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Stella Kingett vs. transgender people

Stella Kingett is a British psychiatrist and anti-transgender activist. Kingett is co-chair of anti-trans group Clinical and Advisory Network on Sex and Gender (CAN-SG).

Background

In 2009 Kingett served on the Moorfields & Whittington Research Ethics Committee.

Kingett was a consultant psychiatrist and LNC chair for Camden and Islington NHS Foundation Trust LNC.

Kingett serves as Chair of the Women and Mental Health Special Interest Group (WMHSIG) under the Royal College of Psychiatrists.

Anti-trans activism

In 2023, Kingett and other SAN-SG members

Kingett was upset about the British Medical Association’s decision to challenge the Cass Review in 2024, but decided not to resign. Kingett signed the Not In Our Name BMA open letter.

In March 2025, Kingett co-authored the foreword for a joint report by Women’s Rights Network, SEEN in Health and the Clinical Advisory Network on Sex and Gender titled Incoherent and unsafe: How the NHS’s failure to reliably record sex puts patients at risk

On April 18, 2024, CAN-SG co-chairs Kingett and Louise Irvine published a letter to the editor in The Guardian:

In our view, Freddy McConnell’s opinion piece (Hilary Cass’s proposals are mostly common sense. She must reject anti-trans bias with the same clarity, 11 April) implies that support for the Clinical Advisory Network on Sex and Gender (CAN-SG) fundamentally undermines trans people’s identities and rights, and that clinicians who question the innate model of gender identity – as do CAN-SG members – do not have the best interests of patients at heart and are “denying the existence” of trans people.

We reject these claims. In fact, it is suppression of research and debate in this area that undermines proper understanding of gender identity and the right to effective, safe medical treatment.

The Cass report says: “There is broad agreement that gender incongruence is a result of a complex interplay between biological, psychological and social factors”, and this varies over time and between individuals. This is a fundamentally different model to that of an innate gender identity that must be affirmed. Developing better models to understand aspects of human distress is medicine and science as normal, and is not denying anyone’s existence or rights.

Many clinicians have been intimidated into silence due to this kind of toxic, hyperbolic response. The CAN-SG conference about avoiding harm in gender medicine went ahead on 23 March in the face of cancellation attempts and masked protesters with smoke bombs trying to force entry.

Despite the aggression, courageous clinicians, including CAN-SG members, have for some time raised concerns about risks, and challenged the inadequate assessment, low-quality research and poor data collection that the Cass report now highlights. Victoria Atkins, the secretary of state for health and social care, said in parliament that she expected “medical professionals will act in accordance with these recommendations”, and this was echoed by Wes Streeting, her Labour shadow. CAN-SG members call on colleagues to follow our lead.
Dr Stella Kingett
Dr Louise Irvine
Co-chairs, CAN-SG

Coverage in anti-trans press

Manning, Sanchez (September 2, 2024). The trans row ripping apart Britain’s doctors’ union. The Telegraph https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/09/02/trans-row-bma-british-medical-association/

Feinmann, Jane (March 2024). Transgender care: doctors are advised to return to “ordinary best practice” BMJ, q742. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.q742

Klotz, Frieda (May 20, 2024). Pediatric Transgender Care and the Contentious Rise of SEGM. Undark https://undark.org/2024/05/20/pediatric-transgender-care-contentious-segm/

Selected anti-trans writing by Kingett

Kingett, Stella (March 2025). Foreword: Incoherent and unsafe: How the NHS’s failure to reliably record sex puts patients at risk. https://assets.ctfassets.net/p9eb47dy7bbi/3nM32mBm7XJeM5lfP0CFiE/0ef3e76d5d4de7d63348d79b336d9b45/2025-03-11-incoherent-unsafe-WRN-SiH-CAN-SG-report.pdf

CAN-SG (December 31, 2023). Letter: Parents must hold schools to account on gender. The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/commentisfree/2023/dec/31/parents-must-hold-schools-to-account-on-gender-observer-letters

Signatories including Stella Kingett (February 23, 2023). Open Letter to NHS chiefs: The importance of the word “woman” in communication about women’s health. CAN-SG https://can-sg.org/2023/02/23/open-letter-to-nhs-chiefs-the-importance-of-the-word-woman/

Media

CAN-SG with Stella Kingett (2024). Dr Stella Kingett gives the closing speech at CAN-SG conference 2024. https://vimeo.com/942281116

Resources

Royal College of Psychiatrists (rcpsych.ac.uk)

LinkedIn (linkedin.com)

Sunshine UK / Who Pays This Doctor (whopaysthisdoctor.org)

Not In Our Name BMA (notinournamebma.co.uk)