#rfsl

She was referred to the Tavistock GIDS clinic at the age of age 16. She said after three one-hour-long appointments she was prescribed puberty blockers.

Three one-hour-long appointments. The clinical psychologists I know speak of the great complexities they face around their clients who suffer from gender dysphoria, and they explain how the causes are long-term, deep-seated and rooted in variety of experiences from childhood to young adulthood. Three one-hour-long sessions would be just about scratching the surface for any self-respecting psychologist.

But not Tavistock apparently. And especially not when you’re driven by ideology.  It’s telling that over a dozen staff resigned from the centre recently, concerned about the ideological approach to this issue.

The BBC reports that Keira describes her family life as “difficult” and that she believes if she had felt more accepted by society as she was then, she might not have wanted to change her gender.

Listen to her words:

“I feel I could say anything to my 16-year-old self and I might not necessarily listen at that time. And that’s the point of this case, when you are that young you don’t really want to listen.

“So I think it’s up to these institutions, like the Tavistock, to step in and make children reconsider what they are saying, because it is a life-altering path.”

This is not a one off. At the same time in that most progressive of Western countries, Sweden, people are starting to ask serious medical and ethical questions, refusing any longer to be silenced or bullied out of the debate on Twitter by activists.

Even The Guardian, not renowned for pushing back on such matters, is starting to report on the concerns. You can read their story here of how the oft-repeated claim that gender reassignment is a means to suicide prevention is not backed up by what is actually happening.   As The Guardian reports from Sweden:

In the autumn of 2018, the Social Democrat-led government, under pressure from the gay, lesbian and transgender group RFSL, proposed a new law which would reduce the minimum age for sex reassignment medical care from 18 to 15, remove all need for parental consent, and allow children as young as 12 to change their legal gender.

Then in March last year, the backlash started. Christopher Gillberg, a psychiatrist at Gothenburg’s Sahlgrenska Academy, wrote an article in the Svenska Dagbladet newspaper warning that hormone treatment and surgery on children was “a big experiment” which risked becoming one of the country’s worst medical scandals.

Egalia Skärholmen

“We are angry, and we are done with being nice, and we are homosexual! now is the time to remove the label off disease, or this will end badly!”

- one of the chants of of the pictured demonstration 1979, sweden.

picture of the swedish lgbtq movement of the 1970s, occupying the stairway to the depermant of social affairs. To be more specific this is an demonstrations arranged by RFSL (the national organsation of lgbtq people in sweden).

there they are all sitting, refusing to move, to someone appeared to talk with them about declassifying homosexuality as a disease. and someone did appear to negotiate with them in the end. this entire thing had a good ending!

screenshot of a swedish newspaper article about the even from DN, published 1979. picture via QX

Sources

lgbtq activists occupies the stairway in the depermant of social affairs in Sweden. the year 1979. picture by Barbro Westerholm and Kjell Rindar via The Living History Forum click here for link

Forcibly Sterilised Trans People - Own Stories from RFSL_kommunikation on Vimeo.

anyway here is the rfsl (=sweden national organzation of lgbtq people) video about forced sterilisation in sweden, that had attached to the answer to a ask that got eaten by tumblr, but ask me for information about being trans in sweden.

this part, about the forced sterilisation, is an important part of the answer to that ask (even though that answer also discussed lots more than just this horrific chapter of swedish history).

forced sterilisation of trans people went on in sweden to 2013. it was only through a long battle led by trans people in sweden, that the law of forced sterilisation of trans people in sweden was finally abolished.

source

here you can read RFSL texts about forced sterilisation of trans people in sweden, and about the trans rights battle to abolish the law. some of the articles are translated to english https://www.rfsl.se/en/organisation/tvaangssteriliseringar-och-skadestaand/

🔺🔻 rave squad 🔻🔺