Hi there. I wanted to introduce myself to you. Some of you may have read in the media that there is a legal case that has been started to try and change the process at the Tavistock Clinic. I am Mum A, the parent of a 15 year old who was born female, but now identifies as male. Myself and Sue Evans (a psychotherapist who has worked at the Tavistock, and wife to Marcus Evans) are asking for a Judicial Review of the prescribing of puberty blockers to under 18s. We are asking GIDS to stop using puberty blockers on children in the light of the lack of evidence. We believe that under 18s cannot make an informed consent decision on this, and that asking parents to consent on their behalf is also unacceptable. By asking that only a court can decide if this is in the best interests of the child, we will hopefully stop ideologically captured clinicians deciding that this is the only pathway for our kids. That they will have to fully and thoroughly explore their identity development, their experiences of bullying, internalised homophobia, trauma and neurodiversity that has led them to believe they should be the opposite sex. My daughter is currently on the waiting list for GIDS, but I do not want them to be able to offer her blockers, but instead to make sure a broad, exploratory approach is pursued.
It has been portrayed in the media as a law suit - but I do not stand to financially gain from this. Although my circumstances are being used as the basis for the judicial review, I am doing this so that other parents can seek the help they need without concern that their children will be set on a medical pathway for life. I would like the puberty blockers taken 'off the table' as a treatment choice for my child, and others like her.
I am so pleased that this and other platforms are now being used to bring parents like us together. It can be an incredibly lonely time, full of self doubt, anxiety and conflict. But by supporting one another to challenge the current push for affirmation only care, we can make a real difference.
Those of us who have autistic children, we are often told we need to fight for them, fight for a diagnosis, that we know our children best. Even when our kids are ill, we are told to challenge doctors and healthcare practitioners when we know our children are ill, but all around us are saying we've got it wrong. But when our children declare a transgender identity, that we have seen no pre-adolescent evidence of, we are told that we are closed minded, bigoted, transphobic. That we can't possibly know our children as well as they know themselves. But we do. I know we do.
So keep fighting for who they are, not who the idealogues think they should be.