Response to the Cass Review

Response to the Cass Review
by Dr Hane Maung | Apr 12, 2024 | News, Trans Youth

Background
Over the past decade, the United Kingdom has become an increasingly hostile place for trans people, especially for trans youth (Hines, 2020; Horton, 2024; McLean, 2021). In addition to vilification by the mainstream media and attempts by politicians to curb the rights of trans people, gender affirming healthcare for trans youth has been severely restricted. In the context of this hostile political environment, NHS England commissioned an independent review into gender affirming healthcare services for trans youth, led by Dr Hilary Cass. On 10th April 2024, the Cass Review published its Independent Review of Gender Identity Services for Children and Young People: Final Report. This present article shows that many of the claims and recommendations of the Cass Review are inaccurate, empirically unsupported, ethically unacceptable, and grounded in cisheteronormative prejudice.

“Through its cisheteronormative agenda, the Cass Review is enacting the prejudice that trans people suffer in the United Kingdom”

The Evidence Base
At the outset, it is important to note that the Cass Review did not produce any new data. Rather, it reviewed data from previous studies on the effects of gender affirming medical treatment for trans youth.

However, review of the literature was profoundly inadequate. Notably, the Cass Review dismisses a very large number of studies and omits studies from the past two years. Hence, it neglects a vast amount of evidence on the benefits of gender affirming medical treatment for trans youth in its analysis.

The reason for dismissing this evidence is that it did not come from randomised controlled trials. However, this indicates a serious misunderstanding of the roles and limitations of randomised controlled trials compared with other sources of evidence.

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