Gender reveal

What the news brought in 2022

Photo by Christoph von Gellhorn on Unsplash

A quick, end-of-year note to say thank you for supporting Gender Clinic News, which will have its first birthday in February 2023.

I wonder what the new year will bring.

This year, there have been striking developments. We learned that the London-based Tavistock clinic would close. And the independent review led by English paediatrician Dr Hilary Cass brought a new level of scrutiny to the shortcomings and dangers of the “gender-affirming” treatment approach.

The Cass review has also illustrated the dilemmas and challenges of reform if ideological gender clinics are to be succeeded by mainstream healthcare for this troubled group of teenagers.

Dr Cass’s interim report has encouraged a much closer look at puberty blockers, their risks and uncertainties. It’s simply not credible for gender clinicians to persist in their claim that this interference in natural puberty is a no-regrets, reversible intervention.

The expert debate over puberty blockers has even broken out in American media, with big-hit reporting in The New York Times and by the Reuters news agency. In the United States, where medicalised gender change for minors is a major industry, the story of the shift to caution in Finland, Sweden and England is gradually, belatedly, being told by mainstream journalists.

As for me, I will return to reporting mid-January, barring some exceptional news event. Here in Australia, it’s summer holidays and New Year’s Eve is often celebrated at the beach.

I wish you all well for 2023.

Bernard Lane