NZ vs the Cass Review

It's Friday April 19th, 10 days since the Final Report of the Cass Review was published. I list, for posterity and without comment (for now) the following major NZ responses and media coverage.

Context: The Review…

The Cass Review Final Report

…and a taste of UK coverage

• Hilary Cass: Weak evidence letting down children over gender care, BBC, 10/4/24

• Gender medicine ‘built on shaky foundations’, Cass review finds, 10/4/24.

• ‘Children are being used as a football’: Hilary Cass on her review of gender identity service, The Guardian, 10/4/24.

• What Cass review says about surge in children seeking gender services, Guardian 10/4/24.

• EDITORIAL: The Guardian view on the Cass report: rising numbers of gender distressed young people need help, 11/04/24.

• NHS England’s Response to the Final Report of the Independent Review of Gender Identity Services for Children and Young People, National Health Service, [12]/4/24.

• “Medication is binary, but gender expressions are often not”—the Hilary Cass interview, British Medical Journal, 9/4/24.

• OPINION: Gender medicine for children and young people is built on shaky foundations. Here is how we strengthen services, Hilary Cass, British Medical Journal, 11/4/24.

• EDITOR’S CHOICE: The Cass review: an opportunity to unite behind evidence informed care in gender medicine, British Medical Journal, 11/4/24.

Mainstream NZ media coverage

• NHS to stop prescribing puberty blockers to under-18s, NewstalkZB 10/4/24.

• Govt won’t say if it will follow UK move on puberty blocker use [Audio], RNZ, 11/4/24.

• Government won't say if it will follow Britain's move to ban routine use of puberty blockers. RNZ, 11/4/2024. Republished on NZ Herald and NewstalkZB.

• Ministry of Health 'taking the time to get it right' on puberty blockers, RNZ, 11/4/24.

• Politics Friday: National’s Matt Doocey and Labour’s Megan Woods on Puberty Blockers, NewstalkZB, 12/4/24.

• Ministry of Health delays review into use of puberty blockers, RNZ, 18/4/24. Republished by Otago Daily Times.

• NHS to stop prescribing puberty blockers to under-18s, NewstalkZB 10/4/24.

• What access to puberty blockers means for trans young people and their whānau, The Spinoff, 19/4/24.

Other NZ media

• Review of evidence for puberty blockers and hormone treatment in youth – Expert Reaction, Science Media Centre, 10/4/24.

• Report into UK’s Gender Identity Services says “Thousands of children let down by NHS”, Gay Express, 11/4/24.

• Opinion: A Rebuttal To Britain's Cass Review, Gay Express, 11/4/24.

• Emeritus Professor Charlotte Paul on the Puberty Blocker Disaster, The Platform, 15/4/24.

• The Cass Review reader: investigations into the treatment of gender dysphoric children and youth, The Standard, 15/4/24

• Bob McCoskrie on the NHS Move to Ban Puberty Blockers in the UK, The Platform, 19/4/24.

Lobby groups

PATHA*

• Cass Review out of step with high-quality care provided in Aotearoa

• Cass Review out-of-line with medical consensus and lacks relevance in Australian context (PATHA is co-signer of this letter)

• PATHA has also cosigned a WPATH statement with its Indian, Australian and US equivalents. No link available.

*PATHA, the Professional Association for Transgender Health Aotearoa is currently receiving government funding to rewrite New Zealand’s guidelines on gender healthcare.

InsideOUT* (in different versions the statement seems to be variously cosigned by Rainbow Youth, Qtopia, and Outline)

• InsideOUT and other organisations are promoting a series of images on social media. The first one reads “It’s time to take out the trash, why the Cass review into gender affirming care should be thrown out”. It goes on to say: “The Cass Review is a biased, unethical, methodologically flawed and politically motivated review that disregards a strong evidence base in support of affirming models of trans healthcare. It ignores the consensus of major medical bodies around the world and lacks relevance in an Aotearoa context.” Other images position the Cass Review as part of a campaign against trans people and points out what it perceives as flaws in the study’s methodology. The final slide points readers to Project Village a website funded through the Royal Society’s Marsden Fund which promotes gender affirmation and puberty blockers.

Image 1 on the threaded social media posts on InsideOUT’s facebook page

Image 2

….on to the final image.

The final image on a similar thread published on Rainbow Youth’s Instagram.

*InsideOUT receives core funding from Ministry of Health, Ministry of Justice and Te Puna Aonui (an Intergovernmental venture on sexual and family violence). In 2023 InsideOUT’s operational budget tripled in size partly due to new funding for training of the mental health sector.¹ In 2021 InsideOUT alongside Rainbow Youth received 3.2 million dollars for primary mental health and addiction services.²

Speak Up For Women

• MEDIA RELEASE: Speak Up for Women welcome the findings of the Cass Review

• Correcting the homework, Speak Up For Women, (rebuts PATHA, InsideOUT’s and Dr Sue Bagshaw’s reaction to the Cass Review).

Genspect NZ

• Genspect NZ welcomes the Final Report by Dr Hilary Cass

Family First

• McBlog—Cass Review—the trans agenda suffers mortal blow

1. https://insideout.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/InsideOUT-Annual-Report-2021-22.pdf

2. https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/govt-delivers-more-wellbeing-support-rainbow-young-people