What The Australian reported:
Jacinta Allan has dismissed as “disgraceful nonsense” the view of the mother of a gender dysphoric child that there is a “school to gender clinic pipeline” in Victoria, and backed the state’s “Respectful Relationships” curriculum.
The Australian revealed on Thursday Victoria’s curriculum has been updated to teach children as young as five that their body parts may not match their gender, and that biologically male students who identify as female are entitled to play sport on girls’ teams.
Concern over the “Respectful Relationships” curriculum, which was quietly amended in August last year, comes as parents and psychiatrists warn of a “school-to-clinic pipeline” for children struggling with adolescence who are persuaded they were born in the wrong body, and pushed towards irreversible and often harmful medical treatment.
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The gender-affirming care model has been abandoned in a number of overseas jurisdictions, including the UK, where an independent review by pediatrician Hilary Cass last year concluded that the evidence base for medical interventions such as puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones was “remarkably weak”.
Asked, in light of the Cass review, why Victoria is persisting with the gender affirming care model, Ms Allan did not engage with the finding of the review.
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Queensland is the only Australian state to have banned new prescriptions for puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones for minors, amid a National Health and Medical Research Council review of the guidelines for care of trans and gender-diverse people under 18 with gender dysphoria. The review is expected to take four years.
Dr Spencer, who has been outspoken on the issue to the point of being stood down from her role at the Queensland Children’s Hospital in 2023 after raising clinically grounded objections to the gender affirming model, said she was concerned by the “Respectful Relationships” curriculum.
“Because of the harms of medical interventions – like infertility, lack of sexual function, physical health problems and the risk of regret – we need to do what we can to assist children to feel comfortable in their body,” she said. “I think it’s wrong to introduce (the notion of being transgender) early. It just introduces confusion.”
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Psychiatrist Andrew Amos said “multiple” international reviews had revealed “without question” there was “no evidence that gender affirming care, as practised in Victoria and around Australia, reduces the risk of suicide in children and adolescents”.
“There is reason to believe it may increase the risk, particularly by reducing the likelihood of diagnosing coexisting mental illnesses in children with gender dysphoria,” Dr Amos said.
He said the “Stacey” case study was an example of “transgender ideology prioritising the rights of boys over the health and safety of girls”.
“The best example of that is the intrusion of boys into single sex girls’ spaces, and that would include sporting teams, and bathrooms,” Dr Amos said. “At older ages, it also includes protected spaces like rape crisis centres.”
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/education/fiveyearolds-taught-their-body-parts-...