Understand the LGBTQIA+ news: NHS cover-up of transgender youth suicides on wait lists?

I spent yesterday chasing NHS England for a response - again.

After weeks of following a story about a "duplicitous" campaign to frame an information-gathering process that will restrict families and trans youth's access to life-saving drugs as 'extra support', a new twist.

This week, the Good Law Project's Jolyon Maugham published an extensive investigation, with information from two whistleblowers plus FOIs and public information to connect the dots and expose a potential cover-up of rising transgender youth suicides. We've got more for you in the top story, even though NHS England eventually told me they wouldn't be responding to the story.

It shows just how vital investing in investigating proper queer accountability journalism is. But more than that - why it's crucial we spend as much time, attention and energy as we can on changing the newsroom.

As Maughum set out: "In a country with endless coverage of trans people in the BBC, The Times, The Mail, The Observer, The Telegraph and so one, it is extraordinary that no one has done this bit of open source journalism."

With more queer and Trans+ journalists in the newsroom, stories like this won't just be covered by us. The whole media will do what it should do best: Investigate scandals and bring leaders to account.

We're running a membership drive this month because we do this work all year round: Suporting a new generation of LGBTQIA+ creatives to have the journalistic craft, and strategic communication skill to tell these stories with justice.

The Public Interest News Foundation is match funding every single membership month this month, and we are so close to hitting our goal in it. Literally, a handful of members away. Will you help us get there?

The more perks you or your friends choose, the better the discount you can grab:

• 10% off 'Supporter': Monthly / Annual
• 15% off '100% QueerAF': Monthly / Annual
• 20% off 'Editor': Monthly / Annual

You could join new members like Kirsty Campbell, Jess and Christian Corridon, who are just a handful of the 35 new members who have signed up in the last three weeks.

Take an action today that lasts all year round. Help us invest in Trans+ and queer journalists. Let's make this year's post-Pride month focus on changing the newsroom so it can help change the country for the better.

Understand the LGBTQIA+ headlines and keep track of the latest queer content and perspectives. This week QueerAF is written by Jamie Wareham and Rowan Gavin, with the Queer Gaze from Ray Cooper.

💬 This week:

• Cover-up: Evidence from whistleblowers suggests that there was an attempt to cover up an increase in deaths among trans youth on waiting lists for gender-affirming care. We put the revelations in context.
• United Nations: The international body angered so-called ‘gender critical’ campaigners this week by calling them an “anti-rights” movement.
• Home is where the queers are: From the midst of setting up a housing co-op, Ray Cooper looks at what the next government could learn from LGBTQIA+ living to help solve the housing crisis in the Queer Gaze and latest from the Queer Election Watch series.

Skip the doomscrolling and support queer creatives instead. We are QueerAF – and so are you.

Attempt to cover up "explosion" of trans youth suicides on NHS waiting lists

TL;DR: NHS England faces accusations of an institutional attempt to cover up a rising number of deaths among transgender youth waiting for its care, in order to protect its reputation and because "it is politically inconvenient".