Trans activists claim that access to ‘gender-affirming care’ is a basic human right. Even children, they say, must be free to medically ‘transition’. What this really means is providing children with powerful, sterilising drugs, followed by a lifetime of hormone treatment and irreversible surgery. And as we now know, following the landmark Cass Review into gender medicine, these children tend to be deeply vulnerable – often struggling with their sexuality, sometimes autistic or suffering from trauma – and most would grow out of their ‘gender distress’, if we allowed them to. Why have so many young, vulnerable children been lured – sometimes pushed – down this path? And why have so many supposed progressives become cheerleaders for such damaging and unnecessary medical interventions?

Helen Joyce, director of advocacy at Sex Matters, recently sat down with spiked’s Fraser Myers to discuss the regressive truth about trans ideology. What follows is an edited extract from their conversation. You can watch the full video of the interview here.

Fraser Myers: What consequences might children face if they medically transition?

Helen Joyce: There are some very real dangers for young children who are dissociating from their bodies. Going through puberty is distressing enough as it is, but it’s doubly distressing for children who dissociate from their bodies in this way. This might mean they’re not able to understand what their bodies are telling them or whether they’re attracted to certain people. If they receive hormone therapy as well, the consequences are catastrophic.