The guidelines PATHA has released independently are the version that had already been approved by Te Whatu Ora’s Clinical Governance Group and Executive Leadership Team and were meant to be published in March 2025, hence why the Te Whatu Ora logo is present. It was only the Minister of Health, Simeon Brown, who had been preventing their release for political reasons.
Thank you for pointing out that PATHA, like its parent organization WPATH, is about as far from a "professional" group as one can get. Can anyone who pays a membership fee join a doctor's, nurse's, lawyer's or engineer's group just because they want to? Um, that would be a nope.
To start a boy on puberty blockers at Tanner Stage 3 would be considered a late start by WPATH and even then, it is doubtful that any viable sperm could be preserved. I wrote here about the effects of puberty blockers on future fertility: https://lucyleader.substack.com/p/removing-the-possibility-of-normal
We don't need to do any further research around the loss of fertility that puberty blockers initiate because the study of pediatric cancer treatment on fertility is very clear about what happens to reproductive capacity in children when their lives are disrupted by giving them certain drugs that affect their future parental possibilities. The difference is that children with cancer will die without treatment, while children who are unhappy with their sexed bodies will mostly be fine if supported through this normal stage of human development.
It is impossible to obtain informed consent from prepubescent children to start them on the path to becoming lifetime medical patients, which is what puberty blockers do. The reason every country on the planet has legislation that creates age-related restrictions around activities that adults engage in is because it is well understood that immature brains lack the capacity to make sound decisions that take into consideration everything that may affect the outcome of those decisions.
The concept of "time to think" is totally ridiculous when you realize that puberty is the last step on ending up with a mature adult brain, which is a time sensitive period in our development. To not experience puberty is to miss out on an important stage in becoming an adult. https://lucyleader.substack.com/p/time-critical-brain-development
Health NZ should demand that PATHA remove its logo from the guidelines on PATHA’s website. PATHA has proven that it’s not an organisation with integrity, and I can only see their behaviour getting worse as more of the shonky ways of transactivists get exposed.
I attended a completely misguided presentation called “The benefits of Puberty Blockers” given by a New Zealander named John Fenaughty at the University of Victoria in British Columbia. There were only two members of the public attending in person. During the non-recorded portion afterward, I asked good-faith, pointed questions. Fenaughty asserted then that he “highly doubts” my assertion that there are many parents who would be “delighted to have a gay son” but extremely wary of endorsing a young boy’s body modifications, especially blocking his puberty. Fenaughty struck me as someone who possibly got teased a lot as a boy for being effeminate. https://youtu.be/F4rd8fZLgBs
John Fenaughty's Maori prounciation is appalling, truly appalling. As a fellow NZer I am so ashamed. The Chair, who should know better, coming from a Canada, a country that also has indigenous people and who is not a NZer, could have also paid the people of NZ the compliment of seeking guidance on his pronounciation of Maori words. Paying meticulous attention to pronounciation when visiting other countries is not unknown to thinking 'international' people/speakers. I had the experience of attending a Powhiri on a marae with my boss at the time, a Minister of the Crown. Also being hosted was a member of a UK landed gentry/Peer who was a subject matter expert on the topic being discussed on the marae. He had taken the time to consult people about the format of his speech, ie the expectation of referring to those who had gone before, the tribe that was hosting him and a simple Mihi in Maori. He had not got a waiata memorised so I was able to get up with him and do my version of E Hara (a very simple song that I was always good- naturedly teased about it being 'a Kindergarten song") and of course was joined by all and sundry. But please, please NZers and visitors to NZ if you want to pay our country a compliment do seek guidance on the pronunciation. I know from walking in the world that any attempt at Maori will be welcomed by our hosts. But wouldn't it be so much better, and the ultimate compliment, if we took care with our pronunciation and came across as the English Peer did and wow people with the care to all details. I am pretty sure also that had there been any indigenous Canadians there that speaking their language/s or at the very least taking care with the pronunciation would have been welcomed. Turning to his talk, Fenaughty clearly(?) giving him the benefit of the doubt, seeks a more inclusive way forward and that is fine. We might not all agree with the path but many of us do want to walk a positive way forward where people are accepted for what they are and what they can bring. I can't help thinking/feeling dismay though that if the standard of his scholarship matches the lack of care he has taken with his pronunication that this scholarship may also be lacking.
Thanks for this.
Of course they went on after your report to get the ban halted by a court challenge.
They really do need to go. Presumably their government funding will now disappear.
Have cross posted.
https://dustymasterson.substack.com/p/le-jour-se-leve
Dusty
The guidelines PATHA has released independently are the version that had already been approved by Te Whatu Ora’s Clinical Governance Group and Executive Leadership Team and were meant to be published in March 2025, hence why the Te Whatu Ora logo is present. It was only the Minister of Health, Simeon Brown, who had been preventing their release for political reasons.
Am I correct in assuming that these matters have been brought to the attention of the Minister of Health? What a shoddy waste of taxpayer's money!
Letter sent this morning. More letters would help.
Thank you for pointing out that PATHA, like its parent organization WPATH, is about as far from a "professional" group as one can get. Can anyone who pays a membership fee join a doctor's, nurse's, lawyer's or engineer's group just because they want to? Um, that would be a nope.
To start a boy on puberty blockers at Tanner Stage 3 would be considered a late start by WPATH and even then, it is doubtful that any viable sperm could be preserved. I wrote here about the effects of puberty blockers on future fertility: https://lucyleader.substack.com/p/removing-the-possibility-of-normal
We don't need to do any further research around the loss of fertility that puberty blockers initiate because the study of pediatric cancer treatment on fertility is very clear about what happens to reproductive capacity in children when their lives are disrupted by giving them certain drugs that affect their future parental possibilities. The difference is that children with cancer will die without treatment, while children who are unhappy with their sexed bodies will mostly be fine if supported through this normal stage of human development.
It is impossible to obtain informed consent from prepubescent children to start them on the path to becoming lifetime medical patients, which is what puberty blockers do. The reason every country on the planet has legislation that creates age-related restrictions around activities that adults engage in is because it is well understood that immature brains lack the capacity to make sound decisions that take into consideration everything that may affect the outcome of those decisions.
The concept of "time to think" is totally ridiculous when you realize that puberty is the last step on ending up with a mature adult brain, which is a time sensitive period in our development. To not experience puberty is to miss out on an important stage in becoming an adult. https://lucyleader.substack.com/p/time-critical-brain-development
Hear, hear!
Health NZ should demand that PATHA remove its logo from the guidelines on PATHA’s website. PATHA has proven that it’s not an organisation with integrity, and I can only see their behaviour getting worse as more of the shonky ways of transactivists get exposed.
I attended a completely misguided presentation called “The benefits of Puberty Blockers” given by a New Zealander named John Fenaughty at the University of Victoria in British Columbia. There were only two members of the public attending in person. During the non-recorded portion afterward, I asked good-faith, pointed questions. Fenaughty asserted then that he “highly doubts” my assertion that there are many parents who would be “delighted to have a gay son” but extremely wary of endorsing a young boy’s body modifications, especially blocking his puberty. Fenaughty struck me as someone who possibly got teased a lot as a boy for being effeminate. https://youtu.be/F4rd8fZLgBs
John Fenaughty's Maori prounciation is appalling, truly appalling. As a fellow NZer I am so ashamed. The Chair, who should know better, coming from a Canada, a country that also has indigenous people and who is not a NZer, could have also paid the people of NZ the compliment of seeking guidance on his pronounciation of Maori words. Paying meticulous attention to pronounciation when visiting other countries is not unknown to thinking 'international' people/speakers. I had the experience of attending a Powhiri on a marae with my boss at the time, a Minister of the Crown. Also being hosted was a member of a UK landed gentry/Peer who was a subject matter expert on the topic being discussed on the marae. He had taken the time to consult people about the format of his speech, ie the expectation of referring to those who had gone before, the tribe that was hosting him and a simple Mihi in Maori. He had not got a waiata memorised so I was able to get up with him and do my version of E Hara (a very simple song that I was always good- naturedly teased about it being 'a Kindergarten song") and of course was joined by all and sundry. But please, please NZers and visitors to NZ if you want to pay our country a compliment do seek guidance on the pronunciation. I know from walking in the world that any attempt at Maori will be welcomed by our hosts. But wouldn't it be so much better, and the ultimate compliment, if we took care with our pronunciation and came across as the English Peer did and wow people with the care to all details. I am pretty sure also that had there been any indigenous Canadians there that speaking their language/s or at the very least taking care with the pronunciation would have been welcomed. Turning to his talk, Fenaughty clearly(?) giving him the benefit of the doubt, seeks a more inclusive way forward and that is fine. We might not all agree with the path but many of us do want to walk a positive way forward where people are accepted for what they are and what they can bring. I can't help thinking/feeling dismay though that if the standard of his scholarship matches the lack of care he has taken with his pronunication that this scholarship may also be lacking.
Thanks for the link. Fenaughty and co are determined to keep on playing the same discredited tune while the ship sinks.
Brazen and arrogant mask-drop move by PATHA. Lets see it receive the reciprocal contempt it has now publicly solicited.
Thanks for the factcheck RGE, timely!