Please feel free to borrow and adapt this if you have a Labour MP.
Dear Angela
I’m very concerned that the Health Secretary is introducing a permanent ban on puberty blockers. Its stated purpose is to safeguard young trans people, but young trans people and their allies are deeply alarmed and completely opposed to the ban, which they say is only making a difficult situation worse, and will cause harm.
The Cass Report
The credibility of the Cass Report is in question.
Anyone with experience of working in trans healthcare was specifically excluded from the Cass Advisory Group. This in itself is concerning: expertise is not bias. The methodology and findings of the Report have been widely criticised, for example in this White Paper drafted by a panel of scientists – https://law.yale.edu/sites/default/files/documents/cass-response-7.11.24.pdf.
Responding to the Cass Report
Dr Cass recognises that the young trans population includes many people with genuine healthcare needs who deserve access to the best possible treatment. Her recommendation is for a research programme.
The emergency banning order introduced by the Health Secretary Victoria Atkins has been challenged in court. The KC for the claimants argued that “The evidence shows that the impetus and only disclosed rationale for the making of the order was the personal view of [Atkins] that the Cass report required immediate action. Officials were then tasked with working up arguments in favour of a banning order to fit that personal view. No clinical or other scientific advice was taken on whether the statutory criteria were, or were capable of being, satisfied. This was a wholly insufficient basis for invocation of the emergency process.”
It’s highly concerning therefore that the new Health Secretary is seeking to extend the banning order at this time. Please can you ask him
- Why has he pre-empted the court decision ?
- Why has there been no assessment of the risks that withdrawal of healthcare will create ?
- What provision has been made to ensure continuity of treatment for those who are currently receiving healthcare ?
- Where is the research project that Cass recommended ? And what plans has he made for implementation of the Cass report ?
Politicisation of trans healthcare
The Health Secretary says that he’s interested in following the evidence. The wider picture though is that provision of healthcare to trans youth has become a big and controversial political issue, and it’s clear that the Health Secretary has been heavily lobbied by anti-trans campaign groups.
Very few campaigners against puberty blockers have any relevant expertise. Most of them share an opinion that trans children don’t exist. For them, banning puberty blockers is an end in itself, a step toward the ultimate goal of suppressing gender transitioning altogether among under-18s.
The Health Secretary says that his motivation is to “improve the quality of, and access to, care for trans people.” In light of this, please can you ask him
- To publicly acknowledge that trans children exist, should be listened to, and where appropriate supported in their gender transitions.
- To accept that denial of healthcare can result in severe mental distress and in some cases, risk of suicide.
- To accept the evidence that the vast majority of trans youth who access gender affirming healthcare continue to identify as trans in their adult lives.
- To collect and publish statistics on the regret rate for those who’ve taken puberty blockers.
Please can you also make the point that this ban sets a dangerous precedent. Decisions about the appropriateness of particular forms of treatment should be left to medical bodies, and politicians should have no hand in this. For example, decisions to start using Covid vaccines in the UK were made by the MHRA. If those decisions had been solely made by Matt Hancock, the credibility of the vaccines would have been irretrievably damaged.
Internationally recognised Standards of Care for trans people have been published by WPATH since 1979, and are continually being reviewed and updated.
Puberty blockers have been prescribed to young trans people for decades. No compelling evidence exists of any risk of serious harm (certainly no evidence of this was produced at the court hearing). Trans healthcare professionals aren’t advocating for access to puberty blockers to be removed.
Impact on the Labour Party
The 1997-2010 Labour Governments did much to strengthen trust and relations with the LGBT+ community.
Labour promised in its 2024 election manifesto to “remove indignities for trans people who deserve recognition & acceptance.” The puberty blockers ban is widely seen as a betrayal of this promise.
To rebuild the Party’s credibility, it’s essential that the Labour government engages with the LGBT+ community and reverses its decision to ban puberty blockers.
It would be really helpful if you could let it be publicly known that you oppose a ban, as well as making representations to the Health Secretary.
Yours sincerely
[Name and address supplied]
Optimism of the Will 