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Post by Lily on Jun 14, 2022 2:34:18 GMT
I came across the linked article below on Twitter today. I took notice because like me she is also a British woman in her 50s. Metro.co.uk - I started transitioning in my 50sI'm not going to make any comparisons between her and myself. There are simarlities of course, but significant differences too. Just thought it would be of interest to others. One of those differences is that she is able to afford HRT and I am not. On that subject I read a tweet from someone I follow quite closely on Twitter. She is the woman that invited me to join that Doctor Who discord by the way. She came out as trans four years ago at the age of 18, and joined the waiting list to see a gender specialist so that she could get HRT. She is still waiting. She is "fed up and feels she has nothing to continue for." Someone else I follow replied to her tweet saying she was about the same age, and had been waiting just as long. I am not even on that waiting list. I intend to do something about that soon. Lily
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Post by Jessica on Jun 14, 2022 14:20:52 GMT
Do you think the government is intentionally slowing the process down? I know in the US there is no waiting list, but several states have made it more difficult to get gender affirming care especially for kids.
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Post by Lily on Jun 14, 2022 14:50:11 GMT
I don't believe that it was a deliberate decision. Waiting lists are at record highs across the whole of the NHS. However nowhere near the long wait that there is for gender services. They already were before Covid hit, but now much worse. For trans healthcare however there weren't (and still aren't enough) enough service to meet the need, it was severely underestimated.
It hadn't been a political issue at all, but with the last few years of trans panic constantly in the media it has become one. There is currently a review to gender affirming healthcare for children, and statements made by our Health Secretary are very worrying. He defended the exclusion of trans people from the conversion therapy ban. His defence included statements to the fact that some trans people think they're trans because of child abuse, and talks of gender affirming healthcare as being "almost idealogically motivated". The senior government lawyer has come out stating that schools shouldn't be "pandering" to children wanting to affirm their gender identity, saying that they didn't have to as children can't legally change their gender. This goes against what the law states in respecting people's gender, that someone only has to live as their gender and that there is no need for any them to receive any medical treatment to confirm that - i.e. you don't need to have been "diagnosed", been on HRT, or had surgery. That same lawyer also said that she saw JK Rowling was a hero of hers, and that she had been very brave in campaigning for women's rights and safety. So overall it will became even more difficult for trans children than it already is. In the current climate I also don't see dedicated action to reduce the waiting lists for us either. So whereas it wasn't deliberate originally it certainly is now.
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Post by Jessica on Jun 15, 2022 20:59:37 GMT
I don't believe that it was a deliberate decision. Waiting lists are at record highs across the whole of the NHS. However nowhere near the long wait that there is for gender services. They already were before Covid hit, but now much worse. For trans healthcare however there weren't (and still aren't enough) enough service to meet the need, it was severely underestimated. It hadn't been a political issue at all, but with the last few years of trans panic constantly in the media it has become one. There is currently a review to gender affirming healthcare for children, and statements made by our Health Secretary are very worrying. He defended the exclusion of trans people from the conversion therapy ban. His defence included statements to the fact that some trans people think they're trans because of child abuse, and talks of gender affirming healthcare as being "almost idealogically motivated". The senior government lawyer has come out stating that schools shouldn't be "pandering" to children wanting to affirm their gender identity, saying that they didn't have to as children can't legally change their gender. This goes against what the law states in respecting people's gender, that someone only has to live as their gender and that there is no need for any them to receive any medical treatment to confirm that - i.e. you don't need to have been "diagnosed", been on HRT, or had surgery. That same lawyer also said that she saw JK Rowling was a hero of hers, and that she had been very brave in campaigning for women's rights and safety. So overall it will became even more difficult for trans children than it already is. In the current climate I also don't see dedicated action to reduce the waiting lists for us either. So whereas it wasn't deliberate originally it certainly is now. In the US they’ve gone one step further to the point where trans care for kids is being made illegal and even considered a form of child abuse in some states. They’re threatening to put parents in jail. It is sickening. Going after adults for your dumbass culture war bullshit is one thing. Going after kids really gets my blood boiling.
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Post by Maria on Jun 20, 2022 21:28:41 GMT
It hasn't been a good couple of weeks for trans-related news stories at all has it I think the only thing that I've seen which has made it seem a little brighter was a quote that someone put up in a comment about the rule changes for swimming competitions relating to trans people: "First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, and then you win". If that is true, then we're at the final hurdle before winning. It doesn't feel like that though. As for the waiting lists in this country, I know before Covid the average was a 3-4 year wait, and they reckon that during the pandemic because the period of introspection caused so many eggs to crack, that gender services have received somewhere around 800% the number of referrals that they normally would have expected. So as I can't see them adding to those services, the maths would indicate that an average wait length would now be 28 years... But then like you say, in America it's even worse. I don't even know that it is a culture war by this point - just bigots refusing science based on nothing but hate and getting away with it because they have the bigger stick. Who needs actual medical facts when you have the bankroll to make a convincing-looking propaganda video
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Post by Jessica on Jun 21, 2022 14:40:54 GMT
The culture war is propagated by politicians who don't actually care about trans people one way or the other, they just use it as a tool to rile up their base to get excited to vote for them. It is absolutely sickening.
As I have said before, my views on trans athletes may be a little bit different than some of the other folks on here.
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