Following the publication of a comprehensive review of gender identity services for minors in the U.K., Scotland’s sole provider of such services has announced a pause on prescriptions for puberty-suppressing hormones.
The “Cass Review” was released April 10 following a four-year exhaustive evaluation of the currently available evidence regarding transgender treatments, including puberty blockers. “This is an area of remarkably weak evidence,” the review says. “The reality is that we have no good evidence on the long-term outcomes of interventions to manage gender-related distress.”
Both England and Scotland have now paused puberty blockers for minors, partly in response to the Cass Review.
But not everyone is happy about the review’s conclusions. Dr. Hilary Cass, who led the study, told the London Times about the backlash:
“There are some pretty vile emails coming in at the moment,” she said, “most of which my team is protecting me from, so I’m not getting to see them. … What dismays me is just how childish the debate can become.”
Cass said that for security reasons, she is not taking public transportation at the moment. But, she said, “I’m much, much more upset and frustrated about all this disinformation than I am about the abuse. The thing that makes me seethe is the misinformation.”
After reading the Cass Review, famed author J.K. Rowling, who has been a vocal opponent of the transgender agenda, shared a series of strongly worded posts on X about those who have been pushing for transgender treatments of minors:
“Even if you don’t feel ashamed of cheerleading for what now looks like severe medical malpractice, even if you don’t want to accept that you might have been wrong, where’s your sense of self-preservation? The bandwagon you hopped on so gladly is hurtling towards a cliff. … Kids have been irreversibly harmed, and thousands are complicit, not just medics, but the celebrity mouthpieces, unquestioning media and cynical corporations.
“The consequences of this scandal will play out for decades. You cheered it on. You did all you could to impede and misrepresent research. You tried to bully people out of their jobs for opposing you. Young people have been experimented on, left infertile and in pain.”
Franklin Graham shared a post on Facebook in support of Rowling and Cass.
“What I appreciate about JK Rowling is that she’s willing to stand up for what she thinks is right,” Franklin wrote. “She’s in the news now for coming to the defense of well-known British pediatrician Dr. Hilary Cass, whose findings about gender transition didn’t agree with what the LGBTQ agenda wanted her to say. Dr. Cass’s study revealed that there was a lack of evidence to show any success of ‘gender treatment’ for children. When her findings were released, Dr. Cass was told it might not even be safe for her to travel on public transportation! She said, ‘If I don’t agree with somebody, then I’m called transphobic or a Terf [trans-exclusionary radical feminist].’ Thank you Dr. Cass and JK Rowling for standing up for the truth and for common sense! We need more people to do the same in our world today.”
Above: The Sandyford Central Gender Services Clinic, in Glasgow, has paused the prescribing of puberty blockers in light of the Cass Review.
Photo: Iain Masterton / Alamy Stock Photo