Newspapers attack trans teens for wanting to be able to have kids later in life
Photo illustration of Cryos, the biggest sperm bank worldwide, taken December 15, 2016, in Aarhus. / AFP PHOTO / Henning Bagger (Photo credit should read HENNING BAGGER/AFP/Getty Images)
Tabloid newspapers are attacking transgender teenagers who might want to freeze their sperm or eggs before starting hormone treatment.
The Daily Mirror today published an article misgendering transgender teenagers, and criticising the NHS for allowing people to freeze their sperm or eggs so they can have kids later in life.
Titled “Transgender children ‘as young as 12 having sperm saved so they can still have children after sex change'”, the article scrutinised and criticised the NHS for funding the freezing of sperm or egg or fertility treatment.
Mirror online trans fertility headline
It describes trans girls as “young boys who want to be female” and the MailOnline article quoted describes trans girls as “boys who believe they are female”.
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The article claimed that: “Young boys who want to be female are reportedly having their sperm frozen before undergoing treatment which shuts down their reproductive system.”
mail online trans fertility
It goes on to say: “Critics have … hit out over the cost of the NHS fertility treatment for transgender teenagers which is believed to run into hundreds of thousands of pounds.”
As well as quoting the MailOnline, the article also included a quote from Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali, former chairman of the ethics committee of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority.
Bishop Nazir-Ali, who has in the past defended gay ‘cure’ therapy, was also set this weekend to speak at the UKIP conference.
Apparently missing the seriousness of gender dysphoria, he told MailOnline: “The NHS is about treating people who are ill – that’s what we pay our taxes for.
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“It is not to aid people’s various wishes about what they want to do with their bodies or their futures.”
In the Mirror article, Professor Gary Butler, who heads up the only NHS Gender Identity Development clinic for young people with gender dysphoria, defended fertility treatment for trans people.
He said: “Transgender people are not making a lifestyle choice.
“They are following their biological and psychological make-up about their identity.”
The Mail article claims: “The current cost of providing fertility treatment to transgender teenagers on the NHS is believed to run into hundreds of thousands of pounds. But this bill is expected to rise as more young people say they have been born the wrong sex.”
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It also uses quote marks to describe trans girls.
Of course, MailOnline commenters had to have their say, with one writing: “Shouldn¿t be allowed at all.”
Another added: “They should be made to pay for it privately as they should for the treatment to change gender. The NHS treats the sick not those that can not make their mind up about what sex they want to be.”
A third said: “They should be made to pay for it privately as they should for the treatment to change gender. The NHS treats the sick not those that can not make their mind up about what sex they want to be.”
Mail Online trans kids fertility comments
And a fourth added: “In an era when our NHS is on its knees why are precious funds being wasted. If you want to change gender you pay for it and everything else that goes with it.
While another user wrote more words of wisdom, saying: “I think overweight people are probably a larger drain on the NHS.”
Bishop Nazir-Ali, as quoted in the article, who retired in 2009, is a notorious opponent of LGBT rights.
(Photo by Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images)
He has said of gay people: “We welcome homosexuals, but we want them to repent and be changed.”
He has also defended gay ‘cure’ therapy.
In 2012 the bishop signed a letter to back a therapist who was found guilty of professional malpractice last year after offering ‘gay cure’ therapy.
The bishop recently backed threats to form a breakaway church if the Church of England relaxes its official anti-LGBT teachings.
