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Rishi Sunak claims allowing gender-questioning children to change their pronouns or dress as the opposite sex could harm their wellbeing.
The Prime Minister warned that the so-called “social transition” “is not a neutral act.”
Social transition refers to when someone changes the way they present themselves or express themselves, for example by using different bathrooms.
Mr Sunak’s comments came ahead of the publication of a landmark report into the care of trans children in England.
The long-awaited Cass Review, written by leading pediatrician Dr Hilary Cass, is expected to recommend that young people questioning their gender should not be locked into radical medical treatment.
The Prime Minister warned that so-called “social transition”, in which society treats a child who questions their gender as the gender they identify with rather than their biological sex, “is not a neutral act”. Pictured is Rishi Sunak visiting a nursery earlier this month.
The Tavistock Center closed a couple of weeks ago after it was found to be “not a safe or viable long-term option”.
MailOnline understands the report will advocate for children to have a comprehensive mental health support package.
It is understood that this approach would place greater emphasis on family dynamics at home and whether children have other issues that need to be addressed.
Mr Sunak’s official spokesman said the Prime Minister supported the approach of the report.
They said: ‘We have talked about the importance of the safety and well-being of children and adolescents being paramount.
‘This builds on previous work, such as the NHS announcement to end the routine prescribing of puberty blockers.
“Underlying our strong and clear guidance for schools, we are categorical that social transition is not a neutral act and that no one should be forced to use preferred pronouns or accept controversial beliefs as fact.”
Dr Hilary Cass, who was commissioned by NHS England to report on its Gender Identity Development Services (Gids), will publish her final report tomorrow.
Its interim report, published in 2022, criticized the country’s only transgender children’s service, at London’s Tavistock Clinic, as “not a safe or viable long-term option”, eventually leading to its closure.
It also led to England’s National Health Service announcing a ban on GPs prescribing puberty blockers, which stop physical changes in young people such as breast development and facial hair growth.
“To date, very limited research has been conducted on the short-, medium-, or long-term impact of puberty blockers on neurocognitive development,” Dr. Cass wrote at the time.
It also added that the NHS had not collected routine and consistent data on drug use, “meaning it is not possible to accurately track the outcomes and routes that children and young people take through the service”.
Ahead of Dr Cass’s report, campaigners also called for loopholes to be closed to prevent private clinics from continuing to distribute powerful hormones and for NHS doctors to circumvent the ban.
It comes amid a growing body of research into the potential dangers and irreversible changes that puberty blockers could have on children.
Last week, US experts warned that the drugs can shrivel testicles, cause infertility or cancer in children who take them.
And earlier this year, a world-renowned expert discovered that drugs can harm children’s IQ.
University College London neuropsychologist Professor Sallie Baxendale alarming study highlighted cases where the young women apparently lost between seven and 15 IQ points while taking the drugs.