At crisis point
Oh yeah? And they’re the only ones, are they?
The mental health of the UK’s transgender community is at crisis point, with many people “hanging by a string”, professional bodies and support groups have told the Guardian.
The stark warnings follow a week of intensified public discussion of transgender rights as the government moved to exclude trans people from a ban on conversion practices.
What are “transgender rights”? They’re so often mentioned and so rarely spelled out.
And, for the umpteenth time, “conversion” is the wrong word – the loaded word, the inaccurate word, the thumb on the scale word. It’s not a form of “conversion” to provide therapy and discussion before making permanent physical changes that could be regretted. The phrase “conversion therapy” was coined to name the practice of trying to talk people out of being lesbian or gay. Being lesbian or gay involves zero permanent physical changes – no surgeries, no binders, no hormones, no puberty blockers, nothing.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission also published guidance saying transgender people could legitimately be excluded from single-sex services if the reasons were “justifiable and proportionate”.
That is, men could legitimately be excluded from women’s spaces. For the millionth time it’s not a generic “transgender people” issue, it’s a women’s right to women-only services issue.
The focus on such issues has raised concerns among experts, who see a direct line between statements made by politicians and individual wellbeing. “There is strong evidence that minorities experience greater levels of stress when their rights are being debated,” said Dr Adam Jowett, the chair of the British Psychological Society’s Sexualities Section.
And so do women. We’re not literally a “minority” but we are a set of people treated as inferior to the other set of people. We get stressed when our rights are being debated, and dismissed and ignored, too. But, you know, yawn yawn – all those millions of boring women, telling you to hang your coat up – we can’t be bothered to care about their rights and their stress. Trans people are so much more exciting.
Helen Belcher, the chair of the education and advocacy group TransActual and a Lib Dem councillor, said: “I am furious that our equalities body is telling me that I am a second-class citizen and can only do things if everyone else is OK with it. Now every trans woman in the country is gearing up to fight to have a wee. It’s vile.”
But women who want to have a wee without men in the adjoining cubicles? Meh.
“… Therefore gender therapists are prepared to swing into action.
‘Nobody’s self-worth should be based on whether or not other people, the public, sees you the same way you see yourself,’ said noted LGBTQ+ psychologist Arabella DuBois. ‘This collective mental crisis points out that we have to focus all our strength on what matters — developing resiliency, inner confidence, and a realization that what team we play on, what pronouns we’re called, and where we pee doesn’t really matter. Restoring some perspective and helping vulnerable trans people live their lives as a full person instead of just a gender has got to be a priority. ‘Hanging by a string.’ OMG.”
Having been caught with their hand in the cookie jar, TAs calling on all those to whom cookies were promised to express their anger at the “theft” of cookies to which they were not entitled in the first place. And let’s throw in some more psychological distress and suicidal ideation for emotional blackmail power.
Yes I know “rights are not pie”, or “cookies”, but then again, what was being demanded were not “rights” in the first place. If you’re going to willfully misinterpret the law, don’t be surprised when someone looks up what the law actually says. Don’t promise what you can’t deliver, and don’t claim, or give away, something that is not yours.
If reality has you hanging by a thread perhaps you’re not well suited to public life. Become a hikikomori and let the rest of us alone.
Rights are not pie – except when they are. If trans identified “folx” have a right to be in single-sex spaces, then rights are pie, and they are taking away the rights of women to single sex spaces.
And being horrified at having to talk to therapists before you can get serious, life changing surgery? Conversion therapy? Hell, what they put the gays and lesbians through was much more than just having to talk to someone…when trans are required to submit to rape and abuse, then we can talk about conversion “therapy”.
A nice example of the silly histrionics passing as political speech. First, that “and” is bothering me perhaps more than it should. Helen Belcher says he is being told he is a second class citizen and is only able to do things etc. – two separate instructions. Better phrasing would be something like “I am furious that our equalities body is telling me that I can only do things if everyone is OK with it, implying that I am a second class citizen.
Second, and more importantly, “can only do things if everyone else is OK with it” is a restriction placed on everyone. It’s called ‘the law’, and we are all bound by it. Laws are passed by the general population via the people we elect. We don’t necessarily agree with the laws that we end up with, but no one is being singled out in their application.
No, Helen is just being told that some spaces – such as toilets – are sex segregated. Trans women are not female, and so cannot use the toilets set aside for that sex. Go wee in the male toilets.
…
Sastra, where is that statement from?
@6 A self edit button even with only a 5 minute window would be right nice. :D
@6 Our host is quite nice nonetheless. :)
Foolishly setting themselves up for defeat by a simple aikido move: there’s no fight to gear up for. Have a wee in the men’s room, as you’ve done all your life.
Oh, and I think they are just lying when they say their mental health is “hanging by a string,” or “at a crisis point.”
““We feel it is absolutely necessary for transgender people to have the same level of protection as everybody else.””
Free insight, Dr. Adam Jowett: trans people already have the same level of protection as everybody else.
Holms #5 wrote:
What, the part not in blockquotes?
It’s from the magical alternative universe where gender therapists actually try to treat their patients as people who can develop coping skills instead of walking embodiments of wee fragile princesses needing protection from dragons.
Gotcha. And you even threw in a sympathy quote fail!
At least transwomen have the advantage of having larger bladders than women, less chance of UTIs, zero chance of the weight of a foetus bearing down on their bladders all day, zero chance of needing to deal with periods, and are probably less likely to have to take several children to the toilet while they’re out and about. And of course, they can use the men’s. Shorter queues there anyway, wonder why that is?