The Impact of Changing Gender

New Zealand clinicians are not removing testes, making men watch pictures of men, giving electric shocks to their penis or brain, telling a man he is mentally defective, ostracising, or hating men if they are homosexual. No one is tied up and thrown off a high building, at least not in this country.

No Kiwi (in their right mind) would endorse forcing homosexuals to become straight. These accusations (apart from being thrown off a high building) are some of the stories that were brought up in Parliament by members of the Labour party. It was as though the horrific past treatment of homosexuals was still being carried out today and given as reasons to ban Conversion Therapy.

On Thursday 5^th August, Labour introduced the Conversion Practices Prohibition Legislation Bill for its first reading.

The National Party supported the intent of the Bill but was the only party to vote against the legislation. Kris Faafoi could not give definitive answers to some hypothetical questions.

Simon Bridges, said the National Party caucus supported the bill’s intent, but not as it is currently worded. He wants the legislation tightened to ensure parents are protected from prosecution.  Parents should be allowed to be parents and explore sexuality and gender with their children                                                                

RNZ 5 Aug.

This bill criminalises clinicians, teachers, parents and counsellors by taking away the right to suggest delaying life-changing decisions, such as gender transitioning and/or hormonal treatment/puberty blockers.

National wants parents to be able to discuss the pros and cons with a curious or questioning child/teenager. National want the bill ‘tightened.’ As it stands, parents could be criminalised for delaying the ‘conversion’ of their child’s body. The bill bans the withholding of puberty blockers for a twelve-year-old boy for example because it is “conversion therapy” to stop him from making a life-changing decision about his body. Yet giving him hormones to ‘convert’ that same boy’s body, is not considered conversion therapy.

The Labour Party has eight LGBTQ MPs. Both the Labour benches including Greens and the supporters in the gallery barracked, jeered, yelled and disrupted each National speaker. The chairpersons allowed (their own) Labour members and their supporters to carry on like a rowdy sneering rabble, before asking them twice to quieten down. Their behaviour was opprobrious, and this is our so-called democratic government? ACT’s Nicole McKee had to ask for the noise to quieten as she could not hear the speakers.

The opposition speakers were respectful and did not interrupt government speakers. The ACT party voted for the bill, waiting for the select committee process to make changes.  

In Australia in February, a similar bill was passed after a marathon 12-hour debate in the Upper House. The Change and Suppression (Conversion) Practices Prohibition Bill 2020 (Vic) was not popular.  There was huge opposition to it by the Law Institute, Australian Medical Association and most faith groups. It was seen as an attack on parents’ rights and religious freedom and introduces new criminal offences. The ACL (Australian Christian Lobby) was disappointed that the Bill will come into law at the end of this year but acknowledged a small victory when some MPs broke ranks and crossed the floor to vote against the bill.

The ACL Flyer makes five statements about the effect of the Act:

1. Parents could be jailed for up to 10 years under the Act.
2. The law has “made sure” that you are prohibited from telling your child to wait until they are older before pursuing transgender therapies if they tell you they are transgender.
3. Professional therapists are prohibited from dissuading a child from gender transitioning.
4. You could be criminally prosecuted for seeking an opinion interstate.
5. Your neighbour can report you for having the “wrong” conversation with your kids and the Government has the power to receive, investigate and prosecute these complaints.

https://www.acl.org.au/blog_vic_flyer_statements  (Fuller definitions of those five points).

The impact of therapies and surgeries should not be suppressed. There are a growing number of transgender young adults who are making a conscious decision to take action to revert to their gender identity given at birth. (post-trans.com)

Redditt has a detransitioning Group that has over 9,000 readers.

Sinead Watson speaks for 5 mins about her regret about transitioning and how she feels betrayed by the Gender Therapy Clinic as they ought to have explored her other issues.)

There are individuals who wish they had been ‘challenged more’ and are now suing the NHS. There are others who are begging clinicians (and parents) not to lie (BBC 20 Ellie and Nele) about the impact of changing one’s gender.

In 2020 in the United Kingdom, 23-year-old Keira Bell joined a lawsuit against the NHS Gender Identity Development Service Bell was prescribed puberty blockers at age 16 and testosterone a year later, and had her breasts removed before stopping hormone treatments and reidentifying as a woman. She states that she should have been “challenged more” by the gender clinic, criticising the lack of therapy or questioning she received before being prescribed the puberty blockers. The High Court ruled “It is highly unlikely that a child aged 13 or under would be competent to give consent to the administration of puberty blockers”, also “It is doubtful that a child aged 14 or 15 could understand and weigh the long-term risks and consequences of the administration of puberty blockers” and “In respect of young persons aged 16 and over, the legal position is that there is a presumption that they have the ability to consent to medical treatment“.                        

(Bold added) Wikipaedia ‘Detransitioning’

The lack of academic research means there are no guidelines to question whether transitioning is the right solution.

This bill will likely be passed as Labour have the numbers. National know they will be lambasted by Labour and the Greens and perhaps some liberals in their own party.

Parents will need to set up support groups to handle the shock of not being able to talk to their child about this gender roller coaster. If the rights of parents to parent their children is taken away, this will become a legal mess and clinicians may face future legal action.

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