonoma, S. (2020, July 10). A majority of U.K. cisgender women supports trans rights, survey reveals. them. Retrieved 19 October 2022.

Staten, J., Boren, B., Soell, M., & Trautmann, E. (2001). Halo: Combat evolved (Microsoft Xbox version) [Video game]. Bungie Studios; Microsoft Corporation.

Stock, K.M.L. (2021). Material girls: Why reality matters for feminism. Fleet.

Strevens, M., & Chibnall, C.A., et al. (Executive producers) (2005–present). Doctor who [TV series]. BBC Studios.

Strudwick, P. (2020, March 7). Hundreds of staff at The Guardian have signed a letter to the editor criticising its “transphobic content”. BuzzFeed News. Retrieved 19 October 2022.

Thomas, S. (2022, August 5). Lesbian woman wants to ban trans women, men from her drag shows. Star Observer. Retrieved 19 October 2022.

Topping, A. (2022, October 15). Young trans people accessing treatment outside NHS may get safeguarding referral. The Guardian. Retrieved 19 October 2022.

UniMelb School of Historical and Philosophical Studies (2022, October 4). Pride & prejudice in policy: What can our public institutions learn from the UK’s Stonewall controversy?. University of Melbourne. Retrieved 19 October 2022.

University of Sussex [@SussexUni] (2021a, October 7). In response to issues on our campus, our VC Adam Tickell has said: We are investigating activity on our campus … [Tweet]. Twitter. Retrieved 20 October 2022.

University of Sussex [@SussexUni] (2021b, October 7). Disturbingly, this has included pressuring the University to terminate her employment. Everyone at the University has the right to be … [Tweet]. Twitter. Retrieved 20 October 2022.

University of Sussex [@SussexUni] (2021c, October 7). We cannot and will not tolerate threats to cherished academic freedoms and will take any action necessary to protect the … [Tweet]. Twitter. Retrieved 20 October 2022.

University of Technology Sydney (n.d.). Prof Alan Davison: About. Retrieved 19 October 2022.

University of Technology Sydney (n.d.). Prof Alan Davison: Research outputs. Retrieved 20 October 2022.

Upwork Team (2022, July 5). Brand style guides: What they are and how to make them. Upwork. Retrieved 19 October 2022.

Victorian Trades Hall Council [@VicUnions] (2022, March 8). Yep. Trans women are women and sex workers are workers. If you are only attending the rally to make other … [Tweet]. Twitter. Retrieved 19 October 2022.

Valverde, M. (2021, March 9). Kansas senator leaves out context in claim about transgender athletes. PolitiFact. Retrieved 19 October 2022.

Vossen, E.H. [@emmahvossen] (2019, June 13). Gamers are still convinced that there are only: Two races: white and “political” / Two genders: Male and “political” / Two hair … [Tweet]. Twitter. Retrieved 19 October 2022.

Wallace-Wells, B. (2021, June 18). How a conservative activist invented the conflict over critical race theory. The New Yorker. Retrieved 19 October 2022.

Women’s Forum Australia (n.d.). Pages tagged “Transgender”. Retrieved 19 October 2022.

Women’s Forum Australia (2022, September 9). Our people. Retrieved 19 October 2022.

Yossman, K.J. (2021, November 10). BBC quits controversial Stonewall scheme following investigation over impartiality. Variety. Retrieved 19 October 2022.

Zeigler, C. (2020, August 28). Hannah Mouncey says teammates pushed her away over locker room use. Outsports. Retrieved 20 October 2022.