26 h. ago Cass review: how has report affected care for transgender young people?

Review led to profound changes, some of which made young people feel unsupported, yet new clinics are openingAt the heart of the controversy about how to meet the needs of young people questioning their gender has been the huge rise in referrals to the Tavistock – previously the only dedicated clinic in England and Wales treating children with gender dysphoria.The clinic was closed one month before the Cass review into youth gender identity services, commissioned by NHS England and led by the British paediatrician Hilary Cass, which found that children had been “let down” by the NHS amid a “toxic” public discourse. Continue reading...

Politics

67 h. ago Supreme Court throws out appellate rulings in favor of transgender people in 4 states

The Supreme Court has thrown out appellate rulings in favor of transgender people in four states following the justices’ recent decision upholding a Tennessee ban on certain medical treatment for transgender youths

Events

6 d. ago Health MOTs for pensioners 'could combat £23bn social care crisis'

Routine checks for people aged 65 could have a positive impact on the social care crisis, a report has found, with people potentially maintaining independence for longer

Economics

6 d. ago Doctor who led British Medical Association's opposition to kids' puberty blocker ban elected as its new leader

Dr Tom Dolphin tabled the motion that led to the union controversially lobbying against the findings of the Cass Review into children's gender services.

Politics

7 d. ago Boy George takes ‘muggle’ swipe at JK Rowling live on air after row

Boy George called JK Rowling a “muggle” following their social media row over transgender people.

Society

1 week ago Scottish Government backs review of sarcoma treatment after new report reveals stark inequalities in care

A major new study has revealed that hundreds of Scottish sarcoma patients are waiting six months or longer for diagnosis of the rare and often deadly disease due to 'systematic failings' in care.

Politics

1 week ago Democrats wrestle over chance to kill the ban on transgender care in Trump’s ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’

Democrats have an opportunity to protect transgender people’s health care. It also comes at a time when Republicans see anti-trans policies as a winning issue, Eric Garcia writes

Politics

1 week ago I hope this is the last piece I ever have to write about assisted dying | Polly Toynbee

Today’s vote is on a knife edge. MPs must take their chance to drive forward personal freedoms – and add to Labour’s legacyMPs, read this horror before you vote today. Here’s how some people are slowly dying, right now, in mortal agony untreatable by the best palliative care: “Some will retch at the stench of their own body rotting. Some will vomit their own faeces. Some will suffocate, slowly, inexorably, over several days.” An average of 17 people a day are dying these bad deaths, according to 2019 figures, as reported by palliative care professionals who see it happen.The Inescapable Truth, a report from Dignity in Dying, revealed what is usually kept hidden from us: the shocking last months for the unluckiest. It could happen to you or me. The assisted dying bill’s final Commons vote today is no abstract debate about slippery slopes or what God wants: to do nothing is to inflict torture on many.Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnistIn the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contact...

Events

1 week ago I hope this is the last piece I ever have to write in defence of assisted dying | Polly Toynbee

Today’s vote is on a knife edge. MPs must take their chance to drive forward personal freedoms – and add to Labour’s legacyMPs, read this horror before you vote today. Here’s how some people are slowly dying, right now, in mortal agony untreatable by the best palliative care: “Some will retch at the stench of their own body rotting. Some will vomit their own faeces. Some will suffocate, slowly, inexorably, over several days.” An average of 17 people a day are dying these bad deaths, according to 2019 figures, as reported by palliative care professionals who see it happen.The Inescapable Truth, a report from Dignity in Dying, revealed what is usually kept hidden from us: the shocking last months for the unluckiest. It could happen to you or me. The assisted dying bill’s final Commons vote today is no abstract debate about slippery slopes or what God wants: to do nothing is to inflict torture on many.Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnistIn the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contact...

Events

2 w. ago No, South Africa’s HIV care is not ‘under control’. To pretend so recalls the dark days of Aids denialism | Yvette Raphael and Sibongile Tshabalala

It is not just Trump’s funding cuts that have led the country to a health crisis. The real collapse comes from a lack of political courage to actNo one should be surprised that the health system in South Africa is straining in the aftermath of Donald Trump’s cruel gutting of HIV funding. What is shocking is the political will to pretend otherwise.As public health workers, researchers, academics, people living with HIV and civil society organisations, we reject the narrative put forward by the government that things are “under control”. Testing has dropped. Frontline workers are being dismissed. Clinics that served our most marginalised communities have closed or are struggling to keep their doors open. And those most affected, such as transgender people, sex workers and drug users, have not been meaningfully included in any transition planning. The National Treasury and the Department of Health are at odds with each other. Officials within the health department are at odds with each...

Politics

2 w. ago Judge says government can't limit passport sex markers for many transgender, nonbinary people

A federal judge has expanded a ruling that blocked the Trump administration from enacting policy changes to sex markers on passports to cover all transgender and nonbinary Americans who are without a passport or need to apply for a new one within a year

Politics

2 w. ago Judge blocks Trump order that targeted trans people’s genders on US passports

Ruling rebukes order from White House that said passports must conform to the sex citizens were assigned at birthA federal judge in Boston has ruled that transgender and intersex people can obtain passports that align with their gender identity, in a rebuke to an executive order from the Trump administration that said passports must conform to the sex citizens were assigned at birth.US district judge Julia Kobick issued a preliminary injunction that expanded an earlier order she issued in April that had stopped the US state department from enforcing the policy in the case of six people, after finding the order was likely unconstitutional. Continue reading...

Events

2 w. ago Real Housewives star's care home gets damning Ofsted report and and is forced to close

Moss Farm Children's Home in Altrincham, Cheshire, was run by Real Housewives of Cheshire star Ampika Pickston and her company AP Care Homes Limited, but it's been forced to close

Society

2 w. ago Real Housewives star's care home gets damning Ofsted report and is forced to close

Moss Farm Children's Home in Altrincham, Cheshire, was run by Real Housewives of Cheshire star Ampika Pickston and her company AP Care Homes Limited, but it's been forced to close

Society

2 w. ago Donald Trump Jr baselessly claims transgender ‘movement’ is ‘most violent domestic terror threat’ in the world

Evidence suggests that transgender people are disproportionately likely to be victims of violent crime

Events

2 w. ago As a trans Australian, I was kicked out of a UK toilet. This is not the open

I used to be proud of my birthplace for its cosmopolitan tolerance. Visiting now, it feels like stepping back decadesI was visiting family in London when the British supreme court handed down its unexpected ruling: under the Equality Act, sex was now considered “binary” in law, which meant transgender people could be banned from single-sex spaces of their gender identity. The Labour government, which had come into office promising us “dignity”, capitulated. But, not to worry, soothed a minister, Pat McFadden, “There isn’t going to be toilet police.”A few days later the toilet police got me. Continue reading...

Politics

3 w. ago UK equalities watchdog: Transgender people may be asked about gender status in workplace

Trans people who feel they’ve lost rights should ‘distinguish between rights in law and preference for things to be a certain way’, EHCR chair saidTransgender people may be asked about their gender status in the workplace, the equalities watchdog has said, with its chair arguing people should “distinguish between rights in law, and a preference for things to be a certain way”.Giving evidence to the women and equalities select committee, the chair and chief executive of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) said trans people should not be fearful of the repercussions of April’s supreme court ruling, which found the word “woman” in the Equality Act refers only to a biological woman. Continue reading...

Politics

3 w. ago Trans lobby groups 'lied for years' that anyone self identifying as a different gender could access women's' toilets, equality chief says

Transgender people were misled about their rights to female only spaces by lobby groups, according to a senior member of an equality watchdog, Akua Reindorf, has said. 

Politics

3 w. ago Diner dates and bathhouse chili: the colorful, defiant history of the American gay restaurant

In his new book, Erik Piepenburg dishes on the US eateries that have served as LGBTQ+ havens and are still thrivingErik Piepenburg’s voice breaks when he speaks of the Napalese Lounge and Grille in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The restaurant known as “Naps” to locals is where a group of transgender people regularly come together to chat over beer-battered shrimp, deep-fried green beans and cheese curds. Many travel long distances to do so.“An amazing woman called Martha oversees it,” says Piepenburg, 54. “She told me the stories of people who drive there but can’t get out of the car, and of one young trans woman whose mom stayed outside so her kid could enjoy themselves. It’s not political, everyone was having fun just being able to be themselves. Naps shows how important gay restaurants are – and they are not new. Walt Whitman enjoyed eating in his era’s version of a gay restaurant. We’ve been finding one another for a very long time.” Continue reading...

Society

3 w. ago Diner dates and bathhouse chili: the colorful, defiant history of America’s gay restaurants

In his new book, Erik Piepenburg dishes on the US eateries that have served as LGBTQ+ havens and are still thrivingErik Piepenburg’s voice breaks when he speaks of the Napalese Lounge and Grille in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The restaurant known as “Naps” to locals is where a group of transgender people regularly come together to chat over beer-battered shrimp, deep-fried green beans and cheese curds. Many travel long distances to do so.“An amazing woman called Martha oversees it,” says Piepenburg, 54. “She told me the stories of people who drive there but can’t get out of the car, and of one young trans woman whose mom stayed outside so her kid could enjoy themselves. It’s not political, everyone was having fun just being able to be themselves. Naps shows how important gay restaurants are – and they are not new. Walt Whitman enjoyed eating in his era’s version of a gay restaurant. We’ve been finding one another for a very long time.” Continue reading...

Society