RCPsych’s Lenny Cornwall quote tweeted support of an article in the BMJ by Margaret McCartney taking a favourable view of The Cass Review. I described McCartney as a bigot which has subsequently led Cornwall to suggest I’m being toxic whilst implying legal action against me. He also suggests that I’m engaging in abuse and making it so there’s no discussion.
While I am both of these things, especially to healthcare gatekeepers after having my oestrogen prescription revoked for no clinically beneficial reason last week; I don’t think I was on this occasion. On this occasion what got the ire of RCPsych’s Lenny Cornwall is the fact I described Margaret McCartney as a bigot.
I did so for a few reasons. First is detailed in the article written by McCartney as a conflicting interest; she is the director of Beira’s Place.
This is an organisation solely funded by JK Rowling which was set up in part in retaliation to Mridul Wadhwa, a transgender woman and CEO of Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre. Wadhwa has been on the receiving end of an anti-trans harassment campaign for years now.
JK Rowling is currently signal boosting fascists and laughing at transphobic memes on Twitter. It’s my opinion that if you work for an organisation explicitly set up with bigoted intentions for an owner who is explicitly bigoted like JK Rowling; you are also a bigot.
Second; McCartney follows a lot of bigot accounts on social media. This isn’t always a huge red flag, for example I give journalists a bit of a free pass on following a handful or two. But its always a bit sus especially when they don’t then also follow a lot of trans inclusive accounts.
Taken in combination with the third point; the content itself, ie a favourable view of The Cass Review amidst thousands of academics, doctors, advocates, patients and parents condemning it as transphobic propaganda. I feel I had sufficient reasoning to truly honestly believe that McCartney is a bigot.
An opinion which I expressed in a quote tweet of RCPsych’s Lenny Cornwall’s support for McCartney’s article. I said that whenever a bigot gets an article in an industry specific journal or magazine like BMJ its worth checking which other industry professionals are nodding along. I said it explains a lot about why trans healthcare is so stagnant.
Whenever a bigot gets a piece like this into somewhere like the BMJ it's always worth searching to see which other health industry professionals are agreeing with them.
answers a lot of questions about why trans healthcare is so stagnant. https://t.co/UTK7kfTJvb
— the greatest assault on women in JKR's lifetime (@notCursedE) May 31, 2024
And I’ll go one step further; it is extremely uncomfortable as a trans patient who recently had their healthcare revoked for no good reason, like so many other trans people in the UK, to see industry professionals being so susceptible to this thinly-veiled attempt at polite bigotry.
Indeed the point that RCPsych’s Lenny Cornwall first attempted to shoot back at me about was “the toxicity” of the discussion, as mentioned in McCartney’s article.
In a quote tweet of my tweet RCPsych’s Lenny Cornwall writes; The plea from all sides of political opinion to remove the “toxicity” from the debate continues to be ignores. Perhaps this poster would like to repeat their accusation that McCartney is a bigot using their own name.”
Weird to accuse someone of toxicity while implying a legal threat against them for doing as little as giving their honest and informed opinion. Seems like if anything was going to shut down the discussion threatening a broke trans woman on the internet with legal action over her opinion might just about do it.
But again I lost my healthcare last week what else do I got to lose at this point. In for a penny in for a pound and I sent three tweets more or less covering what we’ve already covered in this piece:
- Senior leaders of the NHS on Twitter supporting bigotry scares me as a trans patient
- Its strange to accuse someone of being toxic while implying a legal threat over their opinion
- Its weird that only one side, trans people, are ever accused of toxicity while transphobes get to be framed as mere victims of the toxicity who just want to discuss things
- The reasons I believe she is a bigot and feel comfortable expressing that opinion
I did also call him a loser to which someone responded jokingly suggesting he would imply another lawsuit for this. So I pre-wrote a joke apology about how when I called him a loser I could not have known if he had lost anything, his mind or the respect of patients and colleagues reading this exchange.
I apologise unreservedly as when I called Mr Lenny Cornwall a loser I was, in fact, completely unaware of whether he has indeed lost things, his mind or the respect of patients and industry colleagues who follow me and can see him now showing his entire ass in 4k.
— the greatest assault on women in JKR's lifetime (@notCursedE) June 1, 2024
Again RCPsych’s Lenny Cornwall avoided any discussion at all on any of the salient points raised and quote tweeted this joke post writing; “Always the same isn’t it? No discussion, just abuse. Makes me admire Dr Cass even more for the work she has done.”
This man, RCPsych’s Lenny Cornwall, implied a legal threat against me on someone else’s behalf because I gave my honest and informed opinion that she is a bigot; part informed by something the article itself describes as a conflict of interest in its footnote. And some how he thinks I’m the one being abusive and shutting down discussion?
I don’t get how that makes sense to anyone. If I thought better of RCPsych’s Lenny Cornwall and indeed Royal College of Psychiatrists as a whole I would think it was an intentional attempt to gaslight me. But I refuse to give them the credit to believe that they could have concocted such a scheme. Instead this comes across as just plain weird in its entire disconnection from reality.
Yesterday I had never heard of RCPsych’s Lenny Cornwall but today I get to note that he has priors for trans people calling him a bigot loser and is also following anti-trans accounts including a “SEEN” account and that one bigot lawyer who apologised for libelling me that one time before I blocked her.
“SEEN” accounts are a new astroturfed version of “Gender Critical networks”. “SEEN” stands “for who gives a piss they are just jumped up bigots”.
They are organising within almost every sector and you can search up “SEEN in” on social media, click the people tab and then see which industry professionals in your sector are cosying up to bigotry!* Certainly makes my job as a researcher into transphobia a bit easier. Thanks lads.
*You’ll mostly find they are each propped up by the same couple hundred bigot accounts but there are some genuine industry professionals in there too.
Let’s talk about prostates. This is a gland only found in men, and it is retained even if a trans identified male has had surgery to remove male genitalia.
— SEEN in Health (@SEENinHealth) May 31, 2024
Quick sidebar: not only is this disrespectful to patients but its also objectively and medically wrong information. There are many cisgender women with prostates such as those with intersex variations like CAIS. This is just vile transphobia at the cost of patient health and safety.
All of this it tiresome and scary and exhausting and so utterly pointless – yet having such a disproprotionate affect on trans people, like myself, and our access to basic healthcare. It’s absolutely no wonder that the DIY transition scene in the UK continues to grow exponentially when this whole exchange is a microcosm of how the UK healthcare system views trans people.
It looks down on us. It ignores the important things we’re saying. It focuses on whatever it can find to twist into an excuse for the way it already wanted to treat us. And then calls us abusive or toxic for thinking all of this is unfair or wrong.
That’s our lot. Thanks healthcare!
