Beauty
Rejection and denial cause real harm to trans people
Dr Helen Webberley on Times Radio: the gender debate, with Jo Coburn, Times Radio
What people think
Trans people are at the centre of a debate, and the debate is what matters. The harm, if there is any, comes from moving too fast or affirming too readily, not from rejection or denial.
What is actually true
What I said there, and what I believe with everything I have, is that history will not be kind to this moment. Not because the arguments were complicated, but because while they were being had, thousands of real people were being told they were wrong about who they are, and that telling hurt them. Rejection is not a neutral position. Denial is not caution. They are decisions with consequences, and the consequences fall on people, not on policies.
More from this conversation
Misconception
Sex varies in humans; gender identity is a separate thing
Beauty
Policing how someone looks to use a toilet is wrong
Misconception
The Supreme Court ruling still protects gender reassignment
Misconception
The patient is missing from the debate on their own care
Misconception
Medicine does not means-test who deserves treatment
Beauty
Trans people want ordinary lives, not a political debate