GRAHAM ADAMS: Trans ‘No Debate’ policy collapses

In brief

  • An RNZ story on the death of a young gender-confused anorexic is republished by major NZ news sites and goes viral on social media.
  • Transgender activists alienate many by criticising the parents of the dead 17-year-old girl.
  • The trans lobby’s power to stamp out criticism has been neutered.
  • The legacy media may be forced to widen its coverage of contentious topics.

When film-maker David Farrier read Ruth Hill’s devastating exposé on RNZ’s website of the brief life of “Vanessa”, a 17-year-old gender-confused anorexic who died of starvation alone in a motel room, his reaction was anger and disbelief. He expressed his feelings to Hill in a brief email.

His anger was not, however, directed at the Dean at Vanessa’s school who undermined her parents’ wishes to discourage her from adopting an identity as a boy — a stance which followed advice from her psychiatrist, who thought she was transitioning as a way of deflecting attention from her anorexia.

Nor was it directed at the shocking behaviour by ... Subscribe to unlock.

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