Draft:Jillian Spencer

• Comment: Fix the refbombing. --Johannes (Talk) (Contribs) (Articles) 21:11, 30 December 2024 (UTC)

• Comment: Many sources are unreliable. Read WP:RS. Safari Scribe^{Edits! Talk!} 08:56, 26 December 2024 (UTC)

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Dr Jillian Spencer

Jillian Spencer is a senior child and adolescent psychiatrist in Queensland, Australia. She completed an MB.BS and BmedSci at Monash University in Melbourne, and has specialised in psychiatry, becoming a Fellow of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (RANZCP) in 2009.. She completed RANZCP subspecialty certificates in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Forensic Psychiatry. Spencer has worked in Queensland public health services since her internship in 2002. She is not politically aligned or a person of faith.

Spencer's workplace situation, her concerns about gender affirming interventions for minors, her Queensland Human Rights Commission complaint, and governmental responses to her concerns, have been subject to extensive media commentary in Australia.

Dr Spencer has also appeared in broadcast media, including Channel 7's Spotlight program titled De-Transitioning , an ABC Four Corners episode titled 'Blocked' , and she has made several appearances on Sky News programs, including The Rita Panahi Show , twice on Credlin and Outsiders

Dr Spencer has been interviewed for several podcasts, including Gender: A Wider Lens, You Must Be Some Kind of Therapist and the NatCon Australia podcast.

Gender-related workplace complications

Dr Spencer repeatedly raised concerns about gender interventions for children provided by the Queensland Children's Gender Service in 2022 whilst working at the Queensland Children's Hospital.

Spencer raised concerns about the number of transgender pride flags in the mental health area and took down a transgender pride flag. She began using the pronoun “adult human female” in her email signature in protest at the pronouns and was reprimanded. She became subject to lawful employment directions that required her to use gender-­affirming pronouns at all times in her practise of medicine and ­refrain from dissuading any child and their family from seeking a ­referral to the hospital’s children’s gender clinic.

In March 2023, Dr Spencer participated as a private citizen in the Brisbane and Canberra Let Women Speak rallies. The Canberra 'Let Women Speak' rally followed the ill-fated Melbourne 'Let Women Speak' rally where women attending were falsely accused of being affiliated with Nazis. In Dr Spencer's Canberra speech, she expressed concern at the current culture in which “anyone’s child will be encouraged at school, online, during extra-curricular activities, by their friends and by health professionals to contemplate their gender".

In mid-April 2023, Dr Spencer was removed from clinical duties following a complaint from an adolescent patient.

Dr Spencer's removal from clinical duties came to light in the media in June 2023 in The Australian newspaper.

In mid-2023, Spencer submitted a Queensland Human Rights Commission Complaint alleging workplace political discrimination against her due to beliefs that people can not change sex.

In December 2023, the Queensland Children's Hospital sent a second show cause notice suspending Dr Spencer and alleging over twenty breaches of the Code of Conduct for speaking out in public.

In July 2024, the Queensland Children's Hospital sent a third show cause notice alleging numerous further breaches of the Code of Conduct for continuing to speak out in the media.

In November 2024, it was noted that Dr Spencer remained suspended but had not been fired by the Queensland Children's Hospital due to no substantiated wrongdoing.

In December 2024, the Queensland State Government launched an evaluation of the Queensland Children's Gender Service in response to Spencer's concerns. In July 2024, the evaluation concluded that there was no evidence of children being rushed into treatment decisions. However, in October 2024, Spencer, with co-authors Amos and Clarke, criticised the evaluation panel and the review process on the following grounds in a peer reviewed scientific journal :

• the QCGS evaluation ignored the Cass Review's criticisms of the affirming approach and decided to appraise the gender clinic against the Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne’s ‘Australian Standards Of Care and Treatment Guidelines for Trans and Gender Diverse Children and Adolescents’. This guideline was regarded as unreliable by the Cass Review and was given failing grades on Rigor of Development, Applicability and Editorial Independence.
• The seven-member evaluation panel contained at least three public advocates for gender affirming care. Two of the panel members were members of the Australian Professional Association for Trans Health (AusPATH), with a clear interest in promoting the AusPATH-endorsed Royal Children's Hospital guideline.
• The evaluation report used am unusual ‘Peer Exchange Framework’ to gather data.
• There was no evidence that the opinion of any experts critical of gender affirming care were sought in the course of the review.
• Two transgender advocacy organisations, Transcend and Open Doors, were consulted as well as several medical colleges that had publicly expressed support for the affirming approach.
• There was a very high level of restriction on who was allowed to provide information to the evaluation panel – it was restricted to people known to be supportive of the affirming approach. For example, private child and adolescent psychiatrists in Queensland were not invited to provide input. Within the hospital health district, only child psychiatrists employed at a director level were consulted.
• The panel benchmarked QCGS clinical practices against paediatric gender clinics in Perth and Melbourne which have the same affirming approach described by the Royal Children's Hospital guideline and discredited by the Cass Review.
• The evaluation report recommended 25 improvements to the clinic which suggest that the . The recommendations show that the clinic was functioning to a very poor standard (see the full journal article for an outline of all the recommendations made).

Legal matters

Dr Spencer has made the three disclosures related to gender affirming interventions for minors that are each awaiting a determination through the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission according to the Queensland Public Interest Disclosure Act 2010:

Dr Spencer's Queensland Human Rights Commission complaint is now before the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission. She is alleging that the Queensland Children's Hospital has engaged in political discrimination against her by mandating her to use the preferred pronouns of children and to follow a gender affirming model of care. She is alleging that this constitutes indirect political discrimination against her due to her political belief that people can not change sex.

Relevant publications

Dr Spencer has co-authored or authored the following journal articles related to the gender affirming model of care:

Clayton A, Amos AJ, Spencer J, Clarke P. Implications of the Cass Review for health policy governing gender medicine for Australian minors. Australasian Psychiatry. 2024;0(0).

Spencer J, Amos AJ, Clarke PHJ. Recommendations of the Queensland children’s gender service external evaluation and their implications for health policy in Australia. Australasian Psychiatry. 2024;0(0).