In November 2025, out of the blue, weirdo fundie Simeon Brown banned the use of puberty blockers in trans (but not cis) healthcare, over-riding the medical decisions of doctors. The decision was swiftly enjoined by the courts, ensuring it did not come into effect, and today it was officially overturned on the grounds that the Minister had failed to consulted queer kids, and that it was discriminatory. Interestingly, the latter was not on the basis of sex - Crown Law has long held that the Human Rights Act's prohibition on discrimination on the basis of sex includes trans people - but on the basis of disability. Trans kids are seeking healthcare for clinically recognised mental disorders; the ban would have denied them access to appropriate healthcare on the basis of those disorders, and this is pretty obviously discriminatory. The regime's arguments that there was no discrimination and that this was just about the effectiveness of the medication and that the ban was a justified limitation on the basis of side-effects (a concern which somehow does not apply to cis kids) were laughed out of court. This allowed the court to sidestep the entire question of the definition of "sex" in the Human Rights Act, and leave it for another case.
This seems like a pretty good result, and one we should celebrate. The question now is whether the regime will accept the decision of the court, appeal it, or (if re-elected) pull their usual stunt of over-ruling them by fiat legislation. The risk of the latter makes the election all the more important: if you support trans people, vote this hateful regime out!
