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The LNP’s ban on puberty blockers
Parents of Trans Kids Speak Out | November 2025
Queensland’s Health Minister Tim Nicholls reinstated the ban on puberty blockers hours after the original ban was found to be unlawful. Despite the imminent repercussions on trans youths’ well-being, Nicholls claimed he acted in the public interest. But for reasons only he could know, he was so afraid of expert consultation he risked breaking the law a second time.
To date, Nicholls has cited only one source for his concerns: the UK’s Cass Review. But as the New England Journal of Medicine noted, the Cass Review suffers from a “substandard level of scientific rigor”. The Medical Journal of Australia noted the Review’s “poor understanding of the therapeutic role of puberty suppression”.
Trans youth who seek puberty blockers have one motivation: to prevent the irreversible physical changes accompanying puberty. For trans men, this means breast growth, necessitating chest reconstruction surgery. For trans women, it means facial and body hair, a deeper voice, Adam’s apple, etc, all of which may require expensive surgeries or therapies in adulthood and cause intense stress on individuals and their families.
A US survey of over 60,000 trans and gender-diverse young people found “a very sharp and statistically significant rise in suicide attempt rates” after the enactment of anti-trans laws. Among 13-17 year olds, the rate of attempted suicides was 72% higher than it had been before the law‘s passage.
Those who oppose gender-affirming care for trans youth say it is “risky” and “experimental”. The real risk is in denying that treatment to young people. Even the Cass Review admitted that there is no evidence supporting psychotherapy as a treatment for gender dysphoria, yet now, for trans youth in the public system, psychotherapy is the only treatment available.
Tim Nicholls is afraid of consultation because the evidence is against him.
What's wrong with the Cass Review ?
Dr Ruth Pearce | October 15, 2025
The Cass Review has been extensively criticised by trans community organisations, medical practitioners, and scholars working in fields including transgender medicine, epidemiology, neuroscience, psychology, women’s studies, feminist theory, and gender studies.
They have highlighted problems with the Cass Review that include substandard and inconsistent use of evidence, non-evidenced claims, unethical recommendations, overt prejudice, pathologisation, and the intentional exclusion of service users and trans healthcare experts from the Review process.
Read our commentary of the Cass Review
Parents of Trans Kids Speak Out | November 2025
The Cass Review is a 370-page document commissioned by the UK’s National Health Service which purports to examine the evidence base for gender-affirming medical treatment (GAMT) for trans young people.
Though hailed by some politicians and media outlets as a serious work, it has been discredited in the New England Journal of Medicine and the Medical Journal of Australia; was the topic of a damning 40-page critique by gender-medicine specialists working with Yale University; and has been sharply criticised by peak medical bodies worldwide.
Read about why this report is so damaging to the well-being of trans people across the globe.
The Cass Review has an agenda – to severely limit access to gender-affirming medical treatment – and distorts the truth to achieve that agenda.
Puberty blockers: why politicians overriding doctors sets a dangerous precedent
The Conversation | 20 November 2025
The government’s ban on puberty blockers for gender-affirming care marks a troubling shift: politicians are now making decisions that should sit with clinicians working alongside young people and their families or whānau. Puberty blockers have been used in gender-affirming healthcare for decades.
Health minister reinstates ban on puberty blockers
ABC News | 29 October 2025
The Queensland health minister has reinstated a ban on puberty blockers, six hours after a Supreme Court judge overturned the January freeze. Tim Nicholls used his ministerial powers to ban public doctors from prescribing the medication to adolescents, effective immediately. The restriction will remain in effect until the government considers a review, due next month.
