Mother criticises agenda from above that things need to be more difficult’
The Guardian|April 10, 2024
While the Cass report's 400 pages will be pored over and debated, one thing is certain - young trans people face an anxious future.
Robyn Vinter
Mother criticises agenda from above that things need to be more difficult’

The mother of a 17-year-old trans girl who was a patient at the now closed gender identity development service (Gids) at the Tavistock and Portman NHS foundation trust said she had initially welcomed the inquiry, but was left disappointed.

She had believed the Tavistock was "fundamentally not fit for purpose" as a specialist clinic set up to handle a small number of patients, but the "hysterical environment" surrounding the report was leading to young people losing out on healthcare.

Since the closure of the Tavistock her child's care has been left up in the air. "We were wondering what the hell was going on. In fact, we heard nothing - the first letter we got from the NHS about what was going on was a week after Gids closed."

She described being "shocked as hell" when her child began saying she was a girl at the age of eight in 2015. A charity recommended she be referred to the Tavistock, "on the basis that it would either go away or it wouldn't and it didn't go away".

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