Following the announcement from Labour Health Secretary Wes Streeting and the Department of Health and Social Care that puberty blockers in the treatment of trans youth would be banned “indefinitely,” a group of trans youth activists staged a protest outside the MP’s office in Ilford North.
On December 11, Trans Kids Deserve Better and their supporters set up camp, staying there overnight until the following day, per an Instagram post from the group
The previous Conservative government had previously banned the prescription of puberty blockers, which can be used to delay the changes of puberty in trans and gender-diverse youth who have started puberty, from private doctors, a decision that was extended by new Labour Health Secretary Wes Streeting.
Puberty blockers were banned on the NHS in 2023 after the controversial Cass Review urged medics to use “extreme caution” when prescribing them, and are only available to young people in clinical trials, or those taking them for non-transitional reasons, such as early onset puberty.
“Children’s health care must always be evidence-led,” said Streeting said in a press release. “The independent expert Commission on Human Medicines found that the current prescribing and care pathway for gender dysphoria and incongruence presents an unacceptable safety risk for children and young people.
“We need to act with caution and care when it comes to this vulnerable group of young people and follow the expert advice.”
In a piece for Huck Magazine, one of the group’s activists who goes by the name Grin, wrote that “We already know what happens when we get them. We get to live happier healthier lives because our bodies won’t be permanently altered in ways we don’t want,” Grin wrote.
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