Cowardly Conservatives and the Culture War
Is Queensland the straight state?
Written by Matthew Fischer, co-host of the Backbench Drivers podcast. Find more of his content on telegram.
The Queensland Government has announced that they intend to pause all ‘gender transitions’ for children, pending a review
“... into the evidence for stage one and two hormone therapies for children with gender dysphoria”.
Whilst this may appear to be a positive development for advocates of child safety, the Government’s track record may prove this to yet another wasted opportunity in the Sunshine State.
What is happening?
The Queensland Health Minister, Tim Nicholls, announced the decision on the back of reported instances of
“unauthorised provision of paediatric gender services … (that) may not align with the accepted Australian treatment guidelines”
within the Cairns Sexual Health Service. Progressive, however, see the Government’s decision as part of a supposed ‘cultural war’. Am opposition spokesperson, in addition to Elosie Brook (AusPath CEO), both implied that the decision will result in death, parroting the progressive line that ‘gender affirming care saves lives’
Is ‘gender-affirming care’ dangerous for children?
As reported by the ABC, the previous Labor Government conducted a review that found no evidence that patients and families were ‘hurried or coerced’ into decisions about treatments. Minister Nicholls has criticised the limited scope of the previous review, stating that
"(t)he evaluation that was undertaken was in the nature of how is the service delivered, not whether that service ought to be delivered".
Firstly, the claim from the ‘gender transitions’ saves lives is not as clear cut as it may appear. Whilst many studies do show a reduction in attempted and success suicide attempts ‘post-transistion’, this may not be …
A narrative review of existing literature on the topic by physician Dr. Daniel Johnson found that there is a lack of a uniform measure of suicidality in the literature, increasing the risk of type I errors (i.e. a false positive result, or that transitions may not result in a decrease in suicidal tendencies). This argument, however, ignores the unique effect that ‘gender affirming care’ has on children.
John Whitehall’s Puberty Blockers: A Blight on the Brain published in the January-February 2024 edition of The Quadrant paints a poignant picture of the ill effects of ‘gender affirming care’ on young people. Whitehall’s piece discusses a 2022 study out of the University of Lille, where a group of international researchers found that a deficiency in the Gonadotropin Releasing Hormone (GnRH) in people with Down Syndrome was associated with ‘progressive cognitive decline’, which was ‘rescued’ with hormonal replacement. This study implies that the unobstructed release of GnRH is crucial in the development of brains in both mice and humans.
Furthermore, Whitehall discusses an Iranian studying investigating the relationship between GnRH and Alzheimer's Disease, finding a similar relationship between the GnRH hormone and mental faculty.GnRH is more commonly known for its role in puberty, as GnRH
“... causes the pituitary gland in the brain to make and secrete the hormones luteinizing hormone (LH) and follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH). In men, these hormones cause the testicles to make testosterone. In women, they cause the ovaries to make estrogen and progesterone” (source).
In the process of ‘gender affirming care’, children are given compounds that block the development of GnRH, in order to delay the onset of puberty to ‘give’ the child more time to make choices around their gender identity. This deliberate blocking of GnRH to delay puberty may be having an unintended side effect of delaying the cognitive development of the child, potentially akin to the results of Down Syndrome or Alzheimer’s Disease. Whilst more research needs to be conducted on the effects of puberty blockers on the neurological development of children undertaking puberty blockers, there is enough research to warrant a stop to the current system in Australia; at least this has been the case in Denmark, the United Kingdom, Norway, and various U.S. states, among many other jurisdictions.
During the writing of this article, U.S. President Donald Trump has signed an executive order ending federal funding of ‘gender affirming care’ for children across America.
What will happen in Queensland?
Whilst I would love to believe that the Queensland Government will appropriately consult the research; I fear that, like the recent capitulation on abortion, even the utterance of comparisons to U.S. Republicans will cause the Queensland LNP to completely acquiesce to the demands of progressives and fail to protect Queensland’s children. It is more likely that Minister Nicholl’s and the Queensland Government will modify existing practices to better reflect accepted Australian treatment guidelines, reflecting the wishes of entrenched progressives and bureaucrats and not necessarily what is in the interest of children.
Any reader that is willing to support The National Observer in protecting Queensland children, please reach out to Minister Nicholls’s office and politely express your opposition to puberty blockers and ‘gender affirming care’ for children.