As anyone who has been reading my work on this topic, as well as others, knows, I watch what's happening in Europe and the United Kingdom in particular because of what their left is already doing, ours wants to. The European loony left is about five to ten years ahead of ours, but ours is narrowing that gap on things like gender ideology and climate scoldery.
So, yes, they bear watching, because there is no notion so loony, so utterly bereft of any semblance of sanity, that the European left won't try it - and which ours won't be right behind them. The latest example: The United Kingdom's National Health Service (NHS) is now allowing "transgender" treatments for toddlers.
The NHS is treating nursery-age children who believe they are transgender after watering down its own guidance, The Telegraph can reveal.
The health service was previously set to introduce a minimum age of seven for children to be seen by its specialist gender clinics, claiming anything less was “just too young”.
The limit was removed after the proposals were put out to consultation, with new guidance due to be published showing that children of any age are eligible.
However, a source close to the consultation process said NHS England had “caved to the pressure” of trans activists to remove the limits.
Now, the NHS hasn't yet gone entirely bat-guano crazy; they are not yet offering hormone treatments or surgeries for toddlers, just "counseling" that these kids won't understand.
The children are not given powerful drugs such as puberty blockers at the clinics, but are offered counselling and therapy along with their family.
Up to 10 children of nursery age are being treated, according to new data, while as many as 157 children aged nine or younger have been referred to the clinics.
I'm as staunch an advocate for parental rights as anyone you're liable to run across, but this makes one wonder if someone in these kids' families isn't a big part of the problem. A "transgender" kid is a big status symbol among some on the left, both in the UK and here, and as I'm often pointing out, when you consider someone with a "transgender" kid, it's the same as someone who claims to have a "vegan cat" - the one thing you already know is that it wasn't the cat's or the kid's decision. How many of these loons spotted their little girl pushing around their brother's toy truck while their toddler brother was chewing on his sister's doll, decided both kids were "transgender," and rushed them off to a clinic to have this affirmed?
And that is precisely what some of these clinics are doing; the staffers are not counselors, they are advocates. I've seen this happen with someone we knew personally, granted, an adult rather than a child, who went to one of these clinics and was persuaded by the activist staff that she was "transgender."
That's now how medicine is supposed to work. That's not how mental health counseling is supposed to work.
See Also: Republican Senators Demand Answers on Taxpayer-Funded 'Transgender' Kids Study
HHS Report Details 'Significant Risks' and 'Weak Evidence of Benefit' of Sex-Change Procedures
Some in the British healthcare scene recognize this for what it is:
Helen Joyce, the director of advocacy for human-rights charity Sex Matters, said: “Research shows that pre-adolescent children who feel confused or distressed by the fact of their sex will usually grow out of this stage if they’re sensitively supported, but not when they’re encouraged to believe the unscientific notion that everyone has a ‘gender identity’ that may differ from their sex.”
She added: “The question for the new NHS hubs is whether they perpetuate the failed ‘affirmation’ model of the now-closed GIDS clinic, in which case parents should keep their children well away, or whether they offer genuinely holistic care based on evidence, not ideology. If the treatment does more harm than good, the length of the waiting list is irrelevant.”
Evidence, not ideology, and we might add, the full understanding that children are not capable of giving truly informed consent.
For a little perspective, consider what British leftists will object to:
Wes Streeting, the Health Secretary, has indefinitely banned puberty blockers and pledged to ensure women-only spaces in NHS hospitals do not include trans women after the Supreme Court’s ruling on biological sex.
However, other Labour MPs have vocally opposed both of these decisions.
Labour MPs oppose puberty blockers for children. These drugs, remember, cause permanent, irreversible damage; they will often result in sterility and sometimes a complete loss of sex drive and the ability to achieve orgasm.
Labour MPs oppose women-only spaces. They are in favor of allowing dudes in women's locker rooms, showers, restrooms, and even in shelters set up for women who have been abused by men.
Labour MPs, remember, are also the ones who want to continue allowing dudes to play on women's sports teams.
This entire thing, this entire issue, has gone past ridiculous and into the absurd. And bear in mind, the American left looks on this with envy - and given the chance, they will do it here. That, along with many other reasons, is why we have to vote in every election. The American left is watching Britain and Europe, and they will try it here.
That's why I watch Britain and the rest of Europe, and why you should, too.
