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The trans agenda is undermining parents

Naomi Firsht

Topics Politics

The parents of a 14-year-old girl who wants to change her name and be known as a boy at school are in an ongoing battle with social services, according to a report in The Sunday Times.

Social services and Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) became involved in the case over the summer. Reportedly, CAMHS workers said the girl was at risk of committing suicide if her parents did not allow the name change. The parents are also under pressure to allow their daughter to receive treatment from a gender-identity clinic. Things have gotten so bad that the family’s lawyer said he feared the child may be taken into foster care if the parents don’t comply.

The social workers claim that the parents’ devout Christian beliefs and traditional ideas of gender mean they cannot accept their daughter’s condition. The mother said that both she and her husband felt their daughter may have mental-health issues – she has self-harmed in the past and may be on the autistic spectrum. She accuses the authorities of ‘pushing the transgender issue’ at the expense of her daughter’s wellbeing.

The girl was described as having always been a tomboy, and was allowed to dress accordingly. She first had thoughts she may be transgender in March this year, and yet by June the council was already using her chosen boy’s name and referring to her as male in correspondence. The mother said: ‘It feels as if [our daughter] has an agenda she now has to maintain.’

This case reveals the authoritarian nature of the new transgender gospel, which local authorities have been all too keen to adhere to. Earlier this month, a boy was removed from the care of his mother after it emerged that she was forcing him to live as a girl, with full backing from social services, based on her belief that he was transgender.

The interference of social services in family relationships is already a worry, but prioritising the trans agenda over trust in parents is potentially disastrous. Firstly, this poses a real danger to the children involved: gender-identity treatment can include hormone blockers, and, from the age of 16, cross-sex hormone treatments, which are only partially reversible. What’s more, this kind of intervention destroys the bonds between parents and children.

When asked if she would accept it if her daughter was transgender, the mother answered: ‘After the age of 18 she must do what she wants to do, but while we can help her we must help her as parents. If that’s her choice at the end, then so be it, but we do not want her turning around 10 years from now saying we failed to help her avoid a wrong choice.’

This is precisely the point: parents should be free to guide their children’s development free from state coercion. That transgenderism is being used by the state to undermine parental authority reveals how authoritarian the trans agenda has become.

Naomi Firsht is staff writer at spiked and co-author of The Parisians’ Guide to Cafés, Bars and Restaurants.

To enquire about republishing spiked’s content, a right to reply or to request a correction, please contact the managing editor, Viv Regan.

Topics Politics

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