Last week, a headline appeared on the front page of The Courier-Mail titled “CHILDREN’S GENDER SCANDAL”. The story focused on Cairns Sexual Health Service allegedly prescribing “unauthorised” puberty blockers to children as young as 12, without informing parents or undertaking the required multidisciplinary consultation.
Queensland Health Minister Tim Nicholls soon leapt into action, announcing an external evaluation of the state’s entire children’s gender services, as well as an immediate “pause” on all hormone therapies for under-18s in the state.
Due to one clinic in Far North Queensland failing to follow the required protocols for prescribing medication, the state’s children’s gender services were put on ice. This made Queensland the first Australian state to restrict hormone therapy for young people, despite the medicine being linked to much higher life satisfaction and fewer symptoms of depression and anxiety, and often being considered life-saving.
A few days later, federal Health Minister Mark Butler announced a review into gender-affirming care for under-18s. He said the National Health and Medical Research Council would lead it and update the guidelines for the care of young people with gender dysphoria. In the meantime, Queensland should withdraw its state-based review, he said. Funnily enough, the LNP refused.
All of this from a story in The Courier-Mail, which failed to report that the health service’s internal preliminary review in 2024 found zero evidence of patient harm, only areas where it could “improve processes”.
While a story of medical malpractice may be valid, the Liberal National Party’s swift and disproportionate response is of a piece with its longstanding support for anti-trans policies. The LNP voted last year at its annual national party conference to ban puberty blockers, and in 2022 voted in favour of a failed motion in the state Parliament to ban transgender women from participating in women’s sports.
To also suggest that The Courier-Mail — the Brisbane-based tabloid that is no stranger to inflaming debate on transgender issues — was simply breaking a story is disingenuous, considering it regularly platforms Jillian Spencer, a former psychiatrist known for her anti-trans campaigning, who in 2023 was stood down from clinical duties pending an investigation following complaints from a transgender patient. She also admits to having previously refused to use her patient’s correct pronouns and dissuading her patients from accessing their recommended healthcare.
Minister Nicholls would never be this quick or heavy-handed with any other, even more serious, healthcare concern. The Mackay Base Hospital faced a recent controversy about medical professionals working well outside the scope of their role and education. This development didn’t lead to Nicholls urgently shutting down the entire hospital, however; instead the minister issued a simple assurance that “no patient harm has occurred”. A strange thing to say, given that inadequate care led to the deaths of three babies three years ago.
The Queensland government’s pause on puberty blockers flies in the face of medical consensus on healthcare for transgender people, and has led to outcry from healthcare professionals, queer advocacy groups and members of the public. More than 100 transgender rights activists, including parents and children, protested outside Minister Nicholls’ office the day after the ban was announced.
Australia’s medical professionals profoundly support transgender healthcare, for minors and adults. The Australian Medical Association (AMA) has long supported the right to gender-affirming care, whether that be through puberty blockers, hormones or surgeries, and has called for support and protection for medical professionals administering this care.
Last year, the AMA called on the federal government to enhance access to gender-affirming care, including through the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme and Medicare Benefits Schedule. The AMA and the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists condemned the Queensland ban on puberty blockers, respectively saying it “does not allow high-quality services in this sensitive practice area to continue” and that it “has caused significant distress in an already vulnerable patient cohort”.
Anti-trans lobby groups have international connections and very deep pockets. They have been persistent in stacking conservative political parties in their favour, and achieved another federal win with the appointment of hard-right South Australian Liberal Leah Blyth to the Senate.
Whether we like it or not, this isn’t going away anytime soon. But the more ideology overtakes politics and supersedes people’s healthcare, the more we all lose. It isn’t just transgender kids losing their healthcare rights, as the AMA has outlined — healthcare access has reduced significantly. What is being done to address this crisis? Who knows, but Nicholls placing restrictions on trans healthcare isn’t going to fix anything.
An independent report into Queensland Children’s Gender Service conducted last year found there was no evidence of patients or families being “hurried or coerced” into medicine, and that the service provided “effective care from referral to discharge”. The report made 25 recommendations, including an increase in staff numbers, an expansion of the services to help provide effective coverage to rural Queensland, and better data collection to help monitor patient outcomes. This exemplary healthcare has since been disrupted due to the LNP’s ban.
In Victoria, an inquest conducted into the suicides of five trans women made similar findings. Coroner Ingrid Giles called for “urgent investment” into transgender healthcare, citing fear of medical discrimination, extensive waitlists and under-resourcing of the transgender healthcare sector as major contributing factors in the deaths of these women. While Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan has made statements in support of LGBTQIA+ people, this hasn’t translated into the material support we actually need.
It’s hard to imagine the federal review will have any positive outcomes for the transgender community, given these constant pleas to expand our healthcare have been ignored. Even if the federal review was an attempt to disrupt the LNP’s crusade against transgender kids, it was horrendously limp-wristed. It’s also impossible to not view the actions of the LNP as blatant discrimination. For example, estradiol, an oestrogen medication that transgender women take, is widely used for contraception and menopausal relief as well hormone therapy, but the LNP has now prevented doctors from prescribing estradiol to transgender girls simply because the patients are transgender.
The end result of our healthcare becoming the political plaything of the government is that everyone’s healthcare is being neglected. An increasing number of Australians are putting off visits to doctors, and very little is being done to solve it. During a time when the healthcare of the general population urgently needs investment, healthcare is being restricted instead. Meanwhile, the primary victims of this are children. As history has shown, transgender kids can be extremely passionate about their rights. When puberty blockers were banned by UK Health Secretary Wes Streeting, a grassroots network of transgender kids scaled up the headquarters of the National Health Service (NHS) and organised an encampment outside Streeting’s office.
Transgender people are also known for sharing information about how to source hormones outside the mainstream health services during cases of excessive waitlists or failures of care. We’re tenacious, and we care for each other. It’s what happens when politicians show such carelessness for our lives.
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