Media and public debate
For a long time, Dutch media followed almost exclusively the gender-affirmative frame. Since 2023–2024, critical contributions have also appeared in NRC, EW, De Telegraaf and professional journals, including reports on detransition, ROGD in girls, and the consequences of self-identification for women’s facilities. At the same time, the debate remains polarised, and substantive criticism is still often dismissed as transphobic—hindering a serious assessment of risks and evidence.
Television as a starting point
Media attention has been part of Dutch gender care for decades. Doctors from Amsterdam’s gender clinic appeared on talk shows in the late 1970s, after which the clinic received many new applications. That story is covered in the article on Dutch television appearances and gender care. A broader overview can be found on the page about gender and the media.
The Zembla broadcast
The turning point in media coverage was the episode Het transgenderprotocol by Zembla, broadcast on 26 October 2023. Dutch methodologists and foreign doctors argued that the scientific evidence for treating young people was insufficient. Transgender Netwerk Nederland sent a strongly worded letter to the broadcaster several days before the broadcast. A profile of the organisation can be found on genderlobby.nl, in the article about Transgender Netwerk Nederland. BNNVARA’s management responded to the organisation by letter on the day of the broadcast. The episode led to parliamentary questions (see the article on parliamentary attention), and Zembla later responded publicly to statements by Minister Kuipers about the programme.
Professional journals and opinion pages
The debate also moved into professional journals. In July 2023, the Nederlands Juristenblad published an article raising legal concerns about the Dutch Protocol. In May 2025, the NTVG published a contribution by Jilles Smids on the international criticism. In the responses below, other readers accused it of spreading disinformation and referred to publications challenging the Cass Review. The opinion site Joop published an accusation that news reports about criticism of transgender care almost never tell the whole story. The article on international criticism explains how criticism from abroad reached the Netherlands.
Two accusations
Both sides believe the media are falling short. Critics of the treatment argue that journalists adopted the practitioners’ narrative for years and that questions about the evidence were seen as hostile. In the Zembla broadcast, methodologists were willing to speak only anonymously. Advocacy organisations, by contrast, argue that critical reporting contributes to a climate in which transgender people are excluded. In July 2025, GroenLinks-PvdA MP Westerveld said that discrimination, exclusion and violence against trans people are increasing at an alarming rate.
After the Health Council’s advice
The Health Council’s advice of 30 June 2026 did not bring the debate to an end. On the EO radio programme Dit is de dag, former MP Rosanne Hertzberger said that she remains concerned and that puberty blockers are not a pause button, but the first step in a medical transition. Professor of child and adolescent psychiatry Robert Vermeiren, who had previously called for caution, said that the report had reassured him. Hertzberger’s criticism of the report is summarised on genderzorgen.nl, in the article about her NRC column. People who reconsidered their transition spoke out in October 2024 in the documentary Transitiespijt by broadcaster PowNed.