Looking at Wes Streeting’s performance in the House of Commons while announcing the ban on puberty blockers and taking questions, it is clear that contributions opposing his statement, or asking searching and critical questions on it, all come from Labour backbenchers and especially from Green and Liberal Democrat MPs, while he is being earnestly supported by Tories and every variety of reactionary Ulster Unionists.

This is not surprising as his restrictive policy puts the UK outside the European mainstream, and outside of countries such as Canada, Australia and New Zealand and aligns us with the worst Republicans states in the USA, such as Texas and Florida, on this issue.

Congratulations to Labour MPs Kate Osborne (Jarrow) and Nadia Whittombe (Nottingham East) and others and even, to my pleasant surprise, Stella Creasy from my neighbouring Walthamstow, as well as Sian Berry and Carla Denyer from the Greens – and the Lib Dem speakers – all women, just to be clear. Shame on Welsh Labour’s Tonia Antoniazzi for her usual transphobic nonsense, wrapped up for convenience in “care” for trans young people.

Streeting, for his part, is desperately trying to give the impression of wrestling with his conscience and to emerge from this scandalous betrayal with some kind of integrity. He is a gay man himself of course, and he dropped that into his speech, with jaw-dropping cynicism. He hedged this statement round with warm but empty words about trans kids, and even acknowledged the distress and heartbreak this will cause, while ploughing on regardless.

Despicable

As someone once said, “He wants both his career and his conscience and he is not entitled to either.” He either genuinely agrees with this cruel policy or he secretly doesn’t but is implementing it for reasons of political expediency or his own career. Either way it is despicable.

He brushed aside comments from the Council of Europe that this ban, for trans kids only, will breach their human rights as will the unethical policy of making future prescriptions dependent on being forced into a research programme, when such research should only be voluntary.

And he had warm words for the “whistle-blowers” at the Tavistock who opposed their gender affirmative care and the journalist Hannah Barnes, who supported them. He even had a kind word for the transphobic academic Kathleen Stock.

The proposed study, under which some young people could be given blockers, but only as part of a research programme, is being drawn up and will not start until next spring. Of the regional centres which were supposed to replace the old Tavistock and Portman clinic, only three are open, in London, Liverpool and Bristol, and the rest are targeted to open by 2026, but will probably be as delayed as the first three were, by a year or more.

Heartbreaking

In the meantime trans kids around the country, some of whom went to see Streeting in person, and others whose heartbreaking stories were told to their MPs, will be banned from receiving blockers from any source unless they were prescribed in the six months before the ban in June. Of course, if such existing prescriptions can be legally honoured, then why all the blather about the “unacceptable risks”! The facts are that blockers have been used safely for decades before the so-called “gender critical” transphobes confected this artificial panic.

So now there will be CRIMINAL penalties for possession or prescribing them outside of the restrictive research programme, whenever that actually starts! It is certain that some young people and their worried and desperate parents will try to access blockers from shady corners of the Internet.- with all the inherent safety risks from unregulated sources. Something else to trouble Streeting’s precious conscience.

One day I hope that trans young people will get through all this, but this generation of LGBT people will never forget Streeting’s role in this tragic scandal.

This Letter from Ray Goodspeed was published first on the Left Horizons site

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