Labour’s puberty blocker ban doesn’t tell the full story
by Victoria Smith, UnHerd:
It certainly feels extreme, even to those of us who know it shouldn’t. Labour Health Minister Wes Streeting reportedly plans “to make trans puberty blocker ban permanent”. It’s a decision which, according to the commentator Owen Jones, “will devastate the lives of so many trans people”. The Good Law Project’s Jolyon Maughan goes further, claiming: “these measures will kill trans children.” Vulture Capitalism author Grace Blakely agreed: “Kids are going to die because of this.” Presumably, this is not the speedy end to the culture wars for which Keir Starmer was hoping.
Around 15 years ago, this would have looked very different. Let’s try to imagine it: in response to disturbing reports from whistleblowers, a report finds that vulnerable children — predominantly those who are autistic, have been in care, have experienced sexual abuse and/or would otherwise grow up to be gay — have been given experimental drugs which set them on a path to sterilisation and lifelong health problems. It would be a scandal. Any health minister willing to stop it would be a hero, while those who had facilitated it would be justifiably shamed. And yet here we are, in 2024, with Streeting the one accused of having “blood on his hands”.
It is hard to fathom the degree of misrepresentation and institutional capture that has led us to this point. Fathom it we must, however, if we are to undo all of the harm that has been done. While in the run-up to the election Starmer sought to appeal to both sides in “the trans debate”, suggesting that the only real problem was the “toxicity”, most of us could have told him it was never going to be that easy.