The closure of the UK’s only dedicated gender identity clinic for children and young people at London’s Tavistock clinic is a dramatic decision after an independent review, found it left young people “at considerable risk” of poor mental health and distress “.
It follows days after a barrister won part of a tribunal claim that she was discriminated against because of her objection to self-ID.
The tectonic plates in the zeitgeist are shifting with the inexplicable mania force-fed into the cultural mainstream by the extreme transgender lobby finally being challenged effectively.
In recent years Stonewall, having won its key lesbian/gay arguments by 2014, searched around for another reason to exist and landed on trans rights, which it proceeded to promote vehemently. At the height of its power, more than 950 organisations were signed up to its diversity training programme. Many/most have now exited. See previous post April 16 2022.
But the Tavistock story has been on the go for longer. 18 years ago a nurse blew the whistle on the fast-track, ask-no-questions policy of shunting teenagers onto hormone treatment. Nothing was done and over the years numerous safeguarding issues were flagged, all discounted. A 2005 review raised questions about puberty blockers saying there was a lack of robust evidence for their use. More than 40 clinicians quit over a three year period, saying their concerns had been “shut down”.
Allegations include that children are rushed to medical treatment, that doctors were “converting” gay children into thinking that they were trans and medics were failing to consider other mental health issues that vulnerable young people were suffering. Two Trans groups who were campaigning hard and appeared to have considerable influence at the clinic were Mermaids and the Gender Identity Research and Education Society (GIRES).
Both of those groups were set up in the mid 1990s – Mermaids 1995 and GIRES in 1997/1998 – as Pluto got under way in Sagittarius, 1995 to 2008. I’ve always associated Pluto in Sagittarius with narrow-minded fanaticism and to a degree is associated with Al Quaeda who emerged at the same time – extreme religious or political beliefs. Certainly dogmatic.
Pluto is poised to shift sign for the second time since 1995 into Aquarius and there does appear to be an uprooting from the past. Pluto often accompanies a rise and fall, sometimes on the next sign change and sometimes the one after.
The Gender Identity Research Education Society was registered as a charity on 13 February 1998 which gives it an Aquarius Sun which is being given a sharp reality check by tr Saturn conjunct at the moment. Tr Saturn in Pisces will dampen its enthusiasm further in 2023 and put the brakes on its pushy-confidence by hitting the Jupiter square Pluto; plus it will sag under a devastating and confused tr Pluto conjunct Neptune in 2023/24.
Stonewall, 24 May 1989, is also in considerable disarray with the Solar Arc Saturn Neptune conjunction in square to the Pluto last year and this; and tr Saturn pouring cold water on its Sun, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus in Gemini in 2023.
What is puzzling is why the Tavistock Clinic should have gone so far astray since it used to be a renowned institution. Started in 1920 with its first child patient seen on 27 September it has a Libra Sun, and Mercury and Venus (not conjunct) with a super-strength Jupiter in Virgo, opposition an innovative Uranus in a healing Water Grand Trine to Pluto and a Scorpio North Node.
Stonewall also has an emphasised Jupiter on the focal point of a Yod to Pluto sextile Neptune Saturn.
When Jupiter gets it right it is a social force for good. When it gets it wrong it turns into a blinkered, narrow-minded zealot, arrogantly dismissive of any criticism.
Obviously anyone suffering from genuine gender dysphoria should be offered effective help and treatment as well as sympathy. Best estimates put number of transgender individuals in UK around 1% and much the same for the USA.
Add On: The British Psychological Society, 24 October 1901, will have had some members working at the Tavistock. The BPS social media feeds indicate both a no-questions-asked transgender stance (no pre-therapy required and under sixteens capable of giving medical consent to puberty blockers) and senior psychologists objecting to a ‘revered’ institution lending its’ name to such an activist agenda.
The BPS chart has a Scorpio Sun catching this October’s Solar Eclipse and the Lunar Eclipse hitting on its Mercury in Scorpio – so a challenging year at a crossroads with crises forcing a rethink. That is only the advance warning of tr Pluto square the Sun from early 2023/till late 2024 which will pull down old attitudes and structures and necessitate a rebuilding out of the ashes on the far side. It could even hint at the possibility of an internal ‘civil war. Not necessarily just on this issue but on general strategy. The Solar Arc Saturn is also conjunct the South Node at the moment suggesting it is getting dragged backwards.
It was founded at the time of the revolutionary Uranus opposition Pluto which will have put it through several tumultuous periods in the past, though this is its first hard Pluto Sun transit.
[I’m not great fan having first hand experience of where the BPS and other such organisations have been on the wrong side of history before on other issues.]
Good to see this Marjorie. And thanks to Maya Forstater and Allison Bailey for emboldening us.
As to Stonewalls chart, all that Gemini all that Capricorn i.e all that social capital, has reduced to Institutional capture and authoritarian grifting ala mafia
Hopefully countries like Canada (where it is illegal to do anything but affirmation) will finally acknowledge the shift that is happening in England, Sweden and France.
The Cass interim report stated that only 10% of the youth referred to the Tavistock were put on puberty blockers and still the service was investigated and shut down.
Compare that to 62.4% of the children put on blockers at Canada’s ten main gender clinics.
It will be interesting to find out how traditional safeguarding have been dismantled or overlooked, in the pursuit of using untested medical therapies on children. Especially since the majority of these kids were vulnerable to begin with. Co-morbidities like autism, depression, self-harm or experience of abuse, figure prominently in this cohort.
Hi Marjorie
If possible, could you please do a post on BACP (British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy), a registered charity and limited company, which is the governing body to all the therapists working at the Tavistock. I wonder how this latest news will affect BACP, if at all.
Much appreciated.
I can’t find specific dates for except 1977 and 2000. But it would need a medical doctor to prescribe puberty blockers and I can’t see where a therapist would come in since the patients/clients were clearly given no opportunity to talk much.
The Tavistock uses therapists/ psychologists to asses the child first before the doctor prescribes the blocker. Or rather, they didnt use therapists for as long as many of the therapists thought was necessary to get to the root of what is going on. If child has been “socially tranistioned” by their family and school before coming to the clinic ( this means following a idea from the USA and presenting as the opposite sex, using oposite pronouns in all environments) then obviously a therapist with any sensitivity is not going to get past that facade in just a couple of sessions. So then the child goes onto the doctor who prescribes the blockers and the doctor at the gender clinic then refers the child onto an endocrinologist at another institution. The Swedish documentary “Trans train” shows what can go wrong when the endocrinologists and doctors at the gender clinic try to communicate with each other – or rather dont communicate with each other as they have no history of doing to prior to the introduction of puberty blockers. So side effects from the blockers are not recorded as they should be.
The British Psyclologocal Society are also firmly behind transgender ideology and transing children even though some of their members have do not agree with this and are vocal about it on social media.
The British Psychological Society was founded on 24 October 1901 at University College London
Thanks for that. Have added a paragraph or two. Quite instructive the BPS chart – and the official BPS twitter feeds on transgender are frankly alarming.
A few thoughts I’ve been having. I’m wondering if when Pluto moves into Aquarius if we will begin to embrace more of a spectrum of gender rather than a simple binary. I also wonder if someone who knows something about generational astrology can examine the trend of young people to move past binary gender assignments. I live in San Francisco which is a kind of haven for trans people and have gotten to know people, adults, who have transitioned from their previous gender assignments; ALL of them are terrific, well balanced and thoughtful people. I also know a few parents with young people in their late teens- early 20s who are trans and each of these parents (I only know 3) have said that the hormone therapy has made a huge difference in their child’s well being.
I remember the 70s when I was involved in gay liberation and the acrimony and fear, I can only speak to my experience here in the US, but it is reminiscent of the physical and political attacks gay people have suffered through. Much has changed, thank the gods! In time, I believe people whose nature is to live outside of gender binaries will also come to as integrated into societies as gay people are.
Sadly Frank I’m not sure gay people are integrated into all societies. They still face discrimination and even persecution in many parts of the world
When Jupiter gets it right it is a social force for good. When it gets it wrong it turns into a blinkered, narrow-minded zealot, arrogantly dismissive of any criticism.
Over 80% of gender non-conforming kids with body dysmorphia, desist once they complete a natural puberty. More often than not, they realize that they are gay.
Adults are free to live their best lives. Let the bookish non-sporty boys do their thing. Same with tomboys. Love them for who they are.
Puberty blocking drugs have a host of known longterm side effects. Infamously used to castrate sex offenders, most were originally used for only the short term, on adults with conditions like prostatitis or endometriosis.
Medicalizing kids with experimental drug treatments and life altering surgeries, which sterilize them, is no kindness.
Have a look at reddit’s detransition section. 35,000 members. It is sobering reading.
I have little idea of the planetary aspects but above description of Jupiter certainly seems apt.
I went and looked at the Reddit. You are right. I am really glad “they” did not get ahold of me as a teenager. I am a woman who grew into being a woman. As a teenager I had a lot of envy for the freedom and agency the boys had, and that is what I wanted, freedom an agency, not a change of sex. As it is, I majored in engineering, held my own with the boys in school, have had a successful career, and that has been my task in the world, changing how men think about women. I manage all male teams. Does this mean I need to become a “Guy”? or run around in frilly dresses to be a “Girl”? Have we as a collective we really become that shallow? I took all the pre-requisites to go to medical school, including Human anatomy and physiology, biology, more – I have studied deeply. X and Y chromosomes do matter, no matter how much unhappy people want to shout it out of existence. All men have a female side. All women have a male side. Have we forgotten all this?
.so do I Trish. I recently heard a young NZ woman saying all they do is treat gender, than, us teens have other issues causing our distress, but they are going straight to gender. She meant our local mental health services. I think it is time for a big pause regarding these clinics world wide and probably investigation especially the transition of young autistic women to trans.
I have long had particular concerns regarding the number of children with autism being treated by the Tavistock. The clinic appeared to make little allowance for how people with this condition can become focused with the idea that all the problems they experience are due to their being of the wrong gender. A clear example of the blinketed Jupiter in my opinion.
I have long had concerns with the evergrowing number of children with Autism, full stop.
The definition and diagnosis keeps broadening and broadening so much so that I believe this is possibly as much a social contagion as Anorexia and gender dysphoria can be.
Certainly its been flagged up enough over the years and alarm bells rung, but again it comes from the states where its big business and of course, saturates the web, with the same kind of welcoming tribes with their specific lingo and catcheisms.
Neptune in Pisces, over identification, and following the shoal as it swims copllectively in pattern.