Time for politicians in Scotland to follow Streeting and speak out to protect kids
It takes a brave politician to admit they were wrong.
Wes Streeting, Labour’s Shadow Health Secretary at Westminster, probably knew he’d get pelters from both sides when he backed the Cass report into gender identity services for children and young people in NHS England.
He previously held to the fashionable line that any man can become a woman just by saying he is one. Applied to children, that meant any kid who believed they were the opposite sex was affirmed in that belief.
This is not how healthcare operates in any other area of medicine, where treatment is evidence-based.
Cass has recommended major changes, including screening these vulnerable children for other mental health conditions, treating these and banning the use of puberty blocking drugs.
Women abused for speaking up about these issues are vindicated by Cass. That includes a few politicians – the MP Rosie Duffield was ostracised by her colleagues, the SNP’s Joanna Cherry received death threats and former SNP minister Ash Reagan lost her job. Streeting was silent till now.
Meanwhile, trans rights activists within Labour, including some loud voices in the student, youth and LGBT wings, predictably attacked their health spokesman – who is gay.
Politicians have a vested interest in maintaining popularity – so Streeting should be congratulated for his bravery. Now we need to see whether politicians in Scotland – in the SNP and Labour – will show similar courage.
Cherry and Robin Harper, formally the convenor of the Scottish Greens, wrote last week to Scotland’s chief medical officer, Professor Sir Gregor Smith, asking that the Cass review’s recommendations be implemented here.
Cass commissioned the University of York to review all the published medical evidence for and against the use of puberty blocking drugs in children who are suffering from gender dysphoria. It found much of the research to be poor quality and concluded there was no evidence that the drugs benefited children or proof they did not cause harm. They are known to affect growth and bone development. Other research suggests they harm sexual organs and have psychological impacts.
The drugs certainly put children on a medical pathway that can result in sterilisation and loss of sexual function when they cannot give informed consent. They were pioneered in England by the children’s gender service at the Tavistock clinic in London. It was closed and puberty blockers were effectively banned in NHS England after Cass’s interim report vindicated the whistleblowers who said it was harming kids.
But Scotland’s gender service for children at Glasgow’s Sandyford Clinic continues to refer children to specialists who can prescribe these drugs. No record is kept of the exact numbers receiving them.
The Conservative MSP Murdo Fraser in 2020 asked then health secretary Jeane Freeman on what clinical basis children in Scotland were being prescribed puberty blockers? She replied by citing “clear guidelines” from the World Professional Association for Transgender Health.
This well-funded organisation is really a lobbying group of activists. Leaked documents from WPATH last month found doctors in the organisation prescribing sex-change treatment including surgery to children who are seriously disturbed. WPATH’s guidelines promote hormones and surgery for young children and the NHS in England no longer cites them.
However, the Sandyford Clinic in Glasgow last month stated that it adhered to WPATH guidelines in a job advertisement for a new clinical lead. It’s not often I find myself agreeing with Scottish Conservatives. They have called for an investigation into activities at the Sandyford and they are correct. If we cannot work across party lines to stop medical experiments on children, all hope is lost.