The presentation, called “Detransition and regret following gender affirming treatment for gender dysphoria: what psychiatrists need to know”, is scheduled to take place on the first day of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (RANZCP) 2024 Congress in Canberra on May 20.
But an online petition by the Australian National University’s Queer* Department, a representative body for LGBTQIA+ students, demands the College scrap the session, accusing it of “promoting anti-trans rhetoric”.
The petition, which has been signed more than 600 times, directs people to the group’s social media posts, which claim the speakers Dr Alison Clayton, Dr Robert D’Angelo and Dr Patrick Clarke, have “known links to transphobic organisations and publish fearmongering academic articles”.
Dr D’Angelo, a psychiatrist based in NSW’s Byron Bay and the president of the Society for Evidence Based Gender Medicine, told Sky News that the attempt to “cancel” the presentation was disheartening.
He says he has received abuse since the petition was launched.
“Ultimately, the best way we can ensure our patients receive the best possible healthcare is to have open discussion – about when your treatments are successful, when they are not, and when they do harm.
National Association of Practising Psychiatrists president Dr Philip Morris said the petition and threats of protest were ‘intimidation’ tactics the College had a duty to address publicly.
Dr Morris has emailed the College’s president Dr Elizabeth Moore, urging her to make a public statement making it clear the activist pressure would not be tolerated, but had not received a response.