Wes Streeting sticks to his guns. From the Telegraph:
Wes Streeting has said banning puberty blockers has been “uncomfortable” but was “ultimately right”.
The Health Secretary made the comments at an NHS LGBT conference where he faced questions from trans activists about the impact of the ban, which he made indefinite last year.
He told attendees that it had been “truly uncomfortable” and that hearing from young people who had been affected had “not sat easily with me at all” as he defended the decision.
It is now illegal to supply puberty blockers to gender-questioning children in the UK outside of an NHS trial that is yet to start, following recommendations made by the Cass Review which found the use of such drugs in children was based on “weak evidence”…
“It has not sat easily with me at all, that there are young people who describe to me how they feel about not being able to access puberty blockers,” he said. “But I have to make sure that I defend the clinical evidence base and that I do the thing that I think is ultimately right, even if it’s truly uncomfortable for me in the meantime”.
He'd like to be nice to all these deluded young people who believe they've been born in the wrong body, but the clinical evidence points the other way. Puberty blockers are damaging, not reversible, and almost inevitably lead to cross-sex hormones and then to surgical mutilation of a healthy young person's body. So no…
He also said he was “frustrated” that the upcoming clinical trial into puberty blockers had “taken longer than I would have hoped” because of the ethical governance required.
A clinical trial that should never happen.
But yes, he stood firm in front of a hostile audience. That's no small matter.
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