Back at the end of June, I told you about the Biden administration's push to remove all age restrictions on 'gender-affirming' surgeries for minors.
The New York Times reporting some pretty damning claims;
One excerpt from an unnamed member of the WPATH guideline development group recalled a conversation with Sarah Boateng, then serving as Admiral Levine’s chief of staff: “She is confident, based on the rhetoric she is hearing in D.C., and from what we have already seen, that these specific listings of ages, under 18, will result in devastating legislation for trans care. She wonders if the specific ages can be taken out.”
Another email stated that Admiral Levine “was very concerned that having ages (mainly for surgery) will affect access to care for trans youth and maybe adults, too. Apparently the situation in the U.S.A. is terrible and she and the Biden administration worried that having ages in the document will make matters worse. She asked us to remove them.”
WPATH -- the 'international organization' mentioned above -- removed the age minimums in September, 2022.
Now it seems the Biden administration has, quietly, shied away from surgeries for minors.
White House says transgender surgeries should not be performed on children https://t.co/1xSAhZtPus pic.twitter.com/6jJf6sTMhn
— Daily Mail US (@DailyMail) July 3, 2024
Here's more from The Daily Mail:
The Biden administration has said that transgender surgeries should not be performed on children, in what appears to be a major pivot.
Revealing the stance in a statement today, a White House spokesperson said 'deeply personal decisions' like operations should be reserved for over-18s only.
They still support other forms of gender-affirming care for minors, including puberty blockers and hormone therapy.
It appears to be a departure from the White House's former position, with Biden himself having previously slammed Republican states for restricting children's access to surgeries.
Some LGBT groups were quick to blast the shift, calling it 'flat wrong' and accusing the President of being 'wrong on the science and wrong on the substance'.
Of course there are groups who are mad about this. Of. Course.
But follow the science. Or something.
The rest of the world -- especially Europe -- is moving away from 'gender-affirming' care for minors. There's the Cass Report in the UK, a groundbreaking study that found 'weak' evidence on treatments such as puberty blockers; a report from the French Senate that called 'gender-affirming care' an ethical scandal; an alarming study that showed suicide risk increases twelve-fold following 'gender-affirming' surgery; and a German study that showed most girls outgrow the 'trans phase.'
The American Left loves to tell us we need to be more like Europe, but they apparently draw the line at nuclear energy and actual science when it comes to so-called 'gender-affirming care'.
There is a dearth of research on the impact of puberty blockers and surgery on children. The fact the Biden administration -- up until a week ago -- pushed for unfettered access to such treatment speaks volumes about their priorities, and none of it good.
Performing such surgeries on minors is an abhorrent evil, and a violation of every medical and ethical standard known to mankind. There is no going back from removing one's breasts or penis. Children who undergo such procedures are doomed to a lifetime of sexual dysfunction, pain, infections, and expensive ongoing healthcare.
No wonder the suicide rates increase exponentially post-surgery.
Even children exposed to puberty blockers have issues: boys may have micropenises, girls may be infertile.
The impacts -- the lifelong impacts -- are far too serious for the Biden administration to treat it as willy-nilly as they have thus far. But it was politically advantageous for them to do so.
Until June 27th, it seems.
And given that this news 1) came less than a week after Biden's disastrous debate performance and 2) so quietly it barely made it across my radar -- and I've written about these issues at length -- it smacks more of a desperate political balancing act than actually following the science.
I've already told you the Biden administration plans to go hard on abortion this election cycle. But it's very hard to reconcile yourself as the supposed 'party of women' when you can't define women and are in favor of letting intact males change, shower, and compete against the daughters of your strongest voting block. There was no upside to the transgender issue among the majority of voters, and especially among moms.
So the Biden administration quietly rolled back their position. This also comes after a court smacked down his egregious, anti-woman Title IX changes, too.
There isn't a doubt in my mind this will be revisited the second Biden wins reelection (and that's a big IF he wins reelection). Our children deserve better than an administration that will mutilate them to gain political favor with the Human Rights Campaign.
