The regret rate of gender-affirming surgery is 0.3%. The regret rate for knee replacement surgery is 6-30%. "Transition regret" is a false narrative being pushed by the media to prevent people from getting access to life-saving, gender-affirming healthcare. However... Let's address that 0.3%. Many outside factors contribute to a trans person's regret: 👉Unsupportive families. 👉Transphobic environments. 👉Normal post-op distress. Just because that 0.3% of people regret their surgery doesn't mean they're not transgender. The fear of regret shouldn't stop thousands of trans people from getting access to the healthcare they deserve. Regret rates exist - but not for the reasons the media are trying to push.

Who are you actually helping? That question cuts deeper than it sounds. My take on it: piped.video/watch?v=97O992C5…

A story worth your weekend: Transitioning as a trans man after raising your family helenwebberley.com/real-live…

Riley paid the fee. Had the photo taken. Was ready to campaign. Then Clayton County told her she couldn't run for homecoming queen, and offered her king instead. My take on what really happened here: helenwebberley.com/news/clay…

Hospitals across Texas aren't stopping trans care because the medicine changed. They're stopping because they're scared. The people left stranded are trans Texans who needed that care yesterday. My full take: helenwebberley.com/insights/…

A music teacher showed up to work. She's trans. That's it. Now there are legal letters, national coverage, and demands that children be allowed to call her 'Mr.' No court has said parents can opt out of a trans teacher's class. My full take: helenwebberley.com/news/pare…

What landed best this week: Jonathan McKinsey: a trans man killed by family who never accepted him helenwebberley.com/news/jona…

We make our best guess about a child’s gender. And if we’re wrong? We can change it. In my latest piece, I talk about gender, fertility and the different ways trans people can have biological children and build families. Find the full piece here: helenwebberley.com/insights/…

Sandie Peggie attacked Dr. Upton on Christmas Eve. (From the transcript by the tribunal) Shortly before midnight on 24 Christmas Eve 2023, Beth Upton was taking off her scrubs in the women’s changing room of Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy on the east coast of Scotland. Upton had just come off a 10-hour shift as a junior doctor in A&E. As she changed alongside two other women colleagues, Sandie Peggie, a nurse in Upton’s department, entered the room clearly stalking Upton. Peggy waited for the other women to leave the room and then waited outside of Upton's cubicle. Upton emerged from a toilet cubicle to find Peggie stalking her saying “I don’t think you should be here,” clearly not intimidated enough to create a scene, Peggie continued “I’m intimidated by you being in the women’s changing room, she said – because you’re a man.” Upton kindly stated “I’m sorry you feel intimidated by me, she said, but I’ve been told I’m allowed to change here.” After some additional insults by Peggie calling her a man repeatedly, Upton went to get her bag to try to walk away from the attack. Peggie continued to harass her. Peggie said, “What are your chromosomes?” Upton responded, “This isn’t the right time or place – with minutes to go before Christmas – to talk about this.” Peggie pressed harder saying, “It isn’t just me, she said: lots of people are intimidated by you, and they’re all talking about it behind your back. It’s just that only I have the guts to say it to your face because of my bad history with men.” Upton apologised for a third time, saying she sympathised with Peggie’s was not going to accept any peaceful statement and she continued her attack. “No, you don’t understand,” Peggie said. “If you sympathised, you wouldn’t be in this changing room.” For the fourth time, Upton apologised. Peggie wouldn’t let it go. “Women should be able to feel safe here,” Peggie went on. This is just like that person in prison – a reference to Isla Bryson, the trans woman who raped two women in Scotland prior to her transition, and was initially put in a women’s prison before being moved to a men’s facility.” upon the accusation that Upton was equivalent to being a rapist, Upton could have responded righteously in an angry tone but she refrained. For around five minutes, Peggie verbally assaulted Upton until Upton could escape the room. __________ TERFs attacking transgender people is happening across the UK and across the United States as the anti-trans movement is calling for confrontations. Almost every trans woman alive, counting into the millions, has had incidences like this of being attacked. __________ Continuing …. Upton began Christmas Day in the staff wellbeing room, sobbing to a senior colleague about her ordeal. The consultant walked with Upton to her car and she went home. Not long after the verbal attacks against Upton, Peggie filed a harassment claim. For anti-trans radicals funding Peggie's lawsuit, Peggie’s case would indicate whether April’s UK Supreme Court ruling could be used to exclude trans people from single-sex spaces through employment litigation. In early December, Judge Alexander Kemp dismissed her claim. The judge found that Upton was not a threat to Peggie’s safety – on the contrary, it was Peggie who had harassed Upton, waiting for her in the toilet cubicle in order to verbally insult and attack her. Judge Kemp also found Upton had been mistreated by Peggie’s barrister who referred to Upton as a man throughout the trial.

What does gender-affirming care for young people actually look like? Not the headlines. The real thing. My take is in this video. piped.video/watch?v=KKeclvN4…

A federal judge just dismissed the Riley Gaines lawsuit against the NCAA. Not because trans women belong in sport. Not because they don't. Because the legal case was shaky from day one. My full take: helenwebberley.com/news/ncaa…

I see the non-expert in trans youth and gender diversity is preaching again. Here's the truth....... When a young person says they are trans, the question worth asking is: what happens if we listen, and what happens if we don't? The evidence on regret is real, and it tells us that the overwhelming majority of people who access gender-affirming care do not regret it. The evidence on detransition is real too - and most people who detransition do so because of family rejection, financial pressure or social hostility, not because they were wrong about who they are. "Social contagion" is not a clinical term. It is a theory dressed up as a fact, deployed to justify withholding care from young people who need it. We applied the same logic to gay young people for decades. We were wrong then. We are wrong now. The people being harmed by this moment are not the ones you think. They are trans young people sitting on years-long waiting lists, going through the wrong puberty, watching their bodies change in ways they cannot undo, because we have decided that their discomfort is a trend worth waiting out. I have the emails too. They are from those young people.

A mother who works at a mosque in one of Malaysia's most conservative states was asked how she accepted her trans daughter. Her answer stopped me. My full take: helenwebberley.com/news/mala…

You know your partner's preferences, your parents' opinions, your colleagues' limits. But what do YOU actually want? After years of performing, that question gets hard. My take on finding the self underneath: helenwebberley.com/insights/…

"Other women using the toilets." That framing tells you everything about what this debate is really doing. My full take: piped.video/watch?v=SD-cYFD2…

Jonathan McKinsey was a trans man with a career he'd built and a life he'd fought to live. The people charged with killing him are the same people the court record shows calling him a pervert for being who he was. My full piece is on the site. helenwebberley.com/news/jona…

Multi-year NHS waits for trans young people aren't caution. They're a choice, with real costs. I've written the practical policy fixes that don't need new legislation. helenwebberley.com/insights/…

The Bureau of Prisons admits gender dysphoria is serious. They just say treating it isn't justified. That distinction should unsettle everyone. My full take: helenwebberley.com/news/trum…

Misinformation doesn’t stay in a headline. It spreads, shapes opinions and causes real harm. In my latest piece, I talk about online hate, misinformation and what happens when false claims about trans people are allowed to spread unchecked. Find the full piece here: helenwebberley.com/insights/…

The Equality Act was supposed to protect trans people. So what went wrong? My take is on the site. piped.video/watch?v=nv04NR-O…

To everyone who spent September confidently debating trans healthcare without reading a single clinical guideline, consulting a single gender specialist, or listening to a single trans person's account of their own life: truly heroic output. The certainty alone. Not one flicker of doubt across the whole month! Meanwhile the evidence base kept being exactly what it was: robust, extensive, internationally endorsed, and completely unread by the people loudest about it. Same time next month? 🙄