The Final Report by Dr Hilary Cass, Chair of the Independent Review of gender identity services for children and young people, was published on Wednesday 10th April. It has been seized on by anti-trans campaigners as justification for their appalling and hateful comments about trans people. Unfortunately Dr Cass has not done anything to correct the views that are expressed. In fact her proposals are mostly common sense - for example "When families/carers are making decisions about social transition of pre-pubertal children, services should ensure that they can be seen as early as possible by a clinical professional with relevant experience". However, it is unlikely that provision for trans people is unlikely to improve in the foreseeable future however old they are as the resources are not in place. Some members are concerned because they have received information that Dr Cass worked with Ron DeSantis and his team in Florida to create a trans healthcare ban in that state. Understandably, there are concerns among our membership that this could signal the beginning of the end of trans healthcare in this country. As we know there are already heartbreakingly long waiting lists at all the gender clinics, so it is important - with an election coming up later this year - that those members who feel able to do so contact the candidates in their constituencies about these issues.

Read the report for yourself - it is long - and make your feelings about it known.

The Final Report of the Cass Committee can be read here: https://cass.independent-review.uk/home/publications/final-report/

This article by Freddy McConnell gives a fair analysis of the report and its recommendations in this article in The Guardian:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/apr/11/hilary-cass-trans-children-review