Wales is becoming a safe haven for trans extremists

For years, parents, teachers, clinicians, women’s-rights groups and others across the UK challenged, quite reasonably, the assumptions behind diagnoses of “gender dysphoria” in the young – and the evidence base for the treatment being prescribed.

In Wales, and across the UK, they were met with an institutional wall of silence. In person and online, parents and professionals alike were told their fears were baseless, bigoted and even “hateful”. The Welsh government went further: brushing aside any concerns, many Cardiff based politicians eagerly approved embedding these principles in their official plans, policies and even the school curriculum.

NHS England did commission Dr Hilary Cass to review the medical treatment of gender-questioning children in England and Wales. Her final report has been published – and now policymakers in Wales must face its findings and stark conclusions.

From 2014, puberty blocking drugs moved from a research-only protocol to being available in routine clinical practice – despite a large body of evidence to suggest that there was a lack of any positive measurable outcomes when used. This adoption of a treatment with uncertain benefits without further scrutiny was also found to have played a role in increasing the demand among patients for treatment.

The response of some clinicians was to prescribe an irreversible path of puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and even surgery. Instead of asking their own questions, healthcare professionals propagated a dangerous political ideology, in the absence of evidence and at the cost of safeguarding. Teachers also have made ill-advised and premature decisions about social transitioning.

The report is clear on these points. Yet in Wales, referrals to GID services in England have continued to grow. In schools, an affirmative approach to gender dysphoria has been woven into the Welsh Government’s compulsory Relationships and Sexuality Education Code and guidance. Right now, children are being socially transitioned in schools – often without reference to their parents.

Worse, while NHS England has already made the landmark decision to stop the routine prescription of puberty blockers to children with gender dysphoria, and Scotland followed suit in the days following publication of the report, NHS Wales has not carried out a review of its own policies and care pathways. It is unthinkable that it should continue to prescribe or offer access to untested, irreversible drugs for the young and the vulnerable.

The Welsh government must now withdraw its compulsory RSE curriculum from schools, including supporting materials, which includes contested ideas such as “gender identity”. It should also carry out an urgent review of all activities, policy, guidance and materials, especially those relevant to pupils exhibiting gender-related distress.

And it should resile from its commitment in its LGBTQ+ Action Plan to “consider options for the development of a gender service for young people in Wales”. For almost two years, we have heard from colleagues, professionals and parents across Wales who are deeply concerned this service will be extended to under 18s. To do so now, in light of Dr Cass’s findings, would be irresponsible and dangerous.

This is a national scandal, and a full inquiry is needed. We need to know how public services, devolved to and under the control of Welsh politicians and professionals, entrusted with the care, safeguarding and wellbeing of the most vulnerable, were able to just dismiss concerns and adopt policy and practices based on ideology rather than evidence.

In recent weeks there has been too much focus on changes to 20mph speed limits and cuts to the National Museum of Wales’s budget, instead of on this scandal. Why hasn’t Welsh media given more attention to the concerns for children’s safeguarding, voiced so loudly by many parents across Wales for so long? Teachers, parents and clinicians want to know now what will be done to rectify and bring the significant failings which have been identified to an end, once and for all.

In her statement to Parliament in Westminster, on the first day back after recess, Health Secretary Victoria Atkins pledged urgent and effective action. She said she will be working closely with NHS England “to root out the ideology that has caused so much unnecessary harm”. Our question now is: will the Welsh government do the same?

Robin Millar is MP for Aberconwy. Laura Jones MS is shadow minister for Culture and Tourism