TransActual Publishes Open Letter About Cass Report
UK trans rights organization TransActual has published an open letter, with an impressive number of signatures from experts in the field of gender-affirming care, demanding that the UK government stop implementing the draconian suggestions of the Cass Report.
Opinion by Alyssa Steinsiek
Let’s talk about the Cass Report yet again.
Well, more specifically, let’s talk about a bold new effort to have the Report’s suggested course of action by the UK government put on hold in the form of a ten-page open letter. The letter, addressed to Wes Streeting, who is the current Secretary of State for Health and Social Care under the UK’s new Labour government, was penned and published by pro-trans activist organization TransActual UK.
Their goals include supporting UK trans and non-binary communities, as well as working to improve trans and non-binary people’s healthcare experiences, establish legal recognition and protection for trans and non-binary people, and help improve media representation of trans people. It’s no wonder, seeing as the British press has consisted of wall to wall transphobia for years now.
This isn’t the first time TransActual has spoken out publicly against the Cass Report. One of the most significant effects of the Cass Report’s influence on the UK government has been the ban on puberty blockers at both the public and private care level. The private care ban, first issued as temporary in May of this year, has since been extended to the end of November. TransActual challenged this ban without success, after which their director for health, Chay Brown, said, “Defence evidence makes clear that they decided on an emergency ban first and sought ways to justify it second. We are seriously concerned about the safety and welfare of young trans people in the UK."
In TransActual’s open letter, they accuse the government of “[excluding] members of the patient cohort and those with long-term experience in the field,” and failing to “ensure that there is transparency and meritocracy in the appointment of key personnel.” The Cass Report, they say, found “crushingly long wait times, drawn out assessment procedures, and strong indicators of long-term accuracy in the targeting treatment,” and so question its stated recommendations, which “seek to undermine trans people’s care.”
They’re right to be angry. We know that, here in the US, one in four trans youth have attempted suicide. 72% report feeling hopelessness. A study has charted the massive increase in suicidality among trans kids that happens in states where criminalization of gender-affirming care has become the law of the land. Measures taken to stop trans kids from receiving the care they need cost lives, and the UK is currently full steam ahead when it comes to implementing Hilary Cass’s recommendations. Point of fact, she just received one of the most significant rewards the British government can bestow for her shoddy work.
TransActual goes on to point out both the key methodological failures of the Report, as well as seemingly credible accusations of bias on the part of the recently ennobled baroness. We’ve reported more than once on Cass’s wrongdoings, both during and after the release of the Report, so it goes without saying that Assigned Media feels strongly that the report should have languished in obscurity as a rag barely fit for use as toilet paper, or perhaps never been published at all.
The letter concludes on its third page by calling upon the government to establish transparency by publishing more details about the commissioning of the Report, immediately suspend implementation of the Report’s recommended courses of action, and support the British Medical Association’s ongoing review of the Report. These are all fine points, though we would be remiss if we failed to point out that the BMA, after initially calling for the same suspension of the Report’s recommendations, later caved like cowards to the pressure of bad actors to “remain neutral” while the review is underway.
What remains of TransActual’s open letter after these demands are several pages of signees showing support for their demands, among them many highly esteemed academics and healthcare professionals.
Assigned Media may be an American outlet, but as always, we support our communities across the pond in their endeavors to combat the rise of transphobia, and hope somebody in power heeds their call to action!
Alyssa Steinsiek is a professional writer who spends too much time playing video games!
