Bereaved mother Caroline Litman accuses Wes Streeting of ‘discrimination based on transphobia’
“I haven’t got any good news for the trans community,” she said in an Instagram video
Dr Caroline Litman has called health secretary Wes Streeting’s response to concerns about trans suicide rates “utterly enraging” after a meeting on trans healthcare.
The author and ex-NHS psychiatrist lost her transgender daughter, Alice, to suicide in 2022 and has been campaigning for access to trans healthcare for the past three years.
She sat down with Streeting and James Palmer, director of specialist services for NHS England, in March to discuss suicide risk in trans youth.
“I haven’t got any good news for the trans community” – Dr Caroline Litman in an Instagram video
This came after the government banned prescribing and supplying puberty-blocking hormones to under-18s for gender dysphoria in December 2024.
Now, two months later, she was able to speak openly about it on her social media. She began: “It’s taken me this long to process the meeting and be ready to talk about it.”
“I haven’t got any good news for the trans community,” she added.
Dr Litman took to Instagram to share the details of their conversation, she said: “Wes Streeting is personally so worried about the possibility of de-transition – that someone might change their mind – that he is prepared to prioritise everything to reduce this risk to an absolute minimum.”
“It is utterly enraging. The government is doing exactly the opposite of what it claims” – Litman
She found Streeting’s policy lacking in consideration of its contribution to a decline in the mental health of trans people and its potential to exacerbate the risk of suicide in those who are unable to access care.
During her meeting, she did note that Streeting expressed sympathy towards her and her partner, Peter, but in her blog, she criticised this as “a baseline of common decency, but not a measure of political will”.
Following their conversation, the Department for Health and Social Care said in a statement: “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 future being put at such a risk.”
Dr Litman then returned to Instagram reels with her response: “It is utterly enraging. The government is doing exactly the opposite of what it claims. Taking away gender-affirming healthcare for trans youth is taking away their dignity and is completely disrespectful of their autonomy.”
Dr Litman’s memoir, ‘Her Name is Alice’ won an Attitude Pride Award in 2024
Her daughter Alice took her own life at 20-years-old after waiting more than 1,000 days for an appointment with the gender clinic at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust.
During Alice’s inquest, it was discovered that someone referred at the same time as she was could be waiting for 20 years before receiving gender-affirming care.
At the Attitude Pride Awards in 2024, we celebrated Dr Litman and her daughter Kate for their ‘Campaign for Alice’, memoir ‘Her Name is Alice’ and aim to make trans healthcare more accessible.