Something utterly barbaric has been done to thousands of children and their families in the name of gender identity
SOMETHING utterly barbaric has been done to thousands of children and their families over the past ten years in the name of gender identity.
And social workers have been some of those leading the way into hell for all these unsuspecting families.
Across the UK, loving parents have been threatened, shunned and sometimes driven to considering suicide by the authorities they once trusted.
I’ve met some of the families whose lives have been thrown into turmoil by the failure of pretty much every institution to stand up to the cult of trans ideology.
These parents have been bullied into allowing their once-healthy children to take powerful drugs, sometimes undergo life-altering surgery, and be repeatedly brainwashed by the fad of gender.
One couple I met was Graham and Anne, from Scotland, who pride themselves on having always had “close and loving” relationships with their children.
Two of their daughters, Sarah and Molly, now 15 and 17, are on the autistic spectrum and both decided they were transgender during lockdown, when they were spending most of their time online.
Graham and Anne initially felt relief when they were offered family therapy through the NHS’s Child & Adolescent Mental Health Services.
But that relief changed to horror when, in 2022, Graham and Anne were reported by the therapist to social services for not using Molly’s new he/him pronouns.
“It was basically persecution,” says Graham.
“We were being reported for thought crime, for what she said was ‘unintentional emotional abuse.’ ”
We basically stopped talking about all of it at home because we didn’t want any ‘evidence’ there to say we were being terrible to our children.”
Molly also chose a boy’s name for herself and told her parents to no longer use her “dead name”.
Graham tells me: “Like all parents, we had taken so much time to pick their names in the first place and they call it a ‘dead name’ instead of a ‘birth name’.
“It’s just one of many psychological tactics because a lot of this, we’ve discovered, is designed to separate parents from being involved with their children.
“If the parents don’t affirm the child’s feelings, then the child must cut off contact.
“There’s lots of little things designed to cause pain.”
‘At our wits’ end’
After months of stress during the investigation by social services, nothing came of it.
But Anne says: “The thing that worried us most was the link to autism and the number of referrals of girls with autism to the Gender Identity Development Service.
“That was a huge red flag for us.
“It was all about being pushed down that path of affirmation.”
In my new podcast series, Julie In Genderland, I also met another child being enabled to transition — Annie, 15, from the north of England.
She was traumatised following the breakdown of her parents’ relationship and suffering bullying at school.
Around ten per cent of children referred to the GIDS are on the autistic spectrum, and Annie is one of them.
There was about 40 minutes where Emma was on her own with the social worker and everything changed.
Adam and Abigail*
When she was just 11, Annie was allowed to adopt a male name and pronouns at school.
Four months later, she was referred by the school to a charity that promotes gender ideology and asked her GP for a GIDS referral.
Her mother, Marianne, says: “Every day, there was something new.
“She wanted ‘packers’ [a type of prosthesis worn by trans men to create the appearance of male genitalia], which we got.
“It got to the stage where she wanted a whole bodysuit, with the actual inbuilt muscles, so she could wear an open shirt at school.
“We didn’t go that far.”
Annie was wearing two chest binders at a time, 24 hours a day, and began taking puberty blockers without her parents’ knowledge.
Maggie Mellon is an independent social worker with decades of experience and is deeply critical of what she describes as the “capture” of so many social workers by gender ideology.
She says: “You need authority as a parent to tell your child, ‘No, that’s wrong’.
“As a child, if a social worker comes into your house and has the power to challenge and undermine your parents, that is the most awful thing.
“You’re encouraging a child to believe in something that’s not true.
“It’s bound to end in tears.”
Maggie mentions the independent review by Dr Hilary Cass into gender care services for young people.
Published earlier this year, it has exposed one of the biggest medical negligence scandals of recent times.
The report vindicated those who have been accused of engaging in malicious “culture wars” and branded as bigots for opposing unnecessary medicalisation of children.
In many cases, gender dysphoria masks autism, trauma, sexual abuse and confusion about same-sex attraction.
As Dr Cass said: “Social transitioning is not a neutral act.”
‘I was desperate’
Another family that have been put through hell are Adam and Abigail* from Sussex.
Just like Anne and Graham, they were initially relieved when outside help came after their autistic daughter Emma decided she was a boy.
“We were at our wits’ end,” says Abigail.
“For at least five years, we were constantly going to our GP, to the school.
“Then there was about 40 minutes where Emma was on her own with the social worker and everything changed.”
Adam continues: “One day, after the therapy session, [the social worker] said, ‘I’m going to have to refer you to social services for unintentional emotional abuse for not affirming, for not using ‘he’ pronouns.”
Recounting the brainwashing that unfolded, Abigail says: “The social worker pointed at our daughter and says, ‘This is a boy’ and gave the new name for Emma.
“They said, ‘You will all have to make changes to accommodate what he needs’.
“And then she gave her mobile phone number to Emma and added, ‘If you don’t like what these people do, you just call me’.”
Adam tells me: “As a parent, you should be allowed to set boundaries.
“And that was completely undermined by the social worker.
“I won’t lie, I felt suicidal at that point.
“I wanted to just get in the car and drive off Beachy Head because I thought there was no way that family life could continue.
“I was desperate.”
Abigail and Adam say their family was left in a mess and their role as parents had been completely undermined.
They arranged for Emma to stay with another family member but, on the day they were due to collect her, an email came saying: “Social services have asked us to keep her.”
Abigail says: “I will never forget or forgive this, knowing that Adam had been suicidal the week before.
‘Badly brainwashed’
“The social worker comes into our house and she points at my husband, and said, ‘Now you’ll have to do what we tell you to’.
“What kind of dystopian nightmare is this?”
Social services took no formal action against Abigail and Adam but the damage had been done.
“It’s been absolutely catastrophic,” says Abigail.
She and Adam currently have no contact with Emma.
David and Louise’s* daughter Aurora, now 18, changed sex four years ago and later came to realise she had been brainwashed.
Her voice is deep, caused by six months on testosterone, prescribed by a private GP.
A lesbian, she became convinced she was a boy when she was 14, after a girlfriend told her that she would be more attractive if she was a man and said how easy it would be for Aurora to pass as male.
She decided to change her name, adopt he/him pronouns, dress in a masculine way and cut her hair.
“I thought boys would speak to me in a more respectful way because they would see me as one of them,” she says.
“It was a confusing time.”
I thought, ‘Maybe that’s not what I want, maybe that’s been pushed into my head
Aurora, 18
Aurora’s behaviour was affirmed by friends, who told her to simply say that anyone who criticised her or doubted her behaviour was “transphobic”,
They said: “If anyone goes against it, it’s transphobic.
“If anyone tries to stop you from doing it, it’s transphobic’”
She now regrets going through gender transition.
“It’s stuff that I shouldn’t have gone through,” Aurora says.
“I remember being so happy about it at the time.
“I was like, ‘I finally got body hair. Yay, I’ve got a moustache’.”
After a while, Aurora started to miss the feminine side of herself, even though she had been told she was male.
“That’s when I thought, ‘Maybe that’s not what I want, maybe that’s been pushed into my head,” she says.
Aurora realised she wasn’t male at all, and “I’ve just been really badly brainwashed and abused”.
She says it was a relief that she didn’t have to “put up a front” of being male any more.
“Life’s really good now,” she tells me, “and I’ve got a wonderful girlfriend who really looks after me.”
For Abigail, along with many other parents and their children we have spoken to while making my new podcast series, the intervention by social services was a disaster.
“Our biggest mistake was to let social workers into our lives,” she says, her voice shaking.
“We were naive — we thought they’d help.
“But the moment they crossed the threshold, our family was over.”
- Names have been changed to protect the identity of the children. Julie’s new podcast series, Julie In Genderland, is out on Tuesday.