The Cass Report is a starting point for putting things right

Even a hint of concern was met with a deliberate, co-ordinated, and febrile attempt at reputational destruction. Such are the tactics of the #BeKind brigade.

When they said they wanted “no debate”, they meant it. Since 2019, I have consistently faced down claims that there is fault on both sides, because that claim is also a lie.

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Those of us who have raised concerns have never been motivated by the heresy of transphobia – a word that’s lost all power or meaning.

We spoke up because we had the vantage point of decades of professional experience in health, criminal justice, psychological services, women’s services, and other walks of life, and we could see the Stonewall project for the dangerous, anarchic and disruptive movement it always was.

Yet some bad-faith actors still claim they’re fighting for LGBTQA+ equality. This, too, is a conceit and a lie. When you evacuate the true meaning of words such as “sex,” you remove the fundamental defining characteristic of what it means to be male, female, heterosexual and homosexual.

Gender ideology is completely at odds with LGB rights, because its central tenet requires the nullification of one’s natal sex.

As a result, if you include gender ideology’s TQA+ in your activism, you are diametrically opposed to protecting the sex-based rights of both LGB people and women. You are also attacking the many courageous transsexuals who oppose gender ideology and acknowledge their very identity rests on their psychological mismatch with their natal sex.

In my Adjournment Debate on the Rights of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Gender Non-conforming Young People last Monday, I set out the myriad dangers this ideology presents to LGB young people and the homophobia I believe is at the heart of queer theory.

The publication of the Cass Report on April 10 was a sobering event and put beyond question the harm that has been inflicted on vulnerable children and young people because ideology was allowed to triumph over scientific rigour and clinical evidence at Gender Identity Development Services (GIDS) such as the Tavistock and, closer to home. in Scotland’s Sandyford service.

FOR proponents of queer theory, and the gender identity crusade they have been pursuing, the response has been a bit of a mixed bag. Some, such as Labour shadow health secretary Wes Streeting, have reversed their previously espoused position, apologising for getting it so very wrong and saying the report needs to be taken seriously and implemented in full.

Others, such as Baroness Hunt, the former CEO of Stonewall, have attempted to rewrite history with claims they were always “trying to build consensus”. However, her words were swiftly and rightly rebuked by those who experienced the worst of the “no debate” enforcement tactics so favoured and fostered by Stonewall.

And then there are the Cass deniers, who believe their obsession with a now-discredited ideology outweighs the academic ability, clinical judgement and professional standing of a former president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health.

Cass denial has led some to spread disinformation about the report, including some MPs. As a result, its author, Dr Hilary Cass (below), has been advised not to travel on public transport over fears for her safety. In a recent interview Cass was resolute and clear: “If you deliberately try to undermine a report that has looked at the evidence of children’s healthcare, then that’s unforgivable. You are putting children at risk by doing that.” She’s absolutely correct.

No more starkly is this demonstrated by the Cass Report in the risk posed to the health of LGB and other gender non-conforming children and young people.

As highlighted by gay rights charity LGB Alliance, Cass found that 89% of girls and 81% of boys referred to GIDS were ultimately not trans but were homosexual or bisexual. This indicates an alarming pattern of misdiagnosis and inappropriate, unnecessary, and irreversible medical and surgical interventions.

It confirms what many have feared: that the NHS GIDS adoption of gender affirmation as a model of care has led them, whether inadvertent or not, to practising medical and surgical gay conversion therapy.

While Cass may have lifted the lid on the ideological capture of health, the ideology has been promoted and fostered across our public bodies. Under the guise of Stonewall’s Diversity Champions Programme, its agenda has been inserted into policing, education, criminal justice and the policy base of the Westminster, Welsh and Scottish parliaments.

The shrill but manifestly wrong claims that the Cass Report is flawed are but an echo of the way in which the march of queer theory extremism has progressed, largely unchallenged by journalists and broadcasters.

The Cass Report builds on the concerns set out in Michael Shellenberger’s WPATH Files report by Mia Hughes from March. The WPATH Files report was first to expose the culture inside the World Professional Association of Transgender Healthcare (WPATH).

The Cass Report also criticises WPATH guidelines as lacking in evidence and developmental rigour and emphasises the vital need for fully informed consent, especially for young people with mental health conditions or other diagnosable co-morbidities.

Together, the WPATH Files report and Cass Report make clear that the WPATH Standards of Care are ideologically driven documents masquerading as clinical standards.

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Tragically for children in the UK, WPATH’s Standards of Care have repeatedly been lauded by governments as “international best practice” and have been a pernicious influence on NHS protocols since 2011. Young LGB people and many others have been so badly failed.

When I put myself forward as a candidate to become an MP in 2019, I believed the SNP could still engage in respectful debate on any issue. I also believed the party’s primary focus was the cause of independence. Over the past five years both of those beliefs have been repeatedly shattered.

As we move toward another General Election, one I hoped Scotland would never have to contest, I have a track record of achievement upon which I am proud to stand – more than 12,000 constituency cases handled; more than £120,000 of cash recovered for hard-up constituents; challenging the Tories on Scotland’s energy robbery and fuel poverty, and many more besides. And I’m the only MP to introduce legislation on Scottish self-determination.

As I launch my campaign for re-election with Alba, my commitment to independence will never waver,but as a movement we can only achieve that by striving to do the right thing for all of Scotland.

While the vindication the Cass Report provides is important, there is little yet to celebrate and still much to be done.

The report serves as a starting point for putting things right, but there is much still to do in addressing wider concerns, particularly on women’s rights and in education. This was a battle I never sought, but it was one I always knew I could simply not avoid.