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."

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.

Jane Fenton Professor of Social Work at the University of Dundee presented on two key areas of her research. Firstly, with 400 Gen Z female students at the University of Dundee. This research uncovered shockingly low levels of well-being and a very negative and oppressed mindset within this sample of young women:

"in too many cases, the systems meant to safeguard them have been infiltrated by individuals and organisations projecting their own ideological views about gender and identity onto children, without adequate checks, evidence-based guidance, or the presence of strong and independent safeguarding voices."