Humza Yousaf has said there is no case for closing to the NHS gender clinic in Scotland, despite calls for the service to be halted in the wake of the Cass Review.
He has also vowed to protect transgender women under Scotland's new misogyny laws.
The review, published last week, looked into into gender identity services in the UK.
It found that there is "remarkably weak evidence" to support gender treatments for children. It also warned that the "toxicity of the debate" is not helping, claiming that people are afraid of discussing trans issues openly.
Humza Yousaf has said there is no case for closing to the NHS gender clinic in Scotland, despite calls for the service to be halted in the wake of the Cass Review
PA/Sandyford
The Sandyford clinic in Glasgow delivers a range of services, including transgender healthcare, emergency contraception, abortion and support for sexual assault victims.
Its transgender healthcare services include the young person’s gender service that can refer under-18s to endocrine specialists for potential prescription of puberty blockers.
The clinic currently has a waiting list of 1,100 young people.
While Yousaf said the Scottish health boards would give the "utmost consideration" to the Cass Review, he added: "When it comes to the prescribing of medicine, clinicians are best placed – not politicians, government ministers or myself as first minister."
Speaking to BBC Scotland, he continued: "I don’t believe that there’s a case to close the Sandyford. The Sandyford provides some exceptional health care to some of those who are the most marginalised and vulnerable, not just young people, but right across the spectrum.”
Deputy leader of the Scottish Tories, Meghan Gallacher, claimed Yousaf is "failing vulnerable young people" by allowing the prescription of puberty blockers to continue, calling for him to pause the service while clinicians considered the report.
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar, meanwhile, demanded the Scottish government “quickly come forward and [say] how they’re going to respond”.
But the SNP's minister for mental wellbeing, Maree Todd, claimed that puberty blockers “were never routinely prescribed” in Scotland.
Clinicians at the Sandyford Clinic previously told the Guardian that a referral to their service often allows confused young people and anxious parents the chance to reflect on what is really troubling them.
Yousaf said the Scottish health boards would give the "utmost consideration" to the Cass Review
PA
They said that professionals at the clinic can often "inject a sense of reality" into patients’ beliefs that there is a quick fix for their problems.
Yousaf, who wants to introduce a bill to tackle misogyny before the end of the current parliamentary term in 2026, said "anyone affected by misogyny" would be covered be the laws, regardless of their biological sex.
Scotland's newly introduced Hate Crime and Public Order Act did not include women, a decision Yousaf said had come after discussions with women's groups.
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Asked whether the new legislation would cover transgender women, Yousaf said it would, as those directing misogynistic abuse are likely to be unaware if a woman was trans or not.
He told the BBC: "Women and girls will be protected, and trans women will be protected as well, as they will often be the ones who suffer threats of rape or threats of disfigurement for example.
"When a trans woman is walking down the street and a threat of rape is made against them, the man making the threat doesn’t know if they are a trans woman or a cis woman. They will make that threat because the perception of that person [is] as a woman."
