Scottish NHS site says eunuch is a gender
Eunuch should be a formal gender identity, according to documents published on an official Scottish NHS website. The National Gender Identity Clinical Network for Scotland shared the claims from the World Professional Association for Transgender Health that “eunuchidentified people” are the “least visible” trans group. The paper was deleted last night and a spokesman for the Scottish Government said it had been published by mistake.
The paper provided a direct link to a website providing explicit fictional descriptions of child eunuchs
‘This is a barbaric practice which, for centuries, was used to demean and abuse young men and boys’
EUNUCH should be recognised as a formal gender identity, according to documents published by the Scottish NHS.
The National Gender Identity Clinical Network for Scotland (NGICNS) shared the claims from the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) that “eunuch-identified people” are the “least visible” trans group and would benefit from “gender affirming medical care”.
The paper was deleted last night and the Scottish Government issued an apology, claiming it had been published by mistake.
The paper was uploaded to an official NHS website, as part of a consultation over proposed updates to its guidelines, which Scotland’s NHS says it currently follows. It defines a eunuch as “an individual assigned male at birth whose testicles have been surgically removed or rendered non-functional, and who identifies as a eunuch” and “individuals who feel that their true self is best expressed by the term eunuch”.
Eunuchs “generally desire to have their testicles surgically removed or rendered non-functional”, the document states. It adds that eunuchs should be offered “surgical intervention” if there is a risk that withholding treatment could lead to them attempting to carry out a medical procedure themselves.
The paper also provided a direct link to a website which includes graphic and sexually explicit fictional descriptions of child eunuchs. When signing up to the website, called the Eunuch Archive, users are asked to select their interests from a menu of options that includes “forced castration” and “smooth look”.
Susan Smith, of the For Women Scotland campaign group, said: “We are disgusted that NHS Scotland thinks that it is appropriate to align with any organisation pushing ‘eunuch identity’, let alone host a paper about it on their website. This is a barbaric practice which, for centuries, was used to demean and abuse young men and boys.”
Other organisations to endorse eunuch as a gender identity are the Royal College of Nursing, which cited it as an “alternative” alongside terms such as “boygirl”, “girlboy” or “gender queer”.
The controversy follows the emergence of the “Nullo”, movement among those who do not wish to identify as male or female. A 44-year-old man known as the “eunuch maker” was arrested in London in December, over claims he had carried out dozens of castrations in his north London basement flat.
David Parker, lead clinician at the NGICNS and a WPATH member, this week called on MSPS to back proposed SNP reforms which would make it far easier for trans people to change their legal sex to male or female. He told a Holyrood committee scrutinising the plans that trans and non-binary people were “the experts in their own experience” and should be “recognised as their authentic selves”.
Some trans rights activists have called for the legislation to be amended so that a wider range of gender identities can be formally recognised. However, opponents of the plans, which would allow people to change their legal sex simply by signing a declaration, fear that they will be exploited by male-bodied fetishists to gain access to women’s spaces.
A Scottish Government spokesman said: “This material was published in error. The documents have been removed and we apologise to anyone affected.” The NGICNS was approached for comment. Susan Buchanan, director of National Specialist Services Division Scotland, announced an investigation.