#The Good Law Project

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Mira Lazine for Erin In The Morning:

[Note: This edition of Erin In The Morning is brought to you by Mira Lazine, who is guest writing for Erin In The Morning after the passing of Erin’s mother. Mira Lazine is a freelance journalist covering LGBTQ+ issues, politics, and science.] On Thursday, Jo Maugham - director of the United Kingdom legal advocacy organization The Good Law Project - wrote a detailed thread on X/Twitter in which he alleges that there has been a substantial increase in the number of suicides for young trans people on the National Health Service (NHS) waitlist, and that the NHS has been suppressing the evidence. Maugham says that this occurred after the infamous 2020 Bell v. Tavistock ruling that restricted care for those under 16. While this ruling has since been overturned, the damage from it is still being felt today.

Maugham, who first announced some of these claims in a Good Law Project fundraiser opposing the British puberty blocker ban, says that he spoke with two whistleblowers. “I have seen their staff IDs and each has provided me with some internal Tavistock documents. There is no doubt they are who they say they are.”  The first whistleblower reportedly said that prior to the 2020 Bell ruling, only one young trans person died from suicide in seven years and that since the ruling, there have been sixteen deaths. This data is reported to come from an anonymous doctor referred to as “Named Doctor for Safeguarding Children.”

He then goes on to say that the whistleblower tried to alert higher ups about this, including a director at the Tavistock gender clinic and Dr. Hillary Cass. Cass is the primary person behind the infamous Cass Review, a systematic review that has led to the temporary prohibition of puberty blockers for transgender youth in Great Britain. Details related to the whistleblower’s concerns aren’t apparent within the Review, suggesting that Cass ignored concerns as the Review was being drafted. Cass, who has no professional history working with transgender young people, collaborated with people who had ties to SPLC-designated hate groups like Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine. During the writing of the Review, she met with Ron DeSantis-appointed members of the Florida medical board.

Maugham reached out to Tavistock and Cass for comment. Tavistock did not respond, while Cass referred Maugham to paragraph 5.65 in the Review, where she offhandedly discusses these suicides while underplaying the link between the NHS, Gender Identity Service (GIDS), and these deaths. Additionally, Cass fails to mention the total number of suicides in the Review from either before Bell or after. The second whistleblower claims to be able to substantiate the claims made by both the first whistleblower and the “Named Doctor for Safeguarding Children.” They claim that staff planned an open letter in response to these allegations, and that Tavistock retaliated and threatened them with disciplinary action before suppressing the material. Maugham then substantiates the allegations made by both whistleblowers by revealing meeting minutes that show Tavistock staff members were well aware of these deaths. He points out that this ignores attempted suicides and does not necessarily capture all deaths. Additionally, he shows additional notes that suggest that some data was deliberately left out of Freedom of Information Act requests.

[...] An investigation from The Guardian two years ago reveals that there are systemic failures in the United Kingdom’s mental health service which is attributable to many suicides, including some for transgender youth. Considering that several adults also died due to suicide while on waitlists, and that the majority of people on waitlists for gender affirming care have been there for more than 18 weeks, it’s possible that there are additional suicides unaccounted for This investigation, alongside the allegations made by Maugham, opens up substantial questions about how seriously medical professionals treat suicides of transgender youth. If Maugham’s allegations prove true, one of the country’s biggest medical scandals in history may unfold.

Mira Lazine writes in Erin Reed’s Erin In The Morning Substack about how the NHS in the UK covered up suicides of trans youths, especially after the Bell v. Tavistock ruling. The Cass Review ignored the impacts of suicide of trans youths as result of the post-Bell climate.

[dduane]

For people's attention

Via old colleague Cheryl Morgan: this warning.

(For reasons unclear to me, I seem unable to simply use the Tumblr link-to-post option here. So, please see below for the meat of Cheryl's message:)

One of the things that has protected trans rights in the UK over the past couple of years is that the Tories are too busy, and too cowardly, to actually repeal the Gender Recognition Act, even though many of their MPs very much want to get that done. The anti-trans lobby is unhappy about this, and is therefore taking matters into its own hands by taking legal action. Very soon, their case will reach the Supreme Court. Should they win, the consequences for trans people in the UK (and equality law more generally) will be catastrophic. The Gender Recognition Act says, unambiguously:

Where a full gender recognition certificate is issued to a person, the person’s gender becomes for all purposes the acquired gender (so that, if the acquired gender is the male gender, the person’s sex becomes that of a man and, if it is the female gender, the person’s sex becomes that of a woman).

However, as I understand it, the argument that will be put before the Supreme Court is that allowing a trans woman to be treated as a woman is, de facto, discrimination against cisgender women, and therefore illegal under the Equality Act. As the Equality Act is a more recent piece of legislation, its provisions should supercede those of the GRA. Hopefully it is obvious that, should this claim succeed, it will open the doors to equivalent claims such as, “letting Black people into my whites-only pub is discrimination against white people,” and “building a wheelchair ramp is discrimination against able-bodied people.” Thankfully such claims are less likely to pass the Supreme Court. But the chances of this getting through are very high. And if it does, not only will the GRA be rendered useless, it will create a climate of fear in businesses all around the country. Because it will be possible for a business (or school, local authority, etc.) to be sued for discrimination if they inadvertently allow a trans woman to be treated as a woman. This will lead to a lot of proactive bans being issued at places like public toilets, gyms, clothing stores and so on. Most of the people caught by this will be gender-nonconforming cisgender women, because despite what the anti-trans lobby claims, they can’t always tell, and neither can anyone else.

...And once you've been stopped going into a women's room because you don't look (pretty) woman enough... well.

Another writer has been funding the less humane side of this argument. The people funding the humane side are short of funds to assist them making the less toxic side of the case.

Please help if you can.

[hxhhasmysoul]

kenjaku never did anything wrong. they are a feminist icon, have you seen a single working mother like them? so dedicated to their work* and their hobbies** and their favourite child*** . before kenny became the single mother of the millenium they were the best wife, each and every time them and jin got together and tried to build a little vessel****. and brief as it were, mother was the best boyfriend to their soulmate takaba.

[minniiaa]

Lawlu soulmate AU where soulmates are a rarity. Law doesn’t believe in soulmates but when he turns 18 he gets a soulmate tattoo and years pass without him finding the person.

He meets Luffy and suddenly realizes it’s him and they sleep together out of pure instinct but he rejects him right after because Law stubbornly believes anyone who becomes his family will die. Problem is if you reject your soulmate you get extremely ill so the harder he fights the sicker he gets.

Meanwhile, Luffy can’t understand why Law won’t love him even though they’re soulmates and he loved him from the moment he saw him and even though he accepts him he has to suffer his illness through their bond and can’t do anything about it.

[bisamwilson]

Okay, fun SamBucky ask game!! Send this to five other people to keep it going ✨ Say one of your favorite things about SamBucky, your favorite SamBucky headcanon, or write a tiny microfic. Have a wonderful day!! 💕

Sam is proud to say he doesn’t flinch when he comes home to find the Winter Soldier on his couch.

The lights are off, the sun’s gone down, and Sam probably would’ve missed him if he hadn’t noticed his barbecue sauce missing from the top of the fridge of all things.

He should probably ask why the world’s deadliest assassin is sitting cross-legged on his couch, his hair tied back in a low bun and wearing one of Sam’s henleys and a pair of his old army sweats in a way that tells him he’s probably been staying here for a few days while Sam had been out searching the world for him with Steve. Instead he asks, “Did you use all my barbecue sauce? It’s polite to replace things you use if you’re gonna stay at someone’s house, you know?”

The Soldier looks up at him and shakes his head, wrinkles his nose, and Sam thinks maybe he should start calling him Bucky in his own head. “I put it in the fridge. It goes bad when you leave it out like that once it’s open.”

Sam blows a puff of air out of his nose, amused but not willing to laugh just yet. “Are you my roommate now? Any other habits you don’t care for?”

Bucky shakes his head again, just slightly enough for Sam to barely catch it in the dark. “You have a comfortable couch.”

Sam sighs and goes to the hall closet to get him a blanket. He wonders if being the retired fist of HYDRA makes enough to split rent 50/50.

[nar0art]

Michael Sheen sketch dump <3

[tweetingukpolitics]

[dieletztepanzerhexe]

my old prehistory professor promised me earlier that he would soon take me on a trip to the Beskid Mountains, where he wants to fix one of sins from his youth.... but then he went silent. so i reminded him about it, and he just sent me an email that he is planning to leave on tuesday morning and that i have to decide quicklu if i want to go bc it's "high time we bough tickets and booked a place in the mountain shelter" xD we will climb the highest peak there to verify a potential archaeological site :3

i love that despite being over 70yo he still has a very youthful spirit <3 and all his plans look like this, made in the very last minute

[nickandmayazine]

Hi, it's been a while so I'm curious whether there has been a further delay with application results.

Hello!! So sorry for the lack of updates the past week. I am the sole social media mod and classes just started up for me so I haven’t had the time to make a formal post detailing the schedule update! Fortunately I have a bit more spare time coming up seeing as it’s the weekend, so the schedule on our carrd will be updated then and an announcement will be made. Our mod team is working to have results out as soon as we can, but unfortunately one unforeseen setback can mess with the general workflow a whole lot. Reviewing applications can take a while because it requires cooperation from the whole mod team, but once results are sent out things should go a whole lot smoother! Thank you all so much for your continued patience and understanding!

[pynkhues]

I'm really sorry you and your sister are dealing with that

(no pressure to publish this, not that there should ever be pressure to publish an ask if you don't want to, of course, but just wanted to say I hope you're doing okay)

Ah, thank you, anon, it's okay. It's been a while now (court moves slooow), but we're getting hopefully close to the end. She filed in Family Court December 2022, and we've had about five interim hearings with final trial (finally) scheduled over four days next month, so fingers crossed! But yeah, it's been A Time. He's financially and emotionally abusive against my sister, and both those things as well as medically negligent against their children (who are only six and eight and both have special needs), so it's been....rough. To say the least.

But on a lighter note, have one of my new favourite photos I took of my nephews at the jellyfish enclosure at the aquarium last month!

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Sophie Perry at PinkNews:

The documents leaked by the Good Law Project and reported by QueerAF state that young people and their families who use “unregulated” and “overseas providers” for gender-affirming care should cease doing so, or they may face safeguarding referrals. Speaking with QueerAF, Jo Maugham KC – executive director of the Good Law Project – said: “It’s reasonable to describe this as an attempt to force people to detransition.” The document, which the Good Law Project states does not bear the name of any NHS professional, asks providers of mental health support to children and young people (CYP) to invite those on the national waiting list for gender services for a face-to-face appointment.

[...] Furthermore, at the assessment stage, the providers have been asked to follow recommendations of the Cass Review and advise children not to take puberty blockers or gender-affirming hormones obtained via routes without “appropriate care”. Whilst it is not stated what “appropriate care” refers to, the “overseas” routes being advised against. If a trans young person disregards such advice and a provider considers that this “puts the child/young person at increased risk, then a safeguarding referral may also be appropriate in line with standard safeguarding approaches”.

In essence, if a trans young person seeks private gender-affirming care and their parents support them, they could be referred to local authorities. [...\ In a statement provided to QueerAF following the publication of its report, a spokesperson for the NHS said that this process is about putting in place an “enhanced mental health support offer for all children and young people under 18 on the waiting list for specialist gender services, or who are awaiting their first appointment with the new services.”

England continues its not-so-sterling reputation as “TERF Island”, as trans kids in England could be forced to detransition following the Cass Review, per a leaked proposal from NHS England.

[lesbiradshaw]

three shots in trying to figure out what bradley was planning on doing with his poli sci degree if getting in the navy didn’t pan out

[painsandconfusion]

Remembering that time I researched for and wrote a 26 page law school research paper in 33 hours and got an A- in one of the most intensely graded writing-focused law schools in the country. While still in surgery recovery.

How the fuck did I do that

Where did my brain go since then

When do I get her back

Can I write novels like that please?

Please?

I want the writing juice back

Give it backkkkkkk

[t8oo]

there is some symbolism iv never considered in that one episod of pt5 where zenigata rescues fujiko before she kills lupin