02/07/2021
The Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust, which operates the only gender identity clinic for young people has been drawn into a vicious war of words that once again threatens to damage the wider LGBTQ Movement. A psychologist called Dr Matt Bristow has claimed that the clinic was assuming that homosexual children were transgender and was therefore engaged in a process just as damaging as Christian fundamentalist groups who claim to be able to turn gay people into heterosexuals. His allegations have been reported by the Times newspaper, which it should be noted has a history which is both anti-transgender and anti-gay and which is little trusted by the wider LGBTQ communities. The Tavistock and Portman Trust vigorously rejected the allegations of Doctor Bristow. “The trust strongly refutes the claims. It will vigorously defend its position in the employment tribunal. The trust does not accept that it has penalised anyone for raising concerns,” a spokesperson told The Times. For some time, groups on the edges of the LGBTQ movement have been trying to splinter the equality coalition that has brought so much change in the last fifty years. Their aim is to reject transgender people and acknowledge only gay men and lesbian women. Many of these anti-trans activists identify is gynocentric feminists. Some have forged alliances with anti-lesbian and anti-women groups, which has drawn much criticism from other feminists.
