School gender transition rules are ‘negligence sold as compassion, chaos masquerading as care’, argues psychologist Clare Rowe

Psychologist Clare Rowe says a state-sanctioned policy that lets teenagers switch their gender identity without parental consent or medical oversight is disgraceful and dangerous.

The Victorian government’s revelation that schools can enable children to socially transition their gender without parental consent, medical oversight or even documentation marks a new low in the politicisation of childhood. It is a policy that defies developmental science, clinical ethics and common sense.

According to departmental guidelines, if a parent disagrees with a child’s desire to change their name, pronouns or gender identity at school, teachers may invoke the concept of “mature minor” consent to affirm the student regardless.

There is no requirement for medical input, no paper trail and, astonishingly, teachers are told not to inform parents without the child’s permission. This is not compassionate inclusion. It is state-sanctioned secrecy.

This framework reflects the ideological capture of our education bureaucracy under the banner of “LGBTIQA+ inclusion.” Activist groups have embedded a worldview that treats parental concern as oppression and adolescent distress as an immutable identity rather than a symptom to be explored.

In clinical practice, however, we know that identity questioning in childhood is developmentally normal. Children test boundaries, roles and beliefs as part of forming a stable sense of self.

Most cases of gender-related distress in pre-teens resolve naturally by adolescence, with around 80 per cent of cases desisting according to long-established research before the current vogue of social transition. Yet Victoria’s policy demands instant affirmation, treating exploration as diagnosis.

The notion that changing a child’s name, pronouns and presentation leads to better psychological outcomes remains unproven, and international reviews, including the landmark Cass Review in the United Kingdom, have found that the evidence base for “affirming” pathways is remarkably weak.

What is known is that the practice can have profound psychological consequences, particularly when undertaken without clinical assessment or family involvement.

This is what many of us in the mental health field have been warning for years. Once a child is affirmed in a new identity, being called a different name, dressing differently and referred to with new pronouns, the process itself becomes self-reinforcing.

Psychologist Clare Rowe (right) says it's a disgrace that Victorian schools can enable children to socially transition their gender without parental consent, medical oversight or documentation.

What might have begun as a period of questioning quickly hardens into a fixed identity, making it far more difficult for the child to continue exploring who they are.

Social transition is not a neutral or reversible act. It powerfully shapes a child’s self-concept, their peer relationships and the expectations of the adults around them.

For many young people, it sets them on a path that later leads to medical interventions, even when the original distress might have resolved with time, therapy and family support.

A 2023 study by The Children’s Hospital at Westmead found that 88 per cent of young people with gender dysphoria presented with significant mental health concerns or comorbid diagnoses such as anxiety, depression and autism.

The Children's Hospital at Westmead in Sydney has found nearly 90 per cent of young people with gender dysphoria also presented with other complex mental health conditions. Picture: NewsWire / John Appleyard

These complex conditions often go unaddressed while the focus remains narrowly fixed on gender identity, prolonging distress rather than resolving it.

Teachers are not clinicians, yet under this framework they are being asked to make psychological determinations about maturity and consent with no training, no criteria and no documentation.

Victorian Education Minister Ben Carroll has admitted there is no formal process for declaring a student a “mature minor”, no oversight, no audit trail and no data. That is not compassionate governance. It is chaos masquerading as care.

Perhaps most troubling of all, this is yet another example of the state encroaching on parental authority. Parents are the first and most important decision-makers in a child’s life. They hold both the legal and moral responsibility to guide their children through complex developmental stages, including questions of identity.

Education Minister Ben Carroll’s approach to gender-transitioning students has come under criticism by Clare Rowe. Picture: NewsWire / Luis Enrique Ascui

By granting schools the power to override parents on something as fundamental as their child’s sense of self, the government is dismantling the very foundation of family autonomy. It sends a dangerous message that the state knows better than parents when it comes to raising their children.

Every clinician wants vulnerable young people to feel safe and supported at school. But affirmation without assessment is not support; it is negligence sold as compassion. We should be demanding evidence-based, clinically governed processes that involve parents, respect developmental science and prioritise long-term wellbeing over ideology.

Victoria’s “mature minor” loophole must be closed. Schools exist to educate, not to socially re-engineer children or reshape their identities. When a young person is in distress, they need time, stability and the support of their parents, not affirmation of confusion.

Until the government restores parental authority and clinical judgment to this process, it will remain a reckless social experiment that places ideology above evidence, secrecy above transparency and politics above children.

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Originally published as School gender transition rules are ‘negligence sold as compassion, chaos masquerading as care’, argues psychologist Clare Rowe