Meeting of the Parliament 08 May 2024
Sinéad Watson is one of the bravest people whom I have ever met. Sinéad is a detransitioner and someone whom I first heard speak in the Parliament four years ago, at an event hosted by the then SNP MSP Joan McAlpine. Today, Sinéad is 33. Ten years ago, she transitioned to become a man, having had a history of being a victim of sexual assault by men.
She came to believe that her problems would be cured if she underwent gender reassignment treatment and, having presented as gender dysphoric at the Sandyford gender clinic in Glasgow, went down the route of transition. She had years of testosterone injections and a double mastectomy. Today, Sinéad is in permanent pain and discomfort and bears the physical and mental scars of that transition. She now realises that she made a terrible mistake, but the treatment that she underwent means that there is no going back to the body that she once had.
Sinéad is angry that clinicians who should have recognised that what she needed was therapy encouraged her down the route of gender transition; she is angry that the consequences of what she was doing were not fully laid out to her; and she is angry that the prospect that she might at some point in the future want to detransition was never set out to her.
Sinéad, like many detransitioners, wants the Sandyford clinic closed, because of the damage that is being done. She has said:
“I will do what I can to stop this terrible mistreatment of vulnerable young people.”
Sinéad is, rightly, angry with politicians who encouraged transitions for children and young people with troubled backgrounds and a history of mental illness.
The Cass report is a welcome step towards changing our perspective on the treatment of young people with gender issues. We should not be prepared to tolerate any young person going through what Sinéad Watson had to suffer. That is why the rapid implementation of the recommendations of the Cass report is so important, as Meghan Gallacher set out.