Des Houghton on the gender, puberty blockers debate in Queensland
What a sad and broken society we have created for our children when it comes to the gender debate, writes Des Houghton.
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What a sad and broken society we have created for our children when they are so troubled by their biological sex that doctors feel compelled to offer them puberty blockers and sex change drugs for their very survival.
Congratulations to Tim Nicholls for becoming the first health minister in the country to confront this vexing problem head on.
With careful language Nicholls this week ordered “the immediate pause of hormone therapy for public patients under the age of 18”.
Moreover, Nicholls launched an inquiry into the Miles government’s discredited review of the Queensland Children’s Hospital gender clinic. And he began a second inquiry into paediatric gender services in Cairns, where puberty blockers and “gender-affirming hormone therapies” were practised, he said, without the proper approvals.
However, tough questions remain for Nicholls and other Crisafulli government ministers.
We now know from authoritative studies in the UK, the US and in Europe that doctors who rushed to embrace transgender ideologies were on the wrong path.
A four-year study in England by Dr Hilary Cass found teenagers and prepubescent children have been directed towards life-changing drug treatment or surgery that most did not require, and – after a time –realised they did not want. In the past two decades a transgender “industry” sprung up around the globe with Brisbane becoming an international hot spot.
The controversy became a federal election issue this week when Sky News broke the story that 100 doctors and academics and former PM Tony Abbott had signed an open letter demanding a national moratorium on the gender-bending drugs while an inquiry is conducted.
“Medical interventions including puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgeries can cause irreversible harm, including physiological damage (bone density loss, infertility, sexual dysfunction), issues concerning brain development and social and relational difficulties,” the group told Anthony Albanese and state political leaders.
“While lifelong impacts are yet to be fully understood, regret is real, and a growing number of de-transitioners believe their gender distress masked other co-morbidities, including autism, untreated sexual trauma, and discomfort with their sexuality.”
The letter writers also quoted feminist Reem Alsalem, the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, who condemned the transgender movement and praised the Cass review for revealing the “devastating consequences that policies on gender treatments have had on human rights of children.”
One who signed the letter was Dr Jillian Spencer, a senior Queensland Health adolescent and child psychiatrist who raised valid concerns about the gender clinic, and who was suspended for doing so.
Dr Spencer has questioned the transgender medicine long before Hilary Cass said children were being rushed into medical interventions that were unnecessary and dangerous. Cass said distressed children must be seen as a “whole person and not just through the lens of their gender identity” and no longer hurried to medical intervention.
Dr Spencer was stood down and publicly humiliated for adopting an identical position.
Dr Spencer is now entangled in legal battles with Queensland Health in the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission after her public interest disclosures were rejected by Health.
Nicholls could come out of this very badly by not backing Spencer.
In her affidavit to the QIRC Spencer alleges Queensland Health chiefs did not regard infertility, lack of sexual function and long-term physical health consequences as serious enough complaints to warrant a Public Interest Disclosure (PID).
Really?
Dr Spencer also alleges Queensland Health provided obviously factually false information about the benefits of gender affirming care.
She is also going to the QIRC alleging she was discriminated against for her political belief that people cannot change sex. Spencer hopes any hearings will be live- streamed to allow greater public scrutiny. If this happened, I imagine Queensland would become a laughing stock.
To its shame the Queensland Children’s Hospital seemed to pretend the findings of the Cass report did not apply to its gender clinic. Spencer said on national television this week that “heads must roll”. I agree.
There was a chilling insight last week when Dr Andrew Amos, a fellow of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists called on Queensland Health to reinstate Spencer saying she was the target of a political campaign by gender activists.
“Activists are still putting on a lot of pressure to keep Jillian out of her job,” Amos told me.
Amos also described transgender studies in schools as “absolutely terrible” and likely to confuse vulnerable young people.
Education Minister John-Paul Langbroek should now stop teachers preaching dangerous trans ideologies. If not, he will be drawn into a gender bushfire. David Crisafulli should tell his team that woke is dead.
It was put down the day Donald J. Trump was sworn in as President of the United States
Attorney-General and Minister
for Integrity Deb Frecklington should also get involved. She and Nicholls should find a way to extricate
Spencer from her court battles and get her back to the children’s hospital where she belongs.
Deer control on prison’s menu
I am happy to report that the prisoners at Lotus Glen on the Atherton Tableland are again enjoying bananas after raids on their crop by feral deer.
A local farmer has come to the rescue, setting deer traps with big cages where the animals can be held humanely until they are relocated to a reserve.
“A camera on the trap shows when the deer have entered, and the trap can be remotely triggered to close the door and prevent escape,” said a spokesman for the Department of Corrective Services.
The farmer gets a message on his phone when the deer have entered the pen.
Lotus Glen Correctional Centre, 25km south of Mareeba, accommodates high- and low- security prisoners. Right now there are 124 low-risk prisoners working on the plantation that produces 100 tonnes of bananas each year. They also grow pumpkins, watermelons, corn and cabbages.
Laura Gerber, the Minister for Corrective Services, said prisoners learnt skills on the farm that made them more employable upon release.
“By participating in rehabilitation programs, prisoners are given the best chance to turn their lives away from crime,” she said.
The farm sounds like quite a place. It also has 400 head of cross-bred Droughtmaster and Red Brahman cattle.
On her next visit, Laura Gerber may sit down to a lunch of barramundi.
An aquaculture program is under way.
No one could tell me what happens to the deer. Perhaps one day the minister may be offered pan-seared venison with blueberries and shallots and red wine jus.
Originally published as Des Houghton on the gender, puberty blockers debate in Queensland
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