{"id":280438,"date":"2025-07-21T17:03:18","date_gmt":"2025-07-21T17:03:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/280438\/"},"modified":"2025-07-21T17:03:18","modified_gmt":"2025-07-21T17:03:18","slug":"funding-boost-for-northern-ireland-gender-identity-clinic-cautiously-welcomed-the-irish-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/280438\/","title":{"rendered":"Funding boost for Northern Ireland Gender Identity Clinic \u2018cautiously welcomed\u2019 \u2013 The Irish News"},"content":{"rendered":"

A funding boost for Northern Ireland\u2019s Gender Identity Clinic in Belfast has been \u201ccautiously welcomed\u201d by a campaign group.<\/p>\n

Also known as the Brackenburn Clinic, the adult Gender Identity Clinic<\/a> has been running at \u201can extremely limited capacity\u201d for the last seven years. <\/p>\n

Alexa Moore from The Rainbow Project told The Irish News it would give hope to trans people waiting years for various treatments such as hormone replacement therapy (HRT), speech and language therapy and referrals for \u201cgender affirming surgery\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe service essentially froze between 2016-18 because of staff leaving and funding, and ever since then it\u2019s just been extremely difficult,\u201d Ms Moore said.<\/p>\n

\"‘We<\/a>\"Former<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s been a single doctor staffing and entire service with one or two admin staff. Essentially, it means there\u2019s people on that list from over seven years.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was referred myself in 2018 and there\u2019s been virtually no communication ever since from the clinic to establish what\u2019s been going on, and all the while a review has been trundling on in the background.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor myself and I know for countless other trans people, they\u2019ve been forced to take matters into their own hands.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had to crowdfund for my own access to care, so there\u2019s been a sense of hopelessness for trans people across Northern Ireland.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AlexaAlexa Moore from The Rainbow Project. <\/p>\n

With an estimated 1,000 people already on the waiting list, Ms Moore warned trans people could still be waiting several years for their appointment.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not like trans people are all of a sudden going to be able to access this care.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat it does mean is that trans people are going to feel that maybe Northern Ireland is a place where they can continue to live and be fully supported as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Addressing those who will not agree with the decision to increase the funding, Ms Moore said: \u201cTrans people, like everyone else, deserve access to the care that meets their needs. <\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of it is similar to care that\u2019s already prescribed to other people \u2013 like puberty blockers for children facing precocious puberty.<\/p>\n

\u201cHRT is prescribed to menopausal women with hormonal imbalances. This is already care accessible to others, but not to trans people for what we actually need support with.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"RallyA rally at Belfast City Hall last year against the ban on puberty blockers . PICTURE: MAL MCCANN <\/p>\n

Following the introduction of a ban on the private sale of puberty blockers in Northern Ireland last year, Ms Moore said families were going elsewhere for treatment.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are a lot of different experiences out there, but the reality is that in Northern Ireland even before the ban was in place \u2013 the under 18s gender identity service had already stopped prescribing puberty blockers in 2020.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo young people have been driven to private care anyway. But we\u2019re not necessarily seeing people talking about it because they\u2019re fearful of receiving abuse.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since then, the UK\u2019s Supreme Court has also ruled that the legal definition of a woman refers to biological sex.<\/p>\n

\"CampaignersThe UK’s Supreme Court ruled in April that the legal definition of a woman refers to biological sex, but the full implications for Northern Ireland are still being examined. (Lucy North\/PA) <\/p>\n

The legal implications are still being examined in Northern Ireland, but Ms Moore said it had made the trans community feel more vulnerable.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always been subjected to a decent amount of abuse, unfortunately, from anti-trans voices online.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s where people feel they have the anonymity. What I have seen since the Supreme Court judgement, even my engagements on the radio, people feel much more confident to misgender me and deny my identity.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn May we had an event in Stormont around the Supreme Court judgement and the reaction to that was absolutely unhinged in the fear-mongering around trans people using the bathroom in Stormont.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut trans people deserve access to their democratic institutions and public spaces where we can advocate for our rights.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think how the judgement has been interpreted and even weaponised has had a chill factor on trans people feeling able to speak about their direct experiences and that is very worrying.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A funding boost for Northern Ireland\u2019s Gender Identity Clinic in Belfast has been \u201ccautiously welcomed\u201d by a campaign…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":280439,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5011],"tags":[2378,23523,5763,1144,15984,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-280438","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-northern-ireland","8":"tag-belfast","9":"tag-health-and-social-care","10":"tag-lgbtq","11":"tag-northern-ireland","12":"tag-trans","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114892308952544936","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=280438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280438\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/280439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=280438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=280438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=280438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}