Mick Hartley

Jonathan Kay at Quillette on Canada’s continuing enthusiasm for “gender affirming care” under the auspices of the Canadian Paediatric Society and its new ultra-woke president Natasha Johnson:

On social media, Johnson, who is black, self-identifies as “a straight cisgender [i.e. not transgender] racialised woman” who is “privileged to be a guest on Indigenous lands.” She often shares consciousness-raising slogans about the value of pronoun pins and the need to fight racism and “misogynoir.” She argues that Canada is full of “racist systems,” and reports that she sometimes arrives at her workplace “traumatised” by news that a Black person was gunned down “for the ‘crime’ of simply existing.”

And yes, she’s a full-on believer in gender affirming care – GAC.

Dr Johnson became a nationally prominent voice within the pro-GAC movement in 2021, when she was featured in a Canadian television documentary about youth gender transition. In that CTV News W5 interview, she appeared to downplay concerns about transition regret and medical risks. Instead, she focused on a more upbeat message: Patients should be informed of the “thousands” of youth who were not only happy to have transitioned, but believed that it had saved their lives.

A year later, Dr Johnson delivered a presentation to the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (more on that organisation below), in which she expressed concern that “the perspectives and worries of parents” were being prioritised “over the lived experiences of youth.” Dealing with parents in this context, she warned her audience, “introduces additional barriers to accessing gender-affirming care.”

The article contrasts Canada’s gung-ho approach to medically mutilating children in the name of a mystical “gender identity” with the attitudes of other supposedly more sensible countries, like the UK. Our very own Cass Review, quite rightly, gets featured as exhibit one in the case against GAC. Sadly with the puberty blocker trial, and now the newly promoted Conversion Therapy Ban bill, we’ve lost what little boasting rights we had here. The Conversion Therapy Ban bill is being promoted by individuals quite as insane as Natasha Johnson, with its clear determination to make any denial of gender identity a criminal offence.

A while ago, after Cass and the Supreme Court ruling on single-sex spaces, it was all looking so hopeful. Now we seem to be heading back into the swamp.