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Richard Stephens vs. transgender people

Richard Stephens is a British anti-transgender activist. Stephens is part of the “parental rights” movement of parents with gender diverse children.

Background

Richard Stephens reportedly has degrees “from Cambridge and London universities.” Stephens is parent to a gender diverse child.

Anti-trans activism

Stephens is named in the acknowledgements of the 2023 anti-trans book Time to Think by Hannah Barnes:

“Paul Moran, Donal O’Shea, Russell Viner, David Freedman and Stephanie Davies-Arai also deserve my thanks, as do Lucy Bannerman, Susan Matthews and Richard Stephens.”

A 2024 SEGM conference profile stated:

Served as a lay member of the NHS England working group on gender dysphoria and of its national quality improvement taskforce for children and young people’s mental health inpatient services. He has fulfilled various stakeholder roles at the South London and Maudsley NHS Trust, including helping to develop their autism strategy. He was a co-founder of the Bayswater Support Group, a nationwide parenting forum for families experiencing gender-related difficulties. He has degrees from Cambridge and London universities.

Bayswater Support Group

Bayswater Support Group is an organization to support parents who do not support their gender diverse children’s interest in making a gender transition. The group began in autumn 2019 when three parents who’d met online decided to meet in person: “For convenience, we chose the area of Bayswater in London. By the time of our first meeting in October of that year, we’d become a group of twenty-five mums and dads: the Bayswater Support Group.”

The group had its first meeting on October 12, 2019 and published a constitution as an “unincorporated association.” Stephens reportedly left the group sometime before April 2022.

2022 US Health & Human Services meeting

Stephens participated in a 2022 US Health & Human Services teleconference requested by SEGM. The meeting included many leading lights in anti-transgender activism. The remarks included a section by Stephens and Richard Byng. The Trans Safety Network reported in 2024: “We note, with concern, that two other members of the anti-trans lobby group SEGM, Richard Byng and a Mr Richard Stephens, were in 2022 cited in a meeting with the United States government as being members of the NHS England Working Group on Gender Dysphoria.”

Via the meeting remarks:

2. Summary of the UK Evolving Approach — the “Cass Review” (Dr. Byng, Mr. Stephens) 

The UK’s National Health Service is reviewing how it helps young people to overcome gender dysphoria. Following the two evidence reviews, and various legal and regulatory concerns, it was judged unsafe to continue with the existing model of care. So an eminent pediatrician, Dr Hilary Cass, was asked to fundamentally redesign the system from first principles, bringing it closer to mainstream pediatric practice. 

Recently Dr Cass published her interim report, which sets out difficult questions for the medicalized approach to gender dysphoria that has developed in recent years. Firstly, she observes that gender problems used to mostly impact birth-registered males starting in early childhood, but now it’s mostly females starting in puberty, and complex and vulnerable children – for example with autism or mental health problems – are now over-represented. Cass reports a general lack of evidence, both nationally and internationally; and that what little data we do have doesn’t apply to what’s become the largest patient group: adolescent birth-registered females. 

Secondly, throughout Cass is cautious about puberty blockers. She notes that research has focused on short-term mental health outcomes, but not on longer-term development. Cass notes that adolescence is a time of significant changes in the brain. If adolescent hormone surges are suppressed, there may be irreversible impacts on the patient’s maturation and cognition. 

Thirdly, the DSM-5 diagnostic criteria tell us that a patient’s gender dysphoria has reached a clinically significant level, but they don’t help us understand its causes, nor how to respond. Cass says that many factors can contribute to gender dysphoria, including sexual abuse or other childhood trauma, autism, and questioning of sexual orientation. Cass insists that clinicians develop a full picture of a young person’s development and wellbeing, and to undertake a differential diagnosis to rule out other causes. 

Finally, there is no assessment model to determine who may benefit from a medical transition, and who may be harmed. Approaches vary widely, and Cass found that many clinicians feel pressured to adopt an unquestioningly affirmative approach, that’s at odds with how they deal with every other clinical encounter. Cass encourages an exploratory assessment process. 

Cass’s final report, containing her detailed recommendations, will appear later this year or early next. But it’s already clear that she envisages a more developmentally-informed approach that foregrounds talking therapies, and where medical interventions are likely to be reserved for a highly selective sub-group of patients. 

2023 FOIA requests about Susie Green

On March 31, 2023, Stephens made requests under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 for any information about Susie Green of Mermaids UK in relation to the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust. The Tavistock had a child and adolescent gender clinic that was ordered closed in 2022 following a review.

Richard Stephens: ICO Case Reference Number: IC-163464-L9K4, T&P Case Reference 21-22-86/3

  • Docs re Susie Green, Mermaids.
  • Copies of records, notes or minutes of any meetings held between Susie Green of Mermaids UK and Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust employees during the years 2014-2018.

Richard Stephens: ICO Case Reference Number: IC-163464-L9K4, T&P Case Reference 21-22-86/3

  • Docs re Susie Green, Mermaids.
  • Replies by Trust staff to these emails [Replies to all emails sent to the Trust by Susie Green of Mermaids UK in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017]

Cass Review

Stephens was a lay member of the NHS England working group on Gender Dysphoria, the group that delivered their review in mid-2020 and led to the Cass Review. In 2024, anti-trans activist Benjamin Ryan posted on X:

In recent days, have corresponded with Richard Stephens, who, as a parent, was selected by the NHS to participate on the NICE [National Institute for Health and Care Excellence] working group alongside Dr. Hilary Cass and Dr. @MaxDavie. I’ve updated my newsletter with his comments (see the [thread] for the link):

Stephens said when the NICE reviews came back in mid-2020, “it was blindingly obvious that we couldn’t just recommission GIDS on a ‘business as usual’ basis, the evidence just wasn’t there to justify that. So it was necessary to take a deeper look at what kind of service young people needed. We were stood down, and the [Cass] Review began.”

Stephens told me: “Although in his new note Max [Davie] says it was clear during the working group that Hilary was sceptical of GIDS’s practice (side note: the [Care Quality Commission] inspection amply supported any such scepticism), I didn’t hear that from her during our meetings. What I did hear, was a commitment to listen from all participants, including from people who did have concerns. She wanted them to be heard, just as others who felt medical transition had been essential were heard and involved in that group. Such even-handedness was new at the time and I wonder if this is what Max experienced then and recalls now as scepticism? Especially if he himself had gone into the process with strong views about medical transition and GIDS.”

2024 SEGM conference

In October 2024, SEGM held their annual conference in Athens, Greece.

Stephens was on the October 5 panel “The Role of the Family in Addressing Youth Gender Distress.” Panelists were

References

Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine (October 2024). Questioning Gender: Psychotherapeutic Approaches to Youth Gender Dysphoria. https://trans.so/files/SEGM24_AgendaPrint_9-16-24.pdf

Brown, Rivkah (November 12, 2024). Are NHS Workers Bringing Trump-Style Anti-Trans Ideology to the UK? Novara Media
https://novaramedia.com/2024/11/12/are-nhs-workers-bringing-trump-style-anti-trans-ideology-to-the-uk/

Reed, Erin (Oct 4, 2024). NHS Trans Care Officials Speak At Anti-Trans Hate Group SEGM’s Conference, Erin in the Morning https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/nhs-trans-care-officials-speak-at

Harriett, Jessica (Oct 04, 2024). Anti-Trans hate group SEGM embedded in the NHS gender services. Jessica’s Substack https://jessicaharriet.substack.com/p/anti-trans-hate-group-segm-embedded

Baker, Sasha; Rocca, Valeria (July 2, 2024). ‘One day they may thank us for that “abuse”’: Inside the Bayswater Support Group. The Bureau of Investigative Journalism https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2024-07-02/one-day-they-may-thank-us-for-that-abuse-inside-the-bayswater-support-group/

Moore, Mallory (28 Mar 2024). Trans Safety Network statement on NICE evidence reviews on trans affirming care. Trans Safety Network https://transsafety.network/posts/statement-on-nhs-gd-wg/

Stephens, Richard (March 31, 2023). Docs re Susie Green, Mermaids. ICO Case Reference Number: IC-163464-L9K4; T&P Case Reference 21-22-86/3 Response to Request and to ICO Decision Notice issued 31/03/23. https://tavistockandportman.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/220863_-_Meetings_and_Emails_IG_Review.pdf

US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) (April 25, 2022). EO 12866 Meeting 0945-AA17. Nondiscrimination in Health Programs and Activities https://mobile.reginfo.gov/public/do/viewEO12866Meeting?viewRule=true&rin=0945-AA17&meetingId=131923&acronym=0945-HHS/OCR

Note: this page previously conflated some details about someone with the same name. This project regrets the error.