Women and Equalities Committee 
Kemi Badenoch Reply

This looks to have be prepared for her by, most probably, the LGB Alliance and contains a lot of misleading information and false interpretations of scientific research. 

The following was the response to this sent to the committee, which debunks these interpretations and provides a list of research papers to correct these. 

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Response

Dear Ms Badenoch, (and Women and Equalities committee)

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I have recently read your letter to Women and Equalities Committee Chair, Rt Hon Caroline Nokes
MP, in which you provide further information on the specific points of interest raised by the
committee during your appearance at the Women and Equalities Select Committee on 13 December
2023.

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In this you reference a number of opinion pieces alongside a small number of carefully selected
academic papers, which you use to support your particular viewpoint on the nature of being
transgender and its treatment. Not only does this go against the vast quantity of evidence from
scientific research but the inferences you draw are highly questionable.

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For example, you state 'There is also significant evidence young people with gender dysphoria are
more likely to have experienced difficult life events.' You go on to quote an Australian study about
parental conflict and issues, with the implication that these psychosocial issues have caused gender
dysphoria.

It should be made clear this study does not show gender dysphoria has psychosocial causes and to
conclude this would be unscientific and false. One would need to understand the root causes of
those parental issues before drawing any conclusions.

In my experience, and I am both transgender and have spoken to many hundreds of transgender
individuals over the years, a significant number of openly trans folks have had parents where one
showed gender diverse and dysphoric traits that were publicly hidden. The consequences of this on
those parents are precisely the issues listed in that research, which are exactly the same as those
experienced by openly trans folks before or as they come out.

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Therefore, it is more likely this research actually strengthens the case for a biological
genetic/epigenetic cause for gender diversity and dysphoria rather than a psychosocial cause as you
imply, which is backed by studies of gender diversity in families. In fact, the scientific evidence
conclusively shows a biological etiology for gender and gender diversity, with a high heritability,
while every theory and attempt to demonstrate psychosocial etiology has been disproven or drawn
a blank.

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In short being transgender is biological and not an ideology one gets drawn into, which means one
cannot ‘convert’ people to being or from being transgender, as you suggest. I do appreciate there are
those who, because of their own ideological beliefs, choose to ignore, dispute and deliberately
misinterpret the science and who are claiming that being transgender is a dangerous and false
ideology in an attempt remove transgender folks, including children, from society.

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However, the overwhelming weight of evidence shows this to be nonsense; Trans adults were always
trans children. And these will attest that, rather than holding back treatment of trans kids on the
unsubstantiated and mendacious claim that this results in the inappropriate treatment and ‘transing’
of gay children (and Keira Bell was an adult when she underwent her contested treatment), we
should instead be positively helping and encouraging children who need to explore their gender to
do so, so they can get the correct understanding of where they fit on the gender spectrum and from
which their true sexuality will naturally emerge.

The outcomes here are overwhelmingly positive while the opposite, the ‘gaying’ of trans kids or,
worse still, the forcing of the incorrect gender and sexuality on them, has serious and some􀆟mes
fatal consequences, as shown by a huge body of research evidence.

 

Worryingly it seems, though, that current government policy is, based on your evidence, the
opposite of this, which, if so, will only exacerbate the mental health problems, self-harm, suicidality
and suicides amongst this vulnerable group. And I personally have witnessed and experienced
enough of this.

I hope that we soon see a new properly resourced Child and Adolescent Gender Identity Service in
operation in which the real experts are free to assist youngsters find their place on the gender
spectrum and for those who are clearly transgender (meeting the criteria of insistent, consistent and
persistent) to receive the necessary support and treatment in line with the latest world standards
from WPATH. More than this though I hope to see these clinical experts being trusted, visibly and
vocally supported and protected from interference from those who are not true experts, who fail to
correctly differentiate sex, sexuality and gender and who deny and misrepresent both the evidence
and transgender folks on purely artificial and dangerous ideological grounds.


P.S. I attach a tiny and random sample of the many hundreds of academic papers on gender diversity. There is actually, contrary to your statement, not a great deal of literature linking this to sexuality. Sexuality is of little importance and very much secondary to this condition. The social conflation of the biological tributes of sex, gender and sexuality, causes considerable confusion amongst the general populace that is then exploited by those with certain ideologies.

Luders E., Sánchez F.J., Gaser C., Toga A.W., N arr K.L., Hamilton L.S., Vilain E. Regional gray matter variation in male-to-female transsexualism. Neuroimage. 2009;46:904–907

Ngun T.C., Gharamani N., Sanchez F.J., Bocklandt S., Vilain E. The genetics of sex differences in brain and behavior. Front. Neuroendocrinol. 2011;32:227–246..

Fisher A.D., Castellini G., Bandini E., Casale H., Fanni E., Benni L., Ferruccio N., Manieri C., Gualzieri A., Janini E., et al. Cross-sex hormonal treatment and body uneasiness in individuals with gender dysphoria. J. Sex. Med. 2014;11:709–719. doi: 10.1111/jsm.12413.

Hahn A., Kranz G.S., Kublbock M., Kaufmann U., Ganger S., Hummer A., Lanzenberger R. Structural Connectivity Networks of Transgender People. Cereb. Cortex. 2014;25:3527–3534.

Rameti  G., Carrillo B., Gomez-Gil E., Junque C., Zubiarre-Elorza L., Segovia S., Gomez A., Guillamon A. The microstructure of white matter in male to female transsexuals before cross-sex hormonal treatment. A DTI study. J. Psychiatr. Res. 2011;45:949–954

Hoekzema E., Schagen S.E.E., Kreukels B.P.C., Veltman D.J., Cohen-Kettenis P.T., Delemarre-van de Waal H.A., Bakker J. Regional volumes and spatial volumetric distributuon of grey ma􀆩er in the gender dysphoric brain. Psychoneuroendocrinology. 2015;55:59–71.
 

Jorge J.C., Echeverri C., Medina Y., Acevedo P. Male gender identity in an XX individual with congenital adrenal hyperplasia. J. Sex. Med. 2008;5:122–131
 

Ercan O., Kutlug S., Uysal O., Alikasifoglu M., Inceoglu D. Gender identity and gender role in DSD patients raised as females: A preliminary outcome study. Front. Endocrinol. 2013;4:86
 

Coolidge F.L., Thede L.L., Young S.E. The heritability of gender identity disorder in a child and adolescent twin sample. Behav. Genet. 2002;32:251–257
 

Green R. Family co-occurrence of “gender dysphoria”: Ten siblings or parent child pairs. Arch. Sex. Behav. 2000;29:499–507
 

Sadeghi M., Fakhrai A. Transsexualism in female monozygo􀆟c twins: A case report. Aust. N. Z. J. Psychiatry. 2000;34:862–864
 

Bentz EK, Hefler LA, Kaufmann U, Huber JC, Kolbus A, Tempfer CB. A polymorphism of the CYP17 gene related to sex steroid metabolism is associated with female-to-male but not male-to-female transsexualism. Fertil Steril. 2008;90:56-59.
 

Bentz EK, Schneeberger C, Hefler LA, et al. A common polymorphism of the SRD5A2 gene and transsexualism. Reprod Sci.2007;14:705-709.

Heylens G., De Cuypere G., Zucker K.J., Schelfaut C., Elaut E., Vanden Bossche H., De Baere E., T’Sjoen G. Gender identity disorder in twins: A review of the case report literature. J. Sex. Med. 2012;9:751–757

Kruijver FP, Zhou JN, Pool CW, Hofman MA, Gooren LJ, Swaab DF. Male-to-female transsexuals have female neuron numbers in a limbic nucleus. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2000;85:2034-2041.
 

Berglund H, Lindström P, Dhejne-Helmy C, Savic I. Male-to-female transsexuals show sex-atypical hypothalamus activation when smelling odorous steroids. Cereb Cortex. 2008;18:1900-1908.
 

Korpaisarn S., Safer J.D. E􀆟ology of gender iden􀆟ty. Endocrinol. Metab. Clin. N. Am. 2019;48:323–329
 

Pasterski V., Zucker K.J., Hindmarsh P.C., Hughes I.A., Acerini C., Spencer D., Neufeld S., Hines M. Increased cross-gender identification independent of gender role behavior in girls with congenital adrenal hyperplasia: Results from a standardized assessment of 4- to 11-yearold children. Arch. Sex. Behav. 2015;44:1363–1375
 

Saraswat A., Weinand J.D., Safer J.D. Evidence supporting the biologic nature of gender identity. Endocr. Pract. 2015;21:199–204

Langer, S. J, & Mar􀆟n, J. I (2004). How dresses can make you mentally ill: Examining gender identity disorder in children. Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal, 21, 5-23.
 

Bauer, G R et al. Do Clinical Data From Transgender Adolescents Support the Phenomenon of “Rapid-Onset Gender Dysphoria”? Journal of Pediatrics 2021-12
 

Temple-Newhook, J et al A critical commentary on follow-up studies and “desistance” theories about transgender and gender nonconforming children. International Journal of Transgenderism 2018-04
 

Fontanari AM, Andreazza T, Costa ÂB, Salvador J, et al. Serum concentrations of brain-derived neurotrophic factor in patients with gender identity disorder. J Psychiatr Res. 2013;47:1546-8.
 

Turban JL, Beckwith N, Reisner SL, Keuroghlian AS. Association between recalled exposure to gender identity conversion efforts and psychological distress and suicide attempts among transgender adults. JAMA Psychiatry. 2020;77(1):68-76.