Healthcare • Page 4
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Teenagers and gender identity
A trickle of teenagers, and especially girls, identifying out of their sex has become a torrent in recent years. Our new publication, part one of a series of three, is aimed at the parents of those teenagers. The authors, Matilda Gosling and Stella O’Malley, combine research expertise with practical professional...
10th October 2022
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Teenagers and gender identity: the evidence base – part 1
by Matilda Gosling and Stella O’Malley Introduction and Part 1: Why might teenagers question their gender? A paper aimed at parents and those who simply want to understand more about gender identity in adolescence. This paper is the first of a three-part series summarising the evidence base on teenagers and...
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What’s wrong with WPATH version 8?
Guest post by James Esses, of Thoughtful Therapists On 6th September 2022, the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) published its updated Standards of Care: Version 8. WPATH was founded in 1979 as a self-regulated membership body. Its stated purpose is to “promote evidence-based care, education, research, advocacy,...
20th September 2022
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Caring about Dignity
A group of campaigners, carers, healthcare professionals and parents of children receiving care formed in 2023. Their aim is to collect the stories of those who receive care in their own home or in residential homes, to amplify their voices. Those stories reveal the widespread issues about dignity in...
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NHS Confederation: leadership needed
“It is now — not the good times — where all that work you did on purpose and values matters. Like a winter coat, integrity is only tested in storm.” Matthew Taylor The NHS Confederation is the membership body for NHS services in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Its...
26th August 2022
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Sex Matters writes to the NHS Confederation
The NHS Confederation is the membership body for NHS services in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Its members employ over 1.5 million staff, care for more than a million patients a day and control £150 billion of public expenditure. It recently sought bids for a piece of work to create:...
24th August 2022
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Genspect
International alliance founded in 2021 by parents and clinicians seeking a rational approach to gender issues. Has expanded to include detransitioners, desisters and people unhappy with their own transition, as well as other professionals such as educators and journalists. Creates resources on gender issues and seeks a better approach...
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Norfolk hospitals introduce controversial “gender neutral” language
David Hannant for the Eastern Daily PressMaya Forstater is quoted in this article. Norfolk’s NHS hospitals have revealed they are introducing “gender-neutral” phrases in an effort to be more inclusive.
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Converting minds or bodies?
A riposte to the Good Law Project’s published advice on conversion therapy
16th August 2022
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Safe Schools Alliance
Focuses on children, specifically on safeguarding and the correct interpretation of the Equality Act. A group made up of parents and professionals that produces resources to support parents who seek to challenge harmful school materials and policies that prioritise sex self-ID over the privacy, safety and dignity of all...
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ScotPAG
A forum on gender dysphoria and gender ideology from the perspective of professionals in healthcare, education, and social work. Founded in 2023 with the aim of establishing a clearer picture of how gender-related issues are handled in health, education and social work, challenging poor practice and offering a gender-critical alternative based...
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Thoughtful Therapists
Founded in 2021, a group of psychotherapists and counsellors who campaign to raise awareness of the negative impact of gender ideology on mental-health services, in particular for children with gender dysphoria. Work has focused on government proposals to ban “gender-identity conversion therapy” and on the Memorandum of Understanding on...
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Sex and the law – share our short guide
What does intersex mean? Are you allowed to mention someone’s sex if they don’t want you to? Has someone with a gender recognition certificate changed their sex? Do you have the right to privacy when you’re taking your clothes off? Is it discrimination to keep male people out of...
4th August 2022
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What Hilary Cass needs to tell schools: social transition is incompatible with safeguarding
On 28th July Dr Hilary Cass, the eminent paediatrician commissioned by the government to review paediatric gender-identity provision in the NHS, made an announcement that vindicated everyone who has criticised that provision, often at considerable personal cost. The Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS), England’s sole NHS clinic for under-18s...
29th July 2022
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Why do single-sex services matter?
In February 2022 Sex Matters undertook a survey to find out why single-sex services matter to people. The response was astonishing. In a little over a week we received over 7,000 replies, nine out of ten of them from women. Many included details about how the loss of everyday...
19th July 2022
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Why single-sex services matter: privacy, dignity, safety and choice (full report)
Full report (133 pages): see also 30-minute read and key findings. Over the past few years many single-sex services and spaces have been changed to mixed sex, but few of the people who use them have been asked how they feel about this. Our report amplifies those voices.
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Why single-sex services matter: privacy, dignity, safety and choice (key findings)
Key findings: see also full report (133 pages) and 30-minute read. Over the past few years many single-sex services and spaces have been changed to mixed sex, but few of the people who use them have been asked how they feel about this. Our report amplifies those voices.
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Why single-sex services matter: privacy, dignity, safety and choice (30-minute read)
30-minute read: see also full report (133 pages) and key findings. Over the past few years many single-sex services and spaces have been changed to mixed sex, but few of the people who use them have been asked how they feel about this. Our report amplifies those voices.
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JK Rowling backs parents told disabled daughter did not have right to female-only care
Louisa Clarence-Smith for The Telegraph Naomi Cunningham is quoted in this article. Harry Potter author warns that special school’s cross-gender policy on intimate assistance endangers 'extremely vulnerable girls'.
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Sex and the law
A short guide to your human rights in everyday life.
Speaking about the two sexes, male and female, should not be difficult. This guide uses ordinary language, and is based on science, universal human rights and UK law -
With Woman
Grassroots collective of female midwives, healthcare workers, allied professionals, academics, peer counsellors, advocates and volunteers in the field of maternal and child health, formed in 2021. Focused on the pregnancy, birth, and breastfeeding concerns of women, advocating for woman-centered maternity care and sex-based language. Co-hosted A Woman’s Place is With...
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Groups defending sex-based rights
Overview of groups opposing sex self-ID in the UK, set up by individuals and collectives concerned by the failure of established third-sector organisations to defend women’s sex-based rights, child safeguarding and evidence-based policymaking. Also listed on our website.
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What is conversion therapy?
Stella O’Malley of Genspect explains… “Gay conversion therapy” is the term given to attempts to change a person’s sexual orientation from gay to straight. This includes demeaning and painful practices such as electric shocks, forced watching of pornography and, in extreme cases, “corrective rape”. Such abhorrent practices are now...
15th June 2022
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Briefing for conversion therapy debate
The Government has decided to introduce a law banning “gay conversion therapy’”, but following consultation decided not to introduce a law criminalising therapy in relation to “gender identity”. On Monday 13th June 2022 there will be a Westminster Hall debate where the issue will be raised again.
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“Conversion” therapy or just therapy?
On 23rd May 2022 an article appeared in the i news stating that Dr Az Hakeem was under investigation for attempting to “practise transgender conversion therapy”. Dr Az Hakeem is a psychiatrist now in private practice after more than 15 years working in the NHS. He is Fellow of...
8th June 2022
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Briefing: “Conversion” therapy or just therapy?
There has been a media report that a young patient has complained to the General Medical Council about Dr Az Hakeem, accusing him of “conversion therapy”. This is Sex Matters’ brief analysis.
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Reading University VC speaks up for academic freedom
On 25 April 2022 Dr Holly Lawford-Smith, of the University of Melbourne, gave a seminar at Reading University’s school of law. She analysed Australia’s recent legislation banning conversion therapy, and questioned the rationale for including gender identity alongside sexual orientation. “We champion freedom of expression but…” When local LGBTQ+ organisations learnt...
23rd May 2022
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Through the Looking Glass: Making sense of the memorandum of understanding on conversion therapy
A two-part article by counsellor, supervisor, trainer and researcher Peter Jenkins, exploring the impact of trans activism channelled via the Memorandum of Understanding on Conversion Therapy (MOU) on the practice of counselling and psychological therapy within the context of the United Kingdom.
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Scoping survey for government equalities office consultation on conversion therapy
Written by Thoughtful Therapists, a group of psychotherapists and counsellors working in the area of gender and gender dysphoria, in November 2021
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Has your MP fallen for a simple slogan?
Was your MP one of the ones who posed with a sign about banning conversion therapy? It is worth writing to them urgently. Make sure they hear the other side. Use our form to send them Dr Hilary Cass’s interim report and Sex Matters’ report on the “Ban Conversion...
16th May 2022
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No ban on talk therapy for gender-distressed children in Queen’s Speech
It has been confirmed in the Queen’s Speech that the government intends to pursue a limited ban on “conversion therapy” aimed at practices intended to change sexual orientation but not to include in this therapy to resolve gender distress. But the “ban” campaign continues to promote simplistic slogans about...
11th May 2022
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What is behind the campaign to ban conversion therapy?
The campaign to ban “conversion therapy” has come out of nowhere, to suddenly dominate the priorities of organisations such as Stonewall, Gendered Intelligence, Mermaids, GIRES and the LGBT Foundation. There have been protests and petitions, and these groups pulled out of a planned international conference on human rights when...
4th May 2022