Time to Pause

Why those in publishing need to stop cheerleading puberty blockers

‘It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends.’ So said Albus Dumbledore by the pen of one of the bravest women out there, JK Rowling, and it makes me wonder – when will the authors, publishers, book sellers and librarians who have celebrated books extolling the wonders of puberty blockers stand up to their friends and admit they were wrong?

I don’t mean the authors of those books. I don’t imagine for a minute that they will ever admit they were wrong. Quite simply, they’ve got too much to lose. Their books were aimed at impressionable children and have played a huge part in pathologising puberty and the discomfort most adolescents experience. They’ve played a huge part in the insidious creep that children have been soaking up, that enjoying toys, clothes and sports traditionally enjoyed by the opposite sex means they really are the opposite sex trapped in the wrong body. They’ve played a huge part in telling those vulnerable children that their discomfort and general feeling of wrongness can be fixed by fully reversible puberty blockers, and that anyone who says differently is a hateful, transphobic bigot. Those authors and their cheerleaders will never admit they were wrong, even under the mounting weight of evidence against them.

NHS England’s announcement this week that gender clinics will be banned from prescribing puberty blockers in all but exceptional cases, and only then as part of a long overdue and much needed clinical trial, has been met with the usual outrage. This, despite the reasons for the ban – that there is no evidence that puberty blockers are either safe or effective. This, despite mounting evidence that these drugs – which we must never forget are heavy-duty GnRH agonists used to treat advanced prostate cancer and chemically castrate sex offenders – can permanently disrupt brain development and lead to infertility, an increased risk of osteoporosis and, with the pathway it puts 98% of users on, a lifetime of sexual dysfunction. This, despite mounting evidence that disproves the grotesque assertion that denying gender confused children puberty blockers leads to increased risk of suicide.

Rather than admit they were wrong, the cheerleaders have their fingers in their ears and are loudly singing, ‘la la la la, I’m not listening.’ They would rather tie themselves in knots and convince themselves that all the evidence is wrong than admit they’ve backed the wrong horse. In their desperation to Be Kind, they’ve contributed to demonstrable harm, and that can’t be an easy thing for anyone to accept, never mind live with.

But there were other, less vocal, cheerleaders in the publishing world, those who can put their hands on their hearts and say, ‘I genuinely believed that these books were a good thing for gender confused children as it showed those children they weren’t alone in their feelings and that there was help for them.’ And it’s those people I’m writing this for: the people who stood alongside the vocal cheerleaders because they were their friends or colleagues, and who wanted to do what they believed was the right thing. To those authors and publishing professionals, know this – you can help stop this. Stand up to your friends and colleagues. Show them the evidence, because it’s all there. And for the publishers who were too cowed by their junior staff and/or too desperate to prove they weren’t old-fashioned bigots to be the adults in the room, you can now say no. All the evidence is there that the books you are writing, publishing and promoting are causing great harm.

It's time for those in publishing with some moral fibre left to come together and stand together, and at the very least agree to press pause on the books telling children and adolescents that puberty blockers are a safe and effective pause button. Pause them until the clinical trial has been completed and the full results published. And then go further and put a pause on publishing anything aimed at children that even hints at medicalising gender discomfort because, as the leaked WPATH files prove, it’s all steeped in dishonesty. The ‘professionals’ KNOW children cannot consent to this treatment as they don’t have the capacity to understand the long-term implications of it. And they know the health risks are much more dangerous than they want anyone to believe. To continue publishing and promoting books telling impressionable children and adolescents that puberty blockers and the inevitable cross-sex hormones that follow are safe is, quite simply, monstrous.