Extreme gender ideology with no basis in science has led to one of the worst medical scandals of modern times - Bill Carmichael

Aware that the evidence base for these treatments was very weak, Dr Cass commissioned a group of researchers from the University of York to document the outcomes among 9,000 young people treated at the Tavistock and Portman NHS trust’s gender identity development service (Gids) between 2009 and 2020.

This was an absolutely vital piece of work that would have helped doctors better understand the long-term consequences of gender reassignment treatment.

But Dr Cass said this research was “thwarted” when six of England’s seven adult gender services refused to hand over the data for purely ideological reasons.

So let’s get this straight - very senior doctors working within the NHS on handsome salaries were deliberately sabotaging research designed to promote the healthy and safe treatment of children on the grounds of ideology. If that is not a sacking offence, and a striking off offence, then I don’t know what is.

The Health Secretary, Victoria Atkins, has now intervened, labelling the lack of cooperation “disgraceful” and adding “there can be no further delay in their full participation”.

She went on to say that a culture of secrecy and ideology had taken root over evidence and safety.

Quite right, but I am afraid it will take more than a few fine words from a government minister to defeat this poisonous dogma. Because this gender ideology has taken root not just in the NHS, but also in the police, our schools, social work, academia, the judiciary, local government and political parties, particularly Labour, Lib Dems and Greens, but also including, sadly, parts of the Conservative party.

It espouses the anti-scientific gibberish that people can literally change biological sex, and starts with politeness and pronoun nonsense, but ends up with the logical absurdity of sending male rapists to women’s prisons simply because they declare, post conviction, that they now ‘identify’ as a woman (as actually happened in Scotland).

Even a cursory examination of what was happening at the Tavistock should have alerted medics that something very strange was going on. Twelve years ago there were about 250 referrals to Gids, most of them boys. By 2021 there were more than 5,000, two-thirds of them teenage girls with gender-related distress.

Many of these girls were also suffering from depression, eating disorders, autism and ADHD, and some had suffered physical and sexual abuse. A large proportion were same-sex attracted.

But instead of treating these children in a ‘holistic’ way, offering therapy and taking into account the wide range of other mental and physical problems, the ‘affirmation model’ dictated that they were quickly put on powerful drugs with disastrous consequences for their fertility and sexual function.

Some teenage girls went on to have double mastectomies and other surgeries in order to follow the impossible dream that they could actually turn themselves into men - and the very people whose job it was to help them stood aside and applauded their ‘bravery’.

Children, many of them same-sex attracted, were sterilised and mutilated and had their lives ruined, all in the name of an extreme ideology with no basis in science.

In her report Dr Cass also refers to the “toxicity” of the debate which meant that many healthcare professionals were afraid to openly discuss their views.

She is right, but it is important not to fall into the trap of saying the toxicity comes from “both sides”. It doesn’t - the abuse, threats, harassment and actual physical violence overwhelmingly comes from the trans lobby and is usually directed at women.

Women turning up to discuss their rights are invariably surrounded by masked young men screaming abuse and threats, while police officers look the other way. The same thing just doesn’t happen the other way around.