by Suzanne Moore
The reactions of gender zealots to their folly being exposed range from notably silent to dangerously delusional
I suppose if I had been cheering on a vast medical experiment on children that was now shown to be extremely harmful, I might be keeping my head down. If I had been interning as a witch hunter, I might say, “I only helped with the pyres, I didn’t actually light the fire.” If I needed other people’s small children to prove my very “existence” as an adult, I may keep rather quiet.
Indeed, the reaction to the Cass Review has been notable in that many who have previously intoned trans rights slogans have just changed the subject. Their silence is deafening.
When presented with the biggest survey of the evidence by a top paediatrician, some zealots simply come out with their own “alternative facts”. The disinformation they have spread has meant that Dr Hilary Cass, the report’s author, has been threatened and advised not to travel on public transport.
These people, quite frankly, disgust me. One of them, Patrick Harvie, the co-leader of the Scottish Greens, was asked five times on the Today programme whether he accepted Cass’s findings and he would not answer. Thankfully, he is not in charge of NHS Scotland, which has now also paused the prescription of puberty blockers and will not give cross-sex hormones to new patients under 18.
Harvie keeps repeating the rubbish that we saw some of our MPs expressing in the House of Commons last week: that Cass ignored certain evidence (she didn’t), that no one should debate the existence of trans people (we are not), that a four-year review of medical care is somehow in itself evidence of transphobic attitudes (you what?). Dawn Butler, Ben Bradshaw and Lloyd Russell-Moyle all embarrassed themselves. Stella Creasy, in her best “not so much angry as disappointed” manner, wanged on about all the “trans children” on waiting lists.
But where do all these “trans children” come from? At some point this cult has to ask itself this, surely? Even that glorified estate agent and twig painter Kirstie Allsopp and the singer, Mr Sexuality Billy Bragg have to question whether giving drugs that we use to castrate sex offenders to children is “kind”. But no, they prefer self-righteous and deliberate ignorance.
Nothing that Cass said has not been voiced before: the whistle-blowers, the detransitioners, the clinicians who left in droves let us know. Puberty blockers were not used until 2011, but 10 years ago the prescription age was dropped to 11. Private doctors were giving them to nine-year-olds. What happened since? Well, part of the problem is lack of records and refusal to hand over data. This is either incompetence or a cover-up from the adult clinics.
But even with this data, it is now obvious that because the gender cult defended all this as “gender-affirming” care, as about “identity” rather than psychology, they will not back down. Their very existence depends on these growing numbers of “trans children”.
Remember, one of the “pluses” of blockers for girls is that they will not grow the breasts that will later have to be cut off, and for boys they will be less masculine and therefore “pass” more easily. So this is not “a pause” but a one-way ticket to a life of hormones and surgery.
Having told children there are zillions of genders and provided schools with “trans-inclusive” information packs, lobbyists have spread the idea that unless kids conform to regressive stereotypes (the trans flag is literally pink and blue) then they may, in fact, be the opposite sex. Parents and teachers have gone along with this rather than be cast out of this new world of “inclusivity”.
How does anyone who has enforced this row back? How do we deprogramme a cult? Cult thinking, after all, involves unquestioning commitment; thinking one is on a special mission to save humanity; an “us versus them” mentality; peer pressure that may induce guilt or shame; the cutting of ties with family and friends; and being very fearful of ever leaving.
Anyone who has questioned the gender cult has been deemed “far right” or transphobic, but Cass has put a spanner in the works. Neither she nor people like me want to take away the right for adults to transition. Either cult members accept there is a difference between adults and children, and begin to understand safeguarding, or they will have to operate a dark, underground web of selling drugs to children.
They may continue to worship at the altar of “gender identity”, but they can no longer expect all public institutions to go along with their dodgy faith. Instead, this new religion should assume its rightful position among the many strange but unscientific beliefs that we co-exist with: astrology, reiki, and past-life regression, for instance. You can’t stop folk believing weird stuff, but when something is harmful to women, to gay people, to children, then we have every right to refuse this faith in the public sphere.
Until fairly recently, it has been heresy to do so. Those still defending the sterilisation and mutilation of children are exposing themselves daily. Of course, they are squirming because it was never about the children for them; it was about proving their own purity to the other cult members. The kids were just collateral damage in a culture war we were told was not actually real.
