15 mins with David Kurten on TNT-RSE

The ongoing sexualisation of our children.

The N. Ireland Executive, at the instigation of the Alliance Party recently voted through a motion proposing to extend the teaching of amended Relationships and Sexuality Education to N.I against the wishes of the 74% of the people who voted against it. The motion probably paves the way for a Bill. Click on David’s image.

Even it were morally right, I agree with the Finish National Health Service when it says - “young brains whose were still maturing lacked the ability to properly assess the consequences of making decisions they will have to live with for the rest of their lives”

The full show including Jana Lunden is HERE

The Alliance did so under the guise of the rights of the child-ignoring their parents. I do not recall the party being so concerned about children’s rights when they voted to close schools and mask the pupils. It seems the Alliance party is not aware that it is a representative of the people, they long since ignored the accountable part of democracy and their Covid polices also revealed they do not read the evidence either-so why would we expect anything different wrt RSE-perhaps you will?

Rev. McMullen, a former Moderator of the Presbyterian church comments:

“The distinction between the sexes is increasingly being undermined especially in schools, where the concept of gender fluidity is often promoted. Christian parents and governors will surely want to express concern when this happens.”

Whilst Vaughan Roberts, the author of the church’s book on Transgender speaks of the “profound insecurity” and anxiety of many young people as they are being asked now to consider their gender.

The dangers of confusing our children at such an early stage in their development are obvious and surely these are matters for parents? Why are schools getting involved at all?

Remember the curriculum is only lawful if it meets “the spiritual and moral” needs of the children (Education Reform Order 1989). I have no doubt we will return to this if the direction of travel persists.

Much has been made of age appropriate and scientifically accurate information. Who should decide what is age appropriate and when is age appropriate? WHO, the Secretary of State, the Alliance party or you?

Actually I wish “they” would follow the science. btw those countries which led us this way are now leading us out-having discovered that their original science was flawed.

THE EVIDENCE

1  Earlier this year, National Health Service guidelines were redrafted to remind doctors that children may simply be going through a “transient phase” when they say they want to change sex. The guidelines recommended a clinical management approach to explore all developmentally appropriate options for children and young people who are experiencing gender incongruence, being mindful that this may be a transient phase, particularly for prepubertal children.

2  Furthermore, an NHS commissioned report by Dr Hilary Cass warned that allowing children to “socially transition” could “have significant effects on the child or young person in terms of their psychological functioning” and “better information was needed about outcomes.”

3 The aforementioned NHS-commissioned report also highlights the uncertainty around the evidence relating to the use of puberty blockers: is not able to provide definitive advice on the use of puberty blockers and feminising/masculinising hormones at this stage,  due to gaps in the evidence base;  It goes on to say that the “evidence was weak.”

This report has been all over the national news—I had access to the interim report in October.

In the US

Professor  McHugh Professor of Psychiatry at John Hopkins.

Many of the challenges and knowledge gaps that we face in the UK are echoed internationally:

 “there are significant gaps in the research and evidence base.” 

He asserts affirming children in a false gender can cause real damage, and if one does not affirm trans identity:

98% of gender confused boys and 88% of gender confused girls eventually accept their biological sex after naturally passing through puberty.

Dr McHugh also states that multiple studies confirmed similar results. According to large study in 2021, when following up after an average of 20 years, only 12% of boys had persistent gender confusion.

All these studies show that at least 80% of children lose their gender distress over time.

A report by American public health expert Dr Lisa Littman reveals that gender distress appears at or after the onset of puberty, often following online immersion and transgender identity declarations among school friends (commonly referred to as Rapid-Onset Gender Dysphoria). The study’s purpose was to investigate a population of individuals who experienced gender dysphoria, transitioned and then detransitioned, many of the subjects coming to the view that their gender dysphoria was caused by something specific such as trauma, abuse, or a mental health condition. The majority felt that they had not received an adequate evaluation from a doctor or mental health professional before starting their transition. “More research is needed”, Dr Littman concluded.  

Finland’s National Medical Body-COHERE, reported that:

1. studies touting the success of the gender affirming model were biased and unreliable ( and almost 70 percent of those counted as “transgender” in the 2021 census for England and Wales could have been miscategorised, according to research published on April 19 by the University of Oxford.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/world/70-percent-of-transgender-people-may-have-been-miscategorised-research-says-5636135

COHERE continued:

2. gender transition should be postponed until adulthood

Puberty blockers-a Science based approach

Much of the evidence suggests that puberty blockers are not fully reversible and come with side effects. Dr McHugh says:

“Puberty suppression hormones prevent the development of secondary sex characteristics, arrest bone growth, decrease bone accretion, prevent full organisation and maturation of the brain, and inhibit fertility”

Much of the promotion of this agenda promotes the idea that children who transition lead more fulfilling lives, but the evidence says otherwise, with emerging research by Professor McPherson indicating that “puberty blockers may heighten the risk of mental health problems in transgender youth”. 

And according to research:

•      only 6% of the 103 studies on RSE programmes found any positive evidence of effectiveness,

•       overall, there is more evidence of harm than of positive outcomes from such programmes.

•       87% of RSE had failed in its primary purposes,

      Instead there was

•      a decrease in condom use

And an increase

•       in sexual activity

•      in number of partners,

•      oral sex, forced sex,

•      STDs and pregnancies.

The Swedish study compared sex-reassigned individuals to random population controls (matched by birth year and sex) and looked at the psychiatric morbidity, mortality (particularly from suicide) and criminal rate after 30 years. They found that sex-reassigned individuals had a worst outcome on all 3 measures. The study reports that “Sex-reassigned transsexual persons of both genders had approximately a three times higher risk of all-cause mortality  “Mortality from suicide was strikingly high among sex-reassigned persons, also after adjustment for prior psychiatric morbidity.” “male-to-females are at higher risk for suicide attempts.”

What is happening in other countries?

The experience of other countries is instructive because it highlights the road they have travelled. Is the United Kingdom going the same way? What have they learned from their experience?  It seems that the countries which had moved furthest and fastest along this road have reached a point of reflection and are now pulling back.

Other reports also highlight the lack of research evidence. In 2021, the Danish Sexology Clinic consultant, Dr Mette Haahr acknowledged “a lack of research” relevant to today’s mostly teenage female patients. Dr Haahr commented:

We see that treatment helps young people in the short term. But we lack knowledge about what happens in ten and 20 years. Or when they want to have children. What happens when they fall in love and start to have an active sex life? [...] Transgender young people assigned female have, for the most part, no active sex life.

Denmark is thinking twice about paediatric gender transition, as stated in a recent article by Gender Clinic News.  Denmark “is now offering a form of counselling rather than medical treatments to the main patient group of teenagers with no childhood history of distress in their birth sex.” The change in policy was given by the Health Minister, Sophie Løhde The Minister guaranteed a stop on gender reassignment for children

Interestingly, Denmark’s call for an end to medical transition of minors is being spearheaded by a mainstream LGBT group, the Danish Rainbow Council,

Sweden and Finland are even more advanced than Denmark in the post-2019 Nordic shift to caution, while health authorities in Norway are under pressure after the country’s independent healthcare investigation agency declared in March that medicalised gender change for young people was “experimental” 

 Systematic reviews of the evidence base undertaken in Finland and Sweden showed it to be weak (as did reviews in the United Kingdom). Several Northern European countries cited a supposedly sound Dutch protocol in support of their earlier laxity on puberty-blocking and transgender surgery for minors; the Netherlands itself is now coming to terms with the unlawfulness of that protocol.

A report by American public health expert Dr Lisa Littman reveals that gender distress appears at or after the onset of puberty, often following online immersion and transgender identity declarations among school friends (commonly referred to as Rapid-Onset Gender Dysphoria).

The study’s purpose was to investigate a population of individuals who experienced gender dysphoria, transitioned and then detransitioned, many of the subjects coming to the view that their gender dysphoria was caused by something specific such as trauma, abuse, or a mental health condition. The majority felt that they had not received an adequate evaluation from a doctor or mental health professional before starting their transition. “More research is needed”, Dr Littman concluded.

Other reports also highlight the lack of research evidence. In 2021, the Danish Sexology Clinic consultant, Dr Mette Haahr, gave an interview to Dagbladet Information in which she acknowledged “a lack of research” relevant to today’s mostly teenage female patients, and expressed concerns regarding the reasons why these teenage girls wanted to change gender. Dr Haahr commented:

We see that treatment helps young people in the short term. But we lack knowledge about what happens in ten and 20 years. Or when they want to have children. What happens when they fall in love and start to have an active sex life? [...] Transgender young people assigned female have, for the most part, no active sex life. How will their sex life develop and does this affect their perception of their gender?

The WHO Guidance. Do you agree that this should be taught?

At the moment the Department of Education in N.Ireland is saying that the guidance is NOT for primary schools—it has however been introduced at primary level in other jurisdictions and some primary schools here have introduced it.

And the WHO guidance is progressive and that is why I include some here and, of course this material would then be first to be taught in post primary schools.

Under section 1.4, entitled How to read the matrix, the WHO Standards for Sexuality education in Europe state:

In the process of structuring the contents of what should be taught at a certain age, age groups have been defined according to developmental tasks. The age groups are 0–4, 4–6, 6–9, 9–2, 12–15, and 15 and up and have been chosen in accordance with WHO age groups and as they mirror development stages.

In Section 5, the standards state that “sexuality education starts at birth” and “sexuality education should be delivered in an interactive way”. Further, in answer to the question “Why should sexuality education start before the age of four?”, we are told that “a child is understood to be a sexual being from the beginning.”   The guidance given for ages 6–9 recommends a curriculum content which includes:

• Sexual intercourse, gender orientation, sexual behaviour of young people

• Enjoyment and pleasure when touching one’s own body (masturbation/self-stimulation, orgasm) 

• Differences between gender identity and biological sex

For ages 9–12, the curriculum content includes:

• Gender identity and sexual orientation, including coming out and homosexuality

• How to enjoy sexuality in an appropriate way

• First sexual experience 

• Pleasure, masturbation, orgasm

In the FAQ section of the document, the following questions with answers are given:

Q: What does it mean when you say that sexuality education should be started “from birth”? A: In the age group 0–4, the pedagogical aim that children should acquire an attitude of “respect for gender equality” means that they should learn that boys and girls are equal in terms of their rights as human beings.  

 Q: According to some critics, the Standards promote “masturbation” and “playing doctors” in children from age 1 to 4 and encourages 6-year-old children to “explore same sex relationships”. Is this true? A: As mentioned, it is considered crucial that sexuality education is age-appropriate. Therefore, the Standards include information about the typical developmental stages of children. This information is addressed to professionals (e.g. teachers, including kindergarten teachers), who need to be informed about the variety of normal phenomena in the psychosexual development of children including, in fact, early childhood masturbation and “doctor” games.

Another WHO document heavily referenced is the International technical guidance on sexuality education: An evidence-informed approach 2030 (also available here).   This technical guidance also sets out learning objectives:

For 9–12 year olds Learners will be able to describe:

·         what sexually explicit media (pornography) and sexting are;

·         male and female responses to sexual stimulation (knowledge); explain that many boys and girls begin to masturbate during puberty or sometimes earlier (knowledge); acknowledge that masturbation does not cause physical or emotional harm but should be done in private.

·         ways that human beings feel pleasure from physical contact (e.g. kissing, touching, caressing, sexual contact).

  For 5–8 year olds  Learners will be able to: 

·         define gender and biological sex and describe how they are different 

·         reflect on how they feel about their biological sex and gender

·         identify the critical parts of the internal and external, genitals and describe their basic function

·         recognize that being curious about one’s body, including the genitals, is completely normal;

·         practise asking and responding to questions about body parts that they are curious about.

Clearly, there is much in these guidelines that is directed at primary school children

For Northern Ireland at least, the regulations are clear. Parents have the right to:  

1. be consulted with respect to the curriculum

2. withdraw their child from class (both of these rights presuppose a parent’s right to know what is to be taught)

3. know who is on the Boards of Governors

4. sit on a Board of Governors as an elected representative

5. make representations to the Board of Governors

6. have their child educated according to their wishes

7. educate their child at home

Of course, rights are of no use unless you exercise them. Parents must, in my view, acquaint themselves with the governance arrangements of the school(s) that their children attend. Naturally, part of the role of schools is to prepare children for adulthood, but not this way. This is just plain wrong.  

We must exercise our democratic rights by writing, ringing or visiting our elected representatives.

And there’s more:

https://hughmccarthy.substack.com/p/not-my-child-part-2-the-incessant   PART 2

https://hughmccarthy.substack.com/p/a-child-is-understood-to-be-a-sexual  PART 1

Controlling the Populace by coming after the Children.

https://hughmccarthy.substack.com/publish/posts/detail/141596907?referrer=%2Fpublish%2Fposts

Or if you prefer to listen-this is a podcast with Jeffrey Peel:

https://hughmccarthy.substack.com/p/the-continued-sexualisation-of-our