Puberty Blockers, Trans Healthcare and a Story About "The Burning Ship".

You can't fathom how much this last week has hurt.

I want you to picture that you’re on a ship.

The waves roll and the enormous mass of the vessel bucks and shudders as it crests the waves. Word comes up from below-decks. There’s a fire. In the engine room? In the hold? You aren’t sure, but people are adamant.

You can see the terror in their eyes.

Someone in authority finally gets on the Tannoy, “Yes, there IS a fire but we’ve a plan. There are systems in place!” Crew all over the ship spring into action. Hoses are unrolled and stacks of buckets pulled out. Everyone gets to work and starts doing something about the fire.

And you help. Of Course you help.

You step into the nearest line, joining the chain of people sloshing buckets of water along. You’ve no idea who’s dipping them into the restless seas, hauling them up and handing them along. You’ve no idea where they are going either, the chain of buckets disappearing below deck, but you put your back into it, taking the bucket and passing it to the next person as quickly as you can.

There’s no need for you personally to face the fires, there are others far more qualified than you who know what they’re doing. Experts and skilled professionals, people whose whole job, their sole purpose for being on board, is exactly this sort of scenario. Sure, some people in the line grumble and groan, but they do what is needed to be done for the greater good. Your part in all this is small, sure, but it is important too.

Someone steps out of the line and shouts, “Stop!"

The pace of the bucket line slows. “Everyone! Stop! We’re getting water all over the deck! This is dangerous, this isn’t safe! One of us could slip! You could fall! You could fall so hard you could crack your head open on the boards and might even DIE!”

A bucket comes into your hands, full to the brim, water sloshing down its sides. You realise it’s true. All this water on the deck? It’s more than a mess; this is a HAZARD.

You go to hand the bucket to the next person, but the voice rings out again.

“We don’t even know if there IS a fire!” they shout. “We need to do a review!”

Nothing they’ve said is a lie. Nothing they’ve said is impossible either. Yes, the chance of someone falling and cracking their skull open on the deck because of spilt water is not zero. It isn’t terribly big, but it isn’t nothing. It would be a tragedy, absolutely. We are all passengers of this ship, and every life has value, every life should be protected.

You realise you’re still holding the bucket. You’re not passing water along the line.

More voices ring out. Someone calls for ideas on how to pass buckets without spilling any water. Someone asks who even came up with this inefficient method of passing water in the first place. Someone breaks down in tears, people watch as they tell the heartbreaking story about how their own father slipped and fell and never got back up. It wasn’t on a boat, and it wasn’t from water but the grief of it still haunts them. Scuffles brake out as people debate the various techniques of passing buckets and people who’ve never passed a bucket of water in their life (and never will again) loudly claim that they have figured out the trick, the knack of doing it best.

Finally, the voice of reason prevails: “We could slow down!” shouts someone.

Or at least everyone thinks it is the voice of reason. It certainly sounds reasonable to you, You arn’t an expert in putting out fires after all. It sounds like a way to proceed and it should mitigate the risk of spilling water. It sure does LOOK like the activity of passing buckets of water to put out a raging fire, so it should at least be somewhat effective? The murmurs of assent ripple through the line. “Yes, this is better!” they all agree, “this is safer”. The line starts to pass buckets again. The same process, just now more inefficient, more ineffective, but at least everyone is safe.

All it takes is one fumble, one mistake, one dropped bucket and the roar goes up.

“Is the fire even worth putting out if we can’t avoid getting any water on the deck at all?” someone shouts. Some still try to pass water, some have stopped, many are staring at their feet, looking at the puddles of water that could maybe, potentially, in-a-worst-case-scenario, be their demise.

“Is this even necessary? someone asks, “Have any of use even SEEN the fire?”

But it doesn’t matter anymore.

While everyone dithered, while they debated the plans that have been devised by experts not burdened by having to figure them out during an actual emergency, while they questioned authorities and experts about there even being an emergency at all, the people who needed the water have perished.

All those souls trapped below-decks. Burned. Suffocated. Lost.

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Last week the Queensland Government decided to halt the transition care of minors for a minimum of 10 months while they search for new and interesting ways to punch down on these vulnerable minorities »LINK.

Puberty blockers are safe.

They stop the clock on some of the bodily changes that, once begun, can only be undone by surgery, if at all. They’ve been extensively studied by experts, monitored in use and universally considered a benefit to children who are questioning their gender. They are reversible and cause no lasting impact, beyond kicking the proverbial can of puberty down the road, to allow vulnerable children the time and grace to consider how they want their life to play out. They are so safe, and the system so considered, that the only change needed from last years governmental review was more funding to help more children in desperate need. »LINK

But it’s easy to forget or just ignore all that when you can’t see the fire.

For all this conservative clamouring about “mutilating children” there seems to be very little desire for preventing the bodily changes that end up requiring these “horror surgeries” from ever being necessary. A minimum 10 month wait for an unnecessary review of time-sensitive medication WILL put some of these children into the category where their transitions will involve surgery.

So, now we have our review on the best techniques to pass buckets of water.

All of this because 17 children received hormone therapy that "may not align with the accepted Australian treatment guidelines". MAY not… not proven, not confirmed, weren’t harmed… MAYBE the rules were not followed as directed. On a relatively safe solution compared with the possible alternatives.

No therapy has zero risks. Over the counter paracetamol can kill you too.

But at least we checked right? Don’t worry about the people in immediate, critical danger who need to be helped. Don’t worry about that fire raging below decks. I know it’s hard to imagine the ship sinking because of one little fire. It’s hard to imagine that this fire, especially one so confined to a specific group of people, will engulf the whole vessel. It’s not like there could be any long-term consequences of a Government fooling an in-expert voter base in order to routinely legislate cruelty. It’s not like the officious deliberate misuse of administrative power can be used to victimize right?

In unrelated news the Norther Territory Health Minister has asked for all Pride Flags to be removed from hospitals because they don’t conform to the governmental flag protocol. »LINK

Won’t someone please think of the governmental flag protocol?

Such a small fire. Nothing to be concerned about. It might take time, it might be a slow breaking apart of the hull, but the ship, that precious collective that we need to protect… It will be gone eventually. When it sinks beneath the waves, there will be people who comfort themselves and say, “I saved lives. I stopped people from slipping and cracking their head open… it wasn’t a huge risk… but I did my part.”

It’s almost as if they are trying to make our lives as difficult as possible?

What does it matter? What do we expect from a government that’s happy for ten-year-olds to be tried as adults? Old enough to be criminally culpable but not old enough to choose their medical care?

–S