In April, Liz Truss MP, Minister for Women and Equalities, announced changes to gender law, including restricting irreversible treatments for under-18s.
She made the comments to the Women and Equalities Select Committee now that the government has analysed responses to its public consultation on the Gender Recognition Act (en September 2018). A full response will be expected by the Summer.
Currently, children under 16 usually need parental consent for sex-change medication, but Truss said she wanted to restrict access to irreversible treatments.
Truss told MPs that under-18s should be ‘protected from decisions that they could make, that are irreversible in the future. I believe strongly that adults should have the freedom to lead their lives as they see fit, but I think it’s very important that while people are still developing their decision-making capabilities that we protect them from making those irreversible decisions.’
Her comments could go beyond surgery and also include the use of puberty-blocking drugs and infertility-causing cross-sex hormones.
Single-sex spaces
Truss also said the protection of single-sex spaces was on her agenda, which she considers ‘extremely important’. Her comments on single-sex spaces will be welcomed by women’s campaigners, who have long said that women and girls must be protected from men entering private spaces simply by ‘identifying’ as female.
