World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) Files

The Gillick case wasn’t quite about an U16 wishing to access contraception, it was about an U16 who sought advice regarding contraception, and her mother seeking a declaration that the prescription of contraception to U16 was illegal on the basis that a medical professional would be committing the offence of encouraging sex with a minor. She also sought to have consent declared invalid as consent was vested in the parent. Her case failed, as did the Axon case where your idea of a vast chasm between medical treatments was presented in relation to minors seeking medical advice, medical treatment, sexual matters and confidentiality

You're splitting hairs, and rephrasing what I said in twice the number of words. I also never mentioned "the Axon case". I am comparing Gillick with the general notion of "informed consent" where pre-teens are trying to access puberty blockers, for which the bar for consent should be way higher than what the Gillick case originally established.

Great article in the NY Times which argues convincingly that three of the major medical representative organisations in the US (the American Medical Association 241,000 members, the American Academy of Pediatrics 67,000 members, and the American Psychological Association 190,000 members) cannot be trusted. They have all issued guidance recently which contradicts their previous guidance on gender care, with no accounting for how or why the change has occurred.

Leaving the suspicion (most obvious explanation) that the original guidance was obtained from a small number of activist-clinicians with little oversight of what they were doing. And the updated guidance is bowing partly to political pressure from the Trump administration and also the prospect of compensation claims (like the recent $2 million award to a detransitioner).

At a time when more and more Americans are turning away from expert authority in favor of YouTube quacks and their ilk — and when our own government is pushing scientifically baseless policies on childhood vaccination and climate change — it’s vital that the organizations that represent mainstream science be open, honest and transparent about politically charged issues. If they aren’t, there’s simply no good reason to trust them.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/24/opinion/medical-associations-youth-gender-care.html?unlocked_article_code=1.OlA.K1Iu.kqVZ50_XCtI7&smid=url-share

Incidentally, the comments are worth reading. Some half hearted attempts to discredit the article, which the author replies to.

For anyone interested, Carl Henegan and Tom Jefferson have an excellent series of posts on their Trust The Evidence Substack regarding Gender medicine. They describe the important factors in doing a follow-up study on GIDS patients i.e. the cohort that Cass found weren't properly followed up.

It's a great practical demonstration of the concept of "garbage in, garbage out"😀. Probably also "alternative facts".

This is a fantastic piece in the Daily Mail about the new SPHE curriculum here on transgenderism. It also talks to one of five Irish detransitioners who attended an event in the US a couple of weeks ago.

She says she was failed at every turn — by her school, her medical team, and by Belong To. The organisation, she says, coached young people on what to say to doctors and assessors to get gender reassignment surgery approved. She also raises a safeguarding concern she has never made public before: she has epilepsy, and when she asked Belong To how they would contact her parents if she had a seizure at one of their events, she was told that once she left the building, it was the end of their duty of care. ‘I could have been a Jane Doe lying in a hospital bed at fifteen or sixteen,’ she said. ‘That’s terrifying.’

After her transition she felt temporary relief — the comfort of moving through the world unquestioned. But practical and legal questions piled up. Nobody could tell her whether she retained the right to access female spaces later in life or to see a female gynaecologist. The HSE has her listed under her male name, which she fears could be dangerous if she ever loses consciousness and needs emergency care. ‘I’m in a complete legal no man’s land,’ she said. ‘And I’m completely on my own with it.’

She believes that being exposed to gender ideology at school did not ease her distress — it made it worse. In her single-sex school, she could cut her hair short and wear trousers and nobody thought twice about it. When she moved to a mixed school and first encountered the language of transition, the pressure to go further grew. ‘I only ever wanted the double mastectomy originally,’ she said. ‘It was being in that mixed school environment that made me want testosterone as well.’ Her conclusion is one that the Department of Education might usefully sit with: ‘I think I dealt very well with my gender dysphoria until I found gender ideology. I wish I was just able to grow up and see what happens and deal with it.’

Aside from independent TDs like Carol Nolan, Sean Fleming seems to be one of few party based TDs prepared to speak up. It's a long article that covers a lot (including the video made by former SPHE teacher Mary Creedon).

Fianna Fáil TD Seán Fleming, who watched Creedon’s video, confirmed he stands by his description of some of the material as a disgrace and said no material of that nature should ever be shown or discussed in schools. Independent TD Carol Nolan went further: ‘The very term gender identity is a highly contested concept that bears no relation to anything but the most subjective understanding of human self-understanding,’ she said. ‘It has been used time and again as an ideological trojan horse within which extreme views on sexual identity and child development are presented as accepted norms. The curriculum absolutely does not represent the wishes of the majority of parents I speak to.’ Her conclusion is blunt: ‘The NCCA and the Department of Education are institutionally captured by gender identity zealots who profess to speak for the majority but who in reality are fringe groups with fringe ideas.’

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15686273/lessons-children-learning-trans.html

I forgot to mention this bit. That the teacher training materials encourages teachers to not tell parents if a child is socially transitioning at school.

In a training resource produced by the University of Limerick in partnership with TENI, and included in Department-sanctioned SPHE materials, Hannah Foley, TENI’s Family Support and Education Officer, is asked a stark question: do parents need to be told if their child transitions at school?Her answer is strikingly clear. ‘I think in a post-primary school, the only people who need to be told are the students who are going to be in direct contact with the student who’s transitioning,’ she says. ‘No, I don’t think it’s necessary to tell parents, and I certainly don’t think it’s necessary to tell other students in the school who are in other years, who may not even come into contact with students.’

Apologies, I had meant to respond to this. Is there evidence that he was pressured into finding a particular outcome when SEGM commissioned his review? Or that he succumbed to such pressure?

The real lack of integrity was in his subsequently signing a document which he apparently hadn't read:

I forgot to mention this bit. That the teacher training materials encourages teachers to not tell parents if a child is socially transitioning at school.

In a training resource produced by the University of Limerick in partnership with TENI, and included in Department-sanctioned SPHE materials, Hannah Foley, TENI’s Family Support and Education Officer, is asked a stark question: do parents need to be told if their child transitions at school?Her answer is strikingly clear. ‘I think in a post-primary school, the only people who need to be told are the students who are going to be in direct contact with the student who’s transitioning,’ she says. ‘No, I don’t think it’s necessary to tell parents, and I certainly don’t think it’s necessary to tell other students in the school who are in other years, who may not even come into contact with students.’

Full disclosure. I tracked down the video referred to above. At least I think this is it (link below). The question above related to whether parents of other children should be told about a transition. Not the parents of the transitioning child

https://www.ul.ie/gender-identity-school-resources/section-11

The page above links from this one

https://curriculumonline.ie/senior-cycle/sphe/sphe-toolkit/resources-for-learning-and-teaching-sphe/