Takedown
A scholarly dissection of the trans suicide story has been vetoed by Australia's Nursing and Midwifery Federation
Unpublish
Australia’s nursing federation, the country’s largest trade union, has issued two apologies and taken down a journal article that questioned the alarmist “transition or suicide” narrative relied on by activists.
The article—titled “What are the facts regarding trans youth and suicide? Taking a second look at the trans youth suicide narrative”—was written by mental health nurse Jason Watson and published in the current edition of the journal of the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation (ANMF).
The 1,400-word article cites England’s Cass Review, relevant Dutch and Finnish studies, as well as research by UK suicide prevention expert Professor Louis Appleby, who debunked activist claims of a “surge” in youth suicide after 2020 when access to puberty blockers at the London-based Tavistock gender clinic was restricted.1
The tone of Mr Watson’s article is scholarly, and he analyses the methodology of various studies, including one that reports a decrease in suicide risk over time for some patients.2
However, his article suggests that the balance of the research does not support the “trans kid or dead kid?” choice put to some parents hesitating about puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones for their child.
“I think it is safe to state that the pro-trans suicide narrative is at least tenuous and at most simply incorrect,” Mr Watson writes.
“This seems to fit with the Cass Review’s narrative that the significant majority of current transgender research is of a disappointingly poor quality and is ideologically rather than scientifically based.”
The article was swiftly taken down from the ANMF journal’s online edition, which now jumps from page 39 to page 42 without explanation that a two-page article has been excised from the Focus section on mental health. The Watson article remains, however, in the print edition posted out to members of the nursing union.
“From news to interviews and research updates, the [Australian Nursing and Midwifery Journal’s] e-newsletter has it all. Don’t miss out!”—advertisement in the journal which disappeared the Watson paper
Sorry, again
On July 3, the ANMF Victorian branch published an online apology, followed a week later by another apology, this time from the federal office of the union, which promotes itself as the “collective voice of more than 356,000 nurses, midwives and care workers”.
Neither apology discusses or analyses the content of the Watson article, apart from a reference to its title and subject matter—“gender-affirming healthcare and outcomes of suicide in the transgender community”.
The Victorian apology, signed by acting secretary Nicole Allan, says the branch was alerted to the article by its “LGBTQIA+ reference group”.
“Negativity and hatred have no place in our movement,” says the apology, which also implies that the article is in some way discriminatory and creates an “unsafe environment for those seeking support”.
The unsigned federal apology invokes a duty to exclude “damaging and harmful opinions” from the journal.
“The ANMF acknowledges that publication of this opinion piece has caused immediate and significant distress to the transgender community, the LGBTQIA+ community, and the wider community. We sincerely regret the harm this has caused and deeply apologise for this.”
The apologies do not cite any material from the article in support of their claims. It was not explained how discussion of the evidence base could be harmful.
“No one can critique them on their apology or their position because they don’t really provide any information to be critiqued,” Mr Watson told GCN.
“One of [my supportive bosses] said, along the lines of, ‘They don’t even know who you are, and this [apology] makes you look like somebody who you’re not’.”
Mr Watson said nobody from the ANMF or its journal had taken the trouble to tell him his article had been suppressed.
“I think it’s a shame because [trans and suicidality is] a topic that needs discussion, and I would quite happily have a discussion with someone who totally disagrees and thinks [my article is] a bunch of rot,” he said.
“It’s really unhelpful for the profession as a whole, because the message is that there’s nothing [in trans healthcare] that needs to change here. You can’t put any other part of healthcare in that category of ‘don’t discuss it’.”
As a mental health nurse, Mr Watson said he has to help steer children and adolescents through crisis towards treatments for conditions such as severe depression or anxiety.
For those treatments, he said, “there’s generally a very sound research base, and it’s nice and concrete and easy to follow”.
“And this [gender distress] seems to be the only ‘mental health’ condition where the data base is shaky at the very least, and perhaps even made up at the very worst.”
He said there was a sensible guide to handling the risks of suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts in young people—unless they were trans-identifying, where the pathway was poorly evidenced transition.
What follows is from Professor Appleby’s July 2024 independent report on social media claims of a “surge” in suicides after puberty blockers were restricted.
“The way that this issue has been discussed on social media has been insensitive, distressing and dangerous, and goes against guidance on safe reporting of suicide.
“Guidelines for the responsible reporting of suicide in the media are intended to reduce the following risks:
alarming stories about suicide causing distress to people who are themselves at risk
identification—when someone sees in themselves a connection with a person who has died by suicide; leading to:
imitation and suicide clusters in people with similar characteristics
“As a result, the media—and users of social media—are asked to:
ensure that any claims about suicide are evidence-based and from a reliable source
avoid alarming and dramatic language
avoid the impression that suicide is the expected or likely outcome in certain situations
avoid oversimplifying suicide by attributing it to a single cause which could be the basis of identification”
Self-fulfilling prophecy
The Watson paper itself highlights the risk that “exposure to media messages suggesting [trans youth] would or should experience suicidal thoughts or behaviours [contributes] to them developing such thoughts or behaviours.”
The research cited in Mr Watson’s journal article includes the studies below. The quoted summaries are his. Links go to the published studies.
Dhejne 2011: “The most at-risk stage for these trans clients was post transgendered surgeries where the completed suicide rate was 19 times higher than non-trans peers.”
Wiepjes 2020: “[O]ver the period of the study there had been eight transgendered men (TGM) complete suicide and 41 transgendered women (TGW). The study suggested that the frequency of suicide for TGM was constant over time—meaning that the rate of suicide did not improve once transgendered healthcare began and was completed. [The study] also stated that the rate of suicide for TGW did decrease over time, and that it decreased once transgendered healthcare began and was completed.”
de Blok 2021: “[The TGW] client group, post receiving transgendered healthcare demonstrated significantly higher rates of mortality by heart disease, lung cancer, HIV-related death and by completed suicide compared to expected mortality rates in the general Dutch population.”
Erlangsen 2023: “[This] study of 3,759 trans clients over 41 years found there were 92 post-treatment TGW suicide attempts and 12 completed suicides. These rates for suicide attempts and completed suicide were described as ‘significantly higher’ compared to the expected rates of the general population.”
Ruuska 2024: “This was the only study with a control group of cis young adults of similar age, stage and from similar location [to the trans group]. The study found there were 55 deaths in the [trans] study group over this 23-year span. Of those deaths, 20 were by completed suicide (36 per cent). This indicated that compared to the [non-trans] control group, general mortality was 66 per cent higher [in the trans group] and death by suicide was 300 per cent higher.”
GCN put he following questions to the nursing union—
The apologies claim that the article involves “damaging and harmful opinions”, “distress” to the trans community, “harm”, “discrimination”, and “hatred”. Please cite the sections of the Watson article supporting those claims.
The apologies do not discuss, analyse or critique the contents of the Watson article—why not?
Did the union seek legal advice before pronouncing Mr Watson guilty of “damaging and harmful opinions”, causing “distress” and “harm” to the trans community, engaging in “discrimination” and expressing “hatred”?
Did anyone from the ANMF or its journal tell Mr Watson that his article had been taken down and give him reasons?
There was no reply from the Victorian branch or the federal office of the ANMF.
In his 2024 report, Professor Appleby said: “The evidence on suicide risk in children and young people with gender dysphoria is generally poor. Most studies are methodologically weak, being based on online surveys and self-selected samples and coming from biased sources.
“However, there are good reasons to believe that their risk is high compared to other young people. They have often experienced prejudice and intimidation, isolation and family conflict. They may have mental health conditions such as depression and anxiety. There are high rates of autism. These are known risk factors—suicide in any group is usually the result of multiple risks acting in combination.
“It therefore seems reasonable to assume that services offering non-judgemental support may contribute to lower risk. However, the evidence for ‘gender-affirming care’ in the form of puberty-blocking drugs is unreliable. In contrast, a robust study from Finland published earlier this year (Ruuska 2024) reported that suicide risk was reduced after gender reassignment but that the improvement was explained by the treatment of co-existing mental ill-health.”
My congratulations to Jason Watson for the courage to carry out his research and submit it for publication. The journal’s retraction of the article without clear explanation is evidence of a lack of courage in his professional colleagues. A similar change of heart within the general practitioner profession occurred recently in Australia when they withdrew an invitation to Prof Kaltiala in Finland to speak in a GP education webinar about her opposition to the dominant model in Australia of ‘gender affirmation.’
Fortunately, the National Association of Practising Psychiatrists had the courage to step in to give her a platform to present her ideas.
It is quite clear that a highly organised lobby group of gender identity ideologues are suppressing the expression of alternative professional views to the dominant Melbourne model of medical interventions that affirm the unreasonable view that adolescent conviction of being ‘born in the wrong body’ should be supported and that their emotional distress must be assuaged by modifying their body in irreversible ways that lead them into lifetime medical dependence rather than psychotherapeutic treatment of their fears and anxieties about their developing sexed body,
Ethical medicine is being suppressed, ethical health professionals are being hounded and their professional integrity and reputation being undermined by a cabal of self-interested advocates who refuse to engage in reasoned debate. We know this is because they do not have the evidence to support their confused and confusing ideas.
As a lesbian feminist, I am outraged that a small cabal of well funded LGB groups have been captured by TQ interests and have diverted the generous public funding they have received for support of lesbians and gay men into the pursuit of dangerous and permanently damaging medical interventions. Those health professionals who jumped onto this bandwagon are to be deplored and must get off their gravy train if they want to regain and retain public respect and avoid litigation for the part they have played in iatrogenic ‘gender medicine’.