Trans or gender ideology is one of the most controversial issues of our time, and it is very far from the marginal 'minority' issue that many believe it to be.
For many years, covertly and under the radar, powerful lobby groups worked to pursue an agenda, infiltrating institutions to push a novel ideology. They were very effective in doing this, and it is only now that the effects are coming to wider public attention.
Historically, the number of people wishing to 'transition' - to present and be accepted in the social role of the opposite sex from their biological one, was very small. Gender dysphoria was recognised and accepted as a form of mental illness - a type of body dysmorphia - causing great distress to sufferers, some of whom could only find relief from suffering by taking hormones and having surgery to adjust their bodies to fit better with their sense of self-identity.
All that changed in the past couple of decades, and there has been an explosion in the number of people, particularly young females, seeking treatment for gender dysphoria. Alongside this, there has been a 'trans-positive' movement, which seeks to reframe 'transgenderism' as a natural variant rather than a pathological state. It has teamed with and used the tools of the gay rights movement to further this.
In the UK, the GIDS at the Tavistock Centre dealt with this social phenomenon, and an explosion in the number of referrals. Gender lobbyists promote a radical agenda, which seeks to replace the scientific and millennia-old distinction between males and females by biological sex with self-identified 'gender' - something unmeasurable, with no basis in empirical fact. The endpoint would be a restructuring of society, based on the premise that 'people are what they say they are'. This is inherently problematic in all sorts of ways. It's open to abuse, and is fundamentally untenable in a sane, post-Enlightenment society.
Hannah Baines's book exposes the extent to which ideology became the dominant force at GIDS, and offers a well-researched, clear and objective account of how the scandal which led to the Cass review condemning the service as unfit for purpose at the interim report stage, unfolded.
Under pressure from mushrooming referrals, driven by social contagion, social media grooming, and the powerful lobby groups, the Tavistock effectively abandoned the principles of evidence that underpin modern medical practice in favour of an 'affirmation model' that led inexorably to thousands of young people being put on a conveyor belt to medicalisation and surgery. Normal standards were dropped, with inadequate record-keeping and follow-up. The Tavistock's historic ethos, based on gentle psychological exploration was replaced with a 'one size fits all' treatment model, which essentially held that gender non-conforming children required and should receive irreversible treatment to permanently alter their healthy bodies in order to create a simulacrum that reflected their disordered gender identity. Children were in some cases given hormones after a single appointment.
Psychological and psychiatric comorbidities were disregarded and ignored, traumatic and harmful experiences and family histories were not considered, nor was the possibility of homosexuality and internalised homophobia. The service became so gripped and captured by ideological fervour that a climate of fear prevailed, where doubters and whistle-blowers were marginalised, silenced and persecuted as bigots and 'transphobes'.
The full truth of this scandal is still coming out. Only recently it has emerged that the CEO of Mermaids, the ideologue Susie Green, with no formal medical training, had a direct line to Polly Carmichael, the director of GIDS, and was making and having accepted direct referrals against the wishes of the GPs of young patients.
There is a class action in the pipeline, with thousands of families involved. There is a growing population of 'detransitioners' - young people who regret their treatment and are reconciled to their sex - the usual outcome if a 'watch and wait' approach us taken, rather than giving powerful experimental drugs and surgery.
It's a heartbreaking and important book, and very salutary. It should be required reading for all clinicians and parents. Yet such is the power of the trans lobby, there are many who would suppress and ban this book. I have heard that it is not on display in the Gower Street branch of Waterstones, which is a travesty, because this is the bookshop of UCL Medical School.
The battle is not yet won, but I believe this book will one day be recognised as an important text in stemming the tsunami that is damaging, regressive trans ideology. It seems impossible that in the 21st century children - many damaged and neurodivergent - were, and continue to be, multilated and sterilised, with no firm evidence that this 'treatment' was beneficial, and growing evidence it is harmful. The group most affected are young females. The other group in society which most commonly identifies as transgender, are middle-aged males. In this social group the phenomenon is very different. Few have surgery to remove their male genitalia, which supports the view that the urge to transition is not based on dysphoria, but is a sexual paraphilia - autogynephilia. Women are being forced to lose their safe spaces and sports, to uphold the sexual fetishes of men. The 'born in the wrong body' narrative serves the agenda of these men very well, and every young girl who loses her breasts and reproductive capacity, gains facial and body hair and will spend her life in the transgender no-man's land furthers the narrative that permits them to colonise women's spaces for their own gratification, and as we are increasingly seeing, for nefarious purposes.
It's a tragedy, and the enablers at the Tavistock who lost their minds and their professional rigour must surely be held to account, eventually?
Please read this important book, and join the growing movement for a return to sanity in our society.
Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet or computer – no Kindle device required. Learn more
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.
Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.
![Time to Think: The Inside Story of the Collapse of the Tavistock's Gender Service for Children by [Hannah Barnes]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/413aYNsTLZL._SY346_.jpg)
Follow the author
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.
Great on Kindle
Great Experience. Great Value.
Putting our best book forward
Each Great on Kindle book offers a great reading experience, at a better value than print to keep your wallet happy.
Explore your book, then jump right back to where you left off with Page Flip.
View high quality images that let you zoom in to take a closer look.
Enjoy features only possible in digital – start reading right away, carry your library with you, adjust the font, create shareable notes and highlights, and more.
Discover additional details about the events, people, and places in your book, with Wikipedia integration.
Get the free Kindle app: 
Enjoy a great reading experience when you buy the Kindle edition of this book.
Learn more about Great on Kindle, available in select categories.
Customers who read this book also read
Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1
Popular highlights in this book
Just as would become the case in later years, clinicians did not agree on what exactly they were treating in young people: were they treating children distressed because they were trans, or children who identified as trans because they were distressed? Or a combination of both? It was unsurprising then that they couldn’t agree on the best way to treat it.Highlighted by 114 Kindle readers- The conference was sponsored by Ferring Pharmaceuticals, the makers of triptorelin.Highlighted by 103 Kindle readers
- What’s unusual about the use of GnRHas for use in young people with gender dysphoria is that they’re used to treat a completely different condition from the one for which they have been licensed. In the process, they function in a very different way.Highlighted by 96 Kindle readers
From the Publisher
About the author
Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
This is an interesting account of an unfolding medical scandal. It paints a horrifying picture with heartbreaking testimonies from young people. Safeguarding is broken.
Images in this review
