Trans project ‘out of balance’

Trans issues have been embraced as a progressive cause without adequate scrutiny: expert.

Professor Blanchard said a rational transgender debate focused on the evidence would only open up with “a sea-change in public attitude.” iStock

 

EDITORIAL: We will not shy away from uncomfortable topics that deserve attention. This is particularly so when the health and wellbeing of vulnerable children are at stake.

An international expert on sex and gender has called on journalists to bring critical scrutiny to bear on the transgender project, from controversial hormone treatment of children to the rewriting of official birth certificates.

Ray Blanchard, professor of psychiatry at the University of Toronto, said an unbalanced “affirmation model” encouraging medical transition for children and teenagers with hormone treatment and sometimes surgery had a stranglehold in gender clinics across the English-speaking world.

Yet Professor Blanchard, who was head of a leading sexology service in Canada from 1995 to 2010, said the evidence suggested many children diagnosed with “gender dysphoria” — a discomfort with their biological sex — would self-correct if allowed to mature without risky medical intervention.

The transgender project has been widely embraced as the next progressive cause after same-sex marriage, with activists denouncing sceptics as hateful transphobes. However, informed criticism of the affirmation model is on the rise, and there is an emerging group of young trans people who have deciding it was all a mistake and are “detransitioning.”

Professor Blanchard said a rational transgender debate focused on the evidence would only open up with “a sea-change in public attitude, and this necessarily involves the media.”

“The media have been incredibly uncritical in all matters trans, from treatment approaches for gender-dysphoric children to legislation permitting adults’ legal change of sex on the basis of declared feelings alone,” he told The Australian.

“I would certainly not like to see the pendulum swing all the way back to the opposite extreme.

“I am in favour of transition and sex reassignment surgery for properly screened adults whose gender dysphoria has proven intractable to other forms of treatment.

“What I’m saying is that I don’t think there can be any return to a reasonable approach to the treatment of gender-dysphoric children or adults without better coverage of the issues by the media.”

The Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne, which follows the affirmation model, has released new national standards for treating young people with gender dysphoria; these have been described as the “most progressive” in the world.

“With increasing visibility and social acceptance of gender diversity in Australia, more children and adolescents are presenting to community and specialist healthcare services requesting support, advice and gender affirming psychological and medical treatment,” the standards say.

“A large population-based study undertaken in New Zealand in 2012 estimated that approximately 1.2% of adolescents identify as transgender and it is therefore likely that referrals to healthcare professionals will continue to rise in the foreseeable future.

“It is well recognised that trans and gender diverse individuals are at increased risk of harm because of discrimination, social exclusion, bullying, physical assault and even homicide.”

“Increasing evidence demonstrates that with supportive, gender affirming care during childhood and adolescence, harms can be ameliorated and mental health and wellbeing outcomes can be significantly improved.”

More exclusive coverage of the transgender debate in The Weekend Australian tomorrow