"Transgender children and adolescents need access to evidence-based healthcare. This saves lives. My research shows that parents of transgender children and adolescents face a tough journey in search of support for their children’s wellbeing and access to healthcare. They seek well-informed, respectful GPs who have a strong and knowledgeable referral network. They require healthcare that is available based on evidence. Parents say that supporting their children means listening, respect, and affirming their gender.

Seeking healthcare in a climate of fear driven by politics delays access to care and reduces the mental health of children, young people and their families. A climate of fear also has a negative impact on trans students’ school experiences. They face increased bullying, reduced visibility, and it becomes risky for teachers to support them. Many trans children are clear about their gender identity, and socially transition to their preferred gender, years before puberty. Medical access to affirming healthcare is never a decision taken lightly, and requires professionals bringing evidence-based healthcare to work together with children, young people and their families."

"As a clinician who works with transgender people, I would welcome more high-quality evidence to continue to strengthen care further. However, we also need to acknowledge that many other areas of child health also operate with these levels of evidence quality. By focusing on the strength of evidence in this area, we disregard doctor’s clinical expertise and patient values, which are also key considerations of evidence-based medicine.

Uplifting the voices of the young people, parents and clinicians with knowledge and direct experience in this field is vital for best practice health care. These groups consistently tell us that timely access to gender affirming medical care is incredibly important. Politicians and policy-makers should be willing to also listen to these voices."

"It is disappointing that the Queensland Cabinet has not considered the well-known consequences of a ban on gender affirming medical treatments.

Even in Australia, it is known that adolescents driven to desperation will seek and find supplies of oestrogen or testosterone. In nearby Singapore, transfemme adolescents are resorting to self-administering injectable oestrogens from sources in Ukraine, Russia and South America.

Self-sourcing and self-injecting, without medical oversight, which was prevalent in Australia at least as far back as the 1980’s, seems poised to make a comeback in Queensland."

"The Queensland Government’s own review report presented two options to provide puberty blockers and hormones, which it describes as 'beneficial for some young people', with improved public systems, oversight, quality assurance and research analysis.

Instead, Minister Nicholls chose to abandon trans youth by continuing the ban on Queensland Health clinicians prescribing these medications, even when they are deemed medically essential and have the informed consent of the patients and their families.

Politicians have no place interfering in our consulting rooms."