Wes Streeting’s ban on puberty blockers will force trans kids to go to France for treatment

Labour is letting trans kids down – but the Conservatives weren’t their friends either, says Robin Moira White. Desperate families will have little choice but to go elsewhere

Trans people in the UK face a pragmatic choice: to co-operate with what is regarded as a hostile Labour administration for the good that can be achieved for trans people or to protest what is regarded as the latest insult.

Yesterday, the health secretary, Wes Streeting, confirmed as permanent the ban on the use of puberty blockers for trans youth that his Conservative predecessor, Victoria Atkins, had rushed into place in the dying hours of the previous administration.

His argument is that there is insufficient evidence on the safety and efficacy of such treatments to justify their use.

This position has been almost universally condemned by organisations representing trans people, including Labour’s own pride organisation.

Remarkably, in the consultation required before a ban could be imposed, 59 per cent of the 51 organisations that responded opposed a permanent order and only 27 per cent supported it.

And yet the ban went ahead.

Trans people point to the flawed methodology of the Cass Review; the statement by Conservative party leader Kemi Badenoch that she had placed gender critical people in positions of influence; and the lack of acceptance of the Cass conclusions that the evidence is weak internationally.

For example, only in the past week, France has produced its first national guidelines on trans care, including the use of puberty blockers.

Ultimately, evidence may not have been gathered, but the evidence of harm is thin at best.

What is the alternative for a trans young person who does not want to go through the “wrong” puberty and then gender-affirming surgeries in adult life which could be avoided?

Gender-critical voices say that the use of puberty blockers appears to put trans youth on an inevitable path towards cross-sex hormones and surgery when old enough.

The difficulty of entering the trans care pathway in the UK, where waiting lists are measured in years, means that those who fight their way through are those committed to transition.

And what of the study promised by the health secretary to gather the vital evidence?

It is promised to start in early 2025, but there is yet no sign of the methodology or protocols.

It is already mired in controversy, with the Council of Europe stating that it would be unethical to restrict blockers to those who agree to be part of the study.

There are a number of practical difficulties, not least the inability to run the study as a double blind.

Trans young people given a placebo would soon realise that they were not on blockers and would seem likely to terminate their involvement at that point.

The distress that trans young people experience by going through what they regard as the “wrong” puberty can be extreme. Personally, I cried myself to sleep night after night because of the cruel trick nature had played on me.

It is inevitable that families who are able to will seek out legal means of side-stepping the ban - for example, by regular trips to countries like France, where blockers can be obtained and administered lawfully.

What should Labour have done?

Well, the political imperative was not to allow the trans issue to be a “wedge” issue and so the flawed Cass Review was accepted with remarkable alacrity by Labour in opposition.

They barely appeared to have had time to read the nearly 400 pages.

Labour maintained that position through the election and have clung on to it since.

It would have been easy as a new administration to announce a review of criticisms of the review.

We are shortly to learn the outcome of a careful consideration of Cass by the British Medical Association. That will be interesting.

All of which creates a dilemma for trans-supportive organisations and individuals: should they turn their backs on Labour in protest?

Labour have two manifesto commitments still to implement which directly bear on trans people:

The first is the conversion therapy ban, where conservative voices are attempting to split off “trans” from the other groups to be protected by the ban.

The second is, when Labour abandoned self-identification of gender as a policy, the commitment to further simplify the acceptance process under the Gender Recognition Act.

A third reason for remaining engaged may be not allowing the puberty blockers study to be derailed or rendered useless as some unsupportive groups would want.

Ultimately, politics is the art of the possible.

Trans people are used to being marginalised; to being at the end of the queue for heathcare; to being used as a political “football”; and to being discriminated against at work. Personally, I lost a beloved career because British Railways in the 1990s could not countenance a trans senior manager.

A certainty is that Badenoch’s Conservatives or Farage’s Reform are no friends of trans people.

It seems likely that trans people, their allies and supporters will hold their noses and work with Labour for what advances can be achieved, and hope for better times.

After all, is that not the Christmas / New Year spirit?

Robin Moira White is the first barrister to transition in practice at the discrimination bar