Catholic Medical Quarterly

The Journal of the Catholic Medical Association (UK)

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Catholic Medical Quarterly Volume 75(3)  August 2025

Papers

Same sex attracted adolescents at the Tavistock needed support not transitioning

Fr James McTavish

The so-called “conversion therapy” has attracted much attention and publicity worldwide. The Human Rights Campaign defines conversion therapy as “a dangerous practice that targets LGBTQ youth and seeks to change their sexual or gender identities.” [1] It is not always easy to define what practices actually constitute conversion therapy. The UK government highlights that it most commonly involves spiritual methods (for example, prayer ‘healing’ or exorcisms, and pastoral counselling) and psychological methods (for example, talking therapies).[2] In general, most mental health groups agree that conversion therapy causes harm to the victims. Although suspicion often falls on religious and faith groups’ handling of gender confused young people, I would like to focus attention on what happened at the UK’s national gender clinic, the Tavistock, with its now defunct Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS).

The Tavistock clinic

The number of young people attending the Tavistock rocketed from less than 100 in 2009/2010, to finally having more than 8,000 patients on their waiting lists before it was dramatically forced to close in 2024. The majority of patients were adolescent girls, with no previous (pre-pubertal) history of gender dysphoria. What is alarming is the research that showed that a very high percentage of these girls (and boys) had same sex attraction (SSA), yet this does not seem to have been appropriately addressed. Instead because of diagnostic overshadowing - the tendency to focus on one diagnosis only to the detriment of other co-existing issues - many were railroaded into gender affirmative treatment.[3]

What happened at the Tavistock?

In her book “Time to Think” Hannah Barnes meticulously documents the collapse of the Tavistock.[4] The work of this clinic had been heavily influenced by various gender affirming LGBT groups who were vociferous in their support, despite the fact that the clinic was offering substandard medical care for years. The staff at the Tavistock had begun to notice that many young people who presented themselves at the clinic had an aversion to being gay or lesbian. Families sometimes made comments like “Thank God my child is trans and not gay or lesbian.”[5] According to Anastassis Spiliadis, a psychotherapist and psychologist who worked at the Tavistock, there were many “negative comments about gay people … I had kids telling me, ‘When I hear the word lesbian, I cringe. I want to die’ … ‘I’m gonna vomit if I hear the word lesbian another time.’” A large number of the teenage girls seen in the Tavistock had SSA. “Initially, some of them identified as lesbian. And some of them had experienced a lot of homophobia and then started identifying as trans. It was almost like a stepping stone,” explained Spiliadis.[6]

Matt Bristow, a gay psychologist working at the Tavistock was equally concerned. Hannah Barnes writes,

Matt Bristow came to feel that GIDS was performing ‘conversion therapy for gay kids’. It’s a serious claim. Some clinicians have relayed how there was even a dark joke in the GIDS team that there would be no gay people left at the rate GIDS was going. ‘I don’t think that all the children there were gay, by any means,’ Bristow tells me. ‘But there were gay children there – in my view I think there were gay children – who were being pushed down another path.’ [7]

How many children at the Tavistock had SSA? In the adolescents presenting to the Tavistock in 2012, 90% of natal females reported they were same sex attracted or bisexual, and for natal males 81% were same sex attracted or bisexual. From 2015, 60% of natal males were same sex attracted or bisexual, and for females over 50% had SSA. [8] These rates of SSA are staggeringly high when compared to the general population, where according to the Office for National Statistics, 3.3% of the UK population identified as lesbian, gay or bisexual (LGB) in 2022.[9]

Conclusion

Whether they expressed SSA or not, the vast majority of the young patients presenting at the Tavistock were funnelled into gender affirming treatments. We can legitimately ask, “Why channel same-sex attracted adolescents into puberty blockers after only a few consultations?” and “Would it not have been better to work through and address the SSA in these young people?” [10]

Already in 2015, Pope Francis warned of the dangers of gender ideology.

In Europe, America, Latin America, Africa, and in some countries of Asia, there are genuine forms of ideological colonisation taking place. And one of these – I will call it clearly by its name – is [the ideology of] “gender.” Today children – children! – are taught in school that everyone can choose his or her sex. Why are they teaching this? Because the books are provided by the persons and institutions that give you money. These forms of ideological colonisation are also supported by influential countries and this [is] terrible.[11]

It seems like his warnings went largely unheeded. It is surprising how the work of the Tavistock was able to proceed with full steam. This raises some serious questions about the duty to safeguard the health and welfare of the young patients who were treated there. The fact that the rates of SSA in the adolescents presenting to the Tavistock were significantly higher than the national rates should have been a red flag. This should have called into question the excessive emphasis on only gender affirming approaches. In the light of the above, we conclude that in reality a kind of conversion therapy was carried out on thousands of young people who presented to the Tavistock clinic. Even as advocates of gender transitioning may be quick to point fingers at faith-based groups, they themselves may stand in need of removing a log from their own eye.

 

Fr James McTavish is a Scottish missionary priest of the Verbum Dei community. He is a member of the General council, is active in teaching moral theology and bioethics, as well as giving formations and retreats. He can be contacted at jamesverbumdei@gmail.com

Verbum Dei is an Institute of Consecrated life in the Catholic church. It was founded in 1963 by Fr Jaime Bonet, and received Pontifical approval in the year 2000. The community has three branches - missionary men (priests and brothers), missionary women and missionary married couples, all working together in a full-time dedication to the Word of God. The UK Verbum website can be found at https://uk.verbumdei.org/

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