Polarising the issue is so wrong. The reality is that the process is usually more like: parents - general practitioner - psychologist/psychiatrist - specialist clinic. Most specialist clinics statistics show that less than half of prepubescent children progress to hormone treatment by the age of 18.

Whether the individual undergoes gender affirmation treatment is irrelevant. Helping kids cope with life and getting them to enjoy and fully participate in life is the objective.

The polarising and politics do nothing to help. A framework of medical specialists and population awareness of the existence of the issue and the framework that exists and is developing is what is needed. The only other ingredient is tolerance and respect for your fellow human being.

I met him and the rest of the staff at that clinic back in '95, his decision after I had been assessed there was that I wasn't actually gender dysphoric, just pretending to be "that way", and whether I wanted to or not, the chance of my succeeding was rather low in his estimation.

Funny, I had doctors when I was barely four years old say that I was clearly gender dysphoric. I was dealing with it back when I was a small child, not understanding what was going on or knowing anything could be done, yet Zucker comes along and says it's all bullsh*t.

I knew something was definitely wrong before I entered my teens, the three male-to-male rapes I experienced when I was 15 only strengthened my resolve that something needed to be done, and what I end up with is Zucker who works to get people to deny their own needs.

As for the just pretending crap, if that were the case, then why do I still feel the need all these years later? *shakes head*

The not succeeding part was actually fairly accurate, I've always had dense, heavy beard growth since my beard first started coming in when I was 17. I've never had the money needed to be able to do either electrolysis or laser electrolysis, so that hasn't been an option for me. I can't count how many foundations or similar I've tried over the years, I can't find one that actually matches my skin, it's either too light and makes my skin look greyish in colour, or it is too dark and it makes me look like I'm trying to fake being black or fully Amerindian.

The humorous part of that is that I'm actually 1/8 Amerindian and either 1/16 or 1/32 black, there's been some mixing in the family tree.

Anyway, to put it bluntly, after seeing Zucker and his 'we can't help you' brigade, I have had as little to do with that clinic as possible. The stories I've heard about him and his activities there make me sick to my stomach, but I'm not absolutely sure if they're true or not, so I won't get into specifics beyond the premise that he was supposedly doing things with his patients that were not appropriate in the least.

I wish like hell I had had the help that many kids in Canada and the UK are getting now, but no, everyone told me I was full of shit. *shrugs*

For the record, the clinic where he worked approved MAYBE five to ten people per year, out of at least several hundred, possibly a thousand or more. Any person's chances of getting anywhere by going through that clinic was minimal at best, and cases like mine were likely all too common, then factor in that it was the only clinic available at the time for people in central Canada, and possibly the whole country.

Just read an article about the clinic he worked in, several times in the article, Zucker tells parents the child is likely gay, not transgender. Yeah, that's a great way to help kids, deny their statements/assessments of gender dysphoria and tell them the child is gay. It makes me sick.

There were a lot of slanted aspects to it. The pre-publicity stated unequivocally that children receive HRT and surgery--they do not. The internet publicity still repeats the 80% desistence* lie-by-distortion. There was the usual concentration on MtF, make-up, clothes and dolls.

Zucker's expressed 'mission' has been to stop people being trans. Previously, he has worked to 'cure' people of being gay. That is why he was kicked out, not because of some powerful trans lobby**. I found a real lack of balance in the programme, and a linguistic analysis of the voice-over's adjectives is telling: shocking, painful, frightening, etc, etc. As for the autism comments, well, bollocks. I have known what I was since I was two and saw my younger brother's penis. I have "consistently and persistently" held onto that knowledge for 57 years, and because I wanted to survive I learned to hide. The thing about ASD is that it removes or reduces the ability to read other people, so that hiding doesn't happen.

*There are two distortions that come out of a couple of surveys done in Sweden and Holland. One is suicidal ideation, where transphobic sources say they show that suicide rates are elevated post-transition. That is not correct. Post transition, suicide rates remain higher than the general population but are REDUCED compared to pre-transition. The claims for 80% desistence, as explicitly stated by the BBC, are that almost all children with gender dysphoria grow out of it. That is not true. The survey actually says that 80% of gender-nonconforming children grow out of it, but those with GD do not. G-NC means all children who don't behave in a stereotypical way, such as tomboys, boys who like fashion or dolls, girls who enjoy playing football or rugby, boys who like princess dresses.

**The secret trans political cabal are currently flat-sharing with the Elders of Zion, the Illuminati and a group of giant shapeshifting lizards.