{"id":211717,"date":"2020-08-10T07:22:06","date_gmt":"2020-08-10T07:22:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=211717"},"modified":"2020-08-13T06:42:07","modified_gmt":"2020-08-13T06:42:07","slug":"increasing-portrayal-of-transgender-characters-on-tv-is-fuelling-rise-in-the-number-of-children-seeking-sex-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=211717","title":{"rendered":"Increasing portrayal of transgender characters on TV is ‘fuelling rise’ in the number of children seeking sex change, says expert"},"content":{"rendered":"

Glen Owen \u2013 Daily Mail Aug 9, 2020<\/strong><\/h1>\n

The\u00a0increasing portrayal of transgender characters on TV is fuelling a dramatic rise in the number of young people seeking medical help to change sex, a leading expert has said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Polly Carmichael, who is head of Britain\u2019s leading trans clinic for children, said that programmes such as\u00a0Orange Is The New Black, Transparent and Butterfly helped \u2018normalise gender diversity\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n

And she claimed exposure to social media could be persuading some children to \u2018erroneously\u2019 believe they are transgender.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

The suggested link may reignite controversy over British programmes including the ITV drama Butterfly. Inspired by the pro-trans charity Mermaids, it was accused of encouraging families to push children towards gender-change treatment.\u00a0Anna Friel and Callum Booth-Ford are pictured above in ITV\u2019s Butterfly. Click to enlarge<\/p><\/div>\n

Dr Carmichael is director of the London-based NHS Gender Information Development Service, which has reported a 4,000 per cent rise in child referrals in recent years.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now she has co-written a potentially controversial article in a medical journal that argues broadcasters and social media are helping drive that increase \u2013 especially in girls.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the paper, Dr Carmichael and six other experts in the field conclude that is \u2018likely\u2019 that media portrayals of transgender people \u2018has improved the recognition and acceptance of gender diversity in wider society, and this may have helped to create an environment that fosters referrals.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

As well as the TV shows, they credit real-life individuals with high profiles \u2013 including reality TV star Caitlyn Jenner and Chelsea Manning, the former US soldier who released sensitive information to WikiLeaks \u2013 for helping \u2018create an incremental shift in public awareness\u2019 as well as \u2018normalising gender diversity.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

The suggested link may reignite controversy over British programmes including the ITV drama Butterfly. Inspired by the pro-trans charity Mermaids, it was accused of encouraging families to push children towards gender-change treatment.<\/span><\/p>\n

The BBC has also faced criticism over programmes such as I Am Leo, about a trans child, which was aimed at children aged six to 12.<\/span><\/p>\n

Dr Carmichael\u2019s paper, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, also raises the possibility that trans-related material spread on social media is encouraging some children to wrongly believe that they have gender issues.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018Increased media content (specifically via social media) might act as a double-edged sword or a means of social contagion\u2026 whereby some individuals erroneously come to believe that their non-specific emotional or bodily distress is due to gender dysphoria and being [transgender],\u2019 it says.<\/span><\/p>\n

The idea that transgenderism is a form of \u2018social contagion\u2019 is offensive to some trans activists, who say it dismisses being transgender is little more than a fad<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Of course, that’s the intention<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[61,93,25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-211717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-Commentary","category-historic-sexual-abuse","category-The_Media"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=211717"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211717\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":211754,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211717\/revisions\/211754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=211717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=211717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=211717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}