Australia’s nurses union has retracted — and apologised for — an article in its official journal that accurately summarised the research on suicide in transgender people, following complaints by the union’s “LGBTQIA+ reference group” that the paper was causing “significant distress to the transgender community”.
The Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation expressed its “sincere regret” for publishing the article, which outlined a number of long-term studies challenging the narrative that the risk of suicide increases dramatically if trans children and teens are not provided with gender-affirming medical treatment.
The author of the article, New Zealand registered nurse Jason Watson, is now threatening to sue the union after it accused him of “negativity and hatred” and of harming the transgender community.
The article summarised six long-term historical studies produced in the Netherlands, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Denmark and Finland, which, like the Cass review in 2024, do not support the claims of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health about the increased risk of suicide.
Mr Watson, who has worked as a mental health nurse for more than 40 years and has a masters degree in education, concluded in the article that the WPATH suicide narrative was “at least tenuous and at most simply incorrect”.
Mr Watson told The Australian he submitted the piece because “I work in a crisis team for children and adolescents so suicide is our No 1 thing, we see it every day.
“I looked at the long-term follow-up studies that use 30 or 40 years worth of data. It’s research based, I haven’t muddied the data, it’s just fact.
Mr Watson has not had any communication from the ANMF about why his article has been retracted.