When we received the news on Tuesday 12th March 2024 that the NHS would no longer prescribe puberty blockers we were delighted. This outcome is one we have been working on since our inception, well before we even had our charitable status. It formed a great part of our Conversion Therapy campaign. As early as November 2019, we were asking questions of politicians on this issue and also urging our supporters to do so.
Throughout 2020 and 2021, we continued to raise concerns around the medicalisation of children, most of whom reporting shows us are same-sex attracted. This included attending a meeting at Holyrood set up by Joan McAlpine, where we heard Dr David Bell and Sinead Watson speak on the dangers of puberty blockers.

We campaigned to highlight the lack of research around puberty blockers, the potential harms caused by them and the blasé attitudes of the clinicians prescribing them.

We reaffirmed our commitment to this at a board meeting following our first conference in October 2021. And have covered this issue extensively at every one of our conferences, platforming Sinead Watson, Richie Herron, Stephanie Davies-Arai and our patron, Dr Az Hakeem, to name but a few of those working to stop the medicalisation of children.
Our response to the government’s Conversion Therapy consultation in December 2021 highlighted our belief that the most pressing example of “conversion therapy” practised in the UK is the widespread prescription of puberty blockers to teens claiming to be the opposite sex.

In January 2022 we launched our ‘Gay Teens Aren’t Sick’ campaign with a van that drove around Westminster.

Then in May 2022 we released our film, ‘Puberty Blockers? Gay Teens Aren’t Sick!’.
Following this we wrote to all MPs, MSPs and MSs to share the film and our concerns around the medicalisation of children who may grow up to be lesbian, gay or bisexual.
We produced another film in September that year with Dr Az Hakeem, which was shared online and shown to policy makers at events.
Throughout 2023 we continued to tell the world ‘Gay Teens Aren’t Sick!’.
Our puberty blockers film formed the centre piece of our Fringe event at the Conservative Party Conference. Once again, the only Party Political Conference we were allowed to officially attend.

This week we launched the next phase our campaign to protect young LGB people from medicalisation – Best practice, not private practice.

We will continue to fight to close the loophole that still allows unscrupulous private providers to prescribe puberty blockers and we won’t stop until the fight is won.