Public institutions are meant to be independent and free from politics but senior leaders ignore the law and allow ideological groups to misrepresent it
Reading much of the commentary on the Cass review, it’s clear some think the battle over gender ideology is won. Sadly, this is not the end of the matter merely the beginning.
Much of what Dr Cass exposed in her report has been known for some time. I set out some of the evidence in a letter to the Women and Equalities Select Committee that many trans identifying children turn out to be gay or autistic and do not always retain the identity into adulthood. Yet again and again we have been confronted with institutional resistance. I will always remember meeting Keira Bell on a video-call during the pandemic. I watched as she described what happened to her and saw some officials in tears as others sat in stony-faced, hostile silence.
Dr Cass has made important recommendations, but they are largely focused on managing the NHS services better. None of this will happen until we address the underlying problem of ideological capture. It has become almost impossible to question fashionable theories if they are promoted under the banner of progressivism or social justice. Dissent is treated as evidence of bad faith, bigotry, or a lack of intellectual sophistication.
The most obvious victims in this heartbreaking scandal are the detransitioners. Those young people who were subjected to irreversible medical procedures while too vulnerable to give meaningful consent. They now no longer believe themselves to be born in the wrong body, but many have been left hideously deformed or unable to have children.
But there is another group. The brave clinicians and whistle blowers who put their careers on the line to alert politicians and the public to what was going on. Even now, they are terrified that some of their colleagues will try and ruin their careers. One of the most serious revelations in Dr Cass’s report was the refusal of many treatment providers to cooperate with her review.
This is why I am cautious about celebrating victory too early. There is plenty of evidence that Stonewall and their allies are simply waiting for a change of government before continuing with their crusade. They misrepresent the law, pretending it says what it doesn’t, and they will misrepresent the Cass report.
When the government published guidance for schools on gender-questioning children or those self-identifying as “trans”, the response was telling. With the support of Labour MPs like Kate Osborne, they told schools they could ignore government guidance. advising them on how to legally avoid doing so with Labour signalling that they’d reverse our guidance if they win office.
Over three decades, politicians of all parties have outsourced power to so called independent institutions. They were meant to take the politics out of decision-making but have themselves become politicised often with little to no ministerial oversight. They may be independent, but they are no longer impartial. As politicians ceded control, many institutions became captured by a minority of ideological activists. When ministers raise the alarm or intervene, this is demonised by Labour MPs, such as Yvette Cooper as engaging in “Culture Wars”.
It is good to hear Labour politicians admit culpability in failing to challenge extreme gender ideology, but I don’t believe this change of heart is real.
The ideological capture that took over clinics like Tavistock has taken over not just Labour, but all of the centre-left parties. Unfortunately, some Conservatives also played an unhelpful role in this scandal, preferring to chant mantras such as “Trans women are women” instead of engaging with evidence.
However, the fact remains that it is Conservatives who have consistently battled on behalf of the victims.
For anyone wanting to imagine what a future Labour government might do, look at the behaviour of the Labour Party in Scotland the who voted for the infamous Gender Recognition Reform bill that would have allowed men into women’s prisons and enabled rapists to legally change gender.
That bill was only stopped by the direct intervention of ministers like myself at Westminster with the support of Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak. Keir Starmer would not have done the same. Labour also voted for the SNP’s ludicrous Hate Crime Act introducing some of most draconian prohibitions on free speech in the developed world.
It takes courage to risk social stigma, loss of income or physical violence by challenging the progressive consensus. Facts and evidence are no defence against ideological capture.
In the case of trans ideology, those who first publicly questioned its tenets were subjected to hysterical abuse and calumny. Brave people like Kathleen Stock and Graham Linehan were hounded out of their jobs, James Esses lost his role at Childline and Labour MP Rosie Duffield was harassed by her own party members and MPs as Keir Starmer looked away.
Worse than the ravings of the militants was the cowardice of those in positions of influence. How many university administrators, media editors, police officers and politicians preferred to keep quiet for fear of becoming the next target or in the hope of maintaining their progressive credentials? Leading to preposterous reporting where rapists and sex offenders who only discovered they were trans after their convictions are still referred to as “she”.
We need more bravery and less cancel culture.
At the heart of the many of the Cass reviews recommendations is a failure of institutions to self-regulate. Ministers have intervened time and again, but it is time for institutional leaders to step up and recover impartiality. It is also time for an in-depth review of decision making across the public sector. How is it that senior leaders ignore the law and allow groups like Stonewall to make up what it should be?
We must continue to protect both vulnerable, often gay, children from medicalised child abuse, as well as those clinicians doing the right thing in calling it out. The Cass report will also have serious implications for any future legislation on conversion practices where clinicians continue to raise concerns.
For those who ask how this happened under a Conservative government, they should look at the spread of extreme gender ideology across the Western World from the US and Canada through Europe to Australia and New Zealand. The reality is UK is leading the charge against it, globally.
The tendency to censor, shout down and punish unfashionable opinions offends the principles of a free society. It also ruins lives by stopping those raising the alarm. Had those who warned that gender services in the NHS had been hijacked by ideologues been listened to instead of gagged, children would not have been harmed and the Cass Review would not have been required. Our responsibility is to ensure that nothing like it ever happens again.
An edited version of this piece was originally published in the Sunday Times, 14th March 2024
