UK health secretary Wes Streeting denies blocking trans youth action group on Instagram

Wes Streeting has denied blocking the social media account of a UK trans+ action network called Trans Kids Deserve Better.

In a video posted last week, a member of Trans Kids Deserve Better accused the health secretary of failing to listen to them by blocking its Instagram earlier this month. “Not only have you chosen neglect over love but you’ve taken a childish and immature act to silence our voices online,” the anonymous member claimed.

A spokesperson for Wes Streeting has now said: “The account Trans Kids Deserve Better has not been blocked and it speaks volumes about their conduct online and offline that they’ve misled their supporters in this way.”

Last year, members of Trans Kids Deserve Better protested on the window ledges of NHS England’s headquarters in central London.

The direct action group, which highlights injustices against transgender youngsters, has also protested outside the Department of Education, in London, and the Equality and Human Rights Commission office in Glasgow. Most recently, members staged a die-in outside the UK Supreme Court building in the capital.

Streeting, who has said he no longer believes that trans women are women or that trans men are men, has often been the focus of the group’s attention, largely because of his decision to extend a ban on NHS prescriptions for puberty blockers in England and Wales, which is “killing kids“.

Trans youth action network accuses Wes Streeting of refusing to ‘speak to trans kids’

In July, the group created a parody account for the Ilford North MP, which members said would “mention his refusal to speak to trans kids” and acknowledge the “pain he has caused by banning puberty blockers”.

A series of memes, including a photoshopped image of the minister wearing clown make-up and placing a medal on a clone of himself, have been posted on the account.

On its own account, Trans Kids Deserve Better said it had delivered a letter to the MP’s London office asking why their Instagram had been blocked.

“Where the f**k are your morals?” a post in July asked. “He has buried any sense of humanity in pursuit of his power, power that gives him the opportunity to protect us.”

Research for the University of London has shown that the ban on puberty blockers was “significantly, extensively and relentlessly harming trans children and young people“.

Those affected by the ban were previously “well-adjusted” but had become “depressed, distressed, fearful, suicidal, despairing, traumatised, anxious and stressed,” the study revealed.