Mark Latham tells forum there is an ‘evil political program’ to make kids transgender
Image: Mark Latham. Image: file photo.
NSW One Nation leader Mark Latham and Australian Conservatives candidate Greg Walsh have blamed trans kids’ poor mental health outcomes on their ability to self-identify, rather than the rampant transphobia they face.
At a forum hosted by libertarian think tank the Centre for Independent Studies, Latham and Walsh made several alarming comments about trans young people.
Latham, who recently announced a One Nation NSW policy to ban trans self-identification, claimed the existence of a “self-identification system evil political program to make young people confused and rise up”, news.com.au reported.
“To use this in this way is shameful and it shouldn’t be in our schools,” he said.
Latham claimed that trans and gender diverse young people are “mentally ill” because they are “changing their gender every other day”.
Walsh, who is standing for the NSW legislative council at this weekend’s election, is a law lecturer the University of Notre Dame Australia – which in past surveys has been counted among the least LGBTI-friendly universities in Australia.
He joined Latham in claiming that transphobia couldn’t possibly contribute to poor mental health among trans young people.
Nearly half of trans young people aged 14 to 25 in Australia have attempted suicide, and are ten times more likely to experience severe depression and anxiety, according to a 2017 study.
“The argument is that this is happening because we’re such a transphobic society,” Walsh said.
“But if you look at how drastic the surgery is for a transgender and a person changes their mind, then they just have to realise they’ve been mutilated,” he said, even though many trans and gender diverse people never have surgery.
Walsh noted that “there are lots of studies that show people who are transgender are at much higher risk of depression, anxiety and suicide” but instead of acknowledging that telling trans people who have undergone surgery that they have “been mutilated”, he said that the surgery itself is “a very good justification as for such a high suicide rate”.
Walsh called for there to be a national inquiry to “ensure we’ve got the science right” around the treatment of gender dysphoria, suggesting that trans kids’s “issues will resolve” if they just go through puberty.
Standards of care and treatment guidelines for transgender and gender diverse children published in the Medical Journal of Australia last year were the result of years of research, treatment and direct interaction with patients.
At the time, lead author Associate Professor Michelle Telfer said “the consequences of not treating are known to be severe in terms of depression, self harm, suicide.”
“What we know now is that transgender children and adolescents experience high rates of stigma and discrimination, bullying, social exclusion and abuse and as a consequence of all of those negative experience the mental health outcomes for this population are very poor,” she said.
“But with supportive care, affirming care and access to medical interventions at the right times those harms can be reduced and in some cases ameliorated.”
Breaking News: Mark Latham of One Nation just won a seat in the NSW upper house. Any chance to reform our laws within NSW on (1) repealing 119 year old laws on abortion as a crime, (2) repealing the surgery requirements for change sex on a birth certificate and also (3) protection of LGBTIQ students within both religious and private schools, has now completely gone out the window – until the next 4 years at March 2023!
None of these asshats as Stephani puts it actually believe any of the shit that they espouse. They, Jones, Devine, Bolt, Hanson, Latham et al are looking for the niche that will get them enough votes to sit in parliament or maintain their jobs and make themselves feel relevant again. The easiest way to do that is to tap into the mindset of the individuals who similarly are too fucking lazy or self-absorbed to educate themselves and so that 10% or so of the population will always provide enough votes in a democracy to put their own bigoted people into parliaments.
I did my PhD under a Nobel Prize winner….and I only state that to show I am quite capable of understanding scientific journals and research. As a transwoman, I hid who I was for 51 years. I can tell you this ….the medical community has it correct. We are born transgender. There is no cure or solution better than affirming our gender. And the high suicide rates and depression are due to asshats like Latham who choose to question the overwhelming evidence and conclusions of every legitimate major medical association in the world. It is one thing and one thing only he is pushing …… discrimination.
I support LGBTQI rights and I’ve never once contemplated identifying as anything other than a bloke. What is Latham’s obsession with trans folks? It’s literally ALL we ever hear from him. If you know any One Nation voters in NSW point out this obsession and suggest they back candidates who actually care about issues affecting the One Nation demographic because those folks don’t know any trans people at all.
I recently stopped drinking because I finally woke up to the fact that I’d spent the last 15 years being alcoholic. It’s good, I feel less depressed too. I’m finally realising I can be me again, and not a guy who largely withdrew socially because it was easier to sit on the couch with too many beers.
So this year I’ve learned in my own way that finding your true self is very challenging, and it’s not without its challenges even when you’re there.
In the case of trans folks, how many in previous decades never got around to self identifying because they just found it easier to either live in denial or (in way too many cases) killed themselves instead?
It’s clearly still bloody hard to be trans in modern Australia, even with more role models locally and globally than ever before. It presents daily challenges for most, I’ve no doubt. But it’s still better than the old days because folks are alive and the struggle goes on.
Latham just wants a return to the old days. What a fuckwit.