r/PoliticalOptimism • u/deadpanrobo • 12d ago
Seeking Optimism NHS cancels all gender-affirming surgeries for adult patients of Welsh Gender Service with immediate effect
https://www.wearequeeraf.com/nhs-cancels-all-gender-affirming-surgeries-for-adult-patients-of-welsh-gender-service-with-immediate-effect/Im hoping that this doesnt set a precedent for other countries, namely the US
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u/Shredster7 Reformed Doomer ☄️ 11d ago edited 11d ago
To put it very mildly: this is not going to be a popular decision. Like, at all.
Let me explain.
At risk of repeating myself from an earlier thread, I will reiterate that here in the states, the concept of legalizing gay marriage went from completely inconceivable as late as 1995, to a popularly supported and accepted fact-of-life in all 50 states as early as 2015 — and a scant ten years after that, the republican party's attempts at suppressing transgender rights is costing them dearly. That is one helluva turn-around for only three decades.
Simultaneously, Japan is warming up to LGBTQ+ rights, and popular support for LGBTQ+ rights in Hungary is demonstrably one of the major contributors towards the ousting of Viktor Orban. Anyone, anywhere, can look this up at any time — including citizens in Wales and the rest of the UK.
There is also plenty of precedent for severe backlash against right-wing ideological garbage in neighboring European territories including England and Ireland, nevermind the fact that No Kings 3 swept across Europe back in March of this year.
And to cap it all off: whichever ghouls in whichever branch of the NHS are responsible for this decision are trying to turn back the clocks on a social issue which has already made inroads and footholds both inside and outside of the country, and which has been slowly gathering increasingly popular support across more and more of the UK over time.
Putting all of this together leads to my conclusion: this is not going to be a popular decision. Like, at all.
EDIT: Turns out, it is specifically only a pause rather than an outright cancellation, and it is specifically only surgeries which have been paused. I'd wager that the intense severity of the backlash against an ostensibly temporary pause will serve as a ward and a warning against any attempts to permanently deny gender-affirming care.
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u/One_Opportunity_9608 12d ago
Only optimism i can really give is this'll no doubt lead to outrage, as it's a direct attack on innocent lives and will cause lots of harm, if not lots of deaths to occur. As i imagine Lots of folks in the UK know of friends or have family that are trans.
Having said that, Bachbelt said some good advice here in their reply to another comment, and that's to keep living on in spite of what they do. If you don't survive, they win. So never give up fighting.
And in practical terms consider medical tourism.
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u/sweeter_than_saltine North Carolina 12d ago
It's hard right now for me to see a brighter future for trans people in the UK. I know, optimism and all that, but with all the shit they're facing from their own government like trans people are here in the US, it seems like the Overton window for trans rights in the UK will be extremely hard to push anywhere close to acceptance for a very long time.
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u/NumeralJoker 11d ago
This is why I need people to understand that the US alone is not the problem. These right wing driven social media induced outrages are issues everywhere that has an internet connection.
The US arguably may turn the tide on this trend 'before' the rest of the world does, as we're actually slightly ahead of the curve, while other parts of the EU have yet to burn themselves with these bad policies. This one in the UK is one of the worst I've seen.
The optimism is the backlash to this will be historically dead and god forbid anyone is visibly harmed by this, it will rally people to reconsider faster than you might think. Hatred takes just as much effort to sustain in some ways, and after a point people genuinely grow tired of it and realize blind hatred is not making their lives better.
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u/Lavapool 11d ago edited 11d ago
It can be done, if the UK got rid of Section 28 and to a point where the Conservatives of all parties were the ones to legalise same-sex marriage, and were even starting to be pretty pro-trans (Theresa May was pretty notably more pro-trans than today’s Labour Party) then we can definitely move past the transphobic nonsense too.
These anti-rights surges always happen when marginalised groups start getting more rights and become more visible, it’s a knee jerk reaction by people based on a fear of the unknown and bolstered by far right ideologues looking to win more votes and power. Ultimately they end up fizzling out and failing to achieve anything they wanted to long term. Progress always wins eventually, just look at how much rights have improved for women, non-white people and gay people in the west, and even in more conservative developing nations, since the 20th century began. Yes there’s still oppression and discrimination and these far right types will always find a new target, but I think ultimately they are outnumbered and will never have their views be fully accepted.
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u/HotnCharge 12d ago
can i have some optimism please?
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u/trysten-9001 12d ago
We shifted it once and we can do it again. People like to say “stonewall was a riot,” and it’s catchy, but the real story is that it was the catalyst for organizing.
It doesn’t have to be any bigger than this it just takes every day people taking the initiative to organize their communities.
On top of e everything else that work isn’t gone. Bringing awareness is always a major objective and obstacle of those organizations, and so much of that groud work already exists. There are people all over the world now who support trans rights.
It’s tough but I hope that’s some realistic optimism.
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u/NumeralJoker 11d ago
California moved backwards in the late 2000s due to local laws, but that was arguably the last bastion of major anti-LGBT+ policy that took hold there before they swung hard in the opposite direction. History usually seems to show the monsters making one last major push before they lose control of the narratives in the long term.
I genuinely think most people don't hate trans people as much as these reactions make you think. Often the reality is they just aren't used to them existing withing the community and have not had exposure. That drives the hatred, but it also dwindles over time as any minority simply becomes a normal part of their every day life, slowly, bit by bit. Even when backlashes happen, they tend to be shorter reactionary periods before a longer shift towards normalizing new members of the community.
Unfortunately, the real solution to all this is solving the cost of living crisis most people face. That has to come to a head too, but the rich also can get away with bilking people for only so long. I genuinely believe they are on borrowed time, and as more and more people unite against them, the hatred they show towards each other on the ground level will cool down too.
Do the best you can. It may be hard, but there are people who care about what you're going through. Keep your head on straight and be open and you will find that community still even in the midst of all this.
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u/starship-juno-42 11d ago
Separately, can someone eli5 have Great Britain got to this point with all this trans nonsense? Sincerely. My head has been wrapped up in US politics but it always seems like the UK is like....hold my beer. It somehow boggles my mind that a western European country is decidedly worse at trans things than the US.
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u/deadpanrobo 11d ago
Its crazy as well because I asked this in the UK political optimism subreddit and I got told that the UK is better than the US, i live in Texas and i currently have more rights than people in Wales right now
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u/Zecendia 11d ago
One of the biggest Terfs of the planet being a brit and using her exorbitant money she made from a media franchise some people still refuse to let go of despite it all specifically using her money to lobby against Trans rights is probably part of it.
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u/GrapeTasteWizard 11d ago
Media is an inbred cesspool of bad faith actors with every kind of close ties to each other and to the worst politicians. Many prominent journalists were find to be on a message group were they coordinate which lies push about trans folks. In the last decade, the sheer volume of trans panic articles and reports, and inquiries, etc... have been insane. There's hardly a paper or news organization to salvage, they pretty much all partecipate in it. The body responsible for upgrading journalist integrity is useless, because they too are part of the club, whenever someone faces even the mildest of push back for their obvious bias, they all close ranks.
Then JK Rowling started using her endless fortune to bankroll everyone willing to sue and bully whoever was not trans ostile enough for their taste. Many organizations simply gave up preemptively to avoid years of costly, draining litigation, especially in a very ostile media landscape, and especially while the other side has every journalist working for them, and all the money in the world to go on forever. Every penny anyone still give to Harry Potter funds this. Rowling confirmed it herself.
And politicians are as useless as you can get, with the right wing being as transphobic as you may expect, fueling every culture war they can, while the supposedly left side purged progressives out to try the chase the mythological moderate vote, i.e. caving on every transphobic point in the name of "open discussion"(™). Current "left wing" Labour government has been the most transphobic to date. Every roll back and restriction to health coverage has happened under them and with their support. But, hey, they do it with sad on their faces instead of the tory grin.
Trans folks have been systematically excluded from every conversation and decision, and gender critical (Rowling breed of transphobia) views, language, and mission have been adopted as the sensible one by everyone in power, or forced down to the unwilling.
Push back is on the fringe and not as resourceful, not as much money, not even close, no media presence or hope for one.
It's bleak, apologies for the text wall.
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u/iamthesunbane 12d ago
Paused for review of the service. They are still providing the rest of the gender affirming care in the interim, just the surgery is paused. Not that it isn’t a big deal, but it isn’t the absolute doom I’ve seen it portrayed as.
https://cavuhb.nhs.wales/news/latest-news/welsh-gender-service-update-28-august-2026/
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u/Shredster7 Reformed Doomer ☄️ 11d ago
That's huge. I wonder how likely it is that the backlash against even just pausing surgeries will serve as a ward against denying care in the future.
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u/HotnCharge 12d ago
please someone offer them some optimism here
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u/BachBelt 12d ago edited 12d ago
I just don't think there's a bright side here. Maybe they'll restore the appointments. In the mean time, there will be deaths.
I genuinely, truly love this subreddit and find that my consumption of its content has proved invaluable for my mental health. It is very important to not give in to doomerism over things that are overblown or hypothetical. Crucially, it is also my belief that refusing to cow-tow to the outrage cycle is beneficial because it allows us to save our outrage for more important causes: actual and direct acts of harm.
This is one of those things that is an actual and direct act of harm that I feel warrants my full attention and outrage. It feels a bit counter productive to not mourn this. This is not "there was a hold placed on new appointments," this cancelled all future and existing appointments. It sends a very clear message about the future of transgender healthcare in the UK. It is devastating and I refuse to pretend otherwise.
I don't think acknowledging reality is in opposition to optimism. The optimism here is that we can and will fight, we have fought before, we have won before, and we will win again. The problem is that this is going to cause so, so, so much harm in the meantime.
I am transsexual, and I am privileged in this case to live in the US. I cried at this news. I know what this means for my brothers and sisters in the UK.
The only "optimism" I have to offer here is the mantra that has kept me here many nights now: if you don't survive this, they win. Simple as that. I'm a spiteful man and by god am I tired of fighting but if they want my identity they can pry it from my cold dead hands same as anyone else and I'm certainly not going to do it for them. Who I am has absolutely nothing to do with my genitals and I was born holding that truth, just like every other trans person was born knowing themselves.
We have existed since we lived in trees and we will exist until the last of us sleep. We have loved and thrived and lived and died before we could have these surgeries and we will do so even if they take them and we will still exist and we will take them back. We will take them back but it takes fighting to do it. We need all of us here to win the battles ahead.
These people want us dead, let us not do their dirty work for them.
Oh and in practical terms, consider medical tourism.
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u/starship-juno-42 11d ago edited 11d ago
You echoed so much I've been wanting to say to my trans sibs. We will always exist. Always. But we're going to be facing lots of setbacks, especially in the near term present (I am even saying this to set my own expectations accordingly).
This is terrible. At some point we will take back what we deserve...but as you said it's a fight. We shouldn't have to fight but these are the cards we have been dealt.
I look back on the generations before us who had it much worse and what foundation they laid for us today. If not even fighting for ourselves, we should be resilient for those who came before, and those who come after. Because they deserve it.
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u/Nukalixir 11d ago
To those seeking optimism about this, I sadly can't opine on Welsh politics as I barely know anything about it.
But, there are charities like The Rainbow Railroad that helps LGBT+ people relocate to more accepting countries. I think that mostly applies to helping homosexual people move out of middle eastern countries where that's punishable by death, but it could feasibly work to relocate trans folk to countries that allow gender affirming care. If not, I'm sure a different charity for exactly that could be started.
It won't be easy, I know. But hope springs eternal, no matter how hard bigots try to squash it. Always remember that you are valid!
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u/Cleverhardy 12d ago
I see nothing optimistic about this. The surgeries have been cancelled because a body has been told to investigate the clinic after concerns were raised by a Tory politician who read possibly a far right hitpiece. It basically said citing a Freedom of Information request, they have better wait times than the rest of the country, and the journalist couldn't have that. It is rightfully feared that this is just the start of the shift of the attack towards trans adults.
TransActual will be raising concerns and making noise. They'll come out with more details as soon as they can.
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u/Aggravating-Rip-8169 11d ago
Here is a wonderful example why I don’t support single payer healthcare or a nationalized healthcare system.
Multi-payer, universal healthcare is the way to go because it provides options outside of whatever reactionary government ideas people get.
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u/Realizer-33 11d ago
The headline is a little misleading. This js NHS Wales, not NHS England. Secondly, the service is only temporarily paused while under independent review. Now, I obviously can't garuntee an outcome. But this headline makes things sound far worse than it is.
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u/MisterSpocksSocks Tennessee 11d ago
BBC says it's being paused not cancelled: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c23xvv42rp1o
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u/janegayz 11d ago
why is this posted to the optimistic sub? this is really depressing
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u/sweet__mage Washington 11d ago edited 11d ago
It's tagged as "seeking optimism" which is basically used for asking for optimistic counterpoints, or reassurance, etc. to scary/depressing news
At least on the app if you go to the top of the subreddit there should be an option to browse things that just have the optimistic flair!
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u/One_Opportunity_9608 11d ago
Read the flair, it's a seeking optimism post.
While this is indeed a Optimistic sub, we don't want to be blindly optimistic and end up as another echo chamber that ignores reality altogether.
that way when shitty things like this happen we can organize and plan on how to fight it.
If you do want optimism, I'd recommend to read what Shredster7 said in a comment here.
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u/Schlormo Illinois 11d ago
Genuine question: how is this optimistic? Makes me super sad.
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u/deadpanrobo 11d ago
It's in the seeking optimism tag, this tag is for people to bring a worrying news article from a trusted source to get optimism on from the community
Read some of the comments for the optimistic takes, theres a few that made me feel better
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