Tavistock Gender Identity Development Services (known as Tavistock GIDS or simply Tavistock) was closed in 2022 after an investigation into the way it worked and how patients were assessed and referred for hormone treatment. WellBN clinic now appears to be targeted in a similar way, with their opponents having legal assistance from a lawyer who was involved in a case against Tavistock as well.
Reporters at Yorkshire Bylines discovered via an FOI request that the number of complaints against the now closed Tavistock (Gender Identity Development Service) were massively exaggerated by mainstream media. Mainstream media claimed (without citations to back up their claims) that Tavistock was a “transing factory” and that it was ‘to be sued by 1,000 families’. In reality only 8 complaints were received between 2012 and 2022, less than 1 a year.
Similar tactics to the ones used to undermine Tavistock’s reputation now seem to be deployed to discredit WellBN. From using the same solicitor to calculated media frenzies, the same playbook appears to be in action.
Legal pressure led to investigation
In 2025, solicitor Paul Conrathe launched legal action against WellBN clinic (a Brighton based medical practice). SceneMag reported that “Conrathe, representing a parent opposed to their trans daughter’s treatment, sent a legal threat to the practice. The teenager, however, is reportedly satisfied with the care she received and does not support her parent’s position.”
This legal threat resulted in NHS Sussex launching an investigation into WellBN.
Paul Conrathe also represented Keira Bell in her initially successful (although later overturned) legal action against Tavistock. Legal action that sought to discredit the NHS Gender Identity Development Service prescribing puberty blockers to young people.
The legal action brought by Conrathe also was a factor in bringing about a UK Wide Puberty Blocker Ban for U18 (trans kids) in 2024.
Yet another media frenzy followed
News of the investigation into WellBN (like with Tavistock) was jumped on by the mainstream media. The Times ran the sensational sounding headline ‘NHS investigates GP practice over gender drugs given to teenagers’. Meanwhile The New Statesman cried ‘Health bosses failed to act on NHS clinic prescribing gender drugs to kids for five years’. The Telegraph led with the headline ‘Clinic defying Cass review to prescribe sex change drugs to vulnerable teens’. In the same article they erroneously referred to the trans teen as ‘troubled’.
The parallels with the Tavistock case are striking. In both cases it was a complaint backed up by legal action from Paul Conrathe that led to a media frenzy and widespread condemnation of the services they provided to trans kids.
WellBN was helping not harming trans kids
An ongoing investigation into the NHS Sussex investigation of WellBN by North West Bylines tells a different narrative. Prior to the investigation trans kids receiving care at WellBn were happy and ‘flourishing’. The investigation by NHS Sussex has been said to cause the kids harm and distress, with reports of children not eating and being suicidal because of the stress and uncertainty brought on by the investigation.
A worrying agenda?
The solicitor involved in both cases has not been shy in expressing his views about transitioning. In response to the Keira Bell case he said:
‘I think there is a need for safeguarding guidance on protecting children from information that will encourage them down an experimental medical pathway.’
When commenting on his WellBN action, Mr Conrathe even misgendered the child.
‘My client has sought help from an array of statutory agencies who have either been unwilling or unable to protect his son. He has been left with no other option than to take legal proceedings to protect his son and other vulnerable young people from this scandalous treatment.’
He has also been involved in pushing for anti-abortion and anti-gay legislation.
According to the Law Gazette he ‘was working with one of the members of ProLife Alliance on a challenge to the government over the homosexual age of consent and the use of the Parliament Act 1949.’
In 2001 he represented a man seeking an injunction to prevent his former girlfriend from accessing an abortion.
The Guardian reported in 2005 that Mr Conrathe ‘acted for the Society for Protection of Unborn Children. Alongside this is his involvement with the ultra conservative group Society for the Protection of Unborn Children.
It seems that Mr Conrathe tends to get involved with certain cases when the side he is arguing for aligns with his views.
Doubt cast on mainstream media
In both cases mainstream media grossly misrepresented each case, presenting each as a national scandal, when in fact the main harm being done to children was from the legal actions themselves, the anxiety and stress caused, and the sudden discontinuation of medications..
Caution should always be applied when reading such sensational stories. It seems that the agenda in both cases was to help stoke a moral outcry against those helping trans kids, with the goal of removing the support systems that trans kids rely on.
Friends of Bylines Network
There has never been a greater need for grassroots journalism that investigates the stories that really matter, holds power to account and champions the voices of everyday citizens. We are proudly powered by volunteers but what we do isn’t free.
STAND WITH US for independent, citizen-led journalism that makes democracy stronger, and you will even get some exclusive benefits.
