Les den gode og grundige omtalen av Abigal Shriers bok Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters av Helen Dale i magasinet Law and Liberty.
Late last year, I read the High Court ruling in Bell v Tavistock so I could write a case note on it for CapX. Bell concerned the capacity of children and young people under the age of 16 to consent to gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonists, also known as puberty blockers, followed by cross-sex hormones. These drugs facilitate transition for those suffering from gender dysphoria, and form part of the treatment plan for what used to be called “getting a sex-change.”
However, before I could comment on the judgment or its merits, the first thing that leapt out at me was how the trial was full of bad litigants. People hadn’t compiled data requested by the court (despite being able to do so). Organisations tried to join as interveners despite not having any evidence to add that had not already been adduced by the principal parties. Arguments were made with no foundation in legal authorities, and more than that, did not even attempt to pretend to have any such foundation.
Naturally, this irritated the High Court no end, so much so that several times in the judgment the three judges say they are “surprised” by a party’s activities, which is commonly acknowledged judge-speak (at least in Blighty) for “hopping mad.”
This sort of behaviour has been a running sore in recent high-profile matters. I did wonder, as I read the Bell judgment, if it has roots in an assumption many people acquire as they grow up, viz., lawyers are essentially spongers who do no socially necessary work. Over and over again, I’ve had clients suggest that if legal professionals have an expectation or a procedure we want followed, it’s just an affectation with no purpose.
Now I’ve read Abigail Shrier’s Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters, I am satisfied the thin evidence-base so alarming to the High Court can only partly be laid at the feet of lazy litigants and counsel who have committed the cardinal error of endorsing their clients’ beliefs instead of representing them. The evidence-base for a great deal to do with gender dysphoria and its mutilated child, “transgender medicine,” is close to non-existent. The extent to which we know three-fifths of bugger-all is astounding.
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