About this episode
According to the BBC , the U.K.'s "only dedicated gender identity clinic" for youth has been ordered to shut down. The reason is not a lack of demand. In fact, referrals for "treatment" are 20 times higher than 10 years ago. Rather, the clinic has received wide criticism from an independent report of their practices. Former patient Kiera Bell, now 25, was prescribed puberty blockers at age 16. She underwent a double mastectomy at age 20. She has now changed her mind about the procedures and says that doctors "should have challenged" her thinking, especially at such a young age. A former consultant psychiatrist to the center agrees: "Some children have got the double problem of living with the wrong treatment, and the original problems weren't addressed—with complex problems like trauma, depression, large instances of autism." While countries like the U.K. are questioning these wrongly named "gender affirmation" treatments, clinics, academics, and the executive branch of the government in the U.S. have only doubled down. We should stop now. The rising tide of those who are expressing regret is quickly becoming an ocean.