Content warning: This article contains discussions of suicide
Dr Caroline Litman has spent three years campaigning for trans healthcare access since losing her daughter Alice. Her meeting with Wes Streeting, she says, changed nothing.
In mid-March, a former NHS psychiatrist met with Wes Streeting, multiple government officials, and James Palmer, NHS England’s director of specialist services, to discuss both the death of her transgender daughter and Labour’s 2024 ban on Puberty blockers.
During this meeting, Dr Caroline Litman alleges that Streeting was dismissive, often focused on his own feelings, and “tried to drive a wedge between the trans community and me.” She also states she was handed a paper by Palmer marked: “should not be used to guide clinical practice” to argue government policy has not raised suicide rates in trans children and young people.
Caroline’s transgender daughter, Alice, died by suicide in May 2022 at 20 years old. Caroline has since become a campaigner for transgender healthcare, believing that the lack of access Alice had to gender-affirming care contributed significantly to her suicide – her family spearheaded an inquest into Alice’s death that resulted in a “Prevention of Future Deaths Report” concluding a risk of future deaths occurring “unless action is taken”.
On May 2nd, Caroline published a 24-page report of this discussion, posing 55 questions to the Health Secretary on points she believes he failed to address. The New Feminist met with Caroline to discuss this.
“A lot of the time, he spoke as if the problem was his and not mine. I talked to him about the meeting where all the young trans children wept in front of him and begged him not to take their treatment away. His response was that he’d never forget that meeting. That it was very difficult for him. It was all about how uncomfortable and difficult everything was for him.”
“I know of other parents whose children have been successfully transitioning for years, since they were in their early teens, and they’re terrified about being forcibly de-transitioned, and Wes Streeting just doesn’t give a flying fuck. I’m just furious.”
Caroline argues that during the 2-hour meeting, both Palmer and Streeting “tried to drive a wedge between the trans community and me and separate me off from those I was there to support”, instead positioning her “on their side as one of the good ones”.
She also argued Palmer stated the best outcome of the meeting would be that Caroline tell the trans community to stop talking about suicide rates as it was “irresponsible”, handing her a paper marked “not certified” and “should not be used to guide clinical practice”.
“I just really think that the people in power, Wes Streeting and many others, don’t understand trans identity, and they think it’s a bad thing. It’s not to be embraced, it’s not to be welcomed, not to be respected, and it’s better if people don’t transition, and that you’ll all be happier ultimately, if you don’t transition.”
When contacted for comment, a spokesperson for The Department of Health and Social Care sent the following response:
“The government is committed to trans people being treated with dignity and respect within the NHS. It was appalling that children were being given medicine that was not proven to be safe or effective – the action we have taken is protecting children in the future from being put at such risk.”
This spokesperson then stated they were improving services for transgender children based on recommendations from the Cass Review, a controversial report that Cass herself has subsequently argued to have been politicised. They then said they “welcome engagement with Dr Caroline Litman and others with lived experience”.
Caroline herself critiqued Streeting’s use of the Cass report, informing him of Cass’ own acknowledgement of the report’s politicisation. In response, Streeting allegedly said, “People get misquoted all the time”.
The Department of Health and Social Care has acknowledged receipt of Caroline’s own report, but is yet to reply. When asked about this statement, Caroline said:
“I’m speechless… It’s not dignity… and it’s not respect, and more children are going to die. The government is doing the exact opposite of what it claims, ignoring a vast body of international evidence.
Yet again, Streeting has shown me that he is so terrified of detransition and has put so much trust in anti-trans activists that he is not prepared to tolerate any risk on this matter. Instead, he is prepared to sacrifice trans children like my daughter, who find living without access to proper care within an increasingly transphobic society, his government encourages, to be intolerable.
He doesn’t deserve to know any more details of our lives, when he is quite prepared to put other children like Alice in harm’s way and leave other families bereaved and traumatised, and then ignored when we seek help, just as we were ignored when we sought help whilst our children lived. It feels negligent. It feels abusive. It feels criminal.
I will continue to press the department for answers to the 55 questions I sent him after our meeting. I look forward to him losing his seat at the next General Election.”
Caroline has written a book regarding Alice’s life and death, titled Her Name is Alice. It is intensely moving and an indelible insight into raising a transgender child. It can be purchased here.
“Alice died, and I don’t want any other young people to feel the way she felt, and to do what she did. I don’t want any other family to be suffering the way we are without her.”
NHS England has yet to reply to a request for comment regarding Palmer’s statements during the meeting.
In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123.
Text SHOUT to 85258, anytime, about any type of crisis including suicidality.
Switchboard, the LGBTQ+ helpline, can be reached on 0800 0119 100 or via webchat at switchboard.lgbt.
Mindline Trans+ offers confidential emotional and mental health support for trans and non-binary people on 0300 330 5468.
Mermaids, which supports transgender, non-binary and gender-diverse children and young people, can be contacted on 0808 801 0400 or at mermaidsuk.org.uk.