An academic who was prevented by a University from researching people who decided to reverse their gender assignment surgery has said he was “astonished” at the decision.
James Caspian, a psychotherapist who works with transgender and transsexual people, wanted to conduct the research for a master's degree in counselling and psychotherapy at Bath Spa University.
After discovering people were unwilling to talk openly about their experiences of reversing surgery, the University asked Mr Caspian to resubmit his research proposal, and it was rejected.
“The fundamental reason given was that it might cause criticism of the research on social media and criticism of the research would be criticism of the University and they also added it was better not to offend people,” Mr Caspian told Radio 4.
He added: “I was astonished at that decision. I think a University exists to encourage discussion, research, dissent even, challenging ideas that are out of date or not particularly useful.”
The University told Mr Caspian that “engaging in a potentially politically incorrect piece of research carries a risk to the University”.
Mr Caspian argued the research needed to be done as he had found growing numbers of young people who were regretting surgery, and he said some were “traumatised”.
His research proposal was influenced by a conversation with Dr Miro Djordjevic of the Belgrade Centre for Genital Reconstructive Surgery in 2014. Mr Djordjevic said he had carried out seven reversals that year, more than ever before.
Bath Spa University declined to comment. It is reportedly carrying out an internal investigation about the matter.
When asked about his research potentially harming transgender people who had fought for their right to have surgery, Mr Caspian said older studies on the subject were “out of date” and new research was important.
“The whole field has completely changed over the last few years and the idea that we might use the information from the research we are going to do in a way that won’t help people is completely wrong,” he said.
