JULIE BINDEL: This gender ideology is nothing less than a crime against a generation

When I was a kid in the 60s and 70s, I wanted to be a boy. I could see from a very young age that boys were given much more freedom than girls.

They didn't have to wear uncomfortable tights and dresses, they got better toys and best of all, they didn't have to play in plain sight of their parents because of 'stranger danger'.

My brother, meanwhile, wanted to be a dinosaur and even told people he was one. No one seemed to mind because everyone knows that children have rich inner lives. That's why the fantasy worlds created by people like Roald Dahl and JK Rowling have gained so many followers.

This is all healthy and good, as long as the children involved are happy, loved and supported.

But from forty years of campaigning to end child abuse and hearing heartbreaking individual stories, I know that children who are unhappy often try to run away from their pain by detaching themselves from reality.

My brother, meanwhile, wanted to be a dinosaur and even told people he was one. No one seemed to mind because everyone knows that children have a rich inner life (Stock Image)

Such behavior is often observed in girls who are sexually abused. Others do it simply because they feel like they don't belong. If they are singled out because they are more interested in football than Barbie, they may convince themselves that all their problems would be solved if they just became a boy.

Similarly, many boys are not interested in the physical and stereotypically masculine world of rugby or tree climbing and may prefer to cook or crochet at home.

It doesn't mean there's anything wrong with them, or even that these kids will grow up gay or lesbian, just that they think differently.

Over the past generation, our society has thankfully moved away from forcing children to be 'real' boys and girls. But now all that has changed in a very disturbing way.

Because what is this current mania for gender reassignment, genital mutilation and harmful hormone treatment if not a throwback to the bad old days when children were forced into gender-specific roles – only now is any sign of being 'different' being medicalized.

That's why yesterday's revelation in the Daily Mail that more than seventy children, aged just three and four, have been referred to the controversial NHS Gender Identity Development Service has shocked me to my core.

It's crazy to think that children that age have any idea of ​​gender identity or gender dysphoria. Ask them what they identify with and they will say the first thing that comes to mind. Of course some kids will say they want to be the opposite sex, life has always been like that. But it is simply wrong to think that 'tomboy' girls or boys who reject the rough life in favor of traditionally 'feminine' pursuits need medical intervention.

Statistics show that the city where most young people are referred for gender dysphoria is not trendy Islington or Brighton, but working-class Blackpool (pictured)

The resort has many social problems, including a very high number of children in care, shocking teenage suicide rates and a disproportionate number of children with social workers supposedly looking out for their best interests. Pictured: Blackpool

All they really need is care, understanding, support and the freedom to be themselves. Even the rare children with more serious problems need psychological help, rather than being sent down a path that almost always leads to being prescribed puberty blockers and then crossing cross-sex hormones and surgery.

But it is shocking that these toddlers are being put on a path that could ultimately lead to them being prepared for castration or irreversible genital mutilation at the age of 18. It is nothing less than a crime against an entire generation.

Proponents of early intervention point to the fact that the number of people seeking relocation has increased more than 350-fold in recent years as evidence of pent-up demand.

But it's nothing of the sort, it's a kind of social contagion fueled by activists, straight-laced parents, social workers and, of course, social media sites like TikTok.

Well-meaning adults who refer their children for gender reassignment would hate to be described as bigots from the 1950s. But what other explanation could there be for seeking a social transition of a three-year-old child and coming to regard him or her as the opposite sex?

Even worse is the fate of children in trouble, whose social workers make the decision for them. Statistics show that the city where the most young people are referred for gender dysphoria is not trendy Islington or Brighton, but working-class Blackpool.

The seaside resort has many social problems, including a very high number of children in care, shocking teenage suicide rates and a disproportionate number of children with social workers supposedly looking out for their best interests.

Sadly, it is also not surprising that ideologically driven social workers push them towards the Tavistock Clinic (pictured), which tries to pathologise their confusion and unhappiness and often suggests that interrupting puberty with drugs is the answer, when what they really need support, love and understanding. and help solve their problems

My research (and that of others) has shown that social workers often buy into gender ideology and therefore may try to 'solve' the problems of problem children by suggesting that they are transgender.

It's not surprising that these impressionable, confused young people are latching on to the latest fad that they think can solve their problems: gender reassignment.

Sadly, it is also not surprising that ideologically driven social workers push them towards the Tavistock Clinic, which tries to pathologise their confusion and unhappiness and often suggests that interrupting puberty with drugs is the answer, when what they really need is support, love , understanding and help. work through their problems.

It is a national scandal that hundreds of our young people are being forced into irreversible surgery in the name of progressive ideology.