““There was a dark joke among staff, soon there will be no gay people left”…..
So began a Times article on the case of Sonia Appleby, the head of safeguarding at the Tavistock who raised a successful whistle-blowers claim that homophobia was being ignored as a safety concern. With the news that the Tavistock house of horrors is now to close there is now a dark joke among us gays because soon there will be no Tavistock left.
Serious concerns over the Tavistock have existed for years, a former senior supervising figure, Dr. David Bell warned in a report and in the media that children with co-morbid mental health conditions were being rushed into life changing medical pathways because the service had become fatally ideologically companied. He went further and identified what was, in effect, institutionalised homophobia at the clinic, a concern that would be repeated by the head of safeguarding, Sonia Appleby and Dr. Hilary Cass in her damning report on a service she found to be “unsafe”.
It’s worth looking in detail at the obvious and clear evidence of homophobia and reflecting on just how badly homosexuals have been failed by their charities and media both of which, when faced with a clear conflict between gay and trans rights, chose to comprehensively betray their supposed constituency and support gay conversion therapy by gender.
The long history of evidenced homophobia at the Tavistock
In 2018 Dr. Bell warned in an uncompromising internal report that GIDS was providing “woefully inadequate” care and that some staff had “very serious ethical concerns” about the children using the service making irreversible and life changing decisions with “inadequate” examination of underlying comorbidities and consent. The Times report[1] on Dr. Bell’s analysis records that “It says some children “take up a trans identity as a solution” to “multiple problems such as historic child abuse in the family, bereavement . . . homophobia and a very significant incidence of autism spectrum disorder” after being “coached” online and by trans activist groups. The true histories of “highly disturbed or complex” child patients were not properly explored by Gids clinicians struggling with “huge and unmanageable caseloads” and afraid of being accused of transphobia if they questioned the “rehearsed” surface presentation. The report says the concerns voiced by staff are shared by Sonia Appleby, who is in charge of safeguarding at the trust”. The same article records that “Some openly homophobic parents sought transition for their children because they were gay.”
Dr. Bell identified the extraordinary, (and deeply unhealthy) relationship between GIDS service and outside organisations, reported in the following terms: “Gids has “close relationships with organisations that are identified as part of the pro-trans lobby such as Gendered Intelligence and Mermaids, and [went] to some lengths to placate them,” the report says. Gids sources pointed out that Mermaids, a charity that campaigns for children to be given sex-change treatment, has been critical of the service, falsely claiming that its refusal to treat children more quickly leads many to attempt suicide.
On 3/9/2021 Employment Judge Goodman upheld Tavistock Safeguarding Lead Sonia Appleby’s whistle-blower’s claim against her former employers[2]. Addressing the politicisation of the GIDS, she held at paragraph 21 of the judgment “External pressure from campaigners (including a group called Mermaids) and some parents made difficult clinical decisions more difficult, and in consequence there were staff who sometimes found detachment difficult.” Sonia Appleby warned in terms of the dangers of homophobia at this service on many occasions, for example in her second “protected disclose”, an email of 13/11/2017 in which she observed that some children were “falsely presenting as being transgender as a less oppressive option than acknowledging they are gay. There is apparently no acceptable mechanism for discussing these phenomena within the team”. On the 15/5/2018 she again raised this issue with her line manager citing her concerns as to “patients’ limited understanding, the premature use of blockers, failure to address the fact that some children lived in homophobic environments, that some staff felt themselves unsafe in the group and were afraid to report these issues within the Trust”.
Dr Bell and Sonia Appleby tried to fight homophobia by protecting children likely to grow up to be gay. They were side-lined and persecuted for doing so. Dr. Bell’s report was effectively ignored and Sonia Appleby was summoned to a meeting with her line manager and a member of human resources where the following text placed in her permanent file by the line manager, “I further suggested that you should ensure you are mindful of any further statements made in the future in relation to this matter or any other that may cause offence to other colleagues”. These are not the actions of a body capable of organisational learning or taking serious safeguarding concerns about homophobia seriously. These are the actions of an institutionally homophobic service where safeguarding concerns were ignored or silenced.
On 1/12/2020 the President of the Queen’s Bench Division of the High Court handed down judgment in Bell v Tavistock[3]. The court expressed surprise at the parlous state of record keeping at GIDS in several respects such as the complete absence of data for; the marked overrepresentation of autistic children (para 33-35), the enormous increase of young females presenting (para 32) and the unknown effect of experimental puberty blockers (in the context of how that affected legal capacity to consent (para 74)). While the judgment was reversed on appeal[4], The Lord Chief Justice did not find as a matter of law that children could consent to puberty blockers, only that such a question might later be resolved by medical negligence actions. That day, sadly, seems to be fast approaching with an increasing number of detransitioners now bravely speaking out about what in many cases simply amounted to gay conversion therapy by gender.
The Interim Cass Review and European developments
Dr Hilary Cass recognised the risk of homophobia at GIDS in her interim report[5] which records that ““We have heard that some young people […] are advised not to admit to previous abuse or trauma, or uncertainty about their sexual orientation.” She further records that ““We have heard from young lesbians who felt pressured to identify as transgender male.” Her letter of 19/7/2022 setting out a new regional model to replace GIDS properly sets out that “Staff should maintain a broad clinical perspective by working across related services within the tertiary centre” rather than the narrow “affirmation only” model. It is also important (and a welcome return to clinical normality) that Dr. Cass recommends proper follow up care and record keeping in respect of patients. We note that Dr. Cass also incorporates the now very serious concerns regarding puberty blockers in her comment that “A further concern is that adolescent sex hormone surges may trigger the opening of a critical period for experience-dependent rewiring of neural circuits underlying executive function (i.e. maturation of the part of the brain concerned with planning, decision making and judgement). If this is the case, brain maturation may be temporarily or permanently disrupted by puberty blockers, which could have significant impact on the ability to make complex risk-laden decisions, as well as possible longer-term neuropsychological consequences. To date, there has been very limited research on the short-, medium- or longer-term impact of puberty blockers on neurocognitive development.”
It is worth noting the following as regards gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonists (GnRHa) – commonly referred to as “puberty blockers”:
In the last few days the American FDA has concluded that puberty blockers can cause “serious risks” of harm to children[6].
Carl Heneghan, the Director at the Centre for Evidence- based Medicine (CEBM), wrote in the British Medical Journal in 2019 that “The current evidence base does not support informed decision making and safe practice in children” –[7].
In 2021 the UK National Institute for Health & Care Excellence (NICE) published a systemic evidence review, concluding that ‘puberty blockers’ lead to little or no change in gender dysphoria[8].
The Swedish Karolinska Institutet ended the use of puberty blockers in 2021[9] and in 2022 the French National Academy of Medicine urged “the greatest caution” when administering them[10].
Ending the gender production line
As is obvious from the above, homophobia has been ignored by clinicians, staff, regulators, supposedly gay charities and the gay press. To add insult to injury, extremist organisations like Stonewall are in fact fuelling the explosion in patients artificially bloating the waiting lists they complain of by teaching children they have the wrong bodies such as recently when they suggested two year olds can be trans.
The story of the institutional capture of the Gender Abattoir could not have happened without what the The Times memorably labelled “ideological malpractice” - that ideology came from somewhere and someone and it is now plain as a pikestaff that the medically unqualified charity “Mermaids” has serious questions to answer. I note with some anger it’s social media accounts are presently telling female children how to “safely” bind their developing breasts over summer. Let us be clear. This charity is encouraging children to hate their bodies in so doing and it is encouraging a practice that can be harmful. This is a ghoulish artefact of modern culture and it must stop.
The entire UK charity sector with it’s monolithic adherence to gender ideology has fuelled and encouraged a generation of children to hate and surgically modify their bodies just at the point where young people are apt to hate their bodies - such is perfectly normal for a teenager.
A public inquiry is now a matter of necessity because the public interest demands accountability from charities and services which are so dangerous to the health of children a clinic was found to be “not safe” by Dr. Cass.
The abattoir may be closing its door but it is now this production line of misery that must be disabled. Schools, hospitals, the civil service, BBC promotion of gender ideology, the charity sector - all must be subject to an inquiry into just how in 2022 we allowed an institutionally homophobic clinic to operate so far outside the bounds of normal clinical practice.
It’s time for accountability and an end to the madness of gender.
[1] https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/staff-at-trans-clinic-fear-damage-to-children-as-activists-pile-on-pressure-c5k655nq9
[2]https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6149eb48d3bf7f05ac396f79/Ms_S_Appleby__vs___Tavistock_and_Portman_NHS_Foundation_Trust.pdf
[3] https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Bell-v-Tavistock-Judgment.pdf
[4] https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Bell-v-Tavistock-judgment-170921.pdf
[5] https://sex-matters.org/posts/updates/the-cass-reviews-interim-report-is-out/
[6] https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/medical/fda-issues-warning-on-puberty-blockers-some-ala-lawmakers-support-findings/ar-AA102Ha6
[7] https://blogs.bmj.com/bmjebmspotlight/2019/02/25/gender-affirming-hormone-in-children-and-adolescents-evidence-review/%23informed%20decision
[8] https://segm.org/NICE_gender_medicine_systematic_review_finds_poor_quality_evidence
[9] https://segm.org/Sweden_ends_use_of_Dutch_protocol
[10] https://segm.org/France-cautions-regarding-puberty-blockers-and-cross-sex-hormones-for-youth
(Originally published On Dennis Kavanagh’s substack, link below)
We’re coming for you, BBC...
Mr Kavanagh:
(1) Please correct "the service had become fatally ideologically companied": you mean "compromised".
(2) Please check the links. For example it seems that the BMJ has taken down Prof Carl Henegan's important study for the Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine (Oxford): https://blogs.bmj.com/bmjebmspotlight/2019/02/25/gender-affirming-hormone-in-children-and-adolescents-evidence-review/%23informed%20decision
Thank you!