A culture of fear - who created that?

Last week our ‘Culture of Fear’ letter to the Scotsman (link here) ruffled some feathers in some camps. One has to question why stating facts is perceived as ‘offensive’ by some. To be frank, stating facts and robust evidence just does not fit some individuals’ narrative these days. Inconvenient truths are just too threatening. The fact remains that introducing ideological aims and lay statements into any clinical arena does not make it ‘highly specialised’. Where an issue has become politically-charged rather than based on systemic reviews and robust evidence of treatment efficacy, it serves us all well to take great care to do no harm.

Sandyford Clinic

There is little doubt that some individuals without the required expertise, have taken it upon themselves to act and perhaps even believe that ‘lived experience’ is equivalent to many years of training and development of expertise. It is no where near equivalent. And it is positively dangerous and potentially harmful to promote it as such. This type of behaviour has served to severely distort professional practice. Third sector training materials based on limited expertise has resulted in confusion and misinformation in our public services. For example gender identity has been presented as something real when there is no evidence to prove it, and it has also been presented as being a protected characteristic from the Equality Act (2010) when it is not.

ScotPAG professionals have worked in the NHS, schools, universities, social services, and 3rd sector organisations. We take the view that a collective, multi-factorial approach is the only way to support gender questioning children, adults, their families, public services, professional bodies and society as a whole. The SG’s consideration of professional knowledge, expertise, and governance, in their appraisal of the phenomenon of ‘gender identity’ is, in our view, completely inadequate. Our point is that any professional worth their salt who is qualified to support gender questioning individuals, will steer well clear of the mess called ‘gender identity services’.

See our position statement on ’Cass Implications for Scotland’ here