HERO’s rejection means that Houston becomes the third US city where citizens have responded strongly against transgender access ordinances handed down at council level. Fayetteville, Arkansas, repealed a similar ordinance last December, while the city of Springfield, Missouri, struck down its ordinance in April. At least nine other cities have refused to enact transgender ‘facilities access’ ordinances.

Meanwhile, the number of children in Britain seeking to change their gender has doubled in just six months, it has been revealed.

According to The Guardian, the NHS Tavistock and Portman gender identity development service in London is struggling to meet demand from youngsters for gender reassignment. The paper reports that referrals to thee Tavistock jumped from 314 referrals in 2012-13 to 697 referrals in 2014-15, while in the last six months the service has seen a further increase in referrals with 634 children referred between April and September. Many of the referrals – 151 from 2012-13 to 2014-15 – relate to children under the age of 10, including one three-year-old and 12 four-year-olds.

Responding to the new figures, Jay Stewart, director of Gendered Intelligence, a group promoting gender diversity, said there are now more than 50 gender options on Facebook rather than the traditional two.

“This is the tip of the iceberg of what gender identity is going to look like in the future,” he said. “Young people have a very sophisticated understanding of gender yet the world is lagging behind. There is poor understanding of these issues and a lot of hostility and discrimination. Everyone’s gender identity and journey is unique and the numbers of children and young people wishing to transition are going to keep going up and up.”