Email your MSP to say NO to the Cass review!
Sandyford, Scotland’s only youth gender service, has stopped referring any new patients for endocrine care in response to the Cass Review. NHS Glasgow and Greater Clyde and NHS Lothian have both issued statements suggesting that unfortunately the review’s recommendations may well be taken up in Scotland going forward.
The Cass Review has already been denounced by multiple health bodies and clinicians (you can find a list of sources here) as being biased and based on poor research. Much of its writing would be subpar for an undergraduate’s work, and trans people were consistently, intentionally excluded from inputting into the review’s design. You can find the What The Trans?! breakdown of the Cass review here. To put it simply: this is not a review, it’s a political project.
At the time of writing, members of the Scottish Greens are considering exiting their coalition government with the SNP, both over the pausing of treatment for trans kids and the SNP’s recent abandonment of 2030 environmental targets. The fact that the situation is still in motion and could have consequences for the structure of the Scottish government means that this is a crucial time to make your voice heard and talk to your MSP.
What if my MSP has made their mind up?
Some MSPs are not likely to move on this issue, and have already praised the report and called for Sandyford to close entirely. But aside from your constituency MSP, you also have 7 regional MSPs who represent you that you can contact. While the Greens and the SNP have the most at stake politically right now, the more MSPs we can reach, the better. If you have good reason to think that one of your representatives will be receptive, contact them!
What should I write?
Emails that are written in your own words are likely to have a greater impact, but we know that coming up with something to write can be difficult, so we do have some guiding points of what you might want to discuss and cite here:
Multiple health bodies and clinicians have criticised the report’s methods and recommendations (AusPATH, PATHA, and clinicians in Canada)
Multiple academics have criticised the methods of the review as introducing bias at a foundational level (Dr Cal Horton, Dr Natacha Kennedy, Dr Abs S. Ashley, and the Feminist Gender Equality Network)
The review recommends Gender Exploratory Therapy, an approach that amounts to conversion therapy (1, 2, 3)
One of the research designers was part of a consultancy recommending Gender Exploratory Therapy, which seems like a conflict of interest that could have influenced the outcomes of the review
The report has been criticised on human rights grounds by Amnesty International and Liberty
The Finnish service the report speaks so highly of has been the subject of horrifying reports from its former patients and their families about the abuse they experienced (original article in Finnish, translation/summary here)
Our primary asks of MSPs are:
To support reinstating endocrine care for trans youth at Sandyford
To ensure that criticisms of the Cass Review are brought up during discussions of it and;
To push for NHS Scotland to dismiss the review on the grounds of its unscientific basis
If you’re still feeling stuck, we have a template email, but we’d strongly encourage you to tailor the email to your own way of writing and add in anything relevant to you or your local area that you feel is important. Maybe you work in the NHS, or you work with children in some capacity, or you’ve experienced youth gender services. If you think it’ll add to the case you’re making, put it in!It’s fine to send the same email to all your MSPs (or all the ones you’re emailing). What’s important is that the email any given person receives is a personal communication from their constituent about an issue that matters to them.
Okay, so how do I email my MSPs?
1. Go to www.parliament.scot/msps and type in your post code to find out who your MSPs are. For example, here’s what you’d see if you lived on George Square, Glasgow:
2. Decide who you want to email, and click the email icon by their entry to open your system email editor, or right click and select “Copy email address” so you can paste the email address into your preferred email client.
3. Go ahead and write your email. Make sure you include your full address/postcode so that your MSP can confirm you’re one of their constituents, otherwise they are within their rights to dismiss your email. Press send and then you’re done.
4. Share this campaign with friends, family, followers, and in your local community! The more people are talking about this and letting their MSPs know that they care about trans people, the more likely they are to take notice.
Dear [MSP],I am writing to you as a resident of [AREA] because I am deeply concerned by the current developments in trans healthcare in Scotland. On the 18th of April the Sandyford Gender Clinic in Glasgow–the only youth gender clinic in Scotland–announced that it would stop all new endocrine medical care for its patients. This is a direct result of those in charge of this policy accepting the conclusions of the Cass Review at face value. The review has been criticised by healthcare organisations, academics, journalists and people with lived experience of trans healthcare for its extremely poor methodology, failure to involve stakeholders, and links to transphobic individuals and organisations. You can find a list of further sources of critique and investigations into the report here: https://ruthpearce.net/2024/04/16/whats-wrong-with-the-cass-review-a-round-up-of-commentary-and-evidence/.The Cass Review is a political attack on trans people (trans youth in particular) with the aim to remove their ability to access essential healthcare, on the basis of shoddy evidence and blatant misinformation. Scotland can and should do better than this. I am asking you as my representative to speak out publicly against this move, and ensure that the Government fulfils its commitment to producing a new, properly evidenced service specification based on the lived experience of those who have actually used the service and those who have accessed trans healthcare in a broader context (many of whom would have been seen by Sandyford if it weren’t for its years-long waitlist).The refusal to prescribe endocrine treatment fundamentally undermines the purpose of the gender clinic and is a clear move towards a restriction of trans healthcare in general. It is urgent that you speak up to oppose this and to support your trans constituents’ right to access essential healthcare and to enjoy a free and full participation in society.I look forward to your support,[YOUR NAME][YOUR ADDRESS]