Gender curious children changing names, pronouns and dressing in the clothes of the opposite sex could be discouraged under NHS plans to consider the mental risks of social transitioning.
\Stella O’Malley, psychotherapist and director of campaign group Genspect, said medics needed to take heed of warnings over social transitioning.
‘Professionals working with children need to reflect on that and make sure they aren’t inadvertently causing harm by providing short term relief that leads to long term distress,’ she said.
‘At Genspect we believe that children should be free to wear whatever clothes they want, boys should be free to run around waving fairy wands in princess dresses and girls should be free to act however they wish, yet we don’t think changing pronouns helps anyone- it creates more problems than it resolves.
Other sections of the draft also detail that puberty blockers should only be provided via an NHS research programme, and medics should consider safeguarding processes if children obtain such drugs online.
The documents released yesterday also show that least 15 children under the age of four were directed to the NHS’s transgender health service in England in the past two years.
NHS documents state that in total over 5,000 children were referred to Tavistock’s service in the past two years, over concerns they were suffering from their gender identity not matching their biological sex.
Only half of referrals were for children aged 15-plus.
Source: NHS to discourage ‘social transitioning’ of gender questioning children | Daily Mail Online