Most trans-identified children are actually gay or autistic
Julia Hartley-Brewer said:
“the vast majority of young people who not just attended the Tavistock clinic in London, but also other transgender treatments, that they are children who have largely They're either autistic, they're gay children, they have other issues, lots of other mental health issues, depression, anxiety, some have been abused, lots of other issues.”
The Cass Review did note elevated rates of autism and mental health difficulties among young people referred to gender clinics, so citing it as evidence for this claim sounds grounded in a real official document.
Co-occurring conditions are genuinely more common among young people referred to gender clinics, and acknowledging that is fine. What does not follow from it is the conclusion that those conditions explain the gender identity away. Autistic young people can be trans. Young people with depression or anxiety can be trans. Gay young people can be trans. The presence of one thing in a person's life does not cancel another, and listing difficult circumstances as though they add up to a reason why someone is not who they say they are is not a reading of the evidence, it is a way of arranging it to produce a predetermined answer. The Cass Review noted these co-occurrences but never concluded that the young people it examined were not trans, which is a significant thing to leave out when you are citing it. What this framing costs, in practical terms, is care: a young person who presents with autism and gender dysphoria and anxiety hears that their identity is a symptom, goes unrecognised, and lives through puberty changes that cannot be undone.
What I said at the time:
“And actually, no, they are not gay. If your child is trans, your child is trans. Nothing to do with their sexuality.”
Trans young people with autism or mental health difficulties, who are told their identity is a symptom of something else and denied appropriate care.