We should facilitate the “social revolution” of transsexualism and then just wait to see how it turns out, a doctor at England’s only gender identity clinic for under-18s has said.
Consultant Clinical Psychologist Dr Bernadette Wren told the BBC that it’s not up to people in the medical profession to “approve or disapprove” of people’s decisions to “alter their bodies”.
She was responding to figures which show referrals to the clinic for under-18s have doubled in the last year.
Social revolution
Dr Wren said: “We live in a world where people alter their bodies, surgically or otherwise, and this freedom is available for people as they get older.
She added: “It’s not really for us to approve or disapprove. What matters is what they make of their lives in the end and whether they lead rewarding lives.”
Ultimately, she added, “we maybe have to see through this social revolution and see how it transpires”.
Referrals
The referral figures show a significant jump in the number of young people being referred to the Gender Identity Development Service at London’s Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust.
Last year, there were 1,398 referrals compared to 697 the year before – a 100 per cent increase.
The number of referrals has risen by more than 1,000 per cent since records began in 2009/10.
Tomboy
At the start of the month a 28-year-old woman drew on her own experience to warn ‘progressives’ that tomboy behaviour is not evidence for being a transsexual.
Ailsa Leslie wondered what damage could have been inflicted on her “impressionable childhood self” if someone had said that she might have been “in the ‘wrong body'”.
Writing in the Daily Mail, she said: “I am living proof that what feels normal to a child at the age of five, eight or ten does not set the pattern for what comes next”.
Promotion
A major teachers’ union has recently said it will lobby for the promotion of transsexualism in single-sex schools.
At its annual conference in Liverpool, the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) passed a motion to campaign for funding and provide support for ‘gender-questioning’ pupils.
MPs have also openly endorsed the transsexual agenda by calling for a move towards “self-declaration” of gender.
Responding to a report by the Women and Equalities Committee in January, The Christian Institute’s Deputy Director for Public Affairs, Simon Calvert, stressed that trans people need kindness, not endorsement.
Reality
Mr Calvert said: “Transsexual people are absolutely entitled to the same dignity as anyone else”.
“People who believe they are trapped in the wrong body should have our respect and our friendship.”
However, he stressed that: “Sex change surgery doesn’t resolve the underlying conflicts felt by people with gender dysphoria.”
He added: “Transsexual people need patient help to come to terms with reality. The law must stop forcing people to lie about other people’s gender.”