Newsletter 2311

An update on what we have been doing...

We have now been very busy working to help parents and society protect our children for five years. Over this time we have been heartened to see so many other initiatives that are doing likewise. In the three short years since Gigi erected the billboards in Los Angeles promoting Abigail Shrier’s book Irreversible Damage, awareness of our position that children should not be medicalized in the name of gender has gone from virtually zero to ubiquity. In the United States nearly half of legislatures have passed laws protecting children. That is an incredible turnaround for a three-year timeframe deeply impacted by Covid. Thanks are due to everyone, worldwide, who has been pushing the message that our kids need protecting from the gender craze.

What started with the gathering of affected parents in a Twitter group, has now become a community of some 3,000 in over 30 countries. Over these years we have been learning how best to protect our children. We have been learning how to lobby politicians. We have been learning how to involve other agencies (and which of them can be trusted). We have told our stories, to PITT, to journalists, to politicians, and to lawyers. We have made formal submissions to government bodies in the USA, Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom. We have filed amicus briefs. All alongside our work to help parents endure the strain of having a child with transgender ideation.

Our Duty has consistently been in the vanguard when it comes to thought leadership. Our model of the Lifecycle of Transgender Ideation is one example, and the thinking behind it is explained in this article in Psychreg.

So what’s been happening?

In the United Kingdom, we have a very important legal case underway in which the High Court has to decide what is in a child’s best interests when one parent affirms a gender delusion and the other wants to protect. There is a crowdfunder for this case.

The third annual LGB Alliance Conference was on 27th October. This was well attended and we had the chance to lobby politicians including Moira Deeming MP from Australia.

Billboard Chris joined us at the Battle of Ideas, another conference where we were able to raise our profile. Our stand was well attended, visitors included Tina Descovich of Moms for Liberty and legislators. Many leaflets were taken.

While, sadly, we were not directly involved in the Arc Forum - Jordan Peterson’s project which also had a conference in London this week - there is much in his project that is aligned with our values particularly as regards parenting, building resilience, and sense of duty. If you are unfamiliar with this initiative, I strongly recommend that you take a look. 

All the while, we were preparing and submitting a response to a consultation by the National Health Service (NHS) on the prescription of puberty blockers.

In Australia, people are waking up to the harms of affirmation therapy. There are parents visiting politicians in both state and federal parliaments. There have been several calls for a parliamentary inquiry. Both television and radio shows are starting to carry stories. This poll from Compass reflects the views of the general public.

Members of Our Duty will be visiting parliament. Parent and advocate Judith Hunter appeared on a groundbreaking television documentary Breaking the Silence: The Reality of Detransitioning for the prestigious Spotlight programme on Channel 7.

In Canada, we participated in the second round of the Million March on Saturday, October 21^st hosting Scott Newgent, a medical transition regretter in Toronto, Ontario. Throughout our efforts toward these marches, the first one being called “the largest protest of its kind in the world to date”, we have created materials like signs, t-shirts and printables that can be used by anyone hosting or attending rallies and events to further spread the word about the harms of gender ideation and medical transition in Canada.  You can find them here: https://ourduty.group/canada/march-materials/.  We’ve also created an initiative called Million MORE for Children (here: https://ourduty.group/2023/10/23/million-more-for-children/) through which we hope to inspire Canadians to keep the pressure on school boards, politicians and union representatives in the absence of peaceful protests and large events.  There is much that can be done from the comfort of your home.

Later this month, Our Duty Canada will participate in Session 41 of the United Nations Universal Periodic Review with our submission being read and reviewed in Geneva on November 10th. The submission focuses on the lack of safety and efficacy within the Gender Affirming Care model currently mandated across Canada, as well as the UN Rights of the Child that we believe are being violated because of it.  Please check the website in the coming days for more information and a link to listen to the UPR Session.

ODC has recently become a signatory to the Parents Rights Coalition of Canada, a group of like minded organizations banding together to fight against gender ideology in our schools and laws in Canada.  Watch for updates in the coming months.

Our Duty Canada has remained focussed on exposing the “gender” madness in Canada.  We recently received the results of a Freedom of Information inquiry into the York Region District School Board (Toronto, Ontario) which showed that a staggering $23,000+ had been paid to prominent “trans” rights activists to write the board’s Gender Identity and Expression policy.  You can read about it here: https://ourduty.group/2023/10/22/school-board-gender-identity-expression-policy-high-dollar-scandal/ and there will be more to come.

In the USA, we are establishing a new chapter in Georgia.

The Genspect conference has just concluded in Denver, Colorado. Erin Friday gave a powerfully moving talk there, so keep an eye out for that appearing on YouTube.

The FDA petition requesting the Commissioner of Food and Drugs to take urgent action concerning the off-label use of GnRH agonists, a class of drugs also known as Puberty Blockers, in Children is still open for your comments.

The number of lawsuits by detransitioners is increasing. You can follow the growing list on the website for a new charity in the U.S., ThemisResourceFund.org. This new charity is beginning to help detransitioners connect with legal counsel and to fund lawsuits.

In California, our team has been active in enabling school boards to resist the onward march of gender ideology in our schools. Our new web page on FERPA, while targeted to California, is relevant to, and can be adapted for all Americans.

In the five years since our founding, we have had to suffer many setbacks, and yet we have continued to advocate for our children’s health. We have made significant progress in defining best-practice, providing support, advocating for the unheard, and shifting society’s perceptions around transgenderism. We rely on your donations, and the hard work of our volunteers, many of whom are still enduring the stress and trauma of having a child with transgender ideation.

We thank you for your continued support. We know we are making a difference, and every positive testament from a parent reinforces our will to keep doing the right thing by our children.