White House press secretary Jen Psaki has offered support for childhood gender transitions, stating last Thursday that “every major medical association agrees that gender-affirming healthcare … is a best practice and potentially lifesaving.” She suggested that implementing bills preventing access to care may violate federal law.
The narrative that affirmation is the best approach for young people questioning their gender is echoed in two recent documents from the Department of Health and Human Services. Support for gender-affirming treatments, including hormonal therapy and “top” and “bottom” surgery, are presented as ways to reduce suicidal ideation and mental health problems associated with gender distress.
Several states are in the process of considering or implementing laws that criminalize transitioning procedures on minors. Alabama approved legislation last week outlawing hormonal and surgical interventions for gender dysphoric youth, and Texas will investigate cases of children transitioning as “abuse.”
Although transitioning can help some adults struggling with gender dysphoria, this is not the case for everyone, particularly in the context of children. But due to the larger push for affirmation only and legislation outlawing therapies that are not activist-approved, it has become extremely difficult for clinicians to rule out comorbidity and determine whether a transition is right for a patient. Parents of children who have been targeted by gender ideology are left helpless and with little say should their child decide to undergo a transition without a proper evaluation.
The average layperson supporting these ideas doesn’t realize that the majority of medical and scientific organizations making declarations about gender have been captured. The rot extends to emerging research upon which these policies are being based. Those of us pointing at the seemingly obvious become incomprehensible to anyone who believes these institutions remain credible.
This disconnect is reflected in a wider conversation about grooming that has emerged as leftists continue painting Florida’s Parental Rights in Education law as anti-LGBT legislation. (The new law precludes educators from discussing gender identity and sexual orientation in kindergarten through grade three.) You may be wondering why some teachers are so enraged at being unable to talk to other people’s children about their sexuality.
This is because activist teachers use the guise of acceptance for gay and transgender people as a way to plant seeds regarding gender, sex, and transitioning. Doing so alienates children from their parents and enables the woke to recreate society as their own.
Dr. Debra Soh is a sex neuroscientist, the host of The Dr. Debra Soh Podcast, and the author of The End of Gender: Debunking the Myths About Sex and Identity in Our Society.
