Mick Hartley

An interview with Tavistock worker Sue Evans in the Daily Mail:

When Sue Evans took up her post at the Tavistock Clinic in 2003, she was thrilled to be joining what she saw as a pioneering team in the new Gender Identity Development Service, or GIDS.

Back then, the Tavistock was a byword for excellence, known throughout the world for its specialised therapy for patients with a range of mental health issues.

At GIDS, those treatments would benefit young people with gender dysphoria who felt their gender identity did not match their body.

'The team was tiny,' Sue recalls. 'We met once a week in the GIDS office which used to be a little children's clothes shop away from the main building of the Tavistock.' There were between 70 to 90 referrals to GIDS per year, and the prescription of puberty-blocking drugs — only ever given to those aged 16 and over — was relatively uncommon.

Patients were mostly biological boys, many suffering from complex problems including autism and anxiety, or struggling with their sexuality — all territory that Sue, as a clinical nurse therapist, felt was vital to explore in full.

'If as an adolescent you believe your mind is in the wrong body that's a very serious and troubling idea to have about yourself,' she says. 'Each child is unique, but people who experience gender dysphoria often have complex psychological needs and I was looking forward to trying to help these troubled young people navigate their way forwards.

'It may be that young person in their adult life might live as transgender, but it's really important that he or she has an opportunity to think about that and to explore their motivations,' she adds. 'This is particularly the case if you are considering taking body altering drugs and potentially surgery.'

Unfortunately, as the world now knows, that is not what happened. Instead thousands of vulnerable young people became victims of what was, in effect, a vast medical experiment. It involved powerful drugs with potentially life-changing consequences despite a lack of data to support their use or safety long term, while some clinicians and therapists appeared to be in thrall to increasingly strident trans activist organisations that wielded undue influence over treatment protocols.

In her first major newspaper interview, Sue Evans details the 17-year battle that she and other whistleblowers courageously embarked on to bring what was going on at the Tavistock to national attention.,,,

Sue observed that treatment plans were seemingly being influenced by groups such as Mermaids, the transgender support charity, and Gires, a charity-turned-lobby group with the self-declared aim of increasing understanding of gender diversity.

'When I first heard reference to Mermaids at meetings I saw it as a benign thing,' Sue recalls. 'But then I started to notice phrases like 'we've been advised by Mermaids' or 'Mermaids has said'. And that raised red flags for me.'

As months passed, Sue noticed that the pace at which children were assessed and referred for hormone-blocking therapy was hastening, the environment increasingly focused on assisting transition while ignoring other possible underlying factors.

Worth reading in full.