This bill will, if passed into law, have a chilling effect on psychiatrists and psychotherapists who will simply refuse to take gender distressed kids as clients for fear of falling foul of the law, becoming crininals merely for just doing their jobs - five years in jail and unlimited fines. This will have the knock-on effect of leaving the field open for ideologically captured genderist shrinks to peddle the anti-science lies and snake oil of ‘gender-affirming care.’ And that's before we consider what it will do any parents who haven't drank the genderwoo Kool Aid, who can then share a prison cell with those shrinks who tried to battle on in good faith for the sake of the kid.
There's also a glaring paradox in the bill. It is intended to prohibit attempts to change or suppress both sexual orientation and gender identity, yet gender affirmation often functions as a form of conversion therapy for same-sex attracted people. So can a gay person claim that they are being abused by people encouraging them to see themselves as trans?
I am glad I am no longer a teacher, as this would have our me at risk of prosecution if it becomes law.
Also, it seems to me this proposed legislation clashes with the statutory guidance for schools and colleges on safeguarding children (KCSIE), which makes it clear that school staff must not socially transition children, in other words, school staff would be guilty of not accepting a child's gender identity which is potentially a crime under this insane legislation.
Thank you. We should be worried by this. We need pieces like this to alert us to the inadequate drafting of this bill and I think the slippery tactics being used to subvert the Supreme Court.
Government says only 'abusive' harmful practices will be criminal but this includes "serious alarm or distress to the individual" - a mostly subjective test.
This potential offence might be judged in a context where eg a teenager's novel gender identity is a defence against their own fear of growing up as female or male.
A parent may see that in reality adopting the gender identity is making the teenager more anxious and taking them further from a thriving life ...but the teenager may feel that it is the parental view itself that causes them 'serious alarm and distress" making them retreat even more from their 'usual day-to-day activities'.
By creating a legal status of 'transgender identity' the Government is putting its finger heavily on the scales and turning a family dispute (where the parents are likely to be as distressed as the young person) into a probable criminal offence.
Even worse than anticipated, then - thanks Sonia for highlighting the dangers, especially to parents and anyone else who truly cares about the physical and mental health of a confused child.
This is a chilling bill. I know of parents that read the "consultation" letter that the gender clinic sent their GP about their adult child that said that their parenting could be perceived as "coercive control, emotional abuse and neglect" just for not affirming the new identity. That could be five years in prison with the gender clinic "experts" appearing as witnesses for the prosecution.
The best of minds in a court setting must have to rely on a primer sheet in order to connect back into the labyrinth of undertakings and actionable transgressions possible or in need of per-case legal testing.
And in the case of children, potentially transitory between the complaint and the case being heard potentially changing the specifics of the person at the centre of the care, even if they take has already moved on.
If these situation are fairly infrequently called upon, is guidance best stated as lightly as possible and for the wisdom of the court to establish specifics, and for law enforcement to tread wearily and work with social worker powers to find a happy medium close to the case? Or is this about completely establishing every possible combination of person and the reactions around them, and signposting laudable practices being evidenced and chastising the ones that incur on core expectations?
Or, is this all incredibly punitive so that parents and venues have to have every combination of sex, gender, partner preference/s, animal, vegetable, and mineral considerations, so we have submissive parents and toilets and changing rooms of both group in nature and compromised individual ones for the subset against the most typical human?
If someone tells me that the legal team in a case has gone up in smoke or turned into ball lightning, at this point, such news would come as no surprise.
My dad grew up near a swannery in Dorset, and when the bird population bloomed, all manner of, fir the time, post war Britain, it was observed that rare behaviours all but forgotten would come forth in the nesting population. Perhaps if life on this planet one day as 20 billion souls knocking about, we will look back fondly to these simpler times! But, am expecting not. I think we may be near peak variability. Particularly with how our leaders are differently wired up and for whom have complex hinterland backing stories behind their outlooks.
Fantastic Piece Sonia
Thank you Dennis - and for all your analysis of this.
So clear. Thank you, Sonia.
Everyone should send this to their MPs. Especially if they’re Labour.
Brilliant piece! 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
Yes, we must - mine is already on the side of reality .... but doesn't harm to point out the dangers of the draft Bill.
This is excellent Sonia
This bill will, if passed into law, have a chilling effect on psychiatrists and psychotherapists who will simply refuse to take gender distressed kids as clients for fear of falling foul of the law, becoming crininals merely for just doing their jobs - five years in jail and unlimited fines. This will have the knock-on effect of leaving the field open for ideologically captured genderist shrinks to peddle the anti-science lies and snake oil of ‘gender-affirming care.’ And that's before we consider what it will do any parents who haven't drank the genderwoo Kool Aid, who can then share a prison cell with those shrinks who tried to battle on in good faith for the sake of the kid.
There's also a glaring paradox in the bill. It is intended to prohibit attempts to change or suppress both sexual orientation and gender identity, yet gender affirmation often functions as a form of conversion therapy for same-sex attracted people. So can a gay person claim that they are being abused by people encouraging them to see themselves as trans?
What happened to the process involving consultation, Green Paper, White Paper, Bill, Scrutiny? These Bills just seem to emerge.
Brilliant piece!
I am glad I am no longer a teacher, as this would have our me at risk of prosecution if it becomes law.
Also, it seems to me this proposed legislation clashes with the statutory guidance for schools and colleges on safeguarding children (KCSIE), which makes it clear that school staff must not socially transition children, in other words, school staff would be guilty of not accepting a child's gender identity which is potentially a crime under this insane legislation.
This is a must read
Thank you. We should be worried by this. We need pieces like this to alert us to the inadequate drafting of this bill and I think the slippery tactics being used to subvert the Supreme Court.
Government says only 'abusive' harmful practices will be criminal but this includes "serious alarm or distress to the individual" - a mostly subjective test.
This potential offence might be judged in a context where eg a teenager's novel gender identity is a defence against their own fear of growing up as female or male.
A parent may see that in reality adopting the gender identity is making the teenager more anxious and taking them further from a thriving life ...but the teenager may feel that it is the parental view itself that causes them 'serious alarm and distress" making them retreat even more from their 'usual day-to-day activities'.
By creating a legal status of 'transgender identity' the Government is putting its finger heavily on the scales and turning a family dispute (where the parents are likely to be as distressed as the young person) into a probable criminal offence.
I wrote a blog post about how Quakers in Britain have got into the position of supporting the Bill - https://roadlesstraveller.substack.com/p/quakers-and-conversion-controversy
Thank you! Terrifying nonsense! . I wonder when they will bring a Bill forward to stop men from abusing, raping and killing women and children?
Even worse than anticipated, then - thanks Sonia for highlighting the dangers, especially to parents and anyone else who truly cares about the physical and mental health of a confused child.
This is a chilling bill. I know of parents that read the "consultation" letter that the gender clinic sent their GP about their adult child that said that their parenting could be perceived as "coercive control, emotional abuse and neglect" just for not affirming the new identity. That could be five years in prison with the gender clinic "experts" appearing as witnesses for the prosecution.
The best of minds in a court setting must have to rely on a primer sheet in order to connect back into the labyrinth of undertakings and actionable transgressions possible or in need of per-case legal testing.
And in the case of children, potentially transitory between the complaint and the case being heard potentially changing the specifics of the person at the centre of the care, even if they take has already moved on.
If these situation are fairly infrequently called upon, is guidance best stated as lightly as possible and for the wisdom of the court to establish specifics, and for law enforcement to tread wearily and work with social worker powers to find a happy medium close to the case? Or is this about completely establishing every possible combination of person and the reactions around them, and signposting laudable practices being evidenced and chastising the ones that incur on core expectations?
Or, is this all incredibly punitive so that parents and venues have to have every combination of sex, gender, partner preference/s, animal, vegetable, and mineral considerations, so we have submissive parents and toilets and changing rooms of both group in nature and compromised individual ones for the subset against the most typical human?
If someone tells me that the legal team in a case has gone up in smoke or turned into ball lightning, at this point, such news would come as no surprise.
My dad grew up near a swannery in Dorset, and when the bird population bloomed, all manner of, fir the time, post war Britain, it was observed that rare behaviours all but forgotten would come forth in the nesting population. Perhaps if life on this planet one day as 20 billion souls knocking about, we will look back fondly to these simpler times! But, am expecting not. I think we may be near peak variability. Particularly with how our leaders are differently wired up and for whom have complex hinterland backing stories behind their outlooks.