Putting the welfare of children first

A puberty blockers resignation:

A councillor has quit the Labour Party in a row over its transgender policies. Zoe Hughes, Exeter City Council member, said the party’s support of a ban on puberty blockers for under-18s questioning their gender identity was “a policy I refuse to stand by and accept”.

So she’s confident it’s a good thing to tamper with teenagers’ puberties? She’s that sure it’s better to stop normal physical maturation than it is to let it proceed without interference? It’s an odd thing to be that confident about. It’s not as if being frozen physically at age 12 or 13 has no consequences.

The Labour Party said it was putting the welfare of children first and its decision had been based on all of the available evidence.

Because puberty isn’t a disease. It’s right to try to block cancer and other progressive diseases, but puberty isn’t a disease. Blocking it is a very young fad, and it’s entirely possible that it’s a mistake.

Hughes said: “As a queer person, I have often felt alone and marginalised within society. However, I historically have felt that at least the Labour Party had my back.”

Hughes, who uses “they” and “them” as personal pronouns, said they were “nervous” when the Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he wanted to meet the author JK Rowling, who has expressed concerns about how trans issues affect women’s rights. Hughes said there would be “increasing self-harm” as a result of the decision on puberty blockers in “an already vulnerable and marginalised group”.

They added: “We have let the LGBT+ community down and I want no part of it – there is no LGB without the T for me, it is that simple.”

It may be that simple for her [them] but it’s not that simple in reality. It’s not just self-evidently true that tampering with children’s maturation is the pro-LGB thing to do.

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