dutchguylivingintheuk
Veteran
I didn't intended too claim/say/or suggest Drag Queens or Trans persons are the same thing. However in this albeit acknowledging the difference between trans and drag queens i think is both equally wrong in the way they where stopped during those book readings sessions. the reason i mentioned them in one sentence is because they where the two groups invited this year and actively stopped by certain groups. (i should say being paid extra attention to the fact they where invited i don't known if they replaced all ''regular'' speakers which often are child book authors i think)Firstly I don't agree with people who conflate Drag Queens with Transwomen. They are completely different things. Drag Queens do not wish to become women or pretend to be women.
Apart from that i am fundamentally against harrasing anything to get your war, which clearly did happen.To understand why Linehan was campaigning against Mermaids you need to understand what Mermaids is about:-
I agree, i do think there are trans people and yes in some circumstances however as @AuroraSaab pointed out in lenghts and debts in this thread the current medical evidence is very flimpsy to say the least.Linehan was not asking for Mermaids to be silenced. What he was asking is that serious thought be given as to why charity money should be given to a charity which specifically advocates for irreversible life changing medical and surgical intervention on children. In his view, and in the view of many people this is plain wrong.
I agree that advocating too and even performing those operations in the way they are done right now is not correct. There should be an comprehensible medical assement be done prior and it doesn't seem to be the case currently. This is not only my opinion, a shared a part of a channnel 7 documentary a few post above, a few months ago a shared the story of a Canadian trans person who now wants assisted life ending because all the pain the gender correcting operation brought with them and continue to deliver.
Agreed, for example in the Netherlands more and more now adult who got this kind of medicine and operations in their teens are coming out or ''de-transitioning'' because they now say they felt ''tricked'' at the time by getting all kind of medicine and procedures and the first hint of being trans while what they actually needed was mental help.Children in this position need safety and support. Let them do what they need to do for their mental health. But hormone treatment and surgery is in many people's view, not the right way forward. Let the kids grow up into adults. Support them, work with them and then once they are post puberty, then, maybe consider life changing treatment.
Think a better example is women, if you had like a few children you don't want anymore and you want to have everything removed, it won't happen unless you have an medical issue.Even then, many would disagree with medical techniques being used to fundamentally maim / disfigure a perfectly normal body. If someone wants their leg chopped off, it doesn't matter how sincere they are about it. We don't do it.
This is an area that needs open discussion and much thought. My personal view is that this sort of surgery should not be available either via the NHS or privately. But then I would also ban private plastic surgery, which should be used only as treatment (e.g. for disfigurement due to injury). Enjoy your nose, your wrinkles etc. If you can't then it isn't the nose or the wrinkles that are the problem. Most people who have plastic surgery seem to have more and more of it - because how they look is not the problem.
Also agreed, whether or not it should be on the nhs is a seperate discussion, i think far more important is that they do provide proper care and not ''you think you're trans? let get you medicated and book in for surgery'' i mean for those who need it that should still be a way but there is nothing wrong with properly diagnosing if someone really needs it.
Also something i stumbled across is the quality if these operations and the side effects, the more your read the more it seems like poor teens in this situation are more seen as medical experiment then as patients.