Last night I couldn’t sleep. Today I can hardly breathe. The weight on my chest and heart and spirit feels too much to bear. In the UK right now, as a trans person, as a parent of a trans little person: I do not feel safe I do not feel hope We do not feel safe We do not feel hope How do we protect those we care about from a society where there is so much hate. So much prejudice. So much injustice. So much indifference. How do we endure such overwhelming oppression? I’m trying to help my child stay afloat in the face of injustice and persecution. I’m trying to keep us afloat. But it is rough ..read more

The Cass Review final report is released tomorrow. I’ve seen the summary and it is as expected. After a 4 year process the Cass Review final report is a deeply depressing outcome. I have repeatedly, over many years, called for paediatricians to take a role in trans children’s healthcare. In other countries paediatrician-led care has helped shift trans children’s healthcare from harmful and pathologising conversive practices endorsed by those who treat transness as a mental health disorder, into modern, child-centred, trans-positive healthcare. In this, Dr Cass has failed. The Cass final report ..read more

This is a pre-publication version of an article on trans children’s experiences with GPs in the UK. Abstract Background: Increasing numbers of trans children and parents are engaging with primary healthcare providers. There is limited research on the primary healthcare needs and experiences of this group. Aim: This research aims to understand the primary healthcare experience of socially transitioned trans children and their families. Design and Setting: Qualitative research with supportive families with trans children from England, Scotland and Wales. Method: Interviews were conducted with 30 ..read more

In December 2023, the UK government released school’s guidance, proposing restrictions on social transition, including a complete ban on social transition at primary school. The guidance is non-statutory, meaning schools do not need to follow it. Indeed, leaked civil service legal advice revealed that even government lawyers recognise the guidance as likely to be illegal, and likely to fail when it will be challenged in court. Any school considering following this guidance needs to know that their actions will likely be found unlawful when challenged in court. Here I want to outline the reaso ..read more

Image from She-Ra and the Princess of Power (2018) by ND Stevenson Caring about trans kids in 2023 continues to be heart-breaking. Worry and far too many tears. Over the past 4 years, most ‘spare’ hours in my day (or more usually in the night) have been focused on my PhD: “Cis-supremacy: Experiences of trans children and families in the UK”. I chose to embark on a PhD in frustration at the bad science that informed policy and practice across the UK, frustration borne from failed attempts to advocate for trans children’s rights since 2015. I have now submitted my PhD (phew), having already publ ..read more

Susie Green has been at the helm of Mermaids for more than 7 years, taking Mermaids from a tiny unknown, unregistered cis parent support group (with varied levels of trans positivity) to a substantial, internationally recognised, multiple award winning, formalised charity, with many trans staff members, a multi-million pound budget, and high commitment to the rights and well-being of trans children. I have an enormous amount of respect for Susie and how she has fought for trans kids against pressures and challenges that would have broken many other people. Today it was announced that Susie is ..read more

NHS England has just released a consultation on a revised Service Specification for trans children and adolescent health care. The revised specification is dangerous, ideologically-driven, and will cause serious harm to trans kids in the UK. There are many many deficiencies and areas of outrage in the draft. It has been written with dangerous bad intent (I wonder who in NHS England wrote it). We will need collective action to fight for trans kids’ rights, so I’m putting my work-in-progress analysis here for others to build from. I have divided my feedback into 26 categories: 1. Inclusion of ou ..read more

In 2021 the NHS (NICE) reviewed the evidence for the use of puberty blockers within trans adolescent healthcare. They concluded that the evidence was of “very low certainty”, a finding that was then repeated across national media, with the headline “Evidence for puberty blockers use very low, says NICE”. This unsurprisingly prompted increased demands, including from politicians, for withdrawal of trans adolescent healthcare. Several people have written about the flaws in the NICE review, including this excellent article by AJ Eckert. I’ve examined parents of trans children’s concerns with the ..read more

Schools have a duty of care to trans pupils, with a requirement to provide LGBTQI+ inclusive PSHE. However, many schools still struggle to provide trans inclusive primary and early secondary school education on puberty and bodies, with schools often drawing upon outdated and exclusionary curricula. Research has shown that trans children can experience exclusionary curricula, especially on bodies and puberty, as upsetting, delegitimising and harmful. Schools providing trans exclusionary education are associated with high levels of minority stress for trans pupils, with minority stress leading ..read more

This morning people who care about trans kids were reacting in utter dismay to hearing the Secretary of State for Health use the Cass interim review to justify the need to exclude trans people from a ban on conversion therapy. I’ll link the lovely Olly Alexander linking to a clip of our Health Secretary using Cass to call for conversion therapy for trans kids – see here Despite evidence that conversion therapy on trans children is particularly harmful, with research showing “For transgender adults who recalled gender identity conversion efforts before age 10 years, exposure was significantly ..read more