Children, and their parents and siblings, are at the heart of the story about the NHS-backed Pathways puberty-blocker experiment and the media round of Helen Webberley interviews which shocked so many people.
In this week’s Seen in Journalism: No Fear, No Favour, Cath Leng and Shelley Charlesworth of Transgender Trend, speak to Nicole, a mother connected to the parent network Our Duty. She describes the real-world consequences of normalising the idea of the ‘trans child’, especially when schools facilitate social transition and keep parents at arm’s length.
Nicole describes discovering that her daughter was being treated as a different identity at school, including a new name and pronouns and the use of a breast binder, without the family being told. She sets out what happened next: requests for answers, frustrations with records and processes, and why ‘affirmation-first’ practice can amount to a safeguarding failure, parents are sidelined and distress treated as identity.
Shelley places Nicole’s experience in a broader pattern she says she’s seen repeatedly: policies that encourage secrecy, a culture in which speaking plainly about biological sex is treated as taboo, and an education system that moves too quickly to validate a child’s declaration.
Thank you to Nicole for this detailed first-person account, and a clear case for why transparency, safeguarding and parental involvement should be non-negotiables.
Links
Parents’ groups and organisations
Our Duty (parent support network)
Bayswater Support (parent support group
Puberty blocker trial
UK puberty blocker trials media coverage: Telegraph
Judicial Review sought by Keira Bell and James Esses in attempt to stop the King’s College puberty blocker trial.
Data / SARs
For more background
Julie in Genderland Podcast series by Julie Bindel
Legal / policy / NHS
