Making access to sex-change drugs easier for teens

FEDERAL Attorney-General George Brandis is controversially backing a push to make it easier and quicker for teenagers to access sex-change drugs.

The nation’s top law officer has said hormone treatment is “therapeutic” to treat the “disease” of gender dysphoria and should no longer need Family Court approval.

But Family and Community Services has countered with a contradictory medical opinion saying hormone treatment is not reversible if the child changes its mind and could lead to infertility or damage the developing adolescent brain.

Mr Brandis made a submission to the Full Court of the Family Court in an appeal­ that seeks to overturn current law that a child needs court permission for hormone treatment to change sex even if the medical profession and their parents acknowledge they are “competent” and fully understand what is involved.

The Attorney-General’s submission, obtained by The Saturday Telegraph, supports views of the ACT-based A Gender Agenda, representing “intersex, transgender and gender diverse people”, the Australian Human Rights Commission and Melbourne’s Royal Children’s Hospital, which deals with more gender dysphoria cases than any other hospital in the nation.

Only the NSW Department of Family and Community Services­ raised any opposition, saying the court should remain in an oversight role to make sure there was no “grave error” and the treatment was in the best interests of the child.

The case was brought by the father of 17-year-old “Kelvin” who was born female but has identified as a boy since the age of nine.

The court has already determined Kelvin is competent enough to start hormone treatment, but his father­ launched the appeal as a test case to stop the court having any role in future­ decisions.

Of about 60 transgender applications­ made by children to the Family Court since 2004, none has been refused.

FACS said that was not an argument in dispensing with the “security” of court oversight.

FACS quoted a paediatrics professor who said that most children grow out of gender dysphoria and the “long-term effects of puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones are not known”.

The Family Court Full Court decided to hear the appeal­ because many judges had expressed views that the court process was traumatic and expensive and was letting transgender children down.

The court has reserved its judgment.