Dr Jillian Spencer makes formal complaint to Human Rights Commission
Dr Jillian Spencer makes formal complaint to Human Rights Commission
Kirralie Smith July 13, 2023
Senior Psychiatrist Dr Jillian Spencer has lodged a complaint with the Queensland Human Rights Commission over being stood down from the Queensland Children’s Hospital.
Dr Spencer has been openly critical of the unproven “affirmation-only” approach the hospital has adopted. Dr Spencer made her views known in the hospital by removing a trans flag from a waiting area, using “adult human female” in her email signature and objecting to staff training on breast binding.
The experienced clinician has expressed grave concern over the practices and the lack of tolerance for other medically proven pathways. In her complaint to QHRC she wrote,
“I was concerned about the increasing number of children and adolescents – especially biological females – presenting with gender dysphoria in the context of comorbid mental health diagnoses and complex psychological issues, including trauma,” Dr Spencer writes in her complaint.
“I became very concerned about the potential harm our hospital was doing in immediately using preferred pronouns, that unquestioningly affirms a child’s perceived identity and sets them on a treatment pathway of medical intervention that purports to transition a young person into an identity that they are likely to outgrow if interventions of this kind are not applied.”
After conducting thorough investigations into the use of drugs for minors experiencing gender dysphoria, countries such as the UK, Sweden, Finland and the Netherlands have all wound back or completely paused such treatments. So far in Australia, politicians have gone out of their way to avoid similar inquiries. Binary has been calling for an inquiry for several months, as have medical practitioners such as Dr Dylan Wilson and Dr Spencer.
Dr Spencer is inviting health practitioners who are concerned about the treatment of children with gender dysphoria in Australia to join the call for an independent inquiry. See instructions below.