Archive

What you will find in the archive

The archive brings together sources on which the articles on this site rely and which have shaped the critical debate on gender care. These are newspaper and magazine articles, books, scientific publications, websites, reports and official documents, documentaries, stories of detransitioners and documents on the political and legal context. Each item has its own page with a description of what it is, who made it and when it appeared. From that page you can click through to the original source.

Reports that changed policy

The weightiest items in the archive are the independent assessments that governments commissioned. The Finnish recommendation from 2020 put psychosocial support first. The British NICE reviews rated the evidence for puberty blockers and hormones in young people as of very low certainty. The Swedish SBU report from 2022 reached a similar conclusion, and the Cass Review from 2024 brought that material together in a final report for the English health service. For the Netherlands the archive includes, among others, the letter to parliament on gender care for minors and the revision of the quality standard.

Science and journalism

Among the scientific publications is the article by Lisa Littman from 2018, which introduced the term rapid-onset gender dysphoria and set off a fierce debate. The literature review on detransition from 2023 shows how little is known about that group. In the section with newspaper articles you will find pieces from the Nederlands Tijdschrift voor Geneeskunde on the international criticism of the Dutch Protocol, alongside foreign reporting such as the article in The Economist on the weak evidence base.

Books, documentaries and personal stories

The books in the archive were written for a broad audience. Irreversible Damage by Abigail Shrier is about the sharp increase in teenage girls presenting at gender clinics. Trans by Helen Joyce and Material Girls by Kathleen Stock deal with the question of what self-identification means for rights that are based on sex. In Dutch the collection Gender Rebels appeared, compiled by Sybilla Claus.

Documentaries such as What Is a Woman? and The Detransition Diaries give the debate a face. The same goes for personal stories, such as that of Keira Bell, who was given puberty blockers and testosterone as a teenager and later brought a court case against the Tavistock clinic.

Politics and law

The last section contains documents on legislation and court cases. For the Netherlands these are the parliamentary debate on the Transgender Act from 2022 and the file on the bill to amend the registration of sex. From the United Kingdom come the case of Maya Forstater, whose contract was not renewed after statements about sex and who was vindicated in court in her claim that such beliefs are protected by law, and the Scottish self-identification bill, which was blocked by the British government. Such documents show how the debate is moving from the consulting room to parliament and the courtroom.

How to use these sources

Not every source carries the same weight. A systematic review or a government report is something different from an opinion piece, a book for a broad audience or a personal story. All four have value, but for different questions: a review tells you what is known about the effect of a treatment, a personal story shows what figures cannot show. Also look at the year. Research in this field moves fast, and a piece from 2018 describes a different state of knowledge from a report from 2024.

The archive collects gender-critical information and is not a complete bibliography of the field. Websites of organisations and platforms are listed separately under external sources; the most important events in order can be found in the timeline.