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The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (RAZCP) appear to be playing it safe in an attempt to fend off activists smearing the organisation as “transphobic”.

75% of RAZCP’s participating members just rejected senior child psychiatrist Dr Jillian Spencer’s bid for president.

Dr Spencer, an evidence-based critic of “gender-affirming care”, won 707 votes, losing to Sydney-based psychiatrist Dr Angelo Virgona’s 1623.

According to the RAZCP, this was based on a shocking “48% participation rate” of eligible voters.

While Dr Virgona’s leadership experience and focus on mental health funding helped his bid, his close ties to the RAZCP’s pro-PRIDE NSW branch raise questions.

They seem to have lifted his electability.

Dr Virgona is the former chairman of RAZCP’s NSW branch.

He was also in charge when the New South Wales Labor government – on the back of flawed evidence, and strawman arguments – rammed through “gay conversion laws”.

Appearing to help Dr Virgona, this same branch undermined Dr Spencer’s candidacy through a mid-March campaign telling psychiatrists they “must not go backwards on trans-affirming, gender-diverse care.”

This connection isn’t a coincidence.

Of the three candidates for president, Dr Spencer was the only one calling for an end to the RAZCP’s position on the gender intervention of children.

Politicking

Dr Virgona’s campaign lift, gifted to him by the NSW branch’s pro-PRIDE propaganda, was also allegedly inflated by his position with the privately owned medical group Ramsey Health Care.

Concerned about the connections, Dr Spencer warned in February that campaign lines were being crossed.

Providing an example, Spencer alleged that Ramsey Health had emailed psychiatrists on its payroll to promote her opponent’s candidacy.

Talking about yesterday’s election outcome on X, Dr Spencer said she was “struggling to understand the state of psychiatry” in Australia and New Zealand.

“Since 2017, psychiatrists have been ordering gender interventions” to ‘transition’ vulnerable children, advocating a practice that “leads to all sorts of long-term health problems.

“These come with regret, risk and the process of de-transitioning.”

RANZCP President Elect result: I lost. 75% of psychiatrists voted for a candidate that will not call for the cessation of gender interventions for minors. pic.twitter.com/WlGbEZ9FcO

— Jillian (@Jilliantweeting) April 1, 2025

Citing current research, Dr Spencer countered assertions of urgency from the RAZCP’s NSW branch, stating,

“These interventions don’t improve the child’s mental health, and they don’t reduce the risk of suicide.”

Observing the trajectory, and perhaps cowardice, Dr Spencer said a majority had elected a candidate who has “no interest in getting the college to end gender interventions for children.”

This is important, she added.

Especially for parents, “because the concern is that psychiatry isn’t operating from a scientific and ethical base.”

“It’s being influenced by the Transgender (PRIDE) political movement.”

Pushback

Revisiting the votes, Dr Spencer can take comfort from at least 700 psychiatrists who agree.

Over 100 psychiatrists publicly supported Dr Jillian Spencer’s nomination last December.

In a letter to the RANCP published online, the group stated,

“We share Dr Spencer’s observations that this current – gender-affirmation – model is not evidence-based and not safe for the young people in our care.”

Stating concerns about medicine being hijacked by activism, the psychiatrists added they were,

“Concerned that social and political issues and activism are interfering with clinical practice.”

This, they said, “undermined a clinical professional’s ability to practice in accordance with sound scientific evidence.”

Adding proof, the group pointed out the “transgender campaign to have Dr Spencer removed from the ballot.”

Spencer announced her nomination in November 2024, a year and a half after she was cancelled by Queensland Children’s Hospital.

Despite over 20 years of professionalism, Dr Spencer was suspended in 2023 for not advocating a PRIDE-affirming activist approach to gender confusion. (See HRLA’s statement here.)

Shrugging off the jibes of “transphobic” and “harmful”, Dr Spencer boldly stood by her convictions, declaring that her professional “obligation as a health care professional” clashed with activists demanding she stay silent.

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Republished with thanks to Caldron Pool.