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Shon Faye: The transgender issue

Stephen Sackur asks author and journalist Shon Faye if all the attention on issues of sex, gender and identity is making it easier to be trans or not.

According to research in the US and the UK, roughly one in 100 may be transgender. But the fact that the debate about transgender rights has become a political battleground isn鈥檛 driven so much by the numbers but more by conflicting ideologies. Stephen Sackur asks author and journalist Shon Faye if all the attention on issues of sex, gender and identity is making it easier to be trans or not.

This programme is subject to clarifications. In the interview with the transgender activist and writer Shon Faye, the presenter said: 鈥淭here's quite a lot of data now on this, self-harm is a problem for people who are in this situation and suicide is also more common among trans young people than among the rest of the population鈥. In fact, the overall position is unclear as there is limited data on suicides among young trans people.

On the point made by Shon Faye that puberty blockers are reversible, the NHS says little is known about their long term side effects in children with gender dysphoria, and that although the Gender and Identity Service (GIDS) advises this is a physically reversible treatment if stopped, it is not known what the psychological effects may be.

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23 minutes

Last on

Mon 15 Aug 2022 21:06GMT

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  • Mon 15 Aug 2022 07:06GMT
  • Mon 15 Aug 2022 14:06GMT
  • Mon 15 Aug 2022 21:06GMT

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