No. No sarcasm. It's a very short article. Too short. So not that much information to go on. What I thought that they seemed to be saying was that it was stopped due to it being seen as politically incorrect, but not really saying why exactly. My interpretation of it was that the research was considered subversive for acknowledging that people can and do detransition. I don't think he'd be in the business of offering therapy to transgender people if his motives were akin to 'gay aversion therapy' or something like that.
It's slightly more complex than that.
The Uni.blocking the research was linked to PC ideas, but specifically fear of trans activism.There's a specific history/philosophy behind that.
The activists target institutions providing a platform to thought and ideas hostile to trans rights(as they see them).For example the Feminist Germain Grier at Cardiff near by. Also some psychologists work.
The belief is that ethical values trump free speech and objectivity.There is actually a book on this subject, "Galileo's Finger".These protests can take extreme form.
It can certainly be argued that the activists are like communist, or even Fascist, fanatics, stifling free speech, but its only fair to put their side of it too.
To them the scientists and others are not impartial seekers of truth, but are themselves amoral fanatics, who don't care about the harm their ideas do: think Frankenstein, or the scientists who built the bomb(Manhattan project).This is the idea of the " mad scientist".
