Healthcare • Page 5
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Why ban talking therapy?
How a campaign to criminalise the most effective treatment for gender-distressed children made it from the margins to the mainstream: we look at the history of conversion therapy.
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Separate and single-sex service providers: a guide on the Equality Act sex and gender reassignment exceptions
Advice from the Equality and Human Rights Commission, released on 4th April 2022. Read our statement about it.
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The Cass Review’s interim report is out
The report shares initial conclusions that reflect many of the concerns raised by Sex Matters.
12th March 2022
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The Cass Review – independent review of gender identity services for children and young people: Interim report
Understanding the current landscape and the reasons why change is needed, in order to consider how to improve and develop the future clinical approach and service model.
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Responses to the government consultation on banning conversion therapy
The government's consultation on conversion therapy has now closed, and the responses are being analysed. More than a thousand people used the form on our website to send the government their own responses to the consultation.
11th February 2022
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Response to the government consultation on banning conversion therapy
We reviewed the government’s evidence base and, like the EHRC, found little evidence to support this legislation – and a great deal that concerned us…
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Will the Joint Committee on Human Rights defend the EHRC?
Sex Matters has written to the Joint Committee on Human Rights (JCHR) to urge it to write to the United Nations to confirm its parliamentary role in overseeing the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) and stating its confidence in the EHRC, after recent attacks which have sought to...
9th February 2022
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A childhood is not reversible
Childhood social transition is portrayed as ‘kind’ and ‘affirming.’ But what are we setting a child up for when puberty hits, if we pretend they are the opposite sex for the best part of their childhood? A clinical psychologist, with over 15 years of experience of working with adults,...
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It’s not too late to talk to your MP!
Sex Matters supporters have been speaking to their MPs about the proposed legislation on conversion therapy. Their reports from face-to-face and telephone meetings highlight the need for a proper review of the proposals. Supporters who have managed to speak to their MPs tell us that some have been surprised...
2nd February 2022
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Organisations unite to praise the EHRC
Twenty different campaigning groups from across the UK have come together in a statement of response on the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s recent communications – with the UK Government about conversion therapy and with the Scottish Government about reform of the Gender Recognition Act. The EHRC has come...
31st January 2022
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Banning conversion therapy: a response from the Bayswater Support Group
The UK’s largest support group run by and for parents of children, adolescents and young adults who identify as transgender responds to the government consultation.
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Effective communication about pregnancy, birth, lactation, breastfeeding and newborn care: the importance of sexed language
Karleen D. Gribble, Melissa C. Bartick, Roger Mathisen, Shawn Walker, Jennifer Gamble, Nils J. Bergmann, Arun Gupta, Susan Bewley, Jennifer J. Hocking and Hannah G. Dahlen in Frontiers
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Male carers and the sexual abuse of disabled women
Dr Em, a disabled feminist writer, writes that abuse is prevalent in residential care settings, mental health wards and where vulnerable individuals require care in their homes.
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Conversion therapy consultation extended!
We asked you to tell your MP to #presspause on the conversion therapy consultation. Thousands of you did, they listened, and we’ve got what was needed: an extension of eight weeks. The next step is to get as many people as possible to respond to the consultation and we...
9th December 2021
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Maya Forstater: A conversion therapy ban threatens to leave unhappy children medicalised, sterilised and sexually impaired
Maya Forstater for Conservative Home
Why is talking therapy being conflated with torture? -
Conversion therapy: calling for legislation without evidence
Last week at an event at Middle Temple, Sex Matters Chair Naomi Cunningham highlighted the lack of evidence for harm from “gender identity conversion therapy” (a broad and undefined term being used to promote rushed legislation). Jayne Ozanne, the chief promoter of this proposed legislation, called this “offensive and...
22nd November 2021
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Have you emailed your MP ?
Nearly 2,000 people have emailed their MP to say #presspause on #conversion therapy ban Here are the ones with the biggest postbags so far. Numbers count, so keep sending Lucas, Caroline 39 Kyle, Peter 18 Zeichner, Daniel 18 Starmer, Keir 17 West, Catherine 15 Eshalomi, Florence 15 Heald, Oliver...
19th November 2021
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Conversion therapy: the path to good law
Barrister Naomi Cunningham’s talk at the Middle Temple LGBTQ+ Forum Inaugural Annual Dinner
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Conversion therapy update
1500 people have already used our 2 minute form to write to their MPs asking them to #presspause on the government’s conversion therapy consultation. Many people have written that it’s the first time they’ve contacted their elected representative about anything and hundreds have shared deeply personal reasons for their...
17th November 2021
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Conversion therapy position paper
A new law seeks to remove medical gatekeeping by making doctors afraid of disagreeing with a patient’s self-declared gender identity. We ask the government instead to press Pause.
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Press pause on conversion therapy law
The Government is consulting on its proposal to introduce a new law banning “conversion therapy”. They are aiming to introduce a Bill to parliament in time to celebrate this as an achievement at their “Safe To Be Me: Global Equality Conference” in June 2022. They are therefore undertaking a...
14th November 2021
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GEO research finds no evidence for banning transgender “conversion therapy”
The UK government is proposing making it an offence for therapists to question the gender self-identity of children or vulnerable people. They asked a research team from Coventry University to study the evidence on "conversion therapy". This is our rapid review of that evidence.
3rd November 2021
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Rapid review of Coventry University research on conversion therapy
Is there evidence to support the proposal to criminalise people who engage in talking therapies “aiming to change someone from being transgender”? Sex Matters doesn’t think so.
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Government launches conversion therapy consultation: Sex Matters’ response
A rushed six-week consultation has been launched, with the claim that this will stop under 18 year olds making irreversible decisions. But will the threat of criminal penalties be used to pressurise parents and therapists who don't take an affirmation approach to gender identity?
28th October 2021
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Is there evidence of an urgent epidemic of conversion therapy?
One piece of evidence that is often cited in support of a ban on “conversion therapy” is the the Government’s LGBT Survey undertaken in 2017. 108,000 people responded. 2% of all respondents reported having previous undergone conversion therapy and a further 5% said they had been offered it. A...
6th October 2021
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Reviewing Annex B
How can the NHS fulfil its promise of dignity and privacy for all on single-sex hospital wards? We suggest a redraft.
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NHS hospitals: “single-sex” accommodation cannot be mixed sex
The NHS’s current policy places rapists who identify as women in “single-sex” hospital bays and mental health units for women. Sajid Javid has promised to review this policy. Sex Matters today publishes our policy proposal for how to do this. As an NHS nurse told a panel at the...
6th October 2021
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The EHRC must step up and provide clarity on single-sex services
The Equality and Human Rights Commission is consulting on its strategic plan for 2022–2025. We have made a submission in the form of a letter to the incoming head of the EHRC, Marcial Boo. Sex is one of the nine protected characteristics for which the EHRC is responsible. Fostering...
5th October 2021
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‘Transitioning Teens’ and an irresponsible BBC
Suicide is a personal tragedy that leaves deep, life-long wounds upon families and friends. Journalists and public figures have been rightly condemned for treating the matter glibly or sensationally. And yet, even as experts warn that poor reporting on the issue could even contribute to ‘imitational suicides’, such advice appears to...
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Truth and reconciliation
How should the public sector leave the Stonewall Champions Scheme?
6th June 2021
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Time to #LeaveStonewall
This is the letter we have sent to the CEOs of the 850 organisations that are members of the Stonewall Diversity Champions Scheme. Re: Leaving the Stonewall Diversity Champions Scheme We are writing to call on you to withdraw from the scheme, both for the sake of your own...
29th May 2021
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Sex, gender and medical data: a way forward
Susan Bewley, Margaret McCartney, Catherine Meads and Amy Rogers published an article in the British Medical Journal calling for clarity about sex and gender in medical records and data.
This "rapid response" from Sex Matters co-founder Maya Forstater was published online by the BMJ.23rd March 2021