It is perfectly possible for people with differing opinions to have a reasonable and rational discussion about difficult topics, such as pre-pubescent gender dysphoria. I had previously written a short article on this topic that was based on the Interim Cass Report, and I was recently told by Geoff Breeze that at the time he believed I was wrong. Of course that would have been perfectly fine, and a discussion on that disagreement may have caused one or both of us to adjust our views.
Geoff now claims that he only touches on this topic when he has “no other choice”. He reports that when he raised his disagreement with me he “tried to be as diplomatic about it as he possibly could”. He announces that the opinion he stated then is the same one that he holds now, which is that “John’s position is wrong”. Finally, he accepts that he “made several comments during a live stream” by Chesh and Maanyaa about me, concerning this particular disagreement.
None of that sounds unreasonable, and indeed if this is actually what Geoff had done there would never have been any problem. However, the problem is that every word I have quoted here from Geoff is utterly dishonest. The truth is that at no point did Geoff ever tell me that he thought I was wrong about anything at all. To this day, he has never mentioned any particular opinion that I expressed, which he factually disagrees with. This is because all of the articles I have written on this topic have been entirely factually correct. Instead of telling me that he thought I was wrong about one particular issue or another, what Geoff actually did was engage in a very public and entirely mendacious character assassination.
Geoff refers to live streams where he says he made “several comments that seem to have seriously pissed John off”. This was in fact eight hours of video discussions about me, where Geoff repeatedly commented to support the authors. While Geoff was enthusiastically taking the side of the authors against me, their content involved some disagreement with the articles that I had published, alongside large volumes personal abuse directed at me and my family.
For example, the short clip below describes their disagreement with my tweet that they display on-screen. I had stated that a pre-pubescent 11 year-old cannot “fully understand” their own sexuality. I was arguing that this age is too young for any child to be able to give informed consent for a treatment pathway that could destroy their sexual function, and leave them sterilised. Chesh and Maanyaa disagreed with my position on the basis that pre-pubescent children, “will express sexual interest”.
I believe that arguing pre-pubescent children “will express sexual interest”, is an utterly disgusting and highly dangerous argument for giving puberty blockers to 11 year-olds. In contrast, Geoff continually made supportive comments as the authors offered this kind of commentary, and directed eight hours of appalling personal abuse at me. This abuse included discussions about my family. Since I viewed pre-pubescent 11 year-olds as being more innocent and naive than the live stream authors consider such young children to be, they announced that I am “a shit Dad” who would “treat his kids like shit”.
This is the side of the argument that Geoff took. He sat through hours of this personal abuse, and only ever offered supportive commentary towards the authors throughout. He never demurred at any point, and each of his public comments all uniformly agreed with the live stream authors.
I had also written another article about the conclusions of the Interim Cass Report, which mentioned that the NHS withdrew the routine prescription of puberty blockers as a result of those recommendations. In contrast, the authors of the live stream reported that the Cass Report had only ever been concerned with long waiting lists restricting access to puberty blockers. They stated that the NHS response to the Cass Report was to create more clinics, to prescribe more puberty blockers, towards more children. This is utterly delusional, but Geoff fully agreed with this position. He also also agreed with the position that anyone with a different perspective than the live stream authors, must be guilty of transphobic bigotry. Geoff’s clear position on this issue (he uses the pseudonym ‘Godless Scummer’) is recorded in the short clip below.
Following his active support as hours of this material was published, Geoff went on to make his own independent allegations of transphobic bigotry on Twitter. He used his own Twitter account to inform his followers that I am a transphobic bigot, without offering any example of anything I had ever said or written that answered that description. To this day, Geoff has never mentioned a single comment that I have ever made on this topic that he disagrees with. He has never referred to a single statement that I have ever made, which he has argued to be “transphobic” or “bigoted”. His only contributions have been unevidenced personal abuse.
Notwithstanding his recent attempts to dishonestly rewrite history, Geoff was not suggesting that “John’s position is wrong”, by being “as diplomatic as he possibly could”, when he had “no other choice”. He was going out of his way to make gratuitous and false allegations of transphobic bigotry, as proactive character assassination.
Now that the Final Cass Report has been published, we can expect more of these dishonest attempts to rewrite history. We can also expect more pathetic self-pity, whereby those who have been proactively supporting and publishing gratuitous personal abuse will somehow imagine themselves to be the victims.
Geoff didn’t worry that others might have “too much stuff going on” when he decided to support the personal abuse in the live streams described above. He didn’t worry that others might have “too much stuff going on” when he then decided to add to that abuse from his own Twitter account. Now that the Final Cass Report has been published and his position has been demonstrated to be enormously harmful, Geoff has decided that it has become unacceptable for anyone to refer to what he previously published. It’s a bit late for that. If Geoff didn’t want his own words discussed or quoted back to him, then he shouldn’t have published them.
Dr Hilary Cass herself has already described the environment that was created by the kind of content that was published and supported by Geoff. In her foreword on page 13 of her report, she writes that:
“There are few other areas of healthcare where professionals are so afraid to openly discuss their views, where people are vilified on social media, and where name-calling echoes the worst bullying behaviour.”
Quote from the Final Cass Report
This toxic environment was created by people who enjoyed screaming “transphobe” online, and making other false allegations of bigotry, and worse. It is an environment that has allowed significant harms towards vulnerable young children to continue, by disingenuously vilifying as a “transphobe” anyone who questioned it. Those responsible need to take an adult approach to accounting for their behaviour. Conversely, the kind of utterly dishonest and puerile attempts of Geoff Breeze to act as if he is the victim, are entirely inadequate. With respect to this issue, Geoff is the victim of precisely nothing. The children who have been harmed by this long running medical scandal are the real victims, and people like Geoff should think carefully about their role in creating the environment that allowed those harms to persist.
