More than 20 transgender advocacy organizations have written a joint letter to the Vrije Universiteit of Amsterdam, expressing their grave concerns about a conference there which features notoriously anti-trans speakers. The conference on Thursday, June 27, will take place under the auspices of the Amsterdam Center for Family Law, founded by the Vrije Universiteit. Some keynote speakers have ties to hateful anti-transgender organizations, which are being provided a broad platform at this conference – without critical rebuttal. “This is dangerous!” the advocacy organizations warn, “because misinformation is not without consequences.”

Opening the program is British keynote speaker Hilary Cass. In April 2024, she launched an attack on British transgender care for young people with the publication of the controversial Cass Review. Cass claimed that care for transgender youth was not scientifically sound. But her report immediately received widespread international criticism. Indeed, according to experts in the field, she had cherry-picked from scientific studies, positive evidence had been ignored, and she had drawn sweeping conclusions that could not be derived from the available data.(1) In short, the report did not hold up scientifically. Yet the British government used this highly controversial report to shut down transgender care for young people in Britain. Warnings from medical professionals and advocacy groups that young people would suffer severely from lack of care were ignored.

Other speakers at the conference are also highly controversial. Finnish psychiatrist Riittakerttu Kaltiala is involved, among other things, with the organizations SEGM and Genspect, which aim to curtail transgender care. Both organizations are not recognized by the international medical community due to the lack of scientific evidence for their claims.(2) Several authoritative institutions, including the Southern Poverty Law Center, consider both organizations to be hate groups.(3) It has come to light that these groups also influenced the Cass report. Swedish psychiatrist and well-known anti-transgender activist Mikael Landén has ties to SEGM as well.

These controversial speakers need not worry about a critical reception, as the conference’s packed program includes barely half an hour of debate. Almost all of the other, Dutch speakers of the day want to further restrict transgender care for young people as well. This stands in stark contrast to the scientific consensus, which is that this care is actually extremely successful.(4) It is common knowledge among professionals that restricting transgender care to young people causes great suffering, and can even lead to suicide. “Everything indicates that this conference is not a platform for a neutral scientific dialogue, but provides a very one-sided platform for misinformation and the illusion of dialogue,” the advocacy organizations warn.

The more than 20 organizations have asked the Vrije Universiteit to urgently engage in conversation about their concerns. They hope that the conference on June 27 will not take place, and that in future programming the Executive Board will avoid uncritically providing a stage for speakers who propagate misinformation and discriminatory rhetoric. The advocacy organizations stress that they welcome dialogue about transgender care, but only on the basis of facts and together with the transgender community. National advocacy group Transgender Network is also very concerned about the approach of this conference, and especially the invited foreign speakers. Trans Zorg Nu has announced a demonstration.

Principle 17
Trans in Eigen Hand
Trans Zorg Nu
B.u.t.t.e.r.f.l.y.
Colored Qollective
Colored Qollective team, Trans Kliniek Utrecht
LHBT Nissewaard
Mentalspace
OUT Academia
PraxisDIY
Queer Leiden University
Regio Federatie Voorne-Putten
Stichting Transman
The Hang-Out 070
Trans Healthcare Network
Trans Radical Resource Exchange
Trans Radical Resource Exchange Nijmegen
Trans Utrecht & Beyond
Trans United Europe – BIPOC Transnetwork
Transfem Haarlem
Transgendergroep Nijmegen
Transistor
Treat it Queer

(1) Dr Ruth Pearce, What’s wrong with the Cass Review? A round-up of commentary and evidence, 14 juni 2024
Chris Noone, Alex Southgate, Alex Ashman, Éle Quinn, David Comer, Duncan Shrewsbury, Florence Ashley, Jo Hartland, Joanna Pashdag, John Gilmore, Natacha Kennedy, Thomas Woolley, Rachel Ann Heath, Ryan Goulding, Victoria Simpson, Ed Kiely, Sibéal Coll, Margaret White, Dori Grijseels, Maxence Ouafik, and Quinnehtukqut McLamore, Critically appraising the Cass Report: Methodological flaws and unsupported claims, 11 juni 2024
C.M. Grijseels, Biological and psychosocial evidence in the Cass Review: a critical commentary, 8 juni 2024
Dori Grijseels, Rapport over Transgenderzorg is zwaar onder de maat, 1 mei 2024
Transgender Netwerk Nederland, Waarom de Nederlandse transgenderzorg niet beter wordt door het Cass Rapport, 30 april 2024
TransActual, The Cass Review is bad science and should not be taken seriously by policymakers, 11 april 2024 – of deze link

(2) Trudy Ring, ‘Science’ Behind Texas/Alabama Anti-Trans Policy Is ‘Full of Errorss’, 5 mei 2024

(3) Mira Lazine, Anti-trans organizations Genspect & SEGM are now listed as hate groups by the SPLC, 6 juni 2024
Erin Reed, SPLC Designates Genspect, SEGM As Anti-LGBTQ Hate Groups, 5 juni 2024

(4) Madelyn Beck, Health experts: Gender-affirming care saves lives, 2 februari 2023
Diane Chen, Ph.D. Johnny Berona, Ph.D., Yee-Ming Chan, M.D., Ph.D. Diane Ehrensaft, Ph.D., Robert Garofalo, M.D., M.P.H., Marco A. Hidalgo, Ph.D., Stephen M. Rosenthal, M.D., Amy C. Tishelman, Ph.D., and Johanna Olson-Kennedy, M.D., Psychosocial Functioning in Transgender Youth after 2 Years of Hormones, 18 januari 2023
Annelou L.C. de Vries, M.D., Ph.D., and Sabine E. Hannema, M.D., Ph.D., Growing Evidence and Remaining Questions in Adolescent Transgender Care, 18 januari 2023
A.J. Eckert, Gender-affirming care is not “experimental”, 25 juni 2022
Kristina R. Olson, Lily Durwood, Rachel Horton, Natalie M. Gallagher en Aaron Devor, Gender Identity 5 Years After Social Transition, 2022