The editor wanted a cut. I’d written of a hypothetical transgender woman, adding the qualifying phrase “who is biologically male.” That phrase should go, the editor insisted; “trans woman” was enough. I didn’t want to give in to pressure from activists who oppose talk of biology, but there was also a more basic reason why I stuck to my guns: I’ve met people who genuinely believe that a trans woman is a woman—in the literal biological sense—who identifies as trans. For clarity and sense, therefore, the biological reference had to stay.

Open in app or online Hormones first, research laterHannah Barnes's book Time to Think reveals an ethical inversion at the heart of gender medicineBERNARD LANE MAR 14 SAVE ▷ LISTEN Photo by Zulmaury Saavedra on Unsplash The editor wanted a cut. I’d written of a hypothetical transgender woman, adding the qualifying phrase “who is biologically male.” That phrase should go, the editor insisted; “trans woman” was enough. I didn’t want to give in to pressure from activists who oppose talk of biology, but there was also a more basic reason why I stuck to my guns: I’ve met people who genuinely believe that a trans woman is a woman—in the literal biological sense—who identifies as trans. For clarity and sense, therefore, the biological reference had to stay. The activist milieu that I think of as Transworld often seems back to front and upside down, and not just in its manic policing of language. There is an ethical inversion at the heart of youth gender medicine, one that BBC journalist Hannah Barnes describes in her new Swift Press book about the failings of England’s only youth gender clinic, Time to Think: The Inside Story of the Collapse of the Tavistock’s Gender Service for Children. The Tavistock is hardly the only “gender-affirming” clinic that chose to offer medicalised gender change to children before research had delivered a verdict on its safety and side-effects. Experimental treatment on minors came first, without the ethical guardrails supplied by formal research. Read the rest of this article here. It was published on March 14 by Quillette, thanks to editor-in-chief Claire Lehmann. Gender Clinic News is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Upgrade to paid LIKE COMMENT SHARE Read Gender Clinic News in the app Listen to posts, join subscriber chats, and never miss an update from Bernard Lane. © 2023 Bernard Lane 548 Market Street PMB 72296, San Francisco, CA 94104 Unsubscribe Open in app or online Hormones first, research laterHannah Barnes's book Time to Think reveals an ethical inversion at the heart of gender medicineBERNARD LANE MAR 14 SAVE ▷ LISTEN Photo by Zulmaury Saavedra on Unsplash The editor wanted a cut. I’d written of a hypothetical transgender woman, adding the qualifying phrase “who is biologically male.” That phrase should go, the editor insisted; “trans woman” was enough. I didn’t want to give in to pressure from activists who oppose talk of biology, but there was also a more basic reason why I stuck to my guns: I’ve met people who genuinely believe that a trans woman is a woman—in the literal biological sense—who identifies as trans. For clarity and sense, therefore, the biological reference had to stay. The activist milieu that I think of as Transworld often seems back to front and upside down, and not just in its manic policing of language. There is an ethical inversion at the heart of youth gender medicine, one that BBC journalist Hannah Barnes describes in her new Swift Press book about the failings of England’s only youth gender clinic, Time to Think: The Inside Story of the Collapse of the Tavistock’s Gender Service for Children. The Tavistock is hardly the only “gender-affirming” clinic that chose to offer medicalised gender change to children before research had delivered a verdict on its safety and side-effects. Experimental treatment on minors came first, without the ethical guardrails supplied by formal research. Read the rest of this article here. It was published on March 14 by Quillette, thanks to editor-in-chief Claire Lehmann. Gender Clinic News is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Upgrade to paid LIKE COMMENT SHARE Read Gender Clinic News in the app Listen to posts, join subscriber chats, and never miss an update from Bernard Lane. © 2023 Bernard Lane 548 Market Street PMB 72296, San Francisco, CA 94104 Unsubscribe