A former psychiatric nurse at the Tavistock Clinic, which helps teens change their gender medically, is launching legal action against her former employer.
Susan Evans says that puberty blockers for under-18s should be illegal and that children, including some who are autistic, are being rushed into life-altering decisions.
The landmark case at the High Court against the Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust’s Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS), will decide whether children are able to give informed consent to treatment for gender reassignment.
Children are being rushed into life-altering decisions
Evans is working with ‘Mrs A’, the mother of an autistic 15-year-old girl who is on the GIDS waiting list, in seeking a judicial review. Paul Conrathe, the solicitor representing Evans and Mrs A, said, “The issue is whether the young person is of sufficient maturity and capacity to understand the consequences of their actions.”
Susan Evans told the ‘Today’ programme that children as young as nine are given “a completely experimental treatment for which the long-term consequences are not known”, and that the clinic is unduly influenced by transgender ideology.
She added that most children “convinced they are the other sex” change their minds as they grow older.