By Ollie Bell
In December, the Northern Ireland Executive approved the extension of the UK’s puberty blockers ban for under 18s to the North. This was backed by all four parties in the Executive: Sinn Féin, the DUP, the UUP, and Alliance. The action was taken to prevent Northern Ireland from becoming a ‘back-door’ for trans youth in the UK seeking this life-saving treatment.
What are puberty blockers?
Puberty blockers have quickly become a hotly debated and polarising topic, with anxiety and fear being spread to intentionally confuse and mislead the public about what puberty blockers are.
Puberty blockers are medications that postpone puberty in children. Gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) agonists are most commonly used. They suppress the production of sex hormones (i.e testosterone and estrogen). They’re usually prescribed to delay precocious puberty in children. The medication is also used in some hormone-sensitive cancers or in fertility treatment for adults.
When they are prescribed for young trans people, it’s to allow them more time to solidify their gender identity. For many trans youth, these medications are a lifeline. It means they aren’t forced to develop secondary sex characteristics like breast development or a deeper voice that might be harder / more expensive to change as an adult.
The Cass Review
Banning puberty blockers was prompted mainly by the Cass Review, commissioned by NHS England to make recommendations on how to improve NHS services for trans youth. The final report, published last April, contained 32 recommendations – none of which includes a complete ban on puberty blockers.
The Cass Review is far from a neutral report, however. It states there is a lack of evidence for puberty blockers and social transition. But this was only after the report threw out 16 studies of over 30,000 trans and non-binary youth. The data from these studies shows access to gender-affirming care is associated with better mental health outcomes, while denial is associated with higher rates of suicidality, depression and self-harm.
The puberty blockers ban is not only just about these medications though. This is just one tactic being used to oppress and force trans people out of existence. Just a month after the Cass Report, the UK government released a draft of new guidelines for Relationship, Sex and Health Education (RSHE). This draft would prohibit schools from teaching about the “highly contested theory” of gender identity, a recommendation reminiscent of Section 28 – the homophobic law introduced by Thatcher and repealed in 2003.
Similar restrictions are being put on schools in the South by the Department of Education, which says schools have no general duty to allow a young trans person to transition socially and should take a ‘cautious approach’. Both draft guidelines cite the Cass Review to justify these guidelines.
Backstabbed
While it’s not surprising to see the right-wing, conservative parties support these policies, it was a shock to some that Sinn Féin’s would support it. But Sinn Féin has been on a right-wing turn in recent years – pandering to anti-immigration notions being whipped up by the far right in Ireland. Now it’s anti-trans notions. Clearly, parties like Sinn Fein provide nothing but lip service towards the LGBTQI+ community – waving pride flags with one hand while signing away our rights with the other.
Despite being backstabbed by Sinn Féin, the trans community is not backing down. Outside the office of Wes Streetings, young activists from Trans Kids Deserve Better set up an encampment in protest after the health secretary announced a permanent ban on puberty blockers. In the North, a protest was called by Trans Pride NI which ROSA and the Socialist Party supported.
Trans liberation will never come from the liberal sections of the establishment, nor parties like Sinn Féin who will put electoral gains over trans lives. It will come from a militant, vibrant trans movement – one that recognises the systemic role capitalism plays in whipping up transphobia and stands in solidarity with all oppressed people. We cannot rely on liberal parties to hand us informed, consent-based trans healthcare. It is only through a radical socialist movement with bodily autonomy at its core that we will win full healthcare rights for trans people.
