Mother of trans teen takes legal action over puberty blocker freeze<\/a><\/p>\nThe mother of a trans teenager has successfully taken the first step in legal action against Queensland Health’s director-general over the state’s freeze on puberty blockers.<\/p>\n
Barrister Mark Steele, for the LGBTI Legal Service, which made the application for a judicial review on her behalf, argued Dr Rosengren did not conduct “meaningful” consultation before issuing the directive.<\/p>\n
Queensland Children’s Hospital chief executive Frank Tracey told the court by video link that Dr Rosengren had phoned him to foreshadow the directive the weekend before it was issued but gave no details.<\/p>\n
Mr Tracey said he only learned about the puberty blocker freeze at the Teams meeting.<\/p>\n
The court was told he had no time to consult with specialist staff from the Queensland Children’s Gender Service before the health service directive was issued.<\/p>\n
“It was a fait accompli,” Mr Steele told the court.<\/p>\n
“That can’t be genuine consultation if it’s just a fait accompli.”<\/p>\n
Barrister Jonathan Horton, appearing on behalf of Dr Rosengren, accepted the consultation was “abbreviated”.<\/p>\n
But he argued the legislation did not specify the nature or content of the consultation required.<\/p>\n
Mr Tracey also told the court in his evidence that health service directives during the COVID-19 pandemic, such as mask wearing, were often “urgently delivered”.<\/p>\n
Supporters gather outside court![\"Supporters](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/054f9a05f471228fd4a813ec65093d17\")
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Supporters rallied outside the court before the hearing. (ABC News: Janelle Miles)<\/p>\n
Equality Australia legal director Heather Corkhill said outside court it appeared the health service directive “was a forgone conclusion”.<\/p>\n
She said care had been paused in the “absence of any clinical evidence, consideration of the number of children affected, whether any alternative services would be available or the potentially devastating psychological effects”.<\/p>\n
“In the rush, they don’t seem to have followed their own consultation requirements,” she said.<\/p>\n
Ms Corkhill said the puberty blocker freeze “strips parents of their rights, denies young people safe and proven care, and makes Queensland the only state in the country where this support is being actively taken away”.<\/p>\n
Dozens of trans supporters rallied outside the Supreme Court in Brisbane before the hearing.<\/p>\n
![\"Piper](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/9584c2292e50fce0a8f2e90da99e62a1\")
<\/p>\n
Piper Valkyrie says the ban denies children potentially lifesaving care. (ABC News: Rachel Stewart)<\/p>\n
Piper Valkyrie was among a group of supporters from Magandjin People’s Pride who gathered outside the Supreme Court for the hearing.<\/p>\n
“It’s horrible, because what we’re seeing today is real people are being affected,” they said.<\/p>\n
“Children are losing access to potentially lifesaving care.<\/p>\n
“Just that toll of waiting and waiting and having that [health care] stripped away from you is really horrible for a young person.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Queensland’s top public hospital chiefs were only consulted about the directive to freeze puberty blockers as the decision…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":323857,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4740,10934,79728,517,50,161695,95615,4797,4798,109849,1197,161694,25671,161696],"class_list":{"0":"post-323856","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-australia","9":"tag-brisbane","10":"tag-freeze","11":"tag-mental-health","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-piper-valkyrie","14":"tag-puberty-blockers","15":"tag-qld","16":"tag-queensland","17":"tag-queensland-health","18":"tag-suicide","19":"tag-supreme-court-in-brisbane","20":"tag-teenagers","21":"tag-trans-health"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115417921056713940","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323856","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=323856"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323856\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/323857"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=323856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=323856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=323856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}