On ‘Gender-Affirming Care,’ Canada’s Medical Establishment Refuses to Follow the Evidence
12th May 2026
If the treatment of gender dysphoric youth were treated like any other medical topic, there would be little controversy about how patients should be cared for. Two years ago, Dr Hilary Cass, a former president of Britain’s Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, released an exhaustive report that examined the most reliable peer-reviewed research from around the world. She concluded that the laissez-faire policy of reflexively “affirming” gender-distressed minors, which has been ideologically fashionable since the mid-2010s, isn’t supported by science. She debunked the myth that puberty blockers are harmless drugs that merely hit the “pause” button on a child’s development; as well as the morbid propaganda claim that speedy “affirmation” is necessary to prevent gender-distressed individuals from committing suicide.
In the weeks that followed the report’s release, transgender activists—along with their allies in journalism, psychotherapy, and medicine—howled in outrage, insisting that Dr Cass’s analysis must somehow be flawed. For many in this camp, questioning the wisdom of medicalised gender transition is not only inherently pseudoscientific, but also indicative of transphobic bigotry.