Noise demo announced to confront anti-trans London conference

A campaign group which wants to block gender affirming care for trans people is coming to London for a conference as it continues towards its aim of:

structural violence against, and erasure of the trans community.

Presenting themselves as a “respectable organisation”, the Clinical Advisory Network on Sex and Gender (CAN-SG) is a group of medical clinicians who campaign against gender affirming care and allegedly aim to improve holistic support for trans people instead.

However, activists from Trans Kids Deserve Better (TKDB) have raised serious concerns, arguing that the group is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. They say it presents itself as reasonable, but that the reality is far bleaker.

As a result, activists are calling for a noisy demonstration outside the conference on Sunday 5 July from 8:30am, with the exact location still to be confirmed. They describe it as both a “day of community and protest,” saying:

Together, we can oppose CAN-SG and defend trans healthcare.

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Perpetrators of “structural violence”, say activists

TKDB says that while CAN-SG presents itself as supporting “holistic care” for trans people, its stance on medical and social transition suggests its real goal is to roll back hard-won healthcare rights.

They point to other groups that have already helped push through restrictions on puberty blockers, warning that this success could pave the way for a wider push to end gender-affirming care altogether.

Moreover, they argue that, in practice, the approach of CAN-SG sidelines trans people which will undoubtedly chip away at understanding and support for a community that’s already under pressure.

To push back against this huge step backwards, TKDB say they’ll “disrupt CAN-SG’s respectable image” with a loud, visible protest outside the upcoming anti-trans conference, adding:

We’ll have queer bangers from the sound system, snacks, and great vibes, so come along for a day of community as well as protest.

The Society for Evidence Based Gender Medicine (SEGM) is co-hosting the conference, teaming up with CAN-SG to argue that gender-affirming care can harm young people they describe as “experiencing gender-related distress.”

However, that entirely misses the point: many trans young people are distressed because they’re trans and don’t identify with the gender they were assigned at birth. They argue that blocking access to support and understanding only makes things worse – increasing distress and, despite the #FirstDoNoHarm principle they hide behind, it will leave already vulnerable young people even more isolated.

SEGM work against pro-trans reports

On SEGM’s website, they published an article that sought to diminish the review conducted by the Utah Department of Health and Human Services. In contrast to the UK’s CASS and the US’ Department of Health and Human Services reviews, the ‘Utah Review’ concluded in their 1,051-page evidence-based report that:

hormonal interventions for gender-dysphoric youth are safe and effective and that their availability should not be restricted.

Clearly, this rubbed SEGM up the wrong way and because it contradicted the highly criticised CASS review, they have been on a witchhunt to find a way of diminishing Utah’s findings, saying:

because the Utah Review’s conclusions regarding the net benefits of such interventions are demonstrably at odds with multiple existing systematic reviews of evidence, we evaluate whether the Utah Review adhered to appropriate methodological standards in the process by which it arrived at its conclusions and recommendations.

It seems these groups are more interested in banning gender-affirming care than actually listening to the evidence. They don’t seem willing to consider that they might be wrong or to engage with research and perspectives that support trans people’s right to healthcare.

Instead, they act like they care about trans people while brushing aside evidence about trans people’s lived experiences whenever it doesn’t fit their own bigoted, traditional views.

Trans isn’t a mental health issue – it is biological

The LGBTQ+ community has spent decades fighting for equal rights, and that fight has never been easy in such a traditionally patriarchal society. It wasn’t even that long ago that homosexuality was a crime. Even Alan Turing, who played a crucial role in helping Britain defeat Nazi Germany, was subjected to cruel medical treatment because he was gay.

Now, it feels like some people want to drag us back to a time when being LGBTQ+ was treated as something that needed to be “fixed” instead of accepted. They often wrap those views in the language of healthcare and concern, but many see that as a way of making discriminatory ideas sound more acceptable to the public.

This is clear when reading the SEGM’s conference announcement which states the conference’s purpose as:

We will also explore ethical tensions between autonomy and the duty to avoid harm, wider social influences – including rising youth mental health difficulties – and alternative psychotherapeutic approaches to supporting gender-distressed children and young people.

Yes, it’s not chemical castration – but it remains the denial of a trans person’s reality simply because it isn’t convenient for bigots which will have medical consequences.

Featured image via the Canary