Dr. Hilary Cass, the author of the report submitted to England’s National Health Service (NHS) discussing “gender-affirming care” for minors, revealed that she is avoiding public transportation for her safety.
Cass told The Times of London that she had been sent “vile” emails and was given security information.
“There are some pretty vile emails coming in at the moment. Most of which my team is protecting me from, so I’m not getting to see them,” she said, adding that some of the emails contain “words I wouldn’t put in a newspaper.”
“I’m not going on public transport at the moment, following security advice, which is inconvenient,” she added.
Cass described her frustration with the “disinformation” surrounding her report.
“I have been really frustrated by the criticisms, because it is straight disinformation. It is completely inaccurate,” she told the paper. “It started the day before the report came out when an influencer put up a picture of a list of papers that were apparently rejected for not being randomised control trials.”
“That list has absolutely nothing to do with either our report or any of the papers,” Cass continued. “If you deliberately try to undermine a report that has looked at the evidence of children’s healthcare, then that’s unforgivable. You are putting children at risk by doing that.”
The doctor’s report emphasized that there is “remarkably weak evidence” for transitions.
“This is an area of remarkably weak evidence, and yet results of studies are exaggerated or misrepresented by people on all sides of the debate to support their viewpoint,” Cass explained. “The reality is that we have no good evidence on the long-term outcomes of interventions to manage gender-related distress.”
Following the report, Scotland paused new prescriptions of puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones for minors.
“This service update follows research from NHS England and the publication of the Cass Review while we work with the Scottish Government to engage in research with NHS England that will generate evidence of safety and long-term impact for therapies,” a statement from Scotland’s National Health Service (NHS) said.
