For once this article isn’t about some horse crap that has fallen from the gob of a billionaire bigot. Sure, JK Rowling is involved and does say some horse crap but the point of this article is really about the media and how they choose to report or not report on things like JK Rowling and the 16 dead children under NHS care.
In a long thread Jolyon Maugham of the Good Law Project wrote on Twitter about a previous High Court decision that resulted in a temporary suspension of access to puberty blocking medication on the NHS. This was the Keira Bell case and, as Maugham writes, despite the case being overturned at the Supreme Court; the NHS didn’t reverse it’s restrictions on trans healthcare.
The thread is well worth the read on its own and is a damning indictment of our political, media, judicial and healthcare systems for clearly having failed these youth so irreparably on the basis of so little.
Within Maugham’s tweets a whistleblower from the service supporting trans and gender questioning youth states that in the 7 years before the Bell decision was handed down only one youth on their waitlists is known to have died by suicide. After the decision was handed down this rose to 16 within three years.
There is no media coverage of this. The only page I can see that mentions this thread at all is one of Good Law Project’s own blog posts about their work. On the other hand; you can pop “JK Rowling” into your news searchbar and be flooded with articles discussing exactly how the latest turd sounded as it slapped against the pile of turds that had fallen previously.
Several articles run with a headline directly quoting Rowling’s most recent bigoted tirade towards Keir Starmer and his Labour party. A Labour party which has repeatedly defended the bigots in its ranks, repeatedly had senior leaders & members say bigoted things, repeatedly backed transphobic policy and even backs the Cass review; the latest reason for why puberty blockers are no longer accessible on the NHS or through private care.
Its hard to imagine exactly how much more transphobic this Labour party could be – but not hard to figure out it would still not be enough for bigots like JK Rowling. Angela Rayner could introduce Susie Izzard as “my tranny friend”, tell her to piss in the men’s room in front of a live studio audience and bigots will still think she could’ve done more to humiliate her.
Instead of gossiping about the bigoted whinging of people like JK Rowling the news should be covering things that are… well.. newsworthy. It should be covering the fact that a minimum of 16 minors have died as a result of attacks on trans youth; and thats just in one service not every trans or gender questioning child had access to.
It should be covering the repeated attacks on the transgender community and especially transgender youth. It should be talking about how Kemi Badenoch admits that the government had to stack positions with anti-trans ministers in order to get things moving in the direction they wanted. That direction being the banning of gender-affirming care as Badenoch has gone on record calling it “conversion therapy”.
The media should be reporting on the numerous challenges to the Cass Review which at this point include several academic papers, and hundreds of experts warning that the review is flawed and its recommendations will lead to the deaths of even more children.
This is a medical scandal resulting in young people losing their lives, often dying by suicide, spurred on entirely by the bigoted belief that it’s possible to do conversion therapy but nicely. A review which slams a “lack of evidence” is itself making massive recommendations to change the way this area of healthcare operates with zero evidence of the clinical efficacy of those actions.
It is choosing to withhold treatment, proven treatment, from a specific minority of patients in exchange for participation in a research program, a move which is wildly unethical and objectively discriminatory.
All of this is far more worthy of being reported on than whatever JK Rowling’s latest bigoted screed includes or does not include. But none of it has been. UK media barely has any trans writers at all and those who are in the mainstream are kept on a pretty tight leash.
The knock-on effect is that your average joe public is looking at all of this like its just some squabble between JK Rowling and snooty activists. But it isn’t. This is 16 dead children who died because our government is enabling attacks on a minority. Fuck JK Rowling, who gives a shit about her?
This is about who is more worthy of your time and support; a bigoted loser in a castle or kids who were just trying to get help figuring out who they are.
The Good Law Project, in partnership with Trans Actual, are currently bringing legal action against the UK government. As we previously reported; before dissolving Parliament ahead of the General Election, the UK Government chose to use its emergency powers to rush through legislation temporarily blocking puberty blockers in the UK entirely.
Youth who were already shut out of the NHS systems and had turned to private care options are now also unable to access this vital treatment. Good Law Project is fighting that and though I have my reasons to be skeptical of this; there is a potential that winning could secure access to this medication forever and have further effects in future.
Check out their crowdfunder here.
