Room for improvement

Hi,

Hello dear Internet trans massive from deepest, darkest Nottinghamshire. Or, as we say around here, ‘eey oop’ 🙂

Effort & Reward

With parenting, work, and – if I’m honest – being quite lazy, my energy levels and effort put in to trying to stay feeling femme has slipped of late.

Well…. to be fair, one does not rush in between waxing appointments, as there needs to be some level of – ick! 😲 – regrowth. Cue that annoying/dysphoric period where you need to have enough back, but you shouldn’t shave to keep that area hair free. In my case, my knees.

But, hey, if that’s all I’ve got to worry about, life’s not too bad eh? 🙂

So, midweek it was off to the beauticians and I felt feeling much more like myself. I have risked going a little higher (she said euphemistically 🤭) which has helped.

I’d also decided to make the effort and do my toes. I was a bit of should I, shouldn’t I given the weather is warming up and it may be time for Birkies. Still, not a massive faff to remove it and I’m glad I’ve done it. I find it quite validating to see my legs as they should be, rather than in Wookie stylee.

Of course, I shall now need to put my proverbial Big Girl Pants on when it comes to shorts in the summer. Still, the Ever Lovely Mrs J has been very cool about it, bless her, and a few trans friends have said no-one comments.

Slactivism

Given I’m about to talk about a set of lawyers, I feel I need to be clear that the above heading is about me, not them! 😁

Given the release of the Cass Review, our current government are pushing along with…. Well, in truth I’m not sure. On the one hand, there’s the Death of the NHS by Underfunding and Inaction. Then there’s the active interference in to gender services for trans youth.

I wonder how good our public services might be if we threw money at them, as Tiny Toff has been p*ssing up the wall to “Stop the Boats”. Call me cynical. 🙄

Anyhoo! Sorry, distracted. Where was I? Yes, the Good Law Project have received a leaked email from NHS staff. I would advise you to read their statement in full. The bit that jumps out is this:

It seems to us – and to those inside the NHS who have leaked the document to us – that what purports to be an “assessment” in fact an exercise in bringing very significant pressure to bear on trans youth and their families to cease private treatment, backed up with a threat of a safeguarding referral to social services if they do not.

The Good Law Project

So, damned if you and damned if you don’t?

If you can spare a few quid, please do donate and help support GLP’s excellent work. They’ve done some amazing things around climate action, defining personal freedom, and holding the government to legal obligations.

Dad Rant

While I think a holistic care model might be the way to go, for younger folk with dysphoria that puts their life at risk –

Yes, depression can kill 😢

– moving very desperate people to the back of a queue or, if you forgive me, sniffing around like the mythical Thought Police, is not what we need.

When I think about my teenage years, where I watched my body become hairy, my shoulders widen, and my voice deepen; that was difficult to cope with. I got through it, yes. Survived, even. But not without some mental damage along the way.

Our youngest, a trans teen, he went through an early puberty, so we were far too late to request hormone blockers. He doesn’t talk much about body things, but even on hot summer days, he’s covering his body with a hoody and trying to ‘masc up’ his shape in thicker clothes. He copes, just about, bless him, but what type of childhood is that? His social transition has helped, although that’s been in the government’s sights as well.

So, yeah, Thought Police, desperate people will do desperate things. If you make it harder for people to get access to the treatment they think they need, they’ll go where they can to get it. That might be private, that might be abroad, and it might be illegally through the Dark Web.

I don’t judge or condone the above. I’ve listened to friends in tears through their dysphoria. I have lost friends who could not cope with the mental anguish, bless them. Some times, I feel the excessive waiting is cruel. Cruel like holding back someone’s pain relief medication.

D minus, ministers. See me after class.

L x