NATIONAL: 'Cass Report shows child transition harms'

The release of the full report by Dr Hillary Cass as Chair of the Independent Review of gender identity services for children and young people in Britain has been described as a “watershed moment”.

The Cass Report was published on Wednesday (April 10, 2024) and can be read HERE.

A spokesperson for The Countess  - a non-profit, volunteer-led organisation formed to promote the rights and interests of women and children in Ireland - said the Cass Report “vindicated” its position and its publication was “a watershed moment”. 

Laoise de Brún BL, CEO and Founder of The Countess, added: ‘We at the Countess have been writing to HIQA (Health Information and Quality Authority), the Department of Health and the HSE (Health Service Executive) since 2020 to alert them to the dangers of puberty blockers and medical transition of young people. They cannot say they did not know.

“This report vindicates our position that child transition of any sort, social or medical, is harmful to the normal development of that child. Schools, clubs, and other groups should take note of these findings and review their own practices in relation to this.

"If you read between the lines, Dr Cass has advised removing the influence of activists from children, the establishment of a national oversight body with clinical responsibility so they will have to ‘show their working’ and stand by any patient decisions.

"The fact that GIDS (Gender Identity Development Service) did not co-operate with the request for follow-up review and link up of qualitative data between them and adult services is nothing short of a dereliction of their duty of care to those children who went on to become adults,” said Ms De Brún.

She added that Irish children had been treated at GIDS.

“We are calling for immediate and robust action from the HSE and the Department of Health in relation to those children. We are also calling for an end to activist pressure on our own National Gender Service so that clinicians there can continue to uphold the clinical standards they have set. 

“Dr Cass was damning of WPATH (World Professional Association for Transgender Health) and American Academy of Pediatrics who quoted each other’s studies in a circular way to boost their arguments but ignored all others.

“The Countess Conference entitled ‘Resisting Ideology’ is taking place in Dublin’s RDS on April 27. We will have a panel entitled ‘Who is the trans child?’ with Stella O’Malley, Executive Director and Founder of Genspect, the mother of a child who identified as trans but desisted, and Richie Heron, a man who told his story of medical and surgical transition and his subsequent detransition on Newsnight. This panel will give deeper insight into the personal harms this dangerous swerve from normal medical standards has caused. 

“The Conference as a whole aims to examine and explain how ideologies have shaped Irish and international policy and law, and also to give ordinary people tools they can use to push back and resist the wholesale reshaping of our society.”