Scotland’s children deserve better

 Eva Comrie, Independent for Independence candidate for Alloa and Grangemouth in the forthcoming General Election, has demanded that the Scottish Government and the Councils of both Clackmannanshire and Falkirk take cognisance of the findings of the Cass Review of gender services within the NHS in England for children and young people. Such a review has not yet occurred in Scotland but is undoubtedly required as the numbers of youngsters referred for gender services have rocketed. This is especially so in the case of teenage girls where indications are that the vast majority are same sex attracted, leading to claims that gender ideology seeks to ‘trans away the gay.’

In recent years the Scottish Government provided to all local authorities a set of instructions for schools described as ‘Transgender Guidance’ where staff are enjoined to respect a child’s choice of gender and enabled to keep changes of such secret from a child’s parents or carers. This has been part of a suite of controversial measures promoting gender ideology. 

Investigations conclude that there is no positive evidence to show that puberty blockers are safe to use to arrest puberty and what began as a clinical trial has become a process rolled out, including in Scotland, without reliable initial results being available for review. 

Puberty blockers remain prescribed to children in Scotland despite mounting evidence to the effect that they can lead to devastating consequences including failure to develop and infertility. Other hormones regularly prescribed can cause defects in bone growth and structure similar to osteoporosis.

It is known that dozens of young Scottish women have had double mastectomies conducted in England following NHS referrals with diagnoses surrounding gender identity issues. There are growing numbers of such patients expressing regret that radical surgery of this nature was conducted without adequate assessment and in the absence of accurate information as to the long term implications.

Eva, a lawyer who specialises in child and family law, referred to the particular findings of Cass to the effect that children being referred should benefit from a ‘holistic assessment’ including screening for neurodevelopmental conditions such as autism and a mental health assessment. She noted that support for puberty blockers and the concept of the transgender child are supported particularly by organisations including Stonewall and Mermaids and suggested that their influence and appearance on the websites of or links on all local authority websites should be removed immediately. That includes Clackmannanshire and Falkirk who both appear to have accepted advice from and promoted links to Stonewall. ‘Rather than agree with a troubled child that he or she was born in the wrong body as gender ideologists would have us do, in a caring, responsible Scotland we must strive to ensure that our children are cherished, protected and provided with the highest quality of nurturing and therapeutic care; that must exclude the provision of life altering medication whose benefits are as yet at best unclear, at worst deleterious, and we should avoid all question of mutilating, permanent surgery at a time when young people are vulnerable and not yet mature enough for the taking of decisions they may come to regret’ concluded Eva, in her plea for the restoration of holistic, responsible care.