FOR THE RECORD

The Pathways trial rests on the unexamined assumption that childhood “gender identity” is an innate, medicalisable entity. Child development science – from Piaget to Winnicott – demonstrates the opposite.

X posts from EBSWA member @prof_curiosity The rates of detransition - reversing a gender transition and returning to one's biological sex - are growing rapidly, particularly among young women who transitioned in their teens. Forums for detransitioners now number in the tens of thousands. The phenomenon is not surprising. Five foundational frameworks in developmental psychology effectively predicted it. Their common message: adolescence is characterised by social contagion, co

I have examined all the major (and most of the minor) child development theorists, in the writing of my handbook around child development and gender identity. And not one of these empirical theories supports the "transchild" construct. Indeed, all of them, individually, provide strong evidence against this construct. In addition, they explain why gender identity is attractive to vulnerable children, and why detransition is inevitable for most "transchildren."

Any topic that is off limits to questioning becomes a space in which aversion to naming risk can become a fertile ground for harm or exploitation. If there is fear in putting our skills into practice, all the more reason to ask - turning away is the worst thing to do.

The Cass Review also recommended a follow up to the 2000 children already prescribed puberty blockers through GIDS in England since 2014: There was no long-term follow up of the health outcomes for these children who will now be young adults. We still don’t have this data and my view is that it would be unethical to give these drugs to more children when we have limited information about the long term affects of their use.

Social transitioning, changing a child’s name, pronouns, and social role to reflect a cross sex identity, is often presented as a neutral or reversible act. Developmental evidence suggests otherwise.