A question of ideology
By Yasmin Zenith, Artillery Row:
I wrote about the serious schisms within the Royal College of Psychiatrists (RCPsych) and its members over the fraught issue of gender dysphoria in January. Those divisions were explicit during recent elections. Dr Lenny Cornwall is a consultant adult psychiatrist with an impressive career history. He recently tweeted: “Someone said anyone who voted for me was a bigot (so that’s 1593 of us.) It would be nice if @rcpsych made a statement now to refute that.”
In March Dr Cornwall stood for election to the RCPsych Board of Trustees on a platform that made explicit his commitment to “provide evidence-based rather than ideological leadership”. He pledged to “seek to end RCPsych’s partnership with Stonewall”. His manifesto elicited accusations of bigotry on social media, the automatic activist response to anyone who deviates from the gender orthodoxy ascendant across apex institutions including the Royal College of Psychiatrists. The closely contested election highlights dissent from members who are increasingly concerned about the influence of Stonewall and the lack of open debate on gender dysphoria and its treatment. On 20 April 20, the results were announced. Dr Cornwall lost by 111 votes on a familiar split of 48 per cent to 52 per cent.
When I spoke to him, he was magnanimous and congratulated Dr Billy Boland on his win. Dr Cornwall’s manifesto had been scrutinised and approved according to College protocol, but RCPsych didn’t defend its legitimacy when he was being denounced as a bigot during the campaign. He explained: “Things work very nicely when a consensus is easily achieved, but if someone stands on a platform which dissents from the establishment position? The College isn’t prepared to defend your stance.” He is concerned this silence will have a chilling effect on future candidates. “It will be a deterrent. It’s obviously a divided position amongst members, but there needs to be a mechanism for encouraging debate and discussion.”
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