A charity which has received £220,000 from the taxpayer has been accused of targeting vulnerable young people to encourage them to use puberty blockers.
Space Youth Project in Dorset claims to “support young people who are or may be LGBT+” and “overcome issues caused or intensified by prejudice in order to facilitate freedom of expression”.
But MP for West Dorset Chris Loder says that activist charities like this are “given unfettered access” to primary and secondary-aged children without parental knowledge or consent.
He said: “Puberty blockers are a hormonal medication that pause the natural development of puberty, such as breast or facial hair development.
“There is no longitudinal evidence to support the use of puberty blockers, which have potentially irreversible and long-lasting physical and psychological effects.
“In Dorset, publicly funded activist organisations are targeting young people and children.
“Organisations like the Space Youth Project, a Dorset-based charity which has received £220,000 from the taxpayer since 2019, and which seeks to ‘educate’ and ‘advise’ children and young people that identify or associate with the ‘LGBT+ community’ in schools, without parental knowledge.
“It’s an organisation that boasts a membership in Dorset of 100 children under the age of 16 and runs ‘awareness’ events that reach nearly 3,000 young people in the last year alone.”
Over the last few months, Mr Loder said an increasing number of parents have been in touch with him to share their experiences of how exposed and vulnerable their children have been when it comes to discussions around gender identity with third parties.
It comes just weeks after NHS England announced they were banning the prescription of puberty blockers as there was “not enough evidence” that they were safe or effective.
In Dorset – which Mr Loder says is in the top 10 per cent of NHS areas for referrals for children to a Gender Identity Clinic – referrals have been made directly by teachers, charity workers and others without the knowledge of a GP, or in some cases the child’s parents too.
Mother-of-three Naomi Patterson slammed Space, saying they were encouraging her daughter – who had questioned her gender at the age of 12 – to transition despite not being assessed by a medical professional.
Ms Patterson, 41, said: “In 2017, my daughter wrote me a letter to say that she wanted to be a boy. I started to question where this came from because it was out of the blue.
“And basically, it just escalated – it felt like I was in a no-win situation. If I were to say that I would support her, I was seen as encouraging my daughter, but if I didn’t support her, I was seen as impacting her mental health.
“So, I challenged it because I didn’t think it was right – I didn’t know where it was all coming from, and I was met with social services.
“They said that I was neglecting my daughter, and they were going to bring a group to me and my husband to talk about gender dysphoria – it was Space.
“Space came with the social worker, and they were really forceful. They came into our home and told me and my husband that if my daughter decided that she wanted to be a boy, then we’d be discriminating against her if we didn’t go along with it.”
Ms Patterson said that since speaking out about the “parent-blame” culture activist groups have created, she has been met with severe bullying and a hate campaign against her, with members of her community calling her “anti-trans”.
She added: “My daughter was never seen by a medical professional and now she’s 19, she’s realised that this gender questioning was down to past trauma.
“She now thanks me for never taking her to a Gender Identity Clinic, but I’m concerned about how many children are being influenced by Space.”
Ms Patterson, from Dorset, said that even after her daughter had decided that transitioning wasn’t the right decision for her – something she had communicated with social services – Space made a visit to her daughter’s school without her knowing.
She added: “They were teaching her about puberty blockers and breast binders – confusing her further and I had no idea about it.”
Earlier this week, a landmark review said that children have been let down by a lack of research and “remarkably weak” evidence on medical interventions in gender care.
The Cass Review, published on Wednesday by paediatrician Dr Hilary Cass, calls for gender services for young people to match the standards of other NHS care.
She says the “toxicity” of the debate around gender meant professionals were “afraid” to openly discuss their views.
NHS England says it has already made significant progress in making changes.
Space and Dorset Council were contacted for comment.