I speak to the Amendment tabled in the name of Jane Hutt, which notes that 

'NHS England has concluded there is not enough evidence to support the safety or clinical effectiveness of puberty suppressing hormones for the treatment of gender dysphoria in children and young people at this time.'

Dr Hilary Cass in her review of gender identity services for children notes, and I quote: 

'Polarisation and stifling of debate do nothing to help the young people caught in the middle of a stormy social discourse', and they need and deserve better. We need to eliminate the toxicity of this debate and its politicisation. It helps no-one, least of all those young persons involved. 

This Senedd Chamber should and must be a place where all reasonable views are able to be expressed, and nobody should be cancelled in a democracy for stating an honestly held and non-prejudicial viewpoint. I am an avowed feminist and champion of women's rights—I have been all my life—and a champion of equality and justice for all. And it serves our democracy and all our people ill where we are not able to share honestly held views that ordinary citizens going about their daily lives today will share. 

As the leader of the UK Labour Party, Keir Starmer, stated yesterday, the Labour Party has championed women's rights for a very long time. It is important in a Welsh context to stress that NHS Wales commissions gender identity services, as has been said, for children and young people 17 and under from NHS England. Dr Cass states that doctors who might otherwise have treated young people questioning their gender identity for depression or autistic spectrum disorders felt compelled to instead refer them to GIDS, the gender identity development service run by the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust, which has since been shut down. 

Dr Cass found that there was no good evidence to support the global clinical practice of prescribing hormones to under 18s to halt puberty or transition to the opposite sex. Researchers at the University of York examined all available evidence—all available evidence—on how to treat children questioning their gender identity. They concluded there was wholly inadequate evidence to support medical Intervention, making it therefore impossible to know whether it improves mental or physical health. 

The Cass review is well researched and it is evidence based. So, Deputy Llywydd, we must all in this Chamber demonstrate leadership and empathy for others and fully comprehend and understand that turning such complex and divisive issues into articles of faith in some sort of culture war, so often stoked by online keyboard warriors, is wrong, and that does a disservice to all. Thank you.