No excuses can hide the criminal actions of a Nazi fellow-traveller in this admirably objective documentary, suggests MARTIN HALL
The dangers of medicalising gender
SONYA ANDERMAHR admires a candid history of the NHS service and its mistreatment of young people with gender dysphoria
PAUL DONOVAN relishes a fascinating exploration of the leading lights of the Labour right in the 1970s
BEN LUNN alerts us to the creeping return of philanthropy and private patronage, and suggests alternative paths to explore
A novel by Argentinian Jorge Consiglio, a personal dictionary by Uruguayan Ida Vitale, and poetry by Mexican Homero Aridjis
MIK SABIERS savours the first headline solo show of the stalwart of Brighton’s indie-punk outfit Blood Red Shoes
New releases reviewed by IAN SINCLAIR
STEVEN ANDREW is moved beyond words by a historical account of mining in Britain made from the words of the miners themselves
Time to Think
Hannah Barnes, Swift Press, £20
“ARE we hurting children?” is the question that lies at the heart of this timely and meticulously researched investigation into the medical scandal at the Tavistock and Portman Trust’s Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS).
The service opened in 1989 to provide talking therapies to young people struggling with their gender identity. Treatment initially consisted of careful and lengthy exploration of the issues and family counselling in a supportive setting. It involved small numbers of patients, mainly boys, who exhibited gender incongruence before puberty. Most of these boys desisted and grew up to be gay.
By the time of the announcement of the clinic’s closure last year, the number of young people being treated had skyrocketed into the thousands; the vast majority, representing a rise of over 4,000 per cent, were now teenage girls exhibiting extreme distress and complex problems.
More from this author
SONYA ANDERMAHR finds a voice worth listening to in the candid account of a trans woman who came to question gender identity politics
The Star publishes an adapted political statement for the CPB women’s commission by SONYA ANDERMAHR, who argues that the stakes have seldom been higher for women, amid the fightback against the cost-of-living crisis and the defence of their sex-based rights
SONYA ANDERMAHR looks at women’s role in the labour movement past and present
A far cry from today’s ‘diversity’ and ‘inclusion’ agenda, International Women’s Day has its origins in the revolutionary labour politics of the early 20th century, SONYA ANDERMAHR reminds us
