They Tried to Silence Me. It Didn’t Work.
Almost a decade ago I made the case for trans young people on national television. They took my career. Now, 913 of you are listening. It is time for all of us to speak up.
Almost a decade ago, I sat on Victoria Derbyshire’s sofa on BBC Two and explained, live on national television, why early intervention matters for trans young people. We were talking about a nine-year-old trans boy called Jason. Victoria asked me how I could possibly know that treating a child so young was the right thing to do. I told her what I would tell anyone: you listen to the child, you look at the evidence, and you understand what happens when you do nothing.
I could have said every word of that yesterday. Nothing has changed.
Then they came for me
After that interview, after years of providing care to trans young people and their families, the system decided I was the problem. I was investigated for six years. My entire medical career was taken from me. Not because I had harmed anyone, but because I had listened to my patients and given them the care they needed when nobody else would.
I think they expected that to be the end of it. That I would go quietly. That the voice they found so inconvenient would simply disappear.
It didn’t work
This week:
Dr Webberley Responds reached number
27 in news on Substack
913 people have subscribed
Over 42,000 of you have read what I have written in the last 30 days alone
322 new subscribers joined this month.
I did not go quietly. I am not going quietly. People are hungry for the truth about transgender healthcare, and they are finding it here. Every single one of those 913 subscribers is someone who has said, yes, I want to hear this. I want evidence, not headlines. I want compassion, not fear.
Now it is your turn
I know many of you are frightened. Parents, clinicians, teachers, allies. I know the climate makes it feel dangerous to speak up. I understand that fear because I have lived it. I know what it costs.
Here is what I need you to hear. That silence, that hiding, that keeping your head down? That is exactly where they want you. Every time someone stays quiet, the people who want to erase trans lives win a little more ground. We cannot afford that. Trans young people cannot afford that.
I am not asking you to go on national television. I am asking you not to stay silent. Share what you know. Correct the misinformation when you hear it. Tell your story. Stand alongside the trans people in your life. Every voice matters, and together we are louder than they ever expected us to be.
913 and rising. Let us see where we go next.
If this resonated with you, please share it. Every share reaches someone who needs to hear this.
Dr Helen Webberley, gender specialist and medical educator