I’d been looking forward to this conference for weeks — the inaugural Coalition Advancing Scientific Care (CASC) Gender Healthcare Summit — and it didn’t disappoint. I was especially excited to hear from one of my favourite writers, Helen Joyce, author of the bestselling book “Trans: When Ideology meets Reality” , along with many other incredible speakers such as Dr Jillian Spencer, Professor Riittakerttu Kaltiala, Dr Dylan Wilson, Dr Andrew Amos, and more. It was shaping up to be a truly important event.
I arrived in Adelaide on a perfect spring day and decided to take a quiet stroll before the evening dinner event with Dr Jillian Spencer as the guest speaker. I wandered through the Art Gallery of South Australia, enjoying the peace and the beauty of the paintings—a rare moment of reflection before what I knew would be a thought-provoking evening.
The dinner was lovely. I sat with some wonderful Tasmanian friends—an eclectic group with different backgrounds but shared concern for truth and safeguarding. There were doctors, advocates, parents, and women’s sex-based rights supporters. It felt like being among people who truly care about the wellbeing of children and integrity in medicine.
Dr Jillian Spencer’s talk was deeply personal. She shared her childhood experiences, her early career, and the moment she realised she could no longer stay silent while children were being affirmed without proper assessment or questioning. After being stood down from Children’s Health Queensland, she has shown remarkable courage in continuing to speak publicly about the flaws in the gender-affirming model. Her honesty and strength are inspiring—qualities not often seen today when so many prefer to stay quiet or go along with the crowd.
A highlight of the evening was a surprise Q&A with Helen Joyce and Professor Riittakerttu Kaltiala, offering a glimpse of what was to come in the main sessions. Both brought sharp insight and compassion to the discussion, setting the stage for a powerful second day of the summit.
It was a wonderful beginning to a significant conference—filled with optimism, evidence, and courage. These conversations give hope that the future of gender medicine in Australia can once again be guided by science, ethics, and the best interests of children.
The Coalition Advancing Scientific Care (CASC) is an Australian organisation formed in 2023 in response to the growing number of children and adolescents presenting with gender dysphoria or gender-related distress. The coalition promotes ethical, evidence-based approaches to care and works with professionals across medicine, science, law, education, and politics, as well as young people, parents, desisters, and detransitioners. CASC’s position is clear: the current “gender-affirming care” model, as practised in Australia, is not adequately supported by evidence and poses risks to children and adolescents. Their stance isn’t ideological—it’s grounded in the principle of “first, do no harm.”