Open warfare has broken out in the normally sedate world of Australian psychiatry after a leading medical journal refused to publish a paper by three prominent psychiatrists who want the profession’s governing body to “acknowledge its culpability” in gender affirming medical treatment for children and apologise.
The paper called on the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists to support a statutory compensation scheme for “the growing numbers of people harmed by gender affirming interventions for minors”.
The three psychiatrists, Jillian Spencer, Roberto D’Angelo and Patrick Clarke, submitted the paper to the RANZCP’s journal Australasian Psychiatry but were told: “We regret that we cannot publish your paper on this occasion.”
Journal editor Jeffrey Looi said that “after careful deliberation, and under the eternal pressure of space restraints, the Editorial Committee has concluded that your paper is not suitable for publication”.
In 2023, the RANZCP acknowledged shifting international evidence on transgender healthcare and puberty blockers, and declined to endorse gender affirming care as the key intervention for children who believe they may be transgender. But Dr Spencer, a child and adolescent psychiatrist, says the College must go further and accept responsibility for failing to challenge the model over the past two decades.
She points to the growing number of “detransitioners” who underwent gender transition as adolescents but now seek to psychologically recover from what they perceive as medical harm.