Trans ideology is far from defeated

It is great news that England’s gender-confused children will no longer be pushed on to puberty blockers. As Jo Bartosch wrote on spiked, last week’s declaration from NHS England that there is ‘not enough evidence to support the safety or clinical effectiveness’ of these drugs was long overdue. Sadly, the same guidance does not apply to children growing up in other parts of the UK. In Scotland and Wales, children struggling with their gender identity are still being encouraged down an irreversible path towards drugs and surgery.

In England, the closure of the Tavistock gender-identity clinic for children was announced back in 2022, following an interim review into gender services by paediatrician Dr Hilary Cass. Concerns had long been raised about the increasing numbers of girls being referred to the clinic. Whistleblowers warned that many of the children presenting with gender dysphoria may really have been suffering with autism or other mental-health problems. Some had histories of sexual abuse. Others were simply confused about their sexuality and would likely grow up to be gay. Critics asked whether powerful puberty-suppressing medication was really the best way to treat vulnerable children with complex problems.

Meanwhile, Scotland’s gender-identity clinic for children, the Sandyford, continues to dole out puberty blockers. This means that drugs deemed unsafe for English children are considered perfectly fine north of the border. Given that there are no biological differences between children born either side of Hadrian’s Wall, we can only conclude that Scottish health officials are more concerned about not upsetting transgender activists than they are about the physical health of the nation’s children.

The Sandyford is currently recruiting to fill a senior post. Its job advert proudly asserts that the clinic follows the latest World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) guidelines, which explicitly recommend puberty blockers and surgery for any child who claims to have been born in the wrong body. Recently, leaked correspondence suggests that even WPATH’s own members know that children are not able to consent to such life-altering treatments. Children have knowingly been put in harm’s way, it seems. Yet shockingly, even though the WPATH’s guidelines have now been discredited, the Sandyford has not been deterred from using them.

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Watch:  Why puberty blockers had to be banned, with Julia Hartley-Brewer, Tom Slater and Fraser Myers