Hi there I'm going to be at the High Court for a weird hearing tomorrow. The Health Secretary is attempting to get James Esses, Keira Bell and the Bayswater Group's judicial review into the puberty blocker trial stayed. The government's argument is that the trial has already been paused whilst the concerns of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) are addressed, and the government shouldn't have to be firefighting on all fronts. Esses, Bell and Bayswater's argument is essentially - what's that got to do with anything? They believe the MHRA's concerns emphasise the importance of their case - which is that the trial should not go ahead. I was reading some of the Pathways literature designed for non-medical idiots like me (and possibly parents of the kids being lined up to participate) and honestly - it's horrifying. Feeding experimental and powerful drugs to physically healthy children really doesn't make sense to me, but hey, here we are. I'll do my best to live tweet proceedings (hopefully they won't be as arcane as the last High Court hearing I went to), and then I'll try to write everything up on the GenderBlog website. P vs Polis and Minus 18 I have managed to get two blog posts up in the last week. My thanks to Dr P for her time in explaining her interactions with the police last weekend and how they shook her confidence in everything. It was a great interview and the situation is still ongoing so hopefully we'll get more updates soon. Read "The Guardrails are Collapsing" here. Thanks also to an Aussie correspondent who alerted me to the works of Minus 18 - organising events for adults and children which parents are barred from attending or observing. My piece is called All the Red Flags for good reason. Whilst I was punting the latter article on twitter, an account I follow called Gay Not Queer pointed out they have documented more than 250 similar events closer to home. Check out the list here. In the space of a decade, safeguarding seems to have gone from being the biggest priority in education and youth activities to little more than shrug of the shoulders. By the way, Minus 18 was founded by a man who was charged with the sexual assault of three teenage boys. He died before the case came to trial. Onwards I'm not sure how much reporting of the puberty-blocker debate or the subsequent lobby day in parliament I'll be doing on Monday and Tuesday, but I am going to be going to Washington DC at the back end of next week to report from the largest ever gathering of detransitioners. It's a day long conference which will be attended by Donald Trump's Assistant Secretary of Health, Admiral Brian Christine. Christine replaced the odious Admiral Rachel Levine who successfully lobbied the discredited World Professional Association of Transgender Health to remove its proposed lower age limits for gender treatments and surgeries (see point 4 here). Admiral Christine is a different sort of character. I'm looking forward to meeting lots of detransitioners, their parents and a number of medical and legal professionals who are speaking on the various panels. I've also bid for an interview with Admiral Christine, so we'll see what happens with that. Thanks to everyone who has been in touch recently with story ideas and comments. Have a great weekend, and please, if you can, spread the word about this newsletter by forwarding to a friend. Every donation helps me do more work in this area. Yours Nick
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