Trans Activists Get NHS Gender Conference Cancelled

News

Transgender activists have successfully pressed for the cancellation of an NHS child psychiatrists’ conference on gender dysphoria after accusing many of the speakers of “extremism” for arguing that biological sex cannot be changed.

The event, organised by Great Ormond Street Hospital and the North East London NHS Foundation Trust, was due to be attended by a hundred trainee child psychiatrists.

But activists due to speak, including Chief Executive of transgender charity Mermaids Susie Green, pulled out saying they couldn’t be part of a conference that included speakers who disagreed with them. Some NHS staff used the health service’s official whistleblowing service to claim the speakers made the event “unsafe” for trans people.

The conference was to come at a critical moment for the NHS, reeling from a scathing report earlier this month by Dr Hilary Cass into the Gender Identity Development Service at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust. Dr Cass concluded the clinic was “not a safe or viable long-term option” for children and a “fundamentally different service model is needed”.

Health Education England, the NHS training body, has said it is rescheduling the conference, adding: “We will ensure the rescheduled training meets the needs of all those concerned, including the curriculum for trainees, and the requirements for patient, carer and public involvement.”

The NHS is belatedly recognising that it needs to get on top of problems with its treatment of children with gender dysphoria, and this conference was part of that. If transgender activists resort to smearing those who disagree with them, that hardly betokens confidence in their position. In fact, it illustrates exactly the kind of intolerant behaviour that has allowed serious problems in the NHS service to go unaddressed.