affirming care for minors, finding that 94 per cent of those that socially transitioned were
still transitioned five years later, and 3.5 per cent of the remaining 7 now identified as non-
binary instead of retransitioning. 52 Furthermore, evidence overwhelmingly demonstrates
that chosen-name use reduces mental distress and depressive symptoms and lowers the
rates of suicidal thoughts (by 29 per cent) and attempts (by 56 per cent), clearly limiting
harm, not stimulating it. 53 This is a clear attack on queerness itself, as traditionalists are
fighting to put legislation in place that would restrict not just trans youths, but anyone that
partook in drag, or wore non-traditional clothes or had a non-traditional name, enforcing
state intervention in a personal choice. Many, including the World Professional Association
of Transgender Health, have compared this with forced conversion therapy. 54
The reform proposes that trans people under 18 aren’t to be protected under the
‘gender reassignment’ clause of the Equalities Act, even if being seen by a GIDS, as ‘they
cannot be treated as “proposing to undergo” a process (or part of a process) for the
“purpose of reassigning” their sex … To apply such a definition to these individuals is to
make assumptions upon the aims and intentions of those referred, the certainty of those
desires and their outward manifestation’. 55 This is despite the fact that ‘proposing to
undergo’ acts as the clear indicator of the aims and intentions of those that wish to
52 Kristina R. Olson, et al, ‘Gender Identity 5 Years After Social Transition’, Pediatrics , 150. 2 (2022) 53 Stephen T. Russell, Amanda M. Pollitt, Gu Li, Arnold H. Grossman, Journal of Adolescent Health, 63 (2018), pp. 504-505 54 WPATH, ASIAPATH, EPATH, PATHA, USPATH, Response to NHS England in the United Kingdom (25 November 2022) <https://www.wpath.org/media/cms/Documents/Public%20Policies/2022/25.11.22%20AUSPATH%20Stateme nt%20reworked%20for%20WPATH%20Final%20ASIAPATH.EPATH.PATHA.USPATH.pdf?_t=1669428978> [Accessed 13/01/2023] 55 ‘NHS England: Equality and Health Inequalities Impact Assessment’, Interim Service Specification for Specialised Services for Children and Young People with Gender Dysphoria (Phase 1 Services) , (12 October 2022), <https://www.engage.england.nhs.uk/specialised-commissioning/gender-dysphoria- services/user_uploads/b1937_iii_equalities-health-impact-assessment-interim-service-specification.pdf> [Accessed 12/01/2023]
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