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- on Adult Human femaleThis is excellent - a ferocious summary of where we are and how we got here. One thing I find particularly extraordinary is that almost all the groups and institutions that usually act as a buffer to the excesses of religious fundamentalism (science journals, royal societies, humanists UK, skeptic organisations, science communicators) have instead adopted the new religion hook line and sinker. They hold much of the blame for why this harmful ideology has been allowed to spread.
- on Adult Human femaleGreat piece. Thank you for taking the time to write it. As a person of faith, I don’t share your same dismissal of belief systems (and I’m not 100% sure I agree that pathologising gender dysphoria is inhumane - I see too many parallels with anorexia), but as a parent of an ROGD daughter (with autism, unsurprisingly), I am extremely grateful for such a comprehensive piece on all of this bullshit. Why oh why are we all blindly clapping the emperor in his complete lack of clothing? It boggles the mind. I think the thing that disappoints me most is...
- on Adult Human femaleThat was pretty much word and concept perfect. Any absolutist ideology which requires its adherents to ignore objective reality will inevitably result in tragedy. https://twitter.com/@Sukidovi
- on Adult Human femaleThanks very much Andy - much appreciated.
- on Adult Human femaleExcellent piece. Thank you for the work you have done. I hope it will be widely read.
- on Adult Human femaleThanks so much Lois. I feel better for having published it rather than letting it languish on my laptop.
- on Adult Human femaleThanks Ruth, yes, that fear of social isolation, being ostracised and 'banishment' is real, and several people have suffered terribly for their refusal to accept imposed religious gender views. We're certainly experimenting with ourselves with potentially unknown consequences in today's society. Thanks for your thoughtful comment.
- on Adult Human femaleDavid - the best piece on this subject I have read. Sticks to the facts without disguising your obvious passion. Might I suggest you seek to publish it on The Daily Sceptic? A bigger audience deserves to read this great piece of writing. All power to your elbow (a strong male one!)
- on Adult Human femaleNice to read such a well reasoned piece in these mad times. It’s got to the stage where even people who prefer to speak their minds are nervous to voice dissent on this issue. I hadn’t come around to thinking about that clash between a person’s self image, and their determined at conception sex, but I do believe that the increasing fashion to be something other than what we are is all part of the growing sickness in our society, particularly in the western world, and caused by stress and pressure and intervention on a previously unparalleled scale.
- on Adult Human femaleThanks JanFran. It's interesting how getting older gives you a completely different perspective of events because patterns fall into place and you can see history repeating itself in a new context. I really appreciate your comment.
- on Adult Human femaleThanks Charles. The separation of belief from science is vital - even if science tell us things we don't want to hear.
- on Adult Human femaleHow desperate. I would love society to be far more accepting of the idea you can be any kind of man and any kind of woman and be celebrated for who you are without having to conform in looks, body or personality. We can hope!
- on Adult Human femaleThanks for this. Had a former student - a lesbian - who was a police officer who is now a trans man. In none of our discussions was there any statement about being born in the wrong body. It was all about how hard in was to be a lesbian in law enforcement. this made it easier. i held my tongue, but i feel like that is a cop-out (forgive the pun). that is, fight for the right to be a lesbian in law enforcement, don’t disguise yourself as a man. this same person also complained that the lesbians wouldn’t...
- on Adult Human femaleAbsolutely this David. Thank you for such an in depth and ‘real’ analysis of what is happening to our society. The Government wonder why so many people over the age of 50 are ‘economically inactive’. I’ve thought about re-entering the world of work but I can’t put up with all this rubbish. It started with ‘my pronouns are’ at the end of an email and is insidiously infiltrating every workplace. Even the Museum I volunteer in, mostly staffed by under 30’s appear fully subscribed to this doctrine. It’s depressing. It amazes me that so many organisations are falling over themselves...
- on Adult Human femaleA very good piece, David. Time for science education in society. Like all religiousosity Gender Dysphoria is a fad latched onto by often well-meaning but delusional people, often in positions of power. Ultimately mutilation of children and adolescents whether physical or chemical is simply wrong, which you explain very clearly. The only good thing is that the whole abhorrent new religion is in the open for all to see.
- on Adult Human femaleThanks so much Suz. Yes, expressing third party pronouns, to use when ‘they’ aren’t there, is excessively controlling. And calling people names they wouldn’t choose for themselves, like cis, when complaining about being called names, is part of the hypocrisy of belief. Each country also has its own religious interpretation of Gender Ideology depending upon its base religion. Scotland has a particularly Presbyterian version of Gender Identity Theology, emphasising the authority of the Gender Scriptures, and the necessity of grace through faith in Transgenderism. It’s only visible when you ‘see’ it!
- on Adult Human femaleThis is amazing! Such a good balanced piece. The thing that boils my blood is having to identify as a cis-female. I’m quite happy as female and have been for the last 50 years thank you very much. The whole pro-nouns is also a passive aggressive take over. Telling people how you want to be addressed to a third party when you are being spoken about. Your comparison to a religion makes it all make perfect sense. I had never seen it in that context before.
- on Adult Human femaleThanks so much Charlotte - much appreciated! It’s a relief that it’s had at least one positive reaction!
- on Adult Human femaleHoly shit this is incredible work David
- on Three Old WomenOh David - YES! I rejoice in the discovery of this lovely, sad, searingly honest and beautiful poem. I have never heard of the author . . . The poem has a wonderful form to it. The dreariness and bleakness of the observed old age, and his fear of what might lie in store for him in the future, is so beautifully redeemed as the poem turns in a volta and shines a new light on what he, at first, was blind to - their warmth, their humanity shining through their unfortunate worn out husks . . . Surely you...
- on Three Old WomenI have to confess that " ‘drab’, ‘sour’, ‘croaking’, ‘dreary’, ‘desolate’, ‘ugly’, and as ‘crones’ with ‘foul anatomies’ and ‘rotting bodies’ " does seem to fit me rather well . . . but then I am describing me so I suppose I can say it! Although perhaps "a quarter saint, a quarter witch, and half cantankerous auld bitch" is more to the point - but do you know who penned those words?
- on J1P4This is delightful. It's amazing to think of — yet perfectly normal for these birds !
- on Curlew flypastOh - I felt my heart break when I read that
- on Seeing a Bearded Reedling for the first timeThanks very much Elisabeth. They didn't disappoint.
- on The Tower, the Walkie Talkie, the Shard and the GherkinThanks Nigel. There's something very poignant about places we have known which are now not just gone but completely unrecognisable. All those lives lived and experiences had which can never be repeated.