On Wednesday, December 11, the British government extended a temporary ban on puberty-suppressing hormones, a gender-affirming treatment used among transgender adolescents to avoid developing gendered characteristics that oppose their gender identity. According to the Associated Press, the decision goes against standards held by several medical groups, including the American Medical Association, the European and World Professional Associations for Transgender Health.
The ban has since been met with outcry from trans advocacy groups and activists, including Trans Kids Deserve Better which set up an encampment outside the office of Wes Streeting, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, who has been the figurehead for the bans in the United Kingdom, according to Them.
The ban on puberty blockers, as the hormones are frequently referred to, stems from a temporary ban that was enacted initially for the dates of June 3 through September 3, although the ban was then extended on August 22 and ordered to take effect in Northern Ireland as well. Critics of the ban, which is now in place until 2027, say that the restriction of puberty blockers is based on a substantial lack of evidence for the harm caused by gonadotrophin-releasing hormones and contradicts mounting evidence that restrictions on gender affirming care are detrimental to trans health outcomes.
Keyne Walker, the strategy director for TransActual, which challenged the U.K.’s decision to ban the treatment, says the ban is discriminatory in nature, as it only impacts transgender people, and studies lack evidence of serious harm. “Evidence of the harm of the temporary ban continues to emerge and will grow now that it has been made permanent,” Walker says.
Britain’s ban comes at the same time that the United States Supreme Court is reviewing the court case of U.S. v. Skrmetti, a challenge brought by the Biden administration and the Associated Civil Liberties Union against Tennessee’s gender-affirming care ban for minors which was enacted in the spring of 2023.
