As the Cass Review continues to send shockwaves through the political and medical establishment, trans activists are running a full-court press to regain control of the narrative. As I mentioned earlier this week, Canada’s state broadcaster has run a single article on the report — nothing has been published since — attempting to debunk the findings; the Guardian also published the complaints of a mother of a “17-year-old trans girl” — actually her teenage son — about the impact on “trans healthcare.”
There have been scandals exposing the true nature of “transgender medicine” before; indeed, for those of us who have been researching and writing on this topic for years, there was nothing particularly new or shocking in the Cass Review. What made the report remarkable was the fact that it was commissioned by the National Health Service, and the findings were taken so seriously that the NHS ended the prescription of puberty blockers.
Indeed, even Wes Streeting, the shadow health secretary for the Labour Party, has publicly stated that the Cass Review should be seen as a “watershed moment” and that the issue had been politicized for too long. The report, he said, is an opportunity to move past “some of the toxicity” to a “more thoughtful and considered” approach. He failed to specify who, exactly, was injecting the toxicity into the debate, but did admit that the Labour Party bore some responsibility for their stridency with regard to LGBT issues, concluding that there is “plenty of blame to go round.”
Additionally, medical experts are publicly concurring with the Cass Review’s conclusion that any open debate or discussion on “transgender health care” was suppressed by trans activists seeking to enforce a narrative while presenting it as expert consensus. Sallie Baxendale, a professor of clinical neuropsychology at the UCL’s Institute of Neurology, faced vicious backlash merely for publishing a review of studies investigating the impact of puberty blockers on brain development that found “critical questions” unanswered.
“I’ve been accused of being an anti-trans activist, and that now comes up on Google and is never going to go away,” Baxendale told the Guardian. “Imagine what it’s like if that is the first thing that comes up when people Google you? Anyone who publishes in this field has got to be prepared for that.” The Cass Review has enabled those who have been questioning the so-called “consensus” for years to push back – hard — against the suppression and censorship they have faced from trans activists and their allies for years.
Finally, Scotland’s Sandyford clinic in Glasgow, the only clinic in the country specializing in “transgender medicine,” announced that it will also be “pausing” the prescription of puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones in the wake of the Cass Review. According to the statement:
Referrals from the Sandyford sexual health services to paediatric endocrinology for the prescription of puberty suppressing hormones have been paused for any new patients assessed by our young person’s gender service. Patients aged 16 to 17 years old who have not been treated by paediatric endocrinology, but who are still seeking treatment for their gender incongruence, will no longer be prescribed gender-affirming hormone treatment until they are 18 years old.
Unfortunately, Sandyford is not stopping ongoing “treatments.” NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (NHSGGC) “paused” these treatments in mid-March; first minister Humza Yousaf stated that the Cass Review would be given “utmost consideration” by Scottish health boards. Dr. Emily Crighton of the NHSGGC also stated that there has been much “toxicity around public debate,” but again did not specify who, exactly, is responsible for it.
Predictably, LGBT Scotland and Scottish Trans are begging the clinic to reconsider, claiming that the decision would “directly harm” LGBT youth and claiming that “gender-affirming care” saves lives. That rhetoric has proven a tremendously powerful took for the better part of a decade. Now, this blackmail language appears to be losing its potency. It is always difficult to tell what the “tipping point” in any cultural shift might be, but I suspect the Cass Review will turn out to be one of them.