Robert Clarke is the Director of Advocacy for ADF International.
Rishi Sunak voiced strong concerns yesterday about concerns of a conveyer-belt system of transitioning confused and vulnerable young people. He said that social transition – like allowing children to use different pronouns or change their name – could have psychological repercussions and is categorically “not a neutral act”.
Unfortunately, years of public cowardice by our leaders has contributed to a situation where the medical conversion of our children has been practised by doctors with very limited scrutiny. Those who should have spoken out have for too long felt cowed. But now the mounting evidence of the harms of ‘transition’ practices is conquering ideology. The Cass Report, published this morning, should herald the beginning of the end of giving life-changing drugs and surgeries to teens.
Hilary Cass, a pediatrician, was commissioned in 2020 to examine the state of NHS services for children identifying as trans. Four years later, her review has uncovered what we have known for some time. Summarising her findings in the British Medical Journal, she has concluded that NHS “gender treatment” has been “built on shaky foundations”. The report stresses the wide social and mental health problems which accompany the rise in demand for “gender therapy”, and questions the astonishing lack of “caution” in delivering treatments such as puberty blockers based on “weak” evidence.
Indeed, Cass reveals that the claim that puberty blockers merely allow children “time to think” by delaying the onset of puberty is completely unfounded. On the contrary, the vast majority of those receiving puberty blockers continued on a journey to cross-sex hormones. The review notes that brain maturation may also be “temporarily or permanently disrupted” by exposure to the puberty blockers and their impact on mental health has not been fully explored. Moreover, some female patients were found to have worsening depression or anxiety.
Unsurprisingly, Cass further highlighted the mental health crises impacting Gen Z and Gen Alpha. Embattled by social media addictions, exposure to pornography, and concerned about body image issues on a greater scale than ever before seen, is it any wonder that the phenomenon of girls confused about their gender has increased exponentially across British schools?
In 2009, the NHS’s Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) treated 15 adolescent girls. By 2016 that figure increased to 1,071. An audit of discharge notes of GIDS patients between 1 April 2018 and 31 December 2022 showed the youngest patient was 3, the oldest 18, and 73 per cent were girls. By placing them on a conveyer belt likely to lead to such treatments and surgeries as young adult mastectomies, professionals, perhaps hampered by ideology, have let down young people, ignoring the root causes of distress.
The information presented in the Cass report is horrifying, but not surprising. It’s high time governments everywhere took heed of the overwhelming evidence and acted to protect children and young people from dangerous gender experimentation. Children cannot consent to life-altering procedures without the full knowledge of the consequences involved. We are letting this generation down by failing to help and support them in a holistic way to accept their bodies and feel comfortable and confident as themselves.
Children who experience discomfort with their biological sex deserve to be treated with dignity and respect and need compassionate, effective mental health care. Sadly, at the hands of health authorities, they have been pushed in only one direction.
There is a mounting and tragic cost to this, revealed by the many stories of those ‘de-transitioning’ or who otherwise regret what was done to them. Ultimately, vulnerable children and adults who deserved better were led to irreversible interventions; those who spoke out were censored. The Conservatives must remain firm this time, and form a resilient defence against attempts to damage our children in the future.
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Author: Robert Clarke
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