Exchange of emails between Isla MacGregor, member of Women Speak Tasmania and Children’s Commissioner Leanne McLean
Letter from Isla MacGregor 18.08.22
Dear Leanne,
Re: Inquiry into Tasmania Gender Service following closure of Tavistock Gender Clinic
Women Speak Tasmania are writing to you to request that you urgently conduct an independent inquiry into the current “gender affirmation” model of treatment being used by the Tasmanian Gender Service for the treatment of minors struggling with gender dysphoria.
You will no doubt be aware of the recently announced closure of England’s Tavistock Gender Identity Development Service after an ongoing review by Dr Hillary Cass found the service was “not a safe or viable long-term option”.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-62335665
The Tasmanian Gender Service followed the same ‘gender affirmative’ treatment model as the Tavistock Service subjecting young people to what many clinicians are now saying are experimental treatments that can lead to sterility, sexual dysfunction and long term health problems. Developments that the Tasmanian community are unaware of.
https://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/episodes/tavis/14020382
In 2019 over 260 health professionals wrote to the then Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt calling on him to conduct an inquiry over their shared concern about the epidemic of childhood gender dysphoria and the lack of scientific basis for its current treatment.
The signatories included 20 professors or associate professors, 14 paediatricians , 20 psychiatrists including 9 child psychiatrists, and many other doctors.
England has joined Sweden, France and Finland in taking a more cautious approach to medically interfering with the natural puberty of children.
Last year statements by Dr Marci Bowers and Dr Erica Anderson, two top US gender medical providers and now former board members of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), further confirm the growing international concern over affirmative model of care for minors at the growing number of gender clinics internationally.
https://bariweiss.substack.com/p/top-trans-doctors-blow-the-whistle
It is imperative that your office takes action in the lead up to any Anti Conversion bill being tabled in the Tasmanian Parliament as the developments in the UK are highly significant.
We respectfully suggest that you consult with Dr Phillip Morris, the President of the National Association of Practicing Psychiatrists (NAPP).
The NAPP Guideline states ‘Psychotherapy for gender dysphoria must NOT be conflated with conversion therapies’ and that “a balanced, compassionate, respectful, caring, cautious, conventional and contemporary approach to the assessment and treatment of young people with gender dysphoria/incongruence.
I would like to meet with you to discuss my concerns at your earliest convenience and to provide you with additional information.
Kind regards,
Isla MacGregor
Women Speak Tasmania
Reply from Leanne McLean 14.12.22
Letter from Isla MacGregor 15.12.22
Dear Leanne,
I confirm receipt of your email yesterday in which you outlined your role as Commissioner for Children.
I note you did not respond to the information I provided to you in my email of 18th August 2022 and my requests.
I appreciate, given you said at the meeting at your offices on 24 November with Dr Dianna Kenny and myself that you had ‘avoided these issues’, that you now continue to choose to do so.
I understand your reluctance to do so in the current climate of fear, intimidation and threats of reputational damage being driven by some in the community against anyone who may be supportive of a more thorough and transparent debate on the critical health issues concerning treatment of children with gender dysphoria and relevance to proposed anti conversion laws.
Your response is profoundly disturbing.
Regards
Isla MacGregor