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Transgender backlash as desperate parents accuse overzealous therapists of ‘blindly accepting’ children’s claims to have been born in wrong body
CHILDREN as young as 13 are being railroaded into changing gender by overzealous NHS therapists who parents fear are misdiagnosing their young patients.
Concerned parents have spoken of their worry that clinic staff are ‘blindly accepting’ children’s claims that they were born the wrong sex and are failing to treat serious mental health conditions.
A campaign group, Transgender Trend, is now receiving pleas for help from ‘desperate’ parents every week.
One mother was stunned when a 15-year-old girl was referred to a specialist transgender clinic after a consultation of just 40 minutes. The outcry comes as:
• Doctors fear being sued after the NHS signed a ‘memorandum of understanding’ banning staff from challenging patients who believe they are born the wrong sex;
• Teenage YouTube stars who enthuse about changing sex are making being transgender ‘cool’, according to parents;
• Children being referred for transgender treatment on the NHS have surged to record numbers – there are now 50 a week.
While children are coming for- ward in ever-increasing numbers to say that they believe they were born the wrong sex, there are fears that therapists are ignoring the possibility of other conditions.
Hundreds of alarming stories have been posted over the past two months on an online forum set up by a father who says his teenage daughter is making a mistake in seeking to change gender. The father, who asked to remain anonymous, said: ‘The universal experience [of the parents] is that whether the child has been diagnosed with autism, depression or ADHD, the therapists are completely discounting any other symptoms.’
Stephanie Arai-Davies, who runs Transgender Trend, said: ‘I would estimate that we’ve been contacted by more than 100 parents over the past two years. What parents are saying is they’re deeply worried that NHS counsellors and therapists are immediately suggesting an appointment with a gender identity clinic.’
Ms Arai-Davies said the majority of the enquiries she receives from parents asking for help were about their daughters. Recent figures from the Tavistock Clinic, Britain’s only NHS gender identity service for under-18s, show that their referral rates have rocketed from just 97 in 2009 to more than 2,000 in 201617, with 1,400 last year from girls.
Ms Arai-Davies said parents were angry at the way NHS mental health services were presenting them with