© David Castor/Wikimedia CommonsThe High Court at the Royal Courts of Justice
A mother has lost a High Court battle with her ex-husband over whether their daughter should be allowed to receive medication from private clinics to change
gender under the age of 18.
The woman disagreed with her former partner that their 16-year-old, who identifies as male, should be allowed to be prescribed cross-sex hormones by private doctors. She rejected the idea that 16-year-olds had the mental capacity to decide to take hormones that could leave them infertile.
But this week, after a two-year legal fight, Mrs Justice Judd ruled she could not 'override' the 16-year-old's consent to be given gender treatment by regulated doctors in the UK.
But the judge did ensure that the girl's father promised the court he will not 'fund or facilitate' treatment at a controversial offshore gender service known as Gender GP while the girl is still a minor.
She is instead expected to go to Gender Plus, a private centre run by former staff of London's Tavistock clinic, which was wound down after it was deemed 'unsafe' in Dr Hilary Cass's recent NHS review.
Last night the mother said she regretted the judge had 'not gone further' in safeguarding under-18s when accessing cross-sex hormones through private providers.
She said: 'My daughter hates me. But as awful as it is to lose a child, it is more important to me that my beautiful, clever child is safe. If I hadn't gone to court she'd potentially have received hormones from Gender GP two years ago.'
Her worries mounted when she found her daughter had been on 'pro-trans' pages on social media.She said: 'I found they were full of mostly teenage girls cheering each other on, calling each other 'bro' and encouraging each other to get testosterone and mastectomies.'
Sanchez Manning is a freelance journalist who has written extensively on the issue of gender and society's rapidly changing attitudes to it. She has contributed to the Daily Mail, Independent, Independent on Sunday, Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror and Evening Standard.
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