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Dear UK residents. I’m sorry to be tedious, but I’m going to do the trans Cassandra thing again.

The government is now moving towards regarding trans people as effective children until the age of 25.

This will be established as precedent and then used to screw over any and all young adults who can’t escape from abusive parents, especially young women.

If you want to do anything about this, you need to fight for trans people. Yes, you. Now.

We all know that isn’t going to happen to any significant extent though.

As you were.

reshared this

in reply to Sarah Brown

the "just a child" defense for removing a person's freedom has already been used on me twice, just to screw me over later when I wasn't 18 yet. Having that extended to 25 would've resulted in me never reaching that age...
in reply to Sarah Brown

angry sarcasm

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in reply to Sarah Brown

its already happened in provincial areas of UK (with high levels of Tory support) since about 15 years ago; used against "troubled" young adults who had got into lifestyles which involve recreational drug use
in reply to Sarah Brown

Because of course the next step is to treat all people under 25 as effective children.
in reply to Ariaflame

@Ariaflame pretty much. They always do it to us first because nobody complains, so it’s a way in.

Samhain Night reshared this.

in reply to Sarah Brown

@christineburns they want to break Gillick competence. Trans kids are the wedge they're using. But as in the US, they were never going to stop there.

And extending "children" to refer to people up to 25 is also, as you say, not going to stop with trans people.

in reply to Sarah Brown

I agree completely. I have no real stake in the #Trans community but it seems obvious even to an ignorant cis/het like me that 18 is the obvious age for anyone, with a question for those better-informed than I am as to whether it should be 16 to match the age of consent.
in reply to Mr Lawrence

@LMac1970 In Scotland age of legal capacity is 16. There are special provisions for Young Adults up to 18 to apply to court to prevent them being screwed over in contracts due to their age, and there are still the other "age restricted" items, but they can vote (in non-Westminster election) & generally are legally adult. There doesn't seem to be any problems with it.
in reply to HighlandLawyer

@HighlandLawyer Quite. It seems weird that the report author has suddenly pulled 25 out of a hat! 👍🏻
in reply to Sarah Brown

In the US, there are some who want to change the voting age from 18 to 21 (or more).
in reply to Sarah Brown

my daughter is trans. She knew from about the age of 14 that she was trans. When we looked in to what she could expect through the NHS, we knew she’d be well in to her 20s by the time anything happened. #notgoodenough

On a side note, we have found that the whole of friends/family/friends of friends have been super supportive with very little negativity. Even in the heart of the Welsh valleys 🙂

Some idiots threatened violence because “trans” but … they learned

in reply to Jamie 🏳️‍⚧️ 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

@JamieR

One of my daughters is trans too, currently transitioning. She is a British citizen but we live in France - as you can imagine, the legal transition has been complicated! - but I have to say the French health service has been great (as it is in every respect, as far as I know).

We too have found family and friends supportive. My wife was very worried about telling her mother - elderly and very conservative - but her positive reaction surprised everybody. One of the first things she said was that she had some understanding because there had been a trans character in one of the UK soaps she watches - which shows positive media portrayals really do help people.

@goatsarah

in reply to GeofCox

@GeofCox my father-in-law (I’m a widower now) is in his eighties and deeply religious, I expected some sort of ‘issue’ but he’s been very accepting too. I realise that not everyone is this lucky, and that there is still a lot of prejudice in the world, but so far, we’ve found very little resistance. Thankfully
in reply to Sarah Brown

25 years is just how long it takes to do anything in britsh healthcare lol /jking
This entry was edited (7 months ago)
in reply to Sarah Brown

caps

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in reply to Sarah Brown

Email to MP sent with references to solid sources to help her grasp basic facts.
in reply to Sarah Brown

I have two trans boys. I've also emailed labour since it was Wes Streeting, to highlight it to our candidate. There is 525 votes in it here so...
in reply to Jinshei

labour candidate came back with all the things I want, including saying how well trans people do when they get treatment. He is a good lad.
Unknown parent

EVHaste

@Shadedlady The OP is referencing the Greek myth of Cassandra, who was cursed by Apollo to have visions of the future which no one would ever believe when told. She can only endlessly warn people of disasters they will never take seriously.

OP is likening this to the trans experience; we’re often the canary in the coal mine for fascist legislation, and yet dismissed as hysterical until that same fascist movement comes for them.

in reply to Cheradenine Zakalwe

@Cheradenine Zakalwe it’s a step towards making anyone who isn’t a cishet neurotypical white man a non person. Trans people in the uk are pretty much already there.
in reply to Sarah Brown

A RICH cishet neurotypical white man. And probably "conservative".
Unknown parent

@pomegranate_stew it's probably being funded by US billionaires, like the Abortion thing. Would that anybody outside or inside America could stop them....
Unknown parent

@pomegranate_stew and maybe we shouldn't brainwash them with religion before 25...
Unknown parent

Stephen Cox Author
@pomegranate_stew
Yes, which is why students from private fee paying schools on the rampage are 'just kids' whereas people on the poor estates of the same age are 'hardened criminal thugs.'
Unknown parent

Alexander Hay

@pomegranate_stew The "25+" argument is bollocks in and of itself, and when I saw it being alluded to in the report, that was the proverbial cherry on the cake.

slate.com/technology/2022/11/b…

in reply to Sarah Brown

If pro-trans people start making noise now, they may be seen as part of the "new chosen path" when the tories are finally deposed.
Unknown parent

Russell1898
@pomegranate_stew There are still some of us in the US that believe that if a person is old enough to be drafted into the military, they are old enough to vote for the politicians who send them to war. The people who want to change that are Republican strategists who know they can’t win elections unless they restrict voting to their demographic base.
in reply to Sarah Brown

not a area I know a lot about, but are they increasing the age or recognising in law for the first time. If the latter then it is progress, even though it is not a great start but it gives a point to reform from and bring it to a more acceptable level. Patience is required for change otherwise you scare the establishment. Look at the changes to the laws and the acceptance of homosexuality since the 60’s.
in reply to Crocket

@Crocket no. It’s rolling back stuff we already had. This has been happening for 20 years, since the ECHR stood up for us against the British government.

And what they do to us, they will do to the rest of you later.

in reply to Crocket

@crocket2001
I think it's easy to underestimate how far most people have moved on this already. (Not that *most* makes it safe). There seem to be two groups pushing this:

1. boring folk who moan about the metric system, car parks, youth of today, ULEZ, "they're all as bad as each other", immigrants, etc.

2. Westminster-y policy type people, both left and right, professional dinner-party attenders, columnists, writers, wonks, essayists, student union types.

The (dangerous) difference now is that these groups -- our society's loudest, most boring, dull, dim, and reactionary, who only differ in social class -- are united on one subject.

The public don''t need to "come round".

People think Guardianista idealists lay out liberation's groundwork -- surveyors going ahead. But they're just apologists hanging on the coat-tails of emperors, minting excuses for comfortable lives at court. The powerful, their "clients", are moving right, so they're representing them, coining theories and writing reports.

Unknown parent

"An unusual lifestyle"
Oh heaven forbid people should be different, not while this guy is around giving orders.....
This entry was edited (7 months ago)
Unknown parent

Unknown parent

@chrisjtrogers @grayface_ghost yeah, but you DO have a problem with Queer Adults and your list of talking points doesn't negate that.

We Queers can sniff dangers like you out, we have to.

Everybody here can see what you are boy.

Unknown parent

@grayface_ghost @chrisjtrogers This 'Friend of Joanne' can't stop thinking about teenage bodies.....
Unknown parent

Rachel Greenham
@MaddieT we'll always have Camber Sands… 😅
Unknown parent

Jax UK
@chrisjtrogers
Bore off you absolute giraffe.
Unknown parent

Alexander Hay

@pomegranate_stew There's also this, which makes some very good points:

old.reddit.com/r/slatestarcode…

Unknown parent

@Tsimagain I think there should be research into the unusual lifestyle of devoting yourself to hating trans people. It can’t be fun.
in reply to Alexandra Lanes

@Tsimagain For what it’s worth my unusual lifestyle is currently learning to sail on a yacht in the Med.
in reply to Sarah Brown

I'm in my mid-30s now. I started HRT aged 19, had my mastectomy aged 20, hysterectomy aged 22 and phalloplasty aged 23. It was the best decision ever and I am sure I wouldn't be here if that hadn't been an option. There's no way I, aged 18 and suffering from crippling dysphoria, could have gone on another 7 years without medical care. The UK's plans to ban transition until age 25 makes me feel sick. It feels like an assault on my very existence.
Unknown parent