I’ve long since passed the point when I thought posting anything political on the internet made any difference, and what I’m about to say is on an issue where questioning a particular orthodoxy often results in abuse.
But I don’t actually want to look back in a year or two and think I kept my head down on this issue for fear of some aggro on social media. Or even for fear of losing friends who had once been good friends.
The Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust’s lead for safeguarding children, Sonia Appleby, is taking her own employer to court as a whistleblower, claiming that she was victimised after bringing forward concerns from clinical psychiatrists working on the Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS), the only adolescent gender clinic in England, which also receives referrals from Wales and both jurisdictions in Ireland.
The Trust is bringing forward disciplinary action against another clinician, David Bell, who had been approached by GIDS staff with concerns because he was a staff governor on the Trust, and who then wrote an internal report critical of GIDS.
It has been reported that 40 clinicians resigned from GIDS in just three years to early 2020.