It was a great novel. Very progressive for the 60’s.
From good reads:
“A groundbreaking work of science fiction, The Left Hand of Darkness tells the story of a lone human emissary to Winter, an alien world whose inhabitants spend most of their time without a gender. His goal is to facilitate Winter’s inclusion in a growing intergalactic civilization. But to do so he must bridge the gulf between his own views and those of the completely dissimilar culture that he encounters.”
Placed a hold on it with my library. I didn’t realize it was by the master Ursula K Le Guin.
Okay.
Putting it out there.
There was some sci book I read sometime in early 90s. Probably old from 60s through 80s.
Help me find it.
There was definitely gender swapping. They went through full surgery and had full organs put in, and if you previously identified male, you could bear children after the transition.
I think people lived longer.
There was maybe a kind of detective theme to the book?
It was set on near future earth.
Any ideas?
Nothing comes to mind. I looked through the below list of sci-fi stories with trans characters. Anything jump out at you as bring the right book?
So the Cass report came out in the UK on april 10th
I’ll say straight off that I haven’t read it so may be falling victim to out of context summations. But it seems to have spawned some (to me at least) pretty strange commentary. I generally find the guardian to be the only decent paper still in existence, so its not like this is some Daily Mail hate space (usually).
and stuff like
They are also much more likely to be same-sex attracted; some clinicians have expressed concern that, instead of helping children process the fact they are gay, gender medicine has encouraged them to instead believe they are born in the wrong body.
It has lead to the shutdown of the UK’s Gender Identity clinic
and seems to take quite a low view of puberty blockers in general
Cass believes that for a minority of young people medical transition will be the right option, but she is clear that there is no solid evidence basis justifying the use of hormones for children and adolescents.
Her earlier research has led to a decision by NHS England to stop prescribing puberty blockers to children and the new research recommends “extreme caution” before prescribing masculinising and feminising hormones to under-18s.
The UK’s only NHS gender identity development service used puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones, which masculinise or feminise people’s appearances, despite “remarkably weak evidence” that they improve the wellbeing of young people and concern they may harm health, Dr Hilary Cass said.
The whole thing seems kinda anti trans or at least anti trans youth. Has anyone here actually read it? and can someone with more knowledge break it down for this straight cis male bozo?
The commentators I watch generally are calling it out as unscientific garbage and are saying it likely will not hold up under even the slightest peer review.
You got some links handy?
Nope.
Ah well.
I read some obscure stuff growing up. Basically any science fiction book I could find in the local second hand book store in rural Australia.
This is really good article on Cass. Also from the Guardian
It’s in Australian context, but it talks in depth about some of the issues.
My read on it is that the UK is far from best practice, and that the review is a reactionary response to that
Here is one. It starts at 52:30
Looks like Cass references Zucker a number of times.
Thanks for the links. I’ll check them out.
About Cass and medical studies in general:
I don’t have the strength to read the Cass stuff.
When we crossed the threshold to gender-affirming medical treatment with my child, I of course had to consider the possibility that I was doing the “wrong” thing. That maybe in the future they would regret it, be worse off, hate themselves, and me for allowing it. This decision on their part was very far from a whim, that much was clear, but they were still young. I believe every parent of a trans child at least spends a little while on this thought process: they can’t drive, drink, or vote, but I’m going to let them steer the bus on permanent, life-altering medical treatment?
Aside from the “spiritual” approach I took, studies that indicate better outcomes for trans youth that are supported really helped me. In the absence of a crystal ball into the future, it was comforting to know that there was at least some data to support our approach.
I knew that helmet was bad news
Appreciate this post.
Not something I’ve had to deal with, but good to get a more frontline view.
Whenever I hear the dipshits with anti-trans BS I tend to say something like “stfu and let people be who they want to be”.
[I think people being assholes just to be assholes is getting my goat these days.].
Maybe I’m not doing it the right way.
imo that’s perfectly a perfectly fine line to take. When minors are involved, as we’ve seen, people get particularly crazy. I think there are plenty of people who “tolerate” trans adults but struggle with treating trans youth. The improved outcomes for kids who get gender-affirming care is a great thing to point out to them.
Based on my family’s experience and those of others I know (we went to a large support group for quite a while), most kids who take the step of living as the gender with which they identify and getting medical treatment don’t get there easily. In our case our child went through periods of debilitating anxiety, depression, and self-harm behaviors - beginning long before gender was even in the conversation. Gender affirming care is treatment.
Wait, this hasn’t gone through peer review yet?
One of the big lessons of parenthood imo is that every kid needs to be considered individually. They’re all different. And even when you spend their whole lives knowing them as well as possible and you try your best it’s still hard.
This isn’t exactly as you described, but your question reminded me of The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin. It’s definitely sci-fi and takes place on a planet where the people are generally androgynous but go through natural shifts where they can be “male” or “female,” so no surgery involved. The plot is more political that detective story, but they’re not too far apart.
It’s a very interesting read.
I think I had heard this wrongly. It appewrs it eas peer reviewed. The person I heard said that hr dorsnt think it would hold up under subsewuent peer review, hence my confusion.
Interesting video on new info since. Cass now says Puberty blockers and HRT shouldnt be banned.
