18 Comments

Thank you for writing about this issue. For too long I felt like I was the only one who could see the emperor wore no clothes.

Expand full comment

Oh, tons of us see it, along with all the other insanities that are similar. It's the social currency of the present. The issue is HOW to combat it.

Expand full comment

Christian faith and family are our best protections and deterrents.

Expand full comment

Um..I'm sorry to have to tell you this, but...ohh,..um.... NEVERMIND.

Expand full comment

This is nothing more than an attempt to monetize endocrinology. It has no procedures and no one is going to get rich treating Hashimoto’s thyroiditis or type 2 diabetes. It’s the classic politicians paradigm:

“Something must be done;

This is something;

Let’s do it.”

Expand full comment

This is excellent. The citation cartel concept is new language for me explaining this medical scandal.

Expand full comment

We shouldn't be hair on fire alarmed about the public being mislead. Does anyone actually know someone who actually got a second opinion, even when insurance might pay for it, when surgery or other procedure with serious adverse side effects was recommended?

What concerns me about the illusory consensus manufactured by the citation cartels is the potential for widespread 𝘭𝘦𝘨𝘢𝘭 effect. State legislation restricting or regulating "gender affirming care" is being widely attacked in the courts by the ACLU led by Chase (née Kate) Strangio with the help of a large team provided 𝘗𝘳𝘰 𝘣𝘰𝘯𝘰 by the prominent Wall Street firm, Sullivan and Cromwell. ACLU has benefited, too, from six figure gifts from the billionaire Pritzker (Hyatt hotels) heir, Jennifer (née James) Pritzker.

In deciding cases involving scientific issues, courts have to rely on "expert testimony", sometimes of questionable reliability, and expert witnesses will often buttress their testimony by referring to specialized publications, in this case, medical journals. Appellate courts will often be found to place great reliance on the learned journals referred to at the trial. Sad to say, few lawyers including judges are trained in the skills needed for critical analysis of the publications; they really have little choice but to accept their conclusions at face value. Consequently, the citation cartels present a real danger not merely of creating a false consensus but of helping to create legal precedents based on those illusions.

Expand full comment

So why do you say "We shouldn't be hair on fire alarmed about the public being mislead. " ?

Expand full comment

I didn't mean to suggest we shouldn't be alarmed, just not frenzied. Sorry if I didn't make it clear. I doubt more than one in ten of the general public is the least bit interested much less well informed about these issues except for possibly the participation of boys in women's competitive sports. Those who do realize the importance of the Cass Report and the scandal of the influence of the citation cartel on the standards of care published by the medical societies should, in my opinion, focus their efforts on bringing it to the attention of any government agencies or news publications they encounter. (NPR is among the worst offenders, being totally on board with the most extreme version of the transqueer ideology. NYTimes is showing some faint signs of backing away from what has been its wholehearted, uncritical acceptance of the dogma.)

Expand full comment
Apr 15Edited

I see, ok. Since we are talking about non-protected information (non-classified, non-HIPAA) and I thought there was no way of informing the right people without making it common knowledge, I viewed informing those who you are referring to as informing the public. I agree that the main thing is ensuring the specialists and legislators etc. are informed of facts, regardless of which wording we use.

Expand full comment

But the public IS being misled, in droves. In the UK which produced the Cass Review, currently 1,000 children a year are being processed through a single private gender clinic in Brighton & Hove (where I live), a city of only 280,000 people.

While the Tory government belatedly commissioned the Cass Review, resulting in NHSE banning prescription of PBs -- and that government has just extended the ban on 29 May to presciptions by private gender clinics in the UK and abroad -- there is no guarantee that an expected incoming Labour government will uphold this legislation.

B&H remains the gay and now trans capital of the UK: and anyway PBs and synthetic cross sex hormones are available on the web, of far more doubtful quality and safety than those which have been banned.

Yes institutional capture by gender extremists, endorsed by legislation, is a big concern: and legislation is difficult to modify or repeal when lawyers and judges operate from.the same ignorance or gender brainwashing as the populace at large -- even though polls repeatedly show that a majority of the public does not accept all the gender crap, but often feels too intimidated to say so.

Bit this does not mean that the gender indoctrination of children from primary school onwards, and the increasing rate of production and exploitation of mostly child victims -- 95% gay or lesbian, 45% autistic, and virtually all with unaddressed mental health distress from varied foms of abuse -- should not concern us too: and very much at a "hair on fire" level of concern.

These kids are real and are being damaged for life, NOW.

And that's the major reason for concern about legislative issues.

It's a "both-and", not an "either-or" problem.

Expand full comment

Well said ,Christina. Misleading the public like this is nothing short of criminal !! How can the public trust the medical profession when even the GMC seems to be "captured ". If trained doctors don't understand basic biology ,then we are in deep trouble. It's a HUGE medical scandal ,and the mainstream media remains silent ,appearing to have gone both deaf and blind !! THEY are despicable cowards !!. Thanks , Christina x

Expand full comment

Unfortunately the General Medical Council (GMC) in the UK probably feels itself deeply compromised. Having so far gone along with "gender affirming" medical malpractice on the falsely evidenced basis of transactvisr-driven outfits like WPATH, it can hardly turn around and suddenly start proceedings against general practitioners and others for malpractice, for having followed accepted guidelines.

Also, with an impending change of government from Tory to Labour, there is no guarantee that recsnt Tory legislation that prevents NHSE (and now private) "gender affirming" medical care from prescribing puberty blockers to minors, will be upheld by a Labour administration.

Even though Wes Streeting as Labour's Shadow Health Secretary has publicly retracted his earlier gender ideological views -- he now knows "better", he now knows "the facts" -- the rest of Labour's Shadow Cabinet have not retracted and remain compromised by a range of absurd transactivist-led opinions.

And because all the so-called "progressive" (but regressive on gender) parties are courting the youth vote, the final report of the Cass Review is highly embarassing to all of them.

You might be thinking of The Guardian when you say that "mainstream media remains silent", but in fact it carried a very balanced article about the Cass Review by Hannah Barnes (as author of "Time to Think" about the Tavistock GIDS scandal).

And all the rightwing media -- Mail, Times, Telegraph etc -- have maintained fairly consistently gender critical articles (apart from gratuitous and hypocritical use of "preferred pronouns" in line with NUJ Guidelines) where The Guardian has often been silent.

This siltence was apparently due mainly to the FtM transactvist Freddy McDonnell on The Guardian staff, causing all the other journalists to walk on eggshells in a reported atmosphere of paranoia -- apart from those who left (Julie Bindel, Susanne Moore etc).

Expand full comment

Just wanted to say keep up the good work. I am so surprised how far this has gone its great that you are trying to stop it.

Expand full comment

Can anyone tell me what page or section discusses the circular referencing in the Cass report? I'm looking but can't seem to find it. I just want receipts for future debate. Thankyou Christina for your work on this.

Expand full comment

I didn't mean to suggest we shouldn't be alarmed, just not frenzied. Sorry if I didn't make it clear. I doubt more than one in ten of the general public is the least bit interested much less well informed about these issues except for possibly the participation of boys in women's competitive sports. Those who do realize the importance of the Cass Report and the scandal of the influence of the citation cartel on the standards of care published by the medical societies should, in my opinion, focus their efforts on bringing it to the attention of any government agencies or news publications they encounter. (NPR is among the worst offenders, being totally on board with the most extreme version of the transqueer ideology. NYTimes is showing some faint signs of backing away from what has been its wholehearted, uncritical acceptance of the dogma.)

Expand full comment

"This coordinated effort suggests that WPATH and ES were colluding to grant undue credibility to their guidelines." It does not suggest that. This is a failure of logic and you should be above such smear tactics if you want to be on the side of truth. There is enough to be concerned about here without resorting to disgusting smear tactics.

Expand full comment