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The Bayswater Support Group (BSG) is a support group for parents skeptical of their children's transgender identity founded in 2019. It has supported proposed educational policies which would ban social transition for transgender children and require that schools out them to their parents. It additionally lobbied the Crown Prosecution Services to remove protections for transgender youth.[1][2]

It supported the ban on puberty blockers for those under 16 that resulted from to Bell v Tavistock and expressed dismay at it's overturning on appeal.[3][4] The Bureau of Investigative Journalism released a report on the group which was shortlisted for the 2024 British Journalism Awards, it investigated the group's influence on government policy and revealed details of their Discord server where members discussed putting their children through conversion therapy.[1][2]

History

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The Bayswater Support Group was founded in 2019.[1] It operates as a peer support group, targeting parents skeptical of their children's transgender identity.[5] Embedded within the wider gender-critical movement, it serves as a support group for parents concerned about their children's trans identities and has, with Transgender Trend, the Safe Schools Alliance, and Our Duty, constructed a narrative that transitions are out-of-control a threat to children.[5]

In 2020, the BSG welcomed the Bell v Tavistock judgement that medical gender-affirming care for those under 16 would require the approval of a court.[3] In 2021, the ruling was overturned on appeal. The BSG said they didn't share the court's "confidence in GIDS clinicians".[4]

In 2022, Bayswater signed an open letter calling for the government to pause it's conversion therapy ban due to fear it might criminalize "exploratory therapy", saying they should wait for the publication of the final report of the Cass Review.[6] Nikki da Costa, then advisor to the prime minister and the women and equalities minister, sent the group a thank you note for support saying "We know there is huge pressure to add [trans people] back into the bill" as Boris Johnson announced that the proposed ban on conversion therapy would not include transgender people.[1]

The same year, Hadley Freeman interviewed parents from the BSG who don't agree with their child's gender identity for The Sunday Times and received public backlash for her comments that trans youth claimed they were suicidal to get their way.[7][8]

In 2023, education secretary, Gillian Keegan issued new transgender schools guidance that called for transgender children to be outed to their parents, changed instances of "trans" to "gender-questioning", and stated "Schools can decline a request to change a child’s pronouns and primary school aged children should not have different pronouns to their sex-based pronouns". Many in the trans community described it as discriminatory and having a negative impact on the trans community.[9] The legislation was pushed by Miriam Cates with input from Bayswater, with both claiming that the changes were necessary for "safeguarding". Bayswater called the guidance "a welcome step in the right direction". Lawyers at the Department for Education warned that the guidance could breach equalities law.[1]

In May 2024, Bayswater successfully lobbied the Crown Prosecution Services to water down prosecution guidelines for anti-trans domestic abuse. This included removing withholding money for gender-affirming care as an example and changing "destroying medication" to "destroying UK regulated medication that has been prescribed to the victim", failing to protect trans people who self-medicate due to years-long waiting lists and invasive assessments through the NHS.[2]

Members of the BSG have lodged complaints about school LGBTQ+ clubs and rejoiced in them being shut down, accusing teachers who facilitated the club of grooming their children.[1] The BSG was one of eight explicitly anti-transgender groups who were included in a targeted consultation by Wes Streeting over his decision to announce an indefinite ban on the use of puberty blockers for trans minors.[10]

Investigation by The Bureau of Investigative Journalism

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The Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ) wrote a report on the BSG revealing their influence on the conservative government and reporting on leaked chats from members.[11] It was shortlisted for the 2024 British Journalism Awards under "Social Affairs, Diversity & Inclusion Journalism".[12]

TBIJ also analyzed posts from Bayswater's online Discord server for parents over a 12-month period. They found that parents discussed trying to stop their children being trans by sending them to conversion therapists, isolating their children from peer support and restricting their internet access, and destroying their possessions. They promoted the book "Desist, Detrans & Detox – Getting Your Child Out of the Gender Cult".[2]

Some parents reported being referred for safeguarding concerns by school counselors. Another, who had prevented her young adult child from taking hormones at home and tried to ensure any inheritance could not be used for transition care said the child was now living in accommodations for LGBTQ+ abuse survivors, which she called "a church of the gender faithful".[2] Several described behavior that could be classed as domestic abuse, such as destroying their children's pride flags, LGBTQ+ badges, and binders.[2] Some discussed their broken relationships with adult children, and a few parents admitted to taking bold steps to re-engage them, including asking their universities to break data protection laws.[2] Parents argued their children's gender identities were responses to eating disorders, neurodivergence, bullying, or sexual trauma, and refused any therapy where the child's gender identity would not be affirmed.[2]

Views

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The BSG claims that most youth who identity as trans do so to "mask complex causes of distress". [7] Their website states they aim to address what they believe to be the root causes of trans identity to encourage the child to desist, asking "What problems does it solve for a child to want to reinvent themselves as a member of the opposite sex? How can we address the root problems so that they don’t undergo unnecessary and experimental medical treatments?" [5] They oppose social transition and argue parents must act as gender coaches and avoid affirming the child's gender identity. [5]

The BSG opposes gender-affirmative approaches and has said that "Vulnerable children and young adults must be told the truth about puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones: the evidence base is very weak, and there are known risks."[13]

It has said that "By viewing gender exclusively as a ‘civil rights’ issue, children with complex mental health problems and trauma have been failed by adults who should have been protecting them" and that "Unlike sexual orientation, a trans identity is linked with likely medicalisation and high rates of comorbidities", calling it a safeguarding failure not to try and figure out what led kids to be transgender.[14][9]

Reception

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The Bureau of Investigative Journalism describes them as "a parent group engaged in anti-LGBTQ+ conversion practices".[11]

Trans organizations describe the group as transphobic. The Trans Safety Network, which records instituational and organized harm against trans people in the UK, expressed concern that Bayswater actively promotes a manual for conversion therapy and stated "While Bayswater present themselves as a support group for parents, TBIJ’s findings show they operate as a conversion therapy activist organisation with direct links to political campaigning against the rights of trans children and young people".[1][2] Mallor Moore from the TSN said several members of TSN were in tears this "has been finally outed in public" when TBIJ published its reports.[11]

Dr Adam Jowett, the lead author of a government-commissioned report on conversion practices, said that Bayswater's proposed educational policies reminded him of Section 28, a British law in place between 1988 and 2003 which banned any positive mention of LGBTQ+ people and identities.[1]

A piece in Dazed Digital described them as a "a gender-critical parent’s group which advocates for conversation therapy, lobbies against trans rights and helped the Conservative government to draft guidance which would have banned schools from teaching children about trans identities".[15]

Novara Media described them as an "anti-trans parent group".[16]

We Are Queer AF described them as "the Bayswater Support Group of parents who advocate abusing trans children".[10]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Baker, Sasha; Rocca, Valeria (July 2, 2024). "The parents group at the centre of a rollback of trans rights". The Bureau of Investigative Journalism. Retrieved 2025-01-05.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Baker, Sasha; Rocca, Valeria (July 2, 2024). "One day they may thank us for that "abuse": Inside the Bayswater Support Group". The Bureau of Investigative Journalism. Retrieved 2025-01-06.
  3. ^ a b Doward, Jamie (2020-12-06). "Keira Bell lawyer warns on internet coverage of transgender issues". The Observer. ISSN 0029-7712. Retrieved 2025-01-06.
  4. ^ a b Swerling, Gabriella (2021-09-17). "NHS trust wins legal fight to overturn ban on puberty-blocking drugs for children". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 2025-01-06.
  5. ^ a b c d Amery, Fran (2023-12-11). "Protecting Children in 'Gender Critical' Rhetoric and Strategy: Regulating Childhood for Cisgender Outcomes". DiGeSt - Journal of Diversity and Gender Studies. 10 (2). doi:10.21825/digest.85309. ISSN 2593-0281.
  6. ^ "Press pause on Conversion Therapy Bill". 2022-04-09. Retrieved 2025-01-06.
  7. ^ a b Hansford, Amelia (2023-01-10). "Journalist Hadley Freeman blasted for 'dangerous' comments about suicidal trans kids". Retrieved 2025-01-06.
  8. ^ Freeman, Hadley (2023-01-07). "The prize for being a good parent is hatred". Retrieved 2025-01-06.
  9. ^ a b Russell, Steve (2023-12-20). "Why the government's new transgender school guidance is a massive blow to the trans community". Retrieved 2025-01-06.
  10. ^ a b Wareham, Jamie (2024-12-14). "Puberty Blocker ban consultation featured eight explicitly anti-trans groups". Retrieved 2025-01-06.
  11. ^ a b c Livingston, Eve (September 5, 2024). "Trans+ Voices: what our project has done so far – and where it will…". The Bureau of Investigative Journalism. Retrieved 2025-01-06.
  12. ^ Maher, Bron (2024-10-24). "British Journalism Awards 2024: Full list of this year's finalists". Retrieved 2025-01-06.
  13. ^ Davis, Nicola; Marsh, Sarah (2024-05-03). "Concerns as cross-sex hormones available online for just £11 a month". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2025-01-06.
  14. ^ Weale, Sally (2023-12-19). "England's schools must be involved in new transgender guidance, union warns". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2025-01-06.
  15. ^ Grieg, James (2024-07-23). "Elon Musk is the patron saint of transphobic parents". Retrieved 2025-01-06.
  16. ^ Brown, Rivkah (November 12, 2024). "Are NHS Workers Bringing Trump-Style Anti-Trans Ideology to the UK?". Novara Media. Retrieved 2025-01-06.
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