An open letter to Ireland's Children's Ombudsman

by Anon

I’m delighted to publish this open letter to Dr.Niall Muldoon, the Children’s Ombudsman of Ireland, from a child psychotherapist/psychologist who has to remain anonymous in case trans rights activists try to destroy her life.

---

Dear Doctor Muldoon,

I look forward every Sunday morning to tea in bed with the dogs (though they rarely have the tea) a read of the papers and a general slob out..the one morning of the week I can without guilt languish, catch up and relax, and this particular Sunday, just gone, was to be no different. This particular Sunday’s relaxation however, was very abruptly interrupted. There in front of me on my phone was an article by you, The Children’s Ombudsman of Ireland, writing with urgency about your deep concern re the fact that there was 'no plan for gender recognition for the under 16’s’ and that “the reason for maintaining the legal status quo for under 16’s has never been made clear”. 

I read the sentence again, then after reading the whole article twice, sat for a while completely stunned. I then messaged, and received calls and messages, from fellow colleagues, who are just as tired and worn out as me with all this, some of whom had already seen it and were, like me, in a state of sheer disbelief. We had read that you, in your role as the Ombudsman for Children of *our whole country*, are advocating for children under 16, (never mind those age 16-18) to have the legal right to ‘change their gender’. Have you any idea what this involves? I feel like you can’t possibly. 

I want to ask you Dr Muldoon if it is in your capacity as Children’s Ombudsman, or as a psychologist, or as a ‘child welfare expert’ (which I’d read somewhere that you are), or perhaps all three, that you feel that the ‘legal right to change gender for under 16’s’ is appropriate in the context of an adolescents psychological and emotional development and maturity? Because as a child psychotherapist and psychologist myself I do not, and I would be very curious to hear why you think it’s appropriate if indeed as the article suggests, you do? 

Perhaps there’s another explanation, because as I read the article I realised it was very familiar to me, and after a very simple search discovered that it had been lifted, almost verbatim, from this article jrnl.ie/5351942 , and mostly from the lips of Eirenne Carroll, CEO of Transgender Equality Network Ireland (TENI). 

Am I to take it that not only do you not have your own opinion on this, but you also did not feel it important, as Children’s Ombudsman, do the basic research yourself and instead just hit copy and paste? I can only hope not.

So to address the two main points which so ruined my Sunday morning. Firstly, you lamented the fact that Crumlin Children’s Hospital (CCH) are no longer accepting new referrals to their gender clinic, but yet make no mention whatsoever to the Keira Bell vs Tavistock GIDS case of October 2020, the whole reason for the stoppage of new referrals at the CCH clinic. I would be very surprised, if as the Children Ombudsman, you have no knowledge of this huge High Court case and its landmark effect?  In case you didn’t, which would be utterly shocking, please allow me to give you a brief outline.

The High Court ruled that Ms Bell (who had undergone hormone therapy and gender affirming surgeries from age 16) did not have the capacity, as a minor, to consent to ‘gender affirming’ medical treatment. The court then ordered that GIDS, the Tavistock Gender Identity Development Service (who you referred to throughout your article as ‘the gender development service’), were to immediately suspend new referrals for puberty blockers for the under 16’s, and that those seeking it would need to seek court approval for same.

This is the same clinic, Tavistock GIDS, who ran the gender clinic here at CCH since 1999. As far back as 2015 whistleblowers have raised grave concerns re this clinic, which are all well documented and widely reported on, both in the UK and here in Ireland, in the national news media. As recently as January this year the UK Care Quality Commission inspectors gave them the lowest scoring possible which is, ‘Inadequate’. 

So when you say how difficult it is that ‘young trans people’ can now no longer access this service, I welcome the news. It was and is an utterly dysfunctional service. Children who are gender questioning or gender dysphoric need support, understanding and care of course, and this is paramount, but a not-fit-for-purpose barely-allowed-to-still-operate-in-the-UK clinic is not it.

Secondly, and *most* importantly, this is all quite apart from viewing this from the standpoint of psychological development in children and adolescents. A literature review of peer reviewed studies, which I can provide for you, show that over 80% of children desist from identifying as trans when they do not receive medical intervention. If the child does receive medical intervention that number drops to 2%, which is utterly shocking...in a way. 

It’s shocking when we look at the large difference in the percentage, but not shocking when we take into account, and you’ll know this as a psychologist, that *we do not know who or what we are when we are teenagers and are just twisting in the wind until we get through the other side of the ‘dark tunnel of adolescence’ (as a young client coined it) and developmentally speaking, this is completely normal and appropriate and conducive to psychological and emotional growth*. As I say, you’ll surely know all that.

This huge difference, 80% versus 2%, means that when left alone to express themselves and present however they like-but are *not* affirmed as being ‘born in the wrong body’ (a now dismissed and derided clinical term) the vast majority of young adults then revert back to identifying as the gender which correlates to their sex at birth. In other words, they grow out of it. They have by then comfortably grown into their sexuality and identity, and the vast majority are actually gay, lesbian or bisexual. It cannot be a revelation to you or to anyone that we are not fully formed sexually, emotionally or mentally in our teens.

For children under 16, and they are children, who have not yet completed the basic developmental tasks of adolescence, to be 100% affirmed that they definitely are exactly what they say they are and always will be, is utterly bad practice, and I’m sorry, basically bonkers.

If we as clinical professionals now do this, and say that children are in fact equipped to consent to irreversible life changing medical and legal changes, then we can now throw every Child Developmental Model (all of them) which up ‘til now have informed our every clinical practice psychologically with children, straight out the window. 

(And while we’re there, watch and wait for the inevitable lawsuits, which will be rolling in, very, very soon).

Yours,

Anon.

(But willing to un-anon if afforded the chance to meet with you)