Katie Roche's Blog

The Trouble with Transgender Children

Transgender issues have come up a lot in both the UK and the USA. In the USA, we saw Joe Biden sign an executive order which allowed trans-identified males (transwomen) to be classed as women for certain purposes, including in sport. While in the UK, Tavistock and Portman’s gender identity clinic recently been rated “inadequate” by the CQC (who inspect healthcare providers). An inadequate rating is the lowest rating a healthcare provider can receive. The inspection uncovered issues such as poor record keeping and staff feeling unable to voice concerns. This has many serious implications for the clinic, and it will have to introduce major reforms. It is the only NHS clinic in the UK who treats children, so the findings will impact on almost every child being treated for Gender Dysphoria in the UK. As well, Tavistock and Portman NHS CCG were granted an appeal over the Kira Bell case.

The initial hearing for the Bell case was in December 2020. Bell transitioned to male as a teenager. Against her father’s wishes, she took puberty blockers and later cross-sex hormones. As an adult, she also had a breast reduction (“top surgery”). She later realized she didn’t want to become a man. She took a case against the clinic who treated her, Tavistock and Portman NHS trust. This is the only NHS clinic in the UK that treats children with Gender Dysphoria. She successfully argued that children under 16 shouldn’t be prescribed puberty blockers for Gender Dysphoria against their parent’s wishes.

A lot of people think I’m a bigot. Now, I'd like to make it clear that I don’t hate transgender people. But I do hate transgenderism. Transgenderism, in my view, is an ideological position that affects both transgender and non-transgender people. It’s a certain attitude toward sex, gender and sexuality that is rooted in socially conservative views on sex and gender. At its heart is the idea that gender roles are innate. Men should be stereotypically masculine and women should be stereotypically feminine. Homosexuality and bisexuality are forms of deviance from natural gender. And if a person doesn’t conform to gender roles, there is something wrong with them.

Trans children are a pawn in the transgender culture wars. They are used to validate the view that transgender people are “born that way”. Which is why people believe what they say so readily. I believe that adults who want to transition are free to do what they want. I don’t agree with the NHS or other public healthcare systems paying for it. But adults are free to do what they please with their bodies. However, children are a different matter. The phrase "listen to trans children" crops up often in trans advocacy. Now, I've never been a transgender child. But like everyone, I have been a child. And I’ve struggled with the expectations of my gender and with my feelings about my body. Also, everyone has experiences with gender and not feeling that they live up to the expectations of their gender.

Part of the reason for the judgement is that the use of puberty blockers for Gender Dysphoria is largely experimental. The judges notes that there is little peer-reviewed evidence on the use of puberty blockers for Gender Dysphoria. Furthermore, the judges were concerned about the number of children who had co-occurring mental health or neurodevelopmental disorders. The judge was concerned that these children were not as able to make decisions as other children who were the same age, especially given the experimental nature of these drugs.

This is particularly meaningful to me. I have Autism, ADHD, Dyslexia and Tourette’s syndrome. So do a large number of transgender children. I know the issues these conditions can cause. Autistic people struggle with change. And puberty is an enormous change. During puberty, I hated my body. It felt like it didn’t belong to me. I went through puberty early. By the age of 11, I had breasts and had started my period. I didn’t want it. I just wanted to play. Emotionally, I was more immature than my peers, but physically, I was more mature. I looked quite grown-up, but I didn’t feel it.

I resisted wearing a bra for a long time, because I didn’t like my breasts. I struggled with bathing more frequently, and shaving my body hair. Socially, the differences between me and other girls became more stark during puberty too. Other girls were starting to get into boys and make-up. They’d talk about which boys were sexy, how to do their hair and about clothes. I couldn’t relate to that. Looking back, I realize I hadn’t reached that point in my development. I have a lot of sensory issues. Tight clothing is difficult for me to wear. I don’t like the feeling of make-up. I touch my face a lot. I find having my hair done difficult. I admit that there were many occasions when I thought it would be easier if I were a boy. I thought being a boy would free me from the aspects of adolescence I found difficult. Although, I now realize boys have their own struggles during adolescence.

When I read stories about Autistic teenage girls transitioning, I always think to myself, if I were growing up today, would I be transgender? It worries me that the number of transgender children has skyrocketed. Bear in mind that when I was growing up, you rarely heard about transgender people. The first time I ever heard of transgender (then known as transsexual), was when I was watching the final of Big Brother 5 in 2004. I was 10 years old. It was on too late for me to watch most nights, but my parents let me stay up for the final. One contestant, Nadia, was transgender. She hadn’t told the housemates. I asked my parents what a transsexual was. My father explained that she had been born a man, and she’d had an operation to try and change her parts to be more like a women’s. But that you can’t really change sex, because you can’t change your parts inside. Occasionally, transgender people would crop up in the media now and again. But that was it.

What about now? A child growing up today might encounter transgender classmates at the start of their school career. An older child will hear about transgenderism from the media, especially social media as well. A child experiencing normal dissatisfaction with gender roles could easily be convinced they are transgender. And Rapid-Onset Gender Dysphoria is proliferating amongst young people for that reason. On the website, Parents of ROGD kids, the stories always children who always felt like outsiders who bonded with transgender children at school or on social media, before coming out as transgender themselves. And in many cases, the dysphoria dissipates as quickly as it came. What might be a short-term craze has life-long effects.

Teens experiment with their identity. How many teens dye their hair? Or get piercings? Or change their dress style? It seems that those with ROGD are experimenting with their gender identity too. The difference is, hair colours grow out, piercings can be removed and clothing can be changed. But the effects of puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and surgeries can’t be changed so easily.

Kids need protecting. Transgender children are children. Even teenagers. No matter how grown-up they seem. Children don’t have the neurological development or the life experience to make huge life-changing decisions. We’ve all been children. We all know that children don’t have a good insight into what they want. Even a mature child doesn’t have the life experience needed to make huge decisions. Adults have a duty to keep kids safe. They need protecting from themselves as much as from other people.

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