The Trans Agenda: 70+ 'journalists' attack trans people with 99 articles over 28 days

News you need, the perspective you won't find anywhere else. The trans community's guide to UK news, media and politics and our place in it.

Mar 02, 2025

The Trans Agenda

[2 March 2025]

Follow me on Bluesky - @HLeeHurley.substack.com

Transgender: How do you know by H Lee Hurley

UK & IRELAND NEWS

Scottish Labour chiefs lose conference vote on biology-based single-sex spaces [Labour List]

Scottish Labour’s leadership suffered a defeat at the party’s annual conference as delegates voted down a motion advocating for single-sex spaces based on biology. The motion, backed by the party’s ruling Scottish Executive Committee (SEC), also referenced the Cass Review and called for gender-questioning children to be supported in line with its terrible recommendations.

EHRC sends letter to Scottish government regarding single-sex spaces [Guardian]

The anti-trans Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has sent a letter to the Scottish government regarding single-sex spaces, raising ‘concerns’ about the ongoing NHS Fife tribunal involving nurse Sandie Peggie.

The letter reportedly also questions new NHS Scotland guidance, which is expected to continue allowing trans staff to use their preferred facilities, a practice that has been in line with the Equality Act 2010 for the past 15 years. Social Justice Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville stated that ministers are reviewing the EHRC’s letter but reiterated that single-sex exemptions allow for trans inclusion unless exclusion is justified.

See PAPER REVIEW (Wednesday) for the Guardian’s article on this.

American loses UK appeal for legal non-binary recognition [BBC]

Ryan Castellucci, a non-binary American citizen, has lost a UK Court of Appeal case seeking formal recognition of their gender. Having obtained legal recognition as non-binary in California in 2021, Castellucci sought the same status in the UK but was told that UK law does not recognise non-binary ‘identities’ under the Gender Recognition Act (GRA).

Lord Justice Singh, dismissing the appeal as “potentially controversial”, stated that gender in UK law remains legally defined as male or female and that the issue is "better suited to resolution in Parliament than the courts".

Castellucci’s legal team is considering further appeals, arguing that the UK already recognises foreign-acquired genders and should extend this to non-binary people.

Omagh Pride becomes latest to ban Executive Parties in solidarity with trans people [source]

Omagh Pride has become the latest Northern Ireland Pride to ban politicians from the Executive parties who passed the puberty blocker ban. They join Foyle Pride, Causeway Pride, and Mid & East Antrim Pride.

Belfast Pride still haven't made a decision, choosing, instead, to open the decision to the masses. You can read more about that here:

Exclusive: Belfast Pride should be "utterly ashamed" for trans stance says former co-chair

Lee Hurley

Feb 28

Exclusive: Belfast Pride should be "utterly ashamed" for trans stance says former co-chair

Belfast Pride, the largest Pride in Ireland, now finds itself at the centre of controversy and condemnation. Former co-chair Kirsty Mulholland has publicly denounced the organisation's failure to take a decisive stand against the puberty blocker ban imposed by the Northern Ireland Executive.

Read full story

Northern Ireland trans prison numbers

I am not a debate design — Tshirts, stickers and more

AROUND THE WORLD

USA: Study finds trans youth experience better emotional health with hormone therapy [Scientific American]

A new study has found that trans youth experience significant emotional health improvements after starting hormone therapy. Researchers tracked 315 trans people aged 12 to 20 over two years and observed gains in psychological well-being, self-efficacy, and social satisfaction.

Medical experts emphasise that gender-affirming care is safe and necessary, with major organisations like the American Academy of Pediatrics and American Medical Association supporting its use. The study adds to a growing body of research showing that hormone therapy helps trans youth lead healthier, more fulfilling lives.

Poland:

MEDIA

Carole Cadwalladr dropped by Tortoise ahead of Observer takeover [Press Gazette]

Carole Cadwalladr has been told that her contract will not be renewed. It will end on 20 April which will be the last edition of the Observer under The Guardian’s control before Tortoise take over.

Press Gazette also report that ‘around one third of Observer staff’ will take redundancy. While it hasn’t been confirmed, I have heard Sonia Sodha is likely to be one of them.

MPs raise concerns over RedBird IMI’s potential ITV bid [Times]

MPs have expressed alarm over RedBird IMI’s possible attempt to acquire ITV Studios, given its unresolved involvement with The Telegraph. The Abu Dhabi-backed firm, which was blocked from owning The Telegraph due to concerns over foreign state control, is now seeking to merge ITV Studios with All3Media, a TV company it acquired for £1.2 billion last year.

ITV tends to fall on the pro-trans side of the fence.

Diversity and inclusion a priority for less than half UK news publishers in 2025, survey [Press Gazette]

Diversity and inclusion remain a lower priority for UK digital publishers in 2025, with only 48% identifying it as a key focus. This marks a significant gap compared to the industry's primary concerns of audience growth and revenue expansion. Recruitment and retention, which were a top priority in 2024, have now dropped to joint fourth place, reflecting a shift away from workforce development. However, 61% of publishers have no plans to reduce team sizes, suggesting that while hiring may not be a primary focus, existing employees are being retained.

ANY OTHER BUSINESS

Trump’s cash freeze blamed as Stonewall plans to slash staff [Times]

Stonewall is facing significant job cuts, with up to half of its staff at risk following President Trump’s decision to freeze foreign aid, according to the Times. Employees were informed in a company-wide Teams call by CEO Simon Blake, who stated that only roles with dedicated funding would be protected.

The restructuring aims to secure the long-term future of the LGBTQ+ charity and maintain its ability to campaign and influence legislation in the UK and abroad. Sources have linked the job cuts to the loss of funding from the Global Equality Fund (GEF), a US State Department-managed initiative that has been Stonewall’s largest donor in recent years, contributing £233,583 in 2023-24.

GCHQ ditches Stonewall as Trump cuts diversity funds [Telegraph]

GCHQ ditches Stonewall as Trump cuts diversity funds The Sunday Telegraph2 Mar 2025By Matthew Field GCHQ, the British spy agency, has cut ties with Stonewall as Donald Trump’s crusade against diversity triggers a funding crisis at the LGBT charity. The agency, which is responsible for the UK’s signals intelligence, is no longer a member of the group’s corporate diversity programme, it is understood, despite once being a vocal champion of the scheme. A reference to the agency’s status as a “Stonewall Diversity Champion” on its careers website was removed after GCHQ was contacted by The Telegraph this week. The decision has emerged as Stonewall faces a funding crisis triggered by Mr Trump, who has declared his intent to “destroy the deep state”. Elon Musk has gutted US overseas aid spending as part of his government efficiency drive. Stonewall’s largest funder in recent years has been the US State Department. As well as wholesale cuts to foreign aid, Mr Trump has also launched a crusade against what he has termed “radical and wasteful government DEI [diversity, equity and inclusion] programmes”. US security agencies including the FBI and CIA have been forced to close down their diversity functions as a result. Stonewall has said the US government is pursuing an “agenda that will spread hate and fear”. GCHQ’s decision to sever ties with the charity comes against a backdrop of strain on the relations between the “Five Eyes” intelligence alliance, made up of the UK, US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. GCHQ declined to comment on its Stonewall membership. MI5 and MI6 did not respond to requests for comment. A Stonewall spokesman said: “There has always been a natural ebb and flow as organisations consider their priorities each year. We continue to support organisations wherever possible.” Article Name:GCHQ ditches Stonewall as Trump cuts diversity funds Publication:The Sunday Telegraph Author:By Matthew Field Start Page:7 End Page:7

Channel 5 splits with owner in diversity row [Telegraph]

Channel 5 splits with owner in diversity row The Sunday Telegraph2 Mar 2025By James Warrington CHANNEL 5 has split with its US owner to defy a crack down on diversity policies by Donald Trump. The broadcaster, which is owned by US media giant Paramount, has said it is committed to its diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programmes despite an overhaul at its parent company. Paramount this week said it will tear up its diversity policies to comply with new mandates from the Trump administration. The US president has branded such initiatives “illegal and immoral” and vowed to name and shame “woke companies” that employ them. However, it is understood that Channel 5, which has long been a vocal backer of diversity programmes, will maintain its policies despite the US backlash. The broadcaster plans to retain a “No Diversity, No Commission” policy for the production companies it works with and is part of the Diamond programme that monitors diversity across the industry. Channel 5, which is set to rebrand as simply 5 in April, also launched a new training scheme for diverse directors last week. The UK broadcaster’s DEI commitment puts it at odds with parent company Paramount, which also owns CBS, Comedy Central and MTV. Paramount plans to scrap diversity targets from its bonus scheme, which previously linked 5pc of annual bonuses to the company’s success in its DEI programmes. Instead, it will base 10pc of incentives on a separate workforce culture measure, which is aimed at “building a high-performing and inclusive culture”. A spokesman for Paramount UK said: “These changes apply to the US … Our commitment and initiatives remain unchanged in the UK.” Article Name:Channel 5 splits with owner in diversity row Publication:The Sunday Telegraph Author:By James Warrington Start Page:21 End Page:21

THE WEEK AHEAD

Full parliament business can be viewed here.

Tuesday 4 March

Baroness Jenkin of Kennington to ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have for publishing revised guidance on relationship, sex and health education in schools., House of Lords, 2.30pm+
Report: NHS Scotland waiting times
Donald Trump address to US Congress
US Supreme Court hears arguments in Mexican government's lawsuit against US gun manufacturers
Ron DeSantis delivers state of the state address to open Florida legislative session

Wednesday 5 March

Prime Minister’s Questions, House of Commons, 12pm
Baroness Gale to ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to implement section 106 of the Equality Act 2010 to require information to be published on the diversity of political candidates, House of Lords, 3pm+

Thursday 6 March

General Debate on International Women's Day, House of Lords, 9.30am+
Debate, International Women’s Day and the promotion of women’s participation and leadership in science and technology in the UK and internationally, House of Lords, 11am+
Lord Black of Brentwood to ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to introduce legislation to address ‘strategic lawsuits against public participation’ (SLAPPs), House of Lords, 11am+

Friday 7 March

South Carolina carries out first firing squad execution since 2010

Saturday 8 March

International Women’s Day (International Men’s Day is 19 November)
Western Australia state elections
Special Olympics World Winter Games opens

Sunday 9 March

Canada’s ruling Liberal Party holds leadership election to choose successor to Justin Trudeau

SHORTS

“Ministers have delayed plans to regulate artificial intelligence as the UK government seeks to align itself with Donald Trump’s administration on the technology, the Guardian has learned.”
The Times report that The Strangers’ Bar in the House of Commons reopened on Monday with a 50-person capacity limit following an alleged drink spiking incident. On January 7, a woman, reportedly a researcher, informed staff that her drink had been tampered with. No arrests have been made.

THE PAPERS

February stats

There were 79 different bylines on articles about trans people in the month of February. Between them, they wrote 99 articles, only nine of which you could reasonably argue were ‘neutral’, even though they aren’t really. That’s an average of 3.5 a day.

Between them, Daniel Sanderson, Hayley Dixon and Sanchez Manning wrote 11 articles.

There was not one single day in February without an article about trans people.

List of all bylines in February: Aidan Radnedge, Alan Cochrane, Alison Boshoff, Andrea Williams, anon (x4), Ben Marlow, Benedict Smith, Cameron Charles, Camilla Tominey, Catherine Shoard (x2), Charlotte McDonald-Gibson, comment (x2), Craig Simpson (x2), Dan Barker, Daniel Martin, Daniel Sanderson (x4), David Chazan, David Churchill, David Leask (x2), David Sanderson, Dzifa Benson*, Eleanor Harding, Eleanor Hayward, Eleni Courea, Ellie McDonald, Francine Wolfisz, George Chesterton, Georgia Lambert, Geraldine Scott, Gordon Rayner, Hadley Freeman, Hayley Dixon (x4), Jan Moir (x2), Janice Turner, Jawad Iqbal, Jonathan Ames (x2), Joseph Gedeon, Judith Woods, Kamal Sultan, Kathleen Stock, Katie Hind, Kumail Jaffer, Laura Donnelly (x3), letters, Libby Brooks, Liz Hull, Louise Irvine, Lucy Burton, Lucy Elkins, Marina Dunbar, Mark Ludlow, Mark Macaskill, Matt Lawton, Michael Deacon (x2), Michael Searles (x2), Mike Keegan, our foreign staff, Patrick Sawyer (x3), Peter Chappell, Rowan Pelling, Sam Jones (x2), Sam Merrriman (x2), Sanchez Manning (x3), Sarah Vine (x2), Sarah Ward (x2), Sean Ingle, Shaun Wooller, Sonia Sodha, Stella Kingett, Suzanne Moore, Taryn Pedler, Tim Sigworth (x2), Tom Ball, Tom McArdle, Tom Morgan, Will Bolton.

*A normal and neutral review of a play featuring a trans character that was smuggled past Telegraph editors in the Arts section so don’t add the writer to any ‘bad’ lists.

This week, there were ‘only’ 17 articles, down from 22 last week, 30 the week before that and 32 the week before that.

The Telegraph had eight, the Mail four, Times three and Guardian two.

The Telegraph are currently on their longest unbroken run since I started monitoring these papers in April 2024. The last day they had no articles about trans people was 3 February.

Quoted, mentioned or featured this week: Sandie Peggie (x2), Darlington Nurses (x2), Wes Streeting (x2), Maya Forsater, EHRC, Kristie Higgs, Christian Legal Centre, JK Rowling, CAN-SG, Bayswater, Dr David Bell, Cass, Helen Joyce, Sex Matters, Fiona McAnena, Stephanie Davies-Arai, Transgender Trend.

Whose bylines were on all these articles? Hayley Dixon, Liz Hull, Daniel Martin, Dzifa Benson, Libby Brooks, Joseph Gedeon, Will Bolton, Sanchez Manning, Andrea Williams, Tim Sigworth (x2), Michael Searles, Eleanor Hayward, Kieran Kelly, anon, Bill Bowkett, Shaun Wooller, Kathryn Knight.

Spotted or know something you think I should include in the Trans Agenda?

THE PAPERS Monday 24 February- Sunday 2 March

Monday Total: 2

The Guardian [0]

The Times [0]

Daily Mail [1]

I was afraid I would come home to find Brianna had been killed Mother’s haunting prediction three months before murder Daily Mail24 Feb 2025By Liz Hull Tragic loss: Esther Ghey. Inset, Brianna, who died in 2023 THE mother of murdered schoolgirl Brianna Ghey has revealed she predicted her daughter would be killed three months before she died. Esther Ghey, 38, was so worried about the 16-year-old’s obsessive internet use that she wrote to a support worker: ‘I have lost control. I don’t know what she’s doing online. I am really concerned that I will arrive home from work one day and Brianna will be raped or murdered.’ Three months later transgender Brianna, who was also being encouraged to self-harm and starve herself on social media, was dead. Ms Ghey’s prediction is revealed in her new book, Under A Pink Sky, which charts her own difficult teenage years, Brianna’s mental health struggles and murder, and her subsequent campaign for tighter controls on social media and improved safety for children online. Despite Ms Ghey’s fears, Brianna – who had thousands of followers on TikTok – was not attacked or killed by a stranger she met on the internet. Instead it was a school friend, Scarlett Jenkinson, then 15, who lured her to a park in Culcheth village, not far from her home town of Warrington, and along with Eddie Ratcliffe, also 15, stabbed her 28 times. Ms Ghey describes how she screamed ‘I knew this was going to happen’ when police officers arrived at her home to tell her Brianna’s body had been found. She writes: ‘That’s all I could say. It felt like it was all I had been saying, yelling, screaming, pleading for months – something terrible is going to happen.’ But she also admits that of all the ‘horrible scenarios I feared for Brianna, being stabbed by a friend was not one of them’. Jenkinson and Ratcliffe were jailed for 22 and 20 years respectively after being convicted of murder at Manchester Crown Court in February last year. In her book, Ms Ghey reveals how, as a rebellious teenager, she suffered from body dysmorphia, started drinking alcohol, taking drugs and skipping school. She eventually overcame her drug addiction, completed a degree and secured her dream job as a food product developer. But it was not drugs that Brianna struggled with. Instead, Ms Ghey tells how the Covid lockdowns led her daughter to become addicted to social media. She says her transition from Brett to Brianna aged 14 was perhaps the ‘easiest’ thing, compared to the struggle to get her diagnosed with autism and to secure mental health support when she started struggling at school, self-harming and suffering from anorexia. Brianna began engaging in ‘dangerous’ interactions with strangers online in the months before her death. ‘She was lonely and sad, and the pressure of keeping up her TikTok persona was exhausting,’ Ms Ghey writes. ‘I think her phone, the place that she had once gone to for community, comfort and affirmation, was crippling her.’ Over the past two years, through her Peace and Mind campaign, Ms Ghey has been calling for better protections for children online. Her work has also included co-hosting the Mail’s podcast series, Parents Vs. The Internet. Under A Pink Sky tells the remarkable story of how Ms Ghey forgave Brianna’s killers and is determined for ‘something good’ to come from her tragic death. Under A Pink Sky is available from Thursday. Article Name:I was afraid I would come home to find Brianna had been killed Publication:Daily Mail Author:By Liz Hull Start Page:19 End Page:19

Telegraph [1]

Streeting is ‘kicking can down road’ over NHS single-sex spaces The Daily Telegraph24 Feb 2025By Hayley Dixon Special correspondent Darlington nurses (from left) Lisa Lockey, Annice Grundy, Tracey Hooper and Bethany Hutchison are taking NHS employer to court WES STREETING has been accused of “kicking the can down the road” on the issue of single-sex spaces in the NHS. In a letter to Darlington nurses who are suing their employer after being forced to share their changing room with a biological male, Mr Streeting said that he would “consider” what steps to take after receiving a Supreme Court ruling on a different case – which could take up to a year. The nurses said it means that NHS medics will “continue to suffer and be discriminated against” as the Government tries to “ride two horses at once”. The nurses are taking their employer, County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust, to an employment tribunal for sexual discrimination and sexual harassment after they were forced to share their changing room with a male staff member who identifies as a woman. They had raised concerns with HR about the behaviour of their colleague last year, who was not undergoing medical treatment to transition, but were told that they needed to be “re-educated”. The issue hit the headlines again in recent weeks after nurse Sandie Peggie took NHS Fife to an employment tribunal, claiming she faced discrimination and harassment at work because she had to share a female changing room with a biological man, Dr Beth Upton. In Ms Peggie’s case, the court heard her colleague considered reporting her to the police for misgendering. On Friday, the Equality and Human Rights Commission “reminded” NHS Fife of its “obligations” under the Equality Act 2010 and requested to see impact assessments of its policy. The intervention of the equalities watchdog will put further pressure on the Health Secretary to act. Ms Hutchison, president of the Darlington Nursing Union, said: “Mr Streeting could resolve this issue very quickly. He has chosen not to.” A Department for Health and Social Care spokesman said: “The case at the Supreme Court could have far-reaching consequences, so it is only right the department waits for the outcome.” Article Name:Streeting is ‘kicking can down road’ over NHS single-sex spaces Publication:The Daily Telegraph Author:By Hayley Dixon Special correspondent Start Page:9 End Page:9

Tuesday Total: 1

The Guardian [0]

The Times [0]

Daily Mail [0]

Telegraph [1]

Wednesday Total: 3

The Guardian [2]

The Times [0]

Daily Mail [0]

Telegraph [1]

A moving examination of womanhood The Daily Telegraph26 Feb 2025 Touching: Fizz Sinclair and Jade Anouka in Otherland Theatre Otherland Almeida Theatre, London N1 ★★★★★ By Dzifa Benson The thorny question at the heart of Chris Bush’s new play is: “Who’d be a woman?” She doesn’t try to offer pat answers to a question of such magnitude. One of its two main protagonists is a transgender woman and, although the audience gains insights into the challenges this entails, gender reassignment isn’t its overarching thrust. Otherland offers a thoughtful and moving examination of womanhood and its implications – personal, familial, romantic and societal – in a world full of stereotypical expectations. This is a play that is interested in the choices and restrictions that women face and what is sacrificed in the name of love and self-determination. Bush, whose previous works include the Olivier-winning Standing at the Sky’s Edge and Tony! The Blair Musical, is a trans woman herself and is adamant about not wanting to be the poster child for transgender theatre. She achieves this by cleverly framing womanhood around the needs and desires of two very different characters. When the play begins, Jo, a cisgender woman is getting married to Harry (then Henry) who, unbeknown to Jo, wants to live as a woman. Eventually, Harry levels with Jo and initially, it seems their relationship will survive this seismic reordering. But five years on, the marriage has broken down. The rupture sends them both on distinct paths of self-discovery. Jo has to contend with her aversion towards having children while Harry has to negotiate her family reducing her transition to “a distraction”, tolerate the asinine things people say about her decision and learn how to fend off the attention of creepy men. Veering between narration and enactment on Fly Davis’s sparely designed stage, Otherland succeeds in squeezing great swathes of time into mere minutes, while composer Jennifer Whyte’s live band punctuates the timeline succinctly. The music heightens emotions and moves the story forward, containing the poetry and counterpointing the beautiful singing in close harmonies by the eight-strong female cast. Just before the interval, there is a choreographed moment that shows director Ann Yee’s clarity of vision, where Jo and Harry’s journeys elide metaphorically over their very different concerns about hormones. My one gripe is that the play is a little long, but that can be forgiven because this study of the complexities of female lives and identities serves as an affecting plea for connection and understanding. Until March 15; almeida.co.uk Article Name:A moving examination of womanhood Publication:The Daily Telegraph Start Page:11 End Page:11

Thursday Total: 3

The Guardian [0]

The Times [1]

Daily Mail [1]

The mothers left distraught after the NHS removed their daughters’ healthy breasts because the girls – some of them teenagers – said they were transgender With the health service referring 1,000 women a year for ‘masculinising’ mastectomies... Daily Mail27 Feb 2025by Sanchez Manning Picture: WESTEND61 / GETTY (POSED BY MODEL) TWO years after her daughter was given a double mastectomy at the age of 24 by the NHS to remove her healthy breasts – in order to ‘change gender’ – Jane is still absolutely ‘livid’. ‘I foolishly believed that the NHS was there to protect my daughter – to do no harm,’ the mother of two tells the Mail. ‘For her to get a mastectomy paid for by the NHS, removing healthy tissue that is there to help feed your offspring, when my sister and my stepsister have had breast cancer and mastectomies, makes me beyond angry. ‘I imagine that after the surgery her breasts were probably just discarded in a bucket somewhere and put in an incinerator like some unwanted rag or trash. It’s just abhorrent that the NHS is doing this to young girls.’ It was revealed earlier this month, in figures obtained under Freedom of Information laws, that more than 1,000 women a year are being sent for taxpayer-funded ‘masculinising’ mastectomies at specialised gender clinics. This week, it was further disclosed by Health and Social Care Minister Karin Smyth, in answer to a parliamentary question, that the NHS’s Gender Dysphoria National Referral Support Services had received 5,463 requests for transgender chest surgery between April 2020 and December ‘I really thought the NHS was there to protect her’ 2024. Gender dysphoria is the feeling that a person’s biological sex is mismatched with their gender identity. There is no data about how many of those who were referred for mastectomies went through with the surgery. But, notably, there has been a year-on-year rise in the numbers, from 1,089 in 2021 to 1,164 in 2022, and 1,237 in 2023. As many as 80 per cent of those are females between the ages of 17 and 25. These figures are thought to be just the tip of the iceberg, with many patients having transgender surgery privately to avoid the lengthy NHS waiting lists, which can be up to two years. Now, the parents of these young women tell the Mail they’ve been left devastated by their decision to remove their breasts and furious with the doctors who do it. Some say their children have been referred for private surgery after just two hours of psychological assessment via video calls, while others tell how their children were given mastectomies on the NHS within just eight months of being referred. The Mail has also heard how increasing numbers of young women are deeply regretting undergoing masculinising mastectomies and discovering how difficult it is to reconstruct breasts after the surgery, and that they will still never be able to breastfeed. In total, there are ten hospitals across the country that carry out NHS-funded masculinising mastectomies. Figures show that North Manchester Hospital has the highest number of referrals, followed by Parkside Hospital in south-west London and Castle Hill Hospital in Hull. By all accounts, proving eligibility for such surgery is a relatively simple procedure. According to NHS guidelines, patients must have a referral letter from a ‘lead professional’ at a gender dysphoria clinic, and must also show they have ‘persistent, well-documented’ gender dysphoria. They must be aged 17 or over and have the capacity to make an informed decision. It is not necessary to take hormones such as testosterone for any period of time to qualify for the surgery. Jane says her daughter’s NHS journey began not long after she informed her parents, at the age of 15, that she thought she should be a boy. A year later, she had secured her first appointment at an adult gender clinic. ‘I thought, “OK, she’s going to this clinic and all this is going to be sorted out because she’s clearly not a boy,” ’ says Jane. However, to her mother’s astonishment, after the fifth session at the clinic, the teenager, who we are not naming – then 18 – was given a prescription for testosterone to begin the physical process of transitioning to live as a male. ‘I was not prepared for that at all because I really thought that the NHS was there to be the devil’s advocate and to protect her,’ Jane remembers. Instead, the clinicians Jane’s child saw ‘affirmed’ her belief that she was, in fact, a boy from the word go. ‘I had no idea that they were using an “affirming” model.’ The next step came at the age of 23 when, shortly after moving out of the family home in Buckinghamshire, Jane’s daughter returned to break the news that she was booked to have a mastectomy at an NHS hospital in Plymouth. ‘I honestly couldn’t believe it,’ says Jane. In fact, her daughter had been using a chest binder – a tight undergarment, usually made of spandex, that compresses and flattens the breasts – for years. That meant ‘she was having problems with breathing, pain around her ribs and her chest and her breasts had been quite damaged’. ‘So she told me she was going for a full-on mastectomy,’ says Jane. She has since discovered that her daughter received a referral for the surgery from the gender clinic she had been attending. And, despite reports of NHS patients languishing on waiting lists for years, it was just eight months between her first referral in October 2022 to the operation in May 2023. She was even allowed to choose her own surgeon, which her mother says she did after seeking counsel from a Facebook group where girls who had undergone mastectomies to change gender shared details and pictures of their surgeries. ‘To this day I’m shocked how quickly she got the surgery from her referral,’ says Jane. She believes that, rather than having gender dysphoria, her daughter instead has a form of body dysmorphia. Still in a state of distress at the irreversible treatment her child has undergone, Jane says there is little understanding among the public of how serious and widespread the issue of girls having healthy breasts removed has become. A case in point, she says, is a response she received from TV presenter Kirstie Allsopp when Jane told her on X that her daughter was having her healthy breasts removed. Allsopp replied, saying both her sisters have had breasts removed because of a family history of cancer and there’s ‘a great deal of dark humour in it and you’d do well to recognise that’. Staggered at the response, Jane says the radical change to the bodies of the many young women who have taken the same route as her daughter is no laughing matter. Indeed, she knows more than a few of them. ‘My son’s close friend did it. There are others I have met, too – the ages vary, but they are usually around 19, 20 and early 20s.’ For Louise, from Oxfordshire, the call from her daughter ‘I was in total shock when she first told me’ to tell her she’d had a double mastectomy came ‘completely out of the blue’. As any mother would be, she was ‘floored’ by the news that her child, who is autistic, had gone to a private hospital in Sweden for the surgery. Unbeknown to her mother, the 22-year-old had funded the operation by saving money from a work placement during her third year of university. ‘I was in total shock when she first told me,’ says Louise. ‘I couldn’t stop screaming. It felt like part of me had been cut off at that point. It’s like being kicked so hard you can’t make sense of it.’ While her daughter had explored ‘trans identities’ with ‘ecowarrior’ friends at school, she had never attempted any physical changes before, says Louise, still at a loss to explain it. ‘She was actually quite a curvy girl and I think that was part of the problem because she developed early. ‘She had a classic hourglass figure and blonde hair, so she got lots of attention. But in a way that made her feel uncomfortable and freaked her out.’ Could a deep dislike of the sexual attention young women receive from men be the real reason so many take such radical decisions? Growing up in a hyper-sexualised online culture is very tough on girls, say many of their mothers. It was at the University of Brighton that Louise’s daughter first started identifying as male. Louise says she is particularly angry with the medics who removed her daughter’s breasts because she believes they failed to carry out proper psychological assessments before the surgery. ‘She won’t tell me the name of the clinic because she knows I’ll try to take legal action because I don’t think they did any due diligence,’ she says. ‘My daughter is very clever and gifted in many ways but, because of her autism, emotionally she’s like a child and incredibly trusting. ‘You wouldn’t have to talk to her for long actually to realise she’s not in a position to make a decision like that.’ After the surgery, Louise says her daughter insisted that she is happy with the results and is adamant that she will never have children and breastfeed. But her mother has grave doubts about whether her rejection of motherhood will be quite so final. ‘We know that lots of women change their minds about this when they get older.’ Another mother whose daughter had a double mastectomy at the age of 21 through a private gender clinic in London tells me that the ordeal has caused them to become estranged. Rita says her child, whom she is also convinced is autistic, funded the treatment herself by saving her wages from a part-time job she had at university. The young student had been on testosterone for less than six months – which, Rita says, made her face sallow and her hair thin – when she was referred for the surgery in 2021. At this point, Rita says she went into ‘panic mode’ and wrote directly to the surgeon, threatening to report him to his ‘I didn’t scream and shout... I gave her a hug’ professional body if the operation went ahead. Her daughter, she maintains, had been given the green light after just two one-hour Zoom sessions with a psychiatrist. She told the surgeon her daughter was autistic but wouldn’t ‘face up’ to it, adding that she was convinced, in a now strikingly familiar pattern, that she was suffering from body dysmorphia. Much to Rita’s relief, the surgery was stopped the day before it was due to go ahead, but she soon discovered this delay was only temporary and, after getting a second psychological opinion, the clinic pushed forward with the mastectomy. Less than a year later, her daughter appeared before her with bandages still in place across her chest after having the breast removal. ‘When your child walks through the door and they’ve done something so final to themselves, you’re not prepared for it,’ a tearful Rita says. ‘I didn’t scream and shout. I just said to her, “So you’ve done it now. So there’s no reason for you to be angry any more.” And gave her a hug.’ But, sadly, the ordeal did not end there because, under the influence of a cocktail of hormones and painkillers after the operation, Rita says her ‘gentle’ daughter became ‘unbearable’ and a few weeks later cut ties with her family completely. So how does Rita feel now about the medical professionals who facilitated her daughter’s mastectomy? ‘They’re cowboys,’ she says, simply. ‘Ten years ago they weren’t doing this – they were doing breast enhancements, lips and nose jobs. ‘They are taking advantage of those who are in a desperate situation and that’s not right.’ Reflecting the growing popularity of this form of surgery, numerous videos can be found on YouTube and TikTok of young women who have transitioned to ‘present’ as male explaining the process of having the mastectomy either privately or on the NHS. GP and activist Dr Louise Irvine from CAN-SG, a group of clinicians calling for greater understanding of the effects of sex and gender in healthcare, warns that, despite the rise, there is little or no follow-up data being gathered after this type of surgery. ‘This is particularly important as the only indication given for this surgery is to treat “gender dysphoria”,’ she says. That means a permanent surgical intervention is being used to alleviate psychological distress. ‘We do not know if the surgery achieves this aim, or whether it could have been achieved in a less invasive and permanent way.’ Equally concerning is the lack of information about how many young women regret having their breasts removed. Psychotherapist Stella O’Malley founded a detransition service called Beyond Trans – for people who want to ‘return’ to their birth sex – in 2022, and now says she’s seeing a growing number of women who deeply regret having mastectomies at both NHS and private hospitals. Ms O’Malley says she knows of at least three ‘detransitioners’ who have had their breasts removed on the NHS who are aged just 19. ‘There’s something about the unequivocal irreversibility of it that makes them feel like they’ve attacked their own body,’ she tells me. ‘Breastfeeding comes up a huge amount. They think of their future self and it also represents motherhood to them. They think in some way they’ve neglected their future babies.’ The saddest part, she explains, is that, rather than seeing their breast removal as something that allowed them to be their ‘true selves’, they come to see it as an ‘act of self-harm’. ‘It’s very hard to be 20 years old and regret events that are now not reversible,’ she says. This week, Dr Irvine called on NHS England to review its decision to fund masculinising mastectomies. Medical experts say that, while the exact figures are still unknown, the most common form of procedure sought by young women being referred to adult gender clinics is now breast removal, often referred to as ‘top surgery’. ‘It should ask whether permanent body changes are the right answer for this new and poorly understood group of complex and troubled young women,’ she adds. An NHS spokesperson said: ‘Masculinising chest surgery is only available to adult patients who have a clinical diagnosis of gender dysphoria from a specialist NHS clinic. ‘The NHS is currently undertaking a wide-ranging review of adult gender services and the resulting service specification will be subject to a process of public consultation later this year.’ NAMES have been changed to protect identities. Article Name:The mothers left distraught after the NHS removed their daughters’ healthy breasts because the girls – some of them teenagers – said they were transgender Publication:Daily Mail Author:by Sanchez Manning Start Page:22 End Page:22

Telegraph [1]

Trans woman is found hanged ahead of trial over rape of girl, 13 The Daily Telegraph27 Feb 2025 Maddison Wilson, 37, was found hanged ahead of a Crown Court appearance over abuse charges dating back to 2011 AN ALLEGED child-rapist who was born male but identified as a woman has died before a scheduled court appearance. Maddison Wilson was charged earlier this month with raping a young girl “with your penis” and other sex offences dating from 2011. The 37 year-old appeared in a magistrates’ court two weeks ago and was set to enter pleas at Southampton Crown Court yesterday but the case was discontinued when it emerged Wilson died two days after the first hearing. Wilson was found hanged at just after midnight on Feb 14, the Hampshire coroner’s office said. Preliminary inquest records state Wilson died on the seafront next to a castle in Southsea, Hampshire. Other details remain unclear. An inquest was opened and recorded that police had spoken to Wilson’s brother at his home. It stated: “[The] brother explained Maddison has been having a really difficult time and she has suffered with mental health challenges for a number of years.” The police log said an officer tried CPR but at 12.44am, Wilson was declared dead. At Southampton Crown Court, Matthew Lawson, prosecuting, said: “The defendant is now deceased. I have seen an interim death certificate. “In the circumstances the matter must be discontinued.” Judge Nicholas Rowland referred to the late defendant as “Mr Wilson”, saying: “I haven’t had any sight of correspondence concerning Mr Wilson.” At the inquest opening, Wilson’s full name was given as “Maddison Ebony Aurora Wilson”. A full inquest will take place on a date yet to be set. Wilson appeared at Southampton magistrates’ court on Feb 12 accused of raping a girl aged under 13 and causing or inciting a girl under 13 to engage in sexual activity. The offences allegedly took place in Hull, East Yorks, in 2011. Wilson also faced one count of sexual assault of a boy aged under 13 and one of causing or inciting a boy aged under 13 to engage in sexual activity. These offences allegedly happened in Southampton between 2017 and 2020. The alleged rapist attended court proceedings wearing a pink headband and black clothing and spoke only to confirm a preference for the pronouns “she/her”. The official court charge sheet identified Wilson as female. The rape charge stated that Wilson allegedly assaulted a girl “with your penis”. Article Name:Trans woman is found hanged ahead of trial over rape of girl, 13 Publication:The Daily Telegraph Start Page:10 End Page:10

Friday Total: 3

The Guardian [0]

The Times [1]

NHS plans for puberty blocker trial condemned as ‘unethical’ Eleanor Hayward - Health Editor The NHS has announced plans to start offering puberty blockers as part of a £10.7 million clinical trial, prompting warnings of an “unethical experiment on children”. Puberty blockers were “indefinitely” banned across the UK last year for use in children identifying as transgender, due to fears they are unsafe and harm bone and brain development. Under the planned trial, run by a team at King’s College London, children seeking help from NHS gender services will be eligible for the drugs, if their parents and doctors agree it is suitable. The Pathways trial will closely monitor participants for two years, including with regular brain scans. Puberty blockers suppress the release of sex hormones to pause the physical changes of puberty, such as breast development or facial hair. Over the past two decades, they have become widely used around the world for the treatment of children with gender dysphoria. In 2024, the NHS stopped using puberty blockers in response to the Cass review, which found they had safety risks and that there was “remarkably weak evidence” to support them. In her final report, Dr Hilary Cass recommended a new trial to look into puberty blockers. This NHS-commissioned study, due to last until 2031, was confirmed by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), on a contract worth £10,694,902. The trial is yet to pass ethical approval, although the NHS expects it to begin this year. Cass welcomed the trial, saying it “aims to fill some of the gaps in our knowledge about the outcomes of different interventions and address some of the uncertainty about the impacts and efficacy of puberty-suppressing hormones”. However, several doctors and campaign groups have raised concerns about the ethics of the trial, arguing that existing evidence proves puberty blockers are harmful, damaging brain and bone development as well as longterm fertility and sexual function. One psychiatrist warned the trial risked “repeating the same ethical failures” of the now-closed Tavistock and Portman NHS gender identity development service (Gids), which was accused of rushing hundreds of children on to puberty blockers from 2011 onwards. Dr David Bell, a psychiatrist who was a whistleblower at the Tavistock trust, said he found it “extraordinary” that the NHS-supported trial was going ahead, adding that “again an experiment is being carried out on children”. “If we accept that puberty blockers were an experiment that failed many many children, how can we justify conducting a trial when we know that a significant number of children will be harmed?” he asked. “There are a number of reasons why it is unethical. Once children are started on puberty blockers it’s extremely hard for them to come off them. By starting puberty blockers children are in effect being put on a medical pathway to gender transition which will include, for many, progression to surgery. “The prescribing of puberty blockers introduces physical harms to a physically healthy child. There is significant evidence that puberty blockers seriously impact on bone density.” The study will involve tracking the wellbeing of children who attend a network of new NHS gender clinics for children, including those not on the puberty blocker trial. It is being led by Professor Emily Simonoff, the head of child and adolescent psychiatry at King’s College London. The research will also monitor whether puberty blockers affect young people’s thinking and brain development, using various activities and brain scans. Researchers will speak to young people about their experiences, as well as obtaining the views of parents and staff. The trial summary does not specify the age of participants, and the NHS clinics have no minimum age for referrals. Puberty blockers are usually given in early or mid-puberty, which typically starts at the age of ten or eleven.

Daily Mail [0]

Telegraph [2]

Saturday Total: 2

The Guardian [0]

The Times [1]

Guinea Pigs Planned NHS trial into the effects of puberty blockers on children must be stopped The mistreatment of children at the Tavistock’s gender identity clinic ranks as one of the gravest medical scandals in recent history. By the time the NHS-run service was permanently closed last March, it had become a matter of routine for its clinicians to prescribe trans-identified children with drugs that arrested the onset of puberty. Though misleadingly presented as a consequence-free intervention, in reality the majority of the thousands of children given puberty blockers advanced to cross-sex hormones, and some to brutalising and medically-unnecessary surgeries. What makes the scandal at the Tavistock all the more shocking is that its excesses were no accident: they were the predictable result of implementing the mistaken ideology that some children are born into the wrong sex. Taking this pernicious but fashionable belief at face value led doctors to abandon an array of professional norms and standards of good practice with alarming zeal. As Dr Hilary Cass’s landmark 2024 report into the NHS’s gender services concluded, the rationale for the use of puberty blockers on children remains “unclear”, with only “remarkably weak evi- dence” available as to their long-term effects. Yet perversely, Dr Cass’s accurate highlighting of the scant evidence base for the experimental treatments used at the Tavistock is now poised to set in train a process that is all but certain to see more children harmed. Yesterday the NHS announced plans to launch a £10.7 million clinical trial looking into the drugs’ effects, with trans-identified children once again to be used as the human guinea pigs. This study cannot be allowed to proceed. Within days of becoming health secretary last year, Wes Streeting announced an emergency ban on puberty blockers in the NHS. In December there followed a ban on private prescriptions. Both steps were entirely justified. Though there is little high-quality evidence about puberty-blockers’ longitudinal effects on children, there is strong prima facie reason to think their side-effects dangerous and any supposed benefits negligible. Originally developed to treat prostate cancer, and occasionally used in the chemical castration of male sex offenders, puberty blockers act on the pituitary gland to shut off the natural production of sex hormones. They have never been licensed for use by children suffering feelings of cross-sex identification, but little in the way of medical expertise is needed to imagine their potential harms. Puberty is not an optional extra in a healthy human being’s biological life plan. It is a extended physiological process involving a range of fundamental cognitive and psychological changes. Suppressing it is a disaster for the individual concerned. The notion that an ethical trial should be undertaken to establish the possible downsides of chemically sterilising children is as macabre as it is irrational. That research could be conducted over a long enough time-scale to establish informative results, while remaining experimentally well-controlled, is just as dubious. Recent data from GP records suggests the number of children diagnosed with gender dysphoria has increased 50-fold over ten years. That trend, however, bears all the hallmarks of a social contagion, one aided and abetted by social media. Confronting such developments, adults, not least doctors, have a responsibility to prevent, rather than collude in, the mistaken choices children are liable to make about their own best interest.

Daily Mail [0]

Telegraph [1]

The trans vegan cult that hates beyond all reason A warped movement of militant tech anarchists is linked to a series of killings across America The Daily Telegraph - Saturday1 Mar 2025By Kieran Kelly Left to right: Michelle Zajko, Maximilian Snyder and Jack LaSota are linked to a group of militant vegans and anarchists known as Zizians WHEN Maximilian Snyder enrolled on a computer science course at Oxford in 2021, he described himself as a “passionate scholar and creator”. Fast-forward four years and the 22-year-old has been charged with the murder of an elderly landlord in a case linked to a cult-like group of militant vegans and anarchists known as Zizians. Curtis Lind, 82, from Vallejo, California, had been due to testify in a case about a separate attack – allegedly at the hands of his Zizian tenants – when he was stabbed to death last month. It is one of six killings across the country that have been linked to the Zizians, including the shooting of a border force agent in Vermont and an elderly couple at their home in Pennsylvania. The reality is that no one quite knows what motivates the Zizian group, an off-shoot of the intellectual “rationalist” movement, and how they are allegedly linked to the killings, which span several years and thousands of miles. For rationalists, the clue is in the name: proponents use logic and probability theory in debates on topics ranging from mathematics to the potential of AI to take over the world. Snyder, to all intents and purposes, fits the rationalist mould. His passion for science and technology saw him named a National Merit Scholar semi-finalist in 2019 during his time at Lakeside, an elite independent school in Seattle. In 2023, he won $11,000 in an AI contest. But he also developed a reputation for being argumentative in class. “He would play devil’s advocate, sometimes to the point of getting in trouble,” one former classmate told The Telegraph. “A lot of people found that annoying, I guess, but I enjoyed spirited debates, so we got along pretty well.” Those debates would largely centre around academia or philosophy, the student said, and never strayed into violent matters. “He’s a bit of a smartass, for sure, but I never got the sense he was capable of hurting or killing someone... but this was 10 years ago,” the anonymous student added. On social media, Snyder self-identified with “any pronouns” under the pseudonym “Audere”. His online presence paints a picture of a tech enthusiast, with frequent posts about AI, as well as a hardcore vegan who would shame others for eating meat. Under this online pseudonym, it was clear he had a dark side. In a thread posted on Nov 8 last year, “Audere” admitted to “emotionally abusing” a social media user when he was 20. “I’m sharing this because I realised that keeping abuse in the dark can only protect predators.” On X, he also displayed an interest in the Zizian movement, which is largely based online. Replying to a post about who would win in a debate between Jack LaSota, leader of the Zizians, Andrew Tate and JK Rowling, Snyder said “Ziz would win”. Jessica Taylor, a former researcher at the Machine Intelligence Research Institute, said the post was “ominous” after Snyder was charged with the murder of Lind. She said the Zizians group adopted the most extreme version of ideas shared by the rationalist community. “Ziz theory combines these things like rationalism, timeless decision theory, transgender-related ideas, brain hemispheres and Left-anarchism,” she said. “A lot of these ideas on their own are normal.” For LaSota, the rationalists offered a safe haven. After earning a degree in computer science from the University of Alaska, like many budding tech geniuses, LaSota moved to San Francisco’s Bay Area in 2016 – just 40 miles away is Silicon Valley, home to the likes of Apple, Amazon, and PayPal. It is also the birthplace of the rationalist movement. Under the pseudonym “Ziz”, LaSota wrote a series of long, rambling blog posts about veganism and anarchism. One post called for “Nuremberg trials” for meat eaters. In 2019, LaSota and three associates – donning black robes and Guy Fawkes masks – disrupted an annual retreat for the Centre for Applied Rationalists, a prominent organisation in the wider movement. They were arrested and soon after, LaSota all but disappeared. That was until three years later when a newspaper in Alaska, where LaSota was from, published an obituary. “Ziz” had force agent, was killed in a shoot-out at a traffic stop in Vermont. With thousands of miles between the two killings, police saw no connection. Soon after, authorities revealed the suspects: Snyder, 22, and Teresa Youngblut, 21, who had filed for a marriage licence, shared vegan beliefs and an education at Lakeside. Snyder and Youngblut, who also has links to the Zizians, were in “frequent contact with each other” prior to the killings. In an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle this month, Snyder did not say whether he had killed Lind, or whether he knew why he had been attacked. He also reportedly refused to discuss his connection to Youngblut and the wider Zizian group. He did saythat he was not one of “Ziz’s friends”, referring to LaSota, in a 1,500 word statement that was directly addressed to Eliezer Yudkowsky, an influential figure in the rationalist movement. “Eliezer,” Mr Snyder said. “You need to have a crisis of faith about whether animals are people. It is critical to saving the world.” Mr Yudkowsky later said he had no plans to read the letter for the same reason he refused to read the manuscript of the Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski. “Audience should not be a reward for crime,” he said. A manhunt for LaSota ended this week when police found him, armed and dressed all in black, in Maryland. Alongside him was Michelle Zajko, daughter of the Pennsylvania couple, Richard and Rita Zajko, who were killed in a suspected murder in January 2023. It remains unsolved. At a hearing, LaSota denied any wrongdoing and said the jail had not offered vegan food, which was making him “delirious”. Days after the deaths of Mr and Mrs Zajko, their daughter was questioned and denied wrongdoing. The University of Oxford and Mr Yudkowsky have been contacted for comment. ‘He’s a bit of a smartass, for sure, but I never got the sense he was capable of hurting or killing someone’ Article Name:The trans vegan cult that hates beyond all reason Publication:The Daily Telegraph - Saturday Author:By Kieran Kelly Start Page:12 End Page:12

Sunday Total: 2

The Observer [0]

The Sunday Times [0]

Mail on Sunday [4]

NHS’s £100m a year on trans treatments ... that’s more than it spends on penicillins – and would be enough to hire more than 2,500 nurses The Mail on Sunday2 Mar 2025By Bill Bowkett and Shaun Wooller THE NHS spends as much on controversial transgender treatments as it does on common anti-depressants, penicillins or beta-blockers, The Mail on Sunday can reveal. Figures obtained under Freedom of Information legislation show the NHS spent an eye-watering £250million in the past five years on surgical and non-surgical procedures for trans, non-binary and gender-questioning patients in England. In the first ten months of 2024/25 alone the figure was £88million – up a fifth on the previous 12 months. For that sum, the NHS could prescribe almost 30,000 people with weight-loss jabs, or hire around 2,500 nurses. And data suggests spending on transgender treatments is now more than £100million a year. The annual NHS bill for standard anti-depressants is £91.5million, for penicillin, it is £83million, and for beta-blockers, it is £73million. The amount spent on transgender treatments is close to what it would cost to supply all 1,000 women in England and Wales who would benefit from Enhertu, a drug that would give women with advanced breast cancer an extra six months of life. Because it costs about £118,000 per patient, it was turned down by the NHS last year for being too expensive. The £250million figure for transgender treatments over the past five years is likely to be much higher because for the first three years of the data, surgical interventions are excluded. At least £69million of it was spent treating children and young people, with surgery data again omitted between 2020/21 and 2022/23. The figures also excluded the cost of epilation — removing hair by the root using a laser — and prescribing patients with Gender Affirming Hormones (GAH). Fiona McAnena, director of campaigns at human rights charity Sex Matters, said: ‘£250million is an obscene amount for the NHS to spend on experimental and often dangerous surgeries for people who want to look more like the opposite sex.’ Stephanie Davies-Arai, of Transgender Trend, added: ‘NHS England’s job is to treat medical problems yet they are creating medical problems where none previously existed. To spend so much on damaging people’s bodies for no evidenced reason is unacceptable and in the case of children unconscionable.’ The revelations come after the Government last year banned puberty blockers for under-18s due to the ‘unacceptable safety risk’ following the report by paediatrician Baroness Cass into gender care services for children. Last week, the NHS announced a £10million study into gender care, including puberty blockers. Data obtained by the MoS reflects the massive rise in reported gender dysphoria, with 5,000 referrals to the NHS’s Gender Identity Development Service for children (GIDS) in 2021/22 compared to 250 in 2011/12. Referrals to GIDS between January and March 2024 alone were 4,121 — and there are now an astonishing 16,270 on the GIDS waiting list. A study of GP records in January recorded a 50-fold increase over ten years in children and young people in England with a diagnosis of gender dysphoria. FOI data shows more than £130million spent over the fiveyear period for non-surgical interventions on adults, such as psychological support and speech therapy. In the past two years, at least £48million was used for adult gender-reassignment surgery — such as genital and chest removal. More shockingly, the amount spent on treatments for children and young people hiked by 50 per cent in the last year alone, from £17.5million in 2023/24 to £26.5million in 2024/25 up to January. The NHS does not offer gender reassignment surgery to under-18s. Health Secretary Wes Streeting made the temporary ban on puberty blockers for youngsters ‘indefinite’ across the UK as a result of Baroness Cass’s report. It said there had been ‘significant misinformation’ and ‘insufficient evidence’ to support safety or clinical effectiveness of puberty blockers for adolescents, and led to the London’s Tavistock clinic, Britain’s only GIDS for children closing. New child gender clinics opened last April, at London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital and Liverpool’s Alder Hey Children’s Hospital, after the Tavistock’s closure. An NHS spokesman said: ‘NHS gender services provide muchneeded support – with services for children and young people focused on psychological help to alleviate distress and improve overall quality of life and wellbeing. The NHS has increased investment in services to cope with rising demand and set up the most appropriate services to provide holistic care.’ ‘Damaging bodies for no evidenced reason’ ‘Misinformation and insufficient evidence’ Article Name:NHS’s £100m a year on trans treatments Publication:The Mail on Sunday Author:By Bill Bowkett and Shaun Wooller Start Page:14 End Page:14

DAVID BAILEY’S SON: FOLLY OF GIVING SEX-CHANGE DRUGS TO CONFUSED PEOPLE LIKE ME ...now his girlfriend is expecting his baby – proof, he says, of the folly of handing sex change drugs to confused young people like him The Mail on Sunday2 Mar 2025By KATHRYN KNIGHT THE moment a pregnancy test reveals a thin blue line is a poignant one for any couple hoping to start a family – and it was no different for Sascha Bailey and his girlfriend Lucy Brown. It was shortly before Christmas when they realised they were going to be parents. ‘We were thrilled,’ says Sascha, son of the renowned photographer David Bailey and his fourth wife and model Catherine. ‘It was something I’d always wanted, so it was special. We were both emotional.’ As well they might be, for the pair – and 30-yearold Sascha in particular – has overcome a great deal of tumult to get to this point. Just over two years ago, this handsome, rakishlooking young man was so deeply traumatised that he was on the verge of taking action that would have decisively ended any chance of fatherhood. Struggling in a toxic marriage, and wrestling with the legacy of past trauma, he had become fixated on changing gender as a solution to his despair. ‘It was a way of killing myself without dying, because I was so unhappy with my life,’ as he memorably told the Mail in a brave and unflinchingly honest interview last year. Only through intensive therapy and the unwavering support of 34-year-old Lucy, whom he met in the midst of what he now calls ‘losing his mind’, did he see his obsession for what it was – the desperate cry for help of someone battling deep-rooted issues that had nothing to do with his biological sex. Had that not happened, in time he would have started on the hormone therapy he had already been prescribed. And that would in turn have irreparably damaged his fertility. ‘Thank God I didn’t,’ he says now. ‘I actually always wanted to be a father but, at one point, it felt like there weren’t many options left for me. ‘So to have left the marriage and permanently taken away that future option, when I was so young as well...’ He trails off, his emotion unmistakable. It is one reason he is giving this interview, despite the backlash that he endured when he spoke to the Mail last year in the midst of his recovery, warning against the rush to medicalise those – particularly children – who express uncertainty about their gender identity. HE DID so with great sensitivity, emphasising that he was sharing his experience in the hope of giving another perspective on why becoming, as he put it, ‘someone new’ might prove so attractive to a vulnerable person. His reward? To be trolled by online bullies, to find social invitations withdrawn, and even to prompt discomfort among friends, made uneasy by his candour on a subject that has intensified the culture wars. As he told me last year: ‘It’s almost like society has a gun to its head. You are either for it or you’re transphobic; there’s no middle ground.’ So despite the fact he had spoken movingly about wanting to end his own life, it was his outspokenness on trans issues that invited the most criticism. ‘I saw some old friends recently and, without asking me how I am, they jumped to the issues of the trans community,’ he says. ‘I’m the bad guy. Why? At no point did I say that anyone should be stopped from doing something that is right for them – the end goal is for everyone to be happy. It was just sounding caution. The only really hardline opinion I have is about prescribing hormones to kids, which I think is completely inappropriate and makes no sense to anyone who thinks about it for more than a second.’ If the ‘end goal’ is indeed happiness, then Sascha certainly seems to be on his way there. ‘I’m still recovering in many ways from what I went through, and I’m still going through therapy. But I am so much stronger,’ he smiles. And he’s palpably thrilled to finally be able to publicly share his news after attending the nerve-shredding 12-week scan last month. ‘The baby’s very healthy. The guy said it’s a very beautiful baby and has great legs,’ says Sascha with a grin. ‘It’s too early to know the sex yet, although we’re going to find out,’ adds Lucy, a statuesque and beautiful blonde, who confides that, while excited, she also can’t help but worry about what lies ahead. ‘I’m still a bit of a teenager in my head. I’m all “I need to call my mum”, and now that’s going to be me,’ she laughs. ‘You’ll be fine,’ Sascha reassures her. The conversation seems so wholesome and, indeed, ‘normal’ that it is hard to imagine Sascha was recently so unhappy that he genuinely wanted to die, or kill off the man he was. ‘Looking back at it now, I was in quite a dissociative state,’ he reflects. ‘I think another force almost took control of me, in a sense, and pushed me towards leaving in whatever way I could.’ The story of what Sascha would now call his breakdown seems, initially, a world removed from the glamorous one in which he grew up, one of three siblings born to David and Catherine. Raised in bohemian middleclass privilege, the family flitted between homes in West London and their country estate in Devon, where David’s third wife, supermodel Marie Helvin, was among their visitors. Educated privately at a special school for dyslexics, Sascha initially found work as a model, then, at 19, met Mimi Nishikawa, a charismatic Japanese lawyer 20 years his senior, and married her three months later, despite the misgivings of friends and family. After a spell in London the newlyweds moved to Mimi’s native Tokyo, where the marriage became increasingly toxic, which he feels added to a legacy of trauma he endured from being sexually abused as a child, the details of which he cannot disclose. Unhappy and isolated, he became reliant on Valium to get through the day, and at one point tried to take his own life. It was then, in the autumn of 2022, that the idea of changing sex started to crystallise in his troubled mind. ‘I’d already been thinking about it and it’s an idea that just grew,’ he says. This possible ‘solution’ was reinforced on the chatrooms that Sascha had been frequenting, where changing sex was talked about as a means to a new life. He emphasises that at no point did he officially join the ‘transmaxxing community’ – an internet subculture where males investigate transitioning to females to cash in on the perceived benefits of womanhood, set out in a manifesto written by the movement’s anonymous Swedish leader Vintologi. However, he was certainly drawn to a culture where transitioning is seen as a way of solving problems, particularly for those who don’t believe they conform to traditional societal expectations. As someone who had struggled to identify with male role models as a You’re told if you can fix this one thing everything will be perfect child, something about it chimed. ‘You’re being told everything about you boils down to this one thing that is wrong, and if you can fix this one thing everything will be perfect,’ Sascha says. ‘For many men the pressure of having money, providing, being strong and tough is not something they can do or is necessary, but the perception sticks.’ Within weeks of making his decision, it took a mere ten-minute appointment with a private doctor in Japan to be ‘diagnosed’ as transgender, referred to a surgeon and sent away with HRT patches. He didn’t begin using them immediately as things became untenable in his marriage in October 2022, which led to him fleeing his Tokyo home with little more than the clothes on his back and boarding a flight to London, where he could get a second month’s supply from the NHS before beginning treatment. Back in the sanctuary of his family – who were, he insists, nothing but supportive – he got in touch with Lucy, a friend that he had connected with through Instagram and met previously a couple of times. ‘I didn’t really have anyone to talk to, so I messaged Lucy. And then we met up, and things just went from there,’ he says. At this point, Sascha admits he was still horribly confused and had only taken the hormones he had been given because of his anxiety about being unable to continue his prescription. ‘And thank God for that, as Lucy massively helped me snap out of my thinking. She helped me see myself from the outside. ‘She kind of laughed about it, not in a horrible way, but when you realise that what you’re doing is silly, it becomes impossible to carry on doing it.’ Lucy, meanwhile, says that she instinctively knew that the trauma with which Sascha was grappling was not rooted in gender dysphoria. ‘I can’t really explain it, but I suppose I had known other trans people, and they had just not presented in the same way,’ she says. Her approach was to try to talk Sascha through his thought process. She recalls: ‘Things like, so what procedures exactly are you going to go through? And what kind of relationships do you want to have afterwards? ‘And when he said women, I asked him what kind of women he thought would relate to him as a transwoman? ‘It was just getting him to step back and think about it in real I was in quite a dissociative state. Another force almost took control terms rather than purely fantastical ones.’ She also asked him if he was ready to embrace the impact on his fertility. ‘And when confronted like that, I realised I wasn’t,’ Sascha says. ‘In the end, I guess she really grounded me.’ Perhaps they grounded each other. Privately educated Cambridge graduate Lucy admits that she was something of a rebel who liked to push boundaries – one reason that, in her 20s, she took a job working for a production company called Rebel Media, who had been employed to follow the then English Defence League leader Tommy Robinson and film him on his travels. ‘It doesn’t mean I had the same beliefs, everyone just assumed that,’ she says. ‘In fact, I was interested to see the conversations he was having.’ She left Rebel Media in 2018 after a fall-out with Robinson – who she emphasises she has ‘no time for’ and is now writing a book about her time on what she calls ‘the Right-wing front line’. ‘I still get trolling and hate mail from the far-Right,’ she confides. She was also recently evicted from her flat-share after her flatmates googled her, told her she was hateful and asked her to leave. ‘So I think we’d both had quite mad lives when we met,’ she says. Sascha, too, is writing a book about his experience, which also investigates the ongoing culture war between the gender-critical and trans-activists communities, and which he will be releasing a chapter at a time on his social media feeds. Beyond this, though, he admits he is at something of a crossroads in his career. Having worked in the art world, curating exhibitions and creating one of the first platforms for artists to create NFTs (non-fungible tokens, which are digital collectibles often tied to pieces of online art), he has latterly been ostracised by the art community. ‘The fashion world and the art world, I think, are forever closed off because of everything I’ve spoken about,’ he says. ‘In Japan, I was having meetings relating to big brands like Pokémon, and I’ve come back here, and that’s all gone. ‘It’s a weird thing to be back at the starting point, but I’ve come to terms with that. I have no regrets. I’m glad that I spoke out.’ In time, he plans to start an online tech venture. ‘The great thing about that space is that no one can cancel you from it,’ he says archly. For now though, both Sascha and Lucy want to focus on the exciting months ahead, and find a permanent home to raise their new baby, who is due in August. At some point he would love to propose, although he’s currently restrained by ongoing issues with his estranged wife Mimi, to whom he is still technically married, but doesn’t know where she is. Luckily both his and Lucy’s family are thrilled about the impending arrival and have been a huge support. Lucy has met her new in-laws on several occasions, while Sascha’s siblings, and older sister Paloma in particular, are delighted at the thought of new cousins for her own offspring. They’ll find out the sex at a later scan and have already settled on names – ‘Ava’ for a girl, ‘Wolfgang’ for a boy, which Sascha’s mother had wanted to call him until it was vetoed by his father. ‘We don’t mind either way – a healthy baby is all we ask for,’ says Sascha. A gift that, for a brief and ghastly time, this delightful young fatherto-be nearly denied himself. Article Name:DAVID BAILEY’S SON: FOLLY OF GIVING SEX-CHANGE DRUGS TO CONFUSED PEOPLE LIKE ME Publication:The Mail on Sunday Author:By KATHRYN KNIGHT Start Page:30 End Page:30

Sunday Telegraph [2]

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How Erika Hilton - a Black travesti trans woman - is changing Brasil, by Lis Welch
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Trans people are the greatest assault on women in JK Rowling’s life time, apparently, by Gemma Stone
NHS & puberty blockers: Former GIDS patients reflect on long wait times, invasive assessments, by Sasha Baker.

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The Trans Agenda by Lee Hurley

The Trans Agenda: 70+ 'journalists' attack trans people with 99 articles over 28 days

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AROUND THE WORLD

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THE WEEK AHEAD

SHORTS

THE PAPERS

February stats

THE PAPERS Monday 24 February- Sunday 2 March

Monday Total: 2

The Guardian [0]

The Times [0]

Daily Mail [1]

Telegraph [1]

Tuesday Total: 1

The Guardian [0]

The Times [0]

Daily Mail [0]

Telegraph [1]

Wednesday Total: 3

The Guardian [2]

The Times [0]

Daily Mail [0]

Telegraph [1]

Thursday Total: 3

The Guardian [0]

The Times [1]

Daily Mail [1]

Telegraph [1]

Friday Total: 3

The Guardian [0]

The Times [1]

Daily Mail [0]

Telegraph [2]

Saturday Total: 2

The Guardian [0]

The Times [1]

Daily Mail [0]

Telegraph [1]

Sunday Total: 2

The Observer [0]

The Sunday Times [0]

Mail on Sunday [4]

Sunday Telegraph [2]

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