MP Jackie Doyle-Price slams ‘dangerous’ LGBT movement which encourages transgender children
MP Jackie Doyle-Price accuses transgender lobby groups of turning gender stereotyping into a ‘science’ by encouraging girls as young as 10 to believe they’re ‘not female’ and to take puberty-blocking drugs
- MP has shared her concerns at encouraging young girls going through puberty to consider the fact they are not ‘women’
- Conservative MP Jackie Doyle-Price called for LGBT groups consider their care of duty when encouraging the use of puberty blockers for trans children
- Addressed speech she made in the House of Common on Women’s Day, where she criticised the availability of gender reassignment treatment for young
- Called it ‘dangerous’ and said we ‘need to give children the chance to grow up’
By Jessica Rach For Mailonline
Published: 03:08 EDT, 14 July 2020 | Updated: 03:14 EDT, 14 July 2020
An MP has shared her concerns at transgender lobby groups encouraging young girls going through puberty to consider the fact they are not ‘women’, and called for them consider their care of duty when offering the use of puberty blockers for trans children.
Conservative MP for Thurrock and former health minister, Jackie Doyle-Price, addressed the speech she made in the House of Common on International Women’s Day in March, during which she criticised the availability of transgender interventions and gender reassignment treatment for girls ‘well below the age of majority’.
Speaking on womens’ rights campaigner Kellie-Jay Keen’s radio show, Jackie said that far from promoting equality, the transgender movement is making things worse by trying to put a lable on children’s gender identities.
She explained: ‘It’s really regressive that we’ve almost re-adopted gender stereotyping and almost turned it into a science, to the extent that girls going growing up – and we all know going through puberty is not a pleasant time and some girls will feel very uncomfortable with their bodies.
‘And the fact this movement is encouraging them to think “Well, you might not really be a girl” in childhood, I just think is so dangerous. And we just need to give children the chance to grow up.’
Conservative MP for Thurrock and former health minister, Jackie Doyle-Price, addressed the speech she made in the House of Common on International Women’s Day in March, during which she criticised the availability of transgender interventions and gender reassignment treatment for girls ‘well below the age of majority’
Calling on other MPs to address sensitive topics more openly, she said: ‘We shouldn’t run away from risky topics, that’s what we’re elected to do.
‘When I was health minister these issues started to cross my desk, and it’s one of these things that until it touches you, you don’t really know what’s going on.’
She continued: ‘I grew up in the 1980s where we fought against gender stereotyping, and it feels as though we’re regressing.
She added: ‘It’s become so established that those of those who question things are seen as nutty right-wing extremists, actually I’m really not – far from it.
The Gender Identity Development Service is offered at The Tavistock Centre in London (seen)
‘It’s not about being against trans women, or the fact that we want to maintain women’s identities. The two shouldn’t be pitted against each other, there’s room for all of us.’
Arguing that women aren’t allowed to speak their mind without being trolled and pigeon-holed, she referred to JK Rowling, who came under fire last month after tweeting against the use of the phrase ‘people who menstruate’.
Jackie Doyle-Price said: ‘Look at JK Rowling, who is a master with her pen and writes elegantly and beautifully, and there was nothing that could be misconstrued as hateful, but the degree to which she gets that pile-on from men is quite sick.
Speaking on womens’ rights campaigner Kellie-Jay Keen’s r adio show , Jackie called it ‘dangerous’ and argued that we ‘need to give children the chance to grow up’
Jackie Doyle-Price’s speech on International Women’s Day
‘I am particularly uncomfortable that the debate around trans rights and gender dysphoria has become pitted against the rights of women. It is surely not beyond the wit of policymakers to devise a set of rules and principles that protect the rights of transsexuals to find a way of living their lives and not discriminate against women at the same time.
‘Parliament has failed to give proper oversight of the growing number of transgender interventions for younger people. We have allowed treatments to develop at the Tavistock really unsupervised. This is no criticism of the medical professionals there, who clearly are doing their work with the best of intentions, but we need to look at the ethics of some of this and the practicalities of it.
‘We are seeing more and more girls being referred for gender reassignment treatment. We are talking about girls well below the age of majority. I personally am very uncomfortable — well, I think it is wrong — about putting forward people for treatment that is irreversible when they are not in a position legally to give consent. We really need to be more honest about the challenges of puberty.
‘Puberty is horrible. I was a tomboy when I was growing up—that probably does not surprise hon. Members. When I got to my teens and suddenly felt my body changing, it was horrible. I hated every minute of it. I cannot believe what might have happened to me now, going through that. I carried on climbing trees and so on, and playing at being “CHiPs” rather than “Charlie’s Angels”, but now I would be on my iPad and I would suddenly find lots of other people who thought like me and then — guess what? — all those people are going to the Tavistock.
It scares the hell out of me. I fear we are doing harm to girls when actually this is something that they could just be going through. It is quite a normal thing not to be comfortable with what is happening to our bodies. The fact that so many of the girls who are going for such treatment also have issues with autism frightens me even more.
‘I was contacted by a parent just this week who thanked me for something that I had said about this issue. She wanted to talk about the experience she had had with her daughter, who is on the spectrum. As she said, one of the classic symptoms of autism is that, as a sort of self-defence tactic, you become a different personality.
‘When we think about that in the context of puberty and unhappiness with the way your body is changing, of course it is a natural response to pretend to be a different gender. I really think we have failed in this House; we have not given sufficient scrutiny and debate to a treatment which, frankly, if it is given out wrong, will do real harm to those girls and boys who go through it. I hope that this is something that we can give more attention to in future.’
‘Twitter ends up being a horrible place, where everything is painted as black and white.
‘There’s a duty of care on the LGBT lobby to think about this, screaming about this from the rooftops is not a good way to get to tolerance.’
She added: ‘We seem to have developed a culture of organisations taking advice from respected lobby groups as gospel, when actually, sitting behind that is an agenda. It means that in schools, it’s actually done with the best of intentions, but is actually potentially doing harm.
‘[The influence of lobby groups] is definitely something that the government needs to look at’.
What are puberty-blockers?
Children can request puberty blockers before they hit puberty.
They are said to give children ‘breathing space’ to decide if they wish to be a different gender, by preventing changes to their body such as their voice getting deeper or breasts growing.
If they then decide they want to, at 16 they can begin the physical transition from male to female, or female to male, using the ‘cross-sex’ hormones oestrogen or testosterone.
They can also change their mind and come off the hormone-blockers before reaching a further stage, at which time puberty would happen normally.
In 2018 the UK’s Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) saw almost 1,200 children under 15 referred to the service last year, with 63 under-15s sent on to its endocrinology clinic, of whom the majority took powerful puberty-blockers.
In August Health chiefs revealed they were reviewing the service, which gives transgender children drugs to pause puberty.
The country’s top health organisation, NHS England, said they were investigating issues around hormone-blocking drugs prescribed to under-18s to ‘pause’ their adolescence and prevent changes to the body like breasts or facial hair.
Children as young as 10 are being referred for hormone-blocking drugs, despite concerns they could cause emotional problems and long-term effects on the brain and body which are not yet known.
The ongoing NHS England review came as Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust, which runs GIDS, is considering doctors seeing children who think they are transgender over Skype in order to cope with the surge in demand, which has led to a two-year waiting list.
Puberty blockers are said to give children ‘breathing space’ to decide if they wish to be a different gender, by preventing distressing changes to their body such as their voice getting deeper or breasts growing.
If they then decide they want to, at 16 they can begin the physical transition from male to female, or female to male, using the ‘cross-sex’ hormones oestrogen or testosterone.
They can also change their mind and come off the hormone-blockers before reaching a further stage, at which time puberty would happen normally.
JK Rowling, who came under fire last month after tweeting against the use of ‘people who menstruate’ phrase
A timeline of the controversy
Saturday, June 6 – Rowling’s speaks out against use of ‘people who menstruate’ phrase
Rowling retweets an opinion article published on website Devex which bore the headline, ‘Creating a more equal post-COVID-19 world for people who menstruate’.
Above the article, she slammed the use of the phrase, which was used to include transgender men who were born women and are still capable of menstruating. She wrote: ‘I’m sure there used to be a word for those people. Someone help me out. Wumben? Wimpund? Woomud?’
Her tweet immediately provoked a barrage of criticism from her LGBTQ followers.
The author then responded to the criticism by retweeting a gay fan’s comment which slammed ‘extremists’ for ‘insisting biological sex is an illusion’.
Ms Rowling added: ‘If sex isn’t real, there’s no same-sex attraction.
‘If sex isn’t real, the lived reality of women globally is erased.
‘I know and love trans people, but erasing the concept of sex removes the ability of many to meaningfully discuss their lives. It isn’t hate to speak the truth.’
Sunday, June 7 – Ms Rowling responds to critics
As the criticism continued, Ms Rowling spoke out again by adding to the same Twitter thread.
She wrote: ‘The idea that women like me, who’ve been empathetic to trans people for decades, feeling kinship because they’re vulnerable in the same way as women – ie, to male violence – ‘hate’ trans people because they think sex is real and has lived consequences – is a nonsense.’
‘I respect every trans person’s right to live any way that feels authentic and comfortable to them. I’d march with you if you were discriminated against on the basis of being trans. At the same time, my life has been shaped by being female. I do not believe it’s hateful to say so.’
Tuesday, June 9 – Daniel Radcliffe speaks out against Ms Rowling’s comments
Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe penned an opinion piece for The Trevor Project which criticised Rowling.
He wrote: ‘To all the people who now feel that their experience of the books has been tarnished or diminished, I am deeply sorry for the pain these comments have caused you’.
He added that ‘transgender women are women’ and said people should not view his words as evidence of ‘infighting’ between himself and Ms Rowling.
Wednesday, June 10 – Eddie Redmayne adds to the criticism
Fantastic Beast And Where To Find Them star, 38, Eddie Redmayne joined in the chorus of critics towards Rowling. In a statement released to Variety, Eddie responded: ‘As someone who has worked with both J.K. Rowling and members of the trans community…
‘I wanted to make it absolutely clear where I stand. I disagree with Jo’s comments. Trans women are women, trans men are men and non-binary identities are valid.’
Other stars, including Jameela Jamil and Jonathan Van Ness also rounded on the author.
Wednesday, June 10 – Ms Rowling reveals she was sexually assaulted and details her ‘violent’ first marriage
