UK gender clinic reports highest record of girls, young kids seeking to transition
England's sole gender clinic has seen a significant increase in girls seeking to "transition" to male, the highest proportion ever recorded, in addition to an increase in younger patient referrals, figures show.
Approximately three-quarters of children seeking medical assistance to transition genders at the Tavistock clinic in London were girls, reports say. From the beginning of the year until April, the numbers also show a rise in younger children seeking such treatment. Fifty-four percent of patients referred to the clinic were 14 or younger.
"The number of 13-year-olds seeking treatment rose by 30% in a year to 331. Referrals of 14-year-olds went up by a quarter, to 511. The number of 11-year-olds is up by 28%. The youngest patients were 3," the Sunday Times reported on Sunday.
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"Across all ages, the entire year’s rise was accounted for by girls. The number of boys referred, 624, was the same as last year. The number of girls was 1,740, or 74% of patients at the service."
For women's rights activists who maintain that transgender ideology disproportionately harms women and girls, the latest data dovetails with their concerns.
Venice Allan, a spokesperson for the U.K. group Standing for Women, said in an interview with The Christian Post on Monday that some say transgender-identified persons have always existed and it is only now where they have been able to be accepted in society.
"Yet if that were true, why are the overwhelming majority of transitioners middle-aged and elderly men? And if denying 'gender identity' really did cause suicide, why are suicide rates of young people, especially girls, dramatically increasing, at this time when they are finally able to be their ‘authentic selves’?" Allan asked, referencing a recent study on suicide by Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio.
"Nobody is born in the wrong body and no amount of hormones or surgery can change our sex. Young people are being misled by adults that they should be able to trust: teachers, doctors, politicians and even their own parents who are enabling irreversible medical treatment to their healthy bodies."
Allan, who left the Labour Party in England after she was suspended and interrogated over her stance on this issue, believes transgender ideology appeals to young girls who are struggling with societal expectations. Girls who feel unable to adhere to femininity as portrayed in a hypersexualized culture are thus deceived into thinking that since they cannot conform to those standards it must then mean they are not really female.
"We know that compared to only 1% of the general population, around a third of young people treated at the Tavistock has an autism spectrum disorder diagnosis, a condition that is characterized by difficulties of social interaction," Allan elaborated.
"Vulnerable girls are being used by the transgender movement to destigmatize what is essentially a male sexual fetish," she asserted.
The latest Tavistock figures come amid ongoing debate in both England and Scotland over revisions to existing law related to gender identification. In recent weeks, the Scottish government moved to delay changing the Gender Recognition Act to allow persons to self-identify their sex with greater ease until further consultations could be held in order to build "maximum consensus."
Author Stephanie Davies-Arai, founder of Transgender Trend, a group that questions the rapid increase in trans-identifying youth, said: “We need an inquiry into why there has been such an unprecedented increase in the number of teenage girls who are unhappy at being girls, and it should be understood within a context of adolescent girls’ mental health."
In 2018, Equalities Minister Penny Mordaunt ordered a review into the increase in girls seeking a gender transition, in light of aggregated data showing that in the past decade the number of young people referred for medical help to transition genders had increased by over 4,000 percent.
"In 2019 we are still waiting for news of Penny Mordaunt’s promised inquiry,” Davies-Arai said.
