Doctor David Bell: "This is a form of conversion therapy"

Stunning interview with Doctor David Bell on Channel 4 News.

Some highlights:

“The main concerns were issues to do with lack of proper lack of consent. Many of the people who spoke to me did not think that children were able to consent to the treatment, then there were concerns of children being inappropriately pushed through to transition, where they had a lot of complex problems. As a result, children have been very seriously damaged.”

“The puberty blockers have been stopped because there is no evidence base for them at all. And the judicial review revealed that there was no follow up of patients, no data and remarkably little knowledge of what happens to these children. By putting them on that pathway it rather becomes a self fulfilling prophecy. The children have been diagnosed now as their main problem being gender, the other problems are left aside, and this results in my view, in many children having inappropriate medical treatment.”

So the judgment is really important because it acts to protect children, 35 to 40% of these children are on the autistic spectrum, a large number of them have experienced a major trauma, a large number have very serious family problems, and a particularly large number of young girls could be helped to become non gender conforming lesbian women.

So the re positioning of these girls as only having a gender problem, it acts to prevent them developing in a normal way, and being able to develop their own non-conforming gender identity and their own sexuality.

This is a form of conversion therapy for young people who are gay or lesbian.

“…this is a very highly politicized area and leaders of the movement who have a very powerful ideological commitment, have managed to capture policy. Both medically, professionally, in the media, and in government, with no evidence base. It's a highly politicized movement, which has had these consequences. So all I am saying and many people are saying is that they need to wait. There needs to be a thoughtful engagement with them, as opposed to motoring them through to treatment pathways, which have irreversible consequences for their bodies. So we're talking about not doing harm to children.”

“What they were doing was making it clear that people like me who spoke out will be come under the scrutiny in this very negative way, and be exposed to the possibility of disciplinary hearings”

Good on Channel 4 News for actually interviewing the man on this crucial matter rather than staging an ambush. And thank you Doctor Bell for so bravely speaking out.