Britain’s only gender transition facility is facing increasing criticism that it is fast-tracking children into sex change procedures. The Times of London last week published a series of reports about five former employees who resigned because they believed the facility was mutilating young children.

The clinical psychologists who spoke to the newspaper represent some of at least 18 staff members who have resigned from the National Health Service’s Tavistock Centre in the past three years. They told The Times they were pressured to refer children for hormone blockers or irreversible cross-sex hormones quickly, even if they believed the treatment was not in the children’s best interest.

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“I would talk about it as an ‘atrocity,’” one female clinician, who remained anonymous, told The Times. “I know that sounds quite strong, but it felt as if we were a part of something that people would look back on in the future, and ask, ‘What were we thinking?’”

Another clinician said, “This experimental treatment is being done not only on children, but very vulnerable children who have experienced mental health difficulties, abuse, family trauma, and sometimes those [other factors] just get whitewashed. If someone was suggesting plastic surgery or any other permanent change we’d be saying, hang on a minute.” . . .

“I do not believe we understand what is going on in this complex area, and the need to adopt an attitude which examines things from different points of view is essential,” Marcus Evans, who had been associated with Tavistock for more than 30 years, wrote in a resignation email, The Guardian reported. “This is difficult in the current environment as the debate and discussion required is continually being closed down or effectively described as ‘transphobic’ or in some way prejudicial.” . . . 

Carl Heneghan, the director of the Centre of Evidence-based Medicine at the University of Oxford, . . . told The Times last week the off-label use of drugs to treat gender dysphoria at Tavistock is an “unregulated live experiment on children,” and is “supported by low-quality evidence, or in many cases no evidence at all.”

The live experiment is growing: The number of children referred to Tavistock has soared in recent years, from 94 in 2010 to 2,519 last year.

(Read more at World Mag.)