Anyone who pigeonholes FINA’s decision on transgender athletes as an issue for elite swimming has their head in the sand. The same conversation needs to happen now in boardrooms and not-for-profits, around the family dinner table and in school staff rooms.
This is not the wedge issue it became during the campaign, with many politicians — including the former prime minister — ignorant to the personal heartache and the policy headache that transgender, gender-diverse and non-binary identifications create around inclusivity and fairness.
And nowhere is it more apparent than in our schools, where many teenagers struggle on that journey to find out who they are and who they want to be.
I know this because for the past 18 months I have sought the counsel of 1000 16-, 17- and 18-year-olds for a book titled L Platers: How to support your teen daughter on the road to adulthood.
The impact of gender identity is extensive. Students call themselves one name at school and another at home for fear of their parents’ reaction. Taping their chests so they don’t develop further. Having T, or testosterone parties, where testosterone is purchased online from China and injected. Calling Kids Helpline, asking to be put in touch with a psychologist.
It’s a tricky space for schools, including those boards — particularly in religious and private school communities — grappling with demands for alternative uniforms, extra toilet facilities, and how school sport should be run.
In some conservative settings, accusations are surfacing that boards are being stacked with those who believe a girls’ school is a girls’ school, and a boys’ school is a boys’ school.
“I was appointed to run a girls’ school and that’s what I will do,” one school leader recently declared.
But it’s not that easy. “Single-sex schools are based on an assumption that they are all girls. That’s not true, even if our parents think it is,” one Year 11 student said.
Child and adolescent psychiatrist Dr Stephen Stathis, who is also the medical director of child and youth mental health services at Children’s Health Queensland, says there has been a significant escalation in the number of young people presenting with gender diversity and identifying as transgender.
Historically boys outnumbered girls in being referred to gender services, but medicos are seeing a big increase in the number of girls, specifically in adolescence. Only a fraction of those will go on to make up the transgender population permanently, but during their school years that identity journey envelops a much bigger number.
And that is creating the issue around toilets, for example, in all-girls’ schools, with some students wanting to use unisex facilities. In some schools, teachers are setting up “safe rooms” and agreeing to use non-binary names for students — except during parent-teacher interviews if parents are unaware.
Uniforms and sport create the biggest conflict. And according to some teens, “ugly” uniforms (shorts and pants) are chosen, putting a target on the forehead of those who choose to wear them.
That isn’t right. “This is not just something you pick up overnight and say: ‘I’m just going to try this on,’ ” Stathis says. “This sense of identity is something that lies deep within them.”
Our refusal to deal with this issue can be seen in the mental health statistics of those struggling. Almost one in two transgender or gender-diverse people have attempted suicide. Four in five transgender people have reported self-harm. About 70% report they have no support at home, and 80% of transgender young people report discrimination.
It’s not easy for any school, workplace or sporting body to decide on what it considers fair and inclusive. And it might even differ between organisations. FINA has chosen to address the issue — and has thus pushed the topic into consideration in almost every other environment in Australia.
Certainly, any discussion has not been helped by the incendiary views of candidates like Katherine Deves, or her support from Scott Morrison.
It won’t be easy, but that was the point Australian swimmer Cate Campbell was at pains to make, ahead of FINA’s decision: “I am asking everyone to take a breath, to absorb before reacting. Listen to the science and experts, listen to the people who stand up here and tell you how difficult it has been to reconcile inclusion and fairness.”
Usually inclusivity and fairness walked hand in hand, she said: “To create a place that is inclusive, is to create a space that is fair.’’
Swimming found it not possible for those two attributes to be in the pool at the same time, but that doesn’t mean others should come to the same conclusion.
L Platers: How to support your teen daughter on the road to adulthood is published by Hachette, and out now.
“ Having T, or testosterone parties, where testosterone is purchased online from China and injected.”
Any adult who encourages or turns a blind eye to teenagers injecting themselves with unprescribed medication is going to find themselves in immense legal trouble the moment the first of those kids starts to detransition.
Considering that recent research found around 30% of women and girls who started taking cross-sex hormones were off them again within four years, that moment may be closer than you think
I hope your book looks at Dr Lisa Littman’s hypothesis that skyrocketing rates of transgender identification in girls is a result of a social contagion, Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria, spread through social media and peer groups (https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0202330). Like anorexia, transgenderism requires body modification to the level of self-harm, to match a mental image of a stereotype. In its parallels with the spread of anorexia, ROGD seems highly likely to be a major part of understanding the spread of transgender identification; and the concomitant prescription that pharmaceutical and surgical interventions are necessary “to prevent suicide” shows who is able to pay for lobbying and “awareness” campaigns.
Hopefully you also interviewed some detransitioners: these are the voices adolescent girls, boys and their parents need to hear now.
Yeah, nah. My understanding is that paper relied on parental observations collected from anti-trans websites. And “ROGD” is not accepted as a thing by anyone who know anything about gender diversity.
0 or 1 children per year referred to the RCH in Melbourne for gender issues between 2003 and 2007
270 in 2019
400+ in 2020
800+ in 2021
Sex ratio flipped from mostly male to mostly female
Absolutely nobody has proposed a better explanation than ‘social contagion’ for this. Because there isn’t one.
Even the for profit Tavistock clinic UK (aka transition mill) is now backing off because the surge in numbers, esp the F-M, is off the scale.
They wouldn’t, would they?
It is nothing else, encouraged by people who are either incredibly naive and easily manipulated or have a very suspect agenda.
Another fact.
Most of this work is done in private at high prices.
Most of them make a good living out of it.
These kids, those who DO NOT HAVE clear intersex syndromes mediated by abnormal primary of secondary sexual development need skilled and careful psychological help. Not mutilation.
Those WITH such syndromes also require skilled careful help, but of a different kind.
The problem is nature has provided us animals with binary sexual characteristics- it is no different in transgenders except they want to change to the other binary . This is due to some abnormality in their wiring [nature] or their experiences in society [nuture]. The problem is how society treats this abnormality – what activities should they be included in without disadvantage to society as a whole.
FINA has done a good job reflecting reality of society [one can have ‘male’ and ‘female’ competitions and ‘others’ which is fair enough. Society’s goals is not or should not be inclusivity the goal should be acceptability. This nonsense of forcing inclusivity where obvious disparity exists actually increases discrimination rather than aiming for the acceptability of the abnormality.
This might help 🙂
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intersex
Different from trans obv, but there are people born outside of the traditional binary on a biological/physiological level.
Thanks – it addresses the abnormalities found in nature – as per the general point made above – the influence of nature and nurture
Trans people do not all want to change their binary sex, many don’t fit in the binary nor want to, hence the identity ‘non-binary’. Same with intersex people, or as refer to them, ‘abnormalities found in nature’, they may not feel the need to ‘choose’ a binary sex given they can have a mix of characteristics.
Chalk up another identifiable harm from unsocial media.
The ‘suicide attempts’ and self harm do not cease when the new ID is acquired – if anything the rate increases.
Time to reflect upon why it is society insists on gender identifiers at all.
Outside of a medical context, just WHY do we need to know which of us are girls?
Unless we need to know who to discriminate against, it seems to me, as all this policing is based upon physical appearance. Not character, not intelligence, just physical appearance. Sounds awfully familiar.
Why do people care? Can we please move on to everyone being valuable simply by virtue of being human?
There are suggestions of physical internal examinations on pubescent children, how did we get there?
I can’t imagine anything more likely to put a person off trying to play sport than the prospect of every part of your privacy being invaded before you are even allowed to play.
wh
I agree but at times I embarrass myself out of ignorance. I am surprised as I have encountered a number in recent months and found all be be genuine and forthright. In essence well behaved and well mannered kids once they find their niche.
But then at Woolies the other day I was confronted by a young person who appeared male – no breasts. Only looked in trying to make a determination as the body shape was not right and wanted to determine how to address the person. Said Hello Mate tentatively. Got closer and noticed a female name tag.
Back in my comfort zone as I now had a name to address her by.
If that is all I have to worry about – No problems.