Dr Jillian Spencer
Jillian Spencer is a child and adolescent psychiatrist who lives in Queensland, Australia. She studied Medicine at Monash University in Melbourne and then subsequently trained in psychiatry. She completed sub-speciality certificates in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Forensic Psychiatry. She qualified as a psychiatrist in 2009. She has worked for Queensland Health for 21 years.
Background
Dr Jillian Spencer is a senior child and adolescent psychiatrist from Queensland, Australia. In April 2023, she was removed from clinical duties at Queensland Children’s Hospital due to her voiced concerns about the current gender affirming care model for minors. She has worked for Queensland Health for 21 years. In a public statement, she said:
“There’s two things I’m fighting for with this case. The first is that I believe it’s wrong for the hospital to force me to affirm the gender identities of children with gender distress. As a psychiatrist, I need to use my knowledge and clinical skills to be able to decide on the right treatment approach for my patient. And the gender affirmation model isn’t safe and it isn’t evidence based.
The other thing I’m fighting for is that I believe that employers shouldn’t be able to discriminate against employees who believe in biological reality. No one should get fired or disciplined for believing that people can’t change sex.”
In November 2024, Dr Spencer submitted her nomination to run for President-Elect of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (RANZCP). Her hope is to preserve and strengthen the profession of psychiatry by protecting the profession from the interference of social and political activism and issues by ensuring that psychiatrists maintain the trust of the public via evidence-based practice. She sees the current gender affirming care model (based on the World Professional Association, WPATH’s, standards of care) as not evidence-based and unsafe for patients, particularly children and youth. She is advocating for multidisciplinary, clinically informed, evidence-based care for children and youth who experience gender-related distress.
Due to her application to be on the ballot as president-elect for RANZCP, transgender activists are petitioning the association to remove her nomination and cancel her involvement in what should be a free and democratic process.
The following letter, penned by clinicians and researchers of various disciplines, was sent to the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists on January 4, 2024, in support of Dr Spencer’s nomination.
Letter to the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists
Dr Elizabeth Moore, President
Dr Astha Tomar, President-Elect
Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists
309 La Trobe Street
Melbourne VIC 3000
Australia
December 30, 2024
Dear Drs Moore and Tomar:
We are clinicians and researchers of various professional disciplines who have a special interest and expertise in evidence-based gender medicine, gender-affirming care practices, and other clinical models for working with patients and clients who are experiencing gender incongruence.
We are writing in support of Dr Jillian Spencer’s nomination for President-Elect of RANZCP.
Many of us have witnessed and raised many of the same concerns as Dr. Spencer about the current model of care, called Gender Affirming Care, based on the World Professional Association, WPATH’s, standards of care. We share Dr Spencer’s observations that this current model is not evidence-based and not safe for the young people in our care.
We are concerned that social and political issues and activism are interfering with clinical practice, undermining clinical professional’s ability to practice in accordance with sound scientific evidence. This is most recently evidenced by the campaign by transgender activists to have her name removed from the ballot.
Several systematic reviews of evidence pertaining to gender affirming care have now been completed in Finland, Sweden, the United States and the UK. All of those reviewers came to the same conclusion: that the evidence for the gender affirming care approach is low to very low, and in some cases contraindicative. The most comprehensive of those reviews to date is the Cass Review which was commissioned by the NHS England. In addition, WPATH suppressed publication of the large majority of systematic reviews that it commissioned from Johns Hopkins University for Standards of Care 8 (SOC8), published in 2022, presumably because the results did not support the gender affirming care model.
Aspects of care should be open for debate, and we greatly value Dr Spencer’s integrity and commitment to protect the profession of psychiatry as a trustworthy, evidence-based authority. In order for her to do so, it is essential that the integrity of the political process be preserved, and not be influenced by cultural and political activism.
We respectfully request that you maintain Dr Spencer’s nomination for president-elect, so that a democratic selection of your next president-elect is justly fulfilled.
Sincerely,
A/Prof Peter Parry, MBBS, PhD, FRANZCP, Cert Child & Adolescent Psychiatry |