Great read Paul. As you know I will cede space here because my cis hetero voice has enough dominance in society - it doesn't have a right to take up band width in the rainbow community.
As an ally I do understand the pain that the biological imperative community as causing. Their rhetoric is honestly vile and as an intersectional feminist I have absolutely no time for it all.
I do feel I can comment as a counsellor though and these two thoughts are ruminations worthy of closer inspection.
Firstly, I know that because I might follow Family First on Twitter that doesn't make my position and personal bias around pro choice any less valid or real. In fact it can help me to remain on top of the unhelpful discourse that sector of society are engaging in. Know they enemy so to speak. Like you it can help to keep you grounded and open to other perspectives and sometimes it's just plain funny to see the rubbish other sectors of society spout. (Following Act or National is a good example.)
The second pondering is a nod to understanding that in following a person, or reading their blog or engaging in a friendly exchange of views you continue to give them the likes, clicks and whatever they need to feel validated to espouse their views. And that's where I do feel a conflict. Sometimes I think that the most vilest of views deserve to be cancelled. People who think that trans people are not people for example are just not ever going to earn nothing but my disdain.
With that in mind, I wonder what it would be like for a rangatahi whai ora to discover that you are following and engaging with someone on Twitter or the like? The same someone who has suggested that they don't deserve to be acknowledged in society or are just following a trend?
That opens a whole other conversation and exploration around a right to privacy and the perils of being active on social media.
I guess it comes back to your point about nuance. Ultimately this isn't a black and white world and navigating the grey is ultimately where resilience resides. What I do know for sure is I will continue to refer rangatahi to you and would absolutely be guided by your skills and experience in responding to rainbow issues as they come up in my own practice.
Thank you, Jennie. As well-balanced and reasonable as I would expect from you. I really appreciate your thoughts here. And yes, there’s a difference between querying an ideology that potentially doesn’t serve our rangatahi as well as its adherents may think it does (as I am), and denying someone’s right to exist (definitely not me!). Thanks again.
Kia kaha for being a good man Paul and for raising awareness of this wrong that has been done to you by Rainbow Youth. I am fully in agreement with your assessment of the dangers of counselling that does not address underlying issues. I have done some thinking about this and from looking at the Stats it appears that one of the impacts of Rainbow Youths approach is that we are putting far more mostly lesbian and gay kids onto cross sex hormones and puberty blockers than anywhere else in the world. By way of an example the youth clinic in Ch'ch has 65 of 100 kids on them. The full figure may be closer to 100% since presumably some of the clinics patients are not yet at puberty or are already on cross sex hormones. There are no NZ figures on this. https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/124409488/call-for-more-research-into-use-of-puberty-blockers In contrast the number of kids medicated in the UK and Australia is no more than a few percent. NZ campaign against the advice on puberty blockers has the comparative information. htpps://www.fullyinformed.nz/gp
Thanks for that information, Jan. I’m troubled by that, on the face of it, to be honest, and if it’s true I would definitely like to know more. Thanks again.
Just to clarify, in the article linked here regarding patients at Youth 298 in Christchurch says that they had 100 gender diverse youth on their books, of which 65 were on puberty blockers. This means 65% of their gender diverse patients are on puberty blockers (not cross sex hormones), which does not equate to 65% of ALL their patients. The article goes further to say that of those on puberty blockers, 80% went on to take hormone therapy. And to clarify the wild misinformation about NZ's figures - about 1.2 per cent of Australian school children are thought to identify as trans, and the figures are similar in NZ. But not all of these children are put onto blockers. Please be careful about how you interpret the information available and never take issues like this "on the face of it". Having said that, Paul you did not deserve to be cut off like that.
If you note my use of the words “if it’s true”, you’ll be able to discern a mind that isn’t taking anything “on the face of it” in this matter, but thank you for your comments nonetheless.
You are correct my first sentence was potentially misleading. But the fact of the matter is that no-one knows how many children in NZ are being medicated because the treatment is highly devolved and no-one is counting. But as to the clinic. You are right. 65 of 100 of the clinics gender diverse patients are on puberty blockers. I don't understand though why you think that 65 of 100 is not 65% now that we have clarified that 65 are receiving puberty blocker medicine.
There are no figures kept in NZ any comparisons are necessarily indicative but from the data that is available show higher levels of diagnosis. So for example Perth population 2.1M. 44 currently receiving Stage One puberty blocker treatment in 2020 . https://www.parliament.wa.gov.au/Hansard/hansard.nsf/0/0DB3155BA3EE05684825873C0019B7D3/$File/C41%20S1%2020210601%20All.pdf Christchurch population 400k has 65 children on puberty blockers. So WA = 1 person in 47,000 (all ages) Ch'ch 1 person in 6150 (all ages) so approx 8* as many per head of population. All kinds of things could confound this - the size of the rural population, the age structure of the population, whether these are the sole sources of gender services - but it accords with other comparisons I have seen and as linked above on Fully Informed
A good read, thank you, then there's someone like me, born at 26 weeks, balanced hormones til they got messed up due to inadvertent medical misadventure (given diuretics from birth (750g) to age 3 (12.5kg)), AMAB, may be intersex, developed menopausal symptoms from age 9 when testosterone really started to dominate although estrogen tried to keep up, then due to the brain not calming down I started tobacco and alcohol to calm the brain and pot to balance the body, eventually found my way onto estrogen and progesterone only (Spiro triggers trauma and cyproterone acetate has bad side effects for me I don't need),
I now know I'm essentially a menopausal and now nearly premenopausal woman that got stuck with guy bits but am ultimately just mashing both bits together and identify as non binary trans femasc (made the last one up because I'm both in the same body...).
Thank you for your kind words, Paul. I really appreciate them. I am aware of Haidt's work, having read "The Coddling Of The American Mind" a couple of years back. He makes a lot of sense, and I admire how everything he says is grounded in a compassionate common sense.
Great read Paul. As you know I will cede space here because my cis hetero voice has enough dominance in society - it doesn't have a right to take up band width in the rainbow community.
As an ally I do understand the pain that the biological imperative community as causing. Their rhetoric is honestly vile and as an intersectional feminist I have absolutely no time for it all.
I do feel I can comment as a counsellor though and these two thoughts are ruminations worthy of closer inspection.
Firstly, I know that because I might follow Family First on Twitter that doesn't make my position and personal bias around pro choice any less valid or real. In fact it can help me to remain on top of the unhelpful discourse that sector of society are engaging in. Know they enemy so to speak. Like you it can help to keep you grounded and open to other perspectives and sometimes it's just plain funny to see the rubbish other sectors of society spout. (Following Act or National is a good example.)
The second pondering is a nod to understanding that in following a person, or reading their blog or engaging in a friendly exchange of views you continue to give them the likes, clicks and whatever they need to feel validated to espouse their views. And that's where I do feel a conflict. Sometimes I think that the most vilest of views deserve to be cancelled. People who think that trans people are not people for example are just not ever going to earn nothing but my disdain.
With that in mind, I wonder what it would be like for a rangatahi whai ora to discover that you are following and engaging with someone on Twitter or the like? The same someone who has suggested that they don't deserve to be acknowledged in society or are just following a trend?
That opens a whole other conversation and exploration around a right to privacy and the perils of being active on social media.
I guess it comes back to your point about nuance. Ultimately this isn't a black and white world and navigating the grey is ultimately where resilience resides. What I do know for sure is I will continue to refer rangatahi to you and would absolutely be guided by your skills and experience in responding to rainbow issues as they come up in my own practice.
Kia ora ē hoa.
Thank you, Jennie. As well-balanced and reasonable as I would expect from you. I really appreciate your thoughts here. And yes, there’s a difference between querying an ideology that potentially doesn’t serve our rangatahi as well as its adherents may think it does (as I am), and denying someone’s right to exist (definitely not me!). Thanks again.
omg someone with their own mind banned from twitter - whoda thort?!
Kia kaha for being a good man Paul and for raising awareness of this wrong that has been done to you by Rainbow Youth. I am fully in agreement with your assessment of the dangers of counselling that does not address underlying issues. I have done some thinking about this and from looking at the Stats it appears that one of the impacts of Rainbow Youths approach is that we are putting far more mostly lesbian and gay kids onto cross sex hormones and puberty blockers than anywhere else in the world. By way of an example the youth clinic in Ch'ch has 65 of 100 kids on them. The full figure may be closer to 100% since presumably some of the clinics patients are not yet at puberty or are already on cross sex hormones. There are no NZ figures on this. https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/124409488/call-for-more-research-into-use-of-puberty-blockers In contrast the number of kids medicated in the UK and Australia is no more than a few percent. NZ campaign against the advice on puberty blockers has the comparative information. htpps://www.fullyinformed.nz/gp
Thanks for that information, Jan. I’m troubled by that, on the face of it, to be honest, and if it’s true I would definitely like to know more. Thanks again.
Just to clarify, in the article linked here regarding patients at Youth 298 in Christchurch says that they had 100 gender diverse youth on their books, of which 65 were on puberty blockers. This means 65% of their gender diverse patients are on puberty blockers (not cross sex hormones), which does not equate to 65% of ALL their patients. The article goes further to say that of those on puberty blockers, 80% went on to take hormone therapy. And to clarify the wild misinformation about NZ's figures - about 1.2 per cent of Australian school children are thought to identify as trans, and the figures are similar in NZ. But not all of these children are put onto blockers. Please be careful about how you interpret the information available and never take issues like this "on the face of it". Having said that, Paul you did not deserve to be cut off like that.
If you note my use of the words “if it’s true”, you’ll be able to discern a mind that isn’t taking anything “on the face of it” in this matter, but thank you for your comments nonetheless.
You are correct my first sentence was potentially misleading. But the fact of the matter is that no-one knows how many children in NZ are being medicated because the treatment is highly devolved and no-one is counting. But as to the clinic. You are right. 65 of 100 of the clinics gender diverse patients are on puberty blockers. I don't understand though why you think that 65 of 100 is not 65% now that we have clarified that 65 are receiving puberty blocker medicine.
There are no figures kept in NZ any comparisons are necessarily indicative but from the data that is available show higher levels of diagnosis. So for example Perth population 2.1M. 44 currently receiving Stage One puberty blocker treatment in 2020 . https://www.parliament.wa.gov.au/Hansard/hansard.nsf/0/0DB3155BA3EE05684825873C0019B7D3/$File/C41%20S1%2020210601%20All.pdf Christchurch population 400k has 65 children on puberty blockers. So WA = 1 person in 47,000 (all ages) Ch'ch 1 person in 6150 (all ages) so approx 8* as many per head of population. All kinds of things could confound this - the size of the rural population, the age structure of the population, whether these are the sole sources of gender services - but it accords with other comparisons I have seen and as linked above on Fully Informed
I see you have had to do alot of considering here.
But on the strength of this, I would happily recomend you to Trans.
Good luck
Thank you, Racheal. Much appreciated.
A good read, thank you, then there's someone like me, born at 26 weeks, balanced hormones til they got messed up due to inadvertent medical misadventure (given diuretics from birth (750g) to age 3 (12.5kg)), AMAB, may be intersex, developed menopausal symptoms from age 9 when testosterone really started to dominate although estrogen tried to keep up, then due to the brain not calming down I started tobacco and alcohol to calm the brain and pot to balance the body, eventually found my way onto estrogen and progesterone only (Spiro triggers trauma and cyproterone acetate has bad side effects for me I don't need),
I now know I'm essentially a menopausal and now nearly premenopausal woman that got stuck with guy bits but am ultimately just mashing both bits together and identify as non binary trans femasc (made the last one up because I'm both in the same body...).
Hope this is of interest to you, regards, Kiera
Thank you for your kind words, Paul. I really appreciate them. I am aware of Haidt's work, having read "The Coddling Of The American Mind" a couple of years back. He makes a lot of sense, and I admire how everything he says is grounded in a compassionate common sense.