The Catholic Weekly 31 May 2020

catholicweekly.com.au 5 31, May, 2020 Help us to keep the flame of faith alive in those places where it is most at risk. Make an offering today. www.aidtochurch.org 1800 101 201 In the ruins of World War II, we sent chapel trucks across Germany bringing the Sacraments to the people. Behind the Iron Curtain, we trained seminarians and formed Sisters and Brothers. In Asia, Africa and Latin America we supported fledgling Catholic communities by building churches. Today the coronavirus pandemic is causing a new havoc for suffering Christians. As the only international Catholic charity dedicated to the support of suffering and persecuted Christians, we need your help. We receive no government funding and rely totally on the support of the Catholic people. NOW THEN A PERTH mother has de- scribed her frustration at be- ing unable to find help for her teenage daughter who identi- fied as a boy which did not in- volve going down the path of gender assignment drugs and surgery. Danielle (not her real name) told The Catholic Week- ly her daughter was never of- fered counselling about other issues, including having suf- fered betrayal and a date rape when she sought help from a gender clinic in 2016. Her child is now grown and undergoing transition to a male identity and is estranged from her immediate family. Danielle is part of a support network of parents in Austral- ia and overseas who are op- posed to or at least question- ing the use of life-changing hormonal drugs and surgery for minors and as a result are terrified at losing, or have al- ready become estranged from, their children. She supports research which suggests there is an element of social contagion to transgenderism and says that in her daughter’s case the grooming of a high school teacher at a Christian school over a three-year period was a strong factor. Danielle describes herself and her husband falling down a rabbit hole where transgen- der activists, teachers, medi- cal experts and even the state will support the removal of a child from an otherwise sta- ble family which wishes to explore other health issues before accepting a gender-di- verse diagnosis for their child. When her daughter de- clared she was a boy in her mid-teens, Danielle took her to see the family doctor who referred her to a children’s hospital gender clinic. “I was ¾ ¾ Marilyn Rodrigues ‘Activists took my daughter away, made me irrelevant” A Perth mother has revealed the trauma of having her daughter effectively cut off from her family by gender therapists and activists. quite pleased that we were go- ing to see experts to sort this out,” she said. “I assumed that they would talk to her, do thorough exam- inations and then tell her that she was completely female. It was going to take months of waiting to get in so in the meantime we kept seeing a psychologist. “Unbeknown to me, the psychologist was simply af- firming her ... No science was required for this ideology. What she said went. “It was recommended to us that we use her new preferred name and gender (which I re- fused to do), and that we re- move all photos, and anything else that would remind her of her ‘former life’ as a girl.” Lat- er, another psychologist as- sessed her home and advised the family to remove any photos of their daughter, and to not refer to her anymore except by her preferred name and gender. The ensuing conflict, in which the parent of another trans teenager and a trans ac- tivist group became involved, ended in Danielle’s daughter leaving home one night never to return. “As a parent you are des- perately doing what you can to keep your child onside and comply as much as you can because you know if you don’t you will lose time with her,” said Danielle. “Over that time we basical- ly lost our rights to do any sort of parenting and how to run our own home. “The sad thing is that be- cause therapists don’t think the rape trauma is significant to the transgender issue, she’s never had any sort of therapy for the trauma. “The therapists just go to the stock standard, ‘You were born in the wrong body’ and that’s it. “The whole priority for them is transitioning her.” Danielle believes the teaching of gender ideology in schools facilitates a form of grooming – as in her daugh- ter’s case – and is a key factor in the rising numbers of chil- dren and teenagers present- ing as gender diverse. “Their teaching of completely unsci- entific ‘feelings’-based health education is partly to blame,” she said. “So is the fact that the ed- ucation system is teaching children about the pleasure part of sex ... at ages where their brains have not devel- oped enough to understand it.” She wants to get the mes- sage out that children’s entire outlook on life and sexuality can be established without their parents’ knowledge or consent and that, as in her case and many others she has since spoken to, minors can be swiftly taken down a path of life-altering hormonal treatment and surgery against their parents’ wishes. As a parent you are desperately do- ing what you can to keep your child onside and comply as much as you can because you know if you don’t you will lose time with her.” Danielle (not her real name) AUGUST 2019 – Health sociologist Geoff Holloway reveals a surge in children referred for gender treatment, up to 2415 children from 2014-2018 in NSW, Victoria, Western Australia and Queensland, with a 41 per cent increase in Victoria. Girls as young as nine are believed to be put on puberty blockers, and boys from about 11. SEPT 2019 – More than 200 doctors sign petition calling for a national inquiry into the treatment of trans and gender diverse children March 2020 - Royal Australian College of Physicians (RACP) advise an inquiry would “further harm vulnerable patients and their families”. APRIL 2020 - Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt rejects calls for a national inquiry Inquiry calls Call Steve (02) 9390 5404 or Paul (02) 9390 5406 THE MARKET PLACE For all your Business, Trades & Events see PG 22 Your Business Directory GENDER WARS