No More Experiments on Children
When the Atlantic Started Flowing the Other Way
Last Monday, Spiked published a piece I wrote entitled No More Experiments on Children. It argued, in plain and unapologetic words, that puberty is not a disease, and that suspending sexual development in healthy adolescents to affirm an identity is not progressive care, but medical experimentation. I expected it to resonate with some readers, perhaps stir debate among others. What I didn’t expect was how quickly the argument would leap across the Atlantic.
Within twenty-four hours, a paragraph from the piece was quoted in the New York Post, as part of its editorial roundup. The message remained intact: that halting a child’s natural development to match a self-declared identity isn’t kindness, it’s risk. It isn’t medicine, it’s invasive and life-changing radical treatment.
That same day I was thrilled to see that RealClearPolitics featured the article in its “From Around the Web” section, linking directly to the original Spiked piece. For those unfamiliar, RealClearPolitics is no ordinary aggregator. It’s a flagship platform in American political media, read daily by lawmakers, analysts, campaign operatives, and policy think tanks. It’s the kind of site that helps set the agenda in Washington. The inclusion of my article there wasn’t just a fluke; it was a signal that the argument has weight and is beginning to shape conversations well beyond the UK. The Cass Review, the closure of GIDS at the Tavistock, and the growing caution towards gender-affirming treatment across Europe are no longer perceived as remote or irrelevant developments. Increasingly, they are being recognised as cautionary signals worth serious consideration. A message that originated in London is now being acknowledged as relevant on Capitol Hill.
What struck me most wasn’t the agreement; I’ve long known that many in the United States are deeply concerned about the medicalisation of gender-questioning youth. What surprised me was the immediacy of the response, and how little was lost in translation. The argument didn’t just travel - it landed. And it did so not in fringe blogs or niche forums, but in two major platforms that shape and reflect American political and cultural opinion. There was no watering down or hedging. Just a clean and urgent signal that the tide is turning, and not just in Britain.
This shift did not happen in a vacuum. It followed the release of The WPATH Files, a set of leaked internal conversations from the World Professional Association for Transgender Health. The files were sent to journalist
who worked with to produce an in-depth report for Environmental Progress. Released on 4 March 2025, the material includes over 250 pages of transcripts along with an executive summary.The documents show clinicians inside WPATH expressing serious doubts about the safety and evidence behind youth medical transition. These were not public statements, but private conversations that revealed ethical concerns, pressure to conform, and fear of speaking out. The files confirmed what many had long suspected and gave new weight to the call for caution.
Genspect has played a key role in linking international developments, offering a platform for clinicians, parents, detransitioners, and policy experts to collaborate and share insights. We have continued to expand, with branches now in the USA, Canada, UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. Genspect USA, in particular, been instrumental in translating these concerns into action within the American context.
Through public events - such as Detrans Awareness Day, most recently held on Capitol Hill, and our upcoming The Bigger Picture Conference in New Mexico (September 2025) - Genspect has helped shift public understanding of gender-related distress. Our recent animation series comprises two five-minute films, featuring the voices of Forrest and Claire respectively, and has been particularly effective in reaching a broader and younger audience. While academic research and legal cases are critically important, it is media engagement and advocacy that most powerfully drive cultural change and shape public perception.
The groundwork for this transatlantic shift was laid in the UK and Europe. The Cass Review, published in 2024, offered a comprehensive, evidence-based assessment of gender services for young people in England. It was calm, methodical, and ultimately damning. Prior to this, the courts ruled in Bell v Tavistock that experimental treatments on children demanded far greater scrutiny and safeguards. Time to Think: The Inside Story of the Collapse of the Tavistock’s Gender Service for Children, Hannah Barnes’ exposé on GIDS at the Tavistock, further challenged the idea that the gender-affirming model was settled science. Finally people are coming to realise that gender-affirmation is a high-risk path that is unsupported by quality research.
These were not local concerns. American courts, clinicians, and lawmakers began to take notice. The HHS review was a glorious piece of work - sadly dismissed by US Democrats because of the politicization of the trans issue. On 18 June 2025, the United States Supreme Court upheld Tennessee’s ban on puberty blockers for minors in the case of US v Skrmetti. The majority opinion cited the Cass Review and the lack of long-term evidence as part of its reasoning. This marked a significant shift. For once, the United States was not setting the pace but following the lead of countries that had taken a closer look at the data.
In the days that followed, the echo could be heard across American media. The New York Post quoted directly from my article, highlighting the line:
Puberty is a normal, necessary part of growing up. But the medical establishment is still flirting with the idea that we can chemically freeze children in place. It’s not care. It’s not kind. It’s not safe. It’s experimentation."
That sentence began to surface across commentary in the US, not because it was radical, but because it was clear. And clarity, at this point in the debate, is powerful.
This does not mean the debate is over. Far from it. But something has shifted. When RealClearPolitics highlights an article cautioning the use of puberty blockers from Spiked, it suggests that what was once seen as marginal is now part of the mainstream conversation.
The ideas that once flowed west to east are now coming back the other way, stronger and more grounded. Lets keep the Atlantic flowing this way for now.
This is a powerful and deeply encouraging piece. Huge credit to Stella O’Malley, Genspect, and all the tireless advocates who have worked against seemingly insurmountable odds to bring the gender-critical perspective into mainstream discourse—on both sides of the Atlantic. Mid‑2025 has become a landmark moment for sex realists.
Andrew Sullivan’s June 26 New York Times opinion piece, “How the Gay Rights Movement Radicalized, and Lost Its Way,” was another bombshell—calmly but devastatingly laying bare the failures of gender ideology and affirming the need for an evidence-based, reality‑anchored approach to gender distress. That such a piece appeared in the Times, and with so little hedging, would have been unimaginable just six months ago.
While these breakthroughs represent real progress, they are just the beginning. The ideological zeal and willful ignorance still dominant in progressive circles—and among too many liberals—continue to shape media, politics, academia, and entertainment, where trans affirmation remains compulsory.
The gaslighting has already begun: no less a cultural figure than Ezra Klein claimed in his June 21, 2025 New York Times podcast interview with Representative Sarah McBride (born Sean Patrick McBride, male) that recent reversals in gender ideology merely reflect that Americans are “underinformed” on trans issues. This is a disingenuous and self-serving narrative that erases the growing body of evidence, the mounting concerns of clinicians, and the lived experiences of detransitioners. It also flies in the face of the chorus of trans-affirming voices that have dominated media, academia, entertainment, and corporate messaging for the past decade, relentlessly promoting affirmation as the only morally acceptable response to gender-related distress. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/17/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-sarah-mcbride.html?searchResultPosition=2
There is still a long road ahead. But for the first time in years, it feels as if truth has a fighting chance.
Great article on heartening developments (after a long battle— thank you Stella and Genspect, and everyone else). When you can boil an argument down to a compelling phrase, it’s brilliant and it sticks. ‘Puberty is not a disease’. I also like ‘transition is not healthcare.’ Let’s finish this monster off!