The audience is advised that thefollowing program involves themes which could be disturbing for some viewers tonight on Spotlight you were 15when you had the operation yes back to me and I had my breasts surgically removedit's the most controversial story this year children are being told they should change fromboy to girl or girl to boy from as young as 12 years old you go ahead and take the testosteroneor fix everything I'm a female to male to female detransitioner is a generation being brainwashedit's so trendy it's very in right now I was just looking for a sense of belonging the desperatewarning every parent needs to hear the mother and as a child psychiatrist I could not hold myhead up if I didn't speak about this we are in.
The midst of a medical Scandal I said no no thisis my daughter and you know it's your son children as young as five to ten years of age declaringthis is who I am and this is who I want to be for the rest of my life unlike you I just don't liketo see the Damage Done to the kids who receive no care you're happy to see a 15 year old girl goand have a double mastectomy I was totally lied to hello I'm Michael Usher and welcome to spotlighttonight Liam Bartlett investigates the dramatic rise in Child and Adolescent gender transitions inAustralia turning boys into girls and girls into boys some it is the answer to who they reallyare but for others it's causing irreparable physical and emotional damage genderdysphoria the distress of child experiences because of a mismatch between their genderidentity and their sex assigned at Birth.
Happy pride month here are the top five reasons tobe trans number five the goddess of transformation will whisper to you all of her secrets Number FourHappiness kind of boring but it's true in Perth I'm on my way to meet Courtney she's an upholsterer whose lifeJourney reads like a cautionary Tale right now she's de-transitioning thatis returning to the sex she was born as Courtney wants to undo the decisionshe made in her teens to become a man for five years thanks to testosterone and a rangeof other drugs Courtney identified as Connor do you understand how you got into theheadspace where you thought I would rather be a man instead yeah so back thenit was I was getting a lot of male attention.
And I didn't like that and I thought wellif I was a man life would be so much easier so that was as you were hitting puberty andthen all that became very confusing it was very confusing because my mother was forcingme to be ultra feminine and there was no praise or emphasis on physical strength anymoreit was all about just being pretty okay so from a tomboy you wanted to then almost be a boy yeahwell I got two younger brothers and I was always envious of them and the way my mother let them dowhatever they wanted so that just got in my head that oh this is a thing you can do it's reallyeasy you can just change gender it's no worries I was totally lied to even by doctors I was soldthis thing that isn't possible you used a lot of online stuff right YouTube and all sorts of thingshow much of an influence do you think though.
Online material the online community is for kids who may be suffering gender dysphoriaoh absolutely I think social media is the the ideal modern day psyops platform more thananything I mean if you want to push any agenda that's the way to do it number three it's socool it's so trendy it's very in right now in any way to really know if you are transand you want to transition is to experiment the girls are Girling nothing huge but thereare titties where there wasn't titties before my name is Chloe cool and I was allowed totransition at 12 years old I believe that children deserve better having their momentary feelingsdictate how the rest of their life plays out.
At 12 Chloe changed her name to Leo oneyear later she began changing her body I was 13 when I began taking puberty blockers andtestosterone and I was 15 when I underwent the double mastectomy and I had my breasts surgicallyremoved you were 15 when you had the operation yes one thing Chloe's case proves Beyond doubtis that location has nothing to do with the way kids can be influenced she grew up herein rural California best known around these parts for being the pumpkin capital ofthe world but it may as well be country Victoria or Outback Queensland the point isfor developing children in online communities where they physically are makes no differenceto how they may feel about their physical self before you had the operation did you think ofyourself as a girl or a boy I didn't really.
Have any doubts about being a girl up until I wasmaybe about 11 or 12 when I would look at myself and I felt so ugly like I I wasn't shaped like howI thought women were women were supposed to look like I wasn't particularly curvy I hadsmaller less developed breasts and hips and I like having my hair short I didn't dress femininely andI thought that I would never make a good woman in a lot of ways I would be better off as a boy andI even questioned at times why I was born the way that I was but it wasn't until I was introduced tothe transgender Community online that I actually started to think of myself as a boy so youwere having enormous self-image problems right did your mum or your dad say please don't do this I mean would talk with themabout storing on testosterone.
And I remember my mom telling me like stopped it'snot going to make you happy you know like it's stopping to fix every issue you have and youshould probably wait until you're an adult to do stuff like that which was Beyond a reasonableresponse really but I just thought that they didn't understand I was taught that this wasthe only option that I had to to be myself one of the mantras of the uh thetransgender Community is that trans men are men and trans women are women and inmy heart I really believed that I was a boy so you thought get it donenow get it done early right I the Younger You transition the betterbecause the less like secondary sex characteristics pop up during puberty and sothe less gender dysphoria you'll experience.
From the transgender community I would hearabout how these treatments are all safe for children and adolescents and that the riskswere far outweighed by the benefits of them though that line of thinking doesn't really take into account just how dangerous itis to transition as a kid so you don't like the idea of pubertyblockers no no I mean Sweden I think it's out of Lord them it absolutelypermanently destroys people the the bones their sex drive you can't just play withnature in that way puberty is a human right and no one has the right to intervenewith that even if the patient wants it I've come to Victorian which has the most radicallaws in the country when it comes to gender.
Identity it also has the busiest gender Clinic forChildren and adolescents with over 1 000 patients being seen at Melbourne's Royal Children'sHospital and that has got many people worried we need to review gender affirming policies as amatter of urgency alarmed by Victoria's punitive new laws regarding children and gender Davidlimbrick a Victorian MP from the libertarian party recently sent out a tweet if your childasks you for a tattoo and you say no you're a good parent but if they ask you for pubertyblockers and you say no you're breaking the law the emails came flooding in from parentslike the ones you're about to hear they're too scared to appear on camera but they'veagreed to let us use their words and their voices it may be paranoid of me but having heard ofparents being referred to child protection.
For not affirming gender identities I'm veryvery concerned that this not happened to us we observed that many of our daughters cohortand friends at our school have begun coming out as transgender or non-binary in fact therewere four within a class of 20. many of these parents feel abandoned one psychologist whoadvertised as being a specialist in female autism told me she would affirm my daughterbecause she was a suicide risk their invulnerable situations anda lot of them feel very alone they feel are scared to speak out because they'llbe attacked she started identifying as Transit 16 and taking testosterone at 18. I found out sixmonths later when it became obvious that her voice had broken we're also deeply concerned aboutthe health and also irreversible masculizing side.
Effects I think your voice will get lighterI mean I could pitch it higher if I wanted to hang on I'm going to try and uh it gets into theBarbie voice gets really high up in there yeah um I gotta practice that but uh it's a littlehigher than it was when I was on testosterone my name is Hayden I am one day one weekone month it's one year on testosterone is this issue a little bit poisonous for apolitician it's very poisonous I was scared to talk about it uh because lots of peopleget attacked when they talk about this issue but I just feel so strongly about it I'msuch a strong believer in parental rights it's like there's a there's a war betweengovernment and parents on control of kids but David it's illegal here in Victoria for the schoolnot to agree with the child what sort of craziness.
Is that you know we had concerns about this whenit was this law when it was first brought in in Victoria back in 2021 the very fact that no oneis really allowed to say oh hold up a minute um you know the the teachers can't a psychologistscan't the doctors can't they all just have to basically affirm uh whatever the child says uhit's concerning because we know for a fact that sometimes people make mistakes in these decisionsor sometimes there's other underlying causes that need to be explored and looked at what's a bitof a surprise isn't it you get a letter from the school saying you enroll the Sun but you've nowgot a daughter it would be absolutely shocking yeah absolutely shocking so I'm medicallytransitioning without telling my parents we need to make sure that parentalrights are Paramount no children.
Should be socially transitioning in schoolswithout the the parents knowledge and consent I don't think a frog if you goslow enough they won't even notice as a mother or father what would you do if yourchild told you they were now the opposite sex in Newcastle in New South WalesI'm here to meet Jude and John who've had exactly that happened to them parents of a son who they'veasked us not to identify how cute in her teens their daughters struggledwith her mental health so the mental health issues that she had who are we talking anxietydepression that sort of thing yes but there was nothing in that that related to any of hersexuality not to our knowledge look I think.
Prior there may have been you know the typicalteenage um experimentation if you like of you know announcing that she was bisexual then itwas know that she was gay and all fine with all that sort of stuff and then all of a suddenshe just decided to go to the next step I guess um encouraged by other people who weretelling her that she was transgender did she think changing her sexuality wouldsolve all those problems that's possibly the case that looking for an answer looking foran out looking for a solution to pain I think so many of these kids have led to believe thatchanging the exterior will fix something what Jude and John did not know was their 17year old girl began identifying as a boy at school using different pronouns and a malename indeed they were completely in the dark.
Until they saw a post on Facebook allof a sudden your daughter says on social media I'm now a boy and and so what sort of conversationdid you have with her then she said this is crazy I said you you're not a boy that you're simply nota boy people can't change sex and her reaction I was immediately called Everything Under the Sun ahateful bigoted transphobic all these Expressions that I'd actually never ever heard before bigotedI was suddenly I was a bigot but then I was told that she'd been going by that other name atschool for months and apparently everyone at school including the teachers were supportiveand we were hateful horrible parents because we tend to immediately jump on board with this newidentity what have no notifications from the school that she had changed her name at schoolwas she getting a lot of advice on social media.
Absolutely 100 I found a history on her computerand the web browser history of transgender sites and searches oh it just blew my mind okayso if you're questioning your gender ideas Evo Top surgery nine months ago I used to dreadgetting ready dysphoria would always lead to a meltdown the stuff I saw the things I listenedto young girls boasting about taking hormones having double mastectomies how their lives wereso improved by all these interventions and that you know jump on board you must do this this isthe solution your number one reason to be trans it's hot being trans is so hot andas someone who is tea for tea I would like for there to be more hottrans people in the world thank you not long after Jude and John's daughter declaredshe was male she was diagnosed by a psychiatrist.
As suicidal and admitted to hospital John stoodwith her overnight for the admission I came in the next morning to visit her I said I'm here to seemy daughter I was corrected and told I had a son in there and when I got to her bed there was themale name above her bed but hang on you admitted her as your daughter yes so what right did thehospital have to change her sex though what awful to us they put us down in front of herthey told us in front of her that we were bigoted unsupportive parents that we needed to teach ourfamily inclusion and they said they immediately wanted to refer her to a pediatric endocrinologistto start on testosterone at the time 17. do you know what the doctors were sayingto her without you then they were telling her that she needed to get onto testosterone and youknow have her breast cut off who was telling it.
All the staff all the staff were tellingus that this was an hour our son and we had to accept this and would you rather havea live son or a dead daughter they said to us coming up maybe all my unhappiness is because Iwas born in the wrong like sex those answers now it was a mistake it was killing me Iwas so incredibly ill it took a little bit for the regret to sudden and by thattime it's too late far too late Mel Jeffries is a brave woman she'sadmitting to one of the biggest mistakes she's ever made trying to become a man she's nowde-transitioning back to the sex she was born as but she'll forever carry the physicaland emotional scars of her decision.
How do you describe it uh a cluster it feels likethat's the most appropriate term but it's like a lot it's not to say it's a lot you're paying abit hard on yourself uh uh I've gone through a lot born a girl Mel grew into an unhappy teenagershe suffered from depression and confusion about her sexuality and began to believe her life wouldbe better if she transitioned how did that begin probably like through puberty I had like quitea few experiences that were negative like I was sexually assaulted and I feel like that wasquite a big fuel for me wanting to transition in not be a woman anymore because you felt whatbeing a woman was making you more vulnerable and like an easy target I thought that Iwas safe but within like a male identity so so you thought of changing genders would wouldsolve that would provide a degree of protection.
That's not like that's part of like the magicalthinking that I had at that time where I was like I could be someone completely different and Iwouldn't have to be me like I wouldn't have to deal with everything thatcame along in my life I spoke to like a trans activist who was like Ifelt the exact way you felt like how you feel in your body and like what you deal with and itkind of like really kind of solidified like oh transitioning could be like the solutionmaybe all my unhappiness is because I was born in the wrong like born in the wrong likesex and those answers now in hindsight you're a mistake yeah they didn't they left me worseoff hey guys it's been two years since um I changed to Edie told you have to be a little bitnaughty were you finding those answers online.
Yeah it was that like the online is how I likegot in contact with that like activism if other people are watching this and they were atthe beginning of their Journey what advice would you have for them try and tell peopleinstead of just waiting till you're older yeah I kind of like planted the seed of likeoh there's people that like this that exist I'm like 16 17. I was justlooking for a sense of belonging and then it's like if you doTransition it's like oh everyone like gives you so much love and attention and stuffit's like you know it was just I don't know almost the love of a new family well actuallythey said like it's like joked about it and.
Like like when I was in the LGBT community itwas like there's your biological family the family you don't choose and then there's yourlogical family they're the ones we choose you when she was 18 Mel began living as a man shecalled herself Mason however to truly begin the transition she needed a doctor to prescribeher testosterone but that proved no problem I just got diagnosed and I was on myway so how many hours minutes days did it take before you from the time youwent to the doctor what do you mean with the dog how long did it take to get downlike under an hour under an hour because I was praying withlike if you don't transition you're gonna like die you're gonna kill yourself.
You're just priming people to do this you'repriming people to hurt themselves the testosterone did its job a deeper voice facial hair more muscleand weight but her next step was a radical and irreversible one all my hatred of being a womanwas just focus on my chest like on my breasts at 26 Mel had a double mastectomy but insteadof the happiness she sought she was left with a pervading sense of loss after the operationMel was there a light bulb moment what made you want to be a woman again I think I don'tknow if it's light bulb but it's like I heard my like I was called Mason and thatliterally just like felt so foreign an alien and then it's just like why is it hearingthat name it just feels so disorienting for me Coulson was 28 and identifying as Connor when shetoo was scheduled to have her breasts surgically.
Removed but the pandemic saw the operation puton hold so covert saved you covered save me in a weird way out nonetheless for five yearsCourtney lived as a man regular injections of testosterone lowered her voice and changed thestructure of her jaw other medications suppressed her periods But ultimately none of theseinterventions gave her what she was looking for and in October 2020 Connor became Courtney againfive years later you just said one day literally it was killing me I was so incredibly ill andI realized oh maybe it is the testosterone and oh constant pre-opism right an erection of thefemale tissue constantly and I just okay I this is this is bad this is really bad I gotta stopwhat was any of that decision tied up with you somewhere in the back of your brainthinking I want to be a woman again.
No I just realized oh I live in the real worldand I cannot be the man I want to be so suck it up for Chloe her life as Leo seems set instone following a double mastectomy at 15. at first the teenager who began takingpuberty blockers at 13 was fine with this new body before I went home and for abouta week I wasn't able to like take off the uh the medical binder or the bandages oranything like that because I just just for like the Integrity of the uh the stitchesand the graphs but once I did it was it was a little horrific it I didn't quite regret it yetit took a little bit for the regret to set in and then by that time it's too late Chloe fartoo late that's the sad thing about it isn't it that's hard to to get my head around it it's it'syour body I don't know how you managed to cope.
With that it's something that I still strugglewith today I am standing on the front line with no man's land between me and my the wholething was Lie the very premise of it was a lie the further I went into it the more my bodymasculinized and especially once my breasts were gone with each step I just it mademe more conscious of the fact that no matter what parts of my body I was rid of no matterwhat was taken for me I would always be a woman so you're here telling me thatdespite the testosterone and the double mastectomy you areno better off are you with me no I'm worse off as I said at the beginningMel Jeffries is a brave woman.
She wanted to show you she wanted to be heardshe believed becoming a man would heal her but it didn't put me over it it's not even like they're wounds they're not even scars Iwas like I'm still bleeding I'm still going processing it and grieving like I've literallylike been violated by the medical industry are you with me next how do you take a soft diagnosis froma six-year-old he can't well I've seen kids see a social worker for two sessions and thenstart puberty blockers you call it a medical.
You really think it's that bad yes sterilizing children and leaving themsexually dysfunctional for the rest of their lives on the basis of theirdeclared identity is a medical scandal what parents really need to know is thatit's a very dangerous time for children and families and they need to be very cautiousabout who they let engage with their child the exact number of young Australian childrencurrently embarking on a transgender journey is hard to pin down but if this fairly non-descriptlooking building is anything to go by they are pretty concerning this is the maple leaf genderClinic one of seven state-run facilities right.
Around the country and here alone in RegionalNewcastle no less than 95 kids are right now on a diet of puberty blockers the doctors hereat the maple leaf say these kids are just part of the transgender Forest where every treeis different across Australia there are seven facilities that treat and medicallyassist adolescent children to change their sex the Perth Children's Hospital is oneof them they didn't return our calls The Royal Children's Hospitalin Melbourne also said no and so did Westmead in Sydney and so it wentthis is another gender clinic this one in Brisbane based inside the Queensland Children'sHospital here at the moment they have more than 900 patients on their books but one thingthey all seem to have in common is secrecy.
Despite her continued requests to the medicalbosses who run these taxpayer-funded clinics to answer questions about how they make theirlife-altering decisions all we hear is silence it's not just their refusalto speak that's worrying it's the refusal to listen to those who speakout do you think the hospital want to sack you yes they do they want you off thebooks they don't want me hanging around in the hospital because as far asthey're concerned you're a troublemaker well of course troubling that I everyone now knowshow I feel about the affirmation model and it is the case that actually the vast majority of childpsychiatrists have similar concerns and I know a lot of the staff do too a few things to know herethe affirmation model essentially means accepting.
Someone's gender identity without question evenif they're a child it's a controversial View but when Dr Jillian Spencer dared to questionit Executives at the Queensland Children's Hospital suspended her 20 years experience as achild psychiatrist seemed to count for nothing but this mother of three is standingher ground she believes children are being too quickly assessed as trans withouta fuller examination of other possible issues hypothetically if I took my child to the genderClinic here in Brisbane for example how many times would I have to go before I could start that childon some sort of hormone treatment well I've seen kids see a social worker for two sessions andthen be referred to the Pediatric Sexual Health Physician to start puberty blockers two sessionstwo sessions how many minutes would that be.
120 so a couple of hours of having a chat yesand you start something that could affect your life potentially forever from the gender Clinic'spoint of view they see it as like an emergency if a child's going into puberty and so they see itas an urgent measure to start the puberty blockers there's no coming back from that is therewell what we know from their widespread use is that they prevent the gender dysphoria fromhealing and so more than 95 of kids who get onto puberty blockers will go on to cross-sexhormones and then the pathway beyond that is lifelong and includes dangerous surgery rightso from the stats we know that pretty much once you start taking them your on that busyou're on that bus so everyone keeps asking why I'm detransitioning I don't understand howa child can go there for their first appointment.
And they can be children as young as fiveto ten years of age declaring this is who I am and this is who I want to be for the restof my life and the doctors at the Children's Hospital saying okay that's good enough for usthat's what amazes me I mean yes as a pediatric expert tell me how that works how do you how doyou take a soft diagnosis from a six-year-old you can't and it makes no sense when we are toldby the transgender community that gender can be fluid so someone can be gender fluid but we'resupposed to accept that these children's gender identity is fixed at the age of 10 and this ishow their gender identity will be for the rest of their lives it how can something be both fluidand fixed in a 10 year old it makes no sense to me Dr Dylan Wilson is a pediatrician practicingin Queensland and one of the few doctors in.
Australia prepared to speak publicly recentlyDr Wilson wrote an open letter to his peers questioning their unquestioning referralsof confused adolescence to gender clinics in your open letter you call it a medicalScandal yes do you really think it's that bad yes absolutely in Australia hundreds if not a thousandover a thousand children who've been commenced on this pathway whose puberty has been stopped andthey've progressed onto treatments with cross-sex hormones and surgery and those children's bodieshave been irrevocably changed and harmed for the rest of their lives it's just no other word forit in my view it's a medical scandal we need to take a different approach towards children withgender dysphoria we need to be able to say to them we understand that you're in distress and thatyou're feeling really uncomfortable in your body.
And we want to do everything we can to supportyou through it but we know that the risks and long-term consequences of transition are soserious that we can't just assume that that's the right way forward because of this we'regoing to continue to use your biological name and pronouns but we're going to work with youto understand exactly what you're going through and do everything we can to try and help youwell that sounds like an open medical approach yeah well it's a safe medical approach andthere's no evidence that social transition or puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones reducethe suicide risk in children with gender dysphoria okay so just because you're giving itto them doesn't mean that they're going to think any differently about themselves oh andany health professional that tells a parent that.
That are more likely to lose their child tosuicide if they don't affirm them is wrong I have how do you relate to that I see this as areally serious Child Protection issue and as a 45 year old woman and as a mother and as achild psychiatrist I could not hold my head up if I didn't speak about this it's too importantand what we're talking about is the well-being of children and their health across the lifespanincluding things that most people find you know very important in life such as fertilityand sexual functioning and General Health it's it's pretty basic stuff isn't it yeahwe just we want kids to grow up and be happy we all want that we don't want them to haveregrets and serious health problems next the most fiery interview of the yeardoctors come to us and say this system is wrong.
One it's a medical scam one and and doctor andwhen child psychologists I don't think it's funny I've already tried I think but you've alreadytried involved in this are incredibly sad well tonight we've heard from dtransitioners and traumatized parents but what about the experts encouragingconfused kids to switch genders despite approaching gender clinics rightaround the country only one specialist in this field agreed to speak here's Professor Ianhickey from Sydney University with Liam Bartlett Professor you know where hi all right okayProfessor thanks for having a chat to us pleasure should we shut these gender clinicsdown do you think before they do any more damage to our children absolutely not in my view mostof the serious gender clinics in Australia do.
A great job and deliver obviously considerablemental health and physical health benefits so you agree with their affirmation model do youwear essentially the child gets to dictate the terms the child doesn't dictate the terms thechild isn't driving the car here and I think the position you're presenting is not represented forthe genuine situation parents have had kids when you say the genuine situation the great majorityare you saying the people who are speaking out those people who have been affected the casualtiesin this are not genuine what I'm saying is the great majority of people who come forward forwardfor care kids who behaved in certain way since very early age who come forward at pubertyand the youth who come forward in adolescence genuinely come forward seeking to understandthe situation in which they find themselves.
So what really needs to be represented are manyof the positive stories how many lives have been saved so the kids whose lives have been wreckedwhere do you where do you put them in the whole of medicine we are dealing with situations allthe time if you have a surgical procedure if you have a medical procedure you take any medicineyou seek care for any reason there is a chance that's after comprehensive medical analysis notan affirmation model where a child a child goes in and has after one consultation puberty blockersprescribed how do you explain that I don't accept that that is what happens in a great majorityof situations in Australia what you're doing is picking out and actually attempting to actuallydramatize and sensationalize a particular side which is really sad I think so really sad let mejust go back to that other question again how do.
You explain a child being put on puberty blockersirreversible damage after just one consultation let's get back let's go back I don't accept it nono I think you also need to address the questions of are you presenting an accurate picture and I'dsay no you're not there's always the possibility that Medical Care in his situation is not optimalbut if you talk about what is standard care in Australia in this area you're delivered by ourbest bureaucratic phrases it's not bureaucratic with respect how many times have you come downfrom your academic Ivory Tower and spoken to the people on the ground I speak to kids everyday wrong I speak parents who are terrified I speak to kids every day and to parents every daywho've gone through this situation including those who've not been able to access care in the pastincluding those who go along as a side of various.
Points to say I'm happy to stop where I'm at whenyou come back later in life and people may change their minds that's entirely possible but to saythat to say no to say they did somebody did the wrong thing at the time is also not true Professoranswer me this you're happy to see a 15 year old girl going a double mastectomy are you no notnecessarily and it says case in Australia again the case in Australia about kids of certainages moving from just blocking to actually hormonal treatment to then potentially surgicalis taken typically in a very considered way and not at early ages so at 15 years old a child whois not legally deemed responsible enough to drive a car is somehow deemed medically fit enoughto decide to mutilate her body surgically the language no your energy is the first languageof Mutilation okay the attempt to vilify the.
Doctors involved and vilify the people involvedI think it's entirely inappropriate I'm saying it's mutilization if you change your mind fouryears later and you've lost your breasts you'd be pretty unhappy about it at 15 years oldchildren entered into the process of starting to be involved in their own medical decisionmaking around contraception around their own health children get involved at 15 having to makedecisions about all sorts of surgical procedures and other areas affecting their health you tryto you try to make fun of the Academic Teams involved in this are incredibly sad I wantyou to address the real issue I want you to address the issue of the mental healthharms of no action of the systematic data about reductions in suicidality over thepotential rather take action affirm their.
Gender to go through the puberty block asirreversible cross-sex hormones irreversible you'd rather do that than actually stop weighthave a comprehensive medical analysis no again that's a misstatement it's a completeness nothere's a clip this periodation what I said gender affirming care does not mean immediatelymoving to puberty blockers immediately moving to hormone treatment immediately moving tosurgery that's a complete mischaracterization to use your language why are the vast majorityof kids turning up to these gender clinics and being put on that train you have to look atthe whole process of what happens and not there's also mischaracterization the parents are tellingus they are being pushed to one side in this parents are telling us they're not being heardparents are telling us they're being isolated and.
How many parents have you told to to tell you theexact opposite again are they in your shop again it's not exactly it's not a mathematicalcompetition no but it is a realistic one you're trying to characterize a system on thebasis of some particular cases and ignore the great majority what is that what is that howdo you explain the meteoric rise in numbers of kids in Australia presenting at genderclinics that's a much more interesting question sociologically in our society is reallyinteresting that more kids are coming forward for care how do you explain that is a good thing theidea that we are simple binary people simple male female and happy with that does not respect whathas been known for centuries that a great number of young people are not so binary they're not sofixed as our whole society becomes more inclusive.
And less rigid more kids are coming forward thisis not just simply a fad it's not just simply a fashion really it's really it's going closerto what has always been the reality does the influence of social media have anything to dowith it in your opinion increased awareness you bet and you think that's healthy do yes so whendoctors come to us and say this system is wrong one it's a medical scan one and and doctor andwhen child when child psychologists come to us so here you are on numbers again so how manydo you want us to find do you want do you want me to go back out there and come back I'd liketo refer to the College of Physicians I'd like to prefer the AMA I'd like to refer to theCollege of psychiatrists large numbers of doctors here in Australia and internationallywho are continually looking at the evidence so.
So when a child psychiatrist comes along justone professor in your own language and they get suspended because they present a different opinionwhat do you say to that that person is in dealings with their employer if you go to the College ofpsychiatrists if you go to college as psychologist no I'm going to college of psychiatrist youjust go for the bureaucratic headlines because it doesn't it doesn't affirm with your storyI want to drill down on the thousands of cases in Australia where this good practice is occurringthat's what's happening so finally what do you say to the parents to those parents who have spokento us to the parents who have written to us who are terrified about the situation and what'shappening to their children I'd be quite happy to have conversations with any of those peopleto hear their story Professor thank you thank you.
That's right thanks professor I think you know your argument aboutthe majority is really heartless I don't agree I've got my heart for the people inany medical situation who might find themselves harmed by Medical Care is the same for thosewho've benefited it's not heartless at all it's heartless to ignore the great majority ofpeople who've benefited no you just accept you just accept that there are casualties on the sideof the road do you accept no do you accept from any surgical procedure that something may go wrongI don't accept that children have had surgery ever had surgery yesterday yes I don't accept there wasa risk I don't accept that children have to be put at risk unnecessarily if a child has a surgicalprocedure for appendicitis the church's injury.
Is that an unreasonable risk well that's becausethe organ has already failed so if this situation arises kids mental health their life is in dangerthey're really distressed their development's in danger doing nothing is fine but there's lots ofingredients in that cake you know so why don't you look at the whole country we do Professor I thinkwe've been quite courageous actually airing those people's stories because no one is listening tothem people like you kick them to the curb and say well the greater good too bad and that's entirelyuntrue and also unfair it's an easy sensationalist thing to say well I'm quite happy for you tocall me a you know tabloid media sensationalist scumbag I couldn't care less I'm interestedin characterization of yourself I'm interested in the future of the children here in Australiaevery single all the children every single one of.
Them where are all the children who've done wellthe children who have done well fantastic where are they but where are their parents you justcompletely ignore the people who fall through them do not ignore them gymnastics all day like peoplewith me all the time I'm quite happy to meet with and I do meet with and talk with people all thetime who've been on all sides of this debate thank you next it's not possible to be theopposite sex it's just a fact it's a lot of white Suburban kids who feel inadequateoh what if I transition I'll be special foreign something that cannot be achieved.
It's not possible to be the oppositesex it's just a fact Queensland is currently trying toexpand the number of people available to prescribe puberty blockers across the state at the same time that the NHS in England hasannounced that puberty blockers will only be administered within a research trial or inextremely exceptional circumstances across the entire country it makes no sense as towhy we're going in opposite directions oh yeah I don't think any child should have their breasts removed in order to satisfytheir dislike of their body.
Chloe hopes one day to get marriedshe'll never be able to breastfeed but she does hope she'll be ableto give birth to a child of her own Mel is still working out what her future lookslike she's not sure about motherhood but would like to meet someone to share her life withfor now she is focusing on her health comfortable being a woman again yeah well I'mfemale I'm like uh it's not just that I'm a woman it's like my sex is intrinsic to my experiencesbeing female is intrinsic to who I am oh oh Courtney is happy where she's at she'snot sure if she wants to date men or women but definitely wants to be a mum one day but as to howthe medical professions doing this I think a lot of them they seem to have the best intentions theyreally honestly believe they're doing the right.
Thing otherwise people are literally killingthemselves it's literal violence no it's not it's a lot of white Suburban kids who feel thisthey feel disconnected from reality they feel depressed they feel inadequate oh but ifI transition I'll be special I speak Duty in the United States of America Ispeak to you in the hope that you will have the courage to bring the Scandalto an end and ensure that other vulnerable teenagers children and young adultsdon't go through what I went through I will do anything to make sure that no childor mentally ill adult is ever lied to and has parts of themselves ripped away in this wayever again how do you refer to yourself now you know I'm Chloe I'm a girlthere's nothing wrong with that.
In fact it's a beautiful thing andI've learned to embrace that you know a very emotional show tonight we knowthat opinions are polarized but if you'd like to know more you can watch extendedinterviews online at 7news.com dot a u until next Sunday I'm Michael Usher good night
