Comment
MAYA FORSTATER
Many forget what is at the heart of the gender issue… upset, distressed children
Teenage years are a turbulent time, when young people’s brains are developing rapidly
IN her independent review of gender identity services, Dr Hilary Cass describes in calm language the nightmare many families caught up in the craze of “transgender children” have been living through.
Her report delivers stinging criticism of their reckless treatment by NHS England and suggests that the Department for Education is right to tell schools to stop transitioning children.
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Children and their parents spoke to her about the role of online influencers and websites which describe “normal adolescent discomfort as a possible sign of being trans”.
As one parent told the review: “Her whole friends group has some sort of trans or non-binary identity . . . it has helped her with her social life.
“Her friends seem to be celebrating in trans identities.”
Under pressure
Dr Cass met children allowed to go to school in “stealth” as the opposite sex and then living in fear of being found out and of the physical changes that growing up would bring.
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She heard from children and young people desperate for drugs to stop puberty and parents who have fought to get their children on to this medical pathway, as well as others desperate to keep their children off it.
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When she looked for evidence that these treatments help children who are mentally distressed about their growing bodies, she found that there was none.
The reality, she says, is, “We have no good evidence on the long-term outcomes of interventions to manage gender-related distress”.
The review heard of families put under pressure to obtain private treatment by the false claim that they must choose between a “dead daughter or a live son”, and GPs put under pressure to convert these private prescriptions into NHS ones.
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It found no evidence that puberty blockers reduce suicide risk.
Dr Cass found that children trying to live as the opposite sex often suffered from stress and anxiety, and became socially isolated.
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Some ended up dropping out of school or spending their teenage years in their bedrooms.
It is all a far cry from the simplistic, celebratory narratives about social justice and “trans joy” with which many schools respond to a child who announces that they identify as transgender.
Dr Cass’s advice is not to overreact to a daughter who refuses to wear dresses or a son who wants to wear make-up.
These are normal variations in childhood behaviour.
Doctors, teachers and parents should not encourage young children who don’t fit in to gender stereotypes to believe that they are really the opposite sex.
Dr Cass found that children trying to live as the opposite sex often suffered from stress and anxiety and became socially isolated
Maya Forstater
When it comes to teenagers, Dr Cass’s advice will ring true for parents.
Teenage years are a turbulent time, when young people’s brains are developing rapidly.
Their desire for risk-taking, pleasure-seeking and strong emotions runs ahead of their capacity for decision-making, planning and forward-thinking.
Teenagers are sensitive to social rejection and vulnerable to addiction and mental health problems.
Social media encourages poor body image, poor sleep and depression.
Online pornography has become so common and extreme that children as young as 13 have become used to seeing violent and degrading sexual images on their phones.
In my opinion, in this context, the increase in young people presenting with gender issues is not something to be celebrated and encouraged.
Rather, it should be considered a sign of poor mental health and emotional distress.
Going through puberty is an inevitable part of growing up, and young people’s brains are not fully mature until their mid-20s.
Adults, be they parents, teachers or doctors, should be keeping these young people safe, not encouraging them to take irreversible medical steps to modify their healthy bodies or to imagine they can live as the opposite sex.
Lost sight of principles
Faced with emotional teenagers, suicide threats, polarised debate, social-media vilification and confused professionals, it has been all too easy to lose sight of what is at the heart of this issue: Vulnerable, distressed children.
The Cass Review should give parents and head teachers the confidence to say no to demands to transition these children — that is, to pretend that they are not the sex that as a matter of biological fact they are.
The Cass Review should give parents and head teachers the confidence to say no to demands to transition these children
Maya Forsater
As she carried out her review, Dr Cass said she returned repeatedly to the same questions, asking herself what would be normal practice for healthcare professionals dealing with any group of children and “whether there is any reasonable and rational reason” to treat this group of children differently.
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The answers point inescapably to a harsh conclusion: That many professionals lost sight of these principles, and that gender-distressed children and their families were failed by services that were supposed to support them.
- Sex Matters is a human rights charity which campaigns for clarity on sex in law, policy and language.
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