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Pyrophore: Jillian Spencer

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Basics

  • Pronouns: she/her (presumed)

Affiliations

Jillian Spencer has or has had significant roles in the following entities:

  • Children’s Health Queensland:
    • Queensland Children’s Gender Service: clinician as of 14 September 20231
  • Genspect:
    • The Killarney Group: member as of 5 September 20232

Detail

Jillian Spencer is an Australian child and adolescent psychiatrist. She became a celebrity among anti-trans activists after being stood down by the Queensland Children’s Gender Service due to a complaint alleging transphobia. She now works with Genspect, among others.

Timeline

circa 1978. Spencer is born.3

2023, March 23. Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull (“Posie Parker”) holds a Let Women Speak rally in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory. Spencer appears as a speaker (Pauline Pantsdown, 2023).

2023, mid-April. Based on a complaint describing her as engaging in transphobia (Lane, 2023a), Spencer is stood down from clinical duties pending an investigation of her conduct (Steenhof, 2023; LGB Alliance Australia, 2023).

2023, June 22. Spencer speaks at a forum in Sydney, New South Wales, which Bernard Lane (2023a) describes as “featuring women under pressure for defending sex-based rights, the interests of women and children, and biological reality”.

2023, July 11. Four Corners, an investigative journalism series produced by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, airs season 63, episode 24, “Blocked: The battle over youth gender care” (Karvelas, 2023). Spencer is featured as an interview subject.

2GB’s Ben Fordham Live airs an episode including a clip, “‘Serious consequences’: Psychiatrist sounds alarm over kids changing gender,” featuring Spencer (Fordham, 2023).

Daily Mail Australia publishes an article, “Child psychiatrist slams ‘irresponsible’ and ‘frightening’ Four Corners investigation into ‘gender-affirming therapy’,” by Padraig Collins (2023), featuring commentary from Spencer.

2023, July 14. The Spectator Australia publishes a Flat White article, “Protecting children takes courage,” by Julie Sladden (2023), featuring commentary from Spencer.

2023, August 6. Spencer gives a speech at a seminar, Cancelled women will speak, in Brisbane, Queensland. An edited text of the speech is later published by Bernard Lane on his Substack, Gender Clinic News (Lane, 2023b).

2023, September 3. Seven’s 7News Spotlight airs an episode, “De-transitioning,” featuring an interview of Spencer by Liam Bartlett (Usher, 2023). Spencer’s remarks during the interview include:

  • “I’ve got a history of expressing concerns about the gender clinic in the hospital and the model they’re using called ‘the affirmation model’”
  • “when a child with gender dysphoria sits in front of a child psychiatrist or any mental health clinician, they have no way of knowing whether these children are gonna persist in their gender dysphoria. And what’s been hidden are thousands of parents across Australia who are in anguish”
  • “that peer review process is failing, so we’re seeing very poor-quality studies being published and the conclusions drawn by the activist researchers are the exact opposite of what the study has found”

2023, September 11. An event sponsored by Senator Alex Antic (LPA–SA), Why can’t women talk about sex?: Addressing the war on women who speak out for sex-based rights, is held in the Lecture Theatre at Parliament House, Canberra. Spencer is listed as one of nine speakers (Lane, 2023b).

2023, September 14. An exchange takes place in the Queensland Legislative Assembly:

Robbie Katter MLA (KAP–Traeger), Leader of Katter’s Australian Party in the Queensland Parliament: My question is to the Minister for Health and Ambulance Services, Minister for Mental Health and Minister for Women [i.e., Shannon Fentiman MLA]. … Will the minister intervene to restore the ability of doctors—including Dr Jillian Spencer, who has been stood down—to use their professional medical discretion when treating gender dysphoric children?

Shannon Fentiman MLA (ALP–Waterford), Minister for Health and Ambulance Services: I understand there have been a number of complaints made by patients in relation to Dr Spencer. … Dr Spencer has been stood down from clinical duties; however, she is still employed by Children’s Health Queensland.

from Hansard

2023, November 17. Gender: A Wider Lens, a series hosted by Sasha Ayad and Stella O’Malley, publishes episode 141, “Silenced for asking questions about gender medicine,” featuring Spencer (Ayad & O’Malley, 2023).

2023, November 24–December 4. In this window, Spencer signs the Declaration of Biological Truth Australia, as a public signatory (Declaration of Biological Truth Australia, 2023).

Footnotes

  1. Hansard of 14 September 2023. ↩︎
  2. O’Malley (2023). ↩︎
  3. Based on Usher (2023), during which Spencer gave her age as 45. ↩︎

References

Ayad, S., & O’Malley, S. (2023, November 17). Ep. 141: Silenced for asking questions about gender medicine with Dr Jillian Spencer [YouTube video]. Gender: A Wider Lens (Genspect; Alphabet, Inc.). Retrieved 9 April 2024.

Bennett, S. (2023, September 15). Stood-down child psychiatrist Dr Jillian Spencer still employed by Children’s Health Queensland. The Courier-Mail (News Corp Australia); Archive Today. Retrieved 6 April 2024.

Collins, P. (2023, July 11). Child psychiatrist slams ‘irresponsible’ and ‘frightening’ Four Corners investigation into ‘gender-affirming therapy’. Daily Mail Australia (Daily Mail and General Trust); Archive Today. Retrieved 9 April 2024.

Declaration of Biological Truth Australia (2023). Public signatories page 1: 24/11/23 — 4/12/24. Phillip Dye; Archive Today. Retrieved 9 April 2024.

Fordham, B. (2023, July 11). ‘Serious consequences’: Psychiatrist sounds alarm over kids changing gender [Radio show clip]. In Ben Fordham live. 2GB (Nine Entertainment Company). Retrieved 9 April 2024.

Karvelas, P. (2023, July 11). Blocked: The battle over youth gender care (Season 63, Episode 24) [Television show episode]. In M. Carney (Executive Producer), Four corners. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 6 April 2024.

Lane, B. (2023a, June 23). ‘Forced to affirm’. Gender Clinic News (Bernard Lane; Substack, Inc.); Archive Today. Retrieved 6 April 2024.

Lane, B. (2023b, August 18). Watch out! Too many parents are blindsided by risky gender medicine. Gender Clinic News (Bernard Lane; Substack, Inc.); Archive Today. Retrieved 6 April 2024.

LGB Alliance Australia (2023, July 31). Dr Jillian Spencer, Queensland child psychiatrist, advocates for caution in treatment of gender care [Media release]. Archive Today. Retrieved 6 April 2024.

O’Malley, S. [@stellaomalley3] (2023, September 5). We’re very proud to have Jillian Spencer as a member of the Killarney Group, the @genspect think tank [Quote Tweet]. Twitter (X Corp.); Archive Today. Retrieved 9 April 2024.

Pauline Pantsdown [@PPantsdown] (2023, July 11). Conspiracy theorist Jillian Spencer got quite the boost on @4Corners last night. Just checked out her full rant from Kellie Jay … [Tweet]. Twitter (X Corp.); Archive Today. Retrieved 9 April 2024.

Queensland, Parliamentary debates, Legislative Assembly, 14 September 2023, 2705 (Robbie Katter).

Sladden, J. (2023, July 14). Protecting children takes courage. Spectator Australia (Press Holdings). Retrieved 9 April 2024.

Steenhof, J. (2023, July 28). Queensland child psychiatrist challenging gender ideology. Human Rights Law Alliance. Retrieved 6 April 2024.

Usher, M. (Host). (2023, September 3). De-transitioning [TV series episode]. In M. Llewellyn (Executive Producer), 7News Spotlight. Seven Network (Australian Capital Equity).

Article metadata

  • Revision: 1 (9 April 2024).
  • Created: 9 April 2024.