Mick Hartley

Marcus Evans, who resigned as a governor of the Tavistock Clinic (GIDS) in 2019, at Spiked:

Too often the clinical work there has been informed by ideological beliefs about gender. Too often it has encouraged short-term solutions – for example, puberty blockers – to problems of psychological pain. This approach has long-term costs. It means that young people are consenting to medical pathways that have serious long-term implications.

In my experience, young people presenting with gender dysphoria – a sense that there’s a mismatch between their biological sex and their gender identity – usually have complex comorbid difficulties. They could, for example, also be on the autistic spectrum, suffer from anxiety disorders, have a history of trauma or of physical problems. It is dangerous to focus solely on gender-identity issues to the exclusion of other serious problems that an individual may also be struggling with.

Or, of course, they could be gay.

For too long, too many at the Tavistock have been resisting any questioning of their approach. This is hardly a surprise. Many of those at GIDS remain committed to a shared set of beliefs about gender and identity, which define how they see themselves in relation to the rest of the world. They believe themselves to be part of a progressive group with virtuous principles. And they are determined to hold on to these beliefs, even in the face of evidence that challenges them.

It's not as if the dangers of gender reassignment were unknown:

During the 1980s, I led a parasuicide service at King’s College Hospital, where I treated several individuals who had self-harmed or attempted suicide after gender-reassignment surgery.

These patients had a history of serious and enduring mental illness and personality disorders before developing late-onset gender dysphoria. They were often angry at losing their biological sexual functioning after gender-reassignment surgery. And they felt that psychiatric services had failed to adequately investigate their psychological difficulties and their motivations for pursuing reassignment surgery. A common theme in their presentations was that they had believed physical treatment would remove or resolve the causes of their psychic pain. So when it failed to do so, their disappointment escalated to self-harm and suicidal ideation, as they acted out their resentment and self-hatred in relation to their bodies.

People who transition often describe feeling suddenly disillusioned. This sometimes occurs when they realise that any would-be sexual partner would see that their genitals are surgically constructed rather than natural. At this point, they often feel extreme shame, fearing that they will be rejected or accused of being somehow fraudulent.

At the very least, this suggests we need to resist encouraging troubled young people to see gender reassignment as a solution to their often complex problems.

As gender ideology took hold a responsible medical approach was abandoned, by doctors convinced they were "part of a progressive group with virtuous principles".