At least 38 Dutch websites run by one anonymous administrator pose as gender identity resources but spread disinformation about trans people and gender-affirming care. Investigated by the Dutch programme Pointer, the sites make claims experts say are unsupported by the sources cited, and include a rigged questionnaire that always tells users they are not trans. The creator admitted he does not believe in being transgender.

What Pointer actually found

The Dutch investigative programme Pointer identified at least 38 websites, all maintained by a single administrator, that present themselves as supportive resources for people questioning their gender identity. At first glance they look measured, even clinical. Look closer and a consistent pattern emerges: the sites criticise the medical care available to trans people in the Netherlands, claim that gender dysphoria passes without treatment, assert that 30 percent of trans people regret transitioning, and argue that medical transition does not reduce suicidal symptoms.

Pointer took those claims to Christa van Bunderen, an endocrinologist at Radboudumc. Her assessment was direct: the figures the sites cite cannot be found in the sources they reference. That is not a minor quibble about interpretation. The claims are simply not in the papers cited to support them.

The quiz that only has one answer

Several of the sites link to what they call a "transgender check," an online questionnaire that promises an honest result without any healthcare professional pushing you in a direction. Pointer completed it more than ten times, with varied answers each time. Every single result was the same: nothing is wrong with you, or something else is going on. The questionnaire cannot, by design, tell anyone they might be transgender.

Two trans people were asked to complete it. One said: "If I had taken this check at age 10 and this was the result, I would have been even more confused." That sentence stayed with me. Think about a ten-year-old, already confused and frightened, searching online for something that might make sense of what they are feeling, and being told repeatedly, regardless of what they answer, that there is nothing to see here.

The creator defended the quiz by arguing that it having only one outcome is no different from an official examination, which he claims always produces a gender dysphoria diagnosis. Experts were unequivocal that this is false. Van Bunderen described the comparison as wrong. The process at a gender clinic in the Netherlands involves months of consultations before medication is even considered, and surgery is not available before the age of 18. The outcome is not predetermined, and a diagnosis is certainly not handed out quickly.

Who is behind the sites

The administrator gave his name to Pointer as "Edward Janssen," though the programme established this is a pseudonym. When pressed, he explained that he created the sites out of frustration: he has a child who is transgender, and he opposes the care the Netherlands offers. He believes medical transition would not make his child happier. On his own website he states that he does not believe in being transgender at all.

I want to pause on that for a moment. The pain of a parent who fears for their child is real, and I would never dismiss it. Parents who are frightened make decisions from that fear, and frightened people sometimes reach for certainty in places that do not deserve it. But personal conviction, however deeply felt, is not evidence. And the distance between "I am worried about my child" and "I will build 38 websites to steer other people's children away from care" is a significant one.

What he has created is not a resource. It is a barrier presented as a resource, aimed at the most vulnerable moment in a young person's life.

What the Dutch health system actually looks like

One of the most damaging claims the sites make is that the Dutch care pathway is fixed: that going to a gender clinic means being set on a single track towards medical treatment. Psychologist Philip Janssen, who works with a gender team, told Pointer that this is simply not how it works. Initial consultations with a psychologist explore the underlying causes of a gender question, how sustainable a desire for transition is, and what else might be going on. If depression or another condition is present, it is treated first. Some people choose a path that does not involve medical steps at all.

The Health Council of the Netherlands recently concluded that care for trans people in the country is carefully organised. That does not mean it is perfect or that every person gets everything they need quickly enough, but it is not the conveyor belt towards irreversible intervention that these sites claim it is.

Why this kind of disinformation is dangerous

Van Bunderen was clear about the harm the quiz causes. A medical transition is not the right path for everyone, she said, but trans people who do not receive appropriate care experience depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts far more frequently. We know this from research and from practice. Pointing a struggling young person towards a tool designed to tell them there is nothing to explore, that nothing needs addressing, is not a neutral act. It is harmful.

What makes this particular network worth paying attention to is the scale of it: 38 sites, one person, coordinated to look like a diverse landscape of concerned voices. That is not organic public debate about the complexity of gender medicine. It is a single point of view amplified to look like a consensus.

The people who land on those sites are not abstract. They are young people typing questions into a search bar at eleven o'clock at night, trying to work out whether what they feel is real. They deserve accurate information and a pathway to people who can actually help them, not a questionnaire that has already decided who they are.

If there is a news story you would like me to cover then just let Sammy know.

Dr Helen Webberley is a gender specialist, medical educator, and founder of GenderGP. She writes about gender diversity, trans healthcare, and the lives at the centre of both.