Too much for one newsletter!
We have so much to report this month that we have split it into two substacks. This one for general news and another one in a few days with news about the upcoming election and events.
In response to a reader’s query, we can confrm that our subscription list is steadily growing every day and has increased 500% since February. Thank you for being one of our readers, and please share this substack far and wide.
Minister confirms that parents have a say in RSE
In answer to a question in Parliament on 15 August, Minister of Education, Jan Tinetti, confirmed that the ministry’s RSE document is “a guide and not a requirement” and that “schools have a legal obligation to consult with their communities at least every two years about their local health curriculum.” Details about the legal requirements of a meaningful consultation are in this substack: Consultation - use it or lose it.
Inclusive Education policy
Every school must have an ‘Inclusive Education’ policy but, as with so many gender policies, the nice-sounding words hide some discriminatory ideas. SchoolDocs, a private company that provides ready-made policy documents for subscribed schools, is currently reviewing its inclusive education policy template and is seeking feedback from schools. We urge parents to ask to see the school’s ‘Inclusive Education’ policy and provide their own feedback to SchoolDocs. jane@schooldocs.co.nz
Mastectomy scars are cool
Mastectomy scars are being treated as a desirable fashion accessory by the coffee chain, Costa, which has put a cartoon version of a ‘trans man’ on the side of a van. “Cutting off a girl’s healthy breasts is an act of mutilation. Putting a cartoon version of the scars on the side of a van, to advertise a coffee chain, is a new low even for a movement that long ago lost touch with reality.” says Joan Smith in this UnHerd article. (Dr Martens boots, Burberry fashion, and Estrid - a razor company - have also recently featured mastectomy scars in their advertising.)
PATHA doesn’t stand up to scrutiny
Jan Rivers has published a 20 page report assessing the PATHA (Professional Association for Transgender Health Aotearoa) guideline for transgender care. “Like a lot of gender ideology research, the quality is very poor,” she says. “The Guideline does not conform to any of the requirements for producing clinical practice guidelines such as systematic approaches to gathering evidence and designing recommendations. Based on little or no evidence, it also endorses approaches that are extreme - such as advocating for social transition - and ignores the research that shows that 80-90% of kids resolve their gender confusion by the end of puberty. Read the full report here.
American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) review
The AAP, one of the most-cited medical organisations in support of the ‘gender-affirmation’ model of care for gender dysphoric youth, has announced a systematic review of the evidence, recognising “the value of additional detail with five more years of experience since the 2018 policy statement was issued.”
Although the AAP insists they are “confident the principles presented in the original policy remain in the best interests of children,” in every other jurisdiction that has undertaken a similar systematic review, the result has been to regulate for a severe curtailment of that form of care. See our puberty blockers FAQs about Finland, Sweden, France, Florida, the United Kingdon, Norway., and Denmark.
Puberty blockers must be banned
So says, Dr Azeem Ibrahim OBE in this Herald article. “We cannot have activists masquerading as experts to have the final word any longer”.
“Blockers are dangerous and irreversible in their own right, but they also 'lock-in' children to even more devastating outcomes when they would likely have recovered from the dysphoria without intervention – if only doctors had let them. It is not reality that is causing most of these young people to commit suicide, it is collaborating with a mental disorder with body and mind-altering drugs.”
Denmark joins countries restricting youth gender transitions.
A major medical journal Ugeskrift for Læger, the Journal of the Danish Medical Association, confirmed that there has been a marked shift in the country’s approach to caring for youth with gender dysphoria. Most youth referred to the centralized gender clinic no longer get a prescription for puberty blockers, hormones or surgery—instead they receive therapeutic counselling and support.
Ministry of Health delays its puberty blocker review
For several months, the Ministry of Health has been undertaking a review, "examining whether or not puberty blockers can be considered safe and fully reversible". Last week it announced a delay to its report to widen the scope of the investigation to include mental health and wellbeing outcomes.
"Originally, the scope of this work was focused on safety, reversibility, and long-term clinical outcomes of puberty blockers for gender-dysphoric adolescents," the Ministry of Health said. "The Ministry will now also take a careful look at the impact of any changes to the mental health and well-being of those who may be considering puberty blockers."
As above: in every other jurisdiction that has undertaken a similar systematic review, the result has been to regulate for a severe curtailment of that form of care. See our puberty blockers FAQs about Finland, Sweden, France, Florida, the United Kingdon, Norway., and Denmark.
Update on the USA
There has been a confusing plethora of new state laws, appeals, subpoenas, judgements and counter-judgements in seventeen US states this year regarding transgender issues, particularly medical care for minors and protection for women’s sport. (The above linked article and this one both criticise these new laws but provide a useful overview, nevertheless.)
The latest skirmish is a court brief in defence of Missouri’s law restricting gender change for minors, filed by Alabama’s Attorney-General and 15 other Republican states. “While medical organizations are certainly capable of establishing true, evidence-based standards of care [for the distress of gender dysphoria], they have utterly failed to act responsibly when it comes to pediatric gender transition procedures,” the amicus brief says.
This substack from Bernard Lane (Gender Critical News), provides an excellent analysis of the battle in the US and how “The World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) and American medical societies have sacrificed child safety and standards of scientific evidence in pursuit of fashionable causes and financial self-interest.”
The Bad Law Project
The Bad Law Project in the UK is suing the Department for Education for negligence for promoting gender ideology in schools despite its forseeable harms. It is calling for more parents, teachers and detransitioners to join the first ten litigants. The case also seeks to have gender ideology properly defined in law to expose its political extremism.
PITT - Parents with Inconvenient Truths about Trans
It is free to subscribe to this substack. Here are two recent posts that are recommended reading:
PITT has also just released a book:
Visit our website for more links to items by Leor Sapir, Richard Dawkins, Helen Joyce, and others.
Thank you for the wonderful work you are doing to inform NZ about this growing problem. At the moment, I suspect that the vast majority of the citizenry is blissfully unaware of the situation here or thinks it's some sort of fad that doesn't affect many people and will soon blow over. Which is of course, just following the playbook of the trans lobby, which knows that most sane people don't agree that mammals can change sex (or any of the other crap they tout), so uses stealth and secrecy to implement changes into laws, which are then difficult to reverse.
"Be kind" starts with accommodating the use of incorrect pronouns and ends with men watching girls getting undressed in the "women's only" section of the changing rooms at the local pool. It also includes deliberately lying to children and facilitating their harm which sentences them to becoming unwell patients for life (which here, we are all paying for).
it's very difficult to even raise the trans topic here in new zealand. people are scared and submissive since the lockdowns. any expression of possible 'wrong thinking' makes most people flinch and turn away lest they be tainted by association.