Irish Expert: Aussies Silenced in Gender Debate

Irish psychotherapist Stella O’Malley has worked with parents of gender-distressed children across dozens of countries.

She says Australian parents stand apart.

“There was something about the extraordinary loneliness and isolation of the Australian parents that felt more poignant than the others,” Dr. O’Malley told The Australian this week.

She’s the executive director of Genspect, an international organisation providing evidence-based support to detransitioners and families navigating gender distress.

“AUSTRALIAN PARENTS ARE AMONG THE MOST AFRAID”

Dr. O’Malley has been running online therapy sessions since 2020.

She first met Australian parents of gender distressed children when they joined these sessions during the Covid pandemic.

The psychotherapist noticed they were among the most afraid.

“AUSSIES GENUINELY FEARFUL OF LEGAL CONSEQUENCES”

“It’s a different level of fear and silencing that’s happening in Australia,” she observed.

“I’ve noticed as somebody who’s dealing with all the countries that they seem to be very, very gagged in Australia.”

“They seem to be genuinely fearful of legal consequences in the way that other countries aren’t.”

Dr. O’Malley said she wanted people to know it was “very, very difficult for detransitioners and parents in Australia to speak out.”

AUSTRALIAN LAWS AND POLICIES “NOT GROUNDED IN SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE”

Australia’s Christian-backed Human Rights Law Alliance writes that the  legal architecture producing that fear is not accidental.

The Irish expert pointed directly to so-called conversion therapy laws, which she and other clinicians argue have placed a statutory chill on any therapeutic approach that does not affirm a child’s stated gender identity.

The Australian writes: “A keen observer of debates over paediatric gender medicine and transgender ideology internationally, Dr. O’Malley said she was concerned about a range of Australian laws and policies not grounded in scientific evidence that contribute to a culture of silence.”

ISSUES CONTRIBUTING TO A “CULTURE OF SILENCE”

“In particular, she cited the promotion of gender-affirming care as the only acceptable treatment model for children questioning their gender.”

Dr. O’Malley argued the anti-conversion laws have had a chilling effect on clinicians offering anything other than affirmation.

She also cited the legal battles faced by Giggle app founder Sall Grover and Queensland child psychiatrist Jillian Spencer, as well as limited media coverage of gender critical perspectives.

The psychotherapist described Ms. Grover and Dr. Spencer as “icons” whose legal battles had given her hope that “finally Australia’s waking up”.

BRITISH STUDY FOUND LACK OF EVIDENCE TO SUPPORT “GENDER-AFFIRMING CARE

In the United Kingdom, the Cass Review – an independent four-year review commissioned by the National Health Service – found the evidence base for so-called ‘gender-affirming care’ of children to be weak, prompting the British Labour government to ban puberty blockers for gender dysphoria.

Australia has moved in the opposite direction: legislating affirmation as the only acceptable treatment model, while creating regulatory risk for clinicians who ask anything deeper.

“It was so clear that things needed to be addressed in Australia,” Dr. O’Malley asserted.

“IT WAS CLEAR FROM THE LAWS, THEY DIDN’T KNOW WHAT THEY WERE DOING”

“It was just so clear from the laws they were bringing in that they didn’t know what they were doing,” she continued.

“They’re not resting on a scientific basis, they’re not resting on an evidence base, and that’s why it’s good to see attention being brought on to Australia.”

“I think when people do their homework, and it’s quite clear some of them haven’t, in authority, I think they will be horrified by the lack of evidence base.”

DR. O’MALLEY GREW UP WITH GENDER DYSPHORIA AS A CHILD

Stella O’Malley’s authority to make these observations is both professional and personal.

She experienced what she describes as severe gender dysphoria from a very young age. 

“From when I was about three, I wanted to be a boy, and it lasted many, many years, and when I went through puberty some years later, obviously, it was harrowing,” she told The Australian.

“I was really disturbed and really, really rejecting of becoming the female body.”

“Had I been offered puberty blockers all those years ago, I would have swiped them from your hand, and I would have said anything (to get them).”

PSYCHOTHERAPIST SEES CHILDREN GRAPPLING WITH SAME ISSUES SHE DID, UNDERGOING MEDICAL TRANSITIONS

Dr. O’Malley said her subsequent experience as a young adult of falling in love, having a sex life, and later marrying and having children prompted her to question gender affirmative treatments.

She did not receive puberty blockers and went on to complete a PhD on parents’ perspectives of children’s gender dysphoria.

She sees children grappling with the same questions she did, placed on a medical path of puberty blockers, followed by cross-sex hormones and often surgery.

The irreversible consequences can include infertility, loss of sexual function, incontinence and cognitive impacts.

“PSYCHOLOGY IS ABOUT NOT ACCEPTING THE SURFACE STORY AS THE ONLY STORY”

The Irish psychotherapist said she was concerned that Australian authorities didn’t appear to understand “there is no supporting evidence base for gender-affirming care for children.”

Her organisation Genspect grounds its work in conventional psychotherapy – Freud, Jung, Carl Rogers, Aaron Beck, Albert Ellis – rather than affirmation frameworks she describes as “anti-psychological”.

The job of psychology, she argued, is not to accept the surface story as the only story.

Affirmation, by definition, does exactly that.

“AUSTRALIA IS THE LOSER FOR NOT ALLOWING PEOPLE TO SPEAK FREELY”

“Australia is losing more than it realises by not allowing people to speak freely,” Stella O’Malley declared.

She will be a keynote speaker at the Coalition Advancing Scientific Care conference in Adelaide in October.

She is expected to give addresses on how parents should respond when their child first tells them they are questioning their gender — and medical transition “as a failed intervention”.