What the New York Times gets wrong about the Cass review

Hilary Cass’s review of gender identity services for children and young people put a stop to doctors playing fast and loose with the development of youngsters in Great Britain. Her report was welcomed on both sides of the Commons, and it was reassuring to hear Wes Streeting confirm that he intends to uphold the ban on puberty blockers to under-18s.

Across the Atlantic, however, the issue is more divisive. So-called ‘red states’ are moving along British lines. Last year, Tennessee prohibited health care professionals from ‘prescribing, administering or dispensing any puberty blocker or hormone’ to children who claimed to experience gender dysphoria. Meanwhile, in blue California, Governor Gavin Newsom signed off a bill to ‘offer refuge’ to children and their families ‘if they are being criminalised in their home states’.

It’s a sorry state of affairs when troubled children become the focus of politics in this way, but that didn’t stop the New